Chapter 1037: Firepower Unleashed The True King of the Giant Kingdom, Xu Xiaoshou

"Smashed to pieces, but not dead." Xu Xiaoshou doused A-Fire's enthusiasm with a bucket of cold water, his gaze fixed intently on Duandai, who was now a shapeless mess plastered onto the ice tree.

Killing someone at the Throne Dao Realm was already incredibly difficult; a Taixu was even more so. Pure physical force might defeat a Taixu, but it could never truly kill one. This was precisely why most spiritual cultivators, upon reaching the Throne Dao Realm, acquired additional, often peculiar, abilities. To truly end an enemy, conventional methods simply weren't enough. One had to be unconventional!

"Hehehe..." Sure enough, within moments, the bloody, muddy mass dissolved, and tiny golden specks began to gather, gradually reforming into Duandai's indistinct figure.

"Strong!" "You really are strong!" "It's no surprise you're on the Black Gold Bounty list, Xu Xiaoshou; you're truly more difficult to deal with than I imagined..." Duandai gasped weakly, his face contorted in a savage grimace like a rabid dog. His eyes glowed with intense bloodlust, as if he were about to throw caution to the wind and fight to the death.

"Hah!" Xu Xiaoshou sighed, shaking his head. He had anticipated this resilience, yet seeing such tenacious survival still left him feeling a pang of emotion.

The next second, before Duandai could fully recover, Xu Xiaoshou hefted the large stone slab he was standing on and, with a single sky-stepping stride, instantly appeared before Duandai.

"So much nonsense, just trying to buy time?" "Die!" Xu Xiaoshou didn't want to give Duandai a moment to recover, so he swung the Town-Suppressing Stele directly, aiming for a crushing blow.

As a Gold-Rank Hunter, Duandai, even with a single breath remaining, could likely unleash unexpected tricks. A desperate, dying counterattack might even cost Xu Xiaoshou half his life. However, attacking with the Town-Suppressing Stele was different. Regardless of Duandai's retaliation, in his current state, he most likely couldn't break the stele's formidable defense. Furthermore, if his next move failed, the Town-Suppressing Stele could completely suppress his spiritual energy. As for saint power... Xu Xiaoshou wasn't sure, but it was certainly worth a try. Perhaps it could suppress everything.

"How can this guy even use a stone tablet as a weapon...?" Duandai stared at the Town-Suppressing Stele plummeting towards him, the madness in his eyes briefly replaced by a look of utter bewilderment. He recognized it: it was the very stele he had been unable to leave his mark on, despite countless attempts, upon his arrival at Void Island. Xu Xiaoshou had actually dragged it here for a fight? What an outrageous idea!

"Splitting World!" Not daring to hesitate, Duandai immediately activated his Taixu World, drawing on the meager saint energy he had been saving to cling to life. Unlike a tangible realm, a Taixu World was a materialization of a spiritual cultivator's mind and consciousness. Some cultivators, lacking offensive capabilities, would forge their Taixu World into a potent weapon; others, needing defense, would transform it into an impenetrable shield. Duandai, however, was different. While he also lacked both offense and defense, as an assassin, he valued life-saving abilities above all else. This "Splitting World" wasn't designed for attacking or defending, but for a last-ditch, desperate escape!

"Whoosh!" At his command, the oppressive aura of saint power surged forth once more. Within a ten-mile radius, a hazy golden mist enveloped everything. In an instant, Duandai split into two, then three, then countless divisions, scattering in every direction.

"Boom!" Xu Xiaoshou brought the stele down, pulverizing only the Duandai clone directly in front of him. The sheer force of the blow made the ground tremble and crack. But while one Duandai was shattered, thousands upon thousands more were already scattering in every direction.

"This guy..." Xu Xiaoshou was momentarily dumbfounded. Given Duandai's previous rabid, desperate demeanor, he had expected a final, retaliatory strike. He never imagined that Duandai's "last resort" would simply be to flee! There was no hint of offense or defense, just a desperate, full-throttle sprint, running as far as possible. Duandai, a Taixu realm cultivator who had mastered saint power, when confronted by the combined might of two White Skeleton Giants, Xu Xiaoshou, and Teardrop... didn't even bother to resist. He just ran!

