The light of the Divine Spark Projection illuminated the entire gloomy underground stone hall.
Violent divine might of light poured down like a celestial river, pressing cracks into every inch of the hall's vaulted ceiling. Before the falling stones could reach the ground, the blazing platinum holy light vaporized them into ash. The magic formation on the floor trembled violently. Hundreds of mages' soul threads, which had originally gathered into a sphere of light, were being forcibly dragged toward a body suspended in midair, rapidly woven from sacred radiance.
It was the three-meter-tall shell of a Light Angel, neither male nor female. Six wings of light, formed entirely from divine power, had faintly unfurled behind it, and the Divine Spark Projection was embedded between its brows.
"Mortal, kneel before the descent of a god!"
The Purifier's face twisted in the raging light. He spread his hands fervently, allowing the divine radiance fed back by the Divine Spark Projection to tear his robes to shreds.
Boom!
The angel, which had only just assumed human form, suddenly opened its eyes. Two nearly solid pillars of gold-white light swept out, instantly melting scorched, glassy pits dozens of meters deep into the stone walls.
Peak Saint Realm! The pressure of a false god that had even touched the threshold of divine power!
"The ritual hasn't fully stabilized!" Doehring's voice exploded in Linley's mind, his tone as grave as an abyss. "That is a 'false divine body,' forcibly shaped from mortal souls using a fragment of a higher being's Divine Spark as a catalyst. Its core is the Divine Spark Projection between its brows, but what sustains the shell is the thirty-six energy nodes on the floor where earth and light intersect!"
Doehring did not directly crush the enemy with divine power. In accordance with his agreement with Dylan, and to let Linley comprehend the laws through a true life-and-death trial, he merely stood like a mountain across their retreat route, quietly settling the earth veins beneath the hall that were on the verge of collapse.
"Teacher Longers, Delia, destroy the formation nodes!"
Linley let out a long cry. His ninth-rank Dragonblood Battle Qi surged like the sea, and his black dragon scales gleamed with a cold, dark metallic luster beneath the raging holy light.
"Wind Shadow Technique!"
Nine dark-blue afterimages tore through the air in an instant, surging upstream against the pressure of the rampaging divine might!
"Roar!"
The false divine body let out an inhuman shriek. Its six wings of light shuddered violently, and a skyful of gold-white sacred feathers became a raging storm that engulfed the stone hall.
Longers planted his staff against the ground, unleashing the full magical power of a Saint Realm Wind Element magus. "Dimension Wind Wall!" A blue hurricane that warped space rose from the floor, sheltering Delia and the unconscious mages within. Delia lightly waved her staff, sending hundreds of wind blades skimming precisely along the ground, frantically slicing through the magical lines burning with golden flames.
In midair, Linley had already closed in.
"Ant!"
The false divine body lowered its hollow, majestic face and raised a massive palm burning with milky-white divine flames. Like an entire heavenly vault of light collapsing, it struck straight at the crown of Linley's head.
The power contained in this blow far surpassed Landan's within the Six-pointed Battle Formation back then, and even exceeded Steller's Frozen World!
Yet there was not a trace of panic in Linley's dark-gold slit pupils, only an absolute calm as deep and weighty as the earth.
He tightened his grip on the thirty-six-hundred-jin Black Jade Heavy Sword.
Every day and night of his four years of sword training in Yunfeng Town echoed through his mind, along with the deep, resonant pulsations that had continued unabated for countless millennia through the continent beneath his feet.
Wielding Heavy Weapons as Though They Were Light, Supreme Force, Hundredfold Waves!
"Profound Truths of the Earth-Hundredfold Waves!"
The heavy sword had no edge, yet the moment he struck, it became as light and graceful as a breeze cutting through the dawn.
The blade crashed head-on into the sacred palm in midair!
There was no earth-shattering explosion. Even the shock waves strangely froze at that instant.
The cold majesty in the false divine body's eyes abruptly stiffened.
The instant its false divine body, capable of withstanding ordinary peak Saint Realm attacks, touched the Black Jade Heavy Sword, the energy pathways woven from hundreds of soul threads within it suffered a series of hammerlike blows!
The first wave, the tenth, the fiftieth, the hundredth!
