70: Chapter 70 Battle Against Cang

On the day of the Round of Sixteen, Shen Ye received three pieces of intelligence in the contestant tunnel simultaneously.

Gu Qinghan's tactical analysis arrived first: The trigger mechanism for the Law counterattack from the ancient God King statue in Cang's Initial Divine Domain has an extremely brief delay, occurring within a very short time after receiving a Law-based attack.

This delay is not a flaw; it is the breathing rhythm of the statue's Law itself, the natural cadence of an ancient God King-level Law creation.

As long as the attack rhythm is faster than this interval, one can land a hit and retreat before the statue completes its counterattack.

Teacher Cang Yue's sandbox simulation data followed immediately.

She superimposed and compared the Rock Pattern infiltration curves from Yan Shan's three battles in the Abyssal Prison, the Sea of Laws, and the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist. The conclusion was clear: after continuously withstanding the pressure of three different Law systems, Yan Shan's spiral spiritual power was now capable of reverse-infiltrating along the resonance nodes of the ancient God King-level Law network.

More crucially, after the battle with Yun Qianqian, Yan Shan seemed to be able to perceive "fatigue nodes" in the Law network—nodes that had been soaked in the ancient God King's echoes for a long time. These nodes would produce extremely subtle resonances at specific frequencies, something perhaps even Cang himself had not noticed.

Finally, there was the Law analysis report forwarded by Jiang Yue from Lin Tianyin.

Using the Eye of Law in the Wanxiang University laboratory, she scanned the energy fluctuations when the statue was activated in the previous round and discovered that the statue's Law counterattack was not indiscriminate coverage but prioritized Law-driven attacks.

In other words, pure physical attacks had an attack window before being locked onto by the Law counterattack.

Shen Ye stepped onto the central battle stage of the Wanxiang University Main Arena.

Opposite him, Cang had already deployed his Kingdom Projection—the Initial Divine Domain.

The ruins of an ancient God King reappeared on this battle stage after ten thousand years.

Gray-gold Law light covered the entire stage. The ancient God King's statue slowly rotated in the center of the ruins, surrounded by Law echoes left over from ten thousand years ago, each of which was enough to pierce through Rare-grade defenses.

Cang stood beneath the statue, his figure tall and slender, his dark gray—nearly black—long hair draped over his shoulders. His face was calm and handsome, and his eyes were identical to his sister Teacher Cang Yue's: pure amber, looking like solidified ancient amber in the glow of the statue's Law light.

His expression was calm and devoid of arrogance. He nodded slightly when looking at Shen Ye: "Cang Ming, current successor of the Initial Divine Domain."

He said, "I have been looking for an opponent like this for a long time."

The referee raised a hand.

Shen Ye deployed the Land of Cultivation.

Jin Lin, Mu Sheng, and Daoist Quan were in the front, Yan Shan in the middle, Hou Tu followed closely behind, with Tie Chui and Qing Ye in the rear.

Xiao Zhi's Spirit Synchronization Net covered all the dependents.

The referee's hand dropped.

Cang Ming initiated the attack first.

The statue awakened from its long slumber. Gray-gold Law light exploded from its body, and the ancient God King's echoes transformed into countless golden light blades, attacking from all directions simultaneously.

It was not a single-target attack but an indiscriminate Law suppression covering the entire stage.

Every opponent Shen Ye had faced before—whether it was Lu Chuan in the City-level Competition, Gu Changfeng in the Provincial Tournament, or Han Yuan and Yun Qianqian in the National Competition—had attacks with specific directions, specific Law attributes, and specific methods of suppression.

But Cang Ming's Initial Divine Domain did not need to suppress anyone.

Its Law counterattack was, in itself, the strongest defense and the strongest offense.

Jin Lin, Mu Sheng, and Daoist Quan leaped into the air simultaneously.

The three dragon sword beams, the Guidance Vines, and the spiral water threads wove into a massive guidance curtain in the air, diverting the trajectory of the first wave of ancient Law echo attacks.

The density of the ancient God King's echo Laws was far higher than Yun Qianqian's Sea of Laws, and the endurance of the guidance system was pushed to its limit from the very beginning of the battle.

Jin Lin's sword intent guidance threads were shattered layer by layer by the Law light blades, only to be re-condensed one by one with the dual guidance assistance of Mu Sheng and Daoist Quan, returning to the front line.

Cang Ming did not give Shen Ye a chance to catch his breath.

The second wave of the statue's echoes arrived immediately, stronger than the first.

But Yan Shan had already walked to the front of the formation.

He did not charge; he simply stood steady.

With the first step, he took a direct hit from the statue's golden light.

His body shook violently, and his Rock Patterns vibrated at a speed visible to the naked eye, but he did not retreat a single step.

With the second step, he used this golden light as a sensory medium, allowing the spiral spiritual power within the Rock Patterns to extend in reverse along the flow of energy inside it, sensing the Law vibration frequency of the statue.

With the third step, he found the first Law node.

It was not the strongest node in the ancient God King's echoes, but the "fatigue node" marked by Jiang Yue—the node that had repeatedly endured energy impacts for ten thousand years, had an extremely narrow amplitude, and was as silent as if it were in a deep sleep under the probing of Hou Tu's ore vein perception.

He smashed his fist into it.

The statue's Law counterattack suddenly lagged.

It wasn't shattered; rather, the statue's Law network exhibited a subtle, imperceptible lag in that extremely narrow node area—what Yan Shan hit was precisely a structural flaw naturally formed by the God King's spirit echoes in the ten-thousand-year Law cycle left in this Divine Domain.

The statue itself was still functioning, but the Law density in the local area where the damaged node was located decreased briefly.

A trace of extremely subtle fluctuation flashed in Cang Ming's amber eyes.