"How cowardly." While Xu Xiaoshou could understand Duandai's choice, given his profession as an assassin... "Is running away from me going to do you any good?"

Xu Xiaoshou's spiritual energy within his Qi Sea surged, instantly drawing upon reserves he hadn't touched in a long time. He typically relied on his physical strength in combat, or his sword if necessary, rarely resorting to a spiritual cultivator's techniques because, compared to the former two, his cultivation realm was only Grandmaster. However, even as a Grandmaster of the Sky-Phase Realm, his Qi Sea contained an Embersource Seed imbued with calamitous power. Xu Xiaoshou's application of Embersource abilities extended far beyond just Embersource alchemy and explosions. In the current situation, with so many Duandai clones scattering, his physical power couldn't keep pace, and it would be difficult for his swordsmanship to pinpoint and kill the true body. But his spiritual cultivation abilities, on the other hand, could deliver area-of-effect damage!

"Whoosh..." In half a breath, his Qi Sea's spiritual energy was rapidly depleted. By this time, Duandai's clones, sprinting at full Taixu speed, had already scattered over ten miles away. Xu Xiaoshou, however, remained rooted to the spot, his mind recalling the image of Elder Sang ascending from the Hundred Thousand Mountains and unleashing his white flame world. He then directly detonated the compressed energy within the Embersource Seed!

"Boom!" A wave of searing heat erupted from his body, causing Xu Xiaoshou to swell. White flames ignited around him, making him appear like a god of fire bathed in an inferno. "Attacked, passive value, 1." "Attacked, passive value, 1." "That really hurts..." The Embersource Seed had been sealed using the disgraced saint's white light bead. Even now, Xu Xiaoshou's physical body couldn't fully withstand the Embersource Seed's complete power. However, he realized that he *could* briefly borrow its strength. The very reason he had painstakingly cultivated his Throne Body was precisely to better accommodate the various "fire seeds" of the Embersource lineage. Yet, powerful as the Embersource Seed was... to deal with a Taixu, this method alone was still far from sufficient!

"Transformation!" Xu Xiaoshou began to enlarge his physical form using his "Transformation" passive skill. This ability had reached Throne level during the Cloud-Aspiraling Mountain Range trial, but Xu Xiaoshou hadn't dared to test it due to the constant surveillance within the Cloud Realm. On Void Island, however, he had no such reservations! "Bigger!" "Even bigger!" "Still bigger!" A Grandmaster-level "Transformation" was restricted by human body scale, preventing one from truly becoming a giant or shrinking to the size of pebbles or particles. But at the Throne level, "Transformation" underwent a qualitative leap! For the first time, Xu Xiaoshou fully unleashed the enlargement function of "Transformation." In an instant, his stature and height expanded dramatically, from a tiny ant to a towering figure. Three meters... Ten meters... Thirty meters... The two White Skeleton Giants, the Void Attendant, and even Teardrop watched in utter astonishment as the limitations of Xu Xiaoshou's human form abruptly shattered, and he transformed into a colossal thirty-zhang (approximately 100-meter) tall giant.

"This..." Teardrop stared, utterly dumbfounded. When had Xu Xiaoshou acquired such an ability? Could he actually be a giant?

"Received suspicion, passive value, +1."

"It really works!" Feeling his spiritual energy rapidly draining from his Qi Sea, Xu Xiaoshou suddenly understood: Throne-level "Transformation" indeed had no practical limits. Or rather, the only factor currently restraining his growth beyond the Void Attendant's size was his spiritual energy reserves. But... thirty zhang was enough! This colossal size could now house even more of the Embersource Seed's explosive power! Yet, to shatter the Taixu World and instantly kill Duandai... he still needed a little more! Just a little!

"Rampage Giant, emerge!" A beastly roar echoed. The thirty-zhang tall Xu Xiaoshou, bathed in descending golden light, expanded once more, transforming into a colossal hundred-zhang (approximately 300-meter) super Rampage Giant! The age of ten-meter giants was over; this was an entirely monstrous form!

