137: The crushing power of the Thunder Dragon

Late Stage F-rank is truly terrifying; with my current strength, it's likely difficult to make an impact.

However, one must always try to know for sure.

Taking a deep breath, Zhou Xing instantly entered a combat state.

“Ice-Fire Dual Stream: Annihilation!”

In an instant, the fused power of frost and flame formed a torrent of energy that blasted toward the Thunder Earth Dragon.

However—

“Boom!”

The Thunder Earth Dragon didn't even dodge, letting the attack land on its body, ultimately leaving only a shallow mark.

“Is its defense this terrifying?” Zhou Xing's pupils constricted.

With his current strength, the power of the Ice-Fire Fusion definitely reached around the Middle Stage of the Celestial Phenomenon Realm, yet he didn't even have the qualifications to scratch the opponent.

“Roar—!”

The Thunder Earth Dragon seemed to feel provoked at this moment and formally launched an attack.

It let out a sudden roar as the thunder spikes on its back abruptly lit up.

“Boom! Boom! Boom!”

In a flash, dozens of lightning bolts poured down like a Heavenly Tribulation Thunder Punishment, instantly covering the area centered on Zhou Xing.

“Ice-Fire Battle Armor!”

“Metal Skin!”

...

“Absolute Defense!”

To be safe, Zhou Xing instantly mobilized his various divine powers to construct layers of defense.

But the Thunder Earth Dragon's attack was extremely domineering.

Even though Zhou Xing's own resistance to the thunder attribute was not low, these many layers of defense only lasted less than five seconds before shattering into pieces.

“Pfft—!”

Finally, a bolt of lightning struck Zhou Xing directly on the shoulder, sending him flying violently.

“Cough, cough... This power, I'm afraid even a human Awakened One at the Late Stage of the Celestial Phenomenon Realm wouldn't be able to easily withstand it.”

Zhou Xing spat out a mouthful of bloody foam, his expression very solemn.

At this time, the Thunder Earth Dragon didn't give Zhou Xing much chance to breathe, raising a giant claw and slamming it onto the ground.

“Boom!”

In the next instant, the ground for thousands of meters around surged in waves, followed by countless sharp, giant rock spikes emerging from the earth.

In a flash, Zhou Xing used Shadow Leap and activated Gale Step, constantly dodging.

But the Earth Dragon's attack had not ended.

“Sizzle—!”

The Thunder Earth Dragon's divine power erupted, and with it as the center, an area a thousand meters in diameter was completely transformed into a thunder pool, filled with violent thunder power on all sides.

This was the Thunder Earth Dragon's ability—Thunderstorm Domain.

When Zhou Xing was enveloped within it, his movements slowed several times over, and his entire body could feel the stinging sensation of the thunder covering him.

Seizing this opportunity, the Thunder Earth Dragon's massive size didn't affect its speed at all; its huge body was as fast as lightning, arriving in an instant, followed by a sudden sweep of its giant tail!

“Bang!”

Zhou Xing, in his Metal Skin state, crossed his arms to block, but the Thunder Earth Dragon's strength was too immense, coupled with its Realm advantage; this strike shattered Zhou Xing's bones and sent him flying back like a cannonball.

He immediately used Skeleton power to regenerate his bones and used healing power to condense a healing barrier around himself to recover from his injuries.

“Triple-element Fusion: Taiji Annihilation!”

Taking advantage of the distance, Zhou Xing didn't dare delay; the three energies of ice, fire, and healing intertwined, finally forming a giant Taiji diagram in front of him that spun and shot toward the Thunder Earth Dragon.

Facing Zhou Xing's attack, the Thunder Earth Dragon clearly felt a hint of a threat.

At this moment, thunder power surged around it, and it opened its mouth to spit out a thunder energy ball.

Next, it raised its right claw, and earth power also surged out.

Finally, a thick rock wall rose from the ground.

“Rumble!”

The thunder energy ball and the Taiji diagram collided, causing a massive explosion; although the energy ball was ultimately annihilated, the Taiji diagram formed by the Triple-element Fusion had already lost a lot of energy.

When it hit the rock wall, it was successfully blocked.

“How am I supposed to fight this?” For the first time, Zhou Xing felt a sense of powerlessness.

After all, this massive gap was not something that could be made up for by various abilities.

Moreover, the System could not be used within the challenge space, nor could he use Emergency Mode to boost himself.

The opponent was massive, and being at the Celestial Phenomenon Realm level meant it could absorb energy from heaven and earth at any time; even in virtual space, it could replenish its energy whenever it wanted.

However, Zhou Xing naturally wouldn't admit defeat directly; he had to try every possible method so that he would have enough experience for next time.

The subsequent battle could almost be described as a one-sided crushing.

Zhou Xing tried basically every means available—

Ice Fire Dual Stream, Triple-element Fusion, Light-Dark Common Origin, strength stacking, Battle Domain, and other buffs were all completely useless.

Zhou Xing even used the God of Simulation ability to simulate a Clone of the Thunder Earth Dragon.

However, it could only exert 70% of its power and was smashed to pieces after lasting less than three minutes.

Finally, after holding out for 15 minutes, Zhou Xing was hit head-on by the Thunder Earth Dragon's Thunderstorm Breath and was defeated.

This also caused Zhou Xing's final progress in the Challenge Tower to stop at the 40th floor.

When Zhou Xing woke up and took off the equipment, he saw the Challenge Tower lobby; basically all the students were present, staring at him with expressions of amazement, respect, or even jealousy.

Augustus, Chiba Shinichi, James, Janet, Xing Tian, and the others also understood the gap between themselves and Zhou Xing at this moment.

“You really hid yourself well, you guy. But what exactly is on the 41st floor? Is the difference from the 40th floor that big?”

Jin Yan and Gu Qianjun walked over at this time, looking curious.

“I encountered a Late Stage F-rank dual-element Mutated Beast, a Thunder Earth Dragon. I can say I had no power to resist the entire time.”

Zhou Xing had a bitter smile on his face.

Nevertheless, this still caused many people to gasp in shock.

Holy crap, listen to what you're saying.

Failure was expected, but the challenge leaderboard showed that Zhou Xing had lasted for 15 minutes on the 41st floor.

That was a Late Stage F-rank dual-element Mutated Beast, no different from a human Awakened One at the Peak of the Celestial Phenomenon Realm.

Normally, even for a Genius, being at the Peak of Control meant having no certainty against an ordinary Early Stage Celestial Phenomenon Realm; the gap between the two was very large.

An ordinary Early Stage Celestial Phenomenon Realm Awakened One could normally easily defeat several people at the Peak of Control.

Zhou Xing's failure made everyone realize that perhaps one could only challenge the 41st floor when their own strength reached the Middle Stage of the Celestial Phenomenon Realm.

Even if one broke through to the Early Stage of the Celestial Phenomenon Realm, they would likely still face defeat.

However, Zhou Xing reaching the 40th floor with the strength of the Peak of Control had already broken the record since the establishment of the Special Training Camp.

In the final tally, Zhou Xing had directly obtained 46,000 points, making many people unable to stop themselves from drooling with envy.

Many of those were the highest point rewards.