As the sacrificial energy was fully absorbed, Feng Qi's height reached over fifty meters.
Standing there like a demonic statue, his breath expelled dark green flames that resembled hellfire. The swirling black mist surrounding his body made him appear even more sinister.
The terrifying pressure of his bloodline sent shivers down the spines of the domain creatures below, including Xiao Can.
Even the golden, slender figure holding the scepter no longer maintained its previous composure.
It gazed up at Feng Qi's towering figure like a mountain, its eyes flashing with deep fear.
Because it sensed a trace of divinity within Feng Qi.
Even if it was just a sliver—
The gap between gods and mortals was an unbridgeable chasm.
Under the overwhelming aura of madness and corruption, the arrogance in its heart was completely erased.
The oppressive force of impending death made it difficult to breathe.
At this moment, Feng Qi's transformation finally reached its peak.
Looking down at the insignificant figures beneath him, feeling the raging power coursing through his body, a surge of excitement welled up in Feng Qi's heart.
For the first time, he felt capable of challenging Little Black.
[Little Black asked me to tell you—know your place. He's on his way to beat you to death. Whoever loses is the dog.]
Ignoring the narrator's taunts, Feng Qi decided to use his newly strengthened Dark God Form to kill as many domain creatures as possible before Little Black arrived.
First, to avenge humanity's survivors.
Second, to maximize his strength.
With this thought in mind, he opened his mouth and exhaled a wave of scorching black flames.
But just as he was about to unleash his power, a twisted black rift suddenly appeared in the distant sky.
As the rift distorted, a blazing portal of flames emerged from within.
The portal, formed of dark green fire, flickered and stabilized, with the Dark God's face appearing at its arch.
In Feng Qi's bewildered gaze, a burning, pitch-black hand reached out and gripped the edge of the portal.
The flame-wrapped portal suddenly expanded.
A shadowy figure emerged from the other side of the gate—its head adorned with a white bone mask.
The portal trembled violently as if straining under immense pressure.
At this moment, Feng Qi got a clear view of the creature stepping through the portal.
It had a humanoid form, but its limbs were abnormally thick, completely disproportionate to its body.
A white bone mask covered its face, and two demonic horns identical to Feng Qi's current form jutted from its forehead.
But that wasn't all.
The creature was completely engulfed in eerie green flames, with a pair of jet-black skeletal wings extending from its back.
Most importantly—it was thirty meters taller than Feng Qi's Dark God Form.
What truly caught his attention, however, was the Dark God phantom hovering above the creature's head.
But unlike Feng Qi's incomplete Dark God form, the six slots on its phantom were filled with five glowing cores.
Only the center slot was still empty.
Meanwhile, Feng Qi himself only had the central core, while the other five were missing.
[Oh ho! If my guess is right, your debt collector just showed up. The power you gained—your Blood Source ability—is likely one of the six original powers of the Dark God. Because you extracted it, the Dark God has remained incomplete and is now tracking you down.]
Feng Qi frowned. "So, it sensed my power and crossed dimensions to hunt me down?"
[That's exactly what's happening. Before, your presence was too weak for it to detect. But after absorbing the sacrifice of hundreds of Goat-Headed Demons, your aura was strong enough for it to lock onto you.]
Hearing this, Feng Qi suddenly understood and couldn't help but ask:
"Is this thing… a real god?"
[If it completes itself, maybe. But for now, it's still far from it.]
"How does it compare to Little Black?"
[As much as it can eat before bursting. But honestly? No matter how many come, they'll still just be food for Little Black.]
Feng Qi: …
Damn. Little Black really was built different.
He realized that as his knowledge grew, the powerful beings he encountered kept getting stronger.
But none could compare to Little Black.
And that fact only made Little Black even more terrifying.
Thinking back to when he first gained the ability to enter Future Dreamscapes, he once thought about growing stronger and eventually crushing Little Black.
Now that he looked back…
What a foolish idea.
That was just blind confidence born of ignorance.
Feng Qi raised his head and locked eyes with the terrifying creature standing before him.
He had a general guess about its origins.
This had to be a future creation of the Dark God Tribe—an ultimate being cultivated by their faith-based schemes, meant to participate in the Final War of the Races and the coming Era of Great Cataclysm.
[Tch. These so-called future schemes to create super lifeforms? Compared to what the Old Mist planned, they're not even worth licking his boots.]
Feng Qi completely agreed
Feng Qi wasn't entirely sure about the future plans of other races, but at this stage, the most successful strategy undoubtedly belonged to the Mist Lord.
If it weren't for his interference, the Mist Lord would have practically stepped into success with one foot already.
It was even possible that, after fully absorbing all the sacrificial energy, it could have truly ascended into the Pillar God it spoke of.
Now, the Dark God Tribe's creature had completely emerged from the spatial gate.
Its gaze locked onto Feng Qi, filled with both hostility and insatiable greed, as if it wanted to devour him whole.
Its massive body trembled, and eerie green flames spread beneath its feet.