"ROAR!!!" This transformation utterly stunned even Embersource White Skeleton A-Fire and Ice-Blue White Skeleton A-Ice. "Hoo hoo hoo!" A-Fire was ecstatic. So his master truly belonged to the same lineage! Just a bit bigger, and he could rival A-Fire himself—how exciting! "Roar..." A-Ice, however, was both shocked and bewildered. Was this truly something a human could achieve? Her master had never used such an ability before. So, was he, in fact, a White Skeleton?

"Xu Xiaoshou evolves into Xu Xiaoshou Beast!" Xu Xiaoshou proudly dubbed this hundred-zhang Rampage Giant form... the Xu Xiaoshou Beast form! The true king of the giant realm!

As he felt his own power soaring to its absolute peak, his Qi Sea was simultaneously rapidly depleting, and even his various passive skills struggled to keep up. Now at full power, Xu Xiaoshou Beast's gaze swept across to all Duandai's clones, scattered more than fifty kilometers away. What was once a vast distance now seemed negligible; the world itself had shrunk around him. Xu Xiaoshou Beast felt as though he could crush this tiny world with a single palm!

"Embersource Heaven-Incineration!" The words rang out, decisive. "Sizzle!" The frozen river world, so recently constructed by Ice-Blue White Skeleton A-Ice, instantly melted away. Across a hundred-li (approximately 50-kilometer) radius, the temperature rapidly escalated, reaching an infernal extreme in mere moments. Compressed white flames erupted as fiery tendrils from cracks in the earth. Even space itself began to visibly warp and distort!

"Buzz..." The Void Attendant, having just finished absorbing the ice crystal's power and feeling a chill, suddenly found the environment shift again, as if it had entered the Abyssal Embersource Fire Domain. It couldn't help but be utterly bewildered. What was happening with this human? His cultivation realm was so low, yet he harbored such terrifying power! Not only could he enlarge himself, but he also wielded an array of preposterous energy attacks. Extreme ice was one thing, but why did these white flames so closely resemble the Embersource White Flames from the Abyssal Embersource Fire Domain? More importantly... how could his body possibly withstand it? It had encountered giants among its own Void Attendant race before, but they were merely physically stronger. The power this human repeatedly displayed... The Void Attendant mused that even the demigods and saint emperors it had witnessed rarely dared to integrate two such antagonistic, extreme ice and fire powers into a single body, did they? This sinner, coded 800820... Was he a human-shaped, self-propelling bomb core?

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" Elsewhere, as Duandai ran frantically, his heart rate began to accelerate. This was insane! Truly, utterly insane! That Xu Xiaoshou — it was one thing for him to wield such immense external power, but he could even affect a Taixu World with just the energy released from his own body? His "Splitting World," however weakened its power might be now, was still a Taixu-level ability! Xu Xiaoshou, merely a Grandmaster, was actually on the verge of incinerating his entire Taixu World single-handedly! And then there was... "What is this oppressive feeling?" He had clearly put twenty miles between them, and Xu Xiaoshou hadn't even pursued him. Yet, Duandai still felt that any second now, he would be apprehended by that mere Grandmaster... It wasn't just a feeling! At one point, Duandai's heart rate soared to its peak, and a faint whisper seemed to reach his ears...

"Embersource, Dragon Melding Realm!" A thunderous boom. In an instant, mountains and rivers crumbled, ancient forests were incinerated. Across a hundred-li (approximately 50-kilometer) radius, scorching white flames rose from the earth like an impenetrable barrier, covering everything without a single blind spot, akin to a blazing white sun falling to earth. Duandai found himself trapped at the very heart of this white sun. Seething heat! A deathly inferno that felt as though his very soul was being seared away! The advent of this white sun instantly annihilated his Splitting World, and simultaneously, like an inescapable cage, it completely ensnared all the countless scattered Duandai clones!

Within the White Sun World, Duandai involuntarily halted his desperate flight. "This can't be happening, can it?" "Am I dreaming?" Veins throbbed wildly on Duandai's forehead, his eyes wide with utter disbelief. But when the faint "poofing" sounds were followed by white flames erupting from his body, rising from his Qi Sea, and even the Heavenly Dao rules his conscious mind could perceive began to burn with raging white fire... Duandai knew this was no dream. That Grandmaster had truly ignited every fiber of his being with a single strike!

