This was absolutely beyond the capabilities of any mortal. It was the work of a god!
The supreme deity who had chosen his son had actually forcefully raised the age of his Spirit Rings.
"With such a deity's protection, my Spirit Hall is destined to unite the Douluo Continent and rule for a thousand generations!" Qian Daoliu roared wildly in his heart.
Meanwhile, facing Qian Xunji head-on, Tang Zhen's confidence had completely shattered.
He looked at the once-mighty Clear Sky Hammer in his hand, then at the freakish setup across from him—four black rings and five red ones—and suddenly felt that his title of the world's number one Tool Martial Soul was a joke.
"Impossible... This has to be an illusion!" Tang Zhen bit through his tongue, forcibly suppressing his fear as he roared to bolster his courage.
"Whether it's an illusion or not, you'll know once you take a single strike."
Qian Xunji raised his right hand and clenched it in empty space.
[Pride: Original Sin Demon Sword]
Under the second form of his Martial Soul, "Holy Disguise," the dark-gold demon sword, once covered in corrupt divine runes, transformed into a sacred Judgment Sword wreathed in golden holy flames.
"Judgment!"
As he brought down the sword to suppress his opponent, Qian Xunji wasted no words. He gathered power in his eyes.
[Wrath: World-Extinguishing Demon Light] activated!
In an instant, the Holy Sword in Qian Xunji's hand blazed with light. A massive pillar of holy radiance, carrying the power to destroy and pierce through anything, tore through the void and crashed straight down toward Tang Zhen!
Tang Zhen didn't dare take it head-on, but the beam was too fast. He could only roar and swing the Clear Sky Hammer with both hands, using the Clear Sky Sect's secret technique to meet it.
Rumble—
The Holy Sword, beam, and giant hammer collided violently in midair.
But after less than three seconds of stalemate, Tang Zhen felt an unstoppable wave of true damage surge into his body through the Clear Sky Hammer. It was the armor-piercing effect attached to Qian Xunji's divine skill!
"Pfft!"
Tang Zhen spat out a mouthful of blood. The beam drove him and his hammer straight down from the sky, slamming him into the walls of Jialing Pass and smashing a massive crater into them!
"Sect Master!"
"Father!" Tang Xiao and Tang Hao's eyes nearly split with rage. Their eyes were bloodshot, and they panted like bulls.
In the crater, Tang Zhen struggled to his feet, hair disheveled and eyes bloodshot. Driven to desperation, he knew that if the leader of the world's number one sect couldn't even withstand a single blow today, the Clear Sky Sect would be finished!
"Qian Xunji, you brought this on yourself!"
Tang Zhen roared madly as the nine Spirit Rings on his body began to pulse with extremely dangerous energy.
"Great Sumeru Hammer! Ring Detonation! Nine Absolute Clear Sky Techniques!"
To salvage his pride, Tang Zhen activated the Clear Sky Sect's desperate trump card. He detonated three of his Spirit Rings in succession, channeling all the terrifying Soul Power he gained into the Clear Sky Hammer.
The hammer had now swollen to the size of a hill, bearing a terrifying weight that seemed capable of smashing through the continent. Like a falling star gone berserk, Tang Zhen charged furiously toward Qian Xunji, intent on killing him.
"Your Holiness, be careful!" Yue Guan cried out from below.
Yet faced with this world-destroying strike, Qian Xunji didn't meet it head-on. Instead, a mocking smile curled his lips.
"I've got wings and Teleportation. Who the hell's going to stand still and trade blows with a muscle-bound idiot like you?"
Another of Qian Xunji's hundred-thousand-year red rings flashed.
His Soul Skill, [Envy: Void Leap], activated instantly.
Whoosh!
A mere one-hundredth of a second before the enormous Clear Sky Hammer struck his face, Qian Xunji vanished into thin air.
Tang Zhen's desperate blow smashed into empty air. The terrifying inertia made his chest churn violently with blood and Qi, and he almost spat up a mouthful of blood.
