Wrapped in tremendous Yuan Power, Lin Langtian's calm yet infinitely arrogant voice rolled like heavenly thunder above the entire colossal Arena.
Hundreds of thousands of people throughout the Arena fell utterly silent at that moment.
Countless gazes followed Lin Langtian's line of sight, landing in unison on the somewhat frail-looking youth in blue below.
Meanwhile, in a secluded corner of the Arena's stands.
Seated here were the people at the very bottom of the Great Yan Dynasty's Lin Clan: the Qingyang Town Branch Family.
Lin Dong's grandfather, Lin Zhentian, gripped the stone railing before him with both hands.
There was not a trace of pride on his aged face, only utter pallor and despair.
His grip was so forceful that cracks spread through the stone railing.
"How exactly has Lin Langtian cultivated over these past ten years?"
Lin Zhentian's voice trembled, his clouded eyes filled with bitterness.
He had originally thought that Lin Dong's rise in Qingyang Town, and even his defeat of some experts from Yan City, already made him a genius seen once in a century.
But now, seeing Lin Langtian standing on the elevated platform like a god, he truly felt what the main family's foundations meant, and what a suffocating gulf looked like!
Beside Lin Zhentian, Lin Dong's father, Lin Xiao, had bloodshot eyes, tears brimming in his fierce gaze.
Watching his son walk toward the fighting platform below, step by step, Lin Xiao shook violently, his nails digging deep into his palms as blood dripped down.
"It was my fault..."
"It was all my fault!"
Lin Xiao gritted his teeth, his voice full of regret and pain.
"If I hadn't insisted on stepping forward back then and gotten crippled by him, Dong'er wouldn't have to carry such a heavy burden."
"He's only in his teens! And he has to face a monster like this!"
"How could he possibly defeat Lin Langtian?"
His mother, Liu Yan, had long since dissolved into tears beside them, clamping her hands over her mouth and not daring to look down again.
The other disciples of the Qingyang Town Branch Family around them hung their heads, their faces ashen.
"It's over. Our Qingyang Town Branch Family is truly finished this time."
"With strength like Lin Langtian's, Brother Dong couldn't possibly be his match, no matter how talented he is."
"The gap in resources between the main family and the branch family is too great. It's not something you can bridge by putting your life on the line."
Pessimism spread wildly through the Qingyang Town Branch Family's seating area.
Not a single person believed Lin Dong would win.
At the same time.
On the Douluo Continent, however, the atmosphere had taken on a strangely feverish quality.
Although the sky-screen broadcasts over the past few days had brought everyone endless fear and despair.
Such was the baseness of human nature.
As long as they were not the unfortunate ones, extreme repression instead gave rise to a sick craving for entertainment.
In Heaven Dou City, and even in the major cities of the Star Luo Empire.
Quite a few underground gambling dens and aristocratic circles actually began taking bets directly on the light screen in the sky!
"Come on, come on! Place your bets!"
"Bet on how many moves that Lin Dong from Qingyang Town can last!"
"I'll wager a hundred Gold Soul Coins! Lin Dong won't last three moves!"
"Three moves? You think too highly of that country boy! Didn't you see Lin Langtian's entrance just now? He tore even the clouds apart! I'm betting on an instant kill in one move!"
Countless Soul Masters and commoners who had not been selected waved their money pouches, frantically placing bets.
It was practically unanimous.
Across the Douluo Continent, ninety-nine percent of people bet that Lin Langtian would kill Lin Dong instantly with a single move.
On Shrek Academy's training grounds.
Ma Hongjun watched with envy as well, unable to resist fishing a few crumpled Silver Soul Coins out of his pocket.
"Boss Dai, Little San, how long do you think this kid can last?"
"Why don't we pool some money and make a bet too?"
"I think this Lin Dong is dead for sure. He was so cocky just now, but he's finally run into a tough opponent!"
Hearing Ma Hongjun's words, Dai Mubai shook his head despite his heavy mood.
"There's no suspense at all."
"With Lin Langtian's strength, he'd probably be a god-level existence even on our Douluo Continent."
"This Lin Dong is too arrogant. He doesn't know how to bide his time."
With his hands clasped behind his back and his gaze fixed on the fighting platform in the light screen, Tang San offered an exceedingly rational analysis as well.
"This is the absolute disparity created by resources."
"Lin Langtian has a super clan of the Great Yan Dynasty behind him. He's had the best medicinal herbs and the highest-grade cultivation methods since childhood."
"And Lin Dong? He's just a poor boy from a remote little town."
