From Li Yan's angle, the small of the golden-armored giant's back had become a hornet's nest, the plates of his golden armor twisted into irregular shapes.
Amid the mangled armor plates, some had been driven into the golden-armored giant's body, some stood half-pried upright, cutting into him like sharp blades, and others were riddled with holes...
In short, a large section of the golden-armored giant's lower back had caved in completely, yet not a single drop of blood flowed out.
Only faint wisps of golden light drifted from it, like threads of morning mist seeping from cracks in the mountain rocks...
Li Yan was utterly appalled by the toughness of the golden-armored giant's body. He had no idea whether it came from the cultivation method the giant practiced or was an innate quality of his true form.
After losing most of his defenses—or, more likely, after dying to the Soul-Destroying Water and losing all defenses—the giant had suffered only punctures and a collapsed section in his lower back.
Under Li Yan's barrage of thrusts with the Guiyi Water-Parting Spikes, had Li Yan himself lost his defenses and had his entire body flooded with that tyrannical force, he would long since have exploded into a cloud of bloody mist.
Yet the giant had suffered only wounds to his lower back. The overwhelming force Li Yan poured into his body with those all-out attacks, enough to overturn rivers and seas, had failed to burst him apart from within.
Had Li Yan not already seen through his Divine Sense that the giant's Nascent Soul had turned gray after being struck by the Soul-Destroying Water, then been hacked apart by his flurry of blades, he would have kept attacking until he had exhausted every last bit of strength.
Clang!
Thud!
Two sounds came from