The shattered remnants of the Seven Treasure Glaze Tile Sect's central courtyard were bathed in a chaotic tempest of warring auras. Amidst the swirling dust and the deafening roar of overlapping spirit abilities, Tang Hao found himself trapped in a desperate, suffocating nightmare.
The Level 97 Super Douluo swung his massive Clear Sky Hammer with all the brutal, earth-shattering might he could muster. His muscles bulged, veins straining against his scarred skin as he attempted to clear the encroaching tide of crimson and silver vines that threatened to swallow him whole. Yet, every strike felt as though he were hammering against an impenetrable mountain of divine steel.
Tang Hao was currently consumed by a blazing, blinding anger. He had barely managed to dodge and endure the relentless, overwhelming attacks of Ah Yin. From the very first exchange of blows, he had drawn upon the chilling depths of his Death God Domain, projecting the dense white mist of pure killing intent to suppress her movements. But to his profound shock and mounting despair, his domain had been entirely, effortlessly restrained by the majestic, pulsating Blood Silver Domain radiating from Ah Yin.
'How is this possible?' Tang Hao analyzed frantically, his breath coming in ragged, heavy heaves as he deflected another volley of hardened, ice-infused vines. 'My Death God Domain was forged in the absolute slaughter of the Slaughter City. It is the pinnacle of murderous intent! It should pierce through any plant-based domain like a hot knife through snow. Yet her domain... it feels boundless. It completely ignores my killing intent as if it were nothing but a minor breeze!'
Worse still, the tactical rhythm that defined his supreme combat prowess had been utterly dismantled. Tang Hao desperately needed to stack up his physical power by utilizing the continuous, compounding swings of the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer technique. He needed momentum to crush her defenses. But his mastery over the Clear Sky Nine Absolutes was simply not fluid enough to execute them instantaneously without a brief, momentary opening to chain them together.
Ah Yin's relentless barrage never gave him that opportunity.
'Why can I not break her vines?' Tang Hao thought, his teeth grinding together in sheer frustration as his hammer bounced off a thick cluster of earth-infused roots, the recoil numbing his forearms. 'My Clear Sky Hammer is the absolute pinnacle of physical destruction in this world! Even a defensive Super Douluo would shatter under these blows. Yet her physical constitution seems vastly superior to mine. She is overpowering me in every single exchange!'
He simply did not understand how the gentle woman he once knew had become a monster of such terrifying, absolute power. The realization that he was being pushed to the brink of death by his former wife fueled a dark, twisting rage deep within his spiritual sea.
"Ah Yin!" Tang Hao roared, his voice thick with a chaotic mixture of grief and madness. "If I cannot save you from this manipulation, then we will perish together!"
Because he was filled with this blinding rage, and because he knew that a prolonged battle of attrition would only end in his unceremonious execution, Tang Hao made a desperate, suicidal decision. He decided to unleash his most powerful, forbidden attack.
He planted his boots firmly into the pulverized bedrock, entirely ceasing his evasive maneuvers. His dark eyes glowed with a manic, bloody resolve.
His seventh and eighth black spirit rings suddenly expanded, vibrating violently around his massive frame. He did not channel their abilities; instead, he completely reversed the flow of his spirit power, forcing the dense energy within the ten-thousand-year-old rings to violently collapse inward.
He directly exploded his seventh and eighth spirit rings using the forbidden, ancestral Ring Explosion technique.
A catastrophic, deafening crack echoed across the battlefield as the two black rings shattered into millions of fragments. The sheer, unadulterated volume of pure, destructive spirit power flooded wildly into Tang Hao's meridians. His muscles tore and repaired themselves in microseconds under the extreme stress, his skin weeping blood as his body struggled to contain the apocalyptic surge of energy. He channeled every ounce of this explosive power directly into the head of his Clear Sky Hammer.
He then unleashed his most powerful, ultimate technique: the Great Sumeru Hammer.
The dark metal of the hammer expanded to a terrifying proportion, glowing with a blinding, volatile mixture of black and blood-red light. The sheer earthly weight of the weapon caused the very space around it to groan and fracture, creating a massive, localized vacuum that pulled the surrounding debris into its orbit.
Even Ah Yin, standing tall with her Blood Silver Overlord Spear, felt the hair-raising threat of this absolute, desperate strike. Her crimson eyes narrowed as she immediately became careful against this attack.
