Barrier

"Whis, have you noticed something interesting?" Vados immediately asked when she heard her brother speaking under his breath.

Her gaze also fell on Qi Heng, carrying a hint of scrutiny.

Whis nodded, his voice calm. "This Saiyan's foundation is unexpectedly solid. The violent power in his bloodline is merely the foundation. More remarkable is his almost instinctive combat aptitude, forged through countless trials."

Looking at Qi Heng, he continued, "In his current Super Saiyan 4 form, whether in energy or physical strength, he has already far surpassed the vast majority of 'candidate Gods of Destruction' across the universes. In terms of brute force alone, he has already touched the threshold of a very high realm."

Vados followed his train of thought. "What a pity?"

"What a pity." Whis smiled, with a trace of faint sympathy.

"The one he faces today is Lord Beerus."

Whis shifted his gaze to that purple figure, his expression suddenly turning solemn and reverent. "The title of strongest God of Destruction among the twelve universes was not earned through brute force alone. It came from finding one's own art of destruction over countless ages, between destruction and creation. To cross that barrier, strength alone is far from enough."

At the bottom of the crater.

Qi Heng's suppressed coughing interrupted Whis.

He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, his movements somewhat slow. Every step came with the groans of bone and muscle.

Yet he still gritted his teeth and stood up, his legs burning like golden flames as he stood ramrod straight.

The rocks shattered again, but he did not retreat even half a step.

He raised his head and met Beerus's gaze without fear, as well as the stares of Whis, Vados, Champa, and everyone else.

Dust clung to his face, and his battle suit was stained and filthy with blood, but the confusion in those golden eyes had completely vanished.

All that remained was an even purer, fiercer fighting spirit.

That fighting spirit was like volcanic lava—the more desperate the situation, the more madly it burned, utterly unwilling to go out.

The air began to move again, yet it remained taut and dangerous.

"Lord Beerus," Qi Heng said hoarsely, yet with a firmness that was frightening. Every word burst from him like a spark. "You are very strong."

Beerus hovered in the air, purple divine light wrapping around his slender body.

After hearing him out, he merely snorted coldly, his eyes narrowing slightly as though even responding was an act of charity.

"Obviously."

The ground of the temple plaza had long since been blasted into a web of cracks by the energy.

The enormous pillars in the distance still stood, but they could only be seen vaguely through the smoke and dust.

Qi Heng took a deep breath, his chest rising and falling violently as he drew the scorching turbulent air into his lungs.

Blood stained the corner of his mouth, yet a slow smile appeared on his face, a mixture of pain, realization, and fanaticism. "You've made me understand..."

He paused. The dim golden aura around him suddenly contracted, then erupted with a thunderous blast, fiercer and more solid than before. "...where the limit of Super Saiyan 4 lies!"

The final word was no longer a sound, but like a peal of thunder.

"Boom—!"

The ground beneath his feet completely collapsed, and the rubble was ground directly into powder by the force of his aura.

His figure became a golden-red meteor. No more probing, no more circling—he charged straight ahead, resolute and carrying a tragic, savage momentum, toward that purple god.

This time, offense and defense had switched places.

The golden aura was no longer merely a protective halo. It burned completely, as though he had donned a suit of boiling sunlight.

Every strand of red fur stood on end, letting out a shrill metallic screech amid the airflow churned up by his supersonic advance.

His speed surged again. The air was forcibly smashed apart, forming a milky-white shock cone.

Before his fist even arrived, the wind pressure was already crashing toward Beerus like an invisible sledgehammer.

Left hook! The fist's afterimage swept past, twisting space like ripples. The wind blades it raised sliced a distant boulder in two.

Right straight! Pure strength condensed into a single point. The punch was so fast that even the air ignited from friction, releasing a piercing shriek.

Knee strike! His knee was like a golden meteor, slamming toward his opponent's chest and abdomen with enough force to pierce the earth's crust.

Elbow strike! He twisted at the waist as he turned, smashing his elbow out like a warhammer from a vicious angle.

Roundhouse kick! His body spun, one leg sweeping out a crescent-shaped arc of golden light that engulfed several yards around Beerus!

A raging storm? No, this was more like a destructive symphony of exploding stars and erupting volcanoes.

The energy in every strike could vaporize mountains and sever rivers.

The golden and purple lights no longer intertwined. They collided madly, annihilated each other, then erupted again.

Shockwaves exploded outward in rings, flattening every raised object in the plaza. Violent winds swept smoke, dust, and shattered stone into the sky, draping the entire battlefield in a dim yellow curtain.

Yet at the center of this storm of destruction, Beerus merely stood quietly—or rather, moved as though taking a leisurely stroll.

His movements were so small that they made hearts tighten, yet every one of them was precise to the extreme.

Qi Heng's mountain-splitting left hook came at him, and Beerus merely tilted his neck less than an inch to the right. The fist wind brushed past his ear fur, severing several purple hairs that slowly drifted down.

The flaming golden right straight shot directly at his face. His upper body leaned back slightly as though boneless, and the fist stopped a hair's breadth from his nose, the heat it carried stirring the hair on his forehead.

Against the savage knee strike, he lightly slid back half a step. The knee missed and slammed heavily into the ground where he had just stood, leaving another deep crater.

As the elbow strike came in, he casually raised his forearm to block it. Clang! The dull boom rang out like a giant bell being struck, purple divine light and golden aura exploding into a halo, yet he did not budge an inch.

As the spinning kick swept toward him, his feet never left the ground. He merely pivoted on his toes and turned half a circle as lightly as if dancing. The golden arc of light skimmed past his back and sheared off half a broken pillar in the distance.

"Too straightforward." Beerus's voice pierced through the roar of clashing energy, still carrying that bone-deep laziness, even a trace of boredom. "Your strength is decent, but your intent is written all over every muscle. Every punch is far too easy to read."

The moment he finished speaking—

The right hand that had been hanging at his side, as though casually placed there, suddenly moved.

There was no buildup, no warning. It simply shot forward.

His five fingers curled slightly, their tips wreathed in deep, ghostly purple light. Rather than reaching for Qi Heng's overwhelming fists and kicks, they pierced through the chaotic torrents of energy and locked directly onto Qi Heng's throat, which had nearly become an afterimage in his high-speed movement!

Fast!

This was not ordinary "fast." It was as though his attack had been waiting there all along, merely waiting for Qi Heng to deliver his own throat into it.