Heaven-Defying Move

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Back inside the spaceship, Gu Ding couldn't wait to take out the two stone carvings and examine them carefully.

Both of these stone carvings depict the same woman, dressed in flowing white robes, with a dignified posture and stunning beauty.

"Could this be the girl Old Dad likes?" Gu Ding observed carefully, but he quickly realized that although the two stone carvings were exactly the same, they gave people a different feeling.

The stone carving left by my Old Dad depicted a lively and adorable woman, but the one behind it portrayed a dignified and elegant woman. This is quite strange; why do identical sculptures evoke two different feelings?

After turning it over and over for a long time, Gu Ding still couldn't find anything.

"Gu Ding, try dripping your blood!" the Sea Emperor suddenly said. "If it really is something left by your Old Dad, the simplest way to activate it is to drip your blood on it. This will also prevent outsiders from coveting these two stone carvings."

Gu Ding nodded, bit his finger, and dripped blood onto the two stone carvings.

After waiting for about three minutes, neither of the stone sculptures reacted. "It seems that dripping blood won't work. Actually, I should have realized that with my Old Dad's personality, he would never use such a cliché method as dripping blood to make me solve the puzzle so easily."

Gu Ding held two stone carvings in each hand, turning them and examining them as he muttered to himself, "If I'm not mistaken, that stone carving was originally the key to deciphering this mystery..."

As Gu Ding turned, the two stone sculptures accidentally came to face each other. When their eyes met, Gu Ding felt a jolt of dizziness. When he came to his senses, he found himself in a starry sky, but strangely, he felt no discomfort whatsoever.

Not far in front of Gu Ding, two dark figures began to rapidly condense into human form. Although he didn't understand what was happening, this was very likely something his Old Dad had left him. He immediately calmed himself down, wanting to see what the two dark figures were up to.

Suddenly, the dark figure on the left moved, lowering his stance and striking. He clenched his fist, and with a seemingly simple yet swift punch, he thrust it out.

Before the punch was even fully unleashed, the stars in the heavens began to tremble. Gu Ding could even clearly see that many nearby planets began to crack under the tremor.

When that punch reached its peak power, the instant the force erupted, Gu Ding's mind was shaken to the distance, where he saw countless stars explode, disintegrate, and perish.

"Just how powerful must one be to do this?" Gu Ding was utterly astonished.

But soon, something even more unbelievable happened.

The dark figure on the right finally raised its hand, and in that instant, time seemed to slow down the entire world. The speed at which the stars exploded was slowed down by more than ten times. Even the force of the punch that was projected was slowed down by about half.

At that moment, he finally extended two fingers, and a faint light, tens of thousands of times thinner than a hair, flashed and disappeared in a fraction of a microsecond. Normally, such a light would be impossible for Gu Ding's eyesight to detect, but at this moment, Gu Ding saw it clearly.

That faint light arrived first, and ultimately collided with that earth-shattering fist force.

Gu Ding heard a deafening roar suddenly erupt. This was a vacuum in the universe, but the sound resonated on the soul level, requiring no medium to propagate. Like a torrent, it swept outwards in all directions, and at that moment, the flow of time in the entire world finally returned to normal.

The numerous fragments of the shattered stars were completely annihilated into nothingness after this sound echoed through the air.

Gu Ding's mind continued to follow the shockwave, probing far into the distance. The torrent of energy from the explosion was a cataclysmic annihilation. Wherever it passed, stars, Black Hole, White Dwarf Star, neutron stars, and quasars—nothing in this part of the cosmos escaped its calamity; all were annihilated.

Gu Ding was completely stunned. When he came to his senses, he found that he had left that starry sky and the two dark figures had disappeared.

In Gu Ding's hands, the two stone carvings were completely reduced to dust.

"Gu Ding, what happened?" the Sea Emperor asked. "Why did these two stone sculptures suddenly shatter?"

"The stone sculpture shattered because I received a message from my Old Dad. Sea Emperor, was my body not in any abnormal state just now?" Gu Ding felt that the Sea Emperor seemed unaware of what had just happened.

"No, I only saw you playing with these two stone carvings, and then suddenly they shattered. Why do you ask that?" The Sea Emperor knew Gu Ding's physical condition best; he was automatically monitoring Gu Ding's condition every second. If anything happened, even if Gu Ding was only distracted for a moment, he would notice, but just now, he truly didn't notice anything.

Gu Ding hesitated for a moment, but ultimately did not reveal that he had been pulled to that starry sky, because he felt that his Old Dad must have had his reasons for deliberately blocking the Sea Emperor's detection.

"It's nothing, I just felt like I was in a strange state just now." Gu Ding shook his head.

