Breaking the Thunder Phoenix with One Punch
Fu Yuan was utterly composed. The gap of three minor realms put no pressure on him whatsoever. He hovered quietly in the air, meeting every change by remaining unchanged.
Boom! Boom!
As Luo Jie advanced, his lightning technique grew ever more powerful. Nine bolts of blue lightning as thick as bowl rims circled his body.
"Luo Jie's Bi'an Technique has grown even stronger." Luo Qi's eyes were full of apprehension. He had fought Luo Jie before and knew firsthand how powerful the technique was. Its destructive power was astonishing.
"He didn't test him at all, but opened with a killing move?" Luo Qingyi was somewhat surprised. She and Luo Jie were both leaders of the Great Luo Dynasty's younger generation and had clashed several times. His using such a technique from the outset was clearly beyond her expectations.
"A lightning technique?" Fu Yuan's eyes glimmered faintly gold, mysterious runes interweaving within them.
He reached out with his right hand and grasped at empty air. A blue-black Spiritual Qi spear appeared out of nowhere, countless tiny bolts of lightning crackling around it with terrifying might.
"Kill!"
Luo Jie roared. Ten blue seas of lightning Qi surged in his dantian as he unleashed his lightning technique in full. He seemed to become the divine beast Bi'an, lightning surging with his every movement.
Fu Yuan and Luo Jie's first clash was a confrontation between lightning techniques, a blue visual feast.
There was no evenly matched contest between two heroes as imagined. After only a few exchanges, Luo Jie was on the defensive. The lightning spear pierced the Bi'an, leaving a bloody gash in his right shoulder.
Fu Yuan attacked without haste, thrusting his lightning spear again and again. He broke Luo Jie's attacks with effortless ease, clinging to him like a snake king on the hunt.
Luo Jie erupted with power, driving the Bi'an Technique to its limit. Lightning surged as eighteen bolts roared, seemingly conjuring a true divine beast Bi'an that tore and bit at the lightning spear.
But it was useless. Fu Yuan merely raised his hand and swept the lightning spear across, suppressing him once more.
"This shouldn't be happening. They're both holy sons, and there's a gap of three minor realms between them." A heavenly pride cried out in shock. It was a completely one-sided suppression, as though the two were not opponents on the same level.
The spear swept past, scattering the Bi'an and breaking Luo Jie's technique. His left shoulder was pierced as well, and bright red blood seeped out.
Luo Jie's body trembled slightly. Blood dripped steadily from both shoulders as unprecedented pressure closed in on him.
"Hah! Hah! Hah!"
After fewer than ten exchanges, Luo Jie had been driven back in defeat. He gasped for breath, not because he had exhausted himself, but because of the pressure on his spirit and bearing.
The youth in ink-black robes was far too terrifying. Fighting him was like facing a primordial fiend. His attacks were utterly casual, yet they carried terrifying might and left no opening.
Fu Yuan did not pursue him. A fight like this was like pestering and teasing a young child, far too dull.
"Such a gap... were ancient holy sons all this powerful?" A Divine Fire Realm star lord was astonished. Luo Jie was exceptionally gifted, arguably Great Luo's greatest heavenly pride in a thousand years, yet he had no power to fight back.
"He has yet to summon his spirit or use his bloodline power. The outcome is still unknown," an elder who had taught Luo Jie said quietly.
Luo Jie's presence began to rise, and a blue phoenix appeared behind him. Its body, formed from countless bolts of lightning, stirred heaven and earth.
His body was wreathed in lightning, and his eyes flashed blue. He seemed like a sovereign who commanded lightning, looking down upon the world.
"With the Thunder Phoenix Spirit upon him, big brother Luo Jie will surely turn the battle around," one of Luo Jie's admirers declared. Such a spirit was immensely powerful, multiplying his combat strength several times over.
"A top-tier divine beast, the Thunder Phoenix. Not bad," Fu Yangping said. In his eyes, the heavenly pride Great Luo acknowledged as its greatest in a thousand years was only worthy of a "not bad."
