Chapter 259 - 258: The Fight Among Peerless Gods! (6)
"You boast of dragon blood and beast chimeras," Lin Yuan spoke, his voice a low, terrifying rumble that vibrated directly against Ye Ao’s soul. "You believe that shouting like an animal makes you strong."
Lin Yuan’s grip tightened.
CRACK!
The Rank 6 Earth-Dragon bone cleavers—weapons that had sundered mountain ranges—shattered under the crushing grip of Lin Yuan’s bare fingers, exploding into a shower of white dust and bone fragments.
Ye Ao staggered backward, completely defenseless, his mind violently short-circuiting at the sheer, impossible physical disparity.
"In the ancient era," Lin Yuan continued, taking a slow, heavy step forward, the sheer weight of his Supreme Stage aura pressing down like a collapsing continent, "beasts like you were merely the draft animals used to pull the chariots of true sovereigns."
Such arrogance!!
Lin Yuan then raised his right fist, and drew upon the raw, unyielding momentum of the [Army-Breaking Art], the force of an entire vanguard into his knuckles.
He stepped inside Ye Ao’s guard.
Lin Yuan’s fist struck Ye Ao squarely in the center of his scaled chest.
BOOOOOOM!
The impact was devastating. The thick, iron-hard chimera scales covering Ye Ao’s chest shattered instantly, pulverized into powder. The sheer shockwave bypassed his external defenses, detonating through his ribcage, shattering his sternum, and violently scrambling his internal Qi pathways.
Ye Ao’s eyes rolled back into his head. The massive, eight-foot-tall beast-man was launched horizontally across the quadrant like an artillery shell.
He crashed violently into the Void Refinement spatial barrier on the opposite side, the impact shaking the entire arena, before sliding down to the floor. The crimson chimera tattoos rapidly flickered and died, his physical form shrinking back into a battered mortal frame.
Ye Ao was completely, utterly unconscious.
Lin Yuan lowered his fist, brushing a speck of bone dust from his sleeve.
He had not drawn his weapon. He had not used his Origin Dao Spell. He had simply walked into the domain of the most savage physical combatant in the entire tournament, caught his ultimate strike with his bare hands, and put him to sleep with a single punch.
That alone was enough to demonstrate the terrifying might of his Rank 10 Ancient Beast Body.
The silence in the Grand Court lasted for five agonizing seconds.
Then, Chief Adjudicator Xuanji’s voice echoed across the stadium, trembling with profound awe:
"Match concluded! Victory goes to Lin Yuan of the Zhao Province! Three hundred and fifty merits awarded!"
The arena erupted!
The jade monolith chimed, its massive runes shifting and recalculating the tournament totals as the third round’s other matches rapidly concluded.
In the other quadrants, Xuan Mingzhe had dismantled Jiang Wan with cold, terrifying precision, securing another 350 merits. Chu Kuang, fighting with rabid, desperate fury, had overwhelmed the battered remnants of the Ling Province to claim his own victory. And down in the lower quadrant, Lord Zhao Shenming, bloodied but unyielding, had fought through exhaustion to secure another 180 merits against the Lord of the Fu Province!
The final calculations for the round locked into the stone with a heavy thud that vibrated the very foundations of Sky Jade City.
The new rankings burned brightly against the sky:
MAIN TOURNAMENT MERIT RANKINGS (ROUND THREE - FINAL)
1. Xuan Province — 1750 Merits
(General: Xuan Mingzhe — 1050 Merits | Lord: Xuan Bahe — 700 Merits)
2. Zhao Province — 1590 Merits
(General: Lin Yuan — 1050 Merits | Lord: Zhao Shenming — 540 Merits)
3. Chu Province — 1400 Merits
(General: Chu Kuang — 1050 Merits | Lord: Chu Wuhai — 350 Merits)
4. Feng Province — 700 Merits
(General: Feng Yao — 0 Merits | Lord: Feng Tian — 700 Merits)
5. Jiang Province — 350 Merits
(General: Jiang Wan — 0 Merits | Lord: Jiang Shan — 350 Merits)
6. Ling Province — 0 Merits
(General: Ling Chuan — 0 Merits | Lord: Ling Zhen — 0 Merits)
7. Ye Province — 0 Merits
(General: Ye Ao — 0 Merits | Lord: Ye Xuan — 0 Merits)
Lin Yuan stood upon the star-iron floor, his deep purple eyes reflecting the crimson glow of the jade monolith.
The Zhao Province was second. A Lower division province from the southern mud sat firmly between the two greatest provinces of the Central Continent, looking down upon the rest of the cultivation world.
Across the arena, Xuan Mingzhe’s eyes locked onto Lin Yuan, the tri-Dao legend finally shedding his detached calmness, his hand resting tightly on his spatial ring.
Beside him, Chu Kuang stared at the board, his jaw clenching so hard blood dripped from his lips, realizing that the man he had called an ant was now breathing down the neck of the throne itself.
Lin Yuan turned his back on them all and walked toward his wife, the quiet before the final storm officially drawing to a close.
