Not only could Xiang Qin not have anticipated it—every single person in the Grand Sanctum was staring wide-eyed at the arena, their faces filled with disbelief.
How could they, as his fellow sect members, not know just how formidable Xiang Qin's close-combat abilities were?
Among the younger generation of the Myriad Phenomena Territory, aside from the Grand Sanctum's Yue Baize—who could barely hold his own against Xiang Qin in close combat—no other young genius stood any chance whatsoever.
Not even Wang Han, who had been the strongest contender before, had any ability to go toe-to-toe with Xiang Qin in hand-to-hand combat.
Having taken punch after punch, Xiang Qin was utterly frustrated. With a string of savage roars, he clawed at the empty air with both hands and produced a pair of golden melon hammers.
The hammer was a domineering weapon—a heavy armament that relied purely on brute force and crushing power.
As the pair of hammers swept through the air, their momentum surged forward like a thousand ancient mammoths charging in unison, crashing and smashing nonstop.
On the surface, the attacks appeared to be nothing more than raw, primitive aggression. In reality, they contained the divine abilities of the Sacred Elephant Clan. Though the hammers seemed to be swung wildly, there was profound technique behind every motion.
But Jiang Chen clearly had no intention of using a weapon. If it was a contest of raw savagery and brute force? His Divine Demon Golden Body feared no one.
The hammer strikes were not merely physical attacks. What made them truly terrifying was a devouring force woven into each blow.
This devouring force could consume the ambient energy of the void.
With the void energy devoured, the opponent would fatigue far more quickly. In plain terms, it devoured the opponent's room to move and drained their void energy.
Jiang Chen saw through the trick. Though slightly surprised, his own attacks grew equally frenzied in response.
If Xiang Qin wanted to test their brute strength, then Jiang Chen would let him experience the raw power of his Nine Transformations of Divine Demons golden body.
The golden body blazed, and Jiang Chen's figure became a streak of golden qi, rolling and shifting across the arena at a speed so blistering that the spectators below could hardly track his movements.
Several times, Xiang Qin's hammers seemed to land squarely on his body, yet each time it felt like striking a slippery live fish—the hammers hit the golden glow and slid right off.
It was like trying to grip a fish with wet, slippery hands—no matter how hard you squeezed, it wouldn't stay put.
This sensation drove Xiang Qin to the brink of frustration, nearly making him spit blood.
Meanwhile, the force behind Jiang Chen's fists, though not as overwhelming as Xiang Qin's hammers, still hit with enough power to make Xiang Qin feel like coughing up blood.
Clearly, Jiang Chen had ramped up his offensive power.
Bang, bang, bang! Xiang Qin took hit after hit, and his hammer techniques began to fall into disarray.
It was true that the Sacred Elephant Clan possessed astounding defenses—thick skin, tough flesh, and battle armor for protection. But with the amplified force of Jiang Chen's fists hammering into Xiang Qin's body, the frustration was impossible to contain.
After taking hit after hit, Xiang Qin was driven to the edge of the arena. His eyes bulged wide, and he gasped for breath in ragged heaves.
Clutching a hammer in each hand with their heads dragging on the ground, Xiang Qin's face was a mask of wild, stubborn defiance. "Good, good! I never imagined the Danqian Palace had someone like you—someone who could actually push me on the back foot in close combat."
"But beating me in my normal state doesn't mean you can handle me when I've gone berserk!"
As he spoke, Xiang Qin raised both hands and jabbed several major acupoints on his body in rapid succession. Jets of blood sprayed outward.
Xiang Qin grabbed the blood arrows from the air and began inscribing odd runes into the void. Bizarre, beast-type symbols materialized and shot continuously into his skin, sinking deep into his bloodline.
Before long, a faint luminescence of runes hovered around Xiang Qin's entire body, each glowing symbol pulsing and floating just above his skin.
Then, without warning, Xiang Qin let out a thunderous roar—Auuu!
The roar sounded like an ancient primordial beast awakening. The raw wildness it unleashed sent the blood churning of every young genius watching below, leaving them feeling as though the sky and earth had gone dark—some were on the verge of vomiting.
In that instant, it was as if a divine demon had awakened within Xiang Qin. The aura carried by that roar was half human, half ancient beast, radiating an overwhelmingly violent presence.
"Bloodline berserk!"
"Heavens, the Grand Sanctum is terrifying! They can trigger a bloodline berserk so easily!"
"Xiang Qin is incredible—truly the Grand Sanctum's number-one genius."
"Did you notice? He just struck his own acupoints four times in a row—that's a fourth-level berserk state!"
"Fourth-level berserk? That high? I heard that completing a bloodline berserk at all is already remarkable."
"Mm, completing a first-level berserk makes you a genius. Second-level puts you among the top-tier. I'd heard that Xiang Qin and Yue Baize had achieved third-level. I didn't expect…"
"I never expected that Xiang Qin could already reach fourth-level berserk!"
In that moment, every genius below was struck speechless. They knew that even Xiang Qin in his normal state was someone they might not be able to handle—let alone Xiang Qin at fourth-level berserk.
Over in the Sacred Sword Palace's corner, watching the battle from afar, Wang Jianyu had to admit that even if Wang Han stepped up, there would be virtually no chance of winning against a berserk opponent.
And that wasn't even necessarily Xiang Qin's peak power.
"Gao Qi, be careful—that's fourth-level berserk!" Palace Master Danchi couldn't help but cry out in warning.