Decent enough, but nothing outstanding.
Which of the Great Emperor of Nothingness's followers was not an illustrious figure who had swept across the nine heavens and ten earths, suppressing holy sons by the score?
"Again!" Luo Jie shouted, merging into one with the Thunder Phoenix. He was too fast. The heavenly prides of his generation could not make out his figure and saw only afterimages.
The air shrieked as the Thunder Phoenix delivered an earth-shaking strike, speed and power displayed to their fullest. This was the blue of a world's end, the blue that destroyed all things.
"Interesting, but it hasn't been honed enough," Fu Yuan said calmly. His eyes, suffused with pale gold, opened and closed, radiating holiness.
The Thunder Phoenix Spirit shrieked to the heavens, and Luo Jie roared into the void. Spirit and body had joined completely in a lightning strike certain to hit its mark.
Closer, closer! the watching heavenly prides shouted inwardly. The duel was breathtaking, and the spirit of a top-tier divine beast was astonishing.
The elders and star lords who had taught Luo Jie all smiled, acknowledging the Thunder Phoenix's power. They believed that when Luo Jie matured, he could become a lord of lightning, strike across the nine heavens and ten earths, and fear no enemy.
Few of Great Luo's younger generation could have taken such an attack, yet the youth named Fu Yuan acted with utter ease, clenching his right hand and throwing a punch.
Boom!
The earth-shattering punch collided head-on with the Thunder Phoenix. Blue lightning filled a corner of heaven and earth, a terrifying spectacle.
Yet this very Thunder Phoenix Spirit, this very lightning technique, seemed incomparably fragile when that punch arrived.
Let your lightning come by the thousands; I shall destroy it all with one punch.
One punch struck out. Lightning shattered, the phoenix wailed, and Luo Jie coughed up mouthfuls of blood. A streak of blue light fell from the sky, kicking up dust across the ground.
"One punch! Just one punch broke big brother Luo Jie's Thunder Phoenix Spirit."
"Was the victor decided with just one punch?"
"How could this be? Is the gap between ancient and present-day holy sons really so great? Are they beyond our reach?"
That one punch shook Great Luo's entire younger generation. Some stared blankly; others rubbed their eyes, suspecting they were dreaming.
How could Luo Jie, the holy son who had swept through Great Luo's younger generation, fail to withstand even one punch?
"Fu Yuan... a fearsome surname. It always reminds me of a terrifying fellow who knew neither heaven nor law." The young marquis Luo Feng tapped his forehead with a folding fan inscribed with the character "Dao," staring at the ink-robed youth hovering in the void.
He was too alike: that peerless bearing and those extraordinary methods were just like those of that formidable enemy back then.
"He's this powerful just after entering Profound Opening. It makes this old man curious about the spirit he has nurtured." Grand Elder Luo Shu was also astonished. Even he, a Venerable Realm expert, had expected a clash of dragon and tiger before the fight.
"With a gap of three minor realms, did all ancient holy sons possess such abilities?" a grand elder asked gravely.
"The great Dao has weakened, Spiritual Qi has grown barren, and this era is far too incomplete," Grand Elder Luo Jue sighed.
Since the end of the Blood Antiquity Era, there had never again been ten thousand saints at court, fully realized sacred physiques in the same generation, or a reigning emperor with formidable enemies.
In the Dao Desolation era, emperors were scarce and saints hid in places where time flowed slowly, so many called it the era of venerables.
Only those in power in the very greatest imperial dynasties, imperial clans, and ancient holy lands were saints. They traveled the myriad realms and held heaven and earth in their grasp.
"Heaven and earth are incomplete, and the laws of the Dao are hard to make whole. It isn't that our techniques and people are weak, but that this era has fallen short." Another grand elder lamented that they had been born at the wrong time. They had been the greatest heavenly prides of their respective eras, yet could scarcely advance in the Venerable Realm, with no hope of becoming saints.
It was not that their talent or bloodlines were lacking. The great Dao of heaven and earth had simply changed, leaving them in despair.