Pfft!
A spatial rift coiled around Xiao Han's lower leg like a venomous snake. He couldn't evade it completely in time, and half his lower leg was torn apart in an instant, leaving a mangled mess of flesh and blood! The agonizing pain made his vision go black, and he staggered, nearly falling.
Whoosh!
Almost at the same time, another afterimage of the battle spear swept in from the side, grazing his waist and ribs and leaving another wound deep enough to expose bone!
Xiao Han grunted and flew through the air like a rag doll, crashing into a stone pillar again.
He struggled to rise, only to find that the gray-black corrosive force around the wounds on his lower leg and waist was denser than ever before. The Chaos Green Lotus's rate of healing was instantly suppressed to its lowest!
"Damn it!" he growled, his body trembling violently. His injuries were too severe. If this continued, even the Chaos Green Lotus's restorative power wouldn't hold out much longer!
Yet his eyes were unusually bright.
The gamble just now had succeeded!
When the guardian changed its attack pattern to deliver rapid, localized cuts, he had clearly caught the more violent energy fluctuations in those few spots!
They really were the key nodes supporting that attack pattern, and they were very likely the weaknesses of this shadow body as well!
The guardian gave him no more time.
It seemed deeply dissatisfied with its killing efficiency. The black crystal shone with dazzling light once more, gathering even more terrifying energy. It was evidently preparing to unleash a stronger killing move and finish off this tenacious intruder once and for all.
The shadow of death fell over him again, but this time, there was no despair in Xiao Han's eyes, only the madness of a man staking everything on one throw!
He knew he no longer had a chance to keep dodging and recovering. This was his last chance!
Before the guardian finished gathering its power, he had to strike its weakness with the force of a thunderbolt!
The spiritual power remaining in his body was like a dried-up riverbed. He forced it into motion, directing it toward his right fist.
His two great Martial Souls, the Chaos Green Lotus and the Eternal Night Monarch, also sensed his reckless determination. With one final roar, they squeezed out their remaining power and concentrated it in his fist.
"Annihilation Divine Fist"!
This time, what gathered on his fist was no longer a strange fusion of three powers. Instead, it was the Eternal Night Monarch's purest power of the Shadow Dominator.
Together with the true intent of annihilation of the "Annihilation Divine Fist" and the last trace of purification power left in the Chaos Green Lotus, it was compressed to the limit in a steadier, more concentrated manner!
Dreary gray and profound black intertwined over his fist, emanating a terrifying fluctuation that was both deathly still and full of destruction.
The power was so concentrated that even the space around it couldn't bear its weight, and fine cracks appeared!
Xiao Han struggled to his feet, his body swaying on the verge of collapse, but his gaze was sharp as a blade.
He locked onto the nodes on the guardian's body where the energy fluctuated most violently, as well as the black crystal in its chest that was gathering power!
He was going to gamble! On his speed, on his strength, on... his luck in defying the heavens and changing his fate!
"I'll stake everything on this punch!"
The low roar came from deep in his throat, carrying blood and defiance.
The next moment, Xiao Han shot forward like an arrow from a bow, charging without hesitation at the guardian as it gathered power, his right fist bearing all the strength he had concentrated!
He would strike where it was forced to defend! He would... meet a Martial Grandmaster head-on!
A piercing shriek tore through the deathly silence of the sacrificial hall. The black crystal in the center of the guardian's smooth face shone to its utmost, like a condensed black hole, frantically devouring all the light and energy around it.
The pitch-black battle spear had been formed from the power of its main body and fragments of space. The aura of annihilation at its tip had grown so dense that it had taken tangible form. The surrounding space warped violently and shattered like boiling water, letting out a grating groan.
A killing blow! This was unquestionably a killing blow!
Against this strike, let alone Xiao Han in his current state, spent and gravely wounded—even at his peak, he would probably have found it hard to escape being utterly wiped out!
There was nowhere to retreat, nowhere to dodge!
The shadow of death became icy tentacles that clamped tightly around Xiao Han's throat, suffocating him more intensely than ever before.
Yet in the depths of this desperate situation, a near-mad light suddenly burst from Xiao Han's bloodshot eyes!
He made no further attempt to use "A Step to the Ends of the Earth" to dodge in vain. His body swayed, as though it would collapse completely the next second, but at that moment, his hunched back suddenly straightened!
"Come on!!!"
A rasping roar burst from deep in his throat, mingled with blood and defiance!
Inside him, at the cost of burning his life essence, he forcibly squeezed one final trickle from the dried-up riverbed of his spiritual power!
The "Creation-Heaven-Penetrating Art" circulated frantically at an unprecedented speed. Every cell in his body was wailing and trembling!
Behind him, the phantoms of his two great divine-grade Martial Souls, the Chaos Green Lotus and the Eternal Night Monarch, seemed to sense their host's resolve to perish together with his enemy. They too gave one final, most brilliant roar!
Hummm—!
The Chaos Green Lotus stopped maintaining its vast Domain. All its immense life force and incomparably pure light of purification, like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea, converged into a slender emerald-green thread flecked with gold that wound toward Xiao Han's right fist!
Roar—!
The Eternal Night Monarch's phantom abruptly contracted, transforming into a mark of the deepest darkness that branded itself onto Xiao Han's fist! The tyrannical power of the Shadow Dominator and the uncanny footwork of spatial control merged into it without reservation at that moment!
"Annihilation Divine Fist"!
It was still that same fragmentary fist technique, but now, driven by Xiao Han at any cost and empowered by the origin power of his two great divine-grade Martial Souls, the intent of this punch reached an unprecedented peak!
It was no longer simple annihilation, no longer mere darkness, and still less a gentle purification.
It was... fusion!
Annihilation as its bones, darkness as its flesh, and purification as its soul!
Three utterly different powers, powers that even countered one another, reached an exceedingly delicate yet incomparably stable balance on Xiao Han's fist, which burned with life and will!
The gray and deep black no longer intertwined over his fist. Instead, they transformed into an indescribable... chaotic hue!
As though all things were first coming into being, and yet also as though the universe were reaching its end!
That aura was no longer violent. Instead, it had drawn inward to the utmost, with only the faintest hint of a fluctuation escaping, yet even that made the warped space around it halt for an instant!
The pitch-black battle spear the guardian was about to throw also seemed to sense this exceptionally dangerous aura. The annihilation vortex at its tip spun a little faster, evidently intending to strike first and snuff out the threat completely!
Now!
A brilliant light shot from Xiao Han's eyes!
"A Step to the Ends of the Earth"!
He did not retreat. Instead, his figure became a blur of light, and like a moth flying into a flame, he charged without hesitation at the guardian, which was gathering enough energy to destroy heaven and earth!
He did not choose any of the energy nodes on the guardian's body. He had only one target—the black crystal flashing wildly at the core of all its energy!