30: Chapter 30 In the Name of the Ancient Gods

Jiang Xun's voice was not loud, yet it seemed to traverse the eons, exploding deep within the soul of everyone present.

The Fallen Titan's fist, capable of destroying everything, halted abruptly less than half a meter from the core of Jiang Xun's Divine Kingdom.

It was not that it wanted to stop.

Rather, an irresistible force, one that even transcended the laws of the Evil God, had imprisoned it in place.

The source of that power was none other than the ancient god fragment at the center of Jiang Xun's brow, radiating boundless light!

Hum—

The golden light did not erupt from a single point; instead, it appeared out of thin air across the entire arena, which had been shrouded in dark purple.

It was warm, sacred, and filled with the aura of heritage and guardianship.

Under the radiance of this light, the cold and filth of the evil energy hissed like ice and snow in midsummer, rapidly melting away.

"What... is this light?"

"My divine soul... it's not trembling anymore, it's so warm..."

The students, who had been gripped by fear just a moment ago, now gazed up in a daze, feeling the golden light that cleansed their souls.

"It is the destiny of the human race... no, it is even older than that; it is the source of human faith!" Behind the stands, Old Baitou's body trembled slightly with excitement, and an unprecedented brilliance erupted in his cloudy eyes.

Under everyone's gaze, the area above Jiang Xun's Divine Kingdom, purified by the golden light, began to converge.

Within the light, countless blurred yet solemn faces emerged.

There were the ancestors draped in animal skins, drilling wood to make fire in the primordial wilderness.

There were the iron-blooded emperors who built the Great Wall to resist foreign invaders.

There were the sages holding scrolls, imparting knowledge in humble dwellings.

There were the heroes who shed their blood and sacrificed their lives for national independence during the humiliations of modern times...

Thousands upon thousands of unyielding soul imprints belonging to human civilization were awakened at this moment!

They gathered, intertwined, and finally condensed into a magnificent phantom, a hundred meters tall, composed of pure golden light of faith!

The phantom's face bore a seven-tenths resemblance to Jiang Xun's, yet it carried a sense of vicissitudes and sacredness that seemed to perceive the eons. It was draped in robes woven from the sun, moon, and stars, and held a golden longsword forged from the backbone of the human race.

It was not any specific individual.

It was the collective entity of the thousands upon thousands of human heroic spirits on this land!

"Heroic spirit... Guardian..." Xu Qingran murmured as she gazed up at the sacred phantom, her eyes reflecting the brilliant gold, shimmering with wonder.

She finally understood how heavy and grand the "guardianship" Jiang Xun spoke of truly was.

"No! Impossible! What is this thing! Break for me!"

Monitor Zhou Yi let out a scream of extreme terror; he frantically channeled his divine power, ordering the Fallen Titan to break free from its restraints.

The Fallen Titan roared, its dark purple evil energy surging again. It barely broke free from the light's restraint, abandoned its attack on the Divine Kingdom's core, and instead punched at the golden heroic spirit that looked down upon all living beings!

Facing this filthy blow, the heroic spirit phantom made no superfluous movements.

It simply raised the golden longsword in its hand, slowly.

There were no earth-shattering sword techniques, no world-destroying laws.

It was just the simplest, most unadorned... thrust.

At the tip of the sword, the unyielding will of guardianship, inherited over ten thousand years of human civilization, was concentrated.

In an instant, the entire world seemed to lose its sound and color.

In everyone's eyes, only that ultimate gold and that ultimate dark purple remained, colliding with a roar in the center of the sandbox!

There was no explosion.

There was no shockwave.

The golden longsword, like a red-hot branding iron piercing butter, silently penetrated the Fallen Titan's fist covered in evil energy, pierced through its arm, and finally, with absolute precision, stabbed into the "Corruption Core" that was beating frantically in its chest!

"Roar—!!!"

The Fallen Titan let out a howl more shrill and painful than any before.

In that howl, there was no longer madness or destruction, but the fear originating from the very source of the Evil God's power!

Purification.

Had begun.

With the tip of the sword as the center, the sacred golden light, like the most powerful fire of purification, burned the evil energy within it frantically.

On the Fallen Titan's massive body, those twisted black runes turned into fly ash rapidly, like burning paper.

