Yaxiu and Diya had grown numb.
The chaotic clash of offense and defense had lasted a full two minutes. He, Diya, and Yinzhi were surrounding Lehuai, unleashing a ferocious flurry of blows. He and Diya went without saying—their chemistry had long reached the level of telepathic synergy, where each knew the other's intentions with the slightest twitch—while Yinzhi, despite being a temporary teammate, completely outclassed the two in combat awareness. Yaxiu even felt that they were holding her back, forcing her to dial down her own prowess just to coordinate with them.
Yaxiu's sword, Diya's fists, and Yinzhi's gun—faced with such a nearly flawless encirclement, surely no mortal in this world could have stood against it.
Yet their enemy was no mortal. He was a demon.
Lehuai showed not the slightest hint of tension, casually dodging and retreating as his body drifted in the wind like a willow leaf. When all three launched an assault at once, he tilted his head back to slip past the edge of Yaxiu's blade, losing nothing more than a few strands of his bangs. Then, planting both hands on the ground, he whirled his feet in a spinning dance, kicking Diya away with one foot and detonating Yinzhi's bullet with the other!
*Are you not even pretending anymore!?*
To be fair, parrying bullets with bare limbs was not something Yaxiu and Diya were entirely incapable of doing. Just as the Swordsmanship Sanctuary possessed the Sword Flash, the Fist and Claw Sanctuary naturally had its Fist Flash capable of blocking all damage. Even for them, however, triggering a single Fist Flash while utterly focused was an achievement, and it severely drained their mental focus, requiring a prolonged cooldown before another could even be attempted.
Yet how many times had Lehuai triggered Fist Flash since the start of the battle!? Every attack, every instance of damage—whenever he could not dodge perfectly, he would unfailingly unleash a Fist Flash for a flawless block!
What was even more absurd was that using his fists or feet for Fist Flash would have been one thing, but he could even trigger Fist Flash with his shoulders! Every inch of his body served as a medium, every part a weapon—a veritable flawless golden body!
Yaxiu could not help recalling what Weixi had once said: *The pinnacle of Marksmanship is Divine Prison; the pinnacle of Taijutsu is Divine Might!*
Lehuai's combat tier had already attained the realm of Divine Might!
"Still want to fight?"
Lehuai took two steps back and brushed the dust from his jacket. Across two whole minutes of life-and-death combat, not even his slippers had torn. "Unless you let Yinzhi transform you into sorcery spirits, no amount of fighting will produce any results. Or perhaps you two sorcerers would care to try using miracles directly?"
Diya glanced at Yaxiu, whose face remained expressionless.
He would never allow himself or Diya to connect with Yinzhi. Setting aside whether she might use the opportunity to corrupt them, the far more critical issue was that while transforming into sorcery spirits would allow them to use miracles, Yinzhi would also gain access to their miracles!
Yinzhi was not a fledgling demon like Feili; granting her command over their power was far too dangerous—it would be akin to handing a knife directly to a demon. Whether Yaxiu could win was uncertain, but Yinzhi would unquestionably make out like a bandit.
Using miracles, on the other hand, was worth considering. Yaxiu had originally assumed they could steamroll Lehuai with their eyes closed, but now it seemed they truly could not take him down without expending a chance to strike. The problem was, could his miracles actually harm Lehuai?
Fist Flash was a technique capable of blocking even miracles!
He had to find an opportune moment, an opening exposed by Lehuai, so Yaxiu could be certain his imaginary wings would not be squandered in vain!
His thoughts racing, Yaxiu suddenly asked, "Is Rajesh your follower?"
*Clang!*
Before Yaxiu could finish his words, Lehuai slipped past his sword blade like a phantom and closed the distance, grabbing his wrist with his left hand while resting his right gently against his chest—as effortlessly as plucking an object from a pocket. This man, who had done nothing but defend since the start of the battle, nearly plucked out Yaxiu's heart the moment he showed his fangs.
"The person he fought that day was you?" Lehuai stared directly into Yaxiu's eyes, as if searching to see if he was lying. "You were the one who told him about the Hell secret poison?"
Yet Yaxiu felt joy rather than fear. While it appeared he had fallen under Lehuai's control, Lehuai was equally left with nowhere to evade! At this distance, his miracle would strike in an instant—Lehuai would not even have room to block!
*Miracle: Heart Pen Sword Cascade!*
As golden sorcery power surged violently, Yaxiu's sword stirred up a tempest of sword light, and Diya's kick and Yinzhi's bullets arrived right on cue, sealing every possible angle of evasion for Lehuai!
"Borrowing your sword for a moment."
Though he said so, Lehuai had no intention of snatching Yaxiu's blade. Closing right against his chest, he shoved Yaxiu down and seized control of his wrist to swing the blade, redirecting the sword light with uncanny precision toward Diya and Yinzhi—almost as if Yaxiu himself had been turned into his weapon!
Then, borrowing the momentum, he flung Yaxiu toward Diya and turned back to block Yinzhi's dense barrage of gunfire.
Just as Diya caught Yaxiu, the mysterious chains silently coiled around Yaxiu's golden imaginary wings and violently snapped them!
