Chapter 179: Has He Gone Mad?!
CLANG!
The clash of metal rang out like thunder, echoing across the battlefield.
Duke Qi was forced to retreat in mid-air, blood dripping from his split palms. His expression twisted in shock and disbelief.
'So strong!'
Panic crept into his heart.
He was a dignified Divine Palace Realm cultivator—yet his strength... was actually inferior to Li Xun's?
That shouldn't be possible. As far as he knew, the Scarlet Flame Divine Body didn't boost raw strength to this degree.
Could it be...
The Indestructible Golden Body?
At this point, Duke Qi could only blame everything on that. After all, a powerful body refinement technique like the Indestructible Golden Body might reasonably provide such overwhelming physical might.
Still, none of that changed his current predicament.
'Where the hell are Duke Ding and Duke Wei?!'
His heart pounded with anxiety. While fending off Li Xun's relentless strikes, he spread his spiritual sense in all directions, searching desperately for support.
But a full fifteen minutes passed...
And not even a shadow of the other two Dukes had appeared. It was as if they weren't coming at all.
'Don't tell me... they had the same idea as I did? Trying to steal the glory for themselves?'
A chilling thought struck him.
His face darkened, and he cursed under his breath, "Damn it!"
But there was nothing he could do.
If those two really were planning to sit back and let him bleed, then continuing to fight was meaningless. He might not just lose—the outcome could be crippling or fatal.
The moment that thought surfaced...
Duke Qi's desire to fight vanished.
His gaze turned cold. With a subtle twist of his sword, it began to shine with brilliant light. Countless sword beams surged into the sky, filling the heavens with razor-sharp killing intent.
Then—
Woom!
The sound of the blade trembled the very air.
Duke Qi's long hair fluttered wildly. He unleashed a terrifying divine technique, his sword gleaming with icy silver light that illuminated even the void itself.
Above and below, the world was filled with sword energy—each wave carrying a frigid aura, a piercing intent. He was already touching the threshold of perfect mastery.
The sheer power behind the technique was terrifying.
One strike, and all things would perish.
There was nothing that could meet it head-on without being reduced to ash.
Li Xun's eyes flashed with intensity.
With a roar, he raised the Azure Dragon Halberd—a fierce dragon's cry echoed from the weapon, as if he were gripping a true ancient beast, eager for battle.
'What's this?'
'Are you going all in…?'
'Or are you trying to run?'
He saw through Duke Qi instantly.
For a pampered noble who had basked in comfort for years, a suicidal attack was highly unlikely. So there was only one explanation—
He was trying to flee.
The moment Li Xun realized that, he didn't hesitate.
He shot into the sky, halberd in hand, streaking across the sky like a blazing comet.
The Azure Dragon Halberd released a sky-shattering dragon's roar as it smashed downward from above like divine judgment.
BOOM!
A massive explosion tore through the battlefield.
The thousands of sword beams shattered like glass, disintegrating under the crushing blow. A formless shockwave swept across the land, flattening mountain after mountain in its wake.
"Gah!"
Duke Qi's body shuddered violently. Blood sprayed from his mouth as his face turned deathly pale.
And in his eyes...
Was fear.
That was his strongest technique.
Not only had it failed to injure Li Xun, it had been destroyed effortlessly.
The sheer brute force behind that one strike was enough to shatter his will.
He'd been planning to unleash a finishing move, then slip away in the chaos. But now, that wasn't going to cut it.
If he wanted to escape alive—
He would have to burn his true essence.
"Duke Wei. Duke Ding— I won't forget this betrayal. When I return to Jade Capital City, I will report everything to the Emperor himself!"
With a curse and a vow, Duke Qi made his decision.
Blazing light erupted from his body, a powerful surge of life force erupting from within. His aura climbed higher, burning his very soul to fuel a desperate escape.
But Duke Qi had no intention of fighting further. Instead, he turned and fled at full speed, shooting toward the horizon like a bolt of lightning.
"You're not getting away."
Li Xun's voice was cold as steel. His figure transformed into a soaring heavenly dragon, blazing through the air with incomprehensible speed. Even Divine Palace Realm experts would feel a chill watching it—this was a speed that defied understanding.
In the blink of an eye, he covered a hundred miles and cut off Duke Qi's path, appearing directly in front of him like a ghost.
"You are courting death!"
Duke Qi didn't slow down. He charged forward, sword slashing out in a torrent of sword light that surged like the Yangtze River—vast and unstoppable.
If Li Xun dodged, Duke Qi would seize that chance to escape once and for all.
But what happened next shocked him to his core.
Li Xun didn't dodge.
He stood motionless in Duke Qi's path, unmoving like an immovable mountain. He didn't even summon a divine technique. It looked like he intended to block the attack with nothing but his body.
Duke Qi's mind reeled.
What the hell was he thinking?
And then, in that very moment—
Li Xun moved.
He abandoned all defense, raised his halberd, and swung it directly at Duke Qi's head with terrifying force.
"Has he gone mad?!"
From a distant concealed location, the old man observing the battle suddenly burst out in shock. His figure blurred as he flew toward the battlefield like a shooting star.
Three hundred miles was normally nothing to him.
But right now, it felt impossibly far.
Before he could arrive—
Sword light collided with Li Xun.
The old man instinctively shut his eyes, unable to watch what he feared would be a devastating impact.
If Li Xun had reached the total completion stage of the Indestructible Golden Body, he might have withstood the blow. But since he had only reached the minor completion stage, it would be impossible to block a Divine Palace expert's full-power strike.
Especially now that Duke Qi was burning his true essence.
That last sword strike was beyond his peak, reaching a level equivalent to a late-stage Divine Palace Realm powerhouse—possibly even the peak.
BOOM!
An ear-splitting explosion rocked the sky.
Li Xun charged through the wave of endless sword light like a demon of war—and severed Duke Qi's head in a single swing.
The headless corpse flew forward several hundred meters before crashing heavily to the ground.
And Duke Qi's head?
Skewered on the blade of Li Xun's halberd, blood dripping like a macabre banner.
"The… Robe… of Salvation…"
Even decapitated, Duke Qi's head spoke.
There was a complex emotion in his voice.
The Divine Palace Realm was a mighty cultivation level. Upon reaching it, one could construct a divine palace in the sea of consciousness to house and nurture the soul.
That meant—even if the body or head were destroyed—as long as the divine palace remained, one could still survive, rebuild the body, or seize a new one.
"You actually broke the seal… of the Robe of Salvation…"
Duke Qi spoke again.
His gaze fell on the clothes Li Xun was wearing. Suddenly, everything he hadn't understood before came together.
From the start, Li Xun had been dressed in the Profound Sun Holy Son's robes. That had misled Duke Qi into thinking the Robe of Salvation were still sealed.
But he had overlooked one thing—
The Robe of Salvation weren't just peerless in defense—they also had another terrifying feature:
They could change form at will.
Although they couldn't become weapons, they could mimic any clothing the wearer desired.
Li Xun's "Holy Son robes"… were nothing but the Robe of Salvation in disguise.
"Time to go," Li Xun said flatly.
With those three words, a terrifying pulse of spiritual energy surged from the halberd.
Duke Qi's head was instantly vaporized, reduced to nothing more than a mist of blood under the force of the strike.
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