The Central Continent’s Grand Court was a cauldron of boiling anticipation. The colossal jade monolith bathed the arena in a deep glow, displaying the rankings of the main tournament.
The Upper Division quadrants hummed with the residual turbulence of the previous rounds, but as the bronze gong chimed to announce the next sequence, a sudden, suffocating stillness descended over the northern platform.
"Upper Division General Bracket! Match Four! Lin Yuan of the Zhao Province versus Feng Yao of the Feng Province!" Chief Adjudicator Xuanji’s voice echoed, carrying a distinct tremor of anticipation.
Lin Yuan materialized upon the floor, his black and white robes falling perfectly still. Across the quadrant, the sixteen-year-old anomaly, Feng Yao, stepped forward. The boy’s purple dream-silk robes seemed too large for his frail frame, but his milky white, pupil-less eyes radiated a cosmic weight that forced the surrounding Void Refinement barriers to visibly warp.
"You have kept your promise, Daoist Lin," Feng Yao spoke, his dual-toned voice resonating through the spiritual sea of every cultivator present. "You stand at the top. But to reach the absolute summit, you must pass through the heavens. I told you I required a hurricane to shatter my cage. I will not hold back. Let me see the true fortune of my ally."
Lin Yuan immediately raised his hands, his deep purple eyes locking onto the boy. "Show me the god trapped in the mortal shell, Feng Yao."
Feng Yao closed his eyes.
Wooooom!
The eruption of power was so catastrophic that the sunlight of the arena instantly dimmed. From the frail body of the sixteen-year-old boy, a blinding, liquid-white phantom violently emerged. It was not a mere projection, but the fully realized, perfectly formed Primordial Spirit. The sheer density of the Origin Energy bleeding from the spirit bypassed the Dao laws of the Nine Provinces. The star-iron floor beneath Feng Yao’s feet simply ceased to exist, dissolving into pure, molecular dust under the weight of the entity.
In the uppermost pavilion, Xuan Mingzhe, the tri-Dao legend, suddenly stood up. His hands gripped the stone railing, his Half-Step Soul Transformation aura flaring uncontrollably.
"His Primordial spirit..." Xuan Mingzhe whispered, absolute shock painting his features. "It is flawless. He has no Dao Resolve, no foundation, yet the sheer perfection of that Primordial Spirit... he is only a single step away from touching my own prowess. If he possessed a mortal vessel capable of holding it, his combat prowess will be that of Peak Soul Transformation!"
Within the arena, the Primordial Spirit raised a hand. The space around Lin Yuan instantly collapsed into a vacuum of pure, suffocating Origin Energy. It was an attack designed to erase a cultivator from the karmic cycle entirely.
Lin Yuan did not panic. He felt the terrifying suppression attempting to crush his Supreme Stage foundation, but his Dao Heart remained steadfast.
"So this is the might of his Primordial Spirit!" Lin Yuan’s voice rumbled, cutting through the void.
Lin Yuan’s eyes vanished, replaced by the terrifying, rotating tri-colored light of black, white, and crimson. He tapped into the absolute core of his Tri-Dao intersection.
[Six Arms of Reincarnation]
Six Arms of Reincarnation]
Lin Yuan’s Nascent Soul projection erupted into the physical plane. Bathed in the tri-colored light of the Dao of Three Rebirths, four massive, ethereal arms forged of pure reincarnation energy tore out from the avatar’s back. Six god-like limbs stretched into the void, expanding until they dwarfed the arena itself.
The Grand Court descended into absolute awe.
High above, the Five Emperors leaped from their primordial thrones simultaneously.
"There it is!" Emperor Tianxu roared, his eyes wide with awe, entirely abandoning his indifference. "We sensed it through the artifact, but to see it manifested in the physical plane! The aura of the reincarnation cycle!"
"The Dao of Three Rebirths!" Emperor Xiyan slammed his armored fists together, his White Tiger aura trembling. "He is summoning the physical manifestation of the Six Paths!"
In the Zhao pavilion, Lord Zhao Shenming collapsed to his knees, ignoring the gasps of the surrounding elders. The Provincial Lord stared at the tri-colored light, tears streaming freely down his youthful face. He did not see a martial technique; he saw the gate to the underworld. He saw the promise Lin Yuan had made to him concerning his brother.
Inside the quadrant, Lin Yuan commanded the six ethereal arms. They shot forward, plunging directly into Feng Yao’s Origin Energy vacuum. The reincarnation energy did not fight the Origin Energy; it bypassed it, establishing an absolute authority over life and death. The giant hands grasped the space around the boy’s Primordial Spirit and squeezed.
Feng Yao did not resist. A faint, peaceful smile touched the teenager’s lips as the overwhelming pressure of the Six Arms gently but forcefully suppressed his flawless spirit, forcing it back into his mortal shell.
The blinding white light vanished. Feng Yao collapsed to his knees, coughing softly, but entirely unharmed.
"I yield," Feng Yao whispered, his milky white eyes looking up at Lin Yuan with profound gratitude.
"Match concluded! Victory goes to Lin Yuan of the Zhao Province! Three hundred and fifty merits!"