Watching the Holy Knight fly backward, Zhang Yuanqing formed the hand gesture for Tien Shinhan unleashing a Tri-Beam.
Sizzle!
Electrical charges in the air collided violently, generating fierce arcs of lightning. A beam of bright blue light, fifty centimeters across and crackling with violent electric arcs, shot forth and engulfed the Holy Knight before he could hit the ground.
The Holy Knight slammed heavily into the wall. The wall behind him shattered, exposing the deep, pitch-black void.
Lacking the ability to traverse the void, he was pinned firmly midair by the railgun, his golden armor glowing scalding hot from the electrical charge.
The moment the railgun dissipated, Zhang Yuanqing executed a Flash of Lightning, appearing right before the Holy Knight. Conjuring a blazing blue orb of thunder in his palm, he thrust it upward.
The Holy Knight was blasted into the air once more.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Zhang Yuanqing alternated between firing railguns, hurling thunder spears, and swinging thunder orbs to blast his foe upward. His relentless onslaught hammered into the Holy Knight without a moment's pause. After this unbroken combo, the Holy Knight was completely stripped of any chance to fight back, perpetually stuck in a knocked-up state.
Watching from the sidelines, Zhai Cai stared in a daze.
Although Yuanshi Tianzun's performance fit the adage "moves fierce as a tiger, but an actual score of zero and five"—having dealt no damage to the Holy Knight whatsoever—the armor the Holy Knight wore was the physical manifestation of a demigod item. Causing no damage was entirely reasonable.
To pummel an enemy wielding a demigod item until he was utterly powerless to resist was already the best proof possible!
The power of this set was simply terrifying.
After one minute and thirty seconds, Zhang Yuanqing bellowed, "My color timer is blinking! Are you done yet?!"
Without waiting for the President's reply, he swiftly retreated to Zhai Cai's side and deactivated the set's effect. The lightning enveloping his body instantly reverted into four thunder orbs and a thunder spear.
Only now did Zhai Cai clearly see Yuanshi Tianzun's true condition. His clothes had long since incinerated, leaving his naked body looking like a charred rod of carbon, covered in cracks.
With every slight movement, bits of carbon flaked off his flesh.
He was perhaps only ten-odd seconds away from total carbonization.
Zhang Yuanqing produced two vials of Life Source Fluid, pulled out the needles, shoved the glass tubes straight into his mouth, bit them to pieces, and gulped them down.
Finally letting out a foul breath in relief, he groaned, "That hurt like hell."
The process of carbonization was like enduring the torture of being burned alive.
"Look at you acting aggrieved after getting such a prize. If it hurts, give the set to me," Zhai Cai scoffed.
Zhang Yuanqing gave him a sidelong glance. "Without a Day Wanderer's vitality, you'd need to inject massive amounts of Life Source Fluid every time you use it. You can't afford it."
Indeed, the Thunder God Set had requirements for use. Level was one aspect, but profession was far more crucial.
Lightning was unyielding and domineering, fiercely exclusive. For non-Thunder Mages, unless one possessed formidable self-healing and regeneration abilities, wielding it was out of the question.
After all, not everyone had Life Source Fluid to squander at will.
Rendered speechless, Zhai Cai turned his gaze toward the President. By now, the formation foundation stones crafted by this Void demigod had been set in all four corners of the treasury.
Void runes flowed from the stones at the four corners, crawling onto the armor like a swarm of ants and branding themselves into it.
Sensing a tangible threat, the Holy Knight plunged his straight sword into the floor before him, sending out a psychic ripple: "The rule for this battle is: Sealing is prohibited!"
Brass ripples emanated from the sword blade. The Void runes swept by the brass radiance rapidly disintegrated, but the formation bases continued to pour out runes in an endless, inexhaustible wave.
The two forces fell into a deadlock.
The President suddenly appeared behind the Holy Knight, holding the gilded pot and tilting its spout.
A slender jet of black water poured forth, splashing over the Holy Knight. The golden armor instantly dimmed, and the power of its rules weakened.
Seizing the opportunity, the sealing runes surged forward, crawling up the Holy Knight's body and searing into his legs, torso, and arms.
The President reached out a hand and pressed his palm against the Holy Knight's back. Densely packed runes welled from his palm, linking with the runes surging from below, completely enveloping the Holy Knight and completing the seal.
Having lost the armor's protection, the Holy Knight's remnant spirit was laid bare.
The President sighed. "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The Orderly will be guarded by future generations. Rest in peace."
With a swipe of his hand across the pale, rotting face, the remnant spirit vanished into nothingness.
Zhang Yuanqing and Zhai Cai strode forward. The former examined the sealing runes on the armor and felt they were identical to the sealing runes on the Illusion God's Heart in his chest.
The latter caressed the armor with excitement and thrill, attempting to inspect its item attributes, only to be met with a string of question marks.
The President said, "Demigod items possess no attribute information. You must explore its functions yourself. With your current status, you can preliminarily channel its power and utilize its traits.
"However, it's best not to enforce Precepts on enemies of a higher level than yourself. It can easily cause a backlash and kill you."
The sole-heir Knight nodded slightly. Just like Yuanshi Tianzun, he experienced the thrill of clearing out a lottery pool tax-free.
This was a demigod item.
With it, facing enemies of the same level was practically a dimensional strike.
Most importantly, as long as he did not die young and successfully advanced to a Level 9 Dominator, he could fully integrate this item and become a true demigod powerhouse.
Once Zhai Cai stowed away the golden armor and golden straight sword, the three searched the unexplored corner and found a bronze chest covered in scorched, branching patterns.
