Curse Returns: Eight Extraordinary Skills? I lack nothing.

A bolt of lightning shot out from his fingertip, piercing through the core of Flame Soul.

The ninth one.

The withered branches writhed on the ground, trying to regrow. Yuuto glanced down at them.

"The character 'Li' burns the heavens."

A spark landed on the pile of broken branches. A flame instantly ignited, burning the last vestige of life in the withered branches to ashes.

The tenth one.

Finally, only Shadow Erosion remained. It blended into the shadows of the ground, attempting to escape the area. But Yuuto's senses had already locked onto it.

“Kun character · Tuheche”

The ground beneath their feet suddenly rose up, lifting the shadow along with the eroded shadow within it.

The Shadow Erosion let out a sharp screech the moment it was exposed to the moonlight—it feared the light, but even more so the eyes that were looking at it.

"Binding the spirit and dispatching the generals, subduing the spirit."

Yu Ren's right hand made a grabbing motion in the air. He forcibly extracted, compressed, and condensed Ying Shi's soul from the shadows into a black sphere of light.

The ball of light slowly rotated in his palm before he swallowed it whole.

All the top-tier cursed spirits died.

Only the leaky coral remains.

Louhu stood there, watching all of this. The flame in his single eye had stopped flickering and solidified into something cold.

His friends.

He counted their names one by one.

They're all dead.

They were killed by the same person.

Louhu raised her head and looked at Youren.

His body had been mostly exhausted in the previous extreme battle; his flame armor was shattered, his kimono was charred, and the light in his single eye was as dim as a candle flickering in the wind.

He was in despair.

Louhu slowly raised his right hand. His body was shattering.

Starting from the extremities, the dark red fragments peeled off piece by piece, dissipated, and turned into ashes.

"Hana Yu... I'm here."

His one-eyed man glanced at Yuuto one last time.

"Humanity...you have won."

Then Louhu's body shattered completely.

They transformed into countless dark red specks of light, drifting in the night wind. Those specks floated higher and higher, growing fainter and fainter, until finally merging into the starlight and disappearing from sight.

Yuuto stood still, looking up at the direction where the lights had disappeared.

A night breeze blew from the mountains and forests, carrying the fresh scent of grass and trees. The lava on the ground was cooling and solidifying, turning into black rocks. On the scorched earth, tiny green shoots were breaking through the soil.

everything is over.

Yu Ren withdrew his gaze and turned to walk back the way he came. The Feng Hou Qi Men formation diagram beneath his feet slowly dissipated, and the light of the Golden Light Mantra gradually faded.

He took a few steps and then stopped.

He glanced down at his right hand. —The warmth of the Shadow Erosion still lingered in his palm after the Spirit Binding General had swallowed it.

Then he continued walking forward.

Behind them, on the land that was once covered by lava, green shoots are growing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

They quietly broke through the charred rock shell, unfurling their tender green leaves under the moonlight, as if taking the place of those who had vanished, continuing to guard this land.

Yuuto did not turn around.

But Louhu did not die.

The instant Yuuto turned around, the dark red fragment, which had shattered into countless points of light, suddenly froze at the same moment.

The dark red specks of light floating in mid-air seemed to have been paused, hovering there motionless.

The leisurely pace came to a halt.

He sensed something re-coalescing in the air behind him. The fragments of cursed power that had dissipated were gathering, recombining, and regenerating in some illogical way.

He turned around.

Fragments of the leaky coral are converging from all directions. The dark red specks of light, like iron filings attracted by a magnet, are piecing together, sticking together, and merging.

The shattered body was reforming at a visible speed; arms, torso, head, and even the torn kimono were reassembling.

Louhu's single eye lit up again.

It wasn't the dim light of before, but something entirely new and much more intense.

He stood in the center of the cooling lava lake, his body broken, yet radiating an even heavier sense of oppression than before.

"You think... this is the end of it?"

Lou Hu's voice was deep and hoarse, yet carried an undeniable firmness.

