Thud!
Olivia plummeted from high altitude, then traced an arc straight down into the icy waters of the Crimson炎 River, sending up countless sprays of white foam.
"Brother!" Blumer, watching from the riverbank, shouted in alarm and dashed toward the spot where Olivia had crashed into the water.
Several million spectators packed the area in a massive sea of people. Those standing too far away couldn't see the battle between Olivia and Rock Sword Saint at all—they could only judge the situation from the murmurs filtering forward. In an instant, several million voices erupted into a cacophony.
The gap… seemed enormous!
After all, Hetterson was still hovering in midair and didn't appear to have suffered a single injury.
"Master Lin Lei, has Olivia lost?" King Qiao'an asked Lin Lei beside him, bewildered.
"It's too early to call it," Lin Lei replied, gazing up at Rock Sword Saint 'Hetterson,' who hung motionless high above. He thought to himself: I wonder what the result would have been if Hetterson had taken that sword head-on without evading.
Rock Sword Saint 'Hetterson' was not feeling well at all.
He had always been supremely confident in his defense. In centuries of roaming the Yulan Continent, Rock Sword Saint had never encountered anyone whose defense surpassed his own. And indeed, the Dou Qi attack infused into that Black Stone Sword had failed to breach his defense.
But—
When the Black Stone Sword struck his fist, a bizarre energy had effortlessly pierced through his vaunted defense and plunged directly into his soul, stabbing it viciously before he could react.
Dizziness. A splitting headache.
"What a genius sword saint—he's even comprehended soul attacks," Hetterson thought, recovering his clarity after just a moment. "A kid who hasn't even reached fifty years old, and he's comprehended such a rare and special attack."
Hetterson had experienced such attacks before!
Soul attacks were nothing exotic.
For instance, when Lin Lei encountered the 'First Disciple' Fa'en of the Martial God Sect, Fa'en's lightning struck Lin Lei and even stunned his soul, leaving him dazed for quite some time before fully recovering. That was also a type of soul attack.
Even the Martial God, simply by speaking, could make a person's soul tremble.
The principle behind attacking the soul was actually quite straightforward—one infused one's spiritual power into an attack and drove it into the opponent's soul.
In short, it was a mental attack.
Easier said than done, however. Spiritual power was normally soft and resilient, much like cotton cloth. What you had to do was… turn that cotton cloth into a sharp blade capable of wounding or even piercing through the opponent's soul.
Even powerhouses of the Saint Realm generally only dispersed their spiritual power outward to search for others.
To launch a mental attack? Turn cotton into a blade?
Incredibly difficult!
Though difficult, top-tier powerhouses who had spent long enough comprehending the Laws of Elements could manage it. Hetterson himself had been on the receiving end of soul attacks before.
"Olivia's own spiritual power isn't strong—probably around the level of an eighth-level mage. If his spiritual power were at the level of a ninth-level Grand Magister, I might have been seriously injured. And if he were a Saint-level Grand Magister…" Hetterson smiled thinly.
Then he gazed down at the Crimson炎 River below.
The river had already returned to calm, and Olivia still hadn't surfaced.
"Olivia, it seems you won't come out until you've healed your arm," Hetterson laughed heartily, his voice booming across heaven and earth, echoing through the empty outskirts.
"Heal a severed arm?" Lin Lei's eyebrows shot up, a flicker of surprise in his heart.
Boom!
A towering column of water burst skyward, and a black silhouette shot up to high altitude in an instant, facing Hetterson in midair once more. Olivia's right arm—which had been twisted and shattered moments ago—had completely reverted to its original state.
Olivia sneered at Hetterson. "Heal my arm? You, Hetterson—would you even have the ability to heal yours if you could?"
"The Laws of Light are indeed wondrous—some top-tier Light mages can instantly heal even the gravest wounds. However… when it comes to offense and defense, the Laws of Light simply can't compare to the Laws of Earth," Hetterson declared with confidence.
The Laws of Earth.
Lin Lei also cultivated the Laws of Earth.
"What do you know of the wondrousness of the Laws of Light?" Olivia said coldly. "Hetterson, stop pretending you're confident. That strike of mine just now—wasn't exactly pleasant, was it?"
Hetterson's brow furrowed.
A soul attack—even with a powerful soul to withstand it—still caused some damage.
"With your soul wounded, how could you possibly perform at full strength?" At that moment, Olivia drew the Light-Shadow Sword from behind with his left hand.
Black Stone Sword in his right hand, Light-Shadow Sword in his left.
"But I'm different. My arm's healed, and it hasn't affected me in the slightest." Olivia gripped both swords. Brilliant white light flowed across the surface of the Light-Shadow Sword, while the Black Stone Sword's surface shimmered with a cold, light-devouring black glow.
Opposite energies.
"Completely opposite energies—let's see how you handle this!" A cold gleam flashed through Olivia's eyes. In an instant, his entire body blazed with radiance like the sun, white light pouring out in beams, while at the same time faint black light flickered within.
His speed surged to its absolute limit in a flash!
The night sky was instantly filled with 108 blurred afterimages of Olivia.
Clang! Face solemn, Hetterson drew the heavy earth-yellow greatsword from his back.
"Ha ha… So you finally draw your sword!" Olivia's laughter thundered across heaven and earth, and the massive crowd of spectators fell deathly silent.
Tonight the sky was thick with dark clouds, making the battlefield's atmosphere even more oppressive. The spectators below even felt as though those dense clouds hovered just within arm's reach above Olivia and Hetterson.
Bang! Bang!
Terrifying sonic booms erupted one after another across the night sky. Every time Olivia pierced through the air at extreme speed, it triggered a deafening blast. The powerful air currents cascading down from several hundred meters above were strong enough to press the flames of the torches along the riverbank low.
The howling wind made the hair of countless spectators whip about.
Thousands upon thousands of people stared with all their might, desperate to see what was happening in the heights above.