"In this world that values only absolute power, no matter how talented Lin Dong is, without a mountain of resources, he could never cross the gulf of a major realm like the Qi Creation Realm."
Tang San shook his head, a trace of disdain flashing through his eyes.
"Nothing but a reckless man's courage."
"If he'd been willing to swallow his pride and listen to Teacher's tactical guidance earlier, he might have been able to hold out on the platform a little longer and find a chance to surrender and save his life."
"Facing him head-on now is courting death."
In a rear courtyard in Lin City.
Yu Xiaogang, covered in excrement and freshly whipped by a guard.
He leaned on a shovel, struggling to poke half his head out as he watched the reflection of the light screen above the distant Arena.
Despite the distance, he could still feel Lin Langtian's terrifying pressure.
"Hmph!"
Yu Xiaogang spat a mouthful of bloody saliva onto the ground, his face filled with venomous resentment.
"That's what you get for being arrogant! For looking down on me!"
"Now that you're facing a monster like that, let's see how you die!"
"Refuse to listen to the theories of a Grandmaster like me, and no matter how talented you are, you're just a short-lived wretch who'll be slapped to death!"
A surge of twisted pleasure welled up within Yu Xiaogang.
He was even somewhat glad now that he had been blown into the sewage ditch earlier and had not become involved with Lin Dong.
Otherwise, once Lin Dong was beaten to death by Lin Langtian, he, as Lin Dong's strategist, would probably be dragged out by the Lin Clan and burned as a human lantern too.
Inside the Arena.
No matter how those outside wrote him off, Lin Dong's steps never faltered.
He climbed the steps fashioned from black obsidian, one step at a time, onto the enormous fighting platform under everyone's gaze.
Today, Lin Dong wore a blue robe washed somewhat pale.
He carried no magnificent weapon, nor did he release any terrifying aura.
He looked just like an ordinary boy from next door.
Yet when he stood in the center of the platform and raised his head to look straight at Lin Langtian at the highest point of the stands.
It seemed as though an ancient Ferocious Beast on the verge of awakening lurked within that lean body.
"It's been ten years."
Lin Dong's voice was calm, without hysteria or furious roaring.
It was as though he were stating an ordinary fact.
"Lin Langtian, ten years ago in Qingyang Town, you acted like a god on high, crippling my father with a single move and trampling more than half a lifetime of my grandfather's painstaking efforts beneath your feet."
"Back then, you said everyone in the branch family was trash, unworthy of even a proper glance from you."
Lin Dong slowly raised his hand and pointed at Lin Langtian in the stands.
"Today, I'm standing here."
"To hack off the very foot you planted on our branch family's heads back then!"
Boom!
The moment Lin Dong said those words.
An uproar surged through the entire colossal Arena like towering waves.
He was insane!
This kid was absolutely insane!
A wild brat from a branch family, facing the main lineage's foremost genius at the advanced Qi Creation Realm, actually dared make a claim as outrageously arrogant as hacking off his opponent's foot?
Among the crowd below the stands.
Hu Liena hid in a corner, watching that slender figure on the platform, and could not help shaking her head.
"Foolish."
"Talking tough before absolute power will only make your death more miserable."
She had now completely crossed Lin Dong off her list of potential backers.
Her eyes fixed on Lin Langtian on the elevated platform.
Only a man like this, standing high above others and deciding their lives and deaths with a wave of his hand, is worthy of having me, Spirit Hall's Saintess, attach myself to him!
Hu Liena silently swore that after Lin Langtian displayed his might today, she would do everything she could to approach him.
On the elevated platform.
Hearing Lin Dong's words, Lin Langtian's expression did not change in the slightest.
He merely set down his teacup gently and slowly rose to his feet.
At that moment, even the air throughout the Arena seemed to freeze.
"Hack off my foot?"
Lin Langtian looked down at Lin Dong from above, the corners of his mouth curving.
"An ant is still an ant. Even if chance grants you a little ability, your horizons remain no wider than the mouth of your well."
"Your father was a worthless fool who overestimated himself back then, and I crippled him with one move."
"Today, I'll show you great mercy."
"And use one move to let you join him as a cripple!"
The moment his words fell, Lin Langtian showed no intention whatsoever of coming down from the stands.
He did not even fully open his eyes to give Lin Dong a proper look.
He casually raised his right hand, pointing five long, pale fingers toward Lin Dong on the platform below, and pressed lightly through the air.
Rumble!
The instant he pressed his palm down, the Heaven and Earth Energy above the entire Arena seemed to come under some terrifying pull and erupted into turmoil!
