Chapter 236-A Savage Brawl, Ninty-Ninth Floor
Chapter 236-A Savage Brawl, Ninty-Ninth Floor
"Let’s begin."
The moment those words left Rhain’s mouth, the towering, eight-foot-tall muscular puppet exploded into motion.
Despite its massive, heavily muscled frame, the Founder’s third manifestation moved with an astonishing speed.
It crossed the vast dark stone arena in a fraction of a second, its massive fist tearing through the air and creating a deafening sonic boom.
Without access to his profound essence, an ordinary peak Core Formation cultivator would have been instantly pulverized.
But Rhain was not an ordinary cultivator.
The Heaven-Grade Boundless Sky Wind had already been flawlessly integrated into his very physique and bloodline.
He didn’t need essence to call upon the wind.
Swoosh—!
Rhain propelled himself forward, matching the Founder’s impossible pace.
He raised his fists, the dark crimson Epic-Grade Caestus blazing with the heat of the Red Tribulations Heavenly Flame.
BANG—!!!
Fist met fist in a deafening, purely physical collision.
A shockwave of sheer kinetic force and blood-red fire erupted outward, shaking the entire indestructible arena to its very foundations.
Rhain felt a crushing weight travel up his arm, forcing him to slide backward two full feet, his boots sliding against the stone.
’What monstrous physical strength,’ Rhain’s dark grey eyes narrowed sharply.
The Founder didn’t let Rhain have any break.
His second fist was already approaching Rhain’s way.
Sensing the overwhelming physical strength of this half-step Domain Lord realm puppet, Rhain immediately shifted his tactics.
He didn’t continue the direct confrontation, but relied on his precise footwork to dodge the attacks, while simultaneously trying to find an opening to counterattack.
Whenever an attack was unavoidable, he angled his body, allowing the durability of his invisible Epic-Grade Black Gold Armour to absorb and deflect the glancing blows.
For several minutes, Rhain fought with strategic perfection.
Deflect. Dodge. Counter.
But his opponent was the Founder of the Stormveil Academy.
A man who had spent a thousand years honing his combat instincts to the absolute pinnacle of martial perfection.
As Rhain stepped back to deflect another heavy straight punch, the Founder suddenly feinted.
The heavy punch transformed mid-air into an impossibly fast, sweeping elbow strike that completely bypassed Rhain’s calculated guard.
BOOM!
A heavy fist slammed into Rhain’s shoulder.
The force was so overwhelming that Rhain was sent crashing across the dark stone floor, skidding for dozens of feet before he managed to dig his heels in.
Rhain wiped a trace of blood from the corner of his mouth.
’Fighting defensively against a thousand-year-old combat genius is a losing battle,’ Rhain evaluated after a minute of hopeless battle.
Rhain slowly stood up, lowering his arms.
He abruptly dropped his strategic guard entirely.
The placid calmness in his dark grey eyes was replaced by a fierce light.
If technique and strategy were useless against a thousand-year-old combat master... then he would simply drag this fight into a realm where technique didn’t matter.
Driven purely by his Abyssal Sovereign Physique’s primal ferocity, he opted for a savage, "hit-for-a-hit" brawler approach.
Rhain deliberately took a devastating punch to his chest.
CRACK!
Blood sprayed from Rhain’s mouth, his vision blurring momentarily from the sheer concussive force.
But he ignored the bone-deep agony, using the impact’s momentum to twist his body and sink his blazing dark crimson Caestus directly into the puppet’s armored side.
Bang!
The puppet staggered, the Red Tribulations Heavenly Flame searing its metallic flesh.
But it countered instantly.
The Founder grabbed Rhain by the shoulder, pulling him downward, and drove a devastating knee directly into Rhain’s abdomen.
CRACK!
The sound of bones fracturing echoed clearly.
Rhain felt his internal organs violently shake, an agonizing pain threatening to tear his consciousness apart.
He ignored the pain entirely.
Gritting his teeth with a savage grin, Rhain answered the blow by swinging his arm in a brutal, flaming uppercut that smashed squarely into the puppet’s jaw.
BOOM!
The puppet’s head snapped back violently, the blood-red fire melting the armor around its neck.
The battle instantly devolved into a bloody, close-quarters brawl.
This tactic was not easy for Rhain.
Because his essence was entirely sealed by the floor’s laws, the normally instantaneous regeneration of his Abyssal Sovereign Physique slowed down drastically.
Healing a fractured bone or a ruptured muscle took minutes instead of seconds.
He was forced to endure severe bruising and immense pain as he continued to fight.
The Founder’s puppet lunged, landing a devastating knee directly into Rhain’s abdomen.
"Gah!" Rhain spat a mouthful of blood, feeling his internal organs shudder.
But he did not retreat.
