Before the palm even arrived, the force alone cracked the earth and warped space—as if heaven and earth themselves would bow to this strike.
The patterns around the seal crumbled inch by inch. The entire Blood God Grand Array shuddered violently, emitting a groan of unbearable strain.
Huo Yuhao's expression was grave. The Tian Fen Shen Chu was already in his hand. Blue-gold flames—the fusion of Crimson Gold Mysterious Flame and Ice-Devouring Extreme Flame—clung to it like living things, burning through the void.
Without hesitation, in an instant, he channeled all his power into the Tian Fen Shen Chu: Destruction Law, the Eternal Light from his Eternal Eye, blood energy, and his limit-breaking spirit power and divine consciousness.
The Tian Fen Shen Chu seemed to truly awaken at that moment. Blue-gold flames shot skyward, transforming into a ten-thousand-zhang blue-gold fire dragon. Its roar shook the heavens as it burned through space.
Huo Yuhao raised the divine weapon high, his essence, energy, and spirit united as one, man and weapon merged, and he charged fearlessly at that pale giant hand!
The moment the Tian Fen Shen Chu collided with the pale giant hand, heaven and earth fell silent.
BOOM!
Then, a blazing sphere of light over ten thousand zhang in diameter exploded at the point of impact. Blue-gold and pale white light furiously intertwined, devoured each other, and exploded, tearing the sky in two.
Above the Endless Mountains, vast stretches of space shattered. Dark voids spread relentlessly.
The two forces locked in the void—blue-gold and pale white each claiming half the sky, neither yielding.
Shockwaves rose higher and higher. Both the Blood God Legion and the Abyss creatures were crushed by the residual pressure, unable to lift their heads.
On the Blood God Legion's side, Zhang Huanyun struggled to maintain a spatial barrier. Romantic Douluo and Smiling Face Douluo joined forces to protect the main line with their spirit power. Even so, many soldiers were thrown back by the blast, coughing up blood. Emotionless Douluo held the Blood God Grand Array steady, blood trickling from his mouth, standing out starkly against the golden patterns.
On the Abyss side, it was a different scene. The low-level Abyss creatures nearest the impact instantly dissolved into black mist. High-level Abyss creatures were also shaken, blood oozing from their seven orifices, barely standing.
But Huo Yuhao and the Abyss Saint Lord, locked in combat, had no attention to spare. Each collision demanded their full strength.
The difference was that Huo Yuhao could wield his full power.
For the Abyss Saint Lord, however, even his full strength exerted on the Douluo Plane was but a fraction of his peak—such was the suppression of the Douluo Plane!
At this moment, his displayed power was only equivalent to a third-class deity in the mortal world, and even that was steadily weakening.
His jade-white seven-fingered hand was gradually turning nine-colored—a sign of heaven and earth's furious backlash. As a Plane Lord, having part of his true body descend onto an unconquered plane meant bearing the entire plane's rejection. This backlash would only grow stronger until he was completely expelled.
The Douluo Plane's suppression was far greater for him than for those on the Douluo Plane trying to break through to the divine level. After all, those seeking to become deities were still children of their own plane—not outsiders like him.
Without a suitable vessel for his descent, he couldn't even exert second-class or super-divine level power, let alone remain on the Douluo Plane for long.
But the Abyss Saint Lord still declared: Even shouldering the plane's suppression, even needing one hand to hold the Abyss Passage open, he, the Saint Lord, was still invincible.
...Not quite.
Huo Yuhao could clearly see the Douluo Plane's effect on the Abyss Saint Lord.
He took a deep breath, devouring the world's energy. Seizing the moment when heaven and earth's power counterattacked the Saint Lord, he pushed the Tian Fen Shen Chu to its limit. The blue-gold fire dragon, carrying all his power, exploded in the center of that pale giant hand.
BOOM!
Heaven and earth roared. Ten thousand meters of space shattered.
The Saint Lord's giant hand was forced back several zhang, its seven fingers nearly losing strength. The passage shook violently; the seal's golden light reignited.
Seeing this, the Blood God Legion's previously oppressive atmosphere dissipated, morale soaring.
"So this is your divine artifact and divine flame as the Fire God? As expected of a former first-class deity—though you haven't yet re-cultivated to godhood, you can still unleash such power. I underestimated you!" The Abyss Saint Lord's voice carried a hint of shock and anger at the scorch marks on his palm.
Not because of the injury—such wounds were nothing to his super-divine body, healing quickly.
