Millions of spectators below stared in disbelief. The blood Hedesen had coughed up, the bloodstains on Lin Lei's shattered dragon scales, the blood at the corners of his mouth — everything spoke to just how brutal this battle truly was.
"How is that possible?"
"How is that possible? Master Lin Lei and Lord Hedesen..."
Countless spectators were utterly stunned. That two supreme powerhouses would fight to such a degree — but what shocked them most was that Hedesen, hailed as the strongest in the Saint Realm, was spitting out great mouthfuls of blood, gravely wounded beyond any doubt.
In their eyes, Lin Lei was only twenty-seven years old. A genius, sure.
But hadn't Lin Lei been roughly on par with Olivia before? And Olivia had been beaten by Hedesen just like that — surely Linlei would meet the same end. Yet looking at it now, things were completely different.
"Lin Lei, he..." Olivia's brow was tightly knit. He said nothing.
In truth, if Lin Lei hadn't comprehended the "Pulse Guard," Hedesen's "Earthquake" would have left him gravely wounded, and a single "Earth Rift" would have been enough to kill him. But Lin Lei had the "Pulse Guard." His defense had improved dramatically. Even Hedesen's ultimate techniques could, at most, badly wound him.
"Lin Lei!" Dilia was on the verge of tears.
Seeing the bloodstains on Lin Lei's body, her heart trembled.
"Brother." "Sir." Wotton, the five Buck brothers, butler Xili, Hillman, Jenny and the other two girls — the entire group was on edge for Lin Lei.
This battle had become far too brutal.
"What bizarre attacks — impossible to defend against." Hedesen gazed at Lin Lei in the distance, who resembled a demon, his mind racing at full speed.
Earth Grand Art — 132-Fold Vibration Wave!
Even Hedesen, who had special internal defenses, was badly wounded. He knew he might be able to endure one more of Lin Lei's ultimate attacks. But the third time, he would certainly die.
"How can Lin Lei's defense be this strong? My Earth Rift still can't kill him." Hedesen couldn't believe it.
Among every opponent he had faced, none had dared to take such a blow head-on. The Earth Rift was his ultimate technique — if even that couldn't win the fight, what else could?
"I can't keep taking hits head-on. I'll use my movement techniques to dodge his attacks and land a hit of my own," Hedesen reasoned. He also believed that Lin Lei was in no better shape than he was. To survive the Earth Rift and still have fighting power was already remarkable. He was confident that... just one more "Earth Rift" and Lin Lei would surely not withstand it.
That was what Hedesen thought, but Lin Lei was thinking exactly the same.
The state of his body dictated that he could no longer trade blows directly.
*Hiss!* The earth-colored energy waves on Hedesen's body began to retract, settling at last like earth-colored armor clinging tight to his skin.
Lin Lei likewise compressed his "Pulse Guard" to the surface of his body.
Because if the defense spread too far, it would slow him down during high-speed flight. Without question, both powerhouses had now decided to shift to mobile combat.
Countless spectators below craned their necks, holding their breath as they watched overhead, their hearts equally suspended.
Those who had been certain that Rock Sword Saint "Hedesen" would win no longer dared to say so.
*Whoosh!* *Whoosh!* Violent winds erupted, and raging whirlwinds once again swept across heaven and earth. Lin Lei's figure turned fluid and ghostly once more, his speed pushed to the absolute limit. Riding the wind, Lin Lei's movements were so uncanny that no one could predict where he would appear.
Hedesen gripped his earth-colored heavy sword, his feet also in motion. With a single step, space itself seemed to shift — one step covered dozens of meters. His movement technique was equally uncanny!
*Shing —*
Hedesen's earth-colored heavy sword suddenly materialized before Lin Lei, cleaving directly at his body. But it passed through as if striking empty air — the "Lin Lei" there was nothing but an afterimage, which flickered and vanished.
*Thwack!* The black jade heavy sword slashed back in return.
Just before it reached Hedesen, he suddenly appeared dozens of meters away.
Both powerhouses understood the lethality of the other's attacks and no longer dared to take a direct hit. Both sought to use their movement techniques to deliver a devastating blow.
"Where are they?"
"I can't even see them!"
The countless spectators below strained their eyes, trying to track the action overhead, but Lin Lei and Hedesen were moving too fast. Combined with the swirling gale, they could only occasionally catch glimpses of static afterimages.
Beads of sweat lined Dilia's forehead, but she still stared upward without blinking.
The atmosphere was more tense than ever.
Hedesen took a step and appeared directly on the slopes of Mount Tujiao. He decided to use the boulders and trees on the mountain as obstacles to restrict Lin Lei's speed.
*Whoosh!* Lin Lei dove downward, slashing at Hedesen with extreme speed.
Hedesen stepped once and was far away, then stepped again, eerily materializing behind a massive boulder. At that moment, Lin Lei was on the opposite side of the boulder.
"Earth Rift —"
The earth-colored heavy sword, carrying boundless power, slashed downward. The boulder, tall as a man, crumbled like tofu — the moment it touched the energy wave on the blade, it was instantly reduced to powder. Lin Lei, sensing danger early, had already dodged away.
*Boom!*
Mount Tujiao split open with a terrifying crack hundreds of meters deep, the fissure three to four meters wide. Countless fragments of stone flew in every direction.
"God!" Millions of spectators stood frozen.
Mount Tujiao, right before their eyes, had split open with a massive crack. The mountain, nearly a thousand meters tall, had been split nearly in half.
*Boom!* Lin Lei's Earth Grand Art — 132-Fold Vibration Wave — struck directly toward Hedesen.
Hedesen dodged once more.
The vibration wave from the black jade heavy sword therefore slammed into a nearby tree instead. *Whoooosh* — inexplicably, the tree was blown to powder by the sheer force. At the same time, along the diagonal path of the black jade heavy sword, the vibration waves sliced along a slanted line, cutting straight through the interior of Mount Tujiao from its peak all the way to the mountain wall at its midpoint.
*Hissss —*
On the mountainside, a hole the size of a man appeared. Countless particles of stone dust poured down from within, pulverized so thoroughly that a gust of wind sent them floating through the air, turning the entire sky hazy gray.
In just a moment —
A clear, clean tunnel running through the mountain's interior, connecting the mountainside to the peak, appeared before countless pairs of eyes.
The crowd of spectators fell into dead silence.
King Joel's throat convulsed twice.
Good heavens — what terrifying power. Who could possibly withstand their attacks? One sword strike to split a mountain, another to bore clean through its interior — and every stone reduced to dust. It was simply inconceivable.
"This is the Earth Grand Art!" Buck and the others were thrilled, yet they too were shaken by the terrifying power of Rock Sword Saint "Hedesen."
Olivia watched all of this in silence.
The fierce wind howled. Lin Lei's figure, hidden within the wind, kept materializing at different locations without warning. Hedesen likewise shifted and dodged with eerie speed. All those below could hear were the repeated, violent, terrifying impacts — followed by shattering rock, snapping trees, and clouds of pulverized stone.