'The Ring Explosion,' Ah Yin thought coldly, her grip tightening on the shaft of her spear. 'He is burning his own foundation. A cornered beast is always the most dangerous.'
Beneath her feet, her magnificent Ninth Spirit Ring—a resplendent, blood-red hundred-thousand-year-old ring—flashed with a supreme, imposing light. She prepared to unleash her ultimate Ninth Spirit Ring ability, the Spacetime Severing Beam, to completely intercept and annihilate Tang Hao's Great Sumeru Hammer before it could reach her.
However, in a shocking, treacherous twist of martial intent, Tang Hao did not aim the apocalyptic strike at Ah Yin.
At the very apex of his swing, utilizing the explosive, tearing momentum of the Great Sumeru Hammer, Tang Hao violently twisted his torso. He ignored the agonizing tearing of his own ligaments and the spraying blood from his shoulders. He shockingly unleashed the world-ending blow directly towards the man standing casually in the distance.
He aimed for Zhang Tian.
"Die!" Tang Hao bellowed, launching himself across the courtyard, the massive, glowing hammer descending toward the red-haired youth with the force to shatter a continent.
Ah Yin was profoundly shocked. Her crimson eyes widened in momentary disbelief as she realized the brutal misdirection. She was forced to abruptly interrupt her Ninth Spirit Ring ability mid-circulation, violently swallowing the immense backlash of the gathered spirit power just to turn and attempt to intercept the attack.
She could sense the immense, concentrated power of the Great Sumeru Hammer fueled by the Ring Explosion; even a Level 98 Super Douluo would be greatly, permanently injured by a direct hit from such an attack.
"My Lord!" Ah Yin cried out, her vines tearing out of the earth to chase the descending titan, but she knew she was a fraction of a second too late.
Zhang Tian saw the apocalyptic attack rushing toward him. He was slightly surprised, a single, elegant eyebrow rising.
'So,' Zhang Tian thought calmly, watching the sky darken under the shadow of the hammer. 'Tang Hao had been planning on ambushing me all along. He used his rage against Ah Yin as a flawless smokescreen to build his ultimate strike without drawing my immediate suppression. Clever, but ultimately futile.'
It truly didn't matter, because Zhang Tian had been meticulously prepared for any and all desperate ambushes. He had even accounted for a sudden, suicidal strike from Tang Chen descending from the clouds.
Zhang Tian did not retreat. He did not even flinch. He raised his hands, his icy blue eyes flashing with a profound, terrifying luminescence.
He unleashed one of the strongest, most complex Self-Created Spirit Skills derived from his supreme Blood Silver God Spirit.
"Self-Created Spirit Skill," Zhang Tian murmured, his voice cutting clearly through the roaring vacuum of the incoming hammer. "Supreme Elemental Annihilation Lotus."
Instantly, thousands of thick, pulsating vines of Blood Silver Grass grew rapidly and explosively all around Zhang Tian. They did not merely form a defensive shield; they wove together with breathtaking, architectural precision. He created a massive, towering construct using his Blood Silver God Tree spirit, the thick vines forming the colossal base and spreading petals of a gigantic, blooming lotus flower beneath his feet.
As the massive botanical construct formed, Zhang Tian unleashed the entirety of his elemental mastery. He fused his supreme control over the elements directly into the dense fibers of the Blood Silver Grass, actively strengthening all these elements—Fire, Ice, Lightning, Earth, and Wood—using his Blood Silver God Tree's sovereign authority, elevating them to their absolute, Ultimate versions.
The colossal lotus bloomed. The outer petals burned with the searing, world-melting heat of Ultimate Fire. The inner petals radiated the absolute, time-freezing cold of Ultimate Ice. Crackling, blinding arcs of Ultimate Lightning wove through the thick veins of the plant, while the foundation possessed the unyielding, indestructible density of Ultimate Earth and Ultimate Wood.
It was a very powerful, flawlessly balanced elemental fusion attack that Zhang Tian created, standing proudly at the very center of the blooming annihilation.
The Great Sumeru Hammer crashed directly into the Supreme Elemental Annihilation Lotus.
The collision defied all mortal description. There was no immediate explosion. For a fraction of a second, absolute silence reigned as the sheer, brute force of the Ring Explosion met the perfect, absolute elemental fusion of the lotus. Then, the opposing energies violently rejected each other.
