169: Confrontation

At Infinite City, beside Lingshu Heavenly Palace.

A magnificent palace, seemingly woven from endless verdant vines and gleaming jade, hung silently in the air.

It was Grand Void Azurewood Palace.

Inside the palace.

Su Jin sat on a throne formed by the main trunk of a Sky-Peering Vine, his eyes closed in meditation.

After his territory was promoted to Level 7,

he casually Ascended this special golden-tier building as well.

Although its grade did not break through, it gained a new core function, and its other core functions were greatly expanded and enhanced.

At the same time, even the entire building's appearance underwent some changes.

Suddenly, his eyebrows twitched, and he opened his eyes.

In the void before him, a giant green light-leaf appeared out of thin air.

On it, a bright red coordinate point was flashing madly.

Beside it, there was also a battle report sent by Shadow One.

"Dark Star Empire, the legendary Erosion of Darkness… above Fourteenth Tier…"

Su Jin's eyes instantly sharpened.

He slowly stood up.

The core of the palace seemed to sense its master's will, beginning to emit a low hum.

Countless streams of emerald green light converged from all directions.

They intertwined and wound together before him, swiftly outlining an ancient portal made of vines and spatial power.

The other end of the portal was the coordinate sent by Shadow One, that battlefield already enveloped by legendary might.

Core Function 6: Qingmu Teleportation – With the palace as the hub, it can consume corresponding energy to open a stable spatial teleportation gate at the location of any Sky-Peering Vine sub-body.

Su Jin did not hesitate, stepping into the portal.

At the same time, on the Gobi battlefield.

Erosion of Darkness seemed to have lost interest in toying with mere ants.

He raised his hand, preparing to completely flatten this area and end this boring farce.

Just then, his movements paused, and he abruptly looked up at a clear space in the center of the battlefield.

The space there rippled without warning, and a portal woven from emerald green vines opened out of thin air.

A completely different aura spread from the portal.

This aura was not as dark as Erosion of Darkness's oppressive might.

Yet, it carried a sense of profoundness and vastness, like an boundless earth, forcibly prying open a corner of Erosion of Darkness's suffocating domain.

A figure walked out of the door unhurriedly.

The newcomer wore simple black casual clothes, his face young, his eyes calm, yet as deep as the starry sky.

His appearance plunged the precarious Dawn Star bridge into silence once more.

"This is…"

Chen Shanhe's eyes widened.

He stared at the figure that had suddenly appeared on the screen, and the strange, life-filled portal behind him.

For a moment, he couldn't react.

Tong, who had struggled to get up from the ground, also saw that figure.

He was stunned at first.

Then, a surge of ecstasy and reverence instantly burst forth from his eyes, which had been dim from exhaustion.

"Lord…"

Su Jin surveyed his surroundings, taking in the scarred battlefield and his dispirited subordinates.

Finally, his gaze fell on the black-robed figure not far away.

"My people, you dare to touch them?"

Erosion of Darkness did not respond to Su Jin's words.

His gaze remained on the portal constructed from emerald green vines, like a scholar who had discovered a novel specimen.

His perception swept over the portal, attempting to analyze the spatial laws contained within, and his brow furrowed involuntarily.

"An interesting method of teleportation, stable, efficient, with almost no excess energy leakage."

"It's far more subtle than those crude methods of tearing space apart."

He offered his assessment, then his gaze finally turned to Su Jin, who had emerged from the door.

His scrutinizing gaze swept over Su Jin, and a look of confusion appeared on Erosion of Darkness's face, quickly turning into a hint of disdain.

"So that's it, it's some kind of ultra-long-distance projection ability provided by a special treasure or building."

"I thought it was a hidden peer who had arrived."

His tone was flat.

"Your life level is merely Thirteenth Tier, just entering the legendary realm. To forcefully descend relying on external objects, your courage is commendable, but also… utterly foolish."

On the battlefield, the Alliance soldiers and Dark Star Legion members who had narrowly escaped death all looked up at this incredible scene.

A legend had just crushed the dying counterattack of a Star Beacon-class warship in an incomprehensible manner.

And now, another seemingly unremarkable young man had appeared before the legend in an equally incomprehensible way.

Inside the Dawn Star bridge.

Chen Shanhe leaned on the command console, desperately trying to get a clear look at the young man's face on the screen.

This sudden turn of events had forcibly pulled his already sinking heart back up, leaving it suspended in mid-air.

Su Jin looked at Erosion of Darkness and chuckled.

"Oh, and then what?"

Upon hearing this, Erosion of Darkness let out an involuntary laugh, as if he had heard an amusing joke.

"Young man, you don't seem to understand the situation. What kind of existence are you facing right now?"

"Of course I know," Su Jin nodded, somewhat nonchalantly.

"An old man who's lived for a few hundred years?"

The smile on Erosion of Darkness's face slowly receded.

The other party seemed to look down on him?

"It seems you are very confident."

Erosion of Darkness's voice grew cold.

"But that changes nothing. Now, you can explain the secret of your door, and perhaps I can let you die a quicker death."

Before his words finished.

He had already raised his hand, making a grasping motion towards Su Jin's direction.

In an instant.

The space within a hundred meters around Su Jin – the light, the air, even the dust – seemed to be clutched by an invisible hand, then began to 'dissolve'.

A power of 'erosion' stemming from a conceptual level.

Like the most efficient solvent, it sought to decompose and revert all matter and energy in this space back to their most primitive nothingness.

This was the true terror of Erosion of Darkness; not mere destruction, but annihilation on a fundamental, lawful level.

"Lord!"

Tong, in the distance, cried out in alarm, his eyes wide with fury.

Chen Shanhe's heart suddenly stopped, his gaze fixed on the screen.

However, just as that 'dissolving' domain was about to touch Su Jin's body.

A vast and magnificent pressure, like a god awakening, erupted from within Su Jin!

"God Liberation!"

Dazzling golden spiritual pressure shot into the sky, turning into fiery streams, sweeping in all directions like a storm, fiercely incinerating all of that erosive power.

A pair of incomparably massive energy wings dramatically unfurled behind Su Jin.

Each beat of the wings caused visible ripples of distortion in the surrounding space.

Powerful! Domineering! Noble!

At this moment, Su Jin was like a deity descended to the mortal realm, completely different from the young man with the restrained aura from before.