“Nemesis… he is my nemesis!! Even my enchanted artifacts are rendered useless against him!!” Greed Wolf shrieked, recoiling in haste. Seeing Wang Lin close the distance with relentless steps, Greed Wolf, in a desperate act, hurled the violet jade vial in his right hand towards another direction with furious force!

This was a deed he had once committed…

Since his arrival upon the Ancient Starry Sky, whenever he recalled the past, his heart would ache with madness. He had sworn an oath, that he would never again cast aside his enchanted treasures merely to escape with his life. In his eyes, the theft of certain artifacts was more agonizing than death itself.

Such as the Displacement Cauldron of old, or the Ancient Thunder Dragon… Had he known that the Displacement Cauldron had aided Wang Lin countless times, protecting him from fatal calamities, had he known that it was his childhood companion, the Ancient Thunder Dragon, that allowed Wang Lin to walk the path of Thunder, making his name echo through the Roiling Heavens Starfield, even birthing a source of thunderous essence!

Had he known all this, he would surely vomit blood, his heart consumed by unbearable pain!

“I, Greed Wolf, possess great fortune, great opportunities, I am a favored child of the heavens, blessed by the Dao! At the age of eight, I unearthed a five-hundred-year-old Yellow Essence, swallowing it whole. At thirteen, I fell off a cliff, landing beside a five-hundred-year-old Vermillion Fruit. At eighteen, as I established my foundation, I obtained the Ancient Thunder Dragon! After forming my Core, during a fierce battle with a powerful foe, just as defeat seemed inevitable, a great cauldron fell from the heavens, crushing my enemy to death!”

“Thereafter, my path was smooth, the Mountain and River Diagram, the Soul-Extracting Peak, the Soul-Refining Needle, all were obtained by my hand. My only hardship in this life has been the pursuit of the Heaven-Defying Artifact!”

“Until I encountered this accursed nemesis, it is he who has stolen all my enchanted artifacts, all my heart’s blood! Yet, I still possess great fortune, I did not die, but instead found new opportunities, gaining more treasures, achieving greater cultivation! But this thrice-damned, ten-thousand-times cursed fiend will not leave me be, he has even come to the Ancient Starry Sky!!”

Greed Wolf, reminiscing about his life, his face contorted with grief and fury, retreated in haste.

Wang Lin advanced, a smile playing upon his lips. Seeing Greed Wolf abandon the violet jade vial, the vial hurtling towards another direction, he ceased his pursuit of the man, and with a shift of his form, headed straight for the vial.

Greed Wolf, seeing Wang Lin change course, hastily waved his right hand, revealing a great banner. The banner was a sheet of pure gold, its radiance illuminating the starry sky the moment it appeared.

Upon the banner’s cloth was embroidered a strange and ferocious beast. Its form was draconic, yet it possessed no claws, instead adorned with a multitude of wings. Its body was half-immersed in clouds, as if in furious flight.

Brandishing the banner, Greed Wolf swung it fiercely, and a terrifying shriek echoed from within, its sound earth-shattering, transforming into booming thunder. In an instant, the beast within the banner seemed to come alive, emerging from the cloth with a roar. It immediately enveloped Greed Wolf, transforming into a dark cloud, moving away with even greater speed than before!

Wang Lin paid Greed Wolf no mind, his steps swift, soon catching up to the discarded violet jade vial. With a flick of his sleeve, he seized the treasure. With a hearty laugh, he turned, using the art of Spatial Contraction to resume his chase!

“This Greed Wolf, truly, is a boon to Wang Lin’s path of cultivation!” Wang Lin laughed, his figure vanishing.

Greed Wolf’s body was shrouded in swirling clouds, borne away by the bizarre beast of a hundred zhang in length. The beast possessed nearly a hundred pairs of wings, each flap increasing its velocity exponentially, traveling at speeds unseen by mortal eyes.

Behind them, ripples reverberated across the starry sky, chasing relentlessly. The ripples, like waves upon the sea, crashed forth in booming succession. Within the ripples, Wang Lin’s silhouette could be faintly seen, his pursuit growing ever faster!

Yet Greed Wolf’s speed was already at its limit, maintaining a constant distance from Wang Lin. Even Wang Lin, with his perfected Source of Thunder, utilizing the power of lightning in his pursuit, could not close the gap in a short time.

But Wang Lin was in no rush. To meet an old acquaintance in a foreign land was a joyous occasion indeed. Wang Lin was feeling that joy, seeing Greed Wolf again was unexpected, and delightful!

Especially since Wang Lin had already discerned that all of his opponent’s treasures were related to the three ancient tribes, confirming the origin of Greed Wolf’s fortune. That place may hold little use for others, but for Wang Lin, it was an unimaginable opportunity!

To Greed Wolf, who had gifted him this chance, Wang Lin found himself growing more fond by the second!

“Unwavering specter!! A specter that will not be shaken off!!” Greed Wolf’s chest felt heavy, as if needles were constantly piercing him, causing intense pain. The source of this agony was witnessing his enchanted artifacts being stolen.

“He snatched the Floating Surprise Sword, the Bone-Protecting Tablet, he took the Heavenly Emperor Furnace, the Mist Demon Spear, he even coveted the Evergreen Wood Spirit, and even ancient Breath Leaves and the devil Soul Bottle he snatched away! Half of the enchanted artifacts I own are now his! This damnable Wang Lin refuses to let me go, he will not stop until he has emptied me of all my treasures!!” Greed Wolf grew more furious with each thought. A surge of rage ignited in his heart. Gritting his teeth, he decided he would run no more, suddenly turned to glare at Wang Lin with a savage expression.