"What did your Old Dad say to you?" The Sea Emperor was also curious, having no idea what had just happened to Gu Ding.

"He didn't say anything, he just taught me two martial arts moves." Gu Ding wasn't actually sure if the two figures were his Old Dad, because he couldn't make out their faces at all. Moreover, in Gu Ding's memory, his Old Dad was always drunk and listless, and his back had never been as straight as those two figures.

As Gu Ding spoke, he imitated the moves from his memory, but when he used them, they were no different from ordinary moves, and their power was not increased in the slightest.

But Gu Ding knew that those two moves were not simply a violent clash, but rather extremely profound techniques and skills. The reason they were ineffective was simply because he had only imitated a simple movement and had not grasped the essence of the techniques.

For the next six days, Gu Ding didn't go to the Auction House again; instead, he practiced his moves in the spaceship's arena. He chose this location because the ground was made of special stone, making it impossible for Gu Ding, with his strength, to leave any trace in the arena.

He threw punch after punch, tried finger after finger. But not once was he right; not even the slightest vibration or time-freezing effect was produced.

Six days passed, and Gu Ding had gained nothing.

"I think you're focusing too much on those two moves right now. Tomorrow's the last day of the Auction House, go out and relax. You might just snag something good, or find some local snacks, or maybe grab a drink at a pub," the Sea Emperor suggested.

Gu Ding thought about it and realized that he had indeed gained nothing in the past few days, and it seemed that he had reached a dead end. Going out for a walk might be more helpful.

During these six days, under the Sea Emperor's detection, Liliath and her companions managed to find two decent items at relatively low prices.

The Auction House reached its final day. Gu Ding finally reappeared at the Auction House with Liliath and the others.

The fact that Gu Ding hadn't appeared for days had sparked various speculations. The main topic of these speculations was what Gu Ding had obtained from the stone carving.

Even Granny Jian couldn't help but secretly examine Gu Ding's body, but she didn't find anything unusual. In her opinion, Gu Ding might not have unlocked the secret of the stone carving yet.

In the few days Gu Ding was away, the Auction House items were much more abundant than in previous years, but they didn't bring many surprises. The highest-priced item only sold for less than 30 billion Universe Crystal. It was a pet cub capable of growing to the level of High-rank God.

As the final day of the Auction House arrived, the number of powerful figures in the Auction House increased significantly. Gu Ding could vaguely sense the heavy aura of those powerful figures in the VIP area, like mountains, and some of them were as unfathomable as the ocean.

"Huh?" Gu Ding suddenly exclaimed in surprise.

"What's wrong?" the Sea Emperor asked hurriedly.

"I can actually sense the strength of those people in the VIP area." Gu Ding found it a bit strange. In the past, Gu Ding couldn't sense how strong those who were stronger than Mid-rank God were, but now he could clearly sense their strength.

"No, could it be your imagination?" Sea Emperor thought it was unlikely.

"In the VIP area, the strongest room is number seven. There are two people inside. One person's aura is like a boundless ocean, terrifyingly strong. The other person's aura is much weaker, like floating clouds, leisurely and serene, and his cultivation level should only be around that of High-rank God."

"Secondly, there's room number one, where there's only one person. That person's aura is extremely violent, like a volcano, and it reeks of blood. He must have killed many people."

"There are two others whose auras are similar to these two, one in room number four and the other in room number twelve. In other words, there should be four Peak-rank God present this time."

Gu Ding's assessment left the Sea Emperor speechless, for Gu Ding was absolutely right. The strongest being in room number seven was indeed Granny Jian, and the other three rooms did indeed contain powerful beings at the Peak-rank God.

"How did you do that?" Sea Emperor found it unbelievable.

"I don't know either. Six days ago, I couldn't even tell if there was anyone in the VIP area. I guess it might be because of practicing those two moves." Gu Ding didn't know why his ability to judge aura had suddenly become so strong.

He then observed his team members and discovered that the one with the strongest aura wasn't Bigge, but Elsa, followed by himself, with Bigge coming in third. Of course, the strength of one's aura doesn't entirely represent their strength, because combat techniques and similar abilities cannot be expressed through aura. Gu Ding also knew that in terms of understanding martial arts, Bigge far surpassed the other members of the team, including himself.

After observing for a while, Gu Ding discovered that there were actually sixteen High-rank God- level gods sitting in the Auction House, and more than eighty Mid-rank God. He couldn't help but marvel at the sheer number of powerful figures present.

The people in the hall quickly returned to their seats. After looking around, Gu Ding also withdrew his gaze, sat down quietly, and waited for the start of the final day of the Auction House. (To be continued...)