At the very peak of the heavens.
“Should we run?” A handsome man in battered, blasted armor asked the black-robed elder beside him.
“Run?” The elder gave a bitter laugh. Blood trickled slowly down his forehead. “Do you think he’d let us go?”
“But if we keep fighting here, we’re only going to die!” The handsome man had never felt as wretched and desperate as he did today.
A battle group of eighteen Deities—an unrivaled force capable of sweeping across this world. Even the God King couldn’t stand against them alone.
Yet the white-robed young man in the distance had nearly shattered their battle group with a single finger. With every clash, another Deity was gravely wounded and brought close to losing the ability to fight. After just a few exchanges, more than half of their side had already fallen.
“I gave you the chance to end your own lives, but you didn’t take it. You insisted on finding out what pain feels like.” Xing Hai’s avatar was the one fighting the Deities’ battle group.
He hadn’t wanted to make things this troublesome. But if he used too much power, this world would collapse in an instant, and then all his efforts to regain his emotions would be for nothing.
The power he was using now was the limit this world could withstand. Going by this world’s tier system, it was probably around the late stages of the Fourteenth Tier.
Though even the strongest God King was only at the Twelfth Tier.
Xing Hai curled his left index finger into a fist. He didn’t want to waste any more time. After all, Eve had been badly frightened.
The battle group’s already faltering storm shattered the instant Xing Hai clenched his hand. He absorbed the scattered power so it wouldn’t cause trouble for the people below.
Only two Deities remained after that blow: the black-robed elder and the man in armor.
“Xiao Feng, I watched you grow from a mere Demigod into a Deity. You still have a long life ahead of you. Run! I’ll hold him off.” The black-robed elder coughed up several mouthfuls of divine blood. Gravely wounded and on the brink of death, he was like a flickering candle that would go out at the slightest breeze.
“Elder Huo, I can’t…” Grief and indignation showed on the armored man’s face. “If I’m going to die, then I’ll die fighting here! How can I run away and save my own skin?”
“Don’t you understand? In my condition, I can’t even get away. Hurry and run! Go warn the God Kings and tell everyone in the Divine Kingdom to prepare. Otherwise, the consequences will be unimaginable!” A trace of resolve entered the elder’s eyes. Divine power gathered in his hands, and he struck the armored man with his palm.
The armored man was blasted more than ten miles away, but he wasn’t badly hurt. The elder had only wanted to get him far from here.
“Then I’ll fight you to the death!” The black-robed elder fixed his gaze on Xing Hai and began burning his divine body and his very source. Blazing black flames spread from him in every direction. Even if he won this battle, with so little time left to him, he was doomed to perish.
He was trading his own life for a sliver of hope that the armored man might escape.
“Stubborn to the end.” Starlight flashed in Xing Hai’s eyes and vanished. The elder’s aura and power, which had surged wildly as he burned his source, disappeared in an instant. His withered body, like old tree bark, began to crumble away in midair.
“N-no… It can’t be…” The armored man couldn’t believe it. Elder Huo had paid the price of his very source, yet Xing Hai hadn’t even moved this time—and Elder Huo had still fallen.
“Elder Huo, I swear I’ll avenge you someday!” The armored man began burning his divine body and source as well, pushing his speed to its limit as he fled toward the Divine Kingdom.
If he didn’t do this, the armored man felt he had no chance of escaping at all.
“Why bother?” A faint sigh sounded beside his ear, like the toll of a death knell.
The armored man gradually slowed, then came to a stop, floating silently in midair. His eyes lost their light. His life no longer belonged to him.
“It was low-grade to begin with, and now I have to waste it.” Xing Hai gathered the bodies of the Deities—all except Elder Huo—and refined them into a single drop of multicolored liquid, which he closed in his palm.
“Poor Eve. I have to use trash like this to improve her aptitude.” He muttered to himself as his figure slowly faded from view. With his departure, the heavens gradually settled back into calm.