A dome of chaotic, multi-colored light expanded outward, followed by a shockwave that completely vaporized the remaining debris in the central courtyard, turning the stone into fine, drifting powder.
Tang Hao's eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated horror as he felt the apocalyptic momentum of his Great Sumeru Hammer completely halt. The ultimate physical force was being rapidly, systematically dismantled. The Ultimate Fire melted the dense spirit power, the Ultimate Ice froze the residual momentum, and the Ultimate Lightning shattered the structural integrity of his attack.
Though Zhang Tian was feeling somewhat exhausted due to the massive, staggering volume of spirit power that he had released to maintain the absolute balance of five Ultimate elements simultaneously, his defense was impenetrable. He had successfully not just blocked, but entirely shattered that Great Sumeru Hammer attack.
The massive, glowing hammer phantom fractured into a million pieces of broken light, dissipating harmlessly against the glowing petals of the lotus.
Tang Hao, Tang Xiao, and everyone observing the center of the battlefield was profoundly shocked as they witnessed this impossible clash. First, they were shocked by the sheer, desperate terror of Tang Hao's powerful, suicidal attack. And then, they were rendered completely speechless by Zhang Tian's majestic, towering attack which clashed, endured, and utterly defeated Tang Hao's ultimate technique without the youth even taking a single step backward.
Tang Hao was feeling great, agonizing strain tearing through his meridians due to the severe backlash of the Ring Explosion technique. Blood poured from his nose and ears, his vision swimming. But even so, under the lingering, adrenaline-fueled effect of the Ring Explosion, he knew that he was currently in his most powerful, heightened state. If he retreated now, he would be a crippled dead man. He had to kill this Zhang Tian quickly, before the youth could launch a counter-offensive.
But at this exact moment, Ah Yin's delayed retaliation arrived.
Although she had interrupted her initial cast, she had swiftly re-channeled a fraction of her Ninth Spirit Ring ability. A thin, concentrated beam of Spacetime Severing energy shot across the courtyard, reaching Tang Hao's exposed flank.
Sensing the fatal threat, Tang Hao hurriedly twisted his body, raising the physical haft of his Clear Sky Hammer to block the beam.
CRACK!
The spacetime energy struck the dark metal. Tang Hao violently spat out a massive mouthful of dark blood, his heavy body skidding backward. To his absolute horror, a visible, jagged crack appeared along the surface of his Clear Sky Hammer, the supreme weapon groaning under the conceptual weight of the severing beam.
However, enduring that mind-shattering pain, Tang Hao refused to fall. He used the backward momentum to push himself off a shattered pillar, quickly making his way toward Zhang Tian with terrifying, desperate speed. He intended to kill the youth in close-quarters combat, as he could clearly see that Zhang Tian's massive elemental lotus was fading, and the youth seemed to have exhausted the vast majority of his Spirit Power to maintain such a god-like construct.
Zhang Tian stood amidst the dissipating petals, his breathing slightly heavy. He saw Tang Hao charging at him like a wounded, rabid beast.
Naturally, Zhang Tian did not panic. He simply closed his eyes for a brief second and used his sovereign Blood Silver Domain. He reached out with his mind, connecting to the sprawling, vibrant life force of the surrounding environment. He didn't just extract from his own hidden Blood Silver Grass; he extracted the pure, ambient spirit power from all types of ordinary plants, ancient trees, and deep roots that grew all around them, stretching far into the mountains that fell within the massive, overarching range of his Blood Silver God Domain.
A visible, swirling vortex of emerald green light rushed from the surrounding landscape, funneling directly into Zhang Tian's chest. His heavily depleted spirit power recovered rather easily, filling his profound Life Spirit Core to the brim in a matter of seconds.
Since Tang Hao was coming at him with a fractured hammer and a bleeding body, Zhang Tian didn't feel any shock or apprehension. He felt only the calm clarity of a warrior preparing for an execution.
Zhang Tian raised his right hand. The emerald light flowing into him condensed, rapidly shifting into a deep, terrifying crimson and silver hue. He created the Blood Silver Overlord Spear. But this specific manifestation was entirely different. The weapon in his grasp was flawlessly smooth, humming with a terrifying, absolute density. In terms of pure, structural quality and material hardness, it was even much stronger compared to Ah Yin's own Blood Silver Overlord Spear.
