192: Chapter 192 Divine Descent

Atop the city walls, Augustus was encased in the gilded God-Given Armor. The Holy Emblem on his chest was like a beating golden heart, each pulsation causing the surrounding air to resonate.

He hovered in mid-air, feeling the power within him so full it was about to overflow.

The wariness in his eyes was finally devoured, bit by bit, by fanaticism and pride.

"Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe, can you feel it?" Augustus's voice penetrated his faceplate, carrying an inhuman, resonant tremor.

"Now, I stand at the same height as you!"

"The heritage of the West Federation is not something you can dismiss with a few airy remarks!"

He stepped forward violently, the Void Realm beneath his feet actually being compressed into a tangible white sonic boom cloud.

He threw a punch! The Holy Light transformed into a rainbow piercing the sun, several zhang in diameter. The falling rain along its path was instantly evaporated into nothingness; the terrifying heat and cutting force were even liquefying the refined iron of the city walls!

Facing this world-destroying strike, Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe remained standing where he was. Only this time, the calmness in his eyes, the look of "assessing a Junior," finally faded.

"The same height?" Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe's voice was not loud, yet it eerily drowned out the roar that tore through the air.

"If borrowed external objects can count as height, then the so-called 'strongest Genius of the century' of the West Federation is truly a joke."

The moment his words fell, Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe took a step forward, his right fist striking out plainly and unremarkably to meet that thick rainbow of Holy Light.

Boom!!! The instant the two fists collided across a hundred zhang, the world seemed to lose its sound.

Ji Wuchen and the others on the city wall only felt a flash of white before their eyes, followed by a terrifying hurricane that nearly blew them off the wall!

At the center of that searing hurricane, Augustus's pupils constricted to the extreme.

His pride and joy, the Late Stage Eight Holy Light rainbow, didn't even manage to hold out for half a second upon contacting Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe's fist force; it was like an icicle hitting a battering ram, shattering inch by inch!

"How is this possible?!" Augustus widened his eyes in terror. That fist force surged upstream, slamming solidly into his God-Given Armor.

Crack—! A jarring sound of shattering rang out. Those gilded armor plates, which claimed to withstand Peak Eight-Stage impacts and represented the highest defense of the temple, emitted a groan of being unable to bear the weight before Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe's absolute crushing power.

"Block it for me!!!" Augustus frantically squeezed the sacred attributes within his body. But the gap was too great.

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe's punch contained an extreme, terrifying destructive power capable of overturning rivers and seas!

Bang! After a violent flickering, the golden Holy Emblem on his chest exploded with a boom!

The God-Given Armor was torn open from the center by the violent Yuan power. Augustus spat out a mouthful of golden blood mixed with visceral fragments, his entire body like a bird struck by a meteorite, smashing obliquely into the ground and forcibly plowing a hundred-zhang-long deep trench into the land outside the city!

The entire scene was dead silent! Late Stage Seven, all trump cards revealed, forcibly raised to the Eight-Stage level... In the end, he still couldn't even take one serious punch from Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe!

"Cough, cough... Pfft!" In the deep pit, Augustus struggled to prop up his upper body.

His God-Given Armor had turned into scrap metal scattered all over the ground, his once meticulously groomed golden hair was now soaked in mud and blood, and he was in an utterly wretched state.

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe stood at the edge of the pit with his hands behind his back, his gray cloth robe flapping in the fierce wind.

Augustus at the bottom of the pit coughed violently, each time tugging at his shattered chest cavity, vomiting large mouthfuls of golden blood.

His once brilliant, sun-like golden hair was now plastered messily against his forehead, covered in mud, and that peerlessly handsome face was filled with terror and disbelief.

"You... you almost killed me, you lunatic!" Augustus's voice trembled, a chill seeping from his very bones.

"Do you know that I am the Divine Son of this generation of the West Federation, the future Pope successor recognized by the Divine Kingdom! To injure me is a declaration of war against the entire Divine Kingdom, against the entire West Federation!"

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe lowered his head slightly, his eyes as cold as a glacier that hadn't melted in ten thousand years, looking down at Augustus below.

"Declaration of war?" Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe softly spat out these two words, the corner of his mouth curling into a faint yet mockery-filled arc.

"Augustus, have you been coddled by those old monsters in the West Federation for too long, to the point that you've forgotten the rules of Great Xia?"

He took a step, his figure appearing ghost-like at the bottom of the pit, his feet landing in the mud without getting a speck of dirt on them.

"The rules of Great Xia are simple: Those who violate my territory shall be killed without exception!"

With every step Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe approached, Augustus felt the surrounding air grow heavier by a fraction. In the end, he even felt his own bones rattling, as if they were about to be crushed alive.

