The ancient return was exposed by his sister's live stream.

It's faster than it should be for its size.

Chen Hao raised his left hand.

One punch.

The fist slammed solidly into the forehead bone of the human face at the very front of Tianwu.

The impact spread outwards from the point of contact. Tianwu's five-meter-tall body was frozen in mid-air by the force of the punch; the momentum of his forward thrust and the force of the punch canceled each other out, leaving him suspended for half a second.

Then it flew away.

Tianwu's body slid backwards for seven or eight meters, its four tiger claws leaving four white marks on the rocky ground before finally coming to a stop.

The moment it regained its footing, it charged forward again.

Without any hesitation. Without any process of reassessing the opponent's strength. That was it.

Chen Hao raised his right leg and kicked Tian Wu in the ribs.

"Bang..."

Tianwu flew out and crashed into the cave wall, shattering a piece of rock. It crawled out of the rubble, shook off the debris, and all eight human faces opened their eyes... eight pairs of vertical pupils filled with madness.

Again, it rushes.

Chen Hao threw punch after punch, kick after kick. Each strike was pure physical force.

There were no fluctuations of spiritual energy, no magical glow. Every punch landed solidly, every kick made a sound.

Tianwu was beaten so badly he screamed.

The literal screams... the eight mouths no longer emitted the previous intimidating roars, but a hoarse wail filled with pain.

But it keeps going.

Kicked away, got up, rushed. Knocked over, rolled over, rushed.

Yang Wanqing's eyelids twitched as she read it.

"Yaoyao, what's wrong with Tianwu? Is he out of his mind?"

Chen Siyao stared at the Tianwu that kept charging, her brows furrowing deeper and deeper. "It doesn't seem unintelligent. It can use tools, it knows how to charge up its attacks… but this fighting style…"

"Just like those Soul-Devouring Abyss Demons from the Ao Continent. They only know how to charge blindly." Yang Wanqing leaned against the ground, using the Heavenly Thunder Halberd as a crutch. "This thing... is it driven mad by hatred?"

Tianwu was slammed to the ground by Chen Hao's punch again. Several dents appeared on its dark gray skin, and the cheekbone of its human face had sunk in. Its head was tilted and drooping on its neck.

But it stood up again.

Tianwu got up from the ground for the eleventh time.

Three of its eight heads were drooping and motionless. Two ribs on the left side of its body were collapsed, and its left foreleg trembled when it walked.

But they're still standing.

Chen Hao withdrew his fist and looked at the Tianwu.

"This Tianwu seems to be a juvenile..." Yang Wanqing whispered from behind, "but Master has been hitting it with his bare hands, and it's still not dead after so many hits. This thing is too tough."

Some people in the live chat were analyzing the situation.

"Tianwu himself is a descendant of the ancient water god, so his physique must be extraordinary."

"But this is just a young god; wouldn't he be gone in one strike with magic?"

Why don't the gods use magic?

"Maybe they want to test the limits of this thing."

"Practicing boxing?"

Tianwu stopped a dozen meters away.

It stopped flowing.

Five still-moving human-faced heads simultaneously rose, tilting crookedly towards Chen Hao. The eight tails stopped lashing the ground and instead tucked behind them, their tips pointing skyward.

Its entire body tensed up.

A film of water seeped from the dark gray skin... not sweat, but water.

Water appeared out of nowhere, gushing out from its skin pores and forming a flowing water coat on its body surface.

The humidity inside the cave increased dramatically. The water on the ground began to converge towards Tianwu.

"It's about to unleash its ultimate attack." Yang Wanqing gripped the halberd tightly.

Five mouths opened at the same time.

Water gathered from its mouth, its body surface, and the puddles on the ground, condensing into a giant water arrow directly in front of it.

Three meters long, as thick as an arm, with a rotating tip, the water flow compressed to its limit... it gleamed with a cold light under the blue-green glow.

Tianwu arched its body. Its hind legs pushed off the ground... and it charged towards Chen Hao.

But the water jet didn't follow.

The water arrow changed direction the instant Tianwu shot out.

It flew towards Chen Siyao, Yang Wanqing, and Fu Zhaojie.

It knew it couldn't beat Chen Hao. It knew that from the very first punch.

Yang Wanqing's pupils contracted, and the Heavenly Thunder Halberd was held horizontally in front of him...

The water jet was too late. At a distance of three meters, the speed of the compressed water flow meant she didn't have time to parry.

Chen Hao made a move.

A cold snort.

It was so soft it was almost inaudible, but everyone in the cave heard it.

He brought his two right fingers together and drew them forward.

A sword light cleaved out from the void.

There was no sword. No physical weapon. Only a beam of light... a white, slender, and extremely sharp beam of light. It extended from Chen Hao's fingertips, slicing through the water arrow before it could reach him.

The water jet was split in two right in the middle. The two halves of the water jet lost their restraint and disintegrated into a mist less than a meter in front of Yang Wanqing's face.

Yang Wanqing was drenched in water mist.

But the sword light didn't stop.

It crossed the mist, crossed the space, and caught up with Tianwu, who was rushing forward.

Tianwu didn't even have a chance to react.

The light pierced from the top of its head to the base of its tail. A straight line. Tianwu's body slid forward another two meters due to the momentum of its charge... and then, from the position of that line, it split into two halves.

The cross-section is flat.

There was no blood. What flowed from the incision was a translucent, blue-green liquid, the same color as seawater.

Tianwu's eight heads... were divided into two groups of four... four on the left and four on the right. The light in the vertical pupils took three seconds to completely dim.

The cave fell silent.

Yang Wanqing wiped the water off her face and stared blankly at the two halves of Tianwu's body on the ground.

"...Sword Control Technique?"

Chen Siyao nodded. The sword without a sword. Her brother last used this move in the Northern Frontier—to slay a Gu Eagle.

The comments section went crazy.

"Just one finger! Just one finger!"

"This is the true power of a supreme being."

"Before, my only physical activity was walking the dog."

"Thank you for the swordless version of 'Sword Control Technique'"

"So handsome! So incredibly handsome!"

"My heart almost stopped when Wu ambushed Yao Yao and the others that day."

Fu Zhaojie slumped to the ground. The wooden stick fell to the ground. He looked at Tian Wu's corpse, then at Chen Hao, who stood calmly in the center of the cave, his mouth opening and closing several times, but he couldn't utter a single word.

The cave was quiet after the battle.

The only sounds were the dripping of water and the slow seepage of blue-green fluid from the cut surface of Tianwu's corpse.

Chen Siyao and Yang Wanqing emerged from beneath the rock wall, bypassed Tianwu's corpse, and examined the underground cavity.

The photo crystal rose into the air, and the beam of light swept around.

In the latter part of the cave... further in from where Tianwu was lying... there was a natural recess. Something was piled up in the recess.

Crystal.

Crystals of various colors. Some as big as a fist, some as big as an egg, some as big as a fingernail, piled up in layers, reaching half a person's height.

Red, blue, green, purple... under the light of the photographic crystal, they refracted into a dazzling array of colors.

"Wow—" Yang Wanqing crouched down to take a look. "Did Wu collect this the other day?"