424: Chapter 423 Strongest VS Strongest

Jiang Yuan watched Lin Qingyan as she was teleported to the preparation area by the pillar of light.

"You've got quite the tricks up your sleeve."

Talent Awakening—even he hadn't managed to achieve that yet.

It required not just Comprehension Ability, but also the accumulation of time.

This was why those Ninth-Order Grand Masters and even Quasi-Kings had collectively lost their composure upon seeing the young Lin Qingyan reach this Realm, calling her a Prodigy and even suspecting she was some ancient powerhouse in disguise.

Jiang Yuan rested his chin on one hand, the rainbow light deep within his pupils flickering and intertwining, like a quantum computer simulating all things.

"So that's how it is."

"The talent everyone is born with is actually inscribed deep within the Soul. This so-called Talent Awakening is the act of introspecting, thoroughly recognizing oneself, and reaching a state where spirit and flesh are selfless, and essence and life are one."

"No wonder there were Buddhist and Daoist monks who secluded themselves in caves for ten years, sweeping away the dust in their hearts, only to enter the Dao in a single morning."

Jiang Yuan closed his eyes. Within his vast mental Domain, which was like a ten-thousand-mile starry sky, that golden Yang Spirit—as massive as a blazing sun—stopped releasing power recklessly and began to gradually contract its great might.

But this process couldn't be accomplished overnight.

The higher the level of the talent, the harder it was to achieve Awakening.

And what Jiang Yuan possessed...

...were unprecedented multiple Divine-Grade talents—[Eternal Emperor Flame] and [Dark Kingdom of Eternal Night].

There was also the demi-god level [Mechanical Overlord].

Each one was like a ten-thousand-foot mountain.

And Awakening was like taking a shovel and leveling these mountains one by one.

For those with insufficient Comprehension Ability, the shovel was only the size of a palm.

But for those with staggering Comprehension Ability, the shovel could be as large as a house.

Yet, even with lacking Comprehension Ability...

...as long as one persisted...

...with unyielding perseverance and self-excavation, the day of success would eventually come.

"I'll start with the simplest one, [Mechanical Overlord]."

Within the mental Domain.

Jiang Yuan used a secret technique to strip away a portion of his self-consciousness, manifesting it into nine figures sitting around the massive Yang Spirit, sensing the true essence of machinery.

In the real world.

Jiang Yuan opened his eyes.

He put a potato chip in his mouth and crunched it.

*Crunch.*

The observation tower was deathly silent.

The sound of the potato chip breaking seemed exceptionally piercing.

"What's wrong? Everyone, it seems I won the bet after all," the youth said with a smile.

Sturmheide sat dejectedly in his chair, gripping the armrests tightly, having no heart left to argue.

Others also felt a sense of shared sorrow, bowing their heads and sighing softly.

"To think they actually lost."

"Who could have imagined it?"

"God has favored the East once again."

"Is our West really going to be suppressed by the East forever?"

"What a dark horse, exceeding everyone's imagination."

"Who would have thought a Sixth-Rank Martial Artist could actually make it to the finals."

"Now it's up to Russia. We can't really let two Chinese contestants meet in the finals, can we? Fuck!!"

...

The gaze of the global audience also shifted to the second battlefield.

Purple thunderclouds covered the sky, evolving into a sea of lightning.

At the peak of a mountain, a blonde swordswoman in a golden battle-skirt leaned on her sword with both hands. She looked up at the sky, her hair fluttering. Her face and body bore various injuries and scorch marks, but her gaze remained cold and firm, unwavering.

The surrounding mountains had been completely reduced to ruins.

One could imagine how intense the previous battle had been.

*Crackle!*

A thunder snake carrying the aura of destruction tore through the sky, roaring as it struck down.

The blonde swordswoman bent her legs and leaped, jumping into the air with speed faster than lightning.

The mountaintop beneath her feet was shattered by the thunder snake, annihilated into dust.

*Rumble!!!*

Countless thunder snakes intertwined, forming a dense dark-purple electrical net that pressed down, blanketing the golden figure in the air.

The blonde swordswoman swung the sword in her hand.

"Sword of... Judgment!!"

An incredibly vast and brilliant golden sword light cleaved through everything, severing the thunder.

It wasn't over.

Countless bolts of lightning crashed down like torrential rain.

The entire battlefield was being bombarded, with small mushroom clouds rising one after another.

It was as if a natural disaster had descended.

This was pure destructive power, enough to destroy a city in an instant.

"Sword Domain!"

The blonde swordswoman shouted.

Countless specks of golden sword light appeared from the earth, like a golden galaxy, as myriad golden sword shadows soared into the sky.

Sword lights and thunder collided head-on!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!!!

Sky and earth were completely swept up; space began to crack, and energy became chaotic.

The global audience swallowed hard as they watched.

"If you threw a Seventh-Rank Grandmaster in there, I feel like they wouldn't even survive the aftershocks."

"They definitely wouldn't. The combat power of these two has already reached the level of a Ninth-Order Grand Master!"

"So terrifying."

"Is the space being blown apart?"

"Is this still a national fortune war?"

"Champions of the past several sessions weren't even this strong, and this is only the semi-finals."

"Both of them have the strength of a champion."

...

"Destruction Lightning Punishment—Extinction Five-Thunder Spear!"

A majestic figure holding a halberd and clad in thunder armor descended from the sky, throwing a lightning spear flickering with five-colored thunder.

*Pfft!*

Space was instantly pierced through.

The lightning spear seemed to penetrate time and space, appearing in front of the blonde swordswoman in an instant.

Bang!

A barrier engraved with intricate sigils blocked the strike.

The blonde swordswoman's body glowed from within, brilliantly dazzling.