Chapter 260 - 259: The Fight Among Peerless Gods! (7)

"Match concluded! Victory goes to Lin Yuan of the Zhao Province! Three hundred and fifty merits!"

The monolith chimed, its runes updating violently. The crowd was rendered speechless, entirely paralyzed by the spectacle they had just witnessed.

MAIN TOURNAMENT MERIT RANKINGS (ROUND FOUR - IN PROGESS)

1. Zhao Province — 1940 Merits

(General: Lin Yuan — 1400 Merits | Lord: Zhao Shenming — 540 Merits)

2. Xuan Province — 1750 Merits

(General: Xuan Mingzhe — 1050 Merits | Lord: Xuan Bahe — 700 Merits)

3. Chu Province — 1400 Merits

(General: Chu Kuang — 1050 Merits | Lord: Chu Wuhai — 350 Merits)

....

The matches continued in a blur of blood and Spiritual Energy, but the anticipation in the arena was building toward a singular, inevitable match. The lesser generals were swept aside. Chu Kuang fought with rabid, desperate fury, claiming victories but looking increasingly ragged. Lord Zhao Shenming fought with the unyielding stubbornness of a man who had already glimpsed paradise, securing narrow but vital victories in the lower brackets.

But then, the final, ultimate clash of the Upper Division was announced.

"Upper Division General Bracket! Match Five! Lin Yuan of the Zhao Province versus Xuan Mingzhe of the Xuan Province!" Chief Adjudicator Xuanji’s voice echoed, carrying a distinct tremor of anticipation.

The silence that fell over Sky Jade City was absolute. This was it. Lin Yuan against the legend. The Supreme Stage against the Half-Step Soul Transformation.

Lin Yuan materialized in the northern quadrant. A moment later, Xuan Mingzhe appeared.

The tri-Dao legend did not speak. He drew a sleek straight-sword. The moment the blade cleared its scabbard, the star-iron floor beneath him instantly pulverized into dust. The air grew so heavy that light itself seemed to bend toward him.

"You have hidden well, Lin Yuan," Xuan Mingzhe stated, his voice a crushing gravitational wave. "But the peak of the mountain is only wide enough for one."

Lin Yuan drew the Primordial Sovereign Sword. "Then I suggest you learn how to fly."

Xuan Mingzhe unleashed his foundation.

It was a display of power so absolute it defied comprehension. Gravity, Space, and Annihilation. The three supreme Daos merged perfectly. The space around Lin Yuan instantly compressed by a factor of ten thousand. The gravity increased until a single drop of sweat weighed as much as a boulder. And woven through the crushing pressure were invisible, eroding currents of Annihilation Dao that sought to dissolve Lin Yuan’s Qi into nothingness.

Lin Yuan was instantly driven to one knee, the floor cracking beneath him. Blood erupted from his pores, his Rank 10 Ancient Beast Body groaning under forces that could crush a moon.

"He is losing!" a Xuan elder screamed in triumph. "The tri-Dao is absolute! Even the Three Rebirths cannot survive being crushed into a singularity!"

Lin Yuan gritted his teeth, the taste of blood flooding his mouth. Xuan Mingzhe was incredibly strong. The gap in sheer cultivation realms was vast.

But Lin Yuan did not intend to die on his knees.

He looked up, his deep purple eyes igniting with the rotating black, white, and crimson light.

"You are not the only one who commands a tri-dao, Xuan," Lin Yuan roared, his voice tearing through the gravitational suppression.

Lin Yuan immediately unleashed the absolute totality of his foundation.

Thunder. Rain. Three Rebirths.

The storm of apocalyptic lightning and torrential rain exploded outward, perfectly interwoven with the path towards the cycle of reincarnation. The Tri-Dao intersection flared with a blinding, divine brilliance. The clash of the two Tri-Dao domains was catastrophic. The Void Refinement barrier surrounding the quadrant shattered in three places, forcing Chief Adjudicator Xuanji and two other elders to hastily project their own auras to prevent the arena from being vaporized.

"A Tri-Dao?!" The Chu Patriarch shrieked, tearing at his robes. "He possesses three supreme Daos?! In a low world like the Nine Provinces?!"

"His talent... it rivals Xuan Mingzhe!" Emperor Beiming roared over the deafening explosions. "To forge a Tri-Dao in a realm where the Dao laws are this weak is a feat that many Void Refinement Emperors could never dream of achieving!"

