Beside a withered, scorched Gorge, devoid of any signs of life.

Nine figures in black robes surrounded Hu Qi.

Each one of them looked over with a malevolent glint in their eyes.

"You damned, worthless meal! We’ll make sure you die here today!"

"How dare you come to the Valley of the Earth Abyss? You’ve shunned the path to heaven, choosing instead to walk straight into hell."

"Tear him to shreds! Then we’ll go to the surface and devour all his kin!"

...

A series of sinister, demonic roars echoed, chilling to the bone.

These were the Food Masters from the other regions.

The dense malice emanating from them almost made the air feel thick and viscous.

However, even though every Food Master glared with murderous intent, eager to devour Hu Qi whole, not a single one dared to take a step forward. They all kept a careful distance from him.

After all, they already knew that the person before them was very likely the one who had slaughtered the other Food Masters.

They desperately craved a Refining God Realm meal, but they could still recognize the chasm between their respective strengths.

Faced with this situation, Hu Qi’s expression remained perfectly calm and composed, showing no surprise whatsoever.

There were seventeen Food Masters in the Earth Core in total.

After he killed Leng Ji and Sha Kong, fifteen Food Masters remained.

During this period, through his continuous hunting, their numbers had been sharply reduced to the current nine.

At first, these Food Masters had dared to actively seek him out.

Later, after sensing his terrifying strength, it was as if their courage had been shattered, and they went straight into hiding.

"Heh, so you all dare to show your faces now?"

Hu Qi sneered.

He had come to this place not only to investigate Mother Earth’s situation and the location of the Spirit Realm Sea Eye but also to find these Food Masters. In his eyes, each one was a walking gift pack of Modification Points.

He had originally been prepared to leave temporarily after sensing something strange about Mother Earth.

He hadn’t expected this group to show up on their own initiative.

With that said, he couldn’t be bothered with any more nonsense.

A layer of invisible Power of the Heart swept out, constructing a Pseudo Domain.

He prepared to devour all of them.

’Eating nine Food Masters at once might cause a bit of indigestion.’

’However, that’s not a problem for me.’

’After all, opportunities like this are rare. I can’t just refuse food that’s served on a platter.’

’You see, I’m someone who cherishes every last morsel.’

’I always clean my plate, down to the last grain of rice.’

’Naturally, I can’t commit such a wasteful act.’

However, just as his wave of Power of the Heart was about to envelop the Food Masters, it seemed to hit some kind of obstruction.

It was a special power similar to his own Power of the Heart.

At the same time, the Food Masters seemed to have already sensed Hu Qi’s intentions.

Taking advantage of the moment his Power of the Heart was blocked, the other eight Food Masters’ figures suddenly burst into black mist, all of it converging and flowing into one of the figures.

"They can even fuse!?"

Hu Qi raised an eyebrow, glancing at this person with some surprise.

It was a woman with long, blood-red hair and a bewitchingly beautiful face.

After devouring so many Food Masters and obtaining their memories, Hu Qi naturally recognized her.

Shu Ming, the strongest among the Food Masters.

She was also the one closest to Mother Earth.

Some of Mother Earth’s commands were passed down through her.

Her strength, converted to that of a Secret Martial Artist, was roughly at the Divine Image Realm Peak. No wonder she could briefly block the infiltration of his Pseudo Domain.

"A Divine Image Realm Peak Secret Martial Artist. Interesting. I have never seen you before. It seems you are one of the Celestial Fate People of this era."

Shu Ming stared coldly at Hu Qi.

When she spoke, it was as if several different male and female voices were overlapping and echoing, creating an incredibly eerie sound.

Although she was in the Earth Core, she had a basic understanding of the situation on the surface.

Within the Black Blood Species, there is an organization called the Feast, whose main purpose is to gather intelligence on the humans of the surface.

Especially those Secret Martial Artists who had broken through the Divine Barrier—each one was closely monitored.

But she had never seen anyone who looked like Hu Qi.

Across from her, upon hearing a certain word from Shu Ming’s mouth, Hu Qi’s expression flickered.

Just as he was about to ask something, he heard Shu Ming let out a low laugh.

The bloody light in her eyes seemed about to overflow from their sockets.

"Forget it. No matter what, you will remain here today! You will become a blood-offering from us to Lady Earth!"

At this moment, her figure had lost all trace of its previous slenderness. Instead, like an inflating ball, her muscles bulged, and her frame grew burly, reaching a height of about three meters.

Two spiraling black horns, curving backward, had even sprouted from her forehead.

The aura around her entire body had strengthened by several times.

As her voice fell, BANG!

She took a step forward.

The ground in a several-meter radius around her foot trembled violently, then cracked apart layer by layer.

The ground trembled, and in an instant, an oval-shaped deep crater exploded where she had stood.

The surrounding air currents let out an unbearable roar. Propelled by rolling explosions of air, she crossed several meters in an instant.

Her body tore through the air, leaving a straight white trail behind her.

In a flash, Shu Ming appeared before Hu Qi, her hand shaped like a claw, striking directly at his face.

BAM!

Hu Qi blocked with his arm.