"Observer—" Seeing this happen for the first time, Diya's hair color turned muddy, and she was on the verge of tears. "Your wings—"
"I'm fine, used to it." Yaxiu gasped for breath, enduring the agony of a torn soul. In recent days, he had snapped more imaginary wings than the honey-roasted chicken wings he had ever eaten. "It'll be better in a bit."
Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that even unleashing a miracle would fail to slay a demon. Dodging in any direction would have been certain death for Lehuai just now, yet he had done the opposite and pressed right up against Yaxiu—a miracle would never harm its caster, making the space directly in front of him an absolute blind spot!
Yet after successfully turning the tables, Lehuai had not grown overconfident, nor had he seized the chance to finish Yaxiu off. Had he continued to hold on, Yaxiu certainly would not have hesitated to expend his third and fourth chances to strike. Instead, he had thrown Yaxiu to Diya, not only leaving Yaxiu with two remaining opportunities, but also forcing Diya to tend to him.
"You still haven't answered my question," Lehuai said, remaining effortlessly composed even against Yinzhi's barrage of fire. "Were you the one who told Rajesh about the Hell secret poison?"
"Strictly speaking, it wasn't me, but my companion," Yaxiu took a deep breath and slowly rose to his feet. "Though you can consider it my doing; I am her guardian. Besides, had we not revealed the Hell secret poison, we might already be dead. I have never once regretted doing so."
"In other words, Rajesh pushed you into a corner where you had no choice but to let him ascend to demigod?" Lehuai raised an eyebrow, a slight smile forming. "Not bad."
"Granted, your battle was your own affair, and Rajesh had actually already endured the Hell ritual—if not for those ghouls, he would already be a nascent angel by now. But seeing as he was my follower, don't blame me for taking my anger out on you."
"Don't be scared!" Yinzhi piped up grandly. "Just defect to this pretty young lady, and I guarantee you'll work without rest for the rest of your life!"
"We were already locked in a life-and-death rivalry to begin with," Yaxiu let out a long breath, tightening his grip on his longsword. "Why talk of taking anger out on anyone?"
"Fine." Lehuai stepped back two paces. "However, now is not the time to decide life and death. I cannot finish you off, and you cannot do anything to me. If you don't intend to undergo sorcery spirit transformation..."
"Why don't we quietly welcome the arrival of the new era together?"
Yaxiu and Diya turned their heads and saw the blended rainbow rising from the holy grails flowing into the rainbow pillar of light as well. The pillar shone with blinding brilliance, as fierce as thunder and unyielding as steel. Amid the dazzling drift of vibrant hues, they seemed to see an unyielding soul.
It demanded that the heavens no longer veil its radiance, that the earth no longer bury its greatness, sworn to pierce through this cage!
*Thump!*
Like the shudder of a colossal heartbeat, Yaxiu saw the rainbow pierce the sky curtain, stretching all the way to the very limits of the Dream Heaven, pointing its spear straight at the Divine Lord of Stars' astral net!
*Twang!*
A sound as screeching as snapping steel cables pierced the eardrums of every sorcerer. Stunned, everyone stared at the astral net shredded by the rainbow, momentarily unable to process what they were seeing.
The rainbow... had broken through the Divine Lord of Stars' cage!? Had the Source Angel truly succeeded in escaping?
Yet at that moment, Yaxiu noticed the corners of Yinzhi's lips curving slightly upward in a teasing expression. Lehuai stood with his hands in his pockets, a touch of melancholy in his expression, and let out a soft sigh.
In the blink of an eye, the torn astral net transformed into a purple web, firmly entrapping the razor-sharp rainbow. When the rainbow tore through the web once more, it morphed into an orange shroud of light, then a cyan bulwark, followed by a blood-red sea, cycling endlessly in an unceasing loop.
Yaxiu stared blankly as the rainbow broke out time and time again, only to be beaten back each time until its colors drained away and its radiance faded—like a trapped beast crashing against its cage, playing out a futile struggle.
If all the sorcerers had coalesced Rainbow Holy Grails, perhaps the Source Angel truly could have shattered the cage in a single push. But the Colorless Holy Grails accounted for half the total number, preventing the Source Angel from gathering sufficient strength. As long as it could not break out all at once, the five Divine Lords could take turns steadily grinding down its power.
It was not merely the Divine Lord of Stars; even those in active rivalry—the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon, the Weaver, the Lord of Joy, and the Lord of the Endless Abyss—lent their hand. Although divisions existed among Them regarding how the spoils would be divided, They had long since reached an unshakeable consensus: the Source Angel had to fall.
Following the fall of the Senluo Azure Lord, They were the peak of this world, the mouthpieces of all living beings. Their combined will was the fate of the world.
As the master of the Void Realm, could the Source Angel ever have dreamed that it would become the enemy of the world? It had once created sorcerer handbooks for so many sorcerers; could it ever have imagined that it would end up as an obstacle to sorcerers?
At last, with the failure of its final charge, the rainbow slowly dwindled away. At the same time, every sorcerer heard space collapsing and time trembling as the colors of the entire world began to distort and unravel.
"The history of the Distant Sky Realm ends here," Lehuai said softly. "From this day forth, the Distant Sky Realm is no more."
Chapter 927