The fire spread rapidly, engulfing countless nearby humanoid monsters in an instant.
Realizing that battle was inevitable, Feng Qi stepped forward.
The dark green flames swirling around his body surged forward, igniting countless humanoid and domain creatures nearby.
As agonized screams echoed through the battlefield, vast amounts of blood energy surged into Feng Qi's body.
At this moment, Xiao Can and the remaining domain creatures, enduring the corrosive effects of the flames, rushed toward the metal passageway.
But Feng Qi had no time to bother with them.
His gaze remained locked onto the Dark God Tribe's monstrous creation.
Where the dark green flames met the eerie green flames, the entire battlefield transformed into a hellish inferno.
The flames consumed everything, completely shrouding the land in chaos.
[Hit him!]
The narrator's voice rang out.
At the same moment, the Dark God Tribe's creature opened its mouth.
A blinding black light gathered within its maw, coalescing into a pulsating black sphere crackling with electric arcs.
As soon as the black sphere was launched, the Dark God creature was knocked back by the force, sliding several meters backward.
A beam of black energy shot directly at Feng Qi's face.
Reacting instantly, Feng Qi raised his right arm, sweeping his palm forward.
The black mist surrounding him was drawn toward his hand, forming a massive black mist shield in front of him.
A Dark God sigil etched itself onto the shield's surface.
Boom!
The black mist shield collided with the energy sphere, causing violent distortions in the air.
The shockwave of their clash obliterated the nearby humanoid monsters in an instant.
The ground shook violently, as if struck by a magnitude ten earthquake.
The metal walls of the Star City Shelter collapsed one after another, unable to withstand the overwhelming power.
In this clash of pure energy, both forces rapidly neutralized each other.
Eventually, the black mist shield melted away first, allowing the weakened energy beam to continue toward Feng Qi's face.
Smack!
Feng Qi simply swung his hand, slapping the energy beam apart.
As their eyes met, the Dark God Tribe's creature suddenly tilted its body back—
And vanished from sight.
It reappeared behind Feng Qi in an instant.
But Feng Qi had already predicted its trajectory.
Lowering his head just in time, he barely dodged the massive hand that came crashing down.
A series of sonic booms echoed as the creature's attack created a shockwave that shook the battlefield.
Even though it missed, the impact alone sent ripples through the space around them, demonstrating its terrifying strength.
Even a casual strike could produce a devastating area-wide effect.
Instinct took over as Feng Qi spun around and unleashed an uppercut, smashing straight into the creature's jaw.
At the moment of impact, an explosive force erupted.
The ground beneath him caved in, and the black mist surrounding him condensed around his right fist.
A black pillar of energy erupted from his fist, blasting the creature skyward as overwhelming power surged into it.
[Damn! Basic attacks with built-in special effects and crits? If possible, you should find a way to kill this thing. Maybe then, you'll gain all of the Dark God's power.]
Ignoring the narrator's commentary, Feng Qi was already fully immersed in battle mode.
The feeling of commanding overwhelming power was intoxicating.
Leaping into the air, he summoned a massive war blade from the dark green flames, swinging it down toward the Dark God creature.
But just as the blade was about to strike, one of the five glowing gems embedded in the creature's right arm suddenly lit up.
The sky trembled, as if a lake disturbed by torrential rain, sending countless ripples outward.
Moments later, the ripples expanded into a black formation, and from within—
Countless colossal hands of eerie green flame emerged, slamming down!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Hundreds…
Thousands…
Tens of thousands of flaming hands descended from the heavens.
The scene was apocalyptic.
Feng Qi was struck mid-air, and the overwhelming force slammed him into the ground.
But it wasn't over.
The barrage of gigantic hands continued, smashing down relentlessly.
The ground itself began to shift, massive landmasses dislocating under the immense pressure.
Feng Qi's colossal body was continuously pummeled, sinking deeper and deeper into the earth.
[The hell?! This was supposed to be a fistfight, and now he's throwing magic?! That ain't a real man's move!]
Pinned under the relentless onslaught, Feng Qi couldn't even fight back.
His body kept sinking deeper and deeper into the ground.
Suddenly, the pressure on his back disappeared—
And a brief moment of weightlessness struck him.
Then—
He crashed hard onto the Star City Shelter's underground plaza.
The entire plaza was deserted—
It was clear that all survivors had already evacuated to deeper refuge zones.
Taking advantage of the brief moment to catch his breath, Feng Qi gathered his strength and launched a barrage of punches toward the sky.
Fists wreathed in dark green flames shot upward like meteors, clashing against the endless rain of flaming hands.
Each punch struck with force, momentarily dispersing the attacking flames.
But his power was clearly no match for the Dark God Tribe's monstrous creation.
After barely resisting for a few moments, he was slammed back down again, his body sinking even deeper into the ground.
"This attack has no cooldown?!"
[High-level beings fight like this. It's nothing like the fireballs and water spells you studied at the academy. There's no need to slowly draw rune trajectories or cast spells in waves. At this level, every single attack is basically world-ending.]
