Trial of the Reserve God of Destruction

"Follow me, and you can feast on the delicacies of the entire universe to your heart's content—from sweet frozen stardew at the end of the galaxy to firebread baked at the edge of black holes."

Honestly, that promise didn't sound reliable in the slightest.

Yet it was those few words that made the boy leave that wasteland behind and step into the utterly unfamiliar Universe 6.

Looking back now, this had undoubtedly been the smartest and boldest decision Champa had ever made in his divine life.

Qi Heng's growth rate had been so astonishing that everyone who knew about it was stunned—even the worldly and well-informed angel Vados had been shaken.

Vados's training was strict to the point of cruelty, and precise beyond reproach.

Over twenty cosmic years, Qi Heng, once an ordinary Saiyan who could not even touch the threshold of Super Saiyan, had undergone an unimaginable leap through repeated trials that pushed him to the verge of collapse before rebuilding him anew.

His base battle power had surged exponentially. Behind that increase of several hundredfold lay countless ordeals in which he had narrowly escaped death.

Now, his aura had grown powerful enough to make even stars tremble, placing him firmly at a level where he could stand face-to-face with a God of Destruction—a true candidate God of Destruction.

They stood on a vast plain in the God of Destruction Realm, specially designated for training.

Above them stretched eternal purple twilight, while beneath their feet lay strange stone harder than the core of a star.

In the distance, a pyramid-shaped temple flickered in and out of view amid flowing light.

Qi Heng floated several meters above the ground, flames blazing around his body that were completely unlike those of an ordinary Super Saiyan.

They were not dazzling gold, but dark crimson—profound and blazing, like a mixture of lava and blood.

Every strand of his hair stood upright, having turned the same dark crimson. Only his pupils still burned with a cool, refined golden gleam.

His aura was solid and violent, forming rings of force fields around his body that distorted the light.

"Lord Champa," Qi Heng said, his voice cutting straight through the raging energy field, calm without the slightest ripple.

His golden eyes stared directly at the God of Destruction opposite him, devoid of any warmth a disciple might hold for his master. "You said it yourself. Today's sparring training would be 'serious.'"

Champa's round, pudgy face twitched slightly.

He had indeed said that. It was only natural for a master to urge his disciple to train seriously.

But he had never expected this brat's version of "serious" to be so merciless, so close to godslaying!

That punch just now had contained no flourish, relying solely on an eruption of pure speed and power. It had struck Champa's guard solidly, leaving his arm numb.

If that punch had landed on an ordinary planet, it could have shattered the planetary core in an instant, reducing the entire world to cosmic dust in a dazzling explosion.

Even for Champa, a genuine God of Destruction, that blow had not felt good. A dull pain throbbed faintly in his chest.

"Hmph! You just changed the color of your fur and made yourself look a little scarier!" Champa forcefully suppressed his shock, thrusting out his thick, short neck as he resumed his fighting stance.

He spread his arms to either side and bent his short legs slightly. A suffocating pressure suddenly spread outward.

A deep, noble purple radiance brimming with the meaning of annihilation surged from his body. It was the God of Destruction's unique Power of Destruction.

As the light flowed, the surrounding space emitted a faint hum, as though even the most fundamental existence itself was being eroded and broken down by that power.

"You think dyeing your hair red and turning into a red-haired monkey makes you qualified to challenge me?" Champa's voice suddenly boomed, carrying both the fury of being offended and the authority of a teacher. "Don't forget! Who was it that picked you up from those ruins bit by bit and taught you how to use your power in battle?!"

The moment his words fell, the purple light in Champa's eyes erupted.

He suddenly thrust his joined palms forward!

Boom—!

It was not an ordinary energy blast, but a purple sphere of energy condensed from pure laws of destruction.

The sphere instantly expanded to over ten meters across. Its core was not light, but a pitch-black singularity that devoured all illumination, like a miniature black hole.

Thick purple lightning writhed around the energy sphere like wildly dancing giant serpents, crackling as it tore space apart and left streaks of black fractures behind, like rips in the curtain of the universe.

Carrying the absolute momentum to crush stars and end all things, the energy sphere blasted directly toward the airborne Qi Heng—this was no probe, but Champa's declaration that he was getting serious.

Faced with an attack capable of silencing an entire galaxy forever, Qi Heng chose—not to dodge or evade.

He did not even make any large defensive movement.

At the instant the sphere of destruction reached him, he merely raised his right arm calmly and opened his palm.

With his five fingers spread, he steadily caught that violent purple star!

Thoom!

An incomparably dull boom rang out, like two worlds colliding.

The energy sphere did not explode. Instead, it was forcibly imprisoned within Qi Heng's palm.

Destructive purple light leaped and splashed wildly at the point where his palm met the sphere, attempting to spread up his arm and break down every one of his cells into the most primordial void.

That light was cold and scorching at once, contradictory yet united.

At the same time, blazing dark crimson flames erupted from Qi Heng's palm and pores like enraged volcanic lava, clashing head-on with the purple power of destruction!

Hiss—Screech—!

The collision of the two supreme powers produced a shriek sharp enough to tear apart the soul, like billions of metallic monstrous birds crying out in death all at once.

Where the energies intertwined, a white-hot radiance more blinding than a supernova eruption burst forth, bleaching the entire training plain stark white.

Qi Heng's arm remained utterly motionless, like a pillar forged from the toughest divine metal in the universe.

Even the void beneath his feet held against the recoil.

But the supposedly indestructible ground of the God of Destruction Realm below could not completely withstand the aftermath of that terrifying force.

Centered directly beneath Qi Heng, a dense chorus of cracking rang out. Savage, spiderweb-like fissures exploded outward in every direction! Each crack was several meters wide and bottomless, while the rocks along their edges were instantly melted by the extreme heat into crimson and golden lava that slowly flowed, radiating heat waves capable of vaporizing ordinary metal.

A massive shattered crater over a thousand meters in diameter, veined with lava, was forming beneath Qi Heng's feet.

Five seconds, ten seconds, fifteen seconds... The purple sphere of destructive energy, enough to end a star system, violently throbbed, spun, and slammed against Qi Heng's seemingly ordinary palm, yet it could not advance even a fraction further.

The corrosion of destruction and the resistance of the dark-red aura reached a dangerous yet precise balance within that tiny space.

The two forces repeatedly wrestled, annihilated each other, and regenerated at the point of collision. The bursting light and chaotic energy currents turned the area into a death zone where even light could not escape normally.

Qi Heng's dark-red figure stood at the heart of the destructive storm. His long red hair whipped wildly through the violent energy currents, while his golden eyes remained fixed calmly on the God of Destruction before him, as though what he held in his hand was not the power to end all things, but merely a slightly heavy leather ball.

The next instant, his five fingers suddenly clenched, his knuckles turning faintly white from the force.

The energy sphere containing the laws of destruction silently burst apart in his palm, turning into countless tiny purple motes. Like fireflies scattered by the wind, they flickered in the air before vanishing completely.

The shockwave from the explosion spread outward in a ring, carving radiating trenches across the ground and sweeping rubble and dust high into the sky.

The raging airflow stirred up a hurricane, wrenching all the black hair from Qi Heng's forehead backward. His hair danced wildly in the wind, while his robes clung tightly to his body, outlining sharp lines.