Li Tonghui crashed heavily into the cliff wall once again, then fell to the ground.
"So this is... the power of a god?" Li Tonghui stood up from the ground. The next moment, second brother—who was holding Mountain Severer—also slammed into the cliff wall and landed right on top of eldest brother.
The weight of over a hundred jin came crashing down from above. Li Tonghui felt like his spine was about to snap.
"Sorry." Jun Mo Li rolled off and steadied himself to the side.
"Even after death, it still has this level of power. So this is what a god is..." Li Tonghui stood up and clenched his fist once more.
"The gap between humans and gods isn't something effort alone can bridge." Jun Mo Li held the heavy sword in one hand and the light sword in the other. "Eldest brother, if you're scared, you can leave first. I'll cover the rear."
"I'm not the kind of person who would abandon my own brother." Li Tonghui stepped forward to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Jun Mo Li again.
"Then as the older brothers, we'll make this thing that hurt our third brother pay the price."
Jun Mo Li dashed forward in a burst of speed, while Li Tonghui mimicked a monkey climbing a tree and leaped onto a large tree trunk.
He gathered power once more, then launched himself into the air.
"Rock Shatter Fist—Charge!"
Li Tonghui swung another punch toward the demonic shadow.
Seeing this, the demonic shadow clenched its fist and punched back at Li Tonghui.
The two fists—one large, one small—collided. Power exploded outward. The next moment, Li Tonghui was sent flying backward.
But this was within Li Tonghui's expectations.
From their earlier exchanges, the two had already realized that while this demonic shadow lacked any special abilities, every one of its stats was far beyond human limits.
So this clash of fists had been part of Li Tonghui's plan all along.
Li Tonghui flew backward. This time, he adjusted his posture in midair and fell toward Jun Mo Li.
Jun Mo Li raised his heavy sword and used the strength he'd built through sword practice to catch Li Tonghui.
The next moment, Jun Mo Li swung his sword with ferocious force.
Li Tonghui shot toward the demonic shadow at an even faster speed than before. The real attack was this next punch.
"Rock Shatter Fist—Double Charge!"
The punch, wreathed in explosive flames, struck the demonic shadow head-on. The shadow staggered back dozens of steps before managing to withstand the blow.
Jun Mo Li followed right behind Li Tonghui. The instant the shadow stopped, he swung Mountain Severer.
"Mountain Severer!"
Jun Mo Li roared. The bladeless sword edge slammed heavily into the demonic shadow's body.
The power to cleave mountains erupted—not elemental power, just the purest physical force.
But it was enough to deal a heavy blow to the demonic shadow.
This sword carried full force.
The demonic shadow collapsed with a thunderous crash.
To achieve this much with a mortal body—this was already a level that would stun the world.
But it could only go this far.
"Mortals—you dare—"
The demonic shadow, the remnant soul of the Dream God, stood up once more. It roared and activated the dream authority it had wielded in life.
An invisible force spread outward.
Jun Mo Li and Li Tonghui both felt overwhelming drowsiness surging through their minds. They only wanted to collapse to the ground and sleep immediately.
"Can't sleep!"
"Who would fall asleep in a place like this!"
Li Tonghui grabbed Jun Mo Li's light sword and slashed a bleeding wound across his own arm.
Jun Mo Li raised Mountain Severer and swung it hard against his own thigh.
The sharp pain jolted the two awake. They advanced toward the demonic shadow once again.
But this was only a temporary fix. Under the influence of dream authority, drowsiness soon surged through their minds again.
Under the effects of the drowsiness, the two could only exert half of their full strength. The situation that had been barely manageable instantly became completely one-sided.
Even so, Li Tonghui and Jun Mo Li did their utmost to entangle the demonic shadow.
The longer they held it back, the farther Little Flame could carry Jun Bai to safety.
Fueled by this thought, the two brothers displayed astonishing willpower.
"Mortals—since you're so determined to die, I won't hold back!" The demonic shadow roared in fury and unleashed the origin power it had originally reserved for Phenex.
The two—who had been holding on through sheer will—collapsed instantly to the ground and fell into a deep slumber.
Their expressions shifted between joy and agony.
That was the dream authority dominating their dreams.
The demonic shadow—whose aura had diminished somewhat since the beginning—walked toward the fallen pair.
Phenex had already escaped, and the root cause of all this was these two mortals right before him.
He would torment these two mortals to death with the most agonizing dreams—otherwise his hatred could never be appeased.
But someone didn't want to see him do that.
A wall of fire rose up, protecting the sleeping pair. Then a phoenix cry rang out.
Immediately after came the chorus of a hundred birds. A flock of birds like a colorful cloud appeared, blotting out the sky and hiding the sun.
A tall, slender figure stepped out from the flock.
White hair, red pupils, flame wings on his back, flames coiling around his body, holding a crimson long sword.
—The god Phenex, also known as the mortal Jun Bai, has arrived.
"You've even forgotten my name, yet you still remember your grudge against me. Dream God, you're truly persistent."
Jun Bai landed, gripping Crimson Shadow as he guarded his two brothers. His gaze was ice-cold.
"Phenex—the moment I see you, all my new and old grudges come rushing back!" The hideous demonic shadow revealed the face of the Dream God.
"A mere remnant of the defeated, yet so arrogant." Jun Bai said coldly.
"I'm just a remnant, that's true. But are you at your peak?" The Dream God's remnant laughed wildly. "If you still had the power you had a hundred years ago, I naturally wouldn't dare approach you."
"But the you of today doesn't even have one percent of what you had back then! Otherwise, how could you have ended up trading wounds with me ten years ago?"
The storybooks only say that the God of Abundance and the Dream God perished together. But the reality was far more unrealistic than the tales.
In truth, the God of Abundance not only perished together with the Dream God but also wiped out all the monsters under the Dream God's command and liberated the Yaksha clan that had been controlled by the Dream God.
The storybooks only recorded one part of it—this was actually quite rare. Normally, storytellers would embellish and exaggerate.
Of course, whether in the storybooks or a hundred years ago, the strength between Phenex and the Dream God had always been one-sided domination.
But that one-sided domination changed after Phenex revived from the magma.
Even the remnant soul of the Dream God after death could push him to the brink, forcing him to use a mutual-destruction tactic to repel the enemy—only to end up losing his memories and falling into the water.
Although ten years had passed and Jun Bai had recovered his memories as Phenex, his power...
Honestly, it hadn't returned to the level of a god.
Jun Bai judged that even with his racial talents at full use, he wasn't a match for Ganyu's master.
This was his current strength.
However...
"Even if I'm not as powerful as before, I'm still not someone you can look down on."
Jun Bai held his long sword and walked step by step toward the Dream God's remnant.
Beneath his feet appeared the phantom of a true phoenix spreading its wings to take flight.