"Daoyi?"

"Yes, Xi Ri?"

"This is just a kaiju fight, isn't it?"

"As an expert, I concur with your judgment."

The two were watching atop the city walls from within a barrier created by an immortal artifact Tianyi had lent them. The three of them had already discussed what they should do when the demon general arrived. In the end, Daoyi and Xi Ri decided that they should just spectate behind a barrier.

Daoyi and Xi Ri were merely two core formation masters, so they didn't have the right to participate in the clash between Tianyi and the demon general. Even if the demon general brought his army, the two were likely to be hit by friendly fire or targeted by the demon general. The best option was naturally not to participate at all unless they wanted to waste all their life-saving treasures.

Though, the two never expected to get a front-row seat to something that would send kaiju movie lovers into a frenzy.

Tianyi had transformed into a cosmic giant after the first clash. Honestly, Tianyi felt that he was abnormally calm when facing the Unity Realm level demon. He had none of the trepidation he felt against Nascent Soul Realm level demons. Rather, he felt curious as to how he would compare to the Unity Realm level demon before him.

Ever since he had merged all three spiritual, martial, and soul methods, he felt that his power far outstripped what his current realm should possess, but he never had a chance to test it out. Tianyi was already so far above most nascent soul grandmasters that he couldn't truly test out the limit of his power. For Tianyi, the demon general was a perfect whetstone for him to test his limit.

Currently, the two of them were duking it out with pure physical ability. The demon general had increased his size to be comparable to the cosmic giant but not as large as his original form.

After having its tail slam repelled, Demon General Earth Burning Venom Serpent hissed as he slithered in the air towards the cosmic giant. Ducking under the cosmic giant's sword, the demon general's body wrapped around the cosmic giant and began constricting it.

The scene was very familiar to Tianyi. He had already experienced the same tactics when he transcended the Nascent Soul Heavenly Tribulation. Tianyi felt his lips quirk upward. Did all serpentine experts have an urge to strangle their opponents?

The cosmic giant's right hand grasped the demon general's long body and started pulling with all its strength, while its left hand grasped a dagger formed of true qi of chaos and stabbed into the snake. The dagger's tip slid across the demon general's body and only left a pale white mark.

Tianyi frowned as he realized that his cosmic giant couldn't pull the demon off of him, nor could he deal any significant injuries. It was as if the demon had become a natural fixture on his cosmos giant's body, one that kept shrinking. Already, he could feel the boundaries of the cosmic giant start to destabilize.

Since I can't escape, I might as well just disperse it myself.

The cosmic giant's body burst like a bubble, causing the true qi of chaos to explode out and start corroding everything it touched. Demon General Earth Burning Venom Serpent was no exception and became especially alarmed. Earlier, Tianyi's attack could only scratch him at best, but just by touching the true qi of chaos caused his body to be corroded. The damage wasn't much, but the demon general felt his connection with the world dampen.

At his level, his true qi was practically limitless thanks to his connection to the world, able to command the spiritual qi that was naturally present in the realm without needing to absorb it. Furthermore, he could isolate the spiritual qi of those in the Nascent Soul Realm and below, causing them not to be able to replenish their qi easily. At the same time, it was akin to placing a debuff that made almost all of their techniques lose effectiveness.

This was the first act the demon general had done to Tianyi, isolating his ability to absorb and influence the spiritual qi of heaven and earth, but his foe acted as if he hadn't felt it at all!

Instead, with the enormous amount of qi Tianyi was using, Demon General Earth Burning Venom Snake felt as if Tianyi was the one with the higher realm. This puzzled the demon general to no end, as the advantages of the Unity Realm and its equivalents were their ability to command the spiritual qi of heaven and earth while denying their opponents the same luxury. Even if Tianyi's realm was equal to the demon general's, there was no point in not using it.

Demon General Earth Burning Venom Serpent didn't have any more time to ponder as the massive amounts of true qi of chaos began to conglomerate a distance away from him. As if mocking him, the black qi formed a long serpentine body, and upon its head were two horns like those of a deer.

Tianyi had formed a cosmic dragon.

Since the weapons formed from his true qi of chaos and were kept in place by his spatial techniques, Tianyi decided to forgo the weapons. The cosmic dragon had a black sun shining within its forehead and eight cosmic spheres, each having a golden orb inside, circling around it.

Inside the head of the cosmic dragon, Tianyi commanded it to rear its head back as a massive amount of qi began to gather between its jaws. He had noticed how his true qi of chaos could damage the Demon General, so he changed his tactics.

