Outside the walls of the Beyond Realm, where Behan's post was located, a massive figure stood seven hundred million light-years away.
The being looked almost identical to the serpentine woman Solanky had fought during the trials. However, this one was a man.
A sinister aura permeated the surrounding void, causing the space around him to tremble faintly. He held a gigantic spear in his hand, while seven dazzling stars hovered above his head, each surrounded by a coiling serpent.
Solanky's pupils contracted.
A seventh-turn true peak-turn being.
Judging from the intensity of the seven stars, this being had at least reached the mid peak-life of the seventh turn.
The serpentine man suddenly threw his head back and laughed.
"HAHAHA!"
"Behan, today I have personally taken action. I will destroy the walls of your post and feast upon your resources!"
"HAHAHA!"
His laughter reverberated throughout the surrounding void.
The serpentine man raised his spear and hurled it with all his strength.
The spear was a hundred million light-years long.
The moment it left his hand, its speed rapidly surpassed a million light-years. Wherever it passed, space shattered and the surrounding laws collapsed beneath its terrifying might.
When the spear was only a million light-years away from Behan's post, Behan's true body finally appeared.
He raised one hand to his lips and rapidly formed a series of seals.
A gigantic seven-colored sword began to materialize before him.
Behan grasped the sword.
With a single step, he appeared directly before the incoming spear and swung the seven-colored sword downward.
BOOM!
The collision between the two weapons caused the space spanning a billion light-years to tremble violently.
The gigantic spear was sliced cleanly in two.
At the same time, countless tiny cracks appeared across the surface of Behan's seven-colored sword.
Behan calmly formed another seal.
His figure vanished.
In the next instant, he appeared directly before the barrier surrounding his post, his hands clasped behind his back.
"How long will you continue hiding in the shadows, Evil Fiend Ancestor?"
His voice reverberated throughout the surrounding void.
Solanky was shocked.
He had been continuously using his observation techniques, yet he had failed to detect the slightest trace of another being hiding nearby.
This realization made his heart sink.
His strength was still insufficient to see through the concealment methods of guarding ancestor-level beings who deliberately wished to remain hidden.
"Hahaha! As sharp as ever, Behan."
A giggling voice suddenly echoed through the void.
"But don't you think you were a little too slow this time?"
The empty space rippled.
A beautiful woman dressed in crimson-red robes slowly emerged from the void.
Seven dazzling stars hovered above her head.
The moment she appeared, an ocean of crimson blood seemed to pour into the surrounding space. Faint screams of countless souls could be heard coming from within the bloody mist.
The woman possessed an extraordinarily beautiful and seductive appearance.
Yet beneath that beauty lay an indescribable sense of danger.
Her true nature remained concealed, but even her appearance alone made it obvious that she was anything but kind.
The woman glanced toward the serpentine man before giving him a slight nod.
The two guarding ancestors immediately joined forces and charged toward Behan.
Behan's expression remained calm.
He stepped forward, the seven-colored sword in his hand pointing directly toward them.
BOOM!
The three guarding ancestors collided.
Space shattered.
Everything within hundreds of millions of light-years crumbled into chaotic energy flows.
The three figures exchanged countless blows at terrifying speeds.
With every exchange, the surrounding chaotic energy was violently drawn toward them and absorbed into their attacks, becoming fuel for the battle.
As a result, the surrounding space could not heal itself.
The chaotic energy continued to surge through the battlefield, making the area extremely dangerous for any being below the guarding ancestor level.
Even the slightest contact with these chaotic flows could annihilate both the physical and spiritual bodies of weaker beings.
The serpentine man suddenly lashed out with his enormous tail.
At the same time, the Evil Fiend Ancestor's body began to transform.
Her beautiful appearance disappeared completely.
Her true body was revealed.
She was a humanoid fiend with two enormous curled horns protruding from her head. Two massive bat-like wings stretched from her back, while her body was covered in glossy crimson scales. Her hands had transformed into razor-sharp claws, and an even more terrifying fiendish aura erupted from her body.
Behan suddenly broke through their encirclement.
He raised his seven-colored sword toward the sky.
The moment he did so, the expressions of the two guarding ancestors changed.
They immediately formed seals, weaving layer after layer of protective barriers around themselves.
The seven-colored sword in Behan's hand slowly became illusory.
It looked as though it were gradually disappearing from the world itself.
Yet the more illusory the sword became, the more terrifying the aura radiating from it grew.
Then the sword disappeared completely.
The terrifying aura vanished alongside it.
The Evil Fiend Ancestor and the serpentine man did not relax.
Their hands moved faster and faster as countless seals were formed and dissolved into their protective barriers.
Suddenly...
BOOM!
Eight-colored energies began flowing toward the place where the sword had disappeared.
The energies converged.
A miniature galaxy gradually took shape.
It resembled a gigantic sword.
Then the miniature galaxy exploded.
Countless eight-colored swords suddenly appeared throughout a region spanning five hundred million light-years.
The countless swords formed an enormous sphere that completely encased Behan and the two guarding ancestors.
Within the sword world, Behan smiled.
"Now, let's get serious, shall we?"
The moment his voice fell, the seven stars above his head began rotating rapidly.
Then, beneath the astonished gazes of the two guarding ancestors, an eighth star slowly began to take shape among them.
The expressions of the serpentine man and the Evil Fiend Ancestor changed drastically.
Behan reached into the void and retrieved one of his world cores.
