After several days of consolidation, the appointed time for the battle with Haydson soon arrived.
Fierce winds howled atop Tujiao Mountain.
Linley and Haydson faced each other in midair, several hundred meters apart. Below them, millions of spectators held their breath in utter silence.
Under everyone's gaze, Linley did not hesitate. His Dragonblood Battle Qi surged explosively, completing his Dragonblood Warrior transformation. Savage bone spikes burst from his body, and bluish-black dragon scales covered him from head to toe. His nearly three-meter-tall body brimmed with explosive strength, while a steel dragon tail slowly swayed behind him, stirring air currents that gave off a low howl.
"Come, then. Let's see whether you're worthy of making me draw my sword!" Rock Sword Saint Hederson's voice remained confident and resonant. Earthen-yellow waves of energy churned around him, making him resemble a god.
Faced with arrogance almost identical to what Haydson had displayed against Olivier, Linley's dark golden dragon eyes showed not the slightest ripple.
"As you wish."
As his indifferent words fell, Linley's figure abruptly vanished!
Boom!
His extreme speed tore through the air, creating a visible shock wave. All of Tujiao Mountain seemed to tremble beneath the wind pressure. Trees on the summit were uprooted, and boulders tumbled down. Amid the startled cries of the million people below, Linley became a blurred bluish-black phantom, charging straight at Haydson with the boundless Supreme Force of the earth!
"So fast!" Olivier's pupils abruptly contracted as he watched.
Haydson's gaze sharpened slightly as well, but he still did not draw his sword. He simply hurled his seemingly ordinary right fist forward! That punch was as heavy as a mountain, and the surrounding space seemed to freeze in an instant!
Yet Linley did not try to overcome strength with finesse as Olivier had.
The Black Jade Heavy Sword in his hand met Haydson's iron fist head-on, carrying an unflinching resolve to press forward!
Clang!!!
A deafening crash exploded high in the sky, and the rippling waves of air it created scattered a section of the clouds.
Under everyone's horrified gaze, Linley was knocked back less than ten meters through the air before coming to a steady halt. The film of bluish-black pulsations covering his body, thin as a cicada's wing, rippled with countless fine waves the instant fist and sword collided, dispersing that terrifying, mountain-shattering force into the void layer by layer!
"What?!" For the first time, the confidence vanished from Haydson's face, and his eyes filled with shock.
He knew better than anyone how powerful that punch had been. Never mind a Dragonblood Warrior who had only just entered the Saint Realm-even a long-established Peak Saint Realm expert would never dare take it head-on like that! Yet Linley... had merely been knocked back a few meters?
"Your defense..." Haydson stared fixedly at the constantly pulsing bluish-black waves of energy covering Linley's body. The mysteries they contained gave him a sense of familiarity and strangeness that came from the very source.
"Am I worthy of making you draw your sword now?" Linley's icy voice echoed between heaven and earth.
The million spectators below first fell deathly silent, then erupted in earthshaking roars!
He had taken a punch from the Rock Sword Saint head-on without suffering a scratch! What terrifying defense!
"Good! Well done, Linley!" Fighting spirit blazed in Haydson's eyes. Reaching behind him, he drew the ancient, heavy earthen-yellow greatsword from his back with a clang.
"I admit I underestimated you." Haydson stood with his sword in hand, his entire aura utterly transformed. He was no longer a languid boulder, but an active volcano on the verge of erupting. "Your defense follows an entirely different path from mine, yet it has likewise reached deep into the earth. Then take my Earthquake!"
Before his words had faded, Haydson's earthen-yellow heavy sword had already swung out.
That seemingly simple stroke resonated with all of heaven and earth. Linley felt the space around him instantly locked down by an unimaginably heavy force, leaving him nowhere to dodge. That sword seemed to carry the weight of an entire continent as it bore down on his head!
"Bring it on!"
Fighting spirit seethed in Linley's dark golden dragon eyes.
"Profound Truths of the Earth-Hundredfold Waves!"
The Black Jade Heavy Sword thrust out soundlessly, its blade seeming to become a ripple piercing through time and space. There was no earthshaking blast of air, only a silence that annihilated all things.
Boom!
The two heavy swords collided head-on once more!
This time, Linley was smashed toward the ground like a meteor, crashing into Tujiao Mountain and leaving a massive crater dozens of meters deep as dust filled the air.
"Big brother!" Wharton and Delia cried out in alarm at the same time.
Yet high above, Haydson's body also jolted violently, and a trickle of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
"Pfft..."
He lowered his head to look at his chest, his expression changing drastically.
He had cultivated the law of the Throbbing Pulse of the World to its utmost limit, making even his internal organs as hard as stone. Yet an unending vibrational force had now pierced his protective Battle-qi and severely injured them directly!
A hundred layers of vibrational waves ignored physical defense!
Boom!