“I was born from humanity’s fear of the earth. As long as humanity fears volcanoes, earthquakes, and the earth’s own wrath, I will not truly die.”

He opened his arms. The surrounding, cooled black rocks began to crack and melt again, dark red light gushing from the fissures. The lava lake churned once more, and the temperature soared dramatically.

"Hua Yu is dead. Shuang Hai is dead. Yuan is dead. Shan Hai is dead. Chao is dead. Shen Ming is dead. Yan Hun is dead. Ku Rong is dead. Ying Shi is dead. Fei Xue is dead. Huan Yin is dead."

With each name he read out, the temperature around him rose by one point.

"They're all dead. You killed them."

The single eye of the Leaky Coral burns with an unprecedented flame.

"But I'm not dead yet."

Yuuto looked at him, his expression not changing much. But his eyes became serious—a seriousness he had never shown when facing Hanami.

What are you trying to say?

What I wanted to say was...

Lou Hu raised his right hand, palm facing up. A dark red ball of light condensed, spun, and expanded in his palm.

"Since I won't die, I'll keep fighting. Until you die, or I die."

Yuuto remained silent for a moment.

Then he nodded.

"Then let's continue."

He resumed his fighting stance, and the golden light of the spell once again enveloped his entire body.

Lou Hu didn't speak again. He suddenly plunged his right hand into the ground, and the entire lava lake boiled, swelled, and shot into the sky at the same instant.

Dozens of thick columns of magma erupted from the ground, each carrying a temperature high enough to melt steel. These magma columns intertwined in the air, forming a dark red net that completely enveloped the entire area.

"Extreme Chapter: Fallen Song".

This meteorite was larger, faster, and hotter than before. Dark red fireballs fell from the sky, each carrying a devastating force.

Yuuto stood still, looking up at the fireballs falling towards him.

He didn't hide.

"Da Luo Cave View".

A deep, dark light shone in his pupils.

The Great Luo Cave Observation, one of the Eight Extraordinary Skills, allows one to transcend the constraints of time and observe the changes of all things in the world from a higher dimension.

In that instant, Yuuto's vision changed. He no longer saw the falling fireballs, but rather all the data on their trajectory, speed, mass, and temperature.

The landing point of every fireball, the trajectory of every magma column, and the weak point of every energy node were all clearly visible in his perception.

The Great Luo Insight gave him not power, but information. In battle, information is everything.

He saw the flaw in the leak.

"Feng Hou Qi Men: Luan Jin Tuo".

Time was stretched out again.

The falling fireballs slowed down, and the eruption of magma columns became sluggish.

Yuuto calmly stepped forward and passed through the gap between the two fireballs. His figure moved among the pillars of lava like a fish swimming in water, precisely avoiding all attacks with each movement.

Louhu's single eye narrowed slightly.

"you--"

“Great Luo Cave Observation.” Youren’s voice was calm. “I can see all your attack trajectories. The direction of every stream of your spell power, the distribution of every energy node, every weakness in your defense—I can see it all.”

He appeared before Louhu. His right hand was held upright, fingers pointing like a sword, with golden light gathering at the fingertips.

“The source and flow of Qi.”

Qi Body Origin and Flow.

The foremost of the Eight Extraordinary Techniques, hailed as the pinnacle of all arts, possesses the ability to absorb the Qi of others, transforming their techniques into Qi and releasing it externally. It can cultivate an independent Qi body within the lower dantian, combining multiple effects such as life preservation and enhanced abilities.

More importantly, it allows one to possess an almost inexhaustible supply of Qi, which is obtained by collecting and utilizing the Qi from nature through divine spirits and storing it within the body.

Yu Ren's fingertips touched Lou Hu's chest.

Louhu's body stiffened abruptly.

He felt the magical power within his body being frantically drawn away by some force—not absorbed, but transformed, assimilated, and “returned” to nature itself.

"The source of Qi..."

Yuu's voice was very soft.

"The ultimate technique. It can restore your techniques to their most primal form, Qi."