Inside the quadrant, the battle was an apocalyptic blur. Lin Yuan and Xuan Mingzhe clashed thousands of times per second. Lin Yuan used the Immortal Cloud Step and the Five Elements Escape to weave through the spatial tears, countering the crushing Gravity with the explosive force of the Heavenly Thunder Break and the Army-Breaking Art. He used the Six Arms of Reincarnation to literally punch away spheres of pure Annihilation energy.

But Xuan Mingzhe’s Half-Step Soul Transformation Cultivation was peerless. For every strike Lin Yuan landed, Xuan absorbed it into a spatial void and retaliated with crushing gravity.

Lin Yuan was bleeding heavily. His robes were shredded. His breath was ragged. The physical disparity was dragging him to the absolute edge of death. His Spiritual Energy was burning out.

Xuan Mingzhe is indeed a legend, Lin Yuan realized, his mind remaining analytical even as his ribs fractured.

At the very edge of the abyss, Lin Yuan closed his eyes.

He stopped circulating his Qi outward. Instead, he forced his cultivation deep, deep inward. He plunged his consciousness directly into the absolute center of his Tri-Dao intersection.

He searched for the seed. The Origin Essence.

He had absorbed the Nine Essence Genesis Pill, fundamentally rewriting his foundation to near perfection. He had consumed the Origin Soul Revival Pill, planting the raw conceptual material of a Primordial Spirit within his Nascent Soul. He had comprehended the Ten Thousand Ways Return to One Heart Sutra, giving him a profound understanding of Origin Dao cultivation.

All of this gave him an understanding of Origin power that cultivators below the Soul Transformation realm could not even dream of conceptualizing.

Lin Yuan’s Nascent Soul, sitting in the center of his mind, opened its eyes. It reached out its tiny, glowing hands and touched the infinitesimal spark of pure Origin Energy residing at the intersection of Thunder, Rain, and Rebirth.

In the physical world, Lin Yuan opened his eyes. The tri-colored light vanished. His eyes were now glowing with a pure, blinding, liquid-white light.

The entire arena instantly fell dead silent. The sound of the clashing domains ceased. The wind stopped blowing.

Xuan Mingzhe froze mid-strike, his eyes widening in absolute terror. The tri-Dao legend felt a conceptual weight that made his own gravity domain feel like a feather.

"Origin power..." Xuan Mingzhe gasped, his voice barely a whisper. "Below the Soul Transformation realm... how dare you..."

Lin Yuan did not speak. He raised his right hand.

His Nascent Soul mirrored the movement, projecting a massive, translucent golden palm into the physical space above the quadrant. But this palm was not fueled by Spiritual Energy. It was fueled by a single, faint drop of pure Origin Energy.

It was only a single drop. Any more would have been enough to overwhelm and potentially implode his Nascent Soul.

But Lin Yuan’s understanding of the Origin had reached a level where quantity was no longer the deciding factor. A single drop was enough.

With that one drop of Origin Energy, Lin Yuan possessed the power to shake mountains, overturn rivers, and unleash might far beyond what his current cultivation should have allowed.

Lin Yuan then thrust his palm forward.

The Origin palm strike descended. It did not travel through space; it simply erased the distance. It struck Xuan Mingzhe’s tri-Dao domain and dissolved it as easily as water washing away a drawing in the sand. Gravity failed. Space shattered. Annihilation was annihilated.

Xuan Mingzhe screamed, crossing his arms and detonating every ounce of his Half-Step Soul Transformation power to block the strike.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The northern quadrant was engulfed in a blinding white explosion. When the light faded, the star-iron floor was completely vaporized, revealing the raw array of the arena below.

Xuan Mingzhe lay at the bottom of the crater, his sword shattered into dust, his robes scorched, completely unconscious.

Lin Yuan stood at the edge of the crater, his arm still extended, panting heavily as the white light faded from his eyes. He had won.

The silence in the Grand Court was absolute. No one cheered. No one screamed. They were paralyzed by the sheer impossibility of what they had witnessed.

High above, Emperor Tianxu slowly lowered himself back into his primordial throne. He shook his head, a complex mixture of dread and profound relief washing over his majestic features.

"There is no doubt anymore," Emperor Tianxu whispered to the other four sovereigns. "He is the fated one. The prophecy of the Star Orb is fulfilled."