Chapter 1608: Contest for the Cloud Summit

Even as a master serving the will of the Supreme God, do you truly believe you have a place of your own in this world? You are nothing more than a principle. If I'm not mistaken, your true physical form, your very flesh and blood, was long ago sacrificed to the will of the Supreme God.

The will of the Supreme God itself is merely a vessel, containing various forms. Through the imprisonment of your flesh-and-blood souls, it controls the entire Kunlun Divine Path. As for you, standing before me now, you are merely an evolved form of a principle. To be blunt, you are not even as substantial as a phantom I project. My phantom, at least, is sustained by the very essence of my soul. While you, at best, are nothing more than a puppet in the hands of the Supreme God's will.”

“Enough!”

The creator and master of this Second Divine Temple world was now on the verge of spiritual collapse. Its emotions were violently agitated, causing the entire temple space to tremble violently along with it. Just as Xu Yang had suspected, this entity had no inherent meaning to its existence; it was purely a puppet crafted by the Supreme God's will. It had simply been dispatched to the Second Divine Temple world to control its inhabitants. This, precisely, was the most sensitive and forbidden topic deep within its core.

At this moment, Xu Yang had effectively ripped away the master's façade right before its eyes, causing it profound shame and an overwhelming surge of sorrow and fury.

“Do you know? You have touched my deepest taboo. Your fate is now sealed. I will use your blood, your flesh, your soul, your very essence, to cleanse the insult you have just hurled at me.”

The creator and master of the Second Divine Temple — this illusion born of principles — completely shattered. It roared in fury. Simultaneously, the originally gleaming golden wings on its back transformed instantly into six streaks of crimson, blood-red light. These fiery energy wings resembled the grim, sorrowful visage of a fallen angel.

Unbeknownst to it, Xu Yang viewed this transformation as nothing more than a desperate, cornered trick.

“Cease your struggles before me. I have long since seen through your true nature. How could you possibly hope to defeat me? Since you still harbor any unwarranted illusions about this battle, I shall personally extinguish your last vestiges of hope.” As Xu Yang finished speaking, he subtly raised his palm, and a brilliant golden light erupted to its fullest extent.

With his purest angelic power, Xu Yang conjured a golden lotus in his palm. This lotus was, in essence, a spiritual manifestation of the angelic bloodline.

“Behold, the power I am about to unleash to obliterate you is the true pride of the angelic race! You, however, are merely a shadow beneath the angelic race's feet, forever condemned to worship the light, yet eternally incapable of replacing it.”

Every word Xu Yang uttered was a direct hit, utterly shredding the dignity of the Second Divine Temple's master. Yet, despite the loss of its dignity, the entity still appeared to cling to the hope of survival. It did not give up. Instead, in a fit of rage, it mustered all its strength, determined to engage Xu Yang in a desperate, do-or-die struggle.

All the power emanating from it, which had transformed from golden to blood-red, coalesced into a massive crimson orb of light. This orb was then violently thrust from its palms towards Xu Yang. Only a few hundred meters separated them within the confines of the crumbling, yet desolate, temple. But the moment this power erupted, it was as if it embodied the accumulated resentment and fury of all beings within the Second Divine Temple world. Its sheer destructive force momentarily startled even Xu Yang.

“Haha, it seems I underestimated the depth of your resentment towards me! To be able to directly coalesce such terrifying death energy in an attempt to annihilate us both, that truly is your final struggle. But alas, even if you amplify this rage a hundredfold, a thousandfold, it grants you no license to defy me.” Xu Yang spoke these last words, losing all desire for further communication. The golden lotus in his palm fully blossomed.

On one side, it firmly enveloped Xu Yang's body, providing perfect protection of light. On the other, every petal of the blossoming lotus depicted a shower of the purest golden arrows. Guided by Xu Yang's mental power, these instantly pierced through the entity before him, which was already completely drenched in corrupted blood.

As Xu Yang had stated, the illusion before him possessed no independent meaning of existence. Essentially, it was no longer a complete living entity, but merely the lingering hope of a puppet controlled by the Supreme God. Thus, when Xu Yang personally employed his angelic power to completely obliterate the entity, everything around the temple returned to its initial state. There was no cataclysmic explosion or destructive force as one might have expected.

Everything unfolded slowly, precisely as Xu Yang had anticipated and controlled. Even the outcome of the battle did not surprise him in the slightest. Perhaps this was the most perfect testament to Xu Yang's overwhelming power. Regardless of the opponent or the level of formidable power he faced, Xu Yang invariably possessed an array of methods and trump cards to effortlessly resolve any immediate crisis.

Of course, what truly elevated Xu Yang to such a formidable level was his unparalleled soul and eyes that seemed to pierce through all worldly illusions. These allowed him to clearly discern an opponent's true essence and weaknesses in any situation, against any resisting force. In this particular aspect, while Long Kun, Xiao Hua, or others might not necessarily have lost to this opponent, they would undoubtedly have paid an unimaginable price in battle. Furthermore, they would have treated the foe as a true peak cultivator of the Boundless Mirror realm, inadvertently falling into the illusion it wove. Xu Yang, however, was entirely unaffected by such deceptions. The instant the illusory soul, hidden within the statue, manifested, Xu Yang had already discerned its complete nature.

As the adage goes: “Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated!” One must ask: once an opponent's true nature is instantly exposed, how can they possibly achieve victory in a confrontation?

Everything within the temple vanished into nothingness as the golden lotus in Xu Yang's palm dissipated. The seemingly magnificent temple atop the clouds was now an empty husk, devoid of any meaning or purpose.