One hundred incomparably pure earth vibration waves, perfectly attuned to the pulsations of the world, ignored the churning divine flames of light on the surface and drove straight along the divine energy channels toward its heart and core!
Crack!
With the first crisp snap, the false divine body's right arm shattered inch by inch, dissolving into scattered motes of light.
"No! The divine body cannot be destroyed!" the Purifier roared shrilly.
At the same time, Longers and Delia finally severed the last formation node on the floor. The extracted mages' souls lost their guiding pull and scattered downward in a gentle rain of light.
Deprived of the sacrificial souls sustaining it, the false divine body's aura plummeted!
Linley turned his wrist, and his left hand swept past his waist.
Hiss!
A hauntingly brilliant flash of violet light appeared. The Purple Blood Soft Sword darted out like a venomous snake leaving its burrow. With ninth-rank Dragonblood Battle Qi and the Wind Shadow Technique pushed to their limits, it moved faster than sight could follow, plunging straight through the fissure opened by the heavy sword and into the false divine body's brow!
The tip of the Purple Blood Soft Sword slammed hard into the white Divine Spark Projection.
Deep within the blade, the hidden bloodthirsty baleful aura seemed to be stimulated by the High Godhead's aura, abruptly showing a streak of scarlet.
Boom!
The Divine Spark Projection gave a groan under the unbearable strain. Spiderweb cracks instantly covered the entire crystal, and then it exploded!
"Aah!"
The false divine body and the Purifier, who suffered the backlash, screamed in despair at the same time. Freed from its restraints, the terrifying storm of light swept wildly outward, only to be silently dispelled by a sweep of Doehring's broad sleeve.
The smoke and dust cleared.
Only ruined, scorched earth remained at the center of the stone hall. The false divine body had been utterly annihilated, and the Purifier lay collapsed on the floor, blood seeping from between his brows, his life extinguished.
Linley slowly put away the Black Jade Heavy Sword and Purple Blood Soft Sword and released his Dragonblood Warrior Transformation. His face was slightly pale, and his chest rose and fell somewhat.
"It's over." Delia put away her staff and walked over to the weakened mages they had rescued. A faint smile of relief finally appeared on her delicate, spirited face. "The disappearance of the twelve merchant fleets, and the Radiant Church's most deeply embedded stronghold within the O'Brien Empire-we've finally brought both matters to a definitive close today."
Longers clapped his hands in admiration. "Linley, to destroy a false divine body descended through a Divine Spark Projection with only the power of the initial stage of the Saint Realm... the reputation of the Four Ultimate Warriors truly is terrifying."
Linley wiped the fine dust from his sword hilt and shook his head. "If you and Delia hadn't cut off the formation's source, Teacher, and it had fully taken shape, I wouldn't even have had a chance to strike."
He turned to Doehring, who merely stroked his white beard and nodded slightly, his eyes smiling. In this battle, Linley's ability to seize opportunities in desperate circumstances and his use of the Profound Truths of the Earth had become considerably more refined than they had been in Yunfeng Town.
They did not linger. Longers cast high-level protective magic and escorted the dozens of surviving mages they had rescued, setting off with Linley's party for the imperial capital, Chiyan City.
Several days later, Chiyan City.
News of the destruction of the Silent Monastery in the Ankh Mountains stirred towering waves between the Yulan Empire's embassy and the O'Brien Empire's imperial family.
In the great hall, Her Majesty Joanne examined the mountain of irrefutable evidence Delia presented, the fragments of the Divine Spark Projection, and the imperial mages who had been rescued and brought back. Furious on the spot, she ordered a nationwide investigation into the Radiant Church's remaining spies. She even took the rare step of publicly commending the joint achievements of the Baruch Clan and the Yulan Empire's delegation before the court.
The shocking espionage case that had shaken both nations was finally laid bare. The covert network the Radiant Church had painstakingly built within the empire over several decades was almost entirely uprooted.
Yet before the capital's commoners and nobles could recover from their astonishment at the "Radiant Church's crushing defeat," another piece of news, one that shook the entire O'Brien Continent even more, spread through every street and alley overnight-
The genius Sword Saint Olivier had returned from his travels in the northern regions!
Moreover, on the very morning he entered the capital, he had ordered Blumer to personally travel north of the city and deliver a challenge to the empire's strongest Saint Realm expert, a man renowned for centuries-the "Rock Sword Saint," Haydson!