And thus, as Tang Hao closed the distance and swung his cracked hammer in a brutal, horizontal arc, Zhang Tian did not use any elemental attributes. He did not summon fire or lightning. He simply gripped the shaft of the spear with both hands and stepped forward into the clash, ready to fight against Tang Hao in this brutal, close-quarters battle while fully unleashing his Spear Intent.
As Tang Xiao, who was fighting in the sky above, saw his younger brother coughing blood and engaging in a desperate melee, a surge of fraternal panic gripped him. He was about to abandon his high-altitude position to dive down and go help Tang Hao.
But a blur of crimson and silver intercepted his descent.
Ah Yin arrived with breathtaking speed. Her crimson eyes were cold and merciless.
"Your opponent is me, Tang Xiao," Ah Yin declared smoothly, her Blood Silver Overlord Spear pointing directly at his throat.
Tang Xiao gritted his teeth, gripping his Clear Sky Hammer. "Step aside, Ah Yin! I do not wish to strike my brother's wife, but I will not let him die!"
"You flatter yourself by assuming you have a choice," Ah Yin sneered.
She did not reveal her spirit rings, but her mastery over the elements was absolute. She thrust her spear, forcing Tang Xiao to hastily raise his hammer to block. She engaged him fiercely, immediately pushing the Sect Leader back with her fluid, unpredictable techniques.
"Self-Created Spirit Skill: Crimson Earth Fortress!" Ah Yin commanded.
Massive pillars of jagged, diamond-hard earth erupted from the sky itself, formed by her supreme manipulation of the earth attribute fused with her vines. The pillars slammed into Tang Xiao from all sides, severely restricting his aerial mobility.
"Break!" Tang Xiao roared, his hammer glowing blue as he smashed through the earthen pillars.
But Ah Yin was already executing her next move. "Self-Created Spirit Skill: Quad-Elemental Spiral Sphere Barrage!"
She generated multiple, highly compressed Spiral Spheres in the air around her, utilizing the Flame, Ice, Wind, and Lightning attributes. She unleashed them simultaneously as long-range spherical beams. The continuous, explosive bombardment of elemental spheres heavily restrained Tang Xiao. He was forced to constantly swing his hammer defensively just to avoid being incinerated or frozen, completely preventing him from moving downward to aid his brother, trapping him in a desperate battle for his own survival.
Down below, the duel between Zhang Tian and Tang Hao reached a terrifying new plateau.
As for Zhang Tian... he was actually currently unleashing his supreme Spear Intent. No... observing the flawless, terrifyingly smooth motions of his strikes, it would be a gross understatement to call it merely Spear Intent. He had entered a profound, legendary martial state. It was the absolute state of Man and Spear as One.
Standing on a distant ridge, having just dispatched a squad of Star Luo Imperial Guards, Sword Douluo Chen Xin paused. He looked down at the central courtyard, his sharp eyes widening in profound, uncharacteristic shock.
'That stance... that flawless integration of will and weapon,' Sword Douluo thought, his breath catching in his throat. 'His state is as though he and his spear have become one singular entity. There is no wasted movement, no hesitation in the intent!'
This deeply shocked Sword Douluo, because he himself was currently standing at the exact same martial stage as Zhang Tian. He intimately understood the profound, mind-breaking difficulty of achieving the state of Man and Sword as One. It required a lifetime of obsessive, singular devotion to a specific weapon. It meant that Zhang Tian's inherent martial comprehension was truly, unimaginably terrifying to have forged such a flawless, supreme spear intent despite absolutely not having a Spear Type Martial Spirit! The weapon in his hands was just a temporary construct, a spear merely condensed from his Blood Silver Grass, yet he wielded it with the absolute mastery of an ancient Spear God.
Zhang Tian was meanwhile using the desperate, furious Tang Hao to actively refine his own techniques and smoothly polish his Spear Intent. He made sure that he wasn't relying on some overly powerful, overwhelming elemental techniques to crush the man instantly. Instead, he was seamlessly merging his vast Mental Energy—which stood firmly at the terrifying Limit Douluo stage—with his pure Spirit Power. He blended this with his absolute, unyielding Willpower of being invincible, his soaring battle intent, and his profound comprehension of Spear Intent to fight against Tang Hao in a pure contest of martial skill.
CLANG! SWISH! THUD!
