Qian Renxue raised the Angel Sword high, the sun's rays converging upon her once more. At the same time, the Angel Divine Armor upon her body blazed to life, frantically absorbing the solar essence fire. Every pattern etched across the originally resplendent golden armor lit up, transforming into a dazzling crimson-gold. Light flowed across its surface like molten lava coursing through veins. A divine gleam flickered in Qian Renxue's eyes as her gaze locked onto a single point on the ground. In the next instant, her entire body rocketed earthward like a shooting star chasing the moon.
With a soft hissing sound, as though meeting no resistance whatsoever, Qian Renxue's body pierced directly into the earth and vanished. At the spot where she entered, a pit less than a meter in diameter remained. Its edges melted away in the crimson-gold radiance, just like the deep crater earlier struck by the Solar Sacred Sword.
Qian Renxue truly was as bold as her skill warranted. The method she chose to pursue Tang San was overwhelmingly aggressive — she harnessed the solar essence fire and her own Angel divine power to raise the temperature of the Angel Divine Armor to a terrifying degree. Wherever she passed, the earth melted before her, and it was in this fashion — melting the very ground — that she burrowed into the earth and launched her pursuit.
Without question, Qian Renxue's approach consumed far, far more energy than Tang San's. Tang San was manipulating the power of the earth, while she was directly destroying it. The pressure and resistance she had to endure were vastly greater than his. However, the Angel God at full strength was still overwhelmingly more powerful than Tang San. Her divine power recovery rate also far surpassed his Soul Power regeneration. The underground environment would certainly create tremendous obstruction for Qian Renxue and greatly diminish her strength. But she was still the terrifying Angel God. Wrapped in the solar essence fire, she closed the distance between herself and Tang San almost in the blink of an eye.
Damn, she can do that too? No matter how calm he tried to remain, when Tang San sensed from behind the method Qian Renxue was using to close in on him, he couldn't help but curse. His spiritual sense had been completely suppressed beneath the ground, and he was relying on the fusion of his spiritual power with the earth's force to detect Qian Renxue's pursuit. That astonishing speed and the searing waves of energy told him exactly what method she had employed. Originally, Tang San had only fused his spiritual power with the earth's force to detect which direction Qian Renxue's attacks were coming from so he could dodge — but now it had once again become his eyes. This was the limitation Qian Renxue faced underground; had they been above ground, Tang San's spiritual sense would have been utterly useless.
Come, then. On the surface I didn't stand a chance, but beneath the ground, it's anyone's game. A cold smile crept across Tang San's face as he accelerated forward while simultaneously plunging ever deeper.
This approach was undeniably self-destructive as well as costly for his opponent. The deeper he went, the greater the pressure his body had to endure. The earth was nothing like seawater — the crushing force was immense, and the passage of his body caused immediate collapse in its wake. As he penetrated deeper, the compression would only intensify.
By leveraging his command over the earth's force, Tang San temporarily kept his speed from being affected. But there was no doubt that the deeper he dove, the faster his Soul Power would be drained.
Tang San's thinking was clear now — he intended to contest Qian Renxue in a war of attrition. No matter how you looked at it, Qian Renxue, who was using the solar fire to force her way through the earth, was expending far more than he was. The deeper underground she went, the more rapidly her consumption would increase. The earth was constantly squeezing downward, meaning she had to continuously melt through soil and rock with her solar fire. The deeper she plunged, the faster the compression, and the more material she had to melt through. Moreover, at greater depths the pressure was even higher — taxing for Tang San, but for Qian Renxue the cost multiplied geometrically. At least for now, with his Gravity Control and earth-force manipulation, Tang San's speed wouldn't be affected, whereas Qian Renxue's speed would inevitably slow.
Of course, this method was also extremely dangerous for Tang San himself. If his Soul Power was depleted to the point he could no longer sustain his control over the earth's force, then without question he would be immediately crushed in the depths — with no possibility of survival.
Very quickly, Tang San's deep dive began to pay off. When he had reached approximately a thousand meters below the surface, Qian Renxue had closed to within less than two hundred meters of him — but her speed had also begun to decline.
This was not purely due to the depth. More importantly, the solar essence fire she had borrowed from the sunlight had been entirely consumed. Her original plan had been to use the solar fire's power to instantaneously burst underground and deliver a fatal strike to Tang San. But Tang San's underground speed far exceeded her expectations — after his sudden plunge, she had been unable to close the distance immediately. Attacking underground was nothing like attacking on the surface; even with her divine-level strength, she could not unleash wide-area attacks. A wide-area strike might catch Tang San in an instant, but the soil and rock above would immediately collapse inward, neutralizing her attack force. As a result, Qian Renxue could only execute single-target attacks, minimizing the area of effect to ensure sufficient penetrating power. And that, naturally, gave Tang San room to dodge. Unless she could close to within a certain distance, so long as he had enough space, it would be extremely difficult for Qian Renxue to kill him in a single blow. After all, with the Seagod Trident in hand, leveraging pure Seagod power, Tang San could still barely manage to avoid being locked down by Qian Renxue's divine sense underground.