The statue had slumbered in the ancient ruins for over ten thousand years. Even though successive heirs of the Cang family had repeatedly probed it over the long years, no one had ever been able to precisely capture those flaw nodes from the inside.

It wasn't that their dependents weren't strong enough; it was that the detection methods were wrong.

Yan Shan himself did not understand the full scope of the ancient Law patterns either—but deep within the spiral ore crystals, Hou Tu was kneeling directly above the Law veins, hands pressed against the rock layer, and the stone slabs of the entire Body Refining Cave were resonating with the vibrations of the ancient God King.

Hou Tu could not understand or analyze the source of these vibrations, but he could transmit them to the front without error.

Yan Shan did not bother to distinguish what was a fatigue node or what was a Law cycle; he simply instinctively followed the vibration frequency transmitted by Hou Tu and smashed his fist again and again.

Another golden light slashed down from Yan Shan's side. His right arm's Rock Patterns vibrated violently, and while taking the hit, he seized the momentum to find the next node.

And then the next, and the next.

He had withstood assimilation Laws in Han Yuan's Abyssal Prison, withstood the Ash King's Law burn marks in the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist, and withstood the full suppression of the parallel network in Yun Qianqian's Sea of Laws—the more he endured, the more sensitive the Rock Patterns' perception became.

This was not talent; this was tempering.

Each of his punches was not fast, but each punch made the statue tremble as well.

The multiple guidance systems of Jin Lin, Mu Sheng, and Daoist Quan continued to divert the statue's main attack direction externally, dispersing every wave of Law echoes to the node area Yan Shan was attacking, forcing the statue not to be able to mobilize all its energy for a counterattack.

Cang Ming finally made a move himself.

He took out a spear condensed from the core Laws of the ancient ruins from deep within the Kingdom core—the Initial Spear.

This spear was the final line of defense for the Initial Divine Domain, and he rarely used it.

The spear tip was the ultimate condensation of Laws, and it also carried heavy physical impact—physical attacks and Law attacks were intertwined in the spear body, indistinguishable from each other.

He leaped between the Kingdom Projection and the battlefield in front of Shen Ye, the spear sweeping horizontally. Jin Lin's sword intent guidance net was cut in half, Mu Sheng's vine perception net was forced back several feet by the spear wind, and Daoist Quan's spiral water threads shattered one after another under the residual power of the spear tip's Laws.

Yan Shan was smashing toward another fatigue node, and the spear tip was already thrusting toward his chest.

Yan Shan dodged the spear tip sideways, his fist continuing to smash into the node—the spear tip brushed against the old scars of the Rock Patterns on his chest, and the newly formed Rock Patterns were scraped with a tiny crack by the spear wind.

He did not stop; he just gave a muffled grunt. To him, the ancient God King's echoes were just another ore vein that needed to be excavated.

The statue's spirit echoes sensed that Yan Shan was dismantling its Law network from the inside, focusing all counterattack energy on Yan Shan.

Jin Lin's three dragon sword beams transformed into three miniature dragon shadows, biting onto the statue's main attack pulse from three directions simultaneously. The extremely brief counterattack interval marked by Gu Qinghan was firmly trapped by the dragon shadows—the dragon shadows disappeared, the sword beams re-condensed, bit again, and trapped again.

All Law echoes were locked in front of Yan Shan.

The statue could not counterattack.

Yan Shan smashed down the most critical punch.

The last fatigue node shattered deep within the ancient Law echoes.

The statue's Law network disintegrated from the inside, and the golden Law light blades filling the sky turned into a fine rain of light, falling one after another from above the battle stage.

The statue slowly retracted the gray-gold Law light, returning to its dormant initial state, standing silently in the center of the ruins.

Cang Ming withdrew the Initial Spear, and the ancient Law luster on the spear body slowly faded away.

He stood beneath the statue, silent for a moment.

"I lost."

He said, his voice calm, "The 'fatigue nodes' you found are not flaws, but Law vibration points that are extremely difficult to discover—they have existed for a long time, but no one has been able to perceive them from the inside for over ten thousand years. This statue was once the most precious gift left by my ancient God King ancestor to my family. We always thought its Laws were perfect. Your dependents found something that even I did not know about."

He propped the spear beside him, "Thank you, Shen Ye. I have been looking for this battle for many years."

The referee raised a hand.

Amidst the cheers of the audience, Shen Ye recalled his dependents.

The warmth of the ancient Law echoes still lingered on the Rock Patterns of Yan Shan's right arm, and the new crack scraped by the Initial Spear was slowly being covered by newly formed Rock Patterns.

He nodded to Cang Ming and turned to walk off the stage.

In the stands, Qin Youyou's ancient war spear lay quietly across her lap.

She looked at Yan Shan's back, remembering how he said "Nothing special" when he first withstood a Void Clan Warrior's bone blade in the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist, how he smashed his way in punch by punch while enduring the high-pressure environment at the bottom of the Abyssal Prison, and how he smashed through the parallel network under the extreme suppression of the Sea of Laws.

Today, standing before the ancient God King-level Laws, he was still as calm as when he walked out of the mine tunnels countless times.

She whispered: "From the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist to the ancient God King, the Law pressure his dependents have endured is enough to touch the threshold of the Main God level."

Teacher Cang Yue held the miniature sandbox, archiving the last set of Rock Pattern infiltration data.

The message sent to Shen Ye contained only one line: "EW-071 has been formally approved; the electronic version has been sent to your email. The file clearly mentions—'The four keys are placed at the top of the four Founding Towers, respectively, and can only be activated by twilight energy frequency resonance.'"

After reading the message, Shen Ye put the communicator into his pocket and looked up at the top of the Wanxiang Giant Tower—the dark golden halo of the Ancient Archives was flickering slightly in the twilight.

The clue to the first key was there.