“What in the—?!” Huang Qi instinctively sensed a threat so chilling it made her skin crawl.

Her compound eyes snapped toward the once-fragile, violet-haired girl. Nine blood-weeping irises stared from that delicate face, and a surge of bloodlust rolled off her like a crashing sea.

“Oh?” Huang Qi let out a derisive laugh, not taking it seriously. She had just tasted a tiny sip of Tianming’s brain. The flavor had sent shivers of ecstasy through her entire body, and she couldn’t wait for another gulp.

“Sure you want to ignore her?” Suddenly, the Li Tianming she held under complete control seemed to lose all traces of fear. He looked at her with a nonchalant smile.

Just as irritation flared in Huang Qi, a chill raced up her spine, and she whipped around. The violet-haired girl was right behind her, palm already swinging. Huang Qi instinctively blocked!

That seemingly slender palm swatted Huang Qi away like an insect, slamming her into the mass of undying aeternals. She blasted through a billion meters, vaporizing hundreds of thousands of them.

Worse, her proboscis piercing the skypole star’s barrier snapped cleanly in half.

Huang Qi was stunned for a moment, but her fury quickly eclipsed it. Her scarlet compound eyes glared at the girl, but before she could respond, another slap came for her.

“Touch my man, and you die!” Despite the girl’s formerly soft, dainty appearance, the roar thundered like a primordial beast. Countless undying aeternals’ heads popped from the sound alone.

Huang Qi narrowly dodged the strike, but over a million undying aeternals behind her were caught in the shockwave and exploded.

“You—!” Huang Qi grimaced. “Looking for death!”

Enraged, she swept her arm out. A flood of bee-head people surged toward her, merging into her body. Her form expanded, its radiance intensifying until she burned like a nova source star in the Sea of Aeternity.

At the same time, the violet-haired girl finally unleashed her full power. Her body shuddered violently, bones crackling as blood-red scales, hair, and spikes erupting outward.

A three-eyed, nine-pupiled specter loomed before Huang Qi. A pair of vast flesh-wings unfurled behind her, their span blotting out the sky. Her head had twisted into a triangular shape, the back bristling with jagged spines. Shark-like fangs jutted from her jaws, and the claws on her hands and feet glinted with lethal sharpness. Even her scales hid needle-fine spikes waiting to stab outward without warning.

Six massive arms burst from her sides, bringing her to eight arms in total.

And behind her, a monstrous scorpion tail whipped around, every inch lined with serrated barbs and ending in a hooked tip poised to rip flesh away in chunks.

In this ultimate state, with all ninehall eyes opened, Zi Zhen had become a nightmarish specter. No one could possibly connect this monstrosity with the gentle girl from moments before.

She roared, a guttural bellow that sent shivers through the soul. Three eyes and nine pupils locked on Huang Qi, radiating pure annihilation.

Billions of undying aeternals froze, terror-stricken.

Even Tianming, watching from afar, felt his scalp prickle.

“So that’s what happens when she hits ninehall eyes mode... She’s actually this savage?”

This result had been planned. Zi Zhen wanted Tianming’s complete trust, so Tianming put his life and all in her eyes. Otherwise, the moment he saw the Mayfly Brainlord he would’ve bolted instead of staking everything here. He had genuinely gambled with his life.

The Brainlord had attacked them both, pushing her nearer the edge. But a woman’s fury could be unpredictable. Trying to kill her hasn’t worked, yet tormenting him had set her off...? Strange, but the gamble worked.

Small as Zi Zhen was compared to the battlefield of tens of billions of undying aeternals, Tianming still felt a sense of security.

At that moment, both Zi Zhen and Huang Qi had driven their power to the absolute limit, far beyond what ordinary imperators of the Realm of Chaos could reach. The shockwaves alone tore any undying aeternals nearby unlucky enough to so much as to brush against the aftermath.

The entire Sea of Aeternity shook like it was collapsing, its aeternal source churning violently. Screams echoed everywhere.

“This power is absurd... I’m just not sure how long Zi Zhen can maintain it. But her form runs on rage, so if she can’t defeat Huang Qi, she probably won’t calm down anytime soon.”

Still, it was better than the hopelessness before.

Tianming wasn’t the type to wait to die. He dared to release Huang Qi and trigger Zi Zhen’s ultimate form because he had a plan.

Now, while Zi Zhen kept Huang Qi busy, he moved to do something crucial.

The skypole stars weren’t truly broken, only heavily strained. He pushed forward through the chaos of undying aeternals without much difficulty.

“There!” Bai Ye found the target and guided Tianming.

“Don’t run!” Drawing the Grand-Orient Sword, Tianming cut down every creature blocking his way.

Finally, they reached a clump of white mist amidst the turbulent aeternal source.

Bai Ye and Bai Ling exited Tianming’s brain, forming a glowing, white sphere around him and the mist.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Tianming’s gaze burned as he stared at the white mist.

It shuddered, then condensed into a childish face, perhaps the form Sixth vita imagined for itself. Even that face alone made it clear that this brat’s mind was far more complicated than either the caelum or terra.