Chapter 1833: Golden Light

His only option was to grit his teeth and summon every ounce of his strength, bracing himself for the ultimate resistance against the incoming sword. Failure meant the end of his glory as a Martial God.

Guided by Xu Yang's will, the terrifying sword light continued to unleash an overwhelmingly destructive aura. Simultaneously, the sword finally pierced through the endless clouds, slowly descending towards the palace atop the ruined complex. As the sword's aura drew closer, the palace ruins overhead began to disintegrate.

The sword's immense power was undeniable; even the debris above the palace battlefield where Xu Yang and his companions stood shattered continuously as the sword light approached. Ultimately, even a mere touch from the edge of the sword's aura led to complete annihilation. The very ground beneath Martial God Zhen Gang's feet began to crack wildly.

The reason was simple: while his physical strength was extraordinary and allowed him to resist the pressure emanating from the descending sword, the ground beneath him had long surpassed its limit. It cracked and collapsed uncontrollably, causing Martial God Zhen Gang's body to sink deeper into the earth, inch by inch.

Yet, he showed no signs of giving up. He clenched his fists, enveloped by a dark golden light that continued to protect him. At that moment, the battle-spirit totem, symbolizing the Martial God's glory on his back, also awakened, unleashing its ultimate defensive power.

"I refuse to believe that anyone in this world can completely shatter my Battle Soul Golden Body with a single attack," he roared. "I will not yield!"

Martial God Zhen Gang erupted in a furious roar. Simultaneously, two beams of dark golden light shot from his eyes, representing the strongest defensive power he could possibly muster. Even the battle-spirit totem on his back trembled constantly under the pressure of Xu Yang's power, appearing on the verge of collapse at any moment.

But Martial God Zhen Gang persevered, refusing to give up. Xu Yang, however, appeared utterly calm and unconcerned, despite having amplified the sword's power by twentyfold. Earlier, during the Battle of the Ninth Human Emperor in the Kunlun Divine Path, his most powerful sword strike against Kunlun had been amplified a hundredfold.

In other words, the current Martial God Zhen Gang's strength was vastly inferior even to Kunlun, the previous Ninth Human Emperor. He was nowhere near qualified to provoke Xu Yang's true, unreserved peak combat power. There was still a monumental gap in strength between him and Xu Yang.

Finally, the incredibly powerful twentyfold-amplified sword light struck Martial God Zhen Gang's body with full force. In an instant, his arms were completely melted by the terrifying power of the blade. Indeed, 'melted' was the precise word to describe that moment, for only when Martial God Zhen Gang faced the sword descending upon his head did he truly realize the sheer terror of Xu Yang's strike.

"No! This is impossible!" he cried. "I am the Martial God with the strongest defense. How could anyone possess such terrifying offensive power?" Martial God Zhen Gang, perhaps even until his demise, never fully grasped what had just happened.

Just before the twentyfold-amplified sword light could completely crush Martial God Zhen Gang's life force, Xu Yang materialized his power into nothingness. He ultimately spared Martial God Zhen Gang, leaving him with a faint breath of life instead of annihilating him in a single blow. However, the outcome of this battle seemed excessively cruel for the dying Martial God Zhen Gang. Xu Yang had shattered all his glory with just one sword strike, leaving the man completely humiliated in his presence.

After all was said and done, Xu Yang shook his head helplessly, surveying the devastated palace surrounded by shattered ruins. Releasing no more power into the surrounding space, he calmly walked up to Martial God Zhen Gang, lowering his head to gaze at his despairing face.

"I regret having to leave you in such a sorry state," Xu Yang said. "I must admit your defensive capabilities are among the very best for a Martial God-level expert. However, your gravest mistake was challenging my power. If you hadn't faced me with such arrogance, you would never have met this fate."

Martial God Zhen Gang said nothing more. He simply stared at Xu Yang with immense resentment for a moment, then actively burned away his last vestiges of life force. With his arms gone, his physical body swiftly disintegrated into ephemeral specks of mottled dark golden light, drifting into the void.

Just as this immense Martial God power was about to dissipate, Xu Yang suddenly waved his hand, drawing all the dark golden light, in its purest energy form, directly into the body of Xiao Po, who was not far away. The young woman was initially stunned, truly not expecting Xu Yang to bestow such a rare gift upon her to help her break through her current power level.

However, Xiao Po soon understood. She knew Xu Yang considered her a part of his team, and by receiving these inherited gifts, she would be better able to utilize her strength in the future to help him solve more problems. Thus, she gladly accepted Xu Yang's gift. Soon, all the essence of the Martial God's power, except for the portion directly shattered by Xu Yang's sword, was guided by Xu Yang into Xiao Po's body.

However, the young woman's current martial arts realm was still far from sufficient to fully digest the entirety of this Martial God-level power. Instead, this gift paved a brighter path for her. It effectively expanded the upper limit of her martial arts cultivation and silently altered her previously flawed life force structure, making her more perfect. But it wouldn't allow Xiao Po to ascend instantly. To truly reach the Martial God level of cultivation, she would still need to steadily refine the essence of the power within her body, little by little, to reach the pinnacle of the ancient Martial God path.

Just before Martial God Zhen Gang's physical form completely disintegrated into ashes, the golden shadow that had been attached to his body also detached from his decaying flesh at that same moment, beginning to move towards another location. However, the golden light didn't expect that just as its movement speed reached its limit, intending to escape the ruined battlefield, it would be struck on the head by a beam of light that had appeared out of nowhere. The impact sent the entity stumbling back more than a dozen steps before collapsing onto the ground.