The mountainside burst apart, and Linley shot into the sky. Most of the dragon scales on his chest had shattered, and blood spilled from his mouth as well, but his injuries were far lighter than anticipated!
Pulsing Defense had dispersed over seventy percent of Earthquake's impact. Only the remaining thirty percent had been endured head-on by his dragon-scale armor and powerful Dragonblood Warrior body.
"Your attack is powerful." Linley wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his voice icy. "Unfortunately, it still can't break through my defense."
"Your attack is strange as well." Haydson stared at Linley, wariness appearing on his face for the first time. "I'm not dead either."
The two experts standing at the pinnacle of the Laws of the Earth had both been injured in their first true clash of ultimate techniques!
The spectators below were utterly dumbfounded.
This was no genius challenging a senior. It was clearly two primordial beasts engaged in the most primitive, most brutal fight to the death!
I can't keep taking his attacks head-on.
The thought flashed through both their minds at the same time. Linley's Battle-qi was not as deep as his opponent's, making a prolonged battle disadvantageous, while Haydson was deeply wary of Linley's all-penetrating vibrational attacks.
Whoosh!
They moved simultaneously!
Linley's figure merged with the fierce winds, becoming nine blurred afterimages that darted through the sky at high speed, searching for an opportunity to kill with a single strike.
Haydson's footwork was equally profound. Every step seemed like teleportation, and his earthen-yellow heavy sword brought forth heavy howls as it slashed repeatedly at those seemingly real afterimages.
Boom! Rumble!
For a time, all of Tujiao Mountain became their battlefield.
With one downward slash from Haydson, a peak dozens of meters tall was sheared flat. Boulders rolled down, striking the ground with thunderous crashes.
Linley's Hundredfold Waves struck a cliff, instantly pulverizing the entire rock face and leaving a terrifying, seemingly bottomless hole that pierced from the summit to the foot of the mountain!
The mountain crumbled, and the earth tore apart!
Under the imperial soldiers' direction, the millions of spectators frantically retreated, terrified of being caught in this battle that resembled a clash between gods.
"Too terrifying..." Her Majesty Joanne murmured, her face already pale.
The battle grew ever more frenzied. Under their devastation, Tujiao Mountain was being razed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Finally, with an earthshaking crash, the ruined mountain could hold out no longer and collapsed! Dust filled the air and blotted out the sky. A mountain a thousand meters tall had become a vast expanse of rubble.
The dust cleared.
Above the ruins, Linley and Haydson faced each other from afar.
Both had several new wounds, and their auras had become somewhat erratic.
"Linley, you're running low on Battle-qi, aren't you?" Haydson panted heavily, but his voice remained steady.
The prolonged, high-intensity battle had allowed him to see Linley's sole weakness-insufficient reserves.
Linley did not answer, but his expression said everything. Although his ninth-rank Dragonblood Battle Qi was powerful, its total quantity fell far short of the Saint Realm Battle-qi Haydson had accumulated over centuries of arduous cultivation.
"It's over!"
Seizing his moment, Haydson abruptly surged forward. Man and sword became one, turning into an earthen-yellow streak of light that tore through heaven and earth as he attacked Linley again.
This time, he was faster than at any point before!
Linley's pupils abruptly contracted. He knew he no longer had enough Battle-qi to evade this blow completely.
"Earth Split!"
Haydson finally unleashed his strongest killing move!
Facing this terrifying sword strike that could cleave the earth apart, a madness to fight to the death blazed in Linley's dark golden dragon eyes!
He did not retreat!
"Profound Truths of the Earth-One Hundred and Thirty-Two Waves!"
He poured all his remaining Dragonblood Battle Qi, all his insights into Earth Pulsation, and all his obsession with protecting his family and friends into this final sword strike!
Boom!!!
Above the ruins, the Black Jade Heavy Sword and the earthen-yellow heavy sword collided in their most brutal, most extreme clash yet!
"Pfft!"
Linley shuddered as though struck by lightning. The dragon scales on his chest burst apart inch by inch, and an irresistible force smashed him deep into the rubble, his fate unknown.
"Pfft!"
Haydson, still in midair, likewise sprayed out a great mouthful of blood. He flew backward hundreds of meters like a kite with its string cut, nearly losing his grip on his earthen-yellow heavy sword. The protective Battle-qi covering his body shattered completely, and a hundred and thirty-two layers of vibrational waves slammed into his internal organs without restraint, shaking cracks throughout his rock-hard innards!
Leaning on his heavy sword, he hovered unsteadily in the air, trying to steady himself, yet unable to muster even a trace of Battle-qi.
They had actually fought in a way that would take them both down together!
Just as everyone thought the battle would end in this brutal fashion, an impossibly swift black shadow appeared soundlessly behind Haydson.
"You want to kill my boss? Die!"
An icy, savage Soul Transmission exploded in Haydson's mind.
Haydson turned his head in horror.
A seemingly small black claw, wreathed in a dark aura, had already struck the center of his back!