Just as I was about to show off, I was struck by lightning; the Asura God was utterly dumbfounded.

The smug expression on the face of the Asura God froze instantly.

He sat upon his throne, his divine sense still clinging to the sky above the Douluo Continent.

That Three-Legged Golden Toad opened its mouth.

It swallowed the lightning.

It gulped it down.

The entire process was absurdly clean.

The Asura God's fingers froze on the armrests, his knuckles turning white one by one.

The situation that had been under his control just moments ago had suddenly been shattered right in his face.

It wasn't blocked, it wasn't weakened; it was devoured.

The Divine Punishment he had personally condensed had been swallowed by the patterns on a piece of ceremonial clothing.

What was this?

A joke?

"Impossible."

The two words were squeezed out from his throat, his voice low and hoarse.

The Divine Official standing to the side didn't even dare to raise his head.

The slaughter patterns within the Asura God Hall spun faster and faster, the tower vibrating with a hum, and even the blood-colored divine bricks on the floor were pressed into fine cracks.

The Asura God stood up abruptly.

He slammed his palm onto the divine altar before his throne.

BOOM!

The entire altar exploded from the center, fragments splashing to both sides, smashing against the stone pillars of the hall and shattering into powder on the ground.

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

The Asura God's voice made the entire hall tremble.

"How could This Seat's Divine Punishment be blocked by a mere mortal treasure?!"

The blood-red color in his eyes surged.

It wasn't just a little anger.

It was the fury of having his face rubbed into the mud.

For that bolt of lightning, he had added Asura killing intent, layered it with the Divine Punishment originally stored in the Asura Blade, and personally torn through the Plane Barrier to send it down.

Never mind an eighty-eight-level Hu Liena; even a lower-realm deity who had just ascended would have had their Divine Soul shattered upon taking such a hit.

But what was the result?

Hu Liena didn't die.

The Tribulation-Avoiding Garment didn't break.

The golden toad even fed a stream of warmth back to her after swallowing the lightning.

The Asura God saw it clearly.

Hu Liena's soul power had even increased by a small margin.

I am here to kill someone.

Not to deliver her a tonic!

As this thought emerged, the Asura God's expression turned even uglier.

"Shen Yichen..."

He gnashed his teeth over the name.

"What exactly are you?"

The moment the words fell.

A sudden chill crept up the Asura God's back.

It wasn't the cold of the hall.

It was a chill emerging from the depths of his Godhead, as if something had precisely pressed down on his vital point.

In that instant, the Asura divine power within him actually stuttered.

It only stuttered for a moment.

But the Asura God had lived for so many years and had never encountered such a thing.

He was the Asura God.

The God King of the God Realm who held dominion over slaughter and judgment.

Only others were locked on by him; only others knelt and trembled beneath his blade.

Since when was it his turn to be targeted by something?

"Who?"

The Asura God suddenly looked up.

Above the dome of the Asura God Hall, the blood-colored sky cracked open.

It was not just a small slit cleaved open.

The entire sky was torn apart from the center, leaving a massive rift with edges wreathed in purple-gold lightning, as if someone had forcibly slashed a stroke across the sky of the God Realm.

The God Realm trembled.

In the distance, several temples lit up with protective divine light simultaneously.

The mountains and rivers of the God Realm, which had been floating quietly, shook in unison at this moment; the sea of clouds churned, and turbulent divine power spewed out from the edges of the rift.

The Divine Officials could finally hold on no longer.

"Thump!"

One knelt down.

A second knelt down.

The Divine Officials behind them followed suit, kneeling in a mass, their foreheads pressed firmly against the ground, not even daring to make a sound to beg for mercy.

They did not know what kind of lightning that was.

But their Godhead was afraid.

That fear was not the fear of seeing a powerful enemy; it was the fear of seeing a higher order, where even the thought of resistance was crushed flat.

The Asura God's eyelids twitched.

This was wrong.

This was not lightning from the God Realm.

He had seen every type of lightning punishment in the God Realm. Thunder of Destruction, Divine Thunder of Order, Judgment Thunder-Fire—each had a source, a set of rules, and a deity in charge.

But this purple-gold lightning had none.

It seemed to have crawled out from the very beginning of heaven and earth; it was clean, barbaric, and did not abide by a single rule of the God Realm.

The Asura God's throat moved.

It's over.

The moment this thought surfaced, he was furious with himself.

What am I afraid of?

This Seat is the Asura God!