"Ah—" From all directions, countless screams resounded simultaneously. Almost the instant the Dragon Melding Realm fully encompassed the area, all of Duandai's clones were incinerated, vanishing without a trace.

"How could this be...?" "So, that move of his... it was just to pinpoint my true body?" Duandai shook his head blankly, muttering to himself as if his mind had fractured. He couldn't comprehend it. Even in his weakened state, his Taixu World, empowered by saint energy, shouldn't have been breakable by just anyone, right? Yet Xu Xiaoshou had, in an instant, annihilated all his clones and, within a hundred-li (approximately 50-kilometer) radius, erected a white flame world cage that left him nowhere to hide. How was he supposed to fight this?! Every single one of his abilities had been completely nullified!

"He's only a Grandmaster, isn't he?" Duandai couldn't believe that this white flame world could possibly be conjured by a mere Grandmaster. He turned his head in a daze, and the next second, in the distant glow of white flames, he vaguely discerned the colossal, slowly floating figure of Xu Xiaoshou Beast.

"What the hell?!" In an instant, Duandai's pupils constricted. Before him stood a hundred-zhang (approximately 300-meter) giant, radiating explosive golden light, its feet resting upon a magnificent ice lotus vast enough to support a world. Its body was bathed in holy white flames, reminiscent of a fire god. In its hands were enlarged versions of the four fierce swords, along with the Blazing Serpent Flame Sword, and from its back sprouted a pair of blue and white, ice-fire supreme wings. It was like an apocalyptic demon god, suddenly descended upon Void Island.

"Is that... Xu Xiaoshou???" Duandai's eyeballs nearly bulged out of their sockets. If he hadn't recognized the twin swords in Xu Xiaoshou's hands, he would have almost mistaken this for a miniature, combat-mode Void Attendant, come to hunt him down.

"Are they bloody kidding me?" "This is a Grandmaster?!" "Who in their right mind called this a Grandmaster? Step forward right now! Isn't this just a blatant scam?!" At that moment, Duandai utterly loathed the person who had issued the Black Gold Bounty. Grandmaster realm? Path-Severing combat strength? It was all utter garbage! Was *this* what Xu Xiaoshou looked like when he unleashed his full power? *This* was Path-Severing combat strength? He could probably crush even an ordinary Taixu with a single palm, couldn't he?!

Running... was utterly impossible. Duandai stared despairingly at the colossal golden giant in the distance, as if witnessing his own inescapable fate. The giant extended a hand, gently supporting the silver-haired girl. Then, this "Beauty and the Beast" duo caused ripples of spatial energy to emanate around them. With a single stride, they were suddenly standing directly before him.

"Gulp." Duandai's Adam's apple bobbed, and a pallor of death spread across his face. A space-attribute giant... Dammit, dammit, dammit! It wasn't just that his Qi Sea currently had no saint energy available. Even if he did, Duandai believed that in Xu Xiaoshou's current form, saint energy would, at best, only erode his outer shell. Xu Xiaoshou would undoubtedly possess other methods to pursue and kill him.

"Running?" The giant's voice boomed like thunder, making Duandai's eardrums feel as if they would burst and his head throb. "Yes, I have to run..." Duandai suddenly realized he still needed to try. How else would he truly know ultimate despair if he didn't even attempt to escape?

"You *can* move," the giant said, a trace of mockery in its gaze as it looked down, "but it will be very, very painful." "..." At those words, Duandai had barely lifted a foot before he froze, petrified on the spot. So be it. Let destruction come. If he could have a redo... Why did he ever have to stumble upon the Forest of Miracles?! This was no miracle; it was a harbinger of death!

"Don't panic," the giant's voice echoed once more, "I'll be gentle." Duandai despairingly raised his gaze, watching as the colossal Rampage Giant, holding a tiny Town-Suppressing Stele delicately between its fingers, gently lowered it towards him.

"Hah..." In that moment, Duandai abandoned all struggle, finding an unexpected tranquility. He spread his arms wide, choosing to embrace death. This damn world was truly bizarre, filled with Grandmasters of every conceivable type. It was a massive trap, truly! Living was so utterly exhausting!