"You talk about a declaration of war?" Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe reached out violently, his five fingers locking onto Augustus's throat like steel hooks, lifting this arrogant Divine Son up like a chick, his gaze piercing into those golden pupils filled with terror.

"You crossed the border first, and led a group to surround and kill my Great Xia's Fifth-Stage Awakener second. If this can be called a misunderstanding, then if I kill you today, can it also be considered 'accidental injury'?"

Augustus's throat was choked, his breathing became extremely difficult, and his face swelled to a purplish-red color.

He desperately tried to mobilize the remaining power in his body to resist, but those Holy Lights, under the suppression of Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe's Yuan power, were like residual snow encountering the blazing sun, instantly melting away.

"Kill me... you... cannot bear the consequences!" Augustus squeezed this sentence out through his teeth with difficulty.

A complex emotion flashed in Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe's eyes, a weighing of the big picture, and also disgust for this so-called 'Genius' before him.

"You are right, killing you would indeed trigger an all-out war."

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe's voice echoed in the rain, revealing a desolation that had seen through life and death.

"The members of my War God Temple never fear war, but the soldiers of Great Xia should not sacrifice themselves in vain for an arrogant bastard like you. The lives of millions of beings at the border are ten thousand times heavier than your rotten life."

A flash of wild joy at surviving a disaster crossed Augustus's eyes. He thought Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe had backed down, thinking Great Xia's concerns had become his talisman for survival.

"Since you know... then let me go... let me take my people and leave, today's matter..."

"Let you go?" Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe suddenly interrupted him, a sharp edge that made one tremble appearing in his eyes.

"I said I wouldn't kill you, but I didn't say I would let you go!"

"What do you want to do?!" Alarm bells rang in Augustus's heart.

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe did not answer, but slowly raised his left hand, his index and middle fingers pressed together, a speck of grayish light lighting up at his fingertips.

That light was not dazzling, yet it emitted a destructive Aura that made one's Soul tremble.

"Augustus, your greatest reliance is your pride-and-joy talent, isn't it?"

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe's voice was terrifyingly calm.

"Late Stage Seven, touching the Transcendental; someone like you, if allowed to smoothly Breakthrough to the Nine-Stage, would indeed be a trouble for my Great Xia. Since killing you is too much trouble, I will personally... sever your aspirations."

Before the words faded, Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe's two fingers suddenly pointed towards Augustus's lower abdomen! That was the most important Foundation for an Awakener.

"No—!!!" Augustus let out a heart-rending scream.

He felt it; that finger contained a strange vibrational force, specifically targeting the energy circuits of an Awakener.

If struck by that finger, the Holy Power vortexes he had painstakingly polished would collapse; even if he could recover in the future, his Realm would be stopped there for life, with no possibility of entering the Transcendental ever again!

Just at this critical moment. Hum—!!! The whole world seemed to have been pressed with a pause button.

The rain that had been pouring down eerily stopped in mid-air, and the shouting, wind, and thunder on the city wall disappeared completely in this instant.

A supreme, terrifying Divine Might exploded from the depths of Augustus's body!

At the center of Augustus's forehead, that cross mark was no longer a faint gold, but transformed into a pure white as blinding as the sun!

Accompanied by the burning of the mark, a huge crack actually split open in the Void Realm behind Augustus.

Deep within the crack, a holy kingdom was vaguely visible, and there were even bursts of melodious chanting coming from it.

Immediately after, a golden eye that covered the sky and obscured the sun slowly opened in the Void Realm.

That eye had no pupil, only endless white light; cold, grand, without any human emotion, looking down upon the lowly sentient beings.

"God... has a god manifested?" Below the city wall, those surviving Temple Knights knelt down fanatically, tears streaming down their faces.

That was a trace of will branded into the depths of Augustus's Soul by the Transcendental existence behind him, perhaps even a god of the West Federation.

This brand usually slept, only triggering automatically when Augustus faced a life-or-death crisis.

The golden eye looked at Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe. In an instant, an overwhelming, mountain-toppling pressure came sweeping through the air. It was a collision at the level of rules, a majesty that did not belong to the mortal world.

The finger light Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe had pointed out actually began to disintegrate inch by inch under the illumination of that golden radiance.

Augustus's body was wrapped in a gentle yet powerful divine light, slowly detaching from Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe's hand and rising towards that Void Realm crack.

"Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe..." Due to the descent of the god's will, Augustus's voice became layered and majestic, carrying a morbid sense of pleasure.