Zhang Tian deflected a heavy, desperate overhead smash from the Clear Sky Hammer with a simple, elegant tilt of his spear shaft, allowing the hammer to crash harmlessly into the earth. Before Tang Hao could recover his balance, Zhang Tian's spear blurred.
Tang Hao desperately activated his right leg bone. "Titan's Earthly Rejuvenation!" he thought wildly, trying to draw earth energy to mend his torn muscles, while simultaneously triggering the gravity manipulation of his left arm bone to increase the weight of Zhang Tian's spear.
"Your tricks are useless," Zhang Tian murmured casually.
His spear cut through the gravitational field as if it didn't exist, the pure Spear Intent severing the invisible forces. The blunt end of the spear struck Tang Hao sharply in the ribs, fracturing another bone with a sickening crack.
It was Zhang Tian's profound Spirit Core that provided the foundation for this flawless display. Due to the miraculous, condensing nature of his Life Spirit Core, his Spirit Power was much more dense, heavy, and refined than even a peak Titled Douluo in this era. He could quickly, effortlessly recover any expended Spirit Power very quickly compared to the rapidly exhausting, bleeding Tang Hao.
Tang Hao was profoundly shocked and horrified as he stumbled backward, clutching his side.
'How is he doing this?' Tang Hao thought frantically, blood dripping from his chin. 'I am using the Clear Sky Nine Absolutes, I am utilizing the gravitational field of my Titan arm bone, and I have the Earthly Rejuvenation keeping me standing! Yet, he deflects everything with just a spear made of grass! This youth... he is able to fight against me to such an extent even when I have exploded two of my Spirit Rings!'
The realization hit Tang Hao like a physical blow. It meant that Zhang Tian could completely, utterly dominate him with a single thought if Tang Hao hadn't exploded his spirit rings in a suicidal gamble.
His deep, festering hatred for Zhang Tian, combined with his overwhelming, desperate desire to kill the man who had stolen his wife, reached an absolute breaking point.
This profound, singular obsession seemed to violently trigger the ambient, bloody energies of the battlefield. The thick, white mist of Tang Hao's Death God Domain suddenly began to boil and churn. It underwent a terrifying, temporary evolution, shifting rapidly toward the ultimate, bloody manifestation of the Asura Domain.
The domain turned a deep, sinister shade of blood-red, and the temperature plummeted to an unnatural, bone-chilling cold. The newly evolved Death God Domain became exponentially more powerful. It surged outward, clashing violently against the surrounding energies, and even began to heavily suppress the sovereign, emerald glow of Zhang Tian's Blood Silver God Domain.
Zhang Tian narrowed his eyes, noticing the immediate shift in the atmospheric pressure.
'His domain is evolving?' Zhang Tian observed, his eyes tracking the blood-red mist.
He noticed that Tang Hao was suddenly becoming vastly more powerful. The battered giant's aura swelled with a dark, terrifying vitality as he unleashed more of his relentless, heavy hammer techniques. Tang Hao swung the cracked Clear Sky Hammer with renewed, impossible speed, his eyes showing such great, absolute killing intent at this moment that they resembled pools of fresh blood.
Zhang Tian frowned, sensing his own internal spirit power flow growing slightly sluggish. He was actively being weakened by that oppressive, blood-red domain by at least thirty or so percent.
"You will die today, Zhang Tian!" Tang Hao roared, unleashing his fifth spirit ring ability, launching a massive, phantom hammer strike that forced Zhang Tian to take a half-step backward to parry.
Zhang Tian immediately adjusted his tactics. He had begun to use his absolute Life Attribute, channeling pure, radiant vitality to strengthen his domain and to actively restrain this overwhelming, unnatural Asura Domain.
But to his genuine surprise, it was actually not working. The blood-red mist actively devoured the life energy, converting the vitality into more killing intent.
While he was fiercely fighting, exchanging rapid, sparks-flying blows with the newly invigorated Tang Hao, a strange, ethereal sensation brushed against his spiritual sea.
He received a sharp, highly direct mental message from none other than the malicious Divine Sense of the Rakshasa God, who was currently active and observing the battle from within her successor, Bibi Dong's, hidden Sea of Consciousness.
"Do not waste your vitality, boy," the dark, echoing voice of the Rakshasa God sneered within Zhang Tian's mind, her tone laced with venomous amusement. "That is not a mere mortal domain you are fighting. It is that hypocritical bastard, the Asura God, actively acting from his throne and directly helping that mortal Tang Hao by secretly strengthening his domain. And even through that domain connection, the Asura God is also using Tang Hao's rage and killing intent to secretly infuse his Asura Divine Energy into his Spirit Power to make him even stronger."
