So strong—ridiculously strong... Zhang Yuanqing glanced down at the Thunder God Set on his body, suddenly feeling that the set wasn't all that impressive after all. Refusing to let this chance slip by, he unleashed the Wrath of Thunder from afar, bringing down a tempest of lightning that engulfed the High Priest.
*Rumble, rumble, rumble...*
Vicious, branching bolts of lightning cascaded down like a torrential rain, baring fangs and claws in wild abandon. Interspersed among them were pillars of thunder as thick as water vats, brimming with a destructive aura.
The High Priest was bombarded relentlessly by lightning and drowned in thunder pillars. His pristine white robes were incinerated, and his robust body was charred black.
Transforming into starlight, Zhang Yuanqing materialized above the High Priest's head. He whipped out his Pumpkin Hammer and smashed it viciously against the man's crown.
*Bang!*
His whole body numb, the High Priest's skull cracked open. Blood sprayed everywhere as he plummeted limply toward the ocean.
Zhang Yuanqing hurriedly glanced at the young girl, hoping she would seize the moment to kick the dog while it was down. To his dismay, she merely stood there in indifferent stupor, letting the golden opportunity to strike slip right past.
*Why is she so dull? All brawn and no brains?* Zhang Yuanqing frowned inwardly.
*Crash!*
White waves surged from the sea as a beast resembling a colossal whale broke through the surface. Snapping open its maw lined with dagger-sharp teeth, it swallowed the High Priest whole.
Having lurked beneath the waves for so long, Cynthia had finally seized her opening, successfully dragging the High Priest into the sea.
The ocean was the domain of a Siren.
With the sea beast swallowing the High Priest, the waters smoothed out once more, gentle ripples rolling across the surface.
Zhang Yuanqing and the two goddesses gazed down from high in the sky, quietly awaiting the outcome.
The young girl with pitch-black eye sockets looked at Saiketia and spoke her very first words since birth:
"My heart can beat only one thousand times..."
*She only has the lifespan of a thousand heartbeats? That's barely ten to fifteen minutes...* Zhang Yuanqing was not surprised; in fact, he had anticipated something like this.
Sacrificing a single Cupid to summon a creature of the peak Dominator level was inherently an uneven trade.
If this super-lifeform came with a strict time limit, however, it made complete sense.
*She's powerful, but she's clumsy and clearly lacks intellect. Within fifteen minutes—no, ten minutes—I have to work with her to slay the High Priest. Otherwise, this dungeon run is a failure...*
*If only Cynthia can deliver another heavy blow to him beneath the waves...* Just as the thought crossed Zhang Yuanqing's mind, violent surges abruptly tore through the peaceful sea, throwing up monstrous waves.
Surges dozens of meters high crested one after another, their white foam resembling pale dragons and snow-white lions.
A moment later, plume after plume of crimson blood welled up from the deep blue sea, quickly dispersing and dyeing the surrounding waters red.
The carcasses of sea beasts and mangled chunks of flesh drifted to the surface in rapid succession.
*Boom!*
A streak of golden light shot out of the ocean as the High Priest burst forth from the seabed. The laurel wreath atop his head was gone, his white hair billowed wildly, and his bare, muscular frame radiated a faint golden luster.
His aura had diminished substantially, his spiritual power fluctuations noticeably weaker than before.
Zhang Yuanqing stared anxiously down at the water, but Cynthia never emerged.
"She is dead," the naked girl stated. "The sea told me."
Hearing the news, Saiketia was overcome with sorrow. Following Cupid and Eriga, she had lost yet another older sister.
Furious rage surged into Zhang Yuanqing's head, the blood rushing to his brain in an instant. The death of his beloved woman obliterated his rationality. His eyes burning red, he shifted into starlight, blinked behind the High Priest, and threw a punch.
*Thud, thud, smack, smack!*
Amid bursting waves of condensed air, Zhang Yuanqing—clad in his Thunder God Set—lasted a mere ten seconds before his body was battered to pieces. He was kicked flying like a sack of grain.
Saiketia flew out to catch her lover, tumbling through the air with him to bleed off the kinetic force before asking frantically, "Amini! My beloved Amini, are you all right?"
Looking down at his shattered body, tears welled in her eyes. Broken bones pierced throughout, his internal organs suffered extensive burns, and his flesh was severely charred. To her eyes, such horrific wounds would be fatal even for a second-generation deity.
"Let's play it safe..." Zhang Yuanqing wheezed, spitting blood.
"What?" Saiketia stared blankly.
