Time is the most ruthless ruler in the Cosmos.
Amidst the chase and the hunt, another three years slipped by quietly.
For three years, Qin Feng had piloted the heavy Cruiser he’d seized from the Skull Breaker, clinging to Shi Dang’s trail like a vengeful Ghost.
His hunt had taken him to every chaotic and dark corner of the Taranis Spiral.
Qin Feng treated this quest for vengeance as an unprecedented form of training.
Every day, aside from the necessary duties of navigation and tracking his foe, he poured all his time and energy into comprehending and honing the Level 6 Killing Technique—*Starshatter*.
Inside the ship’s training room, Qin Feng stood with his eyes tightly closed, holding the grade-eight Meteorite Iron Long Spear.
Within his Sea of Consciousness, one hundred Mental Power-Spiritual Energy aggregation modules—each a hundred times more complex than those for the Fifth Level Killing Technique, *Hundred-Boat Struggle Stream*—were arranging, combining, and resonating at a nearly frenetic pace!
This was the essence of a Level 6 Killing Technique: One Heart, One Hundred Uses!
It was the ultimate art of pushing one’s Mental Power, Spiritual Energy, and life force to their absolute limits and controlling them!
VMMMM—
As he infused it with his Mental Power, the space before the tip of the spear began to visibly distort.
The one hundred Spiritual Energy Modules, driven by his Will, seamlessly merged into a single entity, forming a highly condensed energy singularity that radiated an aura of destruction.
’...I’ve achieved Control.’
Over the past three years, Qin Feng had repeated this exercise tens of thousands of times.
Sometimes he practiced alone, feeling his way forward. Other times, he put it to the test in real combat against Shi Dang and countless pirates.
By now, Qin Feng had completely mastered the Level 6 Killing Technique, *Starshatter*. He knew the principles behind every Mental Power-Spiritual Energy aggregation by heart, and the technique had become a permanent part of his arsenal.
However, while the mastery stage for the Middle Three Levels Killing Technique was also called Control, it was vastly different from the Control stage of the Lower Three Levels Killing Technique.
The Lower Three Levels Killing Technique focused on technique and power application. Thus, after reaching the Control stage, it was relatively easy to adapt and create superior methods of execution, even developing one’s own Self-Created Killing Move.
But the Middle Three Levels Killing Technique was different.
The existence of Mental Power-Spiritual Energy aggregation made creating one’s own moves extremely difficult. Reaching the Control stage merely meant understanding the principles; to truly master them and forge one’s own path required a massive investment of effort.
"Hammer, deploy a T-7 target drone."
"Command received."
At the far end of the training room, a mechanical arm slowly extended, presenting a disc-shaped target drone. It was over thirty meters in diameter and forged from an ultra-high-strength alloy.
This was a standard military target used for testing the power of capital ship cannons; its frontal armor could withstand a full salvo from a small starship.
Qin Feng slowly opened his eyes, his gaze instantly becoming as sharp as a blade!
He moved.
No wasted motion. Just a single step forward and a single thrust of his spear.
*Starshatter*!
BOOM—!!!!!
A point of energy, so condensed it seemed to devour light itself, erupted from the tip of the spear!
The Energy Shield on the T-7 target—strong enough to withstand a naval cannonade—was met with instant Annihilation, vanishing like a phantom bubble without so much as a ripple.
Immediately after, the drone’s Alloy Armor began to fracture, spiderwebbing out from the point of impact before it violently disintegrated!
In less than a thousandth of a second, the entire target drone was completely broken down into its base metal particles by the incomparably savage force!
The surging Energy Aftermath slammed into the training room’s force-field walls, sending violent ripples of energy spreading out one after another.
The entire heavy Cruiser trembled slightly from the impact.
Hooo...
Qin Feng slowly lowered his spear and let out a long, slow breath.
After three years of relentless pursuit and training, he had successfully pushed this terrifying Level 6 Killing Technique, *Starshatter*, to the stage of Control!
Now, a single, casual strike from him could unleash enough terrifying power to instantly destroy a small starship!
But Shi Dang hadn’t been idle during these years of being hunted, either.
As a candidate for Great Demon, blessed by the Chaos Evil God ’Khorne,’ his Combat Will and survival instincts had been honed to a terrifying degree in the crucible of desperation.
He, too, had broken through his limits several times during the endless chase, attaining new insights into killing techniques.
Unfortunately for him, he was facing Qin Feng.
A Qin Feng whose foundation was deeper, and whose Will was more resolute.
More fatally, under Qin Feng’s suffocating, years-long pursuit, Shi Dang never had the chance to wage a proper battle worthy of pleasing the Blood God. Nor could he perform the large-scale sacrifices needed to earn Khorne’s boons.
Qin Feng had viciously suppressed the pace of his growth in power.
As one’s power waned and the other’s waxed, the scales of victory had long since tipped decisively in Qin Feng’s favor.
"Hammer, report Shi Dang’s last known position."
"Reporting, Master. Based on analysis of his most recent Star Realm transition traces, the target is en route to Planet K412."
On the light screen, a set of planetary coordinates appeared, clearly marked with a flashing red dot.
’Planet K412?’
Qin Feng stared at the coordinates, a flash of cold mockery in his eyes.
According to intelligence gathered over the years from the pirates and Chaos Believers he had wiped out, this desolate mining planet was Shi Dang’s primary base of operations.
’He must have his last followers and his final trump card there.’
’It seems I’ve truly backed him into a corner.’
’Just as well.’
Qin Feng slowly rose to his feet, his gaze falling upon that blood-soaked planet.