The dark purple on its body faded at a speed visible to the naked eye, returning to the original appearance of the Thunder Colossus. But immediately after, even the main body of the Thunder Colossus dissolved inch by inch in the golden light, turning into the purest energy and returning to the world.

Finally, the golden longsword pierced through the "Corruption Core" as it let out its final wail.

Crack.

The core shattered.

The Fallen Titan, along with all the evil energy and filth it carried, was completely erased from this world, purified clean.

The golden humanoid phantom took a deep look at Jiang Xun below, then transformed into countless specks of light. Part of it returned to the world, while the other part merged into Jiang Xun's body and into every one of his surviving believers.

Jiang Xun's divine power instantly recovered to its peak, and even showed faint signs of breaking through.

[Finals over. Jiang Xun, victory!]

The cold system prompt sounded, waking up all the dazed souls.

"We won..."

"We won!!!"

"Jiang Xun!!! Jiang Xun!!!"

After a brief silence, the entire stadium erupted into unprecedented, mountain-shaking, tsunami-like enthusiastic cheers!

Countless students stood up in excitement, waving their fists vigorously; some emotional female students even wept with joy.

What they were cheering for was not just the victory of a match.

It was also to cheer for that sacred power of guardianship that belonged to the human race itself!

In that ocean of fanatic gold, Monitor Zhou Yi collapsed to the ground, as if all his bones had been extracted.

He stared blankly at his empty Divine Kingdom, feeling the divine power in his body rapidly dissipating due to the backlash from the purification of his faith core. The madness and resentment in his eyes faded away, leaving only endless emptiness and despair.

"My... power... my divine position..."

His divine fire, under the purification of the golden light, was completely extinguished.

From this day on, he was no longer a god, but a useless person, even worse than a mortal.

Jiang Xun walked down the stage step by step, passed through the enthusiastic crowd, and came before him.

Under the gaze of the entire audience, he reached into Monitor Zhou Yi's pocket, pulled out another spare "Corruption Core," and held it high.

"Principal, teachers, students."

"I think everyone should be clear by now that this final was no longer a simple match."

Jiang Xun's voice, through amplification divine arts, clearly spread across the entire venue.

"Monitor Zhou Yi, in order to win, did not hesitate to collude with extraterritorial Evil Gods and use the power of corruption, which is strictly forbidden by all civilized worlds. His heart deserves to be punished!"

"His actions are a betrayal of the land beneath our feet! A betrayal of human civilization!"

"I suggest that we detain him immediately, thoroughly investigate the forces behind him, and give an answer to all the martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the war against the Evil Gods!"

Every word pierced the heart!

The principal and the teachers turned livid; they immediately rushed off the stage, and several enforcement team teachers hauled up the limp Monitor Zhou Yi.

The evidence was as solid as a mountain; no one could defend him anymore.

A storm that would sweep through Jiang City, and perhaps even higher levels, officially began at this moment.

Half an hour later, the awards ceremony.

As the well-deserved champion, Jiang Xun received the ancient god fragment that served as the reward, along with a massive amount of resources.

He stood on the podium, looking at the tens of thousands of young and adoring faces below. He did not make any grand declarations but instead made a decision that shocked everyone once again.

"I announce that I will inject half of the resources obtained this time into the school's public resource repository. Any student whose Divine Kingdom was damaged during the resistance against the Evil God invasion can receive a portion for free."

"Additionally, I will establish a 'Civilization Mutual Aid Association,' aimed at helping all bottom-tier gods of humble origin like myself to develop together and resist oppression."

"Because our civilization is never about the strength of one person, but the guardianship and heritage of everyone!"

The entire venue was silent at first, and then, even more fanatical applause and cheers almost blew the roof off the stadium.

Lin Hao and other commoner students were so moved that their eyes filled with tears.

The ceremony ended.

Xu Qingran walked to Jiang Xun's side. This time, there were no complex emotions in her eyes, only the determination to stand side by side.

"Let's work hard together in the city-level preliminaries."

Jiang Xun looked at her, then looked at the young gods below whose destinies had been changed because of him, and nodded heavily.

His gaze crossed over the campus walls and looked toward the vast Jiang City.

A new journey had begun.