What concerned him was that Huo Yuhao, not yet a deity, had blocked his near-mid-level third-class deity attack and even pushed back.
The gap between divine and below-divine was immense.
Take the original Gu Yuena and Tang Wulin as examples: as quasi-divines with profound foundations, divine consciousness, divine bodies, and the ability to break the limit to divine level, they still couldn't suppress the Demon Empress at Level 100. Without cheating, they lost more than they won.
Perhaps not entirely the same, but the divine level could be seen as the Douluo version of the Sage barrier. The gap between below-divine and above-divine was night and day. Without fully crossing that threshold, one could at most contend with Level 100—similar to how a half-step Sage could only resist a zero-tribulation Sage.
In the Abyss Saint Lord's view, this was normal. He understood the divine level deeply and knew the gap.
But Huo Yuhao's situation clearly couldn't be judged by conventional standards.
Though not yet a deity, he had blocked an attack approaching mid-level third-class deity—even if using his full power, that spoke volumes about his foundation.
And indeed, recalling Huo Yuhao's methods—two divine flames, a top-tier divine artifact, Destruction Law, and that chaos light that could assimilate all things—the Saint Lord was alarmed.
As expected of a former first-class deity of the Divine Realm.
Even in reincarnation with his cultivation unrecovered, his foundation far surpassed ordinary deities. Some of his methods seemed extremely valuable even to the Saint Lord.
Hearing the Saint Lord's words, Huo Yuhao showed no joy.
Deflecting one of the Saint Lord's hands was nothing to celebrate.
And he knew well how much advantage he'd had.
Under the plane's suppression, the Saint Lord not only faced heaven and earth's rejection and the Blood God Grand Array's suppression, his usable power was limited, and he had to maintain the passage with one hand. Huo Yuhao, in contrast, fought with full strength at his leisure.
He had every advantage—if he'd lost, he might as well have hit a block of tofu and died.
"But this also shows that in raw strength, I'm still far from the Abyss Saint Lord's match. I'm still too weak." Huo Yuhao sighed inwardly.
That strike had been his full strength, excluding his trump cards. His current hard power was only at the lower end of third-class deity in the mortal world. The Douluo version of the Sage barrier couldn't be easily ignored.
Breaking the limit to divine level had already consumed considerable foundation. Gaining cross-level combat power on top of that wouldn't be so easy.
You can't ascend by stepping on your own feet.
Seeing he couldn't defeat Huo Yuhao with the power he could exert on the Douluo Plane, the Abyss Saint Lord changed tactics.
His pale giant hand suddenly opened wide. Black vortexes surged between his seven fingers, unleashing a powerful suction from his palm—
Not an attack, but an attempt to sweep the remaining Abyss army and the Abyss Emperors' Plane Seeds back into the Abyss.
The surviving Abyss creatures dissolved into black mist, sucked into the passage.
The Plane Seeds Huo Yuhao had collected also trembled violently, trying to escape his grasp and fly toward the Saint Lord's palm.
These Plane Seeds were ultimately manifestations of the Abyss Plane's origin, belonging to the Saint Lord from the start. Now that he personally summoned them, they instinctively responded.
But what had entered his grasp wouldn't be returned.
Huo Yuhao snorted coldly. His divine consciousness formed a spatial prison, severing the Saint Lord's connection to the Plane Seeds. Not only that, he seized the opportunity to use Soul Devour, taking the remaining Abyss creatures as well.
"Trying to take them back?" Huo Yuhao looked up, golden light piercing the Abyss Passage. "Come claim them yourself next time... if you still can."
With those words, Huo Yuhao flashed to Emotionless Douluo's side. The Emotionless Douluo and the other Blood Gods were stunned to find they'd lost control of the Blood God Grand Array.
And the array's aura was skyrocketing exponentially.
Infinite world energy converged from all directions. The nine-colored radiance, previously stable, surged tenfold, forming a pillar of nine-colored light piercing heaven and earth.
In an instant, all the world's energy in this realm was at Huo Yuhao's command, as if he were the master of this world.
A nine-colored divine sword coalesced in his palm, staining the entire sky.
Huo Yuhao gripped the sword with both hands and struck down—"Sever!"
The nine-colored sword energy tore through the void, striking the pale giant hand's palm.
BOOM!
The sword energy and giant hand collided, exploding with a world-destroying nine-colored halo. That vast force, drawn from heaven and earth, acted like an invisible giant hand, pushing the Saint Lord's extended power back from the passage's mouth.
