The white-robed Saint King was momentarily stunned, and a grave expression finally appeared in his eyes.
Having one arm smashed off did not bring him much anger. Instead, there was a certain delight.
“Good, good indeed.”
“A mere ant at Great Power, by relying on a single Immortal Root, can fight old me like this—this Immortal Root’s strength is plain to see. If I obtain it, I might become a Great Emperor!”
The young Heavenly Emperor’s face grew as cold as frost.
He leapt up to the firmament and stood opposite the elder. “You killed my sister?”
The white-robed Saint King chuckled lightly, shaking then nodding his head. “Perhaps, perhaps not. I do not know who your sister is.”
“However.”
The white-robed Saint King pointed to the cliff. “Those children over there were all killed by old me.”
“I’m going to annihilate your entire clan!!”
Glaring at the calm elder, Gu Changqing ground his teeth and hissed through them.
The white-robed Saint King smiled indifferently. “You are not qualified to do so.”
But the smile on his face did not last long as it abruptly froze.
Only because the qi of the youth who had just broken into the Great Power realm had once again begun to rise at an exceedingly terrifying speed.
…
Outside the mirror, the gathered cultivators were astonished.
“Again!!!”
Although in their hearts they understood that this Heavenly Emperor’s cultivation speed could not be judged by normal rules.
Yet everyone was still shocked!
Damn it, this was utterly unreasonable! He says he’ll make a breakthrough and he does! What in the world?!
“He’s attempting to strike for Half-Saint, right?”
“If he doesn’t enter the Saint realm, he ultimately lacks the qualification to confront a Saint.”
The cultivators’ gazes were stern, but they couldn’t help but wonder, “How exactly is he doing it!”
The Heavenly Emperor’s principal consort, the Empress Yao Chi, was visibly moved. A glint like starlight interplayed in her eyes as she said with a complex expression, “It’s the power of the Immortal Root—he is squeezing the Immortal Root’s power.”
“And he’s using twelve spiritual veins and his Dao Palace as the wager to forcibly raise his realm!” Jiang Minghuang’s expression was also stirred.
He seemed to gradually understand the reason why Gu Changqing’s dao foundation was broken when he saw him again.
It wasn’t because his Immortal Root was dug out or destroyed by others, but because he had driven himself to that point.
“He’s going all out and doesn’t care if he dies anymore…”
Upon hearing this, all the cultivators’ eyes stirred.
Such a forcible elevation of realm does not come without backlash. On the contrary, the backlash is enormous.
It was as good as putting one’s cultivation future on the line.
“For the sake of a sister from a different set of parents, he is willing to go this far…”
Countless cultivators sighed.
If Gu Changqing were to give up at this point and leave, everyone believed that before long, one of the most dazzling Great Emperors in history would emerge.
Yet for the sake of a sister who wasn’t even related to him.
He gambled everything!
“Back then you could give up everything for me, but now for the sake of just one single Immortal Root—why has it made you so heartless?”
Gu Youwei’s expression was deeply moved. Her delicate fists were clenched tight.
…
“Die!”
A sound that shook heaven and earth exploded like thunder.
Gu Changqing’s fist shot out like a dragon. With a roar, one punch split open a spatial chasm.
“Even a Half-Saint is like an ant!!”
The white-robed Saint King still spoke scornfully, but his actions were anything but careless.
After all, this was a monster who, from the Great Power realm, had withstood a Saint King’s strike. He now took the boy a lot more seriously than before.
Bang!
Palm struck against fist.
Ripples splashed across the firmament. Waves of reverberation surged like a volcanic eruption, and everything—tangible or not—was pulverized into dust by this collision.
The white-robed Saint King had thrown a punch with all his might, yet he ended up only on par with the young Heavenly Emperor.
“What kind of freak is this!”
Horror finally rose in the white-robed Saint King’s expression as he spat curses, “Old me will grind you to death! Forcefully raising your realm to fight me? Let’s see how long you can hold on!”
…
“That old fellow is cunning—knowing he can’t defeat the Heavenly Emperor in the short term, he chooses to wear him down and wait for the Heavenly Emperor’s realm to collapse,” outside the mirror, a cultivator gave his analysis.
“I guess what happened was that the Heavenly Emperor was ground nearly to death and in the end, the old devil extracted his Immortal Root.”
By this time, everyone had some guesses about the outcome.
They couldn’t help but feel wistful.
A generation’s prodigy was destroyed just like this by a shameless old demon.
…
Their battle leveled the Jade Void Palace’s land to plains. Tens of thousands of miles of surrounding mountains and rivers were annihilated.
Thousands of rounds of moves had been exchanged, yet victory remained undecided!
But just when everyone thought Gu Changqing would inevitably be ground to death.
“Die!”
A vast roar resounded as Gu Changqing used his Dao Palace and spiritual veins as fuel to unleash a terrifying strike!
This blow’s divine might even approached the threshold of the Supreme realm.
Even space-time was pierced.
At the end of that river of time-space, a hazy radiance poured forth.
Vaguely visible was an otherworldly sacred soil, misting with spiritual qi and permeated by purple aura.
Fear finally appeared on the white-robed Saint King’s face. He stared in astonishment at the dragon of Dao laws roaring toward him.
“You’re a monster!”
He couldn’t help but utter it.
Although he knew this strike was Gu Changqing’s final gamble, he still could not hide his terror.
Faced with this strike, even he, a Saint King-level cultivator, felt an unprecedented sense of crisis.
“I summon you!”
The white-robed Saint King raised a hand and summoned endless chains of laws from the firmament, weaving them into a net that enveloped him.
Yet despite being a Saint King and putting in his best efforts…
His efforts were like pathetic pieces of paper in the face of that dragon. In an instant the net was torn, and boundless laws, like a tide, pierced through the white-robed Saint King’s body.
This unrivaled Saint King, who by his own power made the Zhao Kingdom glorious for a thousand years and brought the Jade Void Palace to rampancy for tens of thousands of years.
Fell just like that.
Outside the mirror, at this moment, the entire place was silent!