Chapter 619: I Won

"He's out."

As soon as Ding Huan emerged, Shi Tuo saw him, his voice trembling with excitement.

He had thought he'd need to wait one or two months, yet less than a day had passed before Ding Huan appeared.

What excited him even more was that no powerful figures accompanied Ding Huan.

The four fake Yu Shen cultivators were nowhere to be seen.

"Let's follow him," Ice Disciple immediately moved forward.

In his mind, he would never let Ding Huan have the chance to return to Lanxing Sect.

"Not yet. Wait until he's farther away," Shi Tuo halted Ice Disciple's impulsive move.

This opportunity might come only once—he didn't want to lose it carelessly.

But the surprise wasn't over: Shi Tuo actually saw Ding Huan summon the Wheel of Reincarnation Cauldron and blast straight out of the Half-God Star Continent.

"Quick, chase after him—he won't get another chance to return to the Half-God Star Continent!" Shi Tuo excitedly summoned his flying treasure and followed.

This is truly reaping what you sow.

Even Jin Lingzi, who had always feared Ding Huan, sighed—she hadn't expected Ding Huan to leave the Half-God Star Continent now.

Ding Huan had intended to circle the Half-God Star Continent and then arrange the Star-Protection Array based on circumstances.

But the moment he emerged, he sensed he was being followed.

He didn't need to scan with his spiritual sense—he already knew who it was.

Shi Tuo wasn't a Bai Chi, but his overwhelming strength had made him accustomed to crushing opponents.

And another reason: in Shi Tuo's eyes, no one could rise from an ordinary cultivator with no trace of Immortal status to match him within a hundred years.

No matter how astonishing one's talent, it was impossible.

Ding Huan was speechless—did they think his lack of companions like Songcheng Dao and Wu Hanchan meant they could challenge him one-on-one?

If so, then let it be one-on-one.

Abandoning his original plan to inspect the Half-God Star Continent's array setup, Ding Huan instead guided the Cosmic Cauldron away from the continent.

The Cosmic Cauldron moved slowly; half a day later, Shi Tuo's flying treasure surged from behind and abruptly blocked the Cauldron's path.

Ding Huan halted the Cosmic Cauldron and calmly regarded Shi Tuo standing before him.

"Ding Daoist, we meet again," Shi Tuo's tone remained gentle, even carrying a faint sneer on his face.

Ding Huan's spiritual sense had already detected—the man had already begun setting up a Spatial Sealing Immortal Array.

He was worried Ding Huan would send a distress signal.

"You seem unusually calm?" Shi Tuo frowned at Ding Huan's composed expression.

Ding Huan replied coolly: "If I screamed and begged for mercy, would you step aside—or spare me?"

"No," Shi Tuo said firmly.

"Then what's the point? Fight." Ding Huan opened his palm—the grotesque long knife reappeared in his grip.

"No wonder so many fake Yu Shen cultivators followed you—you've got some guts," Shi Tuo did not summon any treasure.

In his eyes, using a treasure against a mere ant who had entered the Immortal World for only a hundred years was an insult to himself.

But Ding Huan did not mock Shi Tuo—he instead reminded himself.

If he were in Shi Tuo's position, he might have underestimated himself too.

After all, the Dao of cultivation demands strengthening one's foundation while perfecting one's own Dao.

The greatest taboo for a cultivator is an unstable foundation.

Yet Ding Huan, when cultivating, need not worry about his foundation—his strength grew, and his foundation automatically strengthened with it.

So Ding Huan made sure to always remember: never underestimate any opponent just because their cultivation time is short.

"Let me see what you're truly made of…" Shi Tuo punched again.

He always preferred fists—not only because he deemed Ding Huan too weak, but because his Fist Dao technique was nearly equal to his Sword Dao technique.

Ding Huan's long knife traced a curve through empty space, slashing toward Shi Tuo.

The blade carved a fractured river of void across the boundless emptiness, a river that seemed to drag all death in the void to its banks and bury it there.

At that moment, a streak of stellar light flashed through Ding Huan's mind—he suddenly understood the second Seal of the Wheel of Reincarnation: Wu Ding.

He had closed himself off for years studying Wu Ding Seal, yet always lacked that final step—he could never grasp it.

After this slash, Ding Huan finally touched the spiritual resonance of the Wu Ding Seal.

More precisely, it should be called Wu Ding Dao.

Shi Tuo's domain was violently repelled by Ding Huan's—his shock deepened as he realized his domain wasn't just trembling, but cracking.

How could this be?

Since entering the boundless universe, Shi Tuo's greatest pride was not his Dao techniques, nor his expansion of the Ten Thousand Worlds Trading Guild to every corner of the cosmos—it was his Dao Domain.

To this day, he had never met a single cultivator who could match his Dao Domain, let alone suppress it.

Yet today, he discovered his domain was utterly inadequate before Ding Huan's.

And now, Ding Huan's Wu Ding Dao River had fully formed, waves of death aura surging from it.

Shi Tuo's soul nearly fled—how could he still refuse to use his treasure?

He summoned the Divine Flame Sword—the sword flame technique had not even activated when he was engulfed by the endless death aura of the Wu Ding River.