When Zhang Tian heard this explicit confirmation, he was profoundly shocked.
'That Asura God is actually so damn shameless to actively, directly intervene and even help a mortal like Tang Hao in a lower-realm skirmish?' Zhang Tian thought, his icy blue eyes flashing with genuine anger as he deflected another heavy, artificially empowered strike from the Clear Sky Hammer. 'Although I have always suspected the Asura God to be secretly favoring and helping out Tang Hao through his power... this is blatant! To directly interfere and help even to this extreme extent, buffing a combatant mid-fight against someone like me whose actual spirit power rank is technically weaker compared to Tang Hao's Super Douluo foundation... Does this Asura God really have absolutely no shame at all?!'
But Zhang Tian's strategic mind remained cold. He knew that if this divine interference went on, Tang Hao's endless, god-fueled stamina would eventually grind him down, unless he called upon Bibi Dong to expose herself and unleash the Rakshasa power to counter it. But he absolutely didn't want to expose her presence so quickly, keeping her as the ultimate trump card for the larger war.
However... if he didn't do something immediately, this single, enraged Tang Hao, heavily buffed by the Asura God, would really make things incredibly difficult for them, potentially breaking his flawless defensive lines.
Fortunately, Zhang Tian possessed another, far more profound method to deal with this shameless, intervening Asura God.
Since a damn, shameless Godking was taking direct, illegal action like this, he naturally had to be restricted by another, equally powerful Godking.
While fiercely fighting against this super-buffed, wildly swinging Tang Hao, parrying the heavy hammer blows with fluid, sweeping arcs of his spear, Zhang Tian subtly divided a fraction of his vast Mental Energy. He dove deep into his own spiritual sea, actively trying to initiate a direct, resonant contact with the profound, emerald Seed of Life that lay dormant within him, firmly connected to the divine sense of the Goddess of Life.
He pushed a pulse of his pure Life Spirit Core into the seed.
Instantly, the divine sense seemed to be activated. A warm, incredibly gentle, and majestic emerald light flooded his consciousness. The presence of the Goddess of Life stirred.
"Child," the melodious, ethereal voice of the Goddess of Life whispered in his mind. "Are you finally ready to accept my God Position?"
Before Zhang Tian could formulate a polite refusal, her divine perception naturally extended outward. She soon noticed the dire, chaotic situation on the battlefield directly through Zhang Tian's eyes.
The Goddess of Life was profoundly shocked to see a mere mortal human violently fighting against her chosen inheritor with such unnatural, boundless stamina. And moreover... her supreme, divine senses were infinitely sharper than any mortal's. She immediately, unmistakably caught the distinct, bloody traces of the divine sense of the Asura God secretly, actively helping that human fight against her precious inheritor.
To think that the Asura God, the chief enforcer of the divine laws, was actually brazenly interfering in the Lower Realm! Moreover... it was a direct, hostile interference against her own chosen inheritor!
The gentle, benevolent Goddess of Life was not just shocked; she was seized by a profound, righteous anger!
Zhang Tian quickly, smoothly explained the situation to the divine sense of the Goddess of Life as he parried a sweeping strike from Tang Hao.
"Senior," Zhang Tian communicated respectfully through his thoughts. "I apologize for the sudden intrusion. It was the Rakshasa God who informed me that it is the Asura God who is actively helping my opponent. This is exactly why I have urgently called out to you using the Seed of Life. I want to request your divine assistance help me against this shameless god, rather than currently accepting your God Position, as my mortal journey is not yet complete."
Naturally, the angered Goddess of Life accepted his request without hesitation. She would not allow her peer to blatantly cheat and harm her successor.
"I see the truth of your words, child," the Goddess of Life replied, her tone vibrating with divine authority. "The Asura God oversteps his bounds."
She quickly, decisively revealed a single, potent trace of her pure Divine Sense, projecting it directly outward to manifest within Zhang Tian's emerald Blood Silver God Domain.
The moment she did that... the cosmic balance shifted entirely.
Far above the mortal plane, in the ethereal, majestic expanse of the God Realm...
