A Contest of Strength

The battle between Yuan Tian and Long Zhuo had neither the power to move mountains and overturn seas nor the visual feast of a massive explosion in the sky. It was enough to make onlookers drowsy; staying awake was already quite a show of respect for the two masters.

But if that made anyone assume their fight was harmless, little more than a game, they were wrong—dead wrong. The danger was greater than in the Twelve Heavenly Guards' battle, with its rushes through sky and earth and its "hollow bombs."

The Quasi-Sage who had fought Yuan Tian alongside Long Zhuo had only just attained that rank. Yet in this very kind of battle, one tiny "slip" had let Yuan Tian gravely wound him. Then it was over: he had bid this beautiful world farewell for good.

When masters crossed blows, appearances meant little. The brightest mushrooms were often poisonous. A contest between masters could decide life or death in a single exchange; one careless moment, and it was all over.

Unlike Yuan Tian and Long Zhuo's fight, which looked dull to the untrained eye, the clash between the Twelve Heavenly Guards and the Dragon Clan masters was quite a spectacle.

Within their battlefield, the waters of the Eastern Sea boiled. Countless sea creatures were killed or wounded, struck either by the combatants themselves or by the aftershocks. Any survivors had fled. The fighters had taken on a vast burden of Karmic Retribution—not Karma.

Fortunately, the Twelve Heavenly Guards benefited from Yuan Tian's "blessing" and shared in the Chaos Star Formation's bounty. They earned a little Merit at every moment. It was far less than Yuan Tian earned, but even a tiny amount added up when it never stopped coming.

As time passed, the Twelve Heavenly Guards accumulated more and more