Endless true essence of heaven and earth gathered frantically in midair.
In the blink of an eye, a translucent giant hand of Yuan Power, dozens of zhang across and almost blotting out the sky and sun, formed above Lin Dong's head!
This was no profound martial art.
It was merely an attack of pure Yuan Power that Lin Langtian had casually condensed using his terrifying cultivation at the advanced Qi Creation Realm.
But what he wanted was precisely the humiliation of casually crushing an ant!
"Go."
Lin Langtian's lips moved slightly.
That enormous palm of Yuan Power slammed down savagely toward Lin Dong below, like Mount Tai bearing down on him!
Before the giant hand even landed.
Its terrifying wind pressure had already forced thick, spiderweb-like cracks through the hard black obsidian platform below.
Gales howled, whipping Lin Dong's blue robe with snapping cracks.
"It's over..."
In the Qingyang Town Branch Family's seats, Lin Zhentian closed his eyes in anguish.
Lin Xiao's eyes were bloodshot as he desperately tried to charge onto the platform and take the blow for his son.
"Dong'er! Get out of the way!"
But the Lin Family disciples beside him held him down firmly. Against an attack of this level, even if Lin Xiao rushed up, he would be crushed into pulp in an instant.
And at the same time.
On the Douluo Continent, countless gamblers and Soul Masters who had placed bets widened their eyes in excitement.
"Crush him! Crush him!"
"Haha, those Gold Soul Coins are as good as mine!"
On Shrek Academy's training grounds.
Watching that giant hand of Yuan Power blot out the sky and sun in the sky screen, Tang San silently shook his head as well.
"There's no suspense left."
"The density of this attack has already far exceeded the limits of what Lin Dong's body can withstand."
"His only possible end is to be smashed into a heap of mangled flesh, without even his bones remaining."
Tang San no longer even wanted to watch.
A crushing defeat without the slightest suspense like this could only prove that his earlier analysis had been exceedingly accurate.
Meanwhile, in the rear courtyard of Lin City.
Yu Xiaogang lay on his stomach at the edge of the sewage ditch, watching the screen of light in the sky, his grin stretching all the way to his ears.
"Serves you right! That's what you get for being so arrogant!"
"This is what happens when you refuse to listen to my theories as Grandmaster!"
The entire world seemed to be waiting to see the gruesome sight of Lin Dong being slapped into a pulp.
Yet Lin Dong stood in the center of the platform, facing the enormous hand of Yuan Power rapidly growing larger in his pupils.
He did not retreat even half a step.
"Ten years ago, you took that same lofty attitude and shattered my father's dantian with a single slap."
Lin Dong slowly raised his head. There was not the slightest fear on his delicate face.
There was only a crazed will to fight that had been suppressed for ten whole years!
"Today, you still think you can humiliate me with such a casual attack?"
"Lin Langtian, you think far too highly of yourself!"
With a furious roar like a fierce tiger bursting out of its cage.
Lin Dong suddenly strode forward.
Crack!
The Black Obsidian floor beneath his feet instantly shattered under his step, sending fragments flying.
The next second, under the shocked gazes of hundreds of thousands present and billions of living beings on the Douluo Continent.
A dazzling light, as violent as thunder, suddenly erupted from Lin Dong's seemingly lean, frail body!
"Great Sun Thunder Body!"
Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Bzzzt!
Countless violent arcs of lightning instantly coiled around the surface of Lin Dong's body.
At that moment, his skin actually took on a dark golden sheen, as indestructible as brass!
A terrifying physical strength, not the least bit weaker than that enormous hand of Yuan Power, erupted with a thunderous boom like a slumbering volcano!
He neither dodged nor backed down.
Directly facing the enormous hand of Yuan Power descending from the sky, Lin Dong swung his right arm up, clenching all five fingers into a fist.
With a piercing shriek that tore through the air, he hurled a savage punch upward!
"He's insane! This brat actually wants to withstand an attack at the advanced Qi Creation Realm head-on with his flesh alone?!"
Countless martial artists around the Arena cried out involuntarily.
In their eyes, such behavior was no different from smashing an egg against a rock.
Yet at the very instant Lin Dong's fist collided violently with that enormous hand of Yuan Power.
Boom!!!
A deep, tremendous sound like the peal of great ceremonial bells instantly exploded over the entire Arena!
Violent waves of air, visible to the naked eye, swept straight out from the point of collision like a hurricane.
The martial artists in the front rows of the stands were even blown this way and that by the blast, unable to so much as open their eyes.
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