Hearing this, Feng Qi's fighting spirit surged.
Power erupted from within his body, and he became completely engulfed in dark green flames, his form barely visible through the blaze.
"ROAR!"
With a thunderous roar, he charged straight up into the sky, breaking through the cascading barrage of flaming hands.
The black bone wings on his back caught fire, transforming into flaming wings that began furiously flapping.
There was no way to dodge, no space to evade—his only option was to grit his teeth and push forward, one step at a time.
As the countless flaming hands continued to rain down, his body screamed in pain, on the verge of cracking apart.
His head, especially, had been smacked so many times that he felt a wave of dizziness creeping in.
Still, he forced his way up, pushing his battered body above ground before diving to the side with all his remaining strength.
The moment he hit the ground, a mouthful of black liquid gushed from his mouth.
Seeing him land, the Dark God creature's eyes gleamed with greed.
At that moment, the endless ripple-like formations in the sky vanished.
All at once, the sky returned to stillness.
The Dark God phantom above the creature's head flickered, and the gem embedded in its forehead began to glow.
CRACK!
A thin black thread appeared before it.
Even before its mysterious power reached him, Feng Qi felt as though the entire world was being torn apart.
A terrifying pressure engulfed the battlefield, and countless humanoid monsters were instantly disintegrated, reduced to mere dust.
Seeing this, Feng Qi felt a pang of grief.
Those humanoid creatures should have been his nourishment.
Had he been able to kill them all, he might have been able to advance his human bloodline from intermediate to advanced.
Or even beyond.
[You're basically dead at this point. There's no way you can beat that thing... But hey, consider it training. Sooner or later, you'll have to face fights of this level.]
Hearing the narrator's words, Feng Qi steadied his heart.
Fine.
Consider it training.
Whether he died to Little Black or this Dark God Tribe creature, it made no difference.
Death comes for everyone.
[Yeah, but not like this. Not on repeat.]
At that moment, the black thread before the Dark God creature shot toward him at breakneck speed.
It was like someone had torn a page from reality itself—wherever the thread passed, space warped and vanished, revealing a pitch-black void.
Feeling the inescapable might of the incoming attack, Feng Qi dropped into a stance—the opening move of Tiger Fist.
[Oh damn, is this 'Tiger's Farewell Strike'— Wait! Hold up! Little Black is here!]
Hearing this, Feng Qi's gaze snapped eastward.
In the distance, a massive cloud of black mist surged across the ground, moving at terrifying speed.
Though Little Black emitted no aura, the Dark God creature's expression visibly changed.
For a brief moment, fear flickered in its eyes.
Unlike the mindless domain creatures that simply rushed toward Little Black to die, this thing understood.
As Little Black's speed increased, the Dark God creature's composure shattered.
It turned its gaze fully toward Little Black, and an overwhelming killing intent erupted from its body, sweeping over the battlefield like a storm.
The black cutting line accelerated—
And just as it was about to slice through Feng Qi, he threw himself sideways.
The black thread silently passed through where he had just stood.
Then, as if erasing a mistake on a page, his right arm disappeared completely—as if it had never existed in the first place.
Staggering to his feet, Feng Qi's heart pounded.
There was no doubt in his mind—if he had hesitated even a fraction of a second longer, he would have been completely erased.
The black cutting line continued its path forward, slicing directly toward Little Black.
At the same time, the five remaining gems on the Dark God creature's body lit up simultaneously.
In an instant, it appeared right in front of Feng Qi—
The crushing pressure alone forced him to his knees.
The Dark God creature's massive mouth opened—
And deep within, a black speck appeared.
The speck spun rapidly, transforming into a swirling black vortex, pulling at everything around it with monstrous force.
A genuine threat of death loomed over Feng Qi.
As he faced his likely end, he turned his head—
And looked at Little Black.
In the distance, the black cutting line clashed against Little Black's misty form.
But—
The attack that could erase space itself halted the moment it touched Little Black.
The black mist surged forward, engulfing the black line—
And then, in mere seconds—
The unstoppable cutting force simply dissolved.
[If that thing was an eraser, then Little Black is a black hole. There's no competition.]
As the narrator spoke, the black thread completely disappeared.
Little Black's form solidified, drifting toward Feng Qi at a steady pace.
At this moment, half of Feng Qi's body had already been swallowed by the Dark God creature's maw.
But then—
Little Black closed the distance.
Black mist surged forward, reaching Feng Qi's legs and creeping toward the Dark God creature.
For the first time, the Dark God creature's eyes widened in pure terror.
In an instant, it spat out Feng Qi's upper half, staggering backward in fear.
Its arms flailed, ripping open another flaming spatial gate.
Without even a glance back—
It leapt through the portal and vanished.
Feng Qi: …
Narrator: …
[Coward!]
Feng Qi flipped off the departing creature.
Then, turning back to face Little Black, who was calmly devouring what was left of his body, he propped himself up on one arm, resting his chin on his hand.
"Bro, make it quick. Don't make me hit you with Tiger Fist."