The air inside the [Ten-Thousand-Star Galactic Arena] hummed like a plucked celestial bowstring as fourteen-year-old Gu Nian’s pulled-back right fist gathered the warm, golden-black radiance of ten thousand rising hearth-suns!
Across the ring, twenty-two-year-old Golden Heir Gu Wuji smelled the unmistakable scent of his own doom!
Every shred of arrogant “Chosen One” pride in Gu Wuji’s eyes shattered completely, replaced by the raw, panicked animal terror of a cornered rat.
“Stay back! You’re only at Rank 8 Peak—you can’t cross a full major realm and break a Rank 9 Early Galactic Sovereign’s defense with your bare hands!”
Screaming in terror, Gu Wuji threw away the broken handle of his spear, crossed both blood-stained arms tightly over his chest. Burned the last drop of his Rank 9 Early dantian essence to forcibly compress the remaining defensive shell of the Ten Stolen Supreme Bloodlines around his body!
KRA-KOOOOOOOOOOM!
A colossal, thousand-foot-wide, eighteen-layer dome of jagged black-and-gold bone plating condensed around Gu Wuji on the arena floor:
[Rank-9 Galactic Sovereign Ultimate Defense: Ten-Bloodline Plunder Turtle Shell]!