A circular shockwave erupted from their feet, sending rubble flying everywhere.

The next instant, Hu Qi suddenly raised his hand, fast as lightning, and clashed with Shu Ming.

As their auras collided, the very air seemed to twist and distort.

Fists, shoulders, elbows, knees, legs, and even their heads became weapons.

Their speed was too fast for the naked eye to follow. One could only see the air being instantly compressed and then violently exploding, accompanied by deafening roars and flashes of white light.

The geographical environment of the Valley of the Earth Abyss was extremely unique.

It was constantly baked by the temperature of the Earth Core’s magma and permeated by the power emanating from Mother Earth.

The ground here was compacted and extremely dense, as if forged from steel.

But even so, caught in the aftershocks of their battle, it still cracked inch by inch, the edges curling outward and shooting away!

It was as if two invisible behemoths were constantly clashing and colliding.

After another collision, their claws locked together, one shrouded in black mist, the other cloaked in bloody light.

The surrounding space rippled violently, like the surface of water.

"You can actually withstand seventy percent of my strength. You should be proud," Shu Ming stared at Hu Qi and said.

"But that’s all it is. Next, I will make you feel what true despair is..."

However, before she could finish, Hu Qi interrupted her.

"Seventy percent?"

He had a strange look in his eyes.

"But I haven’t even gotten serious yet!"

As his voice fell, a terrifying aura, as if capable of shaking the heavens and splitting the earth, erupted from Hu Qi’s body. It was far more violent than before, surging like a volcanic eruption.

In just an instant, Shu Ming’s expression changed drastically. Caught in the struggle, she had no time to react.

Her arms instantly exploded. A sharp pain shot through her chest, and her entire body, as if struck head-on by a giant siege hammer, turned into a thin white line and was sent flying.

Her figure tore through the air as it flew. Everywhere she passed, the hard, compacted, pitch-black ground shattered and splattered, proving utterly fragile.

The churning dust formed two tall curtains as crisscrossing gales howled and blew in all directions.

Finally, with a heaven-shaking RUMBLE, she smashed violently into a mountain peak over ten kilometers away.

A huge cloud of dust rose as the ground trembled and cracked.

Deep within the mountain, Shu Ming was buried under rubble.

A large indentation had appeared on her chest, the bones within clearly shattered.

If she were an ordinary person, she would be deader than dead by now, but for a Food Master like Shu Ming, it was nothing.

Black mist swirled around the wound, and it quickly began to heal.

However, because of the residual True Essence Power from Hu Qi, the speed of this recovery was greatly reduced.

At the same time, Hu Qi took a single step, dragging a surging, rolling heatwave behind him.

In a single instant, he crossed the distance of more than ten kilometers.

He appeared in the sky above the mountain where Shu Ming was.

Hu Qi suddenly raised his arm. True Essence enveloped it, transforming it into a colossal, sky-covering, dark-red palm.

The next second, his five fingers suddenly clenched, as if to grasp the entire world in his palm in that instant.

Then, his mountain-like fist, carrying world-destroying power, came crashing down violently from high above.

—RUMBLE!

A deafening explosion, like countless erupting volcanoes, sent powerful shockwaves blasting in all directions, making the entire space tremble violently.

A gale that blotted out the sun and sky instantly howled forth, raging like an apocalyptic storm.

Wherever the gale passed, the earth cracked, boulders were pulverized, and sand and stone flew, filling the sky.

The very earth seemed to teeter on the brink of collapse under this terrifying power, as if it would be utterly destroyed in the next second.

With this punch, Hu Qi used his full strength, incorporating several techniques from various Schools, such as the Holy Rain Sect’s Cloud Pinching Hand, the Celestial Phenomenon Sect’s Celestial Spirit Fist, and the Mountain Lizard Sect’s Broken Flame Palm.

As the punch descended, he was like a living Demon God!

The shadow of death was like a towering, dark mountain peak. It descended upon Shu Ming’s body with the force of a thunderbolt.

Shu Ming felt like a speck of dust in a hurricane, pitiably insignificant before this vast and endless power.

Before the fist even arrived, the immense wind pressure it generated slammed her body, which had just started to rise, back into the ground.

Like a fly swatted by a giant palm, she was instantly embedded in the ground, unable to move.

Every muscle in her body spasmed in agony.

The gusts of wind pressure were like countless sharp daggers, slicing bloody gashes across her skin.

"—AHHH!"

The corners of Shu Ming’s eyes split open.

’I can’t take this punch.’

’The gap is too wide. This person—no, this monster—in front of me can’t possibly be in the Divine Image Realm.’

’I’ve witnessed the birth and destruction of the Miwu Civilization. It wasn’t as if there weren’t beings whose strength had reached the Refining God Limit.’

’But even the most powerful among them, the Saint Emperor, is not worth mentioning compared to the person before me.’

In that fleeting instant, there was no time for her to think.

The next instant, just as she was about to be obliterated by Hu Qi’s punch, a crescent-shaped, unidentified beast tooth on her chest suddenly burst with a black light, enveloping Shu Ming’s entire body.