A Warrior Who Also Cultivated as a Spirit Reader

When Jiang Yao charged toward his opponent, who seemed to embody lightning, while riding his Telepathic Weapon, almost everyone in the plaza was stunned.

"Does he think he can't win, so he's charging in to get himself killed?"

Even Prose, who had been confident in Jiang Yao all along, was momentarily at a loss.

Controllers and warriors usually fought by keeping their distance and attacking with Telepathic Weapons. That was especially true against an opponent who seemed like the embodiment of thunder. You'd be lucky to get away from one.

Instead of opening the distance, Jiang Yao had charged straight in. It was incredibly bizarre.

On the screen, Jiang Yao's relentless charge didn't look like that of a genius Controller who had mastered the Red Shadow Blade. He looked like a warrior!

His opponent, the short Leixi warrior surrounded by lightning, was a genius who had made it to the Peak Battle finals. Even with his Domain suppressed to the Fourth Layer, he was absolutely no one a warrior with a Fourth-Level Domain could handle.

Besides, Jiang Yao was a genuine Controller. Even if he also cultivated as a warrior, could he really surpass a Controller's strength?

The Leixi opponent simulated by the Virtual Universe seemed startled by Jiang Yao's move. He froze for an instant, then quickly raised his expressionless face and swung his lightning blade down at the charging Jiang Yao.

Then the lightning blade, wreathed in blue-violet bolts, came to a halt.

A single finger had stopped it!

A dazzling crimson light flared where the finger touched the blade.

The short Leixi warrior seemed enraged. His lightning blade danced as he unleashed a furious flurry of attacks on Jiang Yao.

Jiang Yao blocked the blade with his palm as though it were a saber, with his leg as though it were a staff, and with his fingers as though they were a sword. He met every blow head-on, never retreating, as if his body weren't made of human flesh but of some powerful weapon.

Silence fell over the Elder Council, then a clamor erupted.

"Am I seeing things? Is that the Heavenly Cage Domain Seal?"

"Other than this top-tier Combat Secret Technique, I can't think of any other technique with that kind of power..."

"He's insane. I haven't even mastered the Heavenly Cage Domain Seal myself..."

Even Jiuyuan, the Lingtong Race's ruler and an Immortal God seated on the highest tier, broke his usual impassive expression. His face full of astonishment, he asked, "Is that really the Heavenly Cage Domain Seal?"

He was a Mental Master Controller and had never practiced this technique, reputed to be the strongest warrior Combat Secret Technique below the World Lord level.

The World Lord Elders around him were just as uncertain.

Kasa, on the other hand, had practiced the technique himself, so he replied hesitantly, "It should... be."

It wasn't surprising that even he, someone who had practiced the Heavenly Cage Domain Seal, was so unsure.

What he was seeing was simply beyond anyone's imagination.

The Heavenly Cage Domain Seal could draw in a Domain, whose power spread over a vast area, and concentrate it on a specific part of the body—a finger, fist, or knee. At its highest level, it could even compress the Domain into an Extreme Point.

Once mastered, the concentrated Domain could be moved at will. Every move, every punch, kick, finger, and palm would contain the power of the entire Domain—tough as a high-grade weapon, and fierce as a savage beast.

Combined with impressive Law Comprehension, it made one invincible among Domain Lords!

Jiuyuan's astonished expression softened, and a trace of delight appeared in his eyes. He continued, "Has anyone in our race below the Domain Lord level ever mastered the Heavenly Cage Domain Seal?"

Kasa nodded. "There was once a Universe-level warrior in our race who mastered the Heavenly Cage Domain Seal. With an Eighth-Level Domain and no comprehension of the laws, he became the Empire's biggest dark horse at the time and made it through the first round of the Peak Warrior Tournament's Preliminary Elimination Tournament."

The Universe-level Strongest Battle was nothing like the Stellar-level Genius Tournament. In the Genius Tournament, breaking through the threshold of the Origin Law was practically enough to guarantee a top-five-hundred ranking in the Xuanshang Universe Country, or even a top-three-hundred ranking.

But in the Strongest Battle, breaking through that threshold was only the basic requirement for making it through the first round of the Preliminary Elimination Tournament.

The Peak Warrior Tournament was a stage where the Origin Law clashed with all kinds of techniques.

If a Universe-level warrior who hadn't comprehended even a trace of the law could pass the first round of the Preliminary Elimination Tournament by mastering the Heavenly Cage Domain Seal, that meant he could completely rival experts of a higher level who had comprehended a trace of the law, or even crossed its threshold.

Kasa, the World Lord presiding over the selection tournament, watched the two figures on-screen battling like savage behemoths locked in a struggle. He felt almost dazed.

He'd actually been surprised earlier that Jiang Yao also cultivated as a warrior.

This wasn't a warrior who also cultivated as a Controller. He was a warrior who also cultivated as a Spirit Reader!

Almost all the geniuses in the plaza felt the same absurdity.

Duomeng asked Prose, stumbling over his words, "You never told me he was a warrior..."

Good grief. Had he just been playing around with everyone during the first six rounds? Had he finally revealed his true identity as a warrior in the seventh?

Had he been operating his Telepathic Weapon and fighting his opponents all that time just to show off?

If you were a peerless warrior who could master the Heavenly Cage Domain Seal, you could've said so! Why pretend to be a Mental Master Controller? Was that fun?

Prose's mouth opened and closed a few times, but he didn't know what to say. "Believe me, I only just found out."

If Jiang Yao, immersed in the battle, knew that the other members of the Lingtong Race now thought he was a fraud posing as a Controller, he would have protested his innocence.

In truth, even he was a little surprised.

Using the Heavenly Cage Domain Seal had only been an experiment. He hadn't expected it to come so naturally. After enduring the initial disadvantage, Jiang Yao was shocked to discover what felt like a battle instinct hidden deep within his body, one he had never noticed before.

Every palm strike and kick seemed utterly natural, as if his body's instincts were slowly awakening. It felt like an ability he'd been born with.

His body reacted even before he could think, as if Jiang Yao had been born to fight this way.

The Nine Transformations of the Desolate God!

Jiang Yao, shocked and delighted, realized he had overlooked something important.

He had once transformed into Desolate God Bizhang, and afterward he had constantly fought against Bizhang's will, treating that struggle as a form of cultivation and raising his Gene Level.

But he had focused only on raising his Gene Level and on how his body had become increasingly attuned to the Origin Laws of fire and light. He had treated the Nine Transformations of the Desolate God as an alternative Nine Tribulations Secret Manual.

Only now did he realize that the Nine Transformations of the Desolate God was far more than that. It didn't simply improve his cellular genes and attune his body to the laws. It had also etched many more hidden things into him.

This battle had become the catalyst that began unlocking the treasures concealed within his body by the more than ten years he'd spent cultivating the Nine Transformations of the Desolate God.

Jiang Yao extended one hand, fingers spread, and brought the might of his entire Domain down on his short Leixi opponent.

Like a Divine Crane, red and white, reaching out its claw through the clouds, it seemed light and graceful, yet carried a hidden weight. In an instant, every bolt of lightning froze.

The Leixi opponent's body stiffened as well, as if roots had grown from his feet, pinning him firmly in midair!

The Divine Crane's Claw reached farther and farther, and in an instant, like a rainbow bridge, pierced straight through the opponent!