Chapter Thirty-One: Clash of God-Level Powers
The speed of the innate divine ability "Soul Destruction" was simply too fast. Down on the ground, the ancient, bald Elder Bro's thin lips moved ever so slightly, and a massive shadowy image of a black serpent materialized behind him. The serpent had only a single vertical blood-red eye, and that eye was fixed unblinkingly on Lin Lei.
The space between Elder Bro's eyebrows cracked open, and a transparent beam of light instantly tore through the sky, piercing the "Blackstone Space" and striking Lin Lei directly. The speed was so great that Lin Lei had no chance whatsoever to dodge.
The Ashcroft family's innate divine ability — Soul Destruction!
"Elder Lin Lei!" The surviving six-star demons of the Green Dragon clan froze in shock at the sight.
"Damn it." The gaunt, green-browed man ground his teeth, staring at Lin Lei as fury raged inside him — Lin Lei had just killed his brother. "You got lucky I didn't finish you off myself."
In the distance, Emmanuel's eyes lit up as he watched: "The Coiling Dragon Ring!"
And Emmanuel rocketed toward Lin Lei at breakneck speed.
Within the infinite space of Lin Lei's consciousness, surrounding the ocean of his soul, there was a transparent membrane of scale-like panels — this was a Divine Artifact of soul defense. On this membrane, which covered a vast area, there was a small breach — the one weak point.
The surface of the soul ocean.
Beneath the seven-colored sword-shaped soul manifestation, Lin Lei stood clad in a pale-blue robe. This was his Wind-type divine clone. When entering battle, Lin Lei had only brought one divine clone along.
And in the Wind-type divine clone's hand was a single drop of teal liquid — the God-level Power of the Water System.
"Let's see if you can punch through. If you can, I'll have no choice but to use the Water System's God-level Power." Lin Lei had long been prepared. He had placed one drop of God-level Power with the Wind-type divine clone, and that clone resided right beside his soul within the ocean of consciousness.
At the first sign of danger, the Wind-type divine clone could immediately activate that drop of Water System God-level Power, protect the soul, and launch a counterattack.
"Phut!"
The transparent beam, savage and unstoppable, pierced straight forward like a needle tip and slammed into the transparent scale membrane. Its speed, its sheer force of impact… this was undoubtedly the most powerful attack Lin Lei had ever faced.
"Bang!"
Egg against stone. The beam struck the scale membrane and shattered into nothing.
"So that's Soul Destruction?" Lin Lei was stunned. "How is there zero damage? Even that simple soul attack from Mo Sili back then was more threatening than this innate divine ability."
"This attack seems completely lacking in finesse," Lin Lei thought.
Indeed, innate divine abilities were rigid, fixed attacks — like "God Consumption," which simply devoured divine cores. Success or failure was all-or-nothing. "Soul Destruction" was similarly unyielding: maximum power to break through all obstacles, annihilating the soul at any cost.
Abilities like Di Lin's or Tarosha's possessed tremendous power, but they were inflexible.
Once activated, these innate abilities consumed vast amounts of soul force. You couldn't reduce the expenditure even if you wanted to — they were utterly rigid.
In truth, finesse wasn't all that important in soul attacks.
Because most Highgods who possessed a Divine Artifact of soul defense had protection covering every area equally. Bei Bei's Divine Artifact of soul defense was uniform throughout. There were no weak spots… so flexibility in an attack was beside the point.
You just had to smash through with brute force.
"Soul Destruction" was exactly this kind of attack. But Lin Lei happened to possess a slightly damaged Divine Artifact of soul defense. Apart from the small breach, the rest of the membrane had the same defensive power as a fully intact Divine Artifact of soul defense.
A Highgod thought he could break through a Divine Artifact of soul defense?
Dream on!
And so… this powerful elder "Bro's" attack had been rendered useless.
In the vast expanse of sky, at the center of a five-hundred-meter-diameter spherical barrier of earthen-yellow light, Lin Lei stood. On the ground below, the ancient bald elder "Bro" raised his head and stared up at Lin Lei, his expression gradually shifting from cold menace to stunned disbelief.
"Whoosh!" Emmanuel was still hurtling toward Lin Lei, chuckling to himself. "Those idiots killing Lin Lei — they don't even know what the real prize is. How could they possibly know that Lin Lei possesses a Divine Artifact of soul defense?"
Emmanuel was supremely pleased with himself.
"Lin Lei, once you're dead, this thing's mine." Gloating inwardly, he plunged into the Blackstone Space zone — then frowned in puzzlement. "Why hasn't Lin Lei's Blackstone Space dissipated yet?"
A dead man's power should fade.
"Emmanuel." A cold voice rang out.
"Huh?" Emmanuel started, and found himself staring into Lin Lei's dark-gold eyes.
"What are you doing here? Coming to help me?" Lin Lei fixed Emmanuel with a penetrating gaze, taking in his bewildered expression and sneering inwardly. "This Emmanuel — he hasn't given up on my Coiling Dragon Ring."
Emmanuel snapped out of it and forced an awkward laugh. "Elder Lin Lei is truly formidable! I, uh, saw that you were in danger and came to help. But now it looks like you don't need my assistance. I'll go deal with the other one instead — that old fossil down there is all yours. I'm sure Elder Lin Lei can handle him easily."
With that, Emmanuel retreated hastily.
"Coward!"
"Hmph!" Lin Lei scoffed inwardly, then looked down at the bald old man who had attacked him. "Handle him easily? Killing this old fox probably won't be so simple." Lin Lei felt the threat.
But he wasn't afraid.
He currently held three drops of God-level Power, and his Wind-type divine clone was right there in the soul ocean, ready to activate it at a moment's notice.
"Ha ha ha…"
A hoarse, aged laugh rose from the bald elder below, his face a web of wrinkles like earthworm trails. "Lin Lei, it seems last time when you killed Mo Sili and his companion, you were still holding back! Impressive, truly impressive!"
Lin Lei regarded the old man, and information about a certain individual surfaced in his mind.
Back in Blood Battle Valley, the Green Dragon clan had given him a detailed briefing on the most dangerous figures among the Eight Great Families. Those individuals far surpassed ordinary seven-star demons — they were each a clan's trump card!
This old man before him was one of them!
What Lin Lei didn't know was that because of his own recent exploits, his dossier had also been shared among all the major families and added to their list of dangerous individuals.
"If I'm not mistaken, you should be Elder Bro of the Ashcroft family." Lin Lei, positioned high above in the center of the colossal light barrier, looked down at Bro and called out in a resonant voice.