Sun Yu stopped in his tracks.
He stood at the bottom of the mirror-smooth crater and raised his head.
The air above had turned into an extremely viscous, gelatinous mass.
A terrifying pressure, a hundredfold, a thousandfold greater than Gu Qianxing's, crossed space and slammed brutally into these ruins.
The rocks along the crater's edge crumbled inch by inch beneath that crushing pressure, turning into stone dust that pattered down.
Space twisted.
An official boot with a cloud-patterned sole embroidered in gold stepped steadily out of the warped space and landed in midair.
Then came a middle-aged man clad in a black robe embroidered with golden pythons.
Lu Yuan, Martial Marquis of the Great Yan Dynasty's Divine Province.
With his hands behind his back, Lu Yuan floated above the crater.
He lowered his head.
His gaze swept over the square crater beneath him, several miles long and wide and thirty zhang deep.
The fortress's Obsidian fragments and the Heavenly Punishment Guards' Mysterious Iron armor plates had mixed with the flesh and blood of over ten thousand people, all crushed into a hard, dark-red crust.
The muscles at the corner of Lu Yuan's eye twitched almost imperceptibly.
He had commanded the Heavenly Punishment Guard for many years and knew only too well the destructive power of ten thousand elites forming a military formation.
Even for him, erasing ten thousand Heavenly Punishment Guards along with Heavenly Chasm Fortress in a single strike would have been no easy feat.
Lu Yuan's gaze finally settled on the youth in the Cold White Brocade Robe at the bottom of the crater.
"Destroyed an official seal."
Lu Yuan spoke, his voice like clashing metal, reverberating through the crater walls and shaking stone dust into the air.
"Killed provincial officials."
"Wiped out the Heavenly Punishment Guard."
Lu Yuan's tone was utterly calm. There was not a trace of anger in it, only the indifference of one standing high above, passing judgment on life and death.
"In the thousand years since the Great Yan Dynasty was founded, you are the first to take things this far."
Sun Yu looked at Lu Yuan in the air.
The Dark Red Demonic Rings in his pitch-black eyes slowly revolved.
At a glance, he saw through the other man's true strength.
The true essence within Lu Yuan was no longer confined to his Dantian Divine Sea.
His body itself seemed to be a nexus capable of absorbing and mobilizing all things between heaven and earth at any moment.
Both the quality and quantity of his true essence had completely surpassed the scope of the Divine Sea Realm.
Dharma Aspect Realm.
The fourth great realm after martial cultivation entered the innate stage.
The corners of Sun Yu's mouth curled upward, revealing an exceptionally cruel smile.
"Taking things too far?"
Sun Yu rolled his wrist, and his cervical vertebrae gave off a crisp sword cry.
"I haven't even slaughtered my way to the Great Yan imperial capital yet. How could this count as far enough?"
Lu Yuan's gaze instantly turned ice-cold.
"Arrogant."
He did not even draw the saber at his waist.
He had no interest in descending to the bottom of the crater to fight Sun Yu face-to-face.
"You think that because you possess some brute strength and shattered ten thousand Blood Washing Realm cultivators, you can challenge the Imperial Court's foundations?"
Lu Yuan kept his hands behind his back, chin slightly raised as he looked down on Sun Yu.
"Today, this marquis will show you what true suppression by realm means."
"Killing you is not worth dirtying this marquis's hands."
The moment his words fell.
The true essence within Lu Yuan erupted with a thunderous roar.
He did not use any Martial Skill.
Instead, he directly used his true essence to forcibly communicate with the wandering energies of this world.
"Buzz!"
The space behind Lu Yuan instantly boiled violently.
A vast amount of heaven-and-earth True Qi answered the summons, crossing space and converging madly.
Dazzling purple-gold light exploded in midair.
An enormous phantom filled with an absolute aura of destruction rapidly solidified behind Lu Yuan.
It rose from the earth.
Ten zhang.
A hundred zhang.
Three hundred zhang.
Five hundred zhang!
In the blink of an eye, a five-hundred-zhang-tall Eight-Armed Sword-Wielding Divine General Dharma Aspect manifested completely between heaven and earth!
Its body exceeded a thousand meters.
It wore purple-gold battle armor.
The divine general's face was obscured by a hazy layer of golden light, exuding extreme majesty.
Eight arms as thick as mountain ranges extended from beneath the divine general's ribs.
Each hand gripped a hundred-zhang-long True Qi greatsword.
This was no longer a spell, but a monstrous physical entity forcibly piled together from pure true essence and heaven-and-earth energy!
The instant the Dharma Aspect appeared, its enormous shadow swallowed the entire ruined crater.
The pressure multiplied explosively.
The dark-red crust at the bottom of the crater could not withstand this materialized force of oppression and directly split open with countless huge cracks over a zhang wide.
Lu Yuan stood before the brow of the five-hundred-zhang Dharma Aspect.
His figure was as tiny as a speck of dust, yet he controlled this colossal being capable of destroying heaven and earth.
He looked down at Sun Yu.
As though he were looking at a slightly stronger ant.
