381: One finger

Ling Xi stood on the wasteland, calm and reserved, forming a sharp contrast with Wang Zhan in the distance, whose Saintly radiance soared to the skies and whose Aura was like that of a primordial Vicious Beast.

Battle Intent boiled in Wang Zhan's eyes, and his Azure Saintly Power transformed into physical flames around his body.

"Azure Rakshasa, I admire your courage for accepting this challenge."

Wang Zhan's voice was like a resonant bell, carrying the absolute confidence of a newly ascended Saint.

"But the difference between Saint and mortal is like a chasm between heaven and earth. In this battle, I will make you accept your defeat wholeheartedly and show you what true Divine Might looks like!"

Facing this oncoming Divine Might and declaration, Ling Xi's expression didn't change in the slightest; her cool eyes simply scanned Wang Zhan from head to toe.

Heavenly Azure Sacred Body, solid Foundation, resilient Heart-Nature.

To have such a presence just after forming a Saintly body was indeed quite good; he could be called a Prodigy of his generation!

"A pity," Ling Xi sighed silently in her heart. "The ones you are facing are me and my Senior Brothers."

Seeing Ling Xi's silence, Wang Zhan only thought she had been cowed by his Divine Might or was left speechless.

He didn't say another word and immediately gave a low roar: "Take a punch from me, Heavens Weeping Blood!"

He took a step forward, the ground beneath him exploding as his figure turned into a bolt of azure lightning that tore through space.

In front of his fist, a phantom of a collapsing sky condensed, carrying a Concept of weeping blood and mournful cries along with Saintly Law that crushed everything as it smashed down toward Ling Xi!

With this punch, he had used ninety percent of his power. His previous defeats had taught him never to underestimate anyone again.

Moreover, his opponent was a Junior Sister who possessed the same startling talent as Battle Asura.

He did not underestimate her; he wanted to use his most powerful stance and give it his all to establish his invincible name as the number one Saint of the younger generation!

Facing this earth-shattering punch that caused countless onlookers to cry out in alarm, Ling Xi finally moved.

She merely lifted her right hand gently and extended a long, jade-like index finger.

There was no dazzling light at her fingertip, nor any violent energy fluctuations—only the purest, most extreme flow of Daoist Laws.

"For this move, I'll use the Heaven Severing Finger," she thought indifferently.

"If I used the Dao Severing Finger, I'm afraid not even a wisp of your soul would remain."

Then, she pointed out with one finger.

The movement was casual, like brushing a snowflake off a shoulder or dropping a grain of sand into still water.

There was no sound.

Or rather, all sounds—the roar of Wang Zhan's fist wind, the screech of shattering space, the cries of the onlookers, and even the flow of wind and thunder in the world...

At the moment her finger pointed out, it was as if an invisible hand had seized the throat of the world, and everything instantly fell into a heart-palpitating silence.

Wang Zhan's Fist Intent and Saintly Laws, which were enough to shatter mountains and make the heavens weep blood, touched that seemingly unthreatening fingertip.

Like snow under a blazing sun or glass hitting an invisible wall, they began to crumble inch by inch from the core level of the Dao and vanished silently without warning!

"What?!"

Wang Zhan's pupils suddenly shrank to the size of needlepoints, and boundless horror and disbelief instantly flooded his mind.

He felt his invincible, incomparably fierce Saintly Fist Intent constantly collapsing.

This was completely beyond his comprehension!

However, before he could react to this horror, that finger had already gently tapped against the brilliant edge of his fist.

Poof—!

A slight sound, like a bubble popping.

The Sacred Body radiance on Wang Zhan's fist, along with the powerful flesh and bone beneath it, was sliced open as if by an invisible blade, instantly dimming and shattering!

An indescribable, irresistible finger force that seemed capable of severing everything in the world surged into his body through his fist, arm, and Meridians with the force of a landslide!

"Ugh, ahhh—!!"

