One punch

" Boom!!" Damien's body was flung as he smashed into several trees before coming to stop and creating a large crater on the ground.

" Aargh fuck!! "He cursed out as he puked out blood. Most of his bones were broken and he was sure that if he hadn't erected a mental energy shield in time, he would've died.

" Big brother!! Are you alright?" Yuanba was about to rush towards Damien, however his gaze was suddenly blocked by a huge figure that had appeared in in front of him.

It was a huge black ape with two arms the size of two massive trees and an intense demonic aura surrounding it.

" The Black furred Ape?!! No wonder they couldn't sense that tree coming. This beast had the ability to turn material things incorporeal and it had a fighting power almost comparable to the middle stages of the true profound realm." Xia Qingyue grimaced.

" Yuanba get out of here immediately!!" She ordered in a loud voice and focused her attention on the hulking monstrosity in front of her.

Yuanba rushed to Damien's crashing site to see him almost unconscious on the floor. He pulled him out of the crater and supported him as they rushed out.

" Bang!!" Suddenly, a figure crashed in front of them, which later revealed itself to be a lady in icy blue armor. There was blood at the corner of her lips and her hair was disheveled.

" Yuanba I told you to run away. What're you doing?!!" She angrily scolded him and almost knocked him hard after seeing him still hang around with Damien.

They turned around and we're about to leave when Damien's eyes once more widened.

" Fuck it's here!!" He immediately let go of Yuanba and stretched his hand forth. Soon silver light burst out, before countless swords formed around them, leaving Xia Qingyue gaping with eyes wide opened.

" Whoosh!!" The swords rushed out with whooshes, before piercing a space in front of them.

" Rooarrr!!" A painful roar rang out, before the black furred ape materialized at that exact place and let out a roar of pain.

It immediately rushed in front of the trio with murderous intent. Seeing this, Damien snapped his finger, before countless shields formed before them buying them a few seconds of relief.

"Uughhh!!" Damien held out his chest and puked out large amounts of blood as his body dropped to the floor. His eyes turned bloodshot and his headache increased significantly. He was in so much pain that he felt he couldn't hold on much longer.

" Are you alright?" This time however, Xia Qingyue walked to him and placed her hands in his chest to examine her condition. Every prejudice she had against him was gone at this moment as he had not just saved their lives once but twice.

" You— you're dying! Your body, it's burning from the inside!!" She immediately freaked out.

" It's alright . Damien placed his palm on hers against his chest and flashed a weak smile. " Crack! " Behind them, the mental energy shield was now covered in cracks.

" There's no time. Listen to me or we'll all die here. " Damien spoke with a serious look as they both nodded their heads.

" We can't overpower the big guy out there, however we can outsmart it. I've analyzed the abilities of this beast. Apart from its overpowering strength and ability to turn things incorporeal, it's speed isn't that impressive. It moves at exactly 66 meters every second which is five times slower than sound. We could use this to our advantage." Damien coughed and spoke.

" Five times slower than sound? How do you know that?" Yuanba asked with a confused look. " Just do the math." Damien rolled his eyes. " What's ...math?" Yuanba muttered to himself.

" Qingyue, how fast and powerful is your strongest attack?" Damien asked, causing her expression to soften slightly. This was the first time he had mentioned her name and he did it so affectionately.

" My strongest attack is comparable to the True Profound Realm, but I'll need time to activate it. " She said after clearing her mind.

" Good. I can distract it for a while." Damien spoke before snapping his fingers. Suddenly a blinding light burst out, causing the black furred ape to immediately shut its eyes on reflex but it didn't affect any of the trio.

Lowering the shield, Yuanba supported Damien while Qingyue moved to a blind spot as instructed by Damien.

" My Lord are you sure about this. Your mental energy is completely drained and your brain cells are bursting apart." Damien could hear a worried voice in his mind.

" It's alright Gaea. It's alright." Damien flashed a weak smile and sighed.