Naturally, the demon general wouldn't allow Tianyi to do as he wished and charged towards the cosmic dragon. He felt as if Tianyi was mocking him and the slight bump atop of his head, a budding horn he had been trying to form with the sparse dragon bloodline within his body, ached in humiliation. When he fully formed the horn, he would ascend to the True Demon Realm.

As the Demon General crashed into Tianyi's cosmic dragon, the breath that it had planned to unleashed was disrupted. It erupted in an explosion that destroyed the cosmic dragon's head and splashed onto the Demon General. Before the demon general could be too happy, the exploded black qi merged and formed a new head for the cosmic dragon.

Simultaneously, the cosmic dragon's body wrapped itself like a vine around the demon general's serpentine body, its claws latching on and preventing the serpentine demon from twisting free. The demon general had an ominous feeling as the eight spheres orbiting the dragon began shining intensely.

Eight beams of condensed true qi of chaos shot out from the eight spheres and landed on the demon general's body, constantly eroding his scales. When the beams stopped, the serpentine demon's scales were cracked, revealing the flesh beneath. However, the scales quickly healed themselves under the demon general's regenerative powers.

Demon General Earth Burning Venom Serpent continued to tangle with the cosmic dragon. His body began to exude a violet glow as his black scales became purple, and spikes erupted all over his body. The cosmic dragon's body was sheared by the spikes on the demon general's body, making the cosmic dragon constantly leak qi from its wounds.

The two continued to clash over several days, never getting an advantage over the other. The demon general could continuously absorb spiritual qi and heal itself faster than Tianyi could damage him. While the demon general could damage the cosmic dragon more than it could damage him, Tianyi would always be able to regenerate the wounds with his vast amount of qi.

For the first time in his life, Tianyi finally discovered what it was like to fight himself. Well, not exactly, but the difference was practically nonexistent.

Like himself, thanks to reaching the realm of harmonizing with the world, the demon general had practically endless reservoirs of qi. At the same time, his defense was obnoxiously powerful, and any and all damage could be easily healed. Furthermore, Tianyi discovered that he was actually losing more qi than he could generate.

Tianyi had long stopped relying on absorbing external qi to replenish his reservoir of qi, and when he did try again, he discovered that he couldn't absorb any qi at all. Tianyi wasn't fretful as he still had plenty of pills and spirit stones he could use to replenish his qi, although spirit stones would take too long due to Tianyi's insane amount of expenditure.

Seeing no end to their battle in sight, Tianyi dispersed the cosmic dragon avatar he formed. The black qi ruptured and began to be absorbed back into Tianyi's body. Raising his hand, Tianyi called forth lightning to strike his foe.

The Demon General, sensing the weak might of the attack, didn't bother to dodge and directly charged at Tianyi.

"Well, I expected that," Tianyi muttered. His lightning attacks were several levels weaker than his cosmic avatar forms, but since his pure true qi of chaos could bypass the demon's defense, Tianyi had tested to see if his lightning would be effective.

Seeing the Demon General still charging towards him, Tianyi flew backward as his body continuously leaked a vast amount of black qi, enough to blind the demon general's sight and spiritual sense. Once there was enough true qi of chaos, Tianyi formed his Chaos Refining Formation once more. And this time, he had specially prepared a treasure to reinforce it and prevent others from disrupting it, having learned his lesson after an encounter with the Dragon Emperor.

The demon general felt horror as he found himself trapped within the Chaos Refining Formation. He had thought that Tianyi was creating another cosmic giant or dragon, so he hadn't defended against it. Who knew that Tianyi would suddenly create a giant formation? Even if the demon general knew, he could do nothing to stop Tianyi from forming it either.

The worst part was that the demon general felt his connection with the world drastically weaken as if he was no longer within the realm. To a Unity Realm cultivator, this was robbing them of their most significant advantage. Of course, Tianyi didn't know his Chaos Refining Formation specifically curbed this advantage yet.

The demon general condensed its body as it stared warily at Tianyi. At the same time, it was probing the space with his spiritual sense to find an escape route, but it seemed as if space went on endlessly within the formation. Seeing as his disadvantage kept growing larger, the demon general decided to use his trump card.

Tianyi clapped his hand, and a mantle formed of condensed space and true qi of chaos covered him. This was a method he formed for use when out of his cosmic giant. His body was stronger than the cosmic giant, but the giant distorted space so that attacks wouldn't be able to reach him... most of the time. He couldn't use the cosmic avatar within the Chaos Refining Formation, so he created the cosmic mantle that currently covered him. It wasn't as strong as the cosmic giant, but it significantly boosted Tianyi's defensive powers and allowed him access to a vast amount of qi instantaneously.