Before he could steady himself, Qian Xunji had already appeared a hundred meters behind him. He raised his hand and sent several sharp golden sword beams slicing toward Tang Zhen.
"Shameless! If you have the guts, take one of my blows head-on!" Tang Zhen was so enraged his vision darkened. He swung his hammer and charged again.
Whoosh.
Qian Xunji teleported once more. His Twelve Wings of Light beat gently behind him, and he instantly opened up a distance of five hundred meters.
For the next incense stick's worth of time, a pitiful scene played out in the skies above Jialing Pass: a full-time mage kiting the clueless Tang Big Hammer.
Relying on the teleportation of [Void Leap] and the terrifying aerial dominance of his twelve wings, Qian Xunji flew circles around Tang Zhen.
He was like someone walking a dog. When Tang Zhen charged, he teleported away, then took the opportunity to land a holy-light basic attack that dealt true damage.
The most infuriating part was that Qian Xunji kept taunting him.
Tang Zhen had activated the Great Sumeru Hammer, which already put him under the strain of burning through his own life. After all that furious effort, his score was zero to five, and he hadn't even brushed a single feather on Qian Xunji's body!
"Pfft—"
The crushing frustration, combined with the backlash from detonating his rings, made Tang Zhen suddenly spit out a huge mouthful of black blood in midair. His aura instantly weakened, and his swing of the Clear Sky Hammer faltered for a fatal moment.
"I've finished walking the dog. Time to close the net."
Killing intent flashed in Qian Xunji's eyes, and his figure, which had been hovering in midair, suddenly stopped.
Martial Soul Avatar, full firepower!
Qian Xunji raised the enormous Original Sin Demon Sword in both hands, concentrating every last trace of his level-ninety-five Soul Power into its blade.
"Holy Judgment!"
A golden line, thin as a silkworm's thread yet so brilliant that even the sun paled beside it, flashed through the void at incredible speed.
"No!!!"
Tang Zhen desperately raised the Clear Sky Hammer to block, but the sword light, carrying true damage and extreme armor penetration, sliced through a gap in his defenses as easily as cutting tofu.
Hiss!
A bloodcurdling sound of flesh tearing echoed across the sky.
As thousands of horrified onlookers watched, Tang Zhen's entire right arm—the one gripping the Clear Sky Hammer—was severed at the shoulder! Blood sprayed through the air like a fountain, staining the walls of Jialing Pass red.
Aaaaaah!!!
Tang Zhen let out a terrible scream. His body, thrown off balance, fell like a broken kite.
The whole scene fell silent!
The leader of the world's number one sect had just had an arm severed in a direct battle by the Spirit Hall Pope, who had toyed with him as if he were nothing?
"Father!!!" Tang Hao and Tang Xiao's eyes blazed red as they prepared to rush into the sky and fight Qian Xunji to the death, but the Clear Sky Sect elders behind them pinned them firmly to the ground.
"Young Sect Masters, don't! You'd only be throwing your lives away!" The elders wept bitterly, yet held the two of them fast.
Hovering in midair, Qian Xunji swept out his sleeve. A gentle yet domineering wave of Soul Power caught the screaming Tang Zhen and tossed him back into the Clear Sky Sect's ranks like a piece of garbage.
At the same time, he reached out and beckoned. The severed arm fell into his palm.
A slight pulse of Soul Power blew the arm apart, leaving an exceptionally fine Right Arm Bone, glowing with a rich, earthy yellow light, floating quietly in Qian Xunji's hand.
"A seventy-thousand-year Right Arm Bone? No wonder he lasted so long. I'll gladly accept this spoils of war."
Without a hint of courtesy, Qian Xunji stowed the Spirit Bone in his storage ring. Below, Tang Zhen had lost an arm and the exceptional Spirit Bone connected to his bloodline. His cultivation plummeted like a punctured ball, dropping straight from level ninety-five to level eighty-nine before he passed out on the spot.
The Clear Sky Sect's leader was utterly ruined!
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