"HAAAA!!!"
Everything happened too fast. By the time Chu Feng reacted, Kongdou Moyuan had already dodged the Ancient Battle Axe and closed in on him.
The oppressive aura radiating from the two Ancestral Weapon spears conveyed a lethal sense to Chu Feng.
It was suffocating, agonizing.
Even though those Ancestral Weapon spears had not yet pierced Chu Feng, he could already feel the breath of death.
He had lost. The reason Chu Feng had been able to hold his own against Kongdou Moyuan for so long was not his own strength — it was the Ancient Battle Axe.
Now, Kongdou Moyuan's speed had not only surpassed the Ancient Battle Axe, he had successfully evaded it entirely.
Without the Ancient Battle Axe guarding him, even if Chu Feng condensed his Lightning Mark, it would be useless.
"Chu Feng, your carelessness has sealed your defeat."
Kongdou Moyuan's voice dripped with mockery, and a smug look surfaced on his face.
Furthermore, the spear in his hand thrust toward Chu Feng's Dantian without the slightest mercy.
His target was clear — he intended to destroy Chu Feng's cultivation.
"So it was a diversion. Kongdou Moyuan's earlier show of weakness was just a ploy to split Chu Feng's attention. Everything — all of it — was setting up this sneak attack. Chu Feng let his guard down, and so he lost."
Only now did the onlookers grasp what had happened. They all understood in their hearts what had really been going on.
The reason Kongdou Moyuan had refrained from using the Lightning Mark for so long was because he knew that as fellow Martial Ancestors, whatever power the Lightning Mark granted, Chu Feng possessed it too.
If he had used the Lightning Mark head-on, it would have been completely futile. But if he struck by surprise, Chu Feng would suffer a devastating blow.
And now, it was painfully obvious — Kongdou Moyuan's scheme had succeeded.
Thk—!
In a flash, a muffled sound rang out, and a spray of blood burst into the air.
"AAAAH—!"
Most importantly, there came a scream of unbearable agony.
But in that very moment, the crowd was struck dumb, their faces a mixture of shock and disbelief.
Because the one who had been struck was not Chu Feng — it was Kongdou Moyuan.
It was the Ancient Battle Axe. It had chased after him from behind, closing the distance, and cleaved into his back.
Kongdou Moyuan's body, from head to toe, had been nearly split in half. Only a sliver of bone still barely held his ravaged body together.
Blood flowed uncontrollably, soaking through his robes.
His Thunder Armor, his Thunder Wings — even the Human-Character Lightning Mark on his forehead — all had vanished.
He was gravely wounded, completely stripped of any ability to continue fighting Chu Feng. Yet his face was still frozen in confusion and disbelief.
"How is this possible? I already dodged that bizarre axe of yours. Even if you condensed a Lightning Mark, there's no way it could catch up to me. Why? Why?!"
Kongdou Moyuan couldn't wrap his mind around it — couldn't understand how the Ancient Battle Axe had still managed to catch him.
"Yours is...?"
However, when Kongdou Moyuan raised his head and looked at the Chu Feng before him, he froze on the spot.
In that instant, he could not believe his own eyes. He could not believe what he was seeing.
Just as he had expected, Chu Feng's forehead had long since condensed a Lightning Mark as well.
But the Lightning Mark on Chu Feng's forehead was nothing like his own.
The thunderlight blazed with extraordinary intensity, and the aura it radiated was incomparably more powerful than his own — by a margin he couldn't even begin to measure.
Most importantly, the Lightning Mark on Chu Feng's forehead was not the Human-Character — it was the Divine-Character.
"A Divine-Character? How can there be a Divine-Character Lightning Mark?!"
Kongdou Moyuan was dumbfounded, genuinely terrified by the dazzling mark before him.
As a member of the Kongdou Heavenly Clan, as a possessor of a Heaven-grade bloodline, he naturally knew that Lightning Marks came in different tiers.
To possess a Lightning Mark, one had to cultivate the Self-Punishment Mystic Art.
The Self-Punishment Mystic Art, ranked from weakest to strongest, was divided into Human Punishment, Earth Punishment, and Heaven Punishment.
Setting aside the difficulty of cultivation, the higher the grade of the Self-Punishment Mystic Art, the more precious it was.
Leave aside everything else — just within the Hundred Refinements Mortal Realm, the two most powerful Heavenly Clans were the Kongdou Heavenly Clan and the Zhou Heavenly Clan.