Could a Celestial Master from the lower realm, separated by the Plane Barrier, really strike the God Realm with lightning?

The next instant.

Deep within the rift, the purple-gold thunder flared.

It did not just flash.

The entire bolt of lightning emerged from the rift, its body so thick that it pressed down upon half the dome of the Asura God Hall.

Purple and gold light intertwined, and wherever it passed, the sky of the God Realm was scorched with circles of black cracks, so fast that even the realm's self-repair could not keep up.

The thunder did not hesitate.

It did not scatter.

It did not miss.

It aimed precisely at the top of the Asura God's head and crashed down with a roar!

The Asura God's expression changed.

"Presumptuous!"

He roared, and the Asura Blade flew up from beside his throne, blood-colored blade light soaring into the sky.

But when he shouted those two words, he heard the tremor within them himself.

This was not meant for others to hear.

It was to bolster his own courage.

The purple-gold thunder fell too fast.

It was so fast that the Asura God could not even mobilize the killing origin of the entire pagoda, and could only push all his divine power outward.

Blood-red divine power exploded from within his body.

A layer of Divine Armor condensed upon him.

Shoulder guards, breastplate, arm guards, Heart-Protecting Scale—every inch was engraved with the Asura Killing Pattern.

That was his strongest defensive Divine Armor, which had once withstood a strike from the God of Destruction and blocked the joint siege of several first-tier gods.

The Asura God stared fixedly at the sky above.

Block it.

He had to block it.

As long as he could withstand this strike, he would immediately summon the gods of the God Realm and wipe that Taixu Temple on Tiandang Mountain out of existence.

No matter what Shen Yichen's background was, and no matter how many more of those Eighteen Betrothal Gifts remained, he would crush them all.

The moment this thought crossed his mind.

The Purple Gold Divine Lightning slammed into the Divine Armor.

"Crack."

A very faint sound.

The Asura God's face froze.

The Heart-Protecting Scale had cracked.

Immediately after, the fissures spread from the breastplate to the shoulder guards, one after another, at a terrifying speed.

"No—!"

The Asura God finally roared.

This time, it was not anger.

It was terror.

He desperately channeled his divine power, holding the Asura Blade horizontally above his head. The blood-red patterns on the blade flared wildly as the origin of slaughter poured into the weapon from the Nine-Story Pagoda.

The blood-colored light of the entire hall was drained, all of it compressed into that single blade.

But it was useless.

The Purple Gold Divine Lightning pressed down.

The Asura Blade let out a mournful cry, was sent flying backward, smashed through three stone pillars of the hall, and was driven deep into the wall.

The Divine Armor shattered completely.

It did not peel off piece by piece.

It exploded from the inside out.

The blood-colored armor shards turned to powder within the purple-gold lightning, leaving not even a scrap of divine power behind.

The thunder struck the Asura God.

BOOM!

Divine blood sprayed.

The Asura God was sent flying from his throne, a charred wound carved into his chest. The purple-gold lightning burrowed into the wound, tearing at his divine power and scorching his Godhead.

Pain.

It was not the pain of the flesh.

It was the pain of his Godhead being scraped open inch by inch by lightning and fire.

The Asura God opened his mouth and spat out a large mouthful of divine blood; as it hit the floor, it burned holes straight through the divine tiles.

He collided with the stone steps at the back of the hall.

The steps shattered.

He then crashed into the collapsed divine pillars.

Half of the Asura God Hall caved in, burying him in the ruins.

The Divine Officials knelt on the ground, not daring to even lift their heads.

That single strike had shattered half of their awe for the Asura God.

The Asura God could be injured.

The Asura God could vomit blood.

The Asura God could even be sent flying from his throne by a bolt of lightning.

If this news were to spread, the entire God Realm would go mad.

In the ruins.

The Asura God's fingers twitched.

Rubble rolled off his shoulder.

He tried to stand up.

He could not.

The purple-gold lightning mark on his chest was still burning; any divine power that approached was swallowed, and his Asura killing intent dissipated upon contact, leaving him unable to even mend his wounds.

The Asura God lay prone in the pile of rubble, half his face pressed against the cold divine tiles, blood still seeping from the corner of his mouth.

The rage in his eyes had mostly vanished.

What remained was terror.

True, unadulterated terror.

"Wh-why..."

He struggled to lift his head, looking toward the rift to the God Realm that had yet to fully close.

"Why would lightning strike me?!"