After forcing the Sun-Colored Starlight Giant out of the hollow, Sam Li and the Adepti once again engaged the colossus in fierce combat. Adepti's divine arts illuminated the night sky... Sam Li's golden dragon breath sliced through the heavens, shocking all of New Eridu...
As the battle intensified, buildings near Hollow Zero began to sway precariously, teetering on the brink of collapse.
Sam Li was well aware of the giant's destructive power. To prevent the giant from threatening New Eridu's urban district, Sam Li proactively led it away from the city center.
At this very moment, the giant seemed to have realized that mere evasion was futile. Only one of them could survive. The giant no longer resisted the outside world. Instead, it launched successive attacks: swinging its massive fists, unleashing colorful energy waves from outstretched hands, tearing open space with its bare hands to create a hollow...
Every strike and maneuver unleashed tremendous power.
Sam Li was not to be outdone. He opened his mouth to spew a kilometer-long Geo spear, piercing straight through the giant's palm and disrupting its energy wave... With a dragon's tail strike, he shattered one of the giant's arms...
Immediately, above the giant, the sky erupted. Wherever Sam Li's dragon form passed, countless massive Geo spears rained down from above like hail, delivering near-unrelenting bombardment that obliterated everything surrounding the giant...
At the same time, the Adepti were far from idle. Cloud Retainer and Mountain Shaper, and Mountain Shaper and Jiehu flapped their crane wings, instantly stirring up a raging tempest. Countless wind blades struck the colossus's body...
Since the end of the Archon War, Sam Li and the Adepti had not experienced such prolonged, high-intensity combat for over a thousand years. Even during the demonic invasion of Liyue five hundred years prior, the pressure and intensity of battle had never reached such heights.
At this very moment, Cloud Retainer Adeptus, Moon Carver Adeptus, Mountain Shaper, Azhdaha, and Xiao all understood. They could not afford a single moment of complacency or error. A single misstep would inevitably invite devastating blows from the colossus, or even instant death right here.
Though night had fallen, Sam Li and the Adepti could not rest for a single moment. They maintained the highest intensity of combat, fighting from dusk into the deep night, then from the dead of night into the early hours...
Battling from within the Hollow Zero to its outer edges, then from its vicinity into the wilderness far beyond...
Throughout the struggle, the Sun-Colored Starlight Giant repeatedly dived into the companion hollows... Sam Li repeatedly unleashed thunderous methods, shattering one companion hollow after another...
Throughout the day-and-night-long slaughter, Sam Li repeatedly manifested his dragon form, then repeatedly shifted back to human form, employing every conceivable tactic to attack the giant.
Across the vast, desolate wilderness, the battle left behind one colossal crater after another, one deep ravine after another, flattening hill after hill. Wherever they passed, the entire land became a desolate wasteland.
During the battle, Sam Li also keenly sensed that the power unleashed by the giant was no longer as formidable as before, and its regenerative abilities were no longer as monstrous as they once were... But the prolonged slaughter had taken a tremendous toll, and the Adepti were already exhausted...
Moon Carver was on the verge of questioning reality:
"Is its energy limitless? Having escaped the Hollow Zero, it still unleashes such overwhelming power—what kind of monstrosity is this?"
Mountain Shaper urgently warned:
"Moon Carver, beware—"
As the colossal fist descended, Moon Carver could only brace his twin horns to block:
"Come on then. Let's see if your fist is harder, or my horns are tougher—"
But before that colossal fist could strike, Sam Li had already intervened, swinging his Vortex Vanquisher to sever the giant's arm.
Immediately after, the giant's massive fist still came crashing down, like a small mountain, smashing into Moon Carver. It instantly stunned the exhausted Moon Carver.
After severing the giant's arm, Sam Li spoke slowly:
"You two step back for now and recover your strength."
Moon Carver naturally refused to abandon Sam Li alone. Just as he was about to speak, Mountain Shaper interrupted him.
"Moon Carver, if we remain here, we will only become a burden to Geo Archon..."
Due to excessive energy depletion, the immortals gradually struggled to keep pace with Sam Li's battle against the colossus.
Hearing this, Moon Carver, Cloud Retainer, Mountain Shaper, and Xiao all retreated to recover their strength, leaving Sam Li and Azhdaha to continue the fight against the giant.
Once the immortals had withdrawn to the rear, Sam Li once again manifested his divine dragon form, soaring through the skies. Coordinating with Azhdaha—one in the heavens, one on the ground—they continued to suppress the Sun-Colored Starlight Giant.
The battle raged on.
While the war to suppress Hollow Zero raged on, at this very moment, beyond the planet where New Eridu resided, a celestial train streaked like a beam of light through the boundless cosmos.
Having reached New Eridu's star system, the train gradually slowed its pace.
Before arriving at the target planet, Himeko had already observed the target planet through the train's monitoring equipment, obtaining a blurry image.
Seeing the image of the target planet, March 7th's face was filled with confusion:
"What the hell? Is this planet sick? How come it's covered in black tumors?"
The Trailblazer was utterly speechless:
"Obviously, planets don't grow tumors."
March 7th grew even more perplexed:
"Not tumors? Then what is it? Mountains? Neatly arranged mountains that look like tumors?"
Himeko explained:
"Based on the observational data, it appears to be an anomalous energy conglomerate capable of shielding signals. Due to equipment limitations, we cannot observe its interior... Judging by the results, the energy composing it should be the Ether mentioned in Herta's message..."
Hearing this, March 7th blurted out:
"But if the entire planet is covered in these aggregates, a catastrophe of this scale—wouldn't the humans there have been wiped out long ago?"
Himeko took a deep breath and said:
"No traces of human existence have been detected so far..."
But no sooner had the words left her mouth, the observation equipment nearby emitted an alert.
Himeko immediately walked over. Upon seeing the latest observation results, a relieved smile spread across her face:
"We've detected it. Amidst the fissures of the anomalous energy clusters, we've observed signs of human cities."