?It was not only his beast form, but his chaos armor was also coming to an end. To make matters worse, his HP was not in the best condition. He had received many hits. Without his Nine Yang Restoration, the damage he suffered remained. His HP bar was below half.

Despite his anger, an urgency to preserve his life came to the surface. But that urgency was soon doused when he remembered he had the immortal soul. The unwillingness to bear the shame of fleeing from these people he deemed to be beneath him made him stay. He continued to fight ferociously until his chaos armor expired.

He still couldn't use the Nine Yang Restoration. He also couldn't flee with his three opponents blocking his way. Not that he wanted to flee, though. His pet was occupied by Murong and Oswald, unable to come to his aid.

Long threw away all the thought of retreating. He had only one thought now, to take down one of his opponents before he was defeated. He redirected his anger from Wong to Grace. She was the reason why the tide of this battle turned. Despite what had happened, he still thought she was the most unqualified one to face him. He couldn't bear it if he didn't kill her before he fell.

But Grace had excellent defense and exceptional healing abilities. Her bloodline, Grandmother Oak, further improved her recovery abilities. When Long's HP fell to a critical rate, Grace's was still above half.

Even if Long didn't want to accept it, he couldn't deny the reality in front of him. At the final moment when his HP was just a sliver left, he felt his mind clearing. He sensed the finishing blow from behind him. He was strangely at peace. Somehow, he accepted this defeat, but then he sensed something else came in between him and this killing blow.

Domon's glaive landed a strike, but not on Long as Domon intended. The blade of the glaive instead hit Wong's back.

"Wong…,

" Domon uttered. Wong received damage but he wasn't in danger since he had received Grace's heals periodically.

"Halt!

" Wong shouted when Grace was about to strike. Grace was startled by the mana-empowered shout. She stopped.

Long just stood there with the tiny HP he had left. He stared at Wong and asked,

"What do you want?

"

"… I just want a few words,

" Wong answered.

"Heh! Want to gloat? Well, you did say the winner has all the right. Fine, gloat all you want,

" Long snickered.

"… I am sorry.

"

Long frowned upon the words. He thought his ears must have heard wrong. He just stared at Wong and thought maybe the one he was looking at was not Wong.

"I didn't think we would ever have the chance to talk, so I have to seize this opportunity. Please hear me out till the end,

" Wong said.

Long was still silent. He still couldn't believe his former Master was the one who was uttering these words.

"You know me as a man with few words… I taught you that we martial artists had only one strive. That is to defeat every opponent and come out on top. To become the one who stands above all. That is the only objective of a true martial artist. Well… I was wrong… And I'm sorry to have guided you down such a path.

"

Wong glanced at Domon for a brief instance before resuming.

"These past few weeks, I have spent time with who I always thought to be my rival, the one who is known as the best martial artist of our generation. My purpose is always to defeat him and take his place. But after these weeks I spent with him, I learned… that he is completely different from what I thought. Even though I've explicitly stated that my purpose was to defeat him, he didn't mind giving me pointers and helping me improve.

"I was at first skeptical, thinking he was just trying to mislead me, but it turned out my martial arts indeed got better after following his advice. He even taught me some of his martial arts willingly. You said I'm unlike myself. You are not wrong. You said I've become weak. You are wrong about that.

"I studied Domon these past few weeks. Unlike us, he didn't see fellow martial artists as rivals. The only rival in his mind is himself. He didn't try to overcome others. The one he is trying to overcome is himself. That's how he continues improving. That's how he will never stop improving. He loves martial arts more than anyone I've ever known. It is strange for me to say that I admit he is a better martial artist when I learned that, and I felt no envy whatsoever.

"My greatest regret is that I never get to impart this wisdom to you. I hope that I can correct this mistake and guide you back to the correct path. If you let me… my son.

"

Wong offered his open hand to Long.

Long just stared at that hand for the longest time. Domon and Grace stood watch beside the two.

When Long finally acted, he slapped Wong's hand away and turned around. The celestial lindworm that was still fighting Murong and Oswald was unsummoned.

"If anyone wants to land the killing blow. Go ahead,

" he said. He then walked away.

Grace moved but Domon stopped her. Long was walking in the opposite direction from the capital. He was not joining the ongoing battle there. The path he was taking showed that he had severed his ties with World Maker.

Wong just stared at Long's back in silence. Domon put a hand on his shoulder.

"Give him time,

" Domon said to him.

"I'm sure he will come around.

"

Wong sighed. He knew how stubborn his foster son was. The time Long needed would be a long one.

"We are letting that brat go?

" Murong came and asked.

"He will no longer be a problem to us,

" Domon said.

"With this, Master lost another heavenly enforcer.

"

"Four heavenly enforcers,

" Grace corrected.

"John sent a message in team chat that his side had apprehended the enemy's tactician, Linda. With this, Master's arms have been mostly severed. Only Ronald is left.

"

"He still has another powerful arm up there,

" Murong said as she looked up.

The dragons were still tussling up there, and it didn't look good for their side.