He crushed it in his hand.
BOOM!
The world core shattered.
Its stored energies and essences transformed into a vast stream of power that poured into the countless swords surrounding them, strengthening them further.
The serpentine man's pupils contracted.
"Impossible!"
The Evil Fiend Ancestor's expression also became solemn.
"Impossible! He tricked us. He has already crossed into the eighth turn and deliberately concealed his true strength!"
Behan coldly looked at the two of them.
He slowly raised his arm.
Then, in a calm voice, he spoke.
"Blade World, Annihilating World, Second Form... Annihilating and Eradicating Swords of Justice."
The moment the words left his mouth, the countless swords filling the sword world began trembling violently.
Half of them suddenly shot upward.
They gathered above the battlefield and formed a gigantic vortex that slowly rotated.
A terrifying fluctuation began spreading from the center of the vortex.
The two guarding ancestors looked upward from within their protective barriers.
A sword tip slowly emerged from the center of the vortex.
Their expressions became grim.
They immediately summoned their protective treasures while rapidly forming even more seals.
Solanky watched from the sidelines, his heart filled with excitement and anticipation.
This was one of the techniques Behan had gifted him.
The Sword and Blade Essence Art.
It was an inherited technique that used the sword or blade to manifest one's comprehension.
The giant sword hanging within the vortex began to rotate slowly.
Then it gradually descended.
Although the terrifying energies of the sphere were sealed within the sword world, the descent of the giant sword still caused the space outside the sphere to tremble violently.
Several ancestors who had been curious enough to approach the battlefield were immediately forced backward by the terrifying pressure radiating from the descending sword.
They quickly retreated several thousand light-years away and watched the battle from a safe distance.
One of them couldn't help but mutter,
"A guarding ancestor's power can actually be this terrifying... and the sphere has already reduced the force to only twenty percent of its original power."
The giant sword descended toward the Evil Fiend Ancestor at an incredible speed.
The moment it struck her protective barriers, the sword began spinning violently.
It drilled into the first barrier like a gigantic divine drill.
BOOM!
After only a few seconds, countless cracks appeared across the barrier.
The cracks rapidly spread in every direction.
BOOM!
The first barrier collapsed.
The giant sword continued forward without the slightest reduction in momentum.
At almost the same moment, another giant sword emerged from the vortex.
This sword began spinning even faster than the first.
Then it descended toward the serpentine man.
The momentum and power contained within the second giant sword were several times greater than those of the first.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The layers of barriers formed from seals and energies exploded one after another.
The giant sword pierced through them without slowing down.
Finally, it struck the serpentine man's protective treasure.
The treasure took the form of an enormous coiled serpent.
The serpentine man's expression changed.
He immediately threw out a world core he had refined.
The world core shattered upon contact with the protective treasure, releasing its stored energies and essences into the shield.
The shield absorbed the power.
The countless cracks that had begun spreading across its surface rapidly disappeared.
Behan narrowed his eyes.
He immediately understood that allowing the battle to drag on could result in unforeseen circumstances.
He raised his hand.
Another world core appeared.
This time, however, the world core radiated blinding eight-colored light.
Behan raised both hands.
Then he brought them together in a single clap.
BOOM!
The eight-colored world core shattered.
Its immense energies and essences transformed into a vast stream of power that poured directly into the second giant sword.
The sword's might surged explosively.
With terrifying force, it pierced through the serpentine man's protective treasure.
The serpentine man's face became filled with terror.
He desperately retreated.
But it was already too late.
The second giant sword pierced directly through his enormous tail and pinned him in place.
The sword's energies surged into his body, rapidly sealing away half of his power.
The Evil Fiend Ancestor witnessed this scene.
Her expression became cold.
Without hesitation, she burned a third of her internal world.
BOOM!
Her aura erupted.
Her power, which had previously been at the mid peak-life of the seventh turn, instantly soared to the late peak-life.
As a devil, she was ruthless not only toward others but also toward herself.
She was willing to pay any price necessary to survive.
Her figure flashed.
Her speed surpassed the perception of even ancestor-level beings capable of detecting objects moving tens of millions of times the speed of light.
In an instant, she appeared beside the walls of the sword sphere.
She ruthlessly threw out two of her world cores.
Then she detonated them.
BANG!
The two world cores exploded simultaneously.
The walls of the sword sphere violently trembled.
Although the sphere was extraordinarily resilient, it could not withstand the combined destructive force of two detonated world cores.
A massive opening several light-years wide was blasted into the sphere.
The rebound force from the explosion also injured the Evil Fiend Ancestor.
Yet she did not hesitate.
She shot through the opening and immediately executed her escape technique.
Her figure vanished into the distant void.
Behan watched her disappear without the slightest surprise.
He had long known that the Evil Fiend Ancestor was the most difficult opponent to deal with.
She was also one of the most decisive individuals he had ever encountered.
The explosion caused the sword sphere to rapidly crumble.
The countless swords shattered into streams of eight-colored energy, revealing the serpentine man trapped within.
His condition was miserable.
The rebound force generated by the explosion had severely injured him while he was trapped within the enclosed space.
Worse still, half of his power had already been sealed by Behan's sword.
Without the explosion caused by the Evil Fiend Ancestor, his strength would have been reduced by nearly sixty percent.
For the first time, the seventh-turn true peak-turn being who had arrived with such overwhelming confidence found himself facing a desperate situation.