Now that the solar essence fire was exhausted, Qian Renxue had to rely on her own Angel divine power to break through soil and rock in pursuit, and her speed naturally dropped. She was still somewhat faster than Tang San, but not by much.
Frustration was beginning to set in for Qian Renxue. These layers of soil and rock posed no threat to her — even if buried underground, she had no fear of dying on the spot like Tang San might. A divine being's formidable life force meant she could go without breathing for an extraordinarily long time, and with the protection of the Angel Sacred Armor, she could crawl her way out even at a snail's pace. Still, this chase — where all her strength had no proper outlet while her energy was constantly hemorrhaging — left her deeply exasperated. Tang San's cunning was truly a headache.
Two hundred meters remained. Tang San pushed himself to accelerate with everything he had, knowing that Qian Renxue was about to catch up. If she closed to within a hundred meters of him, her overwhelming divine-level power could very well finish him off in an instant.
Facing the crisis of life and death, Tang San held nothing back. Ignoring the escalating drain on his Soul Power from the earth-force manipulation, he plunged desperately deeper, simultaneously devouring several Recovery Sausages in rapid succession to replenish what he had lost. The Mysterious Heaven Skill churned within him like a vast vortex, spinning at maximum velocity as he fully unleashed both his earth-force control and Gravity Control.
Diving deeper held another advantage for Tang San — the sheer weight of the Clear Sky Hammer and the Seagod Trident he carried. The Clear Sky Hammer, without its Martial Soul true body manifested, wasn't particularly heavy, but the Seagod Trident weighed a hundred and eight thousand jin. Its mass meant he only needed to carve a path through the soil; his body would plummet downward on its own.
The distance between the two shrank rapidly to a hundred and eighty meters. By this point, Tang San had led Qian Renxue to a depth of twelve hundred meters below the surface — a depth unimaginable for ordinary humans. The earth's crushing force grew ever stronger, and the denser mixture of rock and soil further decelerated their progress.
Suddenly, a thought struck Tang San, and his expression turned peculiar. The first Soul Ring's light on the Clear Sky Hammer abruptly dimmed. Gravity Control and earth-force manipulation were withdrawn at the same instant. His body froze for a moment deep within the earth.
Behind him, Qian Renxue was overjoyed. Her speed had always exceeded his, and her divine sense clearly registered Tang San's momentary halt. The distance between them collapsed to within a hundred meters in a heartbeat.
Finally within striking range, Qian Renxue hesitated not a fraction of a second. The underground pursuit was draining her far too heavily — her divine power expenditure far outstripped her intake. She thrust the Angel Sacred Sword forward. Every pattern across the Angel Divine Armor blazed with fierce radiance simultaneously. The six wings folded behind her flared open instantly. Though this meant she would momentarily bear even greater pressure from the surrounding earth, she could no longer afford to care — she needed to unleash her full attack.
Intense golden light instantly coalesced into a colossal golden flame. In that moment, centered on Qian Renxue's body, every trace of soil within a five-meter radius vanished into the blaze. Even the immense pressure twelve hundred meters underground could not penetrate this zone. Around Qian Renxue, it was as if a dazzling golden halo of light had materialized. She thrust the Angel Sacred Sword forward, all her energy condensing onto the blade's edge in an instant. With a subtle flick of her wrist, she slashed out four consecutive sword strikes. Four arcs of golden light intersected in the air to form a character resembling the Chinese "mi," then shot through the earth, hurtling straight toward Tang San's body ahead.
The paused Tang San had already turned around within the earth. His left hand swept the Clear Sky Hammer across to guard his chest. The eighth Soul Ring on the Clear Sky Hammer flashed brilliantly. A wave of intense red light rolled outward, enveloping his entire body. The crimson light solidified like a tangible shell, forming a layer that clung to his skin across his whole frame — it looked less like an energy-based defense and more like physical armor. At the same time, Tang San raised his right hand. Though he no longer had the earth-force to manipulate the surrounding soil, his Soul Power remained, and movement was no problem at all.
The Seagod Trident blazed with golden radiance. In this moment, Tang San poured everything he had left into the attack. The Seagod's Light surged frantically into the Seagod Trident without regard for the cost. His wrist shook continuously, and one golden ring after another materialized from the trident's central blade. Nine golden circles formed before Tang San — the defensive stance of Drifting Waves.