Raising his right hand, he summoned what was left of his mental energy and materialized a huge sword that glimmered with metallic sheen in the sunlight.

" Go!!" With a loud growl, the huge appeared before the black furred ape instantly and ruthlessly smashed into it, directly ripping the left side of its chest with its left arm apart.

" Roarrr!!!" The beast screamed out in pain, as it's body thrashed about.

Qingyue looked in Damien's direction who was already beginning to fall unconscious and nodded.

" Divine Ice Annihilation!" With a roar, a hundred feet large ice lotus formed above her. It immediately smashed towards the beast, freezing the surroundings in the process.

However, just as the ice lotus was about to eradicate the ape, it's body immediately turned incorporeal and the ice lotus passed through it, destroying the nearly half of the forest.

" Fuck!" Damien sighed in regret. A slight miscalculation was gonna cause their deaths.

" Rooarrr!!" The Black furred ape immediately rushed to Qingyue and smashed its right fist at her.

" Bang!!" She closed her eyes as she felt an incomparable force smash about to smash into her fragile body. However, in an instant, she felt a sliver of Damien's energy wash over her. She opened her eyes and turned around only to see Yuanba with a shocked expression by her side, and in her position, Damien, whose body was flung away like a broken kite.

" Sis you're fine. Big brother- he ..." Yuanba sobbed in between his words as they both rushed towards his position, ignoring the black furred ape that was roaring.

" Hehehe cough !!" The got there to see Damien's bloodied body and upon seeing them, he chuckled a bit, before coughing violently and his mushed internals began to spray out of his mouth.

"Why did you do that?" Qingyue asked while her usually cold expression began to soften and tears streamed down her face.

" You see, cough, I'm very selfish and only care about myself but I wanted to know how it felt to care about others and I ..cough ..tried" Damien coughed between his words.

In his previous life, he was a complete anti social person. He was abused when he was young, he had lived his life fighting for food with dogs. The last shred of humanity in him had been completely erased by his experience. The only one whom he thought could bring that part of him back was his girlfriend who caused his death. His goal was to become the worlds greatest Astro physicist , yet he died before he could even truly begin the journey to his goal.

In this life,what did he truly want? He wanted to be the strongest, he wanted complete omnipotence, yet he was dying even before he could truly begin his journey.

" I want to be the strongest... the strongest ...the strongest..." These words echoed in his mind as he completely lost consciousness.

" Roaoorrrr!! " The duo turned to see the huge ape moving towards them and from the look in its eyes, it wanted to rip them apart.

" Sis, I'm scared ". Yuanba muttered as he hid behind his sister.

" It's alright Yuanba.. just close your eyes." She smiled and patted his head, before an extreme chill flashed in her eyes.

The beast jumped towards them and threw a punch with its only arm accompanied by whistling winds.

" Boom!!!!" Just as the fist was about to smash into them and eradicate them, silver light burst out from behind them causing them to completely cover their eyes.

A second later, they saw a familiar figure standing in front of them once more flashing his signature smile while covered in silver light.

Clenching his right fist and releasing it twice, the figure raised the fist and gently threw a punch forward.

It was a simple punch. There was nothing special about it, neither was it accompanied by unparalleled energy, however when the fist of the black furred ape met the fist, a huge explosion occurred, followed by a massive shockwave and earthquake.

" What was that?!!" Deep within the town, both commoners and cultivators were all shocked. The shockwave that spread alone decimated several buildings in the area. Luckily, no one was injured badly.

" Yuanba, Qingyue!! " Within the Xia mansion, Xia Hongyi rushed out with horror on his face as he realized that the massive shockwave erupted from the very place his children were going to hunt.

Within the forest, the siblings saw something they'd never be able to forget in their entire lives. The entire forest was destroyed and the landscape had been changed forever. The deadly beast that was about to take away their lives was gone, leaving only a bloody fog. And all it took was a single punch from the figure in front of them.