That bucket-thick cascade of lightning struck straight down, carrying laws capable of destroying heaven and earth.
Lu Chen made no move to evade.
He did not summon any immortal defensive artifact.
He did not even raise an arm to form a defensive seal.
His right hand slowly closed in midair.
Ten thick, sturdy fingers clenched brutally into his palm, forming an enormous fist.
The free-floating charges in the air around him leaped madly, making every coarse, stiff strand of Lu Chen's short hair stand on end.
The century-old Black-Iron Chain wrapped around his forearm was squeezed violently by his instantly swelling muscles. Link after link scraped fiercely against the next, erupting in an ear-piercing metallic screech.
Twelve layers of ultimate qi and blood surged madly through his meridians.
The iron-gray membrane of his skin tightened to its limit over his body. Every pore sealed shut, completely locking away the violent heat within.
His knees bent slightly.
The thirty-thousand-jin City-Guarding Stele beneath Lu Chen's feet let out a dull boom.
Two deep pits were forcibly stamped into the surface of the incomparably hard black stone stele by that terrifying downward force.
Stone fragments blasted outward, striking the surrounding granite walls and smashing dense clusters of tiny craters into them.
The thick tendons along the outer sides of his thighs bulged high, twisting into outrageously warped arcs.
Lu Chen launched himself into the air.
His massive body tore straight through the resistance of the air, detonating a ring of deathly pale sonic-boom clouds where he had stood.
The violent impact ripped apart the rainwater covering the ground and flung up great swathes of foul, rotten mud.
With blue-green and crimson lightning blazing all around him, he shot into the sky.
His right fist swung from below, crashing head-on into the descending bolt