"The seal on this chest is different from the others," Zhai Cai said gravely. "The sealing power originates from lightning, and there is no padlock. The person who sealed it belonged to the Thunder Mage profession, and the situation at the time was so dire that they didn't have time to put on a lock."
Agreeing with Zhai Cai's assessment, Zhang Yuanqing chimed in, "It's a Wind Mage demigod item. Its previous owner was a Cardinal, one of the Holy See's three demigods."
According to the intelligence Zhang Yuanqing had gathered from the Hunter Guild, when the Holy See fell back then, the Pope died under the siege of the Covenant of Freedom.
However, a Wind Mage demigod item and a Knight demigod item had gone missing.
Now that the Knight demigod item was in hand, what was sealed in the chest had to be that Wind Mage demigod item.
Zhai Cai could not resist reaching out to open the chest, but the President beside him said with a smile, "If you don't want your hands charred, you'd better not touch it.
"If it really contains the Wind Mage demigod item, you shouldn't open it even more. Open it, and all of us will be blown sky-high. I'll certainly be fine, but the two of you will be shredded by hurricanes."
Hearing this, Zhai Cai immediately pulled his hand back and said generously, "I've already gotten what I wanted. This treasure is yours." He quietly stepped aside.
As originally agreed, he was to take half of the treasury's contents, and the remaining half would go to Yuanshi Tianzun and the President.
Having acquired a Dominator-grade item, a Knight golden suit of armor, and with the President still owing him another Dominator-grade item, the sole-heir Knight was thoroughly satisfied with such a harvest.
The President nodded in satisfaction, spread his arms, and called out, "Rise!"
A glint of golden light shone beneath his feet as a tender green sprout burst from the ground. Growing vigorously before their eyes, it soon reached three meters tall, resembling a Christmas tree.
The tree was laden with items ranging from Extraordinary to Dominator grade.
"Gather!"
The items and materials scattered across the treasury floated up on their own, flying toward the Myriad Treasure Tree and hanging themselves from its branches, including the chest covered in scorched branching patterns. It hung at the very top of the tree.
The President nodded. "The item in the chest is indeed demigod-grade. The Myriad Treasure Tree wouldn't lie to me."
The Myriad Treasure Tree can do that too? Zhang Yuanqing looked at the dense cluster of items hanging from the branches and thought, Well, this tree must be an expert treasure appraiser.
The President flicked his finger, and the bronze chest shattered with a bang.
Inside was a miniature hurricane, whirling with a low rush at the top of the tree, remarkably docile and not leaking a single sliver of energy.
Seeing this, Zhang Yuanqing suddenly realized the true function of the Myriad Treasure Tree.
It was an item container that could eliminate negative penalties. That was how Uncle could carry such a vast number of items with him; it could even suppress Administrator Privileges.
The President said delightedly, "With this, I can whale hard when the final battle comes."
He could recreate his glorious feat of taking on three opponents single-handedly.
He looked at Zhang Yuanqing and the sole-heir Knight and said, "All these low-level items and materials belong to me. Give me the list of Saints who entered Pan's Labyrinth back then, and I will compensate each of them with a Level 6 item. As for the two of you, I'll compensate each of you with a Dominator-grade material."
Both nodded.
The President then turned toward the silver coffin and chuckled, "If you don't come out now, we're leaving, and this place will be sealed again."
From beneath the coffin crawled a tiny bat.
Zhai Cai frowned. "He looks completely crippled. There's no point taking him out. Might as well leave him here."
The tiny bat squeaked frantically.
"Feed him some blood rich in spirituality, and he'll recover. Vampires don't die that easily—assuming the bloodline progenitor truly stole Odin's life magic." The President produced a bronze plate and tossed it into the air.
The bronze plate froze midair, spinning rapidly to generate a wind tunnel, opening a passage to the outside world.
The President snapped his fingers. "Banish!"
The three people and the little bat vanished from the treasury simultaneously.
***
As the scene shifted from blurry to clear, Zhang Yuanqing saw a familiar bedroom—his bedroom in Fujia Bay Villa.
His uncle and the sole-heir Knight were nowhere to be seen.
The Void profession really is convenient. When the scale of space ceases to exist, traversing the entire world takes only a single step! Zhang Yuanqing marveled with envy.
No wonder Uncle ran away from home and roamed all over the world back then under the pretense of "forming a band to pursue his dreams"!
Zhang Yuanqing snapped his fingers, using Star Escape to appear in the adjacent grand villa, arriving in Fu Qingyang's study.
He intended to share his gains and intelligence with Fu Qingyang.
Although neither of the two demigod items had gone to him, successfully assembling the complete Thunder God Set had him thrilled beyond measure. The set had vaulted to become his greatest trump card.
He now possessed the combat power of a Level 9 Dominator, even if only for a brief minute and a half.
Furthermore, Uncle had obtained a demigod item. Pumping resources into overwhelming might, this replenished the orthodox faction's demigod-tier combat strength after the slumber of the Twin Gods of Wind and Thunder.
This was a variable capable of tipping the scales in the final battle.
Starlight faded, and Zhang Yuanqing looked around. The study was empty; the workaholic wasn't there.
It wasn't his sword practice time either.
Zhang Yuanqing picked up the desk telephone and asked the bunny girl downstairs, only to learn that not long after he left, Fu Qingyang had departed in a hurry.
And he had yet to return!
The bunny girl only knew that the young master had gone out on business in great haste, but had no idea what it was about.
An emergency operation? Zhang Yuanqing returned to his bedroom and picked up his phone to check for messages.
Given their habit of sharing intelligence, Fu Qingyang would have notified him if an unforeseen incident had arisen.
Chapter 916