Deep within the austere, imposing architecture of the God Realm Central Palace, the Asura God sat upon his dark throne. He was currently focusing a sliver of his attention on the lower realm, satisfied with how Tang Hao was suppressing the anomaly.
Suddenly, he was violently startled. He felt the distinct, overwhelming presence of pure Life energy flaring directly against his own aura in the lower realm.
'What?!' the Asura God thought in sheer disbelief. He absolutely didn't expect that this anomalous, red-haired youth, Zhang Tian, to actually be the chosen, recognized inheritor of the Goddess of Life!
And the Asura God instantly, clearly understood the exact reason she had so blatantly exposed her divine sense in the mortal realm. It was a direct, unmistakable warning. It was to tell him unequivocally that she knows about his illegal interference.
The Asura God's stern complexion turned somewhat ugly. He gritted his teeth, his hand tightening on the armrest of his throne until the divine metal groaned. He hadn't expected this massive complication. He had merely been subtly, secretly trying to eliminate this Zhang Tian through the hands of Tang Hao, because Zhang Tian's impossible growth and intellect made him far too much of a chaotic, existential threat to the destined path of his own future successor, Tang San.
But to think that this brat Zhang Tian had the absolute, unwavering support of the Goddess of Life, and was even undeniably her future inheritor...
'Damn it,' the Asura God cursed internally, assessing the political reality of the divine court. 'With the Goddess of Life involved, she will not stay silent. Destruction will absolutely make his way to my palace to aggressively challenge and punish me for actually, blatantly breaking the rules of the God Realm by interfering in a mortal conflict.'
Although the Asura God was technically stronger than both of them individually in a test of pure combat... but together? The combined, flawless duality of Life and Destruction made those two vastly stronger than any other Godking in the entire God Realm. If they united against him, the resulting divine civil war would shatter the God Realm.
With absolutely no other viable choice, and unwilling to spark a war with Destruction over a single mortal skirmish, the Asura God grunted in frustration.
'You survive today, anomaly,' the Asura God thought while being somewhat annoyed. He immediately, forcefully suppressed and withdrew his Divine Sense from within Tang Hao's aura.
Back on the blood-soaked battlefield...
As the bloody connection severed, the Goddess of Life's divine sense also calmed down. Feeling the opposing god retreat, she gently suppressed her own presence, retreating back within the dormant safety of the Seed of Life.
But before she faded completely, she did tell Zhang Tian, her usually gentle voice carrying a somewhat cold, deeply serious tone, "I will definitely, personally seek proper justice from the Asura God for this blatant transgression. Rest assured, child."
Zhang Tian didn't have high hopes about the slow, bureaucratic justice of the divine court at all. He was entirely focused on the immediate, bloody reality of the current scenario.
Meanwhile, Zhang Tian halted his defensive footwork. He stood tall, gripping his crimson spear, and stared directly at Tang Hao.
The battered giant's unnatural, god-fueled power boost had suddenly, violently vanished. Without the divine support feeding his rage, the oppressive, blood-red mist surrounding him fractured. Zhang Tian's emerald Blood Silver God Domain surged forward, entirely, effortlessly suppressing the weakened aura, forcing it to immediately revert back to the ordinary, far less potent Death God Domain.
The sudden withdrawal of the divine energy was catastrophic for Tang Hao's physical body.
Without the Asura God's secret support artificially sustaining his ruined meridians, the horrific, agonizing backlash of exploding his seventh and eighth spirit rings suddenly flared up with devastating intensity. The torn muscles and ruptured vessels, previously held together by divine will, gave way.
Tang Hao stopped mid-swing. His eyes widened in sheer, paralyzing agony. He dropped the cracked Clear Sky Hammer, clutching his chest as his internal organs began to fail.
"No... not yet..." Tang Hao gasped weakly, his legs trembling.
He violently vomited a massive mouthful of dark, clotted blood, his knees finally buckling beneath him. The mighty titan of the Clear Sky Sect swayed unsteadily, his vision going entirely black, and he slowly, heavily started to fall unconscious onto the ruined earth, his crusade for vengeance ending in a crumpled, broken heap at Zhang Tian's feet.
~~
A/N: Check out my other novels [Villain: Manipulating The Heroines Into Hating The Protagonist] and [Harem Master: Seduction System].
Also, check out 20 Chapters Ahead for this fanfic on my P.atreon.
Patreon link: https://www.patreon.com/c/evildragon04