"Absolute Saber—Desperate Flight!"
Out in the void, the intense battle raged on.
Facing Apollo, Zhang Shou vibrated the long saber in his grasp, unleashing a blood-red arc of saber qi in an instant.
If the power of the Zhen Realm had allowed him to step across the threshold into the Dao of the saber, then the Absolute Saber was the path he had forged for himself over all these years through countless desperate life-and-death struggles.
Every technique of the Absolute Saber was comprehended in dire straits or sublimated through personal insight after emerging reborn from extremity.
Likely because he had brushed against death so many times, most of Zhang Shou's Absolute Saber moves were tied to life and death. This had gradually led him to master the rules governing the cycle of life and death—invading life, striking through death, boundless in their profundity.
Having clashed with Zhang Shou for so long, Apollo naturally knew how terrifying his opponent was. Instead of meeting the strike directly, he used the Great Sun Ring to intercept the saber qi from afar. At the same time, he splayed his hand toward Zhang Shou, mini-suns continually coalescing in his palm to counterattack.
Though small, these mini-suns were creations of the Great Sun Rules, far more terrifying in reality than actual stars. A single one detonating was enough to destroy an entire world.
That was not to say the energy contained within them was sufficient to obliterate a world on its own.
Rather, it would provoke the collapse of that world's own Great Sun Rules—put simply, causing all the stars in that world to explode simultaneously. The collapse of the rules would then set off a cascade of chain reactions, ultimately dragging the entire world down into ruin.
Seeing the dense swarm of mini-suns flying toward him, Zhang Shou slashed rapidly, severing them in two from a distance. A succession of stellar explosions lit up the void in a brilliant, blinding glare.
The distance between them stretched wide, only to close again in a flash. Across hundreds of thousands of meters, the Great Sun Ring collided with millions of meters of saber qi. The ring was sent flying, but it spun around Apollo in a loop and launched another assault from a different angle.
Rules were a deeply conceptual force—intangible and ethereal, yet omnipresent. A Mighty One could perceive the omnipresent power of rules and ultimately make that power their own.
Through it, they could influence everything connected to those rules.
Zhang Shou bound his saber qi with the rules of the saber, forming a colossal blade. Every slash carried astonishing might, reducing any matter it touched along its path to ash in an instant.
This expanse of space had already been blasted completely empty by the two of them. There were no worlds left, no matter at all. By tacit agreement, neither made any reckless movements elsewhere, choosing this empty space as their battlefield to decide the victor once and for all.
Some smart aleck might ask: since Mighty Ones were so close to omnipotent, why didn't they just create a world to duel in?
Take Li Zhenlong's Martial Dao World, for instance. If Mighty Ones fought inside, wouldn't that prevent any collateral destruction?
If the Death Emperor heard such a question, he would definitely slap that smart aleck to death.
No one knew better than he how treacherous Li Zhenlong's Martial Dao World was. He had been completely duped to death in that world, perishing in humiliating foolishness before he could even display the bulk of his might.
So that brought up the real dilemma.
Even if two Mighty Ones were willing to fight in a space like the Martial Dao World, who would provide it?
If Zhang Shou provided it, could Apollo trust him?
If Apollo provided such a space, could Zhang Shou trust Apollo?
How would that be any different from walking into a trap? Even if a third party were brought in to provide the arena, who could guarantee there were no dirty tricks involved? What if one side secretly bribed that third party?
The moment suspicion arose, it became impossible for Mighty Ones to reach a consensus, let alone establish trust.
Ultimately, Mighty Ones were still intelligent life-forms. Open schemes that worked on ordinary mortals worked just as well on them. Thus, battles could only take place where both sides felt at ease.
Naturally, this resulted in an enormous amount of unnecessary destruction, even plunging countless worlds into slaughter and misery.
From an ant's perspective, Mighty Ones were indeed terrifying and savage, capable of destroying heaven and earth with effortless ease. As for how Mighty Ones viewed the ants, their attitudes varied wildly.
Take Zhang Shou, for example. He hated seeing it happen, but was powerless to stop it, ultimately comforting himself with the thought that all beings would enter reincarnation and eventually be reborn.
Most Mighty Ones, on the other hand, simply did not care. After all, it was just stepping on ants; who kept count of how many they crushed? Some Mighty Ones even believed it was a blessing for the ants to be trodden underfoot by them.
Countless living things across the myriad realms died ordinary deaths, whereas these ants had the honor of being crushed beneath the heel of an exalted Mighty One—what a privilege, what immense fortune!
Indeed.
A great many Mighty Ones were arrogant to precisely that extent.
Then there was another kind—those who did whatever they pleased purely on a whim, like Yu Xian.
Most of the time, Yu Xian remained kind, slack, and harmless. But if a particular world caught his interest and he grew curious about what would happen if he destroyed it, he would go ahead and destroy it.
It was much like a child stumbling across an ant hill and deciding to pour boiling water down it.
In short, the morality of Mighty Ones could not be summed up in a single stroke. Like most intelligent life-forms, they came in all varieties. A Mighty One like Zhang Shou was already on the benevolent side.
Even Yu Xian could be considered a 'good person,' though his goodness was far from pure; when an odd whim struck him, he could be more terrifying than any villain.
Yet that was the privilege of a Mighty One. Possessing absolute power granted them absolute freedom and absolute rights. Unless a greater power intervened, they could do whatever they pleased.
In this barren void, Zhang Shou and Apollo threw caution to the wind, their techniques growing wilder by the second.
"True Sun!"
With a low roar, Apollo raised his right hand. A tiny red sphere rapidly expanded, swelling in an instant into a colossal sun hundreds of light-years across.
"Absolute Saber—Forsake Life!"
Zhang Shou's eyes nearly bulged from their sockets at the sight of that absurd sun.
He immediately bellowed, pouring the power within him into his saber. In an instant, the crimson saber qi flared astronomically, ballooning from hundreds of thousands of meters to nearly a full light-year.
Then, completely abandoning all defense, he slashed straight at Apollo and the sun. The saber qi broke away from the blade and went tearing toward them both.
Under the dreadful Great Sun Rules, Zhang Shou burst into flames in an instant, burning like a man made of fire.
Everywhere the sunlight reached, all things burned.
Yet the fire did not burn for long.
In the blink of an eye, Zhang Shou's saber qi cleaved the sun in two and surged onward without pause, pointed straight at Apollo.
"Refine it!"
Seeing the saber qi bear down on him, Apollo brought up his other hand and slammed them together toward the incoming strike. The bisected sun snapped shut with violent force, trapping Zhang Shou's saber qi deep within its core.
The Great Sun Rules were not limited to burning; they also encompassed refinement!
Apollo rarely drew upon that aspect of his power because ordinary attacks were beneath his notice. But Zhang Shou's slash was truly remarkable; he meant to refine it and make his sun even stronger.
Yet right at that moment, Zhang Shou—half-charred and still blazing with flames—closed the distance from afar and unleashed a resplendent slash.
"Impossible! Where did you get the strength?!"
Apollo shouted in disbelief as he saw Zhang Shou lunging toward him with blade in hand.
Absolute Saber—Forsake Life should have drained every shred of Zhang Shou's power. He ought to be utterly immobilized!
Yet on Zhang Shou's charred face, gleaming white teeth flashed in a grin. "This is the power of the cycle of life and death! Having forsaken my life, I still have death-life to give! Take my blade: Absolute Saber—Forsake Life!"
The blade cleaved outward.
In an instant, Apollo was swallowed by the blade light, until even his consciousness was filled with nothing but that dazzling brilliance.
Chapter 712