The Cross Slash arrived before Tang San almost in an instant. The nine layers of defense laid down by Drifting Waves were broken through in nearly the same instant by that terrifying cross-shaped light blade. However, it was clearly visible that every time the Cross Slash shattered one layer of Drifting Waves, its own offensive power weakened by a fraction. By the time all nine layers of Drifting Waves had been destroyed, its striking force was less than half of what it had been before.
And at that very moment, Tang San had already turned around, meeting the remnant attack with his back.
The Eight Spider Lances were neatly folded behind him. Beyond the Eight Spider Lances was the Soul Skill released by the eighth Soul Ring that adorned his Clear Sky Hammer.
Amidst a thunderous boom, the entire earth shuddered violently. Had anyone been standing on the surface at that moment, they would have been certain it was an earthquake. Tang San's body was blasted through the soil like a cannonball, punching straight through more than a hundred meters. The shell-like energy layer that had been shielding his body was now completely shattered. Even the god-tier Eight Spider Lances had snapped apart inch by inch, and the clothes on his back had been reduced to flying ash along with them.
However, Tang San's actual body had not sustained catastrophic damage. If Qian Renxue had been beside him, she would have seen that the skin across his back had turned completely golden — this was the holistic defense granted by the Eight Spider Lances. After breaking through Drifting Waves, the shell defense, and all eight spider lances, the attack ultimately could not pierce the defensive resilience of Tang San's back. It had blasted him flying, but it had not been able to take his life.
Tang San only felt a searing heat in his back, then with a wrenching cough, he spat out a mouthful of blood. His entire being felt as though the blood inside him was burning, and the excruciating pain nearly suffocated him.
It was at a moment like this that Tang San's iron will showed its strength. Facing that tremendous agony, he did not hesitate for even a fraction of a second. He switched his Martial Soul in an instant, transforming the Clear Sky Hammer into the Blue Silver Emperor, and directly detonated the first Soul Ring of his Blue Silver Emperor. A layer of intense blue-gold light instantly enveloped his entire body. The colossal energy generated at the cost of a shattered ring surged through his body, and Tang San used that energy to blast the surrounding soil aside and propel himself forward at tremendous speed.
The Greater Amitabha Hammer came with severe restrictions on its use. Once it was activated, the Martial Soul it employed could no longer wield any Soul Skills. But now, as that blue-gold radiance shrouded his whole frame, replenishing his internal energy, and as the power of the shattered ring simultaneously neutralized the Angel God's divine force that had invaded his body, he switched his Martial Soul back to the Clear Sky Hammer. At the same time, the sixth and eighth Soul Rings on the Clear Sky Hammer blazed to life simultaneously.
That same shell-like layer reappeared over Tang San's body, and the Clear Sky Hammer in his hand, now enveloped by the sixth Soul Ring, shimmered with an eerie crimson glow. Strangely enough, once the shell armor shrouded him, the crushing pressure of the surrounding soil on Tang San simply vanished. Even at a depth of over twelve hundred meters underground, he felt no pressure whatsoever. This sensation had been present the very first time he had used this ability before, and it only strengthened his confidence in the course of action he was now taking. On top of that, once the sixth Soul Ring had settled over the Clear Sky Hammer, all Tang San needed was a gentle swing, and the soil and rock ahead parted with ease, splitting open on either side. His speed of advance was actually even faster than when he had been using both the Power of Earth and Gravity Control. Most importantly, though these two Soul Skills consumed a fair amount of Soul Power to activate, the ongoing drain afterward was far less than before. It allowed him to accelerate without any reservation, plunging deeper and farther into the earth.
*How is this possible?* After Qian Renxue unleashed her strike, her own body was immediately squeezed by rock and soil. A layer of intense golden light radiated from her Angel God's Armor, but it could only keep those materials at bay a short distance from her body.
With her divine sense probing outward, she naturally knew that Tang San had not been killed by her attack. But the strike she had just delivered had embodied the true essence of the Angel God. Although she dared not use the most powerful Angel God skills in these deep underground passages, based on her earlier battle with Tang San, that blow should have been enough to kill him! What she could not comprehend at all was that after taking her hit, Tang San had not slowed in the slightest. Instead, a massive surge of energy had erupted from his body, and he had charged forward even faster than before. Combined with the hundred meters her strike had sent him flying, the distance between them had actually grown to over two hundred meters.
Not only was Qian Renxue baffled — even Tang San himself had only realized in that sudden flash of inspiration moments ago that he had a better way to travel underground. That was precisely why he had retracted the Power of Earth and Gravity Control and willingly stopped to take Qian Renxue's blow head-on.
That brief pause had indeed slowed his momentum, but had he wanted to close the gap quickly afterward, he could have prevented Qian Renxue from closing to within a hundred meters. He had done it deliberately.