"The will of the Transcendental cannot be insulted! Even if you are Peak Eight-Stage, under the Lord's radiance, you are nothing but an ant! Today's humiliation, once I step into the Eight-Stage, I will surely make you pay it back a hundredfold, and let the entire Ironwall City be buried with you!"

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe was forced back three steps by that massive Divine Might, the mud beneath his feet shattering one after another.

He looked at the crazed-looking Augustus, then at that cold golden giant eye, and a rage that had been suppressed for decades exploded in his chest.

"God?" Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe laughed up at the sky, his laughter filled with unruliness and wild abandon.

He violently tore open the gray cloth robe on his upper body, revealing muscles that were scarred yet as robust as a Dragon. On his right arm, a hideous scar wound from his shoulder to his fingertips—that was the medal left behind when he promoted to the Eight-Stage.

"On this land, when the sons of my Great Xia were protecting our mountains and rivers, guarding our people, where were you bullshit gods?!"

"Today, never mind just a projection of will, even if your true self descended, you wouldn't be able to keep him!"

Boom—! Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe's Aura underwent a qualitative change at this moment.

If he was a mountain before, then at this moment, he was a peerless mad blade wanting to split the heavens and earth!

He no longer restrained himself, his Peak Eight-Stage life magnetic field fully opened, and the solidified rain around him instantly vaporized.

"Heaven—Breaking—Seal!" Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe pressed his palms together, his entire body's Yuan power converging like rivers entering the sea.

Behind him, a phantom a hundred zhang tall rose from the ground. That phantom was also wearing gray clothes and cloth shoes, its face resolute, yet it exuded a spirit of fighting heaven and earth.

This was Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe's true trump card, the secret technique of the War God Temple that was never taught to outsiders: the War Soul True Body!

The phantom moved with Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe, its palms slamming violently toward that sacred beam of light.

Bang!!! The loud noise shook all directions. The two extreme forces collided in the Void Realm, the resulting shockwave turning everything within a thousand meters into powder.

If not for the protection of the Formation, the garrison on the city wall would likely have been wiped out in this instant.

The golden beam of light trembled violently, and those layers of sacred barriers appeared with dense cracks under Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe's frantic attacks.

The golden giant eye in the Void Realm seemed to flash with a hint of anger, the white light becoming even brighter, accelerating the pulling of Augustus.

"Stay here!" Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe's eyes were crimson, blood faintly seeping from his seven orifices. Hard-shaking a Transcendental will was a huge burden for him.

But he did not retreat; he could not retreat. If he let Augustus escape unscathed right under his nose today, where would the national prestige of Great Xia be? What would the blood shed by the frontier soldiers count for?!

He violently spat out a mouthful of blood essence, pointing it at his fingertips. "Forbidden Technique! Soul-Splitting!"

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe's figure actually transformed into a gray stream of light at that moment, forcibly breaking through the blockade of the divine light, and in the second before the Void Realm crack was about to close, he pointed a finger at the small of Augustus's back!

Sss—! A gray energy went straight into Augustus along his spine.

"Ahhhhhh—!!!" Augustus let out an unprecedented scream, his voice filled with extreme pain and despair.

The divine light finally completely wrapped around him, forcibly dragging him into the Void Realm crack.

The crack closed, the golden giant eye slowly faded away, with only a curse filled with resentment and weakness lingering in the sky above Ironwall City for a long time.

"Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe! If I don't avenge this... I swear I am no human! Wait until I Breakthrough to the Eight-Stage... you better wash your neck clean and wait for death!!!"

The world returned to its clamor once again. The rain was still falling, but that Divine Might that made people unable to breathe had disappeared completely.

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe landed in the deep pit, his figure swaying for a moment, his throat tasting sweet, a mouthful of blood surging up, but he forcibly swallowed it back down.

His right hand was trembling slightly, his entire arm covered in charred black scars burned by the divine light. "Damn it... this Divine Descent light really hurts."

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe cursed lowly, took out a crumpled cigarette from his pocket, ignited it with a flame of Yuan power from his fingertips, and took a deep drag.

Although he couldn't kill him on the spot, that Soul-Splitting just now could be considered making Augustus taste some bitterness.

"Vice Hall Master!" "General Zhao!" On the city wall, Han Xiao and the others scrambled down.

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe waved his hand, signaling he was fine. He put on the cloak handed over by Han Xiao and walked to Shen Yi's side again.

Shen Yi was busy treating Lin Mo's wounds; the boy had already fallen into a deep coma, but even in his coma, his hands were still tightly clenched into fists, his nails digging deep into his palms.

Vice Hall Master Zhao Shanhe squatted down, looking at Lin Mo's slightly immature yet resolute face, his eyes full of gratification. "This kid... is even crazier than I was back in the day."