Tianyi looked at the demon general, a gleam in his eyes. It was finally time to show the world his prowess in hand techniques! Or rather, a single demon. Even now, Tianyi still wanted to hide his expertise in the matter. Before, it was to shock the world when it revealed that he wasn't most proficient with his sword, but now it was out of self-preservation. It was always better to have a trump card.

Like a mirage, Tianyi's body left afterimages as he suddenly closed the distance between him and the demon general. Before the demon general even knew it, Tianyi was in front of its head. Tianyi raised an arm up into the sky and slammed down. It was no longer the Heaven Suppressing Palm, but the Chaos Descending Palm that Tianyi had created using his insights into chaos, spacetime, and the Heaven Suppressing Palm.

The demon general instantly felt like his body was being pushed into a singular point the size of a marble. Normally, Tianyi's technique wouldn't be so oppressive, but his Chaos Descending Palm synergized perfectly with the Chaos Refining Formation and caused its power to multiply.

Demon General Earth Burning Venom Serpent roared in retaliation, its roar containing a spiritual attack that caused those who heard it to become dizzy and nauseous. However, Tianyi's cosmic mantle caused the sound to appear little more than a whimper to his ears, practically nullifying its effect. Even if Tianyi didn't have the cosmic mantle, his abnormally strong soul would still be unaffected by the serpentine demon’s roar.

Tianyi continued his attack seeing as the demon general was temporarily locked in place. His five fingers united into a drill-like shape, and Tianyi struck towards the demon general's head, specifically the budding horn.

The demon general roared in pain and rage as Tianyi's attack struck. The ungrown horn was unharmed, but the demon general felt as if an explosion had gone off inside his skull. Not only that, but the absolute control of his body faltered as his qi rampaged within.

Tianyi wasn't done yet as his other hand formed a claw and grasped the demon general's head. His other hand also formed and claw and grasped the head too. Tianyi's muscles grew taut as he began to pull in two opposing directions.

Essence Bifurcation Claw

It was a technique that Tianyi had thought of when he recalled when he first absorbed the tribulation essence within the Fleeting Mist Sect. He had separated the tribulation essence into a corporeal and illusionary form. Using that concept as a basis, his attack would forcibly rip his target soul and body apart.

Demon General Earth Burning Venom Serpent roared in agony. It felt as if its whole body was separating at its root. He had a feeling that if he let Tianyi succeed, certain doom would befall him. Finally, the demon general could no longer stand it. His scales began to vibrate, and a high frequency that was grating to the ears but nothing else. Causing sonic damage wasn't the demon general's goal, though, as they began to glow red from the heat caused by the vibration.

BANG!

The Demon General's scales exploded like thousands upon thousands of bombs, sending its body and Tianyi flying apart. Well, mostly the demon general, as Tianyi's cosmic mantle mitigated the attack so that his body wasn't harmed at all. In contrast, the demon general's body was a sorry mess. His skin and flesh were exposed as nearly all its scales had exploded.

Demon General Earth Burning Venom Serpent glared hatefully at Tianyi, all of its careful considerations had been destroyed by Tianyi. He decided to erupt with all his strength to kill Tianyi. Even if he couldn't kill Tianyi, his attack should allow him to disrupt the formation and give him a chance to escape.

The demon general's body shrunk even more until it was only ten meters long, the smallest form he could take and only for a few seconds at most. At this size, all of his power had condensed to a terrifying degree, including its fangs. To signify the might it had reached, the excess power leaked from his budding horn, forming a false dragon horn atop his forehead.

The demon general charged forward, and in a blink of an eye, it was only a meter away from Tianyi. At this moment, Tianyi's cosmic mantle began to vibrate, and the mere meter between him and the demon general became an uncrossable gulf. No matter how hard the demon general tried, he could never close the distance between him and Tianyi.

The demon general hissed in rage as it felt its body began to heat up. He had decided to burn his blood essence in order to increase his speed and shorten the distance. To those that cultivate their bloodline, burning their blood essence was akin to burning parts of their soul in exchange for power. And now, the demon general was forced into this state, his hatred for Tianyi reaching an all-new peak.

Swoosh~

The distance instantly closed, and the demon general bared its fang and pierced Tianyi's body. Without losing a moment's notice, he injected his Earth Burning Venom into Tianyi's body, the Demon Cage Realm's most feared and dangerous venom.