He ignored the agonizing pain, his eyes flashing with raw brutality, and answered with a blazing kick to the puppet’s right leg.
BANG!
The savage brawl dragged on for over an hour.
The two fighters continuously battered each other without a single second of rest.
Rhain was in terrible shape.
Without his dark essence to fuel the Abyssal Sovereign Physique, his usually instantaneous healing was crippled.
His breathing was ragged, his ribs were fractured, and blood soaked his torn robes.
However, the Founder’s puppet was in an even worse condition.
It possessed a Half-Step Domain Master’s physical strength, but it completely lacked the ability to heal.
Under an hour of relentless, point-blank strikes from the Epic-Grade Caestus, the puppet’s towering body was severely mangled.
The Red Tribulations Heavenly Flame, fueled entirely by Rhain’s physical vitality, had slowly melted the puppet’s armored body.
Its face was half-melted, and one of its massive arms hung limply at its side, severely crippling its speed.
Both combatants were pushed to their breaking points.
The towering eight-foot puppet stopped.
Its glowing, expressionless eyes locked onto Rhain.
It lowered its stance, channeling every last ounce of its mechanical strength into its functioning right arm, pulling it all the way back, and charged at Rhain.
Rhain’s dark grey eyes locked onto the incoming fist with a crazy light.
He channeled the very last ounce of his physical stamina, forcing the innate Boundless Sky Wind into his legs to propel himself forward, launching himself like a cannonball.
CRACK!
The Founder’s fist crashed dead-center into Rhain’s chest.
The indestructible Epic-Grade Black Gold Armour shattered with this all out attack of the puppet.
Pfft—!"
Rhain coughed up a massive spray of crimson blood.
Fighting through the blackout-inducing agony, Rhain’s left hand shot out like a vice, clamping onto the puppet’s extended, embedded arm to lock it firmly in place.
RRAAAAGH—!!!"
With a roar, Rhain’s blazing Caestus tore through the air like a descending meteor.
BOOM—!!!
The punch obliterated the puppet’s chest.
The concentrated physical force and the apocalyptic heat of the Red Tribulations Heavenly Flame drove completely through its torso, shattering the glowing runic core hidden within its back.
The towering eight-foot puppet froze.
Its glowing eyes flickered rapidly for a split second before dying out entirely.
Then, it exploded into millions of dissipating specks of spiritual light, showering the devastated arena like rain.
The moment the puppet shattered, the oppressive, essence-locking restriction that had suffocated the ninety-eighth floor abruptly vanished.
Rhain collapsed to one knee amidst the rubble, gasping violently for air.
WHOOSH—!
The unlocked essence finally rushed back into his meridians like a breaching dam.
His dark void spun fiercely, hyper-accelerating his healing.
The painful fractures in his sternum, the shattered ribs, and the bleeding wounds began to knit together and close at a visible, monstrous speed.
As Rhain looked up, breathing heavily, a glowing staircase materialized at the far end of the scorched room.
-------------------
Rhain did not immediately ascend.
He sat cross-legged on the ruined floor, entering a deep meditative state.
For more than three hours, he remained perfectly still, allowing the Abyssal Sovereign Physique to completely repair his broken body and replenish his entirely drained essence reserves.
This had been the most grueling, brutal physical battle of his life.
When he finally opened his dark grey eyes, his peak condition had been perfectly restored.
He stood up, his dark robes torn and bloodied, but his aura was as sharp and unyielding as a drawn sword.
"Floor ninety-nine," Rhain murmured, his gaze locking onto the glowing stairs.
He had no idea what he would face now.
The Founder had explicitly stated that his soul was severed into three fragments—the ninety-sixth, ninety-seventh, and ninety-eighth floors.
He had said absolutely nothing about the ninety-ninth floor.
Would it be another Half-Step Domain Master?
Or an existence even more terrifying—a true Domain Master Realm powerhouse?
Rhain clenched his fists, his dark grey eyes turning chillingly cold.
Whatever it was, he had to face it.
He stepped onto the glowing staircase and calmly ascended to the penultimate floor of the millennium-old tower.
[Floor 99]
The moment Rhain stepped off the stairs, the pitch-black space warped and cleared.
He instantly circulated his essence, prepared to unleash the Red Tribulations Heavenly Flame, and fight another battle.
But as the spiritual light coalesced in the center of the vast, empty room... Rhain froze.
His circulating essence stuttered and halted completely.
Before Rhain, it wasn’t a Half Step Domain Master.
It was not a Domain Master radiating earth shattering pressure.
Standing in the center of the ninety-ninth floor, wearing elegant, flowing blue robes, with magnificent silver-blue hair that cascaded perfectly over her shoulders, was a breathtakingly beautiful girl.
Her pale purple eyes looked at him, and a sweet smile bloomed across her face.
Seris.