Chapter 486: Someone's Throwing The Match!
“Stop now!” Zhou Xingkong demanded, his voice laced with anger.
“Stop?” Li Zihuang scoffed. “You think you can just start a fight and then call it off whenever you please? What do you take me for, Zhou Xingkong? Today, we settle this once and for all!”
“…”
“Didn’t you hear me?” Zhou Xingkong growled. “Someone’s throwing the match! We should stop them together!”
“Throwing the match?” Li Zihuang glanced toward Jiang Ye’s direction before sneering. “I don’t see it. Stop being such a coward, Zhou Xingkong. Are you afraid you can’t beat me?”
“Li Zihuang, don’t push me!” Zhou Xingkong snapped, his face darkening with frustration. This was truly his worst day ever. He had intended to take his time with Li Zihuang, but the woman was acting like this was a life-or-death battle.
If this continued, he would be forced to reveal his trump card.
“What if I do?” Li Zihuang scoffed. With their shared Transcendent Aptitude, she had no fear of Zhou Xingkong.
“Damn it!”
“This foolish woman,” Zhou Xingkong muttered, speechless with frustration. Yet he had no choice but to struggle against Li Zihuang’s relentless assault.
“Everyone!”
“Jiang Ye and Chen Zilu are throwing the match!” Zhou Xingkong gritted his teeth and sent a telepathic message to the others. “Go stop them now!”
Hearing this, the other transcendent prodigies turned their gazes toward Jiang Ye.
“Zhou Xingkong, you wouldn’t confront Jiang Ye yourself, and now you’re accusing him of throwing the match?” Wang Feifan mocked. “Are you really that afraid of losing to him?”
“Bullshit!”
“Can’t you see?” Zhou Xingkong hissed. “Jiang Ye and Chen Zilu are clearly working together! They’re watching us fight like tigers, trying to uncover our trump cards!”
“Trump cards are meant to be revealed,” Wang Feifan said calmly. “Are you afraid you can’t beat him even after he sees yours?”
“I—” Zhou Xingkong nearly spat blood.
He had always disliked dealing with these transcendent prodigies. Each one of them was arrogant beyond measure, their words sharp enough to drive a person mad.
“Fine!”
“Then reveal your true colors,” Zhou Xingkong said coldly. “Just wait until Jiang Ye and Chen Zilu join forces. Let’s see how you handle that!”
His words caused the transcendent prodigies to pause slightly.
Individually, none of them feared Jiang Ye or Chen Zilu.
But if the two were to team up?
That would indeed be a tricky situation.
“What do you propose?” Wang Feifan transmitted telepathically. “Do you want us to gang up on Jiang Ye?”
“No need!”
“I’ll fight him myself,” Zhou Xingkong said coldly.
Since he had no choice but to reveal his trump card, he might as well eliminate Jiang Ye first.
“Agreed.”
“Very well.”
“Fine.” The other transcendent prodigies, including Chu Jingye, nodded in agreement.
In unison, they ceased their combat, halting their attacks.
Seeing everyone stop fighting, Li Zihuang sighed inwardly and reluctantly ceased her assault on Zhou Xingkong.
“Jiang Ye, this is all I can do to help you,” Li Zihuang thought, glancing in his direction with a hint of expectation in her eyes.
She had been eager to recruit this underdog who had repeatedly defied expectations and achieved miraculous feats. That was why she had gone to such lengths to stall Zhou Xingkong earlier.
But in the end, this battle had to be resolved by Jiang Ye himself.
At the same moment, sensing that everyone else had stopped fighting, Jiang Ye and Chen Zilu also ceased their engagement.
“What’s going on?”
“Why is everyone staring at me?” Jiang Ye asked calmly, looking around.
“Jiang Ye, it’s time to fulfill your promise,” Zhou Xingkong said coldly, his eyes sharp as daggers, radiating an aura like a honed blade.
Transcendent pressure surged outward.
Everyone stepped back, quickly clearing a large open space.
Crack! Crack! Zhou Xingkong strode forward, each step shattering the void beneath his feet with earth-shattering booms.
He ascended into the air, hovering above Jiang Ye like a predator awaiting its prey.
“I’ve been ready to fulfill my promise for a long time,” Jiang Ye said with a shrug. “But when the final battle began, you ran off to fight someone else. That’s why it’s been delayed until now.”
Zhou Xingkong’s icy composure nearly shattered at these words.
“Are you accusing me of avoiding the fight?” he demanded coldly.
“What else could I think?” Jiang Ye retorted.
Zhou Xingkong’s face tightened, his gaze icy.
Pfft!
Just then, an untimely burst of laughter rang out.
“Huh?” Zhou Xingkong whipped his head around. Who was laughing? What was so funny?
“Why are you staring at me?” Li Zihuang snapped. “You won’t fight, you won’t retreat—what exactly are you doing?”
Zhou Xingkong’s nostrils flared, smoke practically curling from them as Li Zihuang’s words stung him deeply.
Li Zihuang, you’ll pay for this! he vowed inwardly. Once I deal with Jiang Ye, I’ll settle things with you.
He took a deep breath and turned back to Jiang Ye.
“Jiang Ye,” he said, his voice cold. “Six months ago, you challenged me.” He looked down at Jiang Ye from above, his tone indifferent. “Now, the appointed time has come.”
The moment the words left his lips—
Boom!
Rumble! A terrifying domain surged forth, instantly engulfing the entire arena.
In an instant, the world seemed to be crushed in an invisible fist, all color draining away as an overwhelming sense of dread descended with ruthless force.
“A transcendent domain!” Chen Zilu’s expression shifted slightly.
The battle had barely begun, yet Zhou Xingkong had already unleashed one of the most potent techniques granted by his Transcendent Aptitude—a transcendent domain.
Clearly, Zhou Xingkong intended to crush Jiang Ye with overwhelming force, leaving him no chance to retaliate.
Whoosh! In the next instant, a golden Great Sun rose slowly behind Zhou Xingkong, its radiance intensifying as his aura surged exponentially, multiplying several times over in mere seconds.
At that moment, he seemed like a divinity wielding the authority of heaven and earth, radiating boundless, terrifying power.
Though it takes time to describe, the entire sequence unfolded with lightning speed.
“Die!” In a flash, Zhou Xingkong gripped his silver longsword and lunged fiercely at Jiang Ye.
The golden Great Sun behind him erupted with countless rays of light, converging into a colossal blade that crashed down upon Jiang Ye with earth-shattering force.
This single strike!
Tore through the void, unleashing a shockwave thousands of meters high that swept across the heavens and earth.
Its power was terrifying beyond measure.
“Transcendent domain?”
“Mysteries of gold? Truly formidable,” Jiang Ye murmured, observing the terrifying spectacle.
Why were those with Transcendent Aptitudes so uniquely blessed?
Precisely because they possessed an innate, profound affinity for a particular profound mystery or law.
Zhou Xingkong, for instance, became the master of the mysteries of gold the moment his transcendent domain manifested.
Vast quantities of the mysteries of gold surged toward him from all directions.
This terrifying level of control far surpassed what any Dao Bone Aptitude could achieve.
“Invincible Dao Bone?”
“If a real battle broke out, even the invincible dao bones of first-tier civilizations might not stand a chance against a transcendent opponent,” Jiang Ye mused inwardly.
Having never fought a transcendent before, Jiang Ye now truly grasped their overwhelming power.
An invincible dao bone could barely match them, let alone defeat them.
Of course, the invincible dao bones of third-tier civilizations were a different story.
Boom!
Jiang Ye gripped his long spear tightly, his speed skyrocketing to a terrifying level in an instant as he charged forward.
(End of the Chapter)