The death resonance of the Wu Ding Dao River completely overwhelmed the entire space; Shi Tuo frantically struggled to break free, yet he remained firmly crushed beneath it.

At this moment, he felt nothing but piles of bleached bones beneath and around him—he himself was about to become one of them.

The aura of death clamped around his throat like invisible hands, choking him.

Was he really going to die in this insignificant void?

Shi Tuo thrashed wildly, yet he sank deeper into the River of Death.

He even saw the blade's edge, saw his own bleached bones after death, felt his cultivation partner's grief after his demise…

Poor bones by the unyielding river, still dreams in the spring boudoir.

"Puff!" A mist of blood exploded; the icy, bone-chilling aura of the blade jolted Shi Tuo fully awake.

He roared in frenzy, the Divine Flame Sword whipping up waves of sword-flame…

The icy, bone-piercing River of Unyielding Blades finally warmed slightly—Shi Tuo, in terror, realized that in just a few breaths, half his body had vanished.

Boom!

A chorus of resonant clashes erupted; the Ice Younger Brother's wolf-tooth hammer tore a gap in Ding Huan's River of Unyielding Blades and rescued Shi Tuo.

Ding Huan stared in surprise at the Ice Younger Brother—this fellow's strength was nearly equal to Shi Tuo's.

Shi Tuo had underestimated him, failing to summon his treasure at once, and never anticipated his domain being suppressed.

As a result, he was caught off-guard by the Unyielding Blade Seal, and half his body was cleaved away.

Had it not been for the Ice Younger Brother's intervention, and had Ding Huan been more familiar with the Unyielding Blade Seal, he would have killed Shi Tuo just now.

Ding Huan did not pursue further—Shi Tuo's half-body still lay within his domain.

Jin Lingzi also stared at Ding Huan in terror.

She realized her intuition had been right: Ding Huan relied on no one—he relied on himself.

Shi Tuo's bleeding stopped, but losing half his body left him utterly weak, his face as pale as paper.

He must retrieve his severed limbs from Ding Huan's domain within the shortest time possible, then reattach them.

"Don't move—you're no match for him!" Seeing the Ice Younger Brother charge into Ding Huan's domain to seize his half-body, Shi Tuo shouted urgently to stop him.

Only now did he realize: the most dangerous one wasn't the four Nascent Soul cultivators—it was Ding Huan.

How laughable that he had waited for Ding Huan to be alone to ambush him.

His strategy was wrong—if he had taken Ding Huan seriously from the start and struck alongside the Ice Younger Brother, even if he couldn't defeat Ding Huan, he wouldn't have lost so catastrophically.

Ding Huan looked at Shi Tuo, whose body had been split in half, and felt a pang of reflection—he could sense his own true advancement.

This advancement wasn't merely the refinement of the Dao—it was the seamless continuity of his divine art.

Shi Tuo's strength was no weaker than Wu Hanchan's.

When he fought Wu Hanchan, though he could prevail, he held no absolute advantage in Immortal Qi.

At that time, he possessed no Dao of the Blade techniques whatsoever.

Now, after comprehending the World of Mortals and the Unyielding after the Six Circles of Reincarnation Seals, how many levels had his understanding of the Blade Dao risen?

This single slash he unleashed now was more than ten times stronger than when he faced Wu Hanchan.

And yet Shi Tuo still dared to underestimate him—even refusing to summon his treasure.

Had this fellow never summoned his treasure, perhaps his injuries might have been lighter.

After his River of Unyielding Blades formed, he still forcibly summoned his treasure—this could only be called arrogance ingrained.

In another's domain, Shi Tuo's action would have been fine—even turned the tide.

But this was Ding Huan's domain—how much contempt did he have for Ding Huan to change his technique mid-battle within it?

"Ding Daoist, I am willing to offer compensation," Shi Tuo said, forcing his tone to sound sincere.

Ding Huan had already seen the escape talisman in Shi Tuo's hand—he knew that the moment he moved, Shi Tuo would shatter it immediately.

"What compensation are you offering?" Ding Huan's domain did not retreat—it expanded further.

"I have over a hundred Spirit Crystals…"

The moment Shi Tuo finished speaking, he felt a deathly aura envelop him—he instantly reached to crush the talisman in his hand.

But no matter how fast he moved, his escape technique could not match Ding Huan's.

When he saw his other arm fall away, despair surged within him.

"Spare me—I'll give you the Ten Thousand Realms Trading Guild…" Shi Tuo spat out the words at top speed.

Because he saw the Ice Younger Brother leaving.

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The Ice Younger Brother left the moment Ding Huan rushed in and severed his other arm.

Shi Tuo had never imagined that the Ice Younger Brother, who had nearly sold his life to him, would abandon him and flee.

Ding Huan said calmly: "Just as you said before—if I begged desperately, you wouldn't spare me; then neither will I spare you…"

"I have the secret to Dao Ascension…"

Before Shi Tuo could finish the sentence, his neck grew cold—his Primordial Spirit had not yet escaped before it was engulfed by flame and instantly erased.

Even in death, he did not understand why Ding Huan had no interest in his secret to Dao Ascension.

Ding Huan reached out and seized Shi Tuo's ring, then turned to Jin Lingzi, whose face was pale:

"Why didn't you run?"

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