"The enemy is too strong—fall back and avoid the brunt of his attack!" Zhang Yuanqing replied, his survival instincts roaring back to life.
The fiery wrath and indignation from moments ago vanished completely, rationality reclaiming the high ground.
Saiketia held her lover close and flew toward the distance.
The High Priest swept his gaze over the fleeing pair and reached behind his back to draw an arrow for a ranged strike. Suddenly, he jerked to the side.
A massive wind blade cleaved past him, gouging a trench dozens of yards long into the surface of the sea.
*Whoosh, whoosh...*
Wind blades howled through the air, creating a torrential rain of slashes that covered every angle.
It seemed the girl was also capable of unleashing wind blades.
The High Priest chanted in a low voice. Faint golden radiance enveloped him in a spherical barrier, manifesting an inviolable domain.
A dense, grating barrage of explosions immediately followed. The wind blades struck like hailstones, stirring up frantic ripples across the spherical boundary.
Her eyes vacant, the girl spread her arms wide. Currents of air converged and compressed before her, coalescing into a colossal blade a hundred meters long, its tip resting directly against the spherical barrier.
She shoved both palms outward.
Where the tip met the barrier, spatial distortion twisted into being from the collision of opposing spiritual attributes.
Neither side gave an inch.
In the distance, having injected two vials of Life Source Fluid, Zhang Yuanqing gathered all the lightning-attributed spiritual power in his body into his right hand, weaving it into a dazzling, piercing blue Thunder Spear.
Taking eight swift steps, he hurled it with all his might.
The Thunder Spear shot forward like a bolt of lightning, crackling along its trajectory and leaving a path of rampaging electrical arcs in its wake.
Carrying a fifty percent chance of absolute armor penetration along with level-9 lightning power, the spear struck the spherical barrier from the flank, shattering the delicate equilibrium.
The three colliding forces detonated into a terrifying explosion. Lightning, hurricanes, and golden light expanded outward, clashing and bursting against one another as shockwaves rippled out for dozens of li.
Zhang Yuanqing and Saiketia were far enough away that the residual blast posed little threat by the time it reached them.
Dispelling the Thunder God Set, he said, "Saiketia, regroup with Menia. Don't engage him directly unless there's an opportunity to deal a crippling blow."
With that, he pulled out the Companion Spirit Moon and set it against his forehead, letting vine-like black patterns crawl across half his face before vanishing right before Saiketia's eyes.
This would allow him to evade the High Priest's golden arrows while relying on the Companion Spirit Moon's amplification to rapidly mend his injuries.
For the remainder of the battle, he could only play a supporting role, leaving the main offense to the girl created by the Primordial God.
Saiketia did not even pause to wonder where her beloved had acquired such fancy invisibility tricks; keeping her eyes on the battle, she flew toward Menia in the distance.
With his lawful domain shattered, the High Priest acted decisively. Shifting from defense to offense to regain the initiative, he drew a golden arrow and shot it straight at the girl.
*Swoosh!*
Golden light streaked across the sky—an arrow so swift that even an Overlooker of high standing could not evade it. Yet it pierced through nothing more than the girl's afterimage.
Her true body appeared behind the High Priest. Holding a brass shield in one hand and a lightning spear in the other, she brought the spearhead down in a savage cleave.
The High Priest raised his longbow horizontally, blocking the strike amidst erupting plasma. His fingers gave a swift, minute flick against the bowstring. With a crisp twang, a faint golden light coalesced into an arrow, punching clean through the center of the girl's forehead.
Evidently, she had never seen an attack where spiritual power condensed directly into an arrow. Lacking combat experience, she failed to dodge it.
Her head snapped back, a charred hole gouged into her brow as her pupils dilated.
The High Priest had already realized that this girl possessed the powers of the domains of Wind and Thunder, the God of War, the Void, and the Siren. She was like a monster stitched together from the might of multiple deities.
Her flaw lay in her inability to wield these powers skillfully; her combat experience was virtually nonexistent.
Just like now: a simple trick had rendered her momentarily senseless.
The High Priest kicked her into the sky, drew a fifth arrow, nocked it, drew the bow, and let fly in a flash of gold.
The girl shrieked as golden flames erupted from her seven facial orifices, turning her into a blazing golden torch.
Her vitality and spiritual power evaporated rapidly within the fire.
Refusing to let any chance of victory slip, the High Priest drew the final golden arrow from the quiver on his back.
Suddenly, a figure clad in purple-gold armor materialized behind him, a spiked right fist hooking straight for his temple.
