53: Chapter 53 The Tribulations of Life and Death

"Duan Fei, save him!"

Qin Feihu first glanced at the motionless Li Chengsheng and then at Duan Fei, but neither of them moved.

Gritting his teeth, he prepared to take action himself, but a large hand pressed firmly down on his shoulder.

"Be patient."

Li Chengsheng's voice acted like a switch; in the next second, the situation on the battlefield changed once again.

In an instant, dense red threads occupied nearly half the sky.

Beneath Chen Mo's feet, the earth seemed to awaken, surging like a tide and instantly forming a massive wall hundreds of meters high.

"Boom!"

The wave of divine art, formed by the fusion of divine power and mental energy, crashed down with a roar.

The barrier Chen Mo formed using Earth Control didn't even last three seconds, but those three seconds were enough!

"blood kill spear!"

Chen Mo's voice was thick with killing intent, and the blood-colored threads covering half the sky swarmed into his palm like swallows returning to their nest.

In the first second, the shaft of the spear took shape.

In the second second, the spearhead flickered into existence.

In the third second, the blood kill spear arrived!

Second-Tier Divine Art, Blood Kill!

"Boom!"

An ear-piercing sonic boom echoed through the clouds. The wave of soul power, which had crushed the wall like tofu, actually showed signs of being pushed back under the terrifying kinetic energy of the blood kill spear.

Break! Break! Break!

At this moment, dozens of air rings produced by the sonic boom appeared, reaching Ye Kaige in the blink of an eye.

"Soul Crystal!"

Ye Kaige's eyes widened. Fortunately, his comprehension of the Law of Soul had reached 13.9%, and his divine art casting speed was still very fast.

"Crack, crack, crack!"

The nearly transparent soul power crystal was covered in cracks in an instant, but until the blood kill spear dissipated, the Soul Crystal did not completely shatter.

"I blocked it!"

Ye Kaige let out a heavy sigh of relief, while simultaneously becoming extremely wary of Chen Mo.

After a moment's hesitation, the purple mark on his forehead suddenly burst with blinding purple light, and the divine power within Ye Kaige's body gathered toward his right hand as if it cost nothing.

"Third-Tier Divine Art!"

Chen Mo gripped his slightly numb right hand, his gaze becoming incomparably sharp at that moment.

In the Myriad Domain Arena, he had lost to White Phoenix's Third-Tier Divine Art, 'Cold Moon'.

It wasn't that Chen Mo looked down on Ye Kaige, but the same tier of divine art in different hands yielded completely different effects, and...

"This kid!"

Qin Feihu, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, became tense again.

They were all clear about Ye Kaige's situation; he did indeed possess a Third-Tier Divine Art, but he hadn't fully mastered it.

Huo Yuan, the Level 2 Supervisor of the Blue Cave North Region Branch, hadn't directly given Ye Kaige a C-rank contract for this very reason.

Of course, that didn't mean Ye Kaige was bad.

Divine arts were not easy to cultivate; not only did they have strict law requirements, but the divine art itself was a formula even more complex than forbidden-level magic.

Most Rank 3 demigods, let alone Third-Tier, would need tireless effort just to use a First-Tier Divine Art proficiently.

Of course, it would be much better if one possessed a divine art card for that specific art.

After all, divine art cards contained many insights from their creators; players in his past Life called divine art cards 'Skill Cards' for this reason.

"It's just a monthly exam, why go this far?"

Qin Feihu couldn't help but sigh.

For a deity of the Divine Path, forcibly using a divine art that hasn't been fully mastered will inevitably lead to a backlash.

In serious cases, it could even cause damage to one's divinity.

"Dean, are you really not going to intervene?"

Tian Caixuan also couldn't sit still and looked at Li Chengsheng.

"I know what I'm doing."

From beginning to end, Li Chengsheng's gaze remained on one person: Chen Mo.

Yes, Chen Mo had said before that he had created a three-law fusion divine art, but he hadn't said what it was, and Li Chengsheng hadn't asked in detail.

Now, the answer should be coming soon!

And just as Li Chengsheng suspected, a new glow of divine art appeared in Chen Mo's palm as well.

Judging by the aura, it should only be a First-Tier Divine Art.

However, in the next second, everyone looked at Chen Mo in shock.

Because Chen Mo's target for the art wasn't Ye Kaige, who was under the protection of the 'Soul Crystal,' but... himself!

"I didn't want to use this, but this guy's defensive divine art actually provides dual defense for both soul and physical attacks."

Chen Mo looked at Ye Kaige with some helplessness.

'Divine Punishment' was good in every way, but it required a certain amount of catalysis time, especially when facing an enemy with a higher cultivation level.

By his estimation, to pose a Life-threatening danger to Ye Kaige with his 'Soul Crystal,' he would need to let Divine Punishment develop inside his body for at least ten seconds.

Ten seconds was enough for Ye Kaige to complete a Third-Tier Divine Art and kill him ten times over.

"Rank 2, I can barely use it, though the side effects are a bit large."

Feeling the glow of the divine art blooming and spreading within his body, Chen Mo smiled bitterly and shook his head.

Divine Art: Wither and Flourish Tribulation!

Life and Death.

Flourish and Wither!

Life is flourishing, Death is a calamity!

Although it was also a fusion divine art of the three major laws of Life, Death, and Calamity...

...the method was completely different from the soul-attacking 'Divine Punishment'.

To a certain extent, 'Wither and Flourish Tribulation' should be considered a support divine art.

As for the effect...

"Rumble!"

In the sky, a thundercloud exploded.

Chen Mo's body was illuminated by the electric light at that moment.

One could see his body withering and decaying at a speed visible to the naked eye.

A thick aura of Death began to spread through his body and even his soul.

But in the deepest part of his soul, a speck of golden light seemed to exist eternally.

That was divinity, but it was different from usual divinity.

If magnified a hundred times, the patterns on it were like the patterns of a technical formula, winding and twisting yet containing the Great Dao.

That's right, the foundation of 'Wither and Flourish Tribulation' was to carve the formula onto one's own divinity.

Only a special substance like divinity, which is eternal and indestructible, could serve as the carrier for Wither and Flourish Tribulation.

"Rumble!"

The thunder sounded again.

The Third-Tier Divine Art in Ye Kaige's hand was finally completed.

At this moment, even Ye Kaige's eyes were bleeding, not just from the previous effects of Withered Bones, but also from the backlash of forcibly using a Third-Tier Divine Art.

"It went smoothly enough; the backlash isn't too strong."

Having completed the divine art, Ye Kaige took a deep breath and turned his gaze toward the mummy-like Chen Mo.

"This guy!"

Because he had been too focused, Ye Kaige hadn't paid attention to the changes on Chen Mo's side earlier.

Looking at Chen Mo now, Ye Kaige's heart was filled with nothing but confusion.

If he were Chen Mo, he certainly wouldn't have let pass the window of time while he was preparing the Third-Tier Divine Art.

But the opponent hadn't, and had even turned himself into this current state.

Truthfully, this left Ye Kaige at a loss for how to proceed.

He gripped the purple soul flame containing the power of a Third-Tier Divine Art, and for a moment, he didn't take any further action.

Seeing this scene, whether it was the three True God teachers or Li Chengsheng, they couldn't help but shake their heads and sigh.

Young people, they are still young after all!

His heart is still too kind, but the one opposite you might not be the same.

...