The Blood God Grand Array itself was a formation that leveraged the plane's rejection of the Abyss. By using it as his core, Huo Yuhao could maximally suppress the Saint Lord's power.
The Abyss Saint Lord was forced to withdraw his hand. From deep within the passage came his voice, a mix of shock and fury.
"Good, very good!"
The Saint Lord bit out each word. "Huo Yuhao, I'll remember you. When I descend in my true body, I'll take your life first!"
As his voice faded, the passage slammed shut.
Nine-colored radiance surged instantly, the cracked seal healing itself. Countless complex runes re-engraved themselves—sealing, suppressing!
The Blood God Legion members watched this scene in a daze.
When they confirmed the battle was truly over and no Abyss creatures remained, they finally relaxed.
Xie Xie collapsed onto the ground, wiping cold sweat from his brow. "That scared me to death. When that Abyss Saint Lord showed up, I thought I was dead. Good thing the Boss was here."
His voice still trembled with the relief of survival. Nearby new soldiers also collapsed, gasping for air, not caring about the dirt.
Another new soldier from the Spirit Transmission Tower looked up at the distant figure with billowing robes, his gaze fervent. "Yeah, without the Lord, we'd have been crushed to pulp. Praise the Lord!"
His words seemed to ignite a fire in everyone's hearts.
More soldiers cast admiring gazes at Huo Yuhao, even cheering for him.
The cheers rose and fell, lingering for a long time.
Zhang Huanyun approached Huo Yuhao, a wry smile on his face. "After this, Lord, your prestige in the Blood God Legion will likely surpass mine."
He paused, then added, "But you've earned it. Thank you for saving the Blood God Legion."
He bowed solemnly to Huo Yuhao.
Huo Yuhao frowned, reaching out to lift him. "Bright Mirror Lord, what's this? This operation was my plan. You and the Blood God Legion bore the risks—it was my responsibility. And I gained benefits from it. If anyone should give thanks, it's me."
"That's not quite right." Emotionless Douluo, having caught his breath, spoke up. "Without your plan, we'd never have known the Abyss could invade at any time."
"Indeed. If this passage had been opened when we were unprepared, the consequences would have been unimaginable."
Zhang Huanyun paused. His earlier gravity softened into a smile, his tone lightening. "But this battle has truly given me hope of ending the Abyss."
Killing the Blazing Emperor and six Abyss Emperors, forcing back the Abyss Saint Lord—this was an unprecedented victory.
Huo Yuhao's expression shifted slightly. "Bright Mirror Lord, how much of my strength do you think I used?"
Zhang Huanyun was taken aback. He hesitated, then said, "Over ninety percent?"
In truth, he thought Huo Yuhao might have given it his all.
After all, Huo Yuhao's expression had been consistently serious against the Saint Lord—completely different from the ease he'd shown against the Blazing Emperor. He'd used more varied powers and even drawn on the Blood God Grand Array to force the Saint Lord back.
If not full power, close to it.
"Is that so? What the Saint Lord showed this time was his power under the plane's suppression—likely less than one ten-thousandth of his peak." Huo Yuhao said calmly.
Emotionless Douluo and Zhang Huanyun's pupils contracted.
The gap was that vast?
"Does it feel like the gap is too wide?" Huo Yuhao smiled faintly. "But for the Abyss, that's good news, isn't it?"
Zhang Huanyun and Emotionless Douluo were stunned.
They stared at Huo Yuhao's deep blue eyes, suddenly understanding something, and fell into thought.
But Huo Yuhao didn't continue the topic. Instead, he looked toward the distant Blood God Legion.
"There's still plenty of world energy I've gathered. I can offer you all an opportunity—as compensation."
With that, he raised his hand. The nine-colored radiance that had been slowly dissipating suddenly stilled, then, as if guided by an invisible hand, carrying the Creation power Huo Yuhao had added, it transformed into countless gentle threads of light, drifting down from the sky to envelop the Blood God Legion soldiers on the battlefield.
Bathed in that nine-colored light, they felt a warm, nourishing force permeate their limbs. World energy was cleansing their bodies.
Rich world energy revitalized everyone present. Almost all could clearly sense their cultivation increasing. Some were delighted to find their bottlenecks loosening; others directly broke through a level; still others felt old accumulated injuries slowly healing in the radiance.
Even Zhang Huanyun sensed an opportunity for breakthrough.
But his mind lingered on Huo Yuhao's earlier words.
Huo Yuhao's goal in this operation might not have been the Abyss Emperor from the start—but to show the Saint Lord his "full strength"!
***
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