“I will not flee! I will fight you, you thrice-damned man!!” Greed Wolf’s eyes were bloodshot. He was a vile existence, a creature of great slaughter. Had he not been frightened by Wang Lin, coupled with the cracks in his Dao Heart that turned Wang Lin into a nightmare incarnate, he would have never fled without a fight, nor would he have been reduced to such a pathetic state.

Now, pushed to the brink by Wang Lin, he momentarily forgot the terror that haunted him. With both hands, he formed a series of hand seals and flung them outwards, causing a massive spatial rift to tear open before him with a deafening roar.

“Demonic Wolf Descends, Eradicating the Heavenly Dao!” Greed Wolf roared, his clothes fluttering wildly, his hair moving without wind. From within the rift before him erupted a sky-shattering demonic aura!

This aura was intimately familiar to Wang Lin, it was the very essence of the Ancient Demon!

The demonic aura burst forth from the rift, filling the starry sky in an instant. A crimson mist followed, swiftly spreading from the rift, reversing and plunging into Greed Wolf’s seven facial orifices.

Agonizing roars echoed from Greed Wolf’s lips, filled with despair. His veins bulged, his face twisted into a grotesque mask, as he growled, his clothes shattering, revealing a set of dark, glimmering armor!
Behind the figure, the very fabric of the cosmos seemed to invert, birthing a colossal phantom of nigh ten thousand fathoms. The spectral form, unveiled with a thunderous roar, was that of a wolf.

A demon wolf of formidable power!

Its arrival in the starry expanse ignited a maelstrom of unholy energy, a swirling vortex that emanated from the demon wolf’s very being, surging outwards like a monstrous tide to encompass leagues upon leagues, a hundred thousand leagues and more!

Within this vast radius, all became ensnared in the churning vortex, its rotation a cacophony that echoed through the void.

At the vortex’s heart, the demon wolf pulsed with crimson light, its eyes burning with a violet fury. It threw back its head and unleashed a howl that shattered the silence of the stars!

A sound to shake the firmament, capable of plunging any mortal soul into the depths of primeval terror, a fear born from the very core of existence!

“An Ancient Fiend!” Wang Lin’s voice was edged with grimness. The demonic surge had forced him from his communion with the world, revealing his presence. As soon as his form materialized, the demon wolf bellowed once more, its gaze locked upon Wang Lin, and lunged forward with unrestrained ferocity!

To Wang Lin, the assault felt like a demonic star hurtling through the heavens. The swirling vortex of corrupt energy tightened around him, compressing to the breaking point, as if the demon wolf were an insatiable abyss.

Within this hundred-thousand-league sphere, the demon wolf’s power amplified as the demonic energy converged, creating a gravity well that warped the very starscape. Escape became an impossibility.

In the blink of an eye, the demon wolf was upon him, jaws agape in a maw that promised oblivion.

“You pilfered my treasures of old, and deserve to die! Now you dare to covet more? I, Tanlang, have endured such insults! You deserve to die! Die! Die! Die!” Tanlang’s voice was a shrill, maddened shriek.

Wang Lin remained impassive. With a cold snort, and as the demon wolf’s all-encompassing, demonic vortex engulfed him, his body thrummed with hidden power. Bones cracked as his form surged outwards, attaining a stature of a thousand fathoms, becoming a six-starred Ancient God!

The God Star spun furiously on his brow. Wang Lin retreated a single step, raised his right hand, and unleashed a guttural roar. Crimson light erupted, cascading across the void like an endless ocean of blood, so that it seemed Wang Lin held an entire bloody heaven within his grasp.

The light intensified, coalescing within his outstretched hand into a hundred-fathom blade of ancient blood!

Grasping the blood sword, and with the demon wolf a mere ten fathoms away, its jaws poised to devour him, Wang Lin brought his weapon crashing down!

The blood sword fell with cataclysmic force, unleashing a torrent of ten thousand fathoms of crimson light. The light was the color of freshly spilled blood. It was as if Wang Lin wielded not a blade, but a monstrous whip, cracking against the demon wolf’s head.

The heavens themselves shuddered as the crimson light slammed into its target. The demon wolf shrieked in agony as the blade cleaved through its skull, rending it asunder and exposing a gaping chasm.

The sword’s light relentlessly pierced the wound, shattering all resistance. The fissure widened, deepened, until with a final, earth-shattering boom, the blade plunged through the demon wolf’s very essence!

One stroke, and the demon wolf was bisected!

The sundered halves, propelled by the force of the blow, roared past Wang Lin like twin gales, separating behind him in a grotesque V, before dissipating into the void.

Only a lingering, anguished roar echoed through the ravaged expanse.

Wang Lin, his expression unchanged, fixed his gaze upon Tanlang.

Terror flooded Tanlang’s eyes. With a strangled cry, he stumbled backward, frantically reaching for his most potent relic:

A broken wooden idol!

But as the artifact manifested, Wang Lin’s voice resonated across the battlefield, calm and yet imbued with the weight of the universe.

“Freeze!”

Tanlang’s body locked, immoveable. His eyes widened as the horror within him escalated.

“Fear not. Answer a few questions, and I will spare your life.”