The date of the decisive battle: the night of May 4, Year 10009 of the Yulan Calendar.
The location: above the Chiyan River, north of the imperial capital!
All of Chiyan City erupted at once.
On one side was a peerless genius who had refused to become the War God's disciple, comprehended both the laws of light and darkness in his early forties, and swept aside Sword Saints of the same level; on the other was an established titan who had guarded the empire for centuries, reputed to have invincible defenses below the War God, and had never suffered defeat!
The rear training grounds of Earl Wharton's residence.
Wharton gripped his war saber, Carnage, and forcefully cleaved apart a wave of air before turning toward Linley, who sat deep in thought beside a stone table.
"Big brother, Olivier really is going to challenge Haydson." A hint of complexity showed in Wharton's eyes. "Olivier lost once six years ago. Now that he's returned from secluded training, could he really be confident he can break Haydson's 'absolute defense'?"
Barker and his four brothers gathered around as well. Gates boomed, "That Olivier is arrogant as hell, but I've heard Haydson's turtle shell is absurdly tough. Even some of the veteran Saint Realm experts of the War God Sect can't break it."
Linley held his teacup, his gaze deep.
Bebe lay on the table, gnawing on fresh fruit, and transmitted indistinctly, "Boss, Olivier wanted to fight you at the arena before, but now he's turned around and gone after Haydson. He's clearly been holding something in and wants to trample the biggest stumbling block first."
"Olivier is certainly not blindly arrogant," Linley said slowly, lightly tracing a mark across the marble tabletop with his fingertip. "At the arena, I saw his younger brother Blumer use the Ice Dream Sword. Though Blumer's swordsmanship was fierce, it was only a little of the superficial knowledge Olivier had taught him. Olivier himself carries two swords, black and white, and cultivates the diametrically opposed laws of light and darkness."
"Diametrically opposed laws?" Wharton froze.
"Light governs extreme speed and explosive force; darkness governs devouring and stealth." Linley's expression grew serious. "I've heard that while Olivier was training hard in the northern regions, he fought Saint Realm magical beasts in an abyss of extreme cold. His daring to challenge Haydson this time isn't simply to wash away his old humiliation. He's forcing himself to his limits to fuse light and darkness, and may even... have touched upon that legendary method."
"You mean soul attacks?"
Doehring Cowart approached from the side with a teacup, his moon-white robes stirring lightly in the breeze.
Barker, his four brothers, and Wharton grew solemn and all turned toward Doehring.
Doehring sipped his tea and gazed into the distance north of the imperial capital. "Warriors tend to focus on the ferocity of battle-qi and the toughness of the body in their cultivation. But when the Laws of the Universe develop to their depths, different paths lead to the same destination. Merging spiritual power with battle-qi to form a sharp spike that pierces straight into the soul-such methods are commonplace on the divine planes, but Saint Warriors who can comprehend them on their own in a Material Plane are exceedingly rare. If Olivier truly has reached that threshold, this battle... will be far more than an ordinary contest of physical bodies and defenses."
Linley nodded, his expression equally serious. "Haydson is called the 'Rock Sword Saint,' and primarily cultivates the Laws of the Earth. Having comprehended Earth Pulsation, I know well the earth's vastness and depth. Since Haydson can be called the strongest in the Saint Realm, his comprehension of the Laws of the Earth certainly isn't limited to protecting his body with battle-qi. His 'weightiness' and defenses very likely protect his internal organs and soul as well."
"Big brother, who do you think will win, then?" Wharton could not help asking.
"We'll only know once they fight."
Linley stood and gazed at the dark clouds gradually gathering on the horizon. "But this battle is crucial to me. I've only just comprehended Hundredfold Waves and the rudiments of Pulsation. Haydson's Laws of the Earth and Olivier's extreme speed of light and darkness will be the best mirror through which I can clearly see the true limits of the peak Saint Realm."
He put away the Black Jade Heavy Sword, rested his hand on its hilt, and said in a low voice:
"Pass down the order. Have the household guards prepare in advance. On the night of May 4, we'll go to the banks of the Chiyan River and witness this clash at the pinnacle that will shake the Yulan Continent!"