''What?!'' Wang exclaimed in shock as he watched a fiery spiritual projection

His head quickly spun around and his eyes finally captured his actual opponent.

Li Yan's fiery fist that suddenly appeared in Wang's vision smashed through Wang's face, sending him hundreds of meters behind him with a broken and bloody nose.

Li Yan's focused and experience filled eyes swiped at Li Jing and quickly raised his hot flame covered arms to protect himself as hundreds of ice spears came his way.

The heat radiated from his flames rose even higher as he tightened his fists.

Ice spears there were sent to not only his body but also his escape paths almost instantly got vaporized as the concentrated heat from Li Yan's body overwhelmed them.

Li Yan exhaled in relief as the heat dropped a little bit and set his eyes on Li Jing with fury barely concealed within them.

Suddenly, his senses flared up before he realized that Wang's poisoned claws were heading his way.

He narrowly dodged the claws and got away from Wang's clutches.

'The difference between him and the Supreme Elder of the Heavenly Golden Palace is too much.' Wang had to acknowledge the superiority of the Empire.

'And they have 4 more of this guy?'

''Elder brother, he is trying to stall us.'' Li Jing reminded him.

''I know.'' Wang nodded as he considered his options.

'I'm confident that we can win in a fight, but his allies will catch up soon. They might reach us before even we at least permanently injure him.'

He made a split-second decision and set his sight on Li Yan's weak points almost instantly.

'Most of his arsenal seems to be covering his body in fire in different ways. Powerful, but can't fight in long ranges. He tried to cover this up by learning extremely good movement techniques that let him catch up to us no matter how much we tried, but in the end, it's just a movement technique. We can find a way around this.'

''Little Jing, we can't escape from him. We will try to kill him as fast as we can. If we are lucky, we can get out of here before his allies arrive, otherwise, we will have to fight them as well.'' he transmitted his thoughts to his little sister with an advanced telepathy technique.

All of this happened under a second, but that second was enough for Li Yan to prepare a new technique.

Fire on the surface of his body dissipated yet the dangerous feelings Wang and Li Jing got from him didn't decrease, instead, it increased even further.

Li Yan's veins shined brightly with red and gold colours, and just a little bit after that, his entire body was shining with a small hum.

Li Yan grinned as if his victory was already in his hands.

Normally, waiting for them to do something would be more beneficial to him as his main objective was stalling them, but the feeling of power he got from his ancient technique gave him a boost of confidence that even tricked his experienced mind and made him attack first.

His body shot through the air violently as it broke through the sound barrier almost instantly.

Wang's eyes opened up in shock as he registered the speed of his opponent and hurriedly tried to dodge, but Li Yan's mysterious technique was too fast for him to dodge properly.

Under Li Jing's eyes, Li Yan's fist broke through the air and punctured Wang's stomach.

''AUGHH!'' Wang vomited blood as his body dangled from Li Yan's blood-covered arm.

''NOOO!!''

-------

Myriad being outside the screen watched the Heavenly Merit Acquisition with wide eyes filled with shock.

They had been watching Wang's life from his childhood to his adulthood for hours now, and he always seemed to have the upper hand somehow.

His plans worked, if they didn't, he would come up with a better plan with his quick wit and adaptive intelligence to make a new plan that would work.

He never got injured to this state, no, he even played around with Peak Dao levels before.

He was someone worthy of being the previous reincarnation of the hero that saved the Universe from the Demon Emperor, an ancient being who was at the very peak of the legendary Emperor realm.

They always knew it would end somehow, but they didn't expect it to be so sudden like this.

''I guess... that's life for you.'' an elder with a crooked nose said with a whisper as if he was murmuring to himself.

''No way it ended just like that.''

''Isn't he stronger than Peak Dao stage beings? How did he get killed so easily?''

''We don't know if he is killed yet.''

''Yeah, it would be easy for someone at his level to recover from such injury.

''That guy had his body in his arm, even if he is not dead yet he will die soon.''

''Who was that person anyway? I seem to remember about the genius prince Li Qiye, but I can't remember anything about such a strong person.''

''He must be from the royal family of the Empire.''

''Li Qiye's father maybe?''

''No, the Emperors wore distinct robes and artifacts on their bodies. That guy had some nifty artifacts on his body, but they weren't even at the level of Li Qiye's artifacts.''

''We didn't even see him get pushed to his buttons, he might have better artifacts.''

''Doesn't matter, he doesn't have that dragon robe, so he is not the Emperor. Maybe it was his brother?''

''His power goes beyond Peak Dao level, that's for sure.''

''That poor girl's fate is set in stone now that her only protector died.''

''She seemed like a pretty capable child, maybe she can get out of the situation on her own?'' someone said with doubt evident in her voice. She wanted to support Li Jing and hope for her well being but the situation was evidently pretty dire.

''Everything aside, I expected more from that Wang child.''

''What he has accomplished until now is pretty incredible enough.''

''Of course, I'm just saying that I expected more from him. He did easily kill that Supreme Elder after all.''

Their discussions continued with great fervor as it looked like it would never end.

Various beings from the myriad races slowly, silently, and stealthily turned their faces to Ice Empress to see her expression.

She seemed to have been greatly affected by the previous conversation on the screen, how would she react to something like this? They had to know.

Unfortunately for them, Ice Empress was concealing her face from the onlookers this time.

Even the Space Empress couldn't see her actual face.

She couldn't see it, but she could guess it.

'Sigh, well that sucks.'

She didn't know how to console her peer, so she just stayed silent to give her time.

Little Ghost, on the other hand, could see through Ice Empress's disguise quite easily.

Seeing her miserable face, she couldn't help but remember the times she had with her master, the only being she ever gave importance to.

''...''