Rumble! The entire earth began to tremble. Chen Cheng, falling from the sky, caught the Holy City Spirit's lash in a firm grip.
When the dust cleared, Samlet and the others saw Chen Cheng before them, locked in a standoff with the Holy City Spirit, which had revived yet again.
"Fall back. There's something strange about this thing. You've exhausted too much of your strength and spirit. Retreat, now. Leave this to me."
Hearing Chen Cheng's order, Samlet knew what needed to be done.
He waved his command flag and began organizing the army's retreat.
The Holy City Spirit no longer looked like the God of Light. It had become a swollen, twisted, grotesque branch.
The lash it had just struck with was one of the offshoots extending from its body.
At the sight of Chen Cheng, the Holy City Spirit burst into laughter.
"I am deathless and indestructible! Why have you insects not confessed your crimes and submitted to punishment?"
Chen Cheng could no longer make sense of what the Holy City Spirit had become, but he felt no fear. With a cold snort, he tightened the hand gripping its tendril.
Boom! The entire tendril exploded into dust under his grip, and even the Power of Faith that composed it dissolved into nothing.
The Spirit felt no pain. It stared in bewilderment at its shattered tendril. There was no chance of that tendril growing back.
Then it spoke to Chen Cheng for the second time since they had met.
"An immortal? A monster?"
Samlet had already withdrawn the army. Without the Military Formation suppressing it, the Spirit had returned to its peak.
By all rights, it had become part of the world's laws. How could laws be destroyed? It should have been like a True God's Undefeated Body: even