At the critical moment, True Person Demon-Subduer made the most correct response.
His pupils contracted sharply, yet he made no attempt to evade Hongju's full-force blow. Instead, the four Divine Abilities throughout his body gathered one after another into the Dharma Sword in his hand.
"Sever!"
Sword Light howled. Among Great True Persons at Foundation Establishment Late Stage, few could have blocked it—but Hongju's Foundation Establishment Perfection status crushed everything.
In an instant, a pillar of light toppled down from the heavens, illuminating all within and beyond heaven and earth, dyeing the Cloud Sea a blazing red. At the same time, it smashed apart True Person Demon-Subduer's Sword Light like deadwood and rotten leaves, struck him squarely in the face, and slammed him into the ground like a bird knocked from the sky.
Yet Hongju gave a soft cry of surprise.
".Not dead?"
Dense cracks spread across the ground like a spiderweb. At their center lay a bloodstained crater, from which a man crawled out.
It was True Person Demon-Subduer!
The moment he crawled from the crater, he fled toward the depths of Gantang Circuit without the slightest hesitation. In the blink of an eye, he was gone, not even daring to look back at Hongju.
But Hongju did not pursue him.
Not only did he refrain from chasing, he even stopped the Peak Master of Heaven Mending, who was itching to make a move. Something's wrong. How did he suddenly become Foundation Establishment Late Stage?
His judgment could not have been wrong. The instant before they clashed, the other man had still possessed Foundation Establishment Perfection status. Yet when Hongju unleashed his full-force strike, the man's status had plummeted, as though he had deliberately been courting death. Damn it, was he trying to scam me?
Hongju's eye twitched slightly.