Hong Fei twisted his wrist, and the Ten Rings flew out. At the same time, the Ten Rings formed from energy on his clones also detached, and for a moment, the dense swarm of rings rushed toward Carol, who had just steadied herself. Facing such an overwhelming number of attacks, Carol's gaze sharpened. She swung her fists rapidly, and bursts of energy erupted from them.
Wherever they passed, all the illusory Ten Rings were shattered, their fragments falling away before quickly dissolving into light and disappearing. At this moment, golden light churned like a tsunami within the Dragon Dimension behind Hong Fei, and the vast Dragon Power surged into his body.
His arms gradually turned a golden-red color, and under the dazzling radiance, his bones were clearly visible. A moment later, he slammed his fists together. Amidst the shockwave, the Ten Rings surrounding Carol suddenly accelerated, creating a continuous clanging sound. The acceleration of ten specific rings became particularly pronounced. Carol's expression changed abruptly.
Ignoring the attacks from the other rings, she turned to strike rapidly at these ten abnormal rings. One after another, the rings were knocked away, but in the end, two still managed to slip through and pierce her arms. Seeing this, Hong Fei retracted his clones into his body and slowly spread his arms wide, pulling them apart through the air.
Carol's hands immediately felt an incredibly powerful pulling force. This was a confrontation of strength, and ultimately, a contest of energy. Carol gritted her teeth, struggling to pull her arms toward her chest, while the colorful energy around her body flickered violently like flames. At the same time, she stared fixedly at Hong Fei: "Are you blaming me for not being on Earth? Do you know how big the Universe is? There are many more life forms in the entire Milky Way Galaxy that need help more than Earth."
"You're thinking too much. Whether you're here or not is irrelevant."
Carol furrowed her brows: "Then why are you attacking me?"
"I just want to kill you, or you can kill me."
"The reason?" Hong Fei said no more.
With a twist of his arm, the Ten Rings locked around Carol's wrists began to constrict rapidly while spinning. The whirling force ground against Carol's body like a cutting machine, and within moments, intense sparks erupted from inside the Ten Rings. Carol's eyes twitched.
The energy surrounding her body suddenly surged outward, and a thick, intense layer of power abruptly wrapped around her arms, preventing the Ten Rings from constricting further despite their efforts. Furthermore, intense light erupted from her eyes, resembling two small Suns. However, the next instant, her expression changed again.
Hong Fei approached like a ghost, moving as if he had turned into a phantom, the golden light representing Dragon Power flickering in and out, making it hard to track. Bang! With an explosive sound, Hong Fei's fist struck Carol directly on the cheek, and she was instantly sent flying in the direction of the force.
The moment she steadied herself and prepared to counterattack, the rings confining her hands suddenly vibrated, slowing her movements for a split second. In the process of such a rapid and fierce exchange, a momentary delay could very well mean the difference between life and death.
Hong Fei reappeared, a long sword in his hand emitting a straight, brilliant sword aura, piercing toward Carol's head like the sudden arrival of dawn. Seeing this, Carol finally stopped hesitating. She gritted her teeth and suddenly withdrew the energy covering her arms. Instantly, the Ten Rings sliced through her wrists, and two palms, accompanied by spurting blood, fell from the sky.
However, the gruesome severed stumps were quickly wrapped and repaired by her own energy, and at the same time, a pair of brand-new hands were quickly reconstructed from pure energy in an instant. Clang! Amidst a sharp metallic sound, Carol used her energy hands to quickly grab the long sword in Hong Fei's grip. Both of their bodies paused once again.
The blazing sword aura was only an inch away from Carol's brow. Locking eyes, Carol seemed to finally confirm, in this moment, the real and intense murderous intent this stranger before her held toward her! Why? Carol was still confused. But she knew there was no need to ask this man a third time. He truly just wanted to kill her!
Through the pair of diamond-shaped black crystal mirrors on her iron armor, she felt as if she could see a pair of eyes that were as still as an ancient well, devoid of any emotion. A feeling of stifled frustration suddenly amplified rapidly within her heart.
Carol opened her mouth and let out a roar, and the energy swirling around her body trembled violently again, while the pressure and sense of power Hong Fei could feel also skyrocketed.
Suddenly, Carol gripped the sword hilt tightly with both hands and twisted, and for a moment, the sword body emitted a weary cracking sound, as if it were about to be snapped directly by her immense strength in the next moment. A third time!! This was the third time Carol had erupted again when she was nearly at her wit's end! Ridiculous!
This was the thought that uncontrollably and suddenly rose in Hong Fei's mind. At the same time, he felt that he really resembled a big villain who bullied the weak, always giving the protagonist a chance to fight back from the brink at critical moments. Instead of killing her, he was helping her break through her limits, and in the end, he might even be counter-killed!
However, in terms of age, strength, energy, and so on, Carol was clearly the truly powerful one; Hong Fei himself was the relatively weaker party! Absolutely ridiculous! Was this the destiny aura of the so-called "Captain Marvel"? Hong Fei released the sword and struck out with his palm through the air. Carol flashed away to dodge, and she held the sword with both hands and snapped it with force.
With a clatter, the hilt broke into two pieces, and the sword aura and divine power on the blade quickly dissipated. At the estate, Sif looked up at the sky, her expression very ugly. She looked down at the lone sword in her hand, and when she looked up again, she threw the sword directly into the sky, and the sword body immediately rushed toward Hong Fei.
After throwing away the broken sword, Carol seemed to feel she was capable again, so she initiated another fierce attack. Hong Fei activated the Eyes of Death. Amidst the fierce, wind-like onslaught, Hong Fei's posture was elegant and his movements light, causing Carol to return empty-handed time and again.
