Andrei's hairy skin blistered, but his somewhat lifeless eyes suddenly lit up with excitement.
He stood up, his towering body seemingly touching the cabin ceiling, then with a powerful rip, he tore open the cabin door and leaped towards the direction from which the lightning had come!
The immense recoil nearly caused the helicopter to crash.
The next second, a roar like that of a bear echoed, and a colossal, dark gray creature collided with the golden lightning in mid-air!
"Boom!"
With a deafening roar, a milky-white ring of air suddenly exploded from the point of impact, rapidly expanding into a swirling, circular gust of wind.
The two figures plummeted towards the ground together, seemingly still locked in combat.
"Boom!"
The two crashed diagonally into a stone peak, sending rocks flying and dust billowing. A flash of golden light appeared, and a nearby hillside was pierced through.
The wound, like molten lava, opened to the sky, with red lava even dripping down.
A roar like that of a giant bear erupted, and the surrounding vegetation began to grow wildly, like a giant hand sweeping down towards the figure emanating a faint golden light.
Though they were trees and vines, they moved with the agility of a real hand, suddenly clenching and creating a sonic boom!
The pale golden figure, like a dragon, pierced through the giant hand, but as soon as it emerged, it was met with wave after wave of hands.
Li Dong channeled his true energy, circulating it throughout his body via the Thunder God's Sword within his dantian. The golden true energy that permeated his body suddenly converged within. Then, he moved like a whirlwind, unleashing his fists at each of the attacking tree-like giant hands.
The wind howled, the air exploded, and an unparalleled aura erupted from his fists, becoming incredibly heavy, as if a small world had been added to them.
Then, in the blink of an eye, dozens of tree-like giant hands shattered with a deafening roar, instantly scattering fragments of leaves, rocks, and broken wood like a shower of petals.
Immediately afterward, Li Dong took a step forward, the aura emanating from his body seemingly solidifying into a tangible form, like a giant meteorite or a whole blooming flower, moving directly before the colossal gray-brown figure as if shrinking the distance between them.
Andrei felt a sharp, piercing sensation throughout his body. Every pore felt as if something enormous was blocking his breath, and his body seemed locked in place by an invisible force. Everything between him and his enemy, including the flying pebbles, trembled and remained suspended in mid-air.
For a moment, time seemed to stand still, or perhaps it was a magnificent painting unfolding. In Andrei's perception, Li Dong's punch wasn't just an ordinary fist, but a blazing, yet not blinding, sun, full of vibrant energy, like the rising sun itself.
It enveloped the entire world, seemingly pressing in from all directions, giving him a feeling that no matter how hard he struggled, there was no escape.
Faced with the oppressive force of death, Andrei's eyes widened in horror, yet simultaneously held a mad, desperate desire for liberation;
he also felt a sense of impending release. He didn't dodge; instead, he charged straight into the fist.
"Bang!"
Only upon impact did the natural laws of sound, airflow, and vibration emerge. Andrei was sent flying backward, his bear body carving a deep furrow in the ground, his fur tangled with broken branches and wood, dragged for dozens of meters, covered in blood, until he crashed into a boulder and shattered.
A single punch had left a Level 5 expert in a state of life or death!
This was the might of a Martial God.
However, Li Dong, who had unleashed that punch, frowned slightly. At the very end of his strike, he felt an anomaly in his dantian, causing the power to dissipate mid-strike.
Now, he was using the ancient martial arts technique of "internal vision" to examine his body. While not a mystical magic capable of directly observing every detail of his internal body, it allowed him to perceive the flow of true qi within his body, the movement of each meridian, and thus understand the martial arts principles governing his body.
Upon closer inspection, he discovered that the lightning power deep within his lower abdomen, which filled his dantian, had reached its limit of disorder. His powerful yang qi could no longer converge smoothly in the dantian and began to dissipate little by little.
He understood that this was because Inazuma's lightning power could not withstand his strength. In desperation, he unleashed all his current power, especially the power of his "Dan Jin Domain."
Ancient martial arts distinguish between Ming Jin (manifested strength), An Jin (hidden strength), and Hua Jin (transformation strength), essentially representing different levels of mastery over power.
Upon reaching the Hua Jin Domain, one can successively possess the abilities of Bi Yu (dripping rain), Fen Shui (parting water), and Tian Gang (heavenly energy). The first two allow one to be impervious to rain, or even directly part water to cross it. Tian Gang allows one to transform qi into Gang Qi, and even achieve short-distance flight.
At this level, one can be called a "Grandmaster."
Beyond Hua Jin, there is another domain: "Dan Jin." When internal energy is cultivated to the point where it becomes one with the flesh and blood, an "inner elixir" that seems to exist between reality and illusion will condense within the dantian.
This ability to materialize the ethereal gives internal energy a peculiar quality, allowing it to influence external rules to some extent.
Legend has it that ancient martial arts masters could even unleash "fist intent," a testament to their near-perfect mastery of internal energy (Dan Jin).
True Qi, originally an awakened substance, is an ability even closer to the extraordinary than internal energy. Combined with Dan Jin, it leverages the strengths of both, compensating for weaknesses, allowing True Qi to be used effectively without being outwardly apparent.
True Qi and body are fused into one; even a fatal wound cannot result in instant death.
It has virtually no weaknesses that enemies can exploit, enabling it to defeat even several strategic-level opponents working together. This is what is hailed as the closest to the forbidden level—the perfect strategic level.
This is also why Li Dong did not die even when his dantian was destroyed; in reality, his "inner core" was not shattered but contained within his True Qi.
However, without his dantian, he could no longer reconnect with it. Moreover, his dantian was like a black hole, equivalent to missing a major section of his most important meridian. Without a central hub for energy circulation, this was the true reason for his decline in strength.
The Thunder God's Sword, in essence, was a ethereal "inner core," temporarily serving as the central hub connecting his internal energy and true qi.
This allowed him to temporarily regain near-peak strength, but Inazuma's "inner core" was, after all, an external object, and its strength was far inferior, barely lasting a few minutes.
Forcibly using his inner core would be tantamount to shattering Inazuma's "inner core" himself.
Therefore, it was no longer usable, and his strength began to plummet rapidly, falling back to Lv4...
Just then, a heavily wounded, burly body rose again from the rubble ahead.
It was Andrei. His aura had also weakened considerably, seemingly unable to stabilize at Lv5, but for Li Dong in this state, he remained a formidable opponent. To Li Dong's surprise, Andrei didn't attack. He dragged himself out of the pile of stones.
He muttered to himself in Russian, "As expected of a War God."
Then, he extended a hand that had been clasped to his chest, a wry smile on his face. "Sorry, it's half broken."
Li Dong realized that even during the most intense part of the battle, he hadn't used this hand, as if he'd been protecting something.
On the outstretched hand lay half a broken glass bottle, from which a viscous substance emitting a pale golden light had already seeped out, leaving about a third of it.
A sudden tremor ran through Li Dong's heart.
Feeling as if he were somehow connected to this substance, he took a deep breath and stepped forward—the moment his hand touched the viscous substance, it seemed to be drawn into his skin like tiny sardines entering the sea.
After a few breaths, he felt a slight warmth in his lower abdomen.
Then, he actually regained his senses over his dantian!