Wang Zhan let out a muffled groan of extreme pain, and his entire body was sent flying backward even faster than he had come, as if struck by an eternal divine mountain.

Boom!

He smashed heavily into the ground several miles away, plowing a massive, bottomless trench as dust soared into the sky.

At the end of the trench, he lay collapsed in the ruins. His right arm was twisted at a bizarre angle and covered in cracks, and blood sprayed wildly from his mouth.

With eyes full of sheer terror, as if seeing the most horrifying thing in the world, he stared fixedly at the white figure still standing calmly in the distance.

Defeated.

One punch.

No, one finger.

He, the Heavenly Azure Sacred Body who had just survived the Chaos Heaven Tribulation, forged a supreme Saintly Foundation, and was confident in his Saint-level invincibility... Saint Wang Zhan... was casually and instantly defeated by a woman in the King Realm with a single finger!

A deathly silence enveloped the wasteland for hundreds of miles around.

The wind stopped, the clouds stalled, and everyone's breathing and heartbeats seemed to cease at that moment.

On every onlooker's face, the same expression was frozen: extreme confusion, shock, and the emptiness of a collapsed worldview.

The wild laughter of the Wang Clan Head froze on his face, turning him into a stone statue.

The elders and Prodigies who had been discussing and analyzing so logically earlier now had their mouths wide open, unable to utter a single word.

Xiao Ruobai and Fang Hanyu seemed to have expected this result long ago, and their expressions were quite calm.

However, there was a hint of sympathy in their eyes as they looked at Wang Zhan.

It wasn't that you were weak; it was that the opponent you encountered was too strong.

"What just happened?" a young Cultivator asked as if in a dream, his voice dry and raspy.

No one answered.

Because no one understood!

They only saw Wang Zhan throw out an invincible punch with Divine Might, and then that Azure Rakshasa lifted her hand, and Wang Zhan was defeated?

Flicked away like a fly?

This had completely exceeded the scope of "fighting across realms"; it was simply a dimensional strike! It was the crushing of reality by myth!

After a long time, an old and trembling voice filled with boundless fear spoke the thoughts of everyone present:

"That... what kind of finger technique was that?! It's too terrifying! Who on earth is she?!"

In the center of the wasteland, Ling Xi slowly withdrew her finger, which was as white as jade and seemed as if it had never touched a speck of dust.

At this moment, Wang Zhan, lying collapsed on the ground, felt the excruciating pain of his shattered bones in his right arm, but that was not even a ten-thousandth of the shock in his heart.

Defeated? No, that wasn't a defeat. That was a total, utter crushing.

His Fist Intent, his Divine Might, and his incomparably powerful Saintly body had been defeated like dry weeds before that seemingly delicate finger.

Poof—!

He spat out another mouthful of blood, the golden Saintly Blood staining the scorched earth on his chest.

However, the pain of his Physical Body and the trauma to his dao foundation were currently drowned out by a colder, more desperate emotion—the collapse of his perception.

"Why?"

He lay in the ruins, looking up at the gray sky with empty eyes, his lips moving as he made a dream-like sound.

"Why, when I am clearly already a Saint..."

"Heavenly Azure Sacred Body, Chaos Heaven Tribulation, supreme Saintly Foundation..."

"Why couldn't I even withstand a single finger of yours?"

"Is it that everything I've sought in my life, everything I'm proud of, is just a joke?"

"Is the so-called Heavenly Azure Sacred Body simply... trash?"

"No, impossible, I don't believe it, I don't believe it!!!"

The last sentence was almost a roar, his voice hoarse and broken, filled with unwillingness, humiliation, self-doubt, and a hint of desperation bordering on madness.

Silence surrounded them, an extreme silence.

Everyone was shaken to their core by Wang Zhan's current madman-like roar, which evoked the deepest chill and resonance in their hearts.

If it were them, what would happen if they faced that finger?