A Battle He Could Not Afford to Lose

"You can take pride in having wounded me."

Shen You slowly raised his right hand.

His five fingers spread, and a wisp of light emerged in his palm.

It was neither the golden divine radiance he had used before nor the refining light formed from the interwoven one hundred and eight thousand divine patterns of the Chaos Divine City.

It was a strand of void light so faint it was nearly invisible. Its edges held none of the blinding brilliance divine radiance should have possessed, only the absolute stillness before all things returned to silence.

The remaining Battle Imprints along the arena's edge blurred the instant that wisp of light appeared.

They blurred, then began to dissipate.

Around Imperial Saint Mountain, those among the three hundred thousand Azure Heaven God Kings with weaker cultivation had already collapsed beneath the lingering waves of that light.

The array patterns of the Eight Forbidden Ancient Cities emitted piercing shrieks at once. Under the pressure of that light, the city-protecting array patterns automatically shifted from defense to the highest alert—this ancient city was afraid. It was not under attack; its own defensive mechanism had determined that if this light went out of control, even the ancient city itself would be affected.

"You are very strong."

Shen You spoke. There was no mockery or arrogance in his voice, only a statement of fact.

"Strong enough to deserve my full strength."

As his words fell, that wisp of light moved.

It did not shoot toward Chu Tian. Instead, using Shen You's palm as its origin, it spread indiscriminately across the entire Epoch God Arena.

Large swathes of the purple-light-forged arena floor turned into nothingness. They did not explode, crumble, or disintegrate—they vanished directly from the level of existence itself, leaving not even traces for the laws