The force of the impact sent Hedison's body flying backward to an extreme distance. Only after nearly a hundred meters had he managed to stabilize himself. A trickle of blood escaped from the corner of his mouth.
Hedison wiped the blood from his lips and gazed down at the surface of the Scarlet Flame River below.
"What a genius Sword Saint. That final strike was truly formidable," Hedison muttered to himself. In that life-or-death极限 moment, Olivia's last attack had carried a power unlike anything before. It had actually torn through his defenses and struck his true body, wounding him.
The torrential rain continued to pour down. On the surface of the Scarlet Flame River, the currents raged. That splash of eye-catching crimson quickly dispersed in the rushing water and disappeared.
Dead silence!
Everyone was silent. Those standing along both banks of the river gazed at the Scarlet Flame River's surface. Everyone wanted to know—had the brilliant and peerless genius Sword Saint truly perished?
"Brother!" Blumer dove into the rushing waters of the Scarlet Flame River without a moment's hesitation.
"Master Lin Lei, is Olivia dead?" King Joa asked anxiously.
Lin Lei shook his head. "I'm not sure either." As he spoke, he glanced down at Bei Bei beside him. Bei Bei looked up at Lin Lei helplessly and said, "Boss, that Olivia's aura is extremely faint. He's not breathing at all. There's only the slightest trace of life left—it could fade at any moment."
The vast crowd buzzed with discussion, everyone whispering about whether Olivia was truly dead. But all of them still remembered... Olivia's dazzling final strike.
Splash!
Blumer burst from the water, cradling a body in his arms. Lin Lei's sharp gaze clearly picked out Olivia's pallid face in the distance—not a drop of color remaining, his lips a ghostly gray. The man had stopped breathing altogether.
Without sensing him with spiritual power, one would never have felt that Olivia still clung to the faintest thread of life.
"Make way! Make way!" Blumer clutched the Light Shadow Sword and the Black Stone Sword in one hand while holding his brother with the other. With a push off his feet, he charged at full speed toward King Joa.
Tears streamed from Blumer's eyes.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, where are the healers? Quickly, quickly!" Blumer shouted frantically.
For this Saint-realm battle, King Joa had already invited the most esteemed figure from the palace—the ninth-level Grand Holy Magister of Light.
"Mr. Anthe, please, save Olivia quickly," King Joa immediately urged.
The silver-haired elder stepped out from behind King Joa and hurried to Olivia's side. His hands emitted a milky-white radiance that flowed directly into Olivia's body. Color returned to Olivia's face at a visible pace.
"How is he? How is my brother?" Blumer asked nervously.
Though Blumer was fiercely proud and cold toward others, his elder brother held a place in his heart equal to that of a father. His brother had raised him single-handedly when he was young. In Blumer's heart, no one mattered more.
"Don't worry. I've only repaired the surface wounds for now. For his internal injuries, I still need to cast a healing spell." The silver-haired elder nodded, then began silently reciting an incantation. Blumer stood beside him, anxious and tense, not daring to interrupt the Grand Holy Magister of Light.
Before long—
Point after point of light, like tiny stars, merged into Olivia's body. The wounds that had been visible on his skin were fully restored in the blink of an eye. The healing ability was truly astonishing.
"Hmm?" The silver-haired elder frowned in puzzlement.
"What's wrong?" Blumer asked tensely.
The silver-haired elder shook his head, brow furrowed. "Lord Olivia's body, both externally and internally—his organs and broken bones—have all been restored to perfect condition. Yet he still won't wake up. This..."
Lin Lei studied Olivia carefully.
"Olivia's soul has suffered severe damage," Bei Bei transmitted to Lin Lei. "I can feel that his soul aura is extraordinarily weak."
At that moment, Hedison, robed in gray, descended slowly from the sky. With an effortless, graceful motion, he alighted before King Joa.
"Hedison!" Blumer glared at him as though ready to devour him whole.
His only brother. His only family. Blumer harbored boundless hatred toward Hedison. If their disparity in strength hadn't been so vast, Blumer would have charged at him on the spot.
"Don't glare at me. Your brother's soul is gravely injured and his life hangs in the balance, but that's none of my doing. His last move just now—it seemed like some kind of forbidden technique. He attacked me at the cost of mutual destruction," Hedison said. His own complexion was somewhat pale as well.
"Forbidden technique?" Blumer's brow creased.
He suddenly recalled—
Some time ago, he had wanted to learn the Black Stone Sword techniques from his brother. But Olivia had told him that once he had taken up the Light Shadow Sword, he should focus solely on it and not train in the diametrically opposite Black Stone Sword.
"Could it be that these two fundamentally opposed elemental laws truly carry some kind of taboo?" Blumer looked down at his brother.
Olivia's face was flushed with healthy color, and his bodily functions had clearly reached a perfect state. But he simply would not wake. Moreover, his soul aura was so faint—it could vanish at any moment.
"Lord Olivia lost?"
"His brother is already cradling his body. Sigh, the genius Sword Saint is dead."
"Who says he's dead? Maybe he's just unconscious from severe injuries."
"Either way, Sword Saint Hedison is perfectly fine. He even flew down from midair. Clearly far stronger than Lord Olivia."
Millions of people chattered among themselves. Though rain poured from the sky, it could not extinguish everyone's fervor. All of them discussed this epic battle. Whether Olivia was dead or merely unconscious from grievous wounds, it represented one outcome—