The Sea God stood with his trident in hand, his golden eyes brimming with disdain.
"Very well!"
"I will show you that a god of my Divine Realm!"
"Even with only the power of a Second-Level God, can slaughter you false gods who possess no divine seats!"
With that, the Sea God struck first!
The Sea God Trident in his hand blazed with golden light. Its tip pointed toward the three of them, and his voice echoed across the seas like a divine decree.
"Golden Thirteen Halberds!"
"Third halberd, no return!"
The instant his words fell, the thousand-zhang divine silhouette abruptly became a streak of golden light!
The trident tore through sea and sky, bearing the might of the entire ocean as it thrust straight toward Lingxiao's chest!
Under that strike, the seawater parted, and waves of pressure churned through the void like a surging tide.
Before it even reached her, the crushing pressure of that destructive divine power had already forced all the seawater within a hundred li downward!
Lingxiao stepped forward, her brow creasing slightly.
Streams of data flashed wildly through her eyes.
Energy readings, trajectory calculations, damage estimates...
After a rough calculation lasting 0.3 seconds, a conclusion appeared.
Average!
"In that case!"
She raised her right hand and lightly tapped the panel with a fingertip.
"Level Sixteen Defensive Soul Tool, Divine Shield Protocol, activate!"
Hummm!!
In an instant, the 3,600 components surrounding her abruptly rearranged themselves!
The attack matrix contracted, flipped, and reassembled in a flash, becoming an enormous hexagonal light shield with nested layers that hovered before her!
Between the individual hexagons, deep-blue runic circuits rapidly lit up and interlocked, joining the entire shield into an impenetrable whole!
The instant the shield formed.
The golden trident silhouette crashed into it!
BOOM!!
The two collided!
Torrents of gold and blue exploded in midair. A terrifying shock wave swept in every direction, and billowing smoke blotted out the sky and sun, swallowing the entire stretch of sea!
The Soul Masters of the Douluo Continent stared fixedly at the Heavenly Screen.
They did not dare move a muscle.
They did not even dare breathe loudly.
This attack.
The Sea God must not lose!
He must not lose!!
According to the history books, those were the Golden Thirteen Halberds!
The signature ultimate technique with which the Sea God had swept across the seas for ages!
The most invincible legend in the Douluo Continent's history!
Countless people prayed desperately in their hearts.
Please... you have to hold them off!
Their eyes widened, their nails digging into their palms as they stared unblinking at the roiling smoke.
Yet, in the next second.
A golden figure abruptly shot backward out of the smoke!
Trident in hand, the Sea God was forced back dozens of steps, each footfall sending a visible ripple through the void!
His imperial robes snapped in the wind, and his golden eyes trembled.
He stared fixedly toward the Heavenly Screen and spoke one word at a time.
"This attack is enough..."
Before he could finish.
The smoke dispersed.
Three figures hovered in their original positions, completely unharmed.
Not a single line on the Divine Shield surrounding Lingxiao had cracked. The Level Sixteen Soul Tool was utterly undamaged.
She lowered her arm and rolled her neck, her tone full of disappointed dissatisfaction.
"That's it?"
"My Soul Tool hasn't even reached its limit!"
"Looks like your proof was wrong!"
Beside her, Ao Che clicked his tongue twice and shook his head.
"Tsk, tsk. Just as expected-"
"All you can do is brag."
Everyone on the Douluo Continent was dumbfounded.
Impossible!
Absolutely impossible!
Those were the Golden Thirteen Halberds! A divine skill! Lord Sea God's full-force strike!
A divine skill had struck a shield made by mortals, and it hadn't even chipped the paint?!
Could their god really be inferior to the other side's Soul Tool?
But after their bewilderment, everyone forcibly swallowed that bitter breath and frantically encouraged themselves in their hearts.
It wasn't over yet!
Anything was still possible!
Lord Sea God was only testing them!
Yes, it had to be a test!
Meanwhile, the Sea God slowly lowered his gaze to the Sea God Trident in his hand.
Golden light flickered uncertainly along its shaft.
Their defenses...
Had indeed reached the standard of a First-Level God.
After all, that third halberd of his had carried the full power of a Second-Level God!
A full-force divine skill had been cleanly caught by a shield without so much as shaking it.
By his rough estimate, all three of them had definitely reached what the Divine Realm understood to be the standard of a First-Level God!
It seemed there was no exaggeration in either the Holy Spirit Continent's divine rankings or those of the Divine Realm!
However, judging from that brief clash, along with his ten thousand years of experience with the Five Great God Kings and numerous First-Level Gods.
The overall strength of these three should only have just touched the threshold of First-Level Godhood!
It seemed this avatar no longer served much purpose...
The Sea God slowly raised his head, his expression regaining its arrogance.
"Not bad, not bad!"
"You ants have proven to me that you truly possess the strength of First-Level Gods, but only the lowest rank!"
Lingxiao could not be bothered to argue with him about ranks.
"Even if we're the lowest rank!"
"We're more than enough to deal with this avatar of yours!"
Yet the Sea God suddenly smiled.
"Indeed."
"Dealing with this avatar of mine is far too easy for you."
There was not the slightest anger in his golden eyes. Instead, they held the composure of someone looking down upon dust.
"But if,"
"My true body comes."
"The three of you won't measure up."
His words fell.
A sudden change erupted!
Rather than erupting into action, the thousand-zhang divine silhouette slowly dispersed from head to toe.
Countless droplets of water peeled away from the divine silhouette, each containing a thread of divine light.
They neither fell nor scattered. Instead, they all flowed upward, layering, building, and extending beneath the heavens.
In the blink of an eye, a stairway of water whose ends stretched beyond sight pierced through sea and sky!
Its lower end lay submerged in the ocean.
Its upper end vanished into the divine firmament.
Then.
CRACK!!
The sky split into two right down the middle!!
From the depths of that rift, divine radiance poured down.
The light was not dazzling, yet it made all things bow their heads!
The light was not scorching, yet it silenced mountains and seas!
It was as though another world lay behind the sky, looking down upon the mortal realm through that rift.
The next instant.
A majestic figure appeared at the top of the heavenly stairway.
His imperial robes hung down, his golden crown reflected the sun, and a trident rested across his hand.
He did not fly, leap, or teleport.
He simply stepped onto the watery stairs and slowly descended toward the mortal realm, one step at a time.
Lingxiao, Ao Che, and Jun Mowen all froze.
Was this... the Sea God's true body?
Powerful!
Plainly, unequivocally powerful.
Taken individually, the Sea God's true body was definitely stronger than any one of them!
There was no denying that.
Yet what truly sent a slight chill through their hearts was not that strength, but something else.
The power within him seemed faintly connected to the split sky far above.
And that was not all.
Within him was another power, formless, immaterial, and impossible to grasp. It seemed to fill every inch of his flesh and blood, yet also seemed to belong to this world.
None of the three even knew how to describe it.
Inside the Jingming.
As Rey watched the divine figure descending the stairs beyond the porthole, his gaze abruptly sharpened.
"It's law power that can commune with heaven and earth!"
He slowly voiced his conclusion, his tone graver than ever before.
"It seems... this is the difference between the deities of the Holy Spirit Continent and those of the Divine Realm!"
"It seems that if we want the Holy Spirit Continent's deities to rise another level, we'll have to seize control of the Divine Realm... and grant them divine seats!"
Before you continue