"Die."
Lu Yuan parted his lips and uttered one word.
With a thought of divine sense.
The five-hundred-zhang Dharma Aspect raised one thick arm.
It did not swing its greatsword.
Against an ant at the bottom of the crater that did not even possess a Dharma Aspect, using a sword would have been redundant.
The Dharma Aspect directly extended one index finger.
The finger was dozens of zhang long, like a stone pillar that held up the heavens, aimed at Sun Yu at the bottom of the crater.
Utterly steadily.
It pressed down.
"Rumble!"
The giant finger descended.
The air ahead was instantly compressed and detonated by that enormous finger.
Layer upon layer of tangible white walls of air formed and shattered continuously before the fingertip.
The violent air pressure slammed into the crater ahead of the finger.
The ground around Sun Yu let out an overburdened groan and sank another three feet.
The fingertip was still thirty zhang above Sun Yu's head.
Twenty zhang.
Ten zhang.
Sun Yu raised his head.
His field of vision was completely filled by that giant finger pressing down like a mountain peak.
An unprecedentedly fervent battle intent burst forth from those pitch-black eyes ringed with dark-red demonic light.
"Dharma Aspect Realm."
Sun Yu bared his teeth, revealing a row of bone-white fangs.
"Big enough."
Within Sun Yu's dantian, the pale-gold ocean of true essence surged with towering waves.
True essence poured madly through his thick Meridians and into every limb and bone in his body.
"Buzz!"
Beneath his cold white skin and flesh, the Asura Demonic Marks erupted with blinding blood-red light like red-hot branding irons.
The Sword Marrow at Great Perfection within the depths of all two hundred and six bones gave off an exceptionally resounding sword cry.
Three hundredfold Prison Suppressing Gravity!
Sun Yu did not release the gravity outward to suppress that finger.
With utter brutality, he applied all three hundredfold gravity in reverse onto the crater floor beneath his feet!
"Boom!"
Sun Yu's legs suddenly bent.
His feet sank deeply into the hard dark-red crust.
Borrowing the terrifying recoil produced by the extreme compression of three hundredfold gravity.
Sun Yu's spine snapped straight in an instant like a mad dragon awakening.
"Rise!"
Sun Yu shot up from the ground.
The earth beneath his feet directly exploded into a crater dozens of zhang deep.
His body transformed into a dark-red streak of death.
He charged skyward toward the Dharma Aspect's enormous finger pressing down like a mountain peak!
In midair, the muscles in Sun Yu's arms swelled to their limit.
Every Dark Gold Tendon bulged.
Dark-red Asura Gang Qi instantly enveloped his fists.
Scorching destructive heat and the freezing power of Extreme Cold intertwined madly along his fist edge.
The distance closed.
Five zhang.
Three zhang.
One zhang.
The destructive wind pressure brought by the giant finger pressed Sun Yu's Cold White Brocade Robe tightly against his skin and flesh.
Sun Yu drew both arms back, his fist edge aimed at the immense fingertip pressing down.
"Break!"
Sun Yu threw both fists forward.
Without holding anything back.
He smashed them down fiercely!
"BOOM!!!!!"
The Extreme Dao Physique collided head-on with a five-hundred-zhang Dharma Aspect!
Sun Yu's fists struck solidly against the True Qi entity of the Dharma Aspect's fingertip.
Heaven and earth fell completely silent in that instant.
A blinding burst of light erupted from the point of collision.
Then, an incomparably violent ring-shaped shockwave swept in every direction like an enormous sickle.
The rock walls around the crater were sliced flat by the shockwave.
The ground within several miles shook violently.
The fingertip and fists wrestled madly against each other.
Sun Yu's body hung suspended in midair.
He was not pressed into the earth by that mountain-like finger.
The ultimate foundation of the Asura Undying Body forcibly withstood the absolute suppression of the Dharma Aspect Realm.
"Crack, crack, crack."
The bones throughout Sun Yu's body gave off dangerously harsh grinding sounds.
The immense force surged wildly backward through his arms.
Yet he did not retreat even half an inch.
Dark-red Gang Qi and purple-gold True Qi frenziedly strangled and devoured each other at the point of impact.
Sun Yu raised his head, staring fixedly at the enormous finger that his fists held at bay.
The muscles in his arms swelled once more.
"Is that all the strength you've got?!"
Sun Yu roared wildly, and Asura Gang Qi erupted again.
He forcibly braced against that hundred-zhang giant finger.
Pushing upward, he forced it back an inch!
In midair.
Lu Yuan watched this scene, the muscles at the corners of his eyes twitching violently.
For the first time, an extremely intense shock flashed through those deep-pool-like eyes.
A mere martial artist at the early Divine Sea Realm.
Had actually relied on pure physical strength.
To forcibly withstand a blow from his Dharma Aspect Realm?
That was absolutely impossible!
"Ant."
Lu Yuan's gaze turned completely icy.
His divine sense stirred.
The five-hundred-zhang Eight-Armed Divine General Dharma Form's finger, which had been held back.
With incomparably savage force, it slammed downward once more!
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