244: Chapter 244 Another Battle Against Athena's Projection!

【Ding! You have killed the Golden Fighter (leo). Experience points increased by 200,000!】

【Ding! Obtained loot: Golden Soul Fragment (1/1)】

"As expected, I can still obtain the remnant souls of other Golden Fighters here."

"The only pity is that I can only enter once a day."

Lu Yin murmured. As the Golden Fighter fell, the Holy Mountain Temple opened, and he was about to face the final challenge.

He vaguely remembered the formidable power the Will of Athena displayed when they first met.

However, with his growth now, he certainly wouldn't be as pathetic as before.

Moreover, that ability of hers was exactly what Lu Yin wanted to learn most right now.

So for Lu Yin, this was not just a battle, but a rare opportunity for cultivation.

Taking a deep breath, Lu Yin stepped toward the temple.

Inside the temple, the Athena Projection still sat upon the divine throne.

Her golden eyes were calm and waveless, but this time, Lu Yin keenly captured something.

Beneath that calm, there seemed to be a trace of an extremely faint... scrutiny?

However, this trace of scrutiny vanished in an instant like an illusion.

The Athena Projection slowly raised her arm, and pure white flames leaped silently on the spear of victory.

The light in the entire temple seemed to be instantly drained, all converging at the tip of the spear.

No words, no announcements.

"Sacred Formation!"

The ethereal and majestic voice exploded directly in the depths of Lu Yin's soul.

Buzz!

From the dome above, the constellation projections of the zodiac crashed down.

Twelve golden pillars of light that reached from heaven to earth instantly formed like a cage, trapping Lu Yin firmly in the center!

Within the pillars of light, the phantoms of the Golden Fighters solidified.

In the next moment, their