The two walked on the air as if it were flat ground, and the surging, vibrant energy rendered magnificent colors across more than half the sky. Blindly dodging was not Master Hong's style; he had been silently accumulating strength all along. A moment later, Carol threw a straight punch.
Hong Fei dodged by shifting his body, and in an instant, he slid forward, his palm, which had been hidden at his abdomen, suddenly turning golden-red. His palm rotated outward, as if a great dragon was hidden within his arm, rapidly awakening as he pushed his palm forward. Boom! Amidst the violent shockwave, a spherical golden energy wave expanded rapidly outward.
Space trembled, and the thin layer of clouds that had just gathered in the distance quickly vanished amidst the surging turmoil. This time, Carol did not fly away. She stood still in the distance, her face instantly turning deathly pale, and the energy like smoke and mist around her body suddenly paused.
The golden palm print of Dragon Power pierced clean through her body before vanishing into the distance. Gritting through the agony, Carol attempted to retreat—but Hong Fei was already airborne, his body twisting mid-leap.
He channeled his momentum into a vicious knee strike, flipping upside down to drive it straight into her sternum. The impact cracked like thunder as Dragon Power detonated against her chest, the golden energy shredding through her prismatic aura.
Bones shattered. Carol's face contorted as her body arched backward, a hot spray of blood erupting from her lips. Before the crimson droplets could fall, a ten-ringed arm spearheaded through the mist—
"ROAR!!"
The dragon's cry shook the air as Hong Fei's palm strike landed exactly where his knee had struck. A phantom dragon materialized around his form, its majesty eclipsing all else. The sheer force of the blow caved Carol's chest inward before contact—when his palm connected, her ribcage collapsed like a sinkhole. Any other being, even Thor himself, would've been incapacitated by such trauma.
But Carol's energy reserves defied reason. As Hong Fei's hand buried itself in her ruined chest, her fingers lightning-locked around his wrists.
"Got you!"
Blood painted her chin, yet her voice rang clear as her eyes sharpened—no trace of the earlier disorientation remained.
Hong Fei strained against her grip. Useless.
"You're finished."
Carol wrenched his arms with bone-snapping force while her prismatic energy crawled up his limbs.
"I couldn't absorb all your power... but I took enough."
Golden Dragon Power now seeped from her palms—his own energy, weaponized against him.
"Let's see how you like it."
Agony unlike any physical wound erupted through Hong Fei's nerves. Skin blistering as if sun-forged, moisture evaporating from his flesh—he could feel his very soul fracturing. His armor liquefied, molten metal dripping away to expose an arm turning first red, then blackened.
"You really think I emptied my reserves earlier?"
Hong Fei's voice cut through the pain.
Carol's pupils contracted. She flooded him with energy, the prismatic tide engulfing his body as she forced every stolen drop of Dragon Power back into him—
The Dragon Dimension tore open behind Hong Fei.
Golden power—primordial, boundless—surged through the rift. The waiting torrent coalesced into a roaring dragon that plunged into Hong Fei's back. Carol's reversed energy stream vaporized instantly, dissipating like smoke.
Where her grip had pinned his withered arm, muscle fibers twitched back to life—a dead limb resurrected by a thunderous heartbeat.
"I Ching: Qian."
Hong Fei's voice resonated with draconic timbre.
"The topmost line—the dragon repents."
Hong Fei had never learned the "Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms," but he understood its core principles perfectly.
"The dragon repents, for excess cannot last."
The key wasn't in overexertion, but in restraint. He mastered the art of holding back—appearing to unleash ten parts of his strength while keeping twenty parts in reserve.
Carol's hands trembled violently. She stared at Hong Fei, disbelief etched across her face, then reluctantly decided to retreat. But the moment she loosened her grip, Master Hong struck. His perception of time slowed to a crawl, his senses razor-sharp. A thunderous crack echoed as golden light erupted like a pillar from his palm.
His right arm shot forward, the force of his strike sending fragments of flesh and bone spraying from behind Carol. In one fluid motion, he caught the long sword Sif had thrown, lifting it high before bringing it down in a diagonal slash. A crescent moon of brilliant sword aura surged toward Carol.
Captain Marvel crossed her arms defensively, her aura in disarray. The sword aura crashed into her, exploding into a shower of sparks that forced her body to plummet downward. Hong Fei seized the opportunity, surging forward with relentless momentum. Behind him, the Dragon Dimension expanded violently, swallowing more than half the sky.
The sword tip pointed, and Dragon Power poured forth in a magnificent torrent. The divine dragon, radiant with golden light, attacked once more. The impact shook the Earth like a meteorite strike, leaving a crater over a hundred meters wide in its wake.
Dust billowed into the sky, drifting away as the divine dragon returned. Hong Fei stood breathing heavily, but he didn't lower his guard. His instincts told him Carol was finished, yet his intuition whispered there might still be a twist.
Sure enough, less than a second later, a beam of light faster than lightning shot up from the crater, streaking toward the horizon. A fourth time! Hong Fei cursed under his breath.
"Captain Marvel, you're done!"
He raised his right hand, gripping the air rapidly.
The golden spear Gungnir materialized, its surface shimmering with a dragon shadow swimming within. Hong Fei pulled back his arm, his body stretching as his joints cracked. A shadow of the divine dragon seemed to emerge around him, its form mirroring his movements.
The Eyes of Death completed the mark on Carol in an instant, combining with the guaranteed-hit rule of the Eternal Spear. Hong Fei hurled it with all his might. In that moment, people across ten thousand miles of land glimpsed a radiant meteor streaking across the daylight sky.