The High Priest raised his longbow slightly, swatting the fist aside with a sharp smack, and drove a vicious headbutt backward into the assailant.
Close-quarters combat was the quickest way to repel an enemy.
*Thump!*
The skull of the figure behind him detonated instantly, like a pile of cow dung blasted by a firecracker. The helmet and mask encasing the head melted into a splash of purple-gold liquid that very second.
The headless corpse plunged into the sea.
The High Priest paused, stunned. The enemy was far weaker than he had imagined. Enclosed within that formidable armor was nothing more than a pitiful ant—no, an underworld creature that had long since lost its life.
He realized he had been duped.
Had he known it was such an insignificant creature, he never would have passed up the chance to finish off the girl.
Right then, the High Priest felt his vitality begin to wither, his spiritual power turning murky as if contaminated, and a foul stench wafted from beneath his arms. At the same time, a contorted figure emerged a dozen meters away.
The figure appeared to have been performing some profound dance, just now completing the final flourish as he appeared.
He then bowed to the yellow gourd hovering before him.
"Please turn, treasure."
In an instant, a beam of white light surged from the mouth of the gourd, complete with eyes and brows, peerlessly sharp.
With unstoppable, unavoidable speed, it drove straight into the center of the High Priest's brow with a squelch, the white light whirling violently.
The light in the High Priest's eyes dimmed, leaving him stunned motionless.
Yet, though the white light churned, it failed to sever the High Priest's head.
Even after exhausting immense spiritual power and stamina, and suffering grievous wounds, this peak Dominator could not be dispatched in a single blow.
Seizing the opening, the girl transformed into an arc of electricity, flashing right before the High Priest and grasping a lightning blade out of the void.
Lightning flashed repeatedly amid wet tearing sounds. The High Priest's head flew off first, followed by his arms and legs detaching from his body, his torso cleaved in two at the waist.
Having finally learned how to launch a sneak attack, the girl chanted a solemn, majestic decree:
"Self-healing is forbidden!"
A flash of brass-colored light flickered and faded as an unseen rule took hold.
The severed pieces of flesh that had begun to reassemble instantly lost their vitality, falling limply into the ocean.
Zhang Yuanqing broke his concealment and shouted at the girl, "Behind you!"
A gleam of golden light burst from the girl's chest—a sharp arrow tip.
Golden flames erupted from her eye sockets, nostrils, mouth, and ears. Her neck stiff, she turned her head to see the radiant High Priest standing behind her.
Though his physical body was destroyed, his primordial spirit was solid as substance, grasping the final golden arrow in his hand.
Having taken three consecutive arrows, the girl's body could no longer endure. It charred and dissolved rapidly within the golden radiance. She looked at the High Priest, a flicker of confusion crossing her youthful face.
"Why... can I... still not... defeat you..."
The High Priest's aura was exceedingly faint, yet a towering presence burst from his soul. He said in a deep voice, "Of course you cannot defeat me. Your strength comes from sacrifice. They offered their essence and blood to the Primordial God, and the Primordial God gave birth to you. But do you comprehend the essence of these divine powers? Have you contemplated and cultivated them step by step? You are merely a fake who gained power through crooked shortcuts.
"What right do you have to defeat me? Before a true expert, you... are nothing more than a clown..."
With great effort, the girl raised her hand, using her final remnants of strength to condense a lightning orb and slam it against the High Priest's chest.
*Boom!*
The explosion of pure yang lightning thinned the golden light covering the High Priest's form, nearly causing his primordial spirit to collapse.
The girl's slender frame fractured inch by inch, crumbling into ash and dispersing into nothingness.
Suddenly, Zhang Yuanqing materialized silently behind the High Priest. A miniature sun rose behind his head, a blazing sun sigil surfaced between his brows, and powerful, immaculate divine power of the sun surged through his body.
Raising his right hand high, he drove a radiant divine sword straight down into the High Priest's crown.
The divine power of the sun erupted inside the High Priest, setting his primordial spirit ablaze.
Already like a guttering candle in the wind, the High Priest turned his head toward Zhang Yuanqing, his eyes wide with shock. "You... you are an offspring of the Sun?! No, the Sun cannot have offspring. You are a heretic worshipper who stole the power of the Sun..."
Amidst his fading echoes, the High Priest dissolved within the golden flames.
A Spirit Realm notification rang out by Zhang Yuanqing's ear:
[*Ding! Congratulations on completing the solo Spirit Realm mission—The Sinking of Paphos Island, Designation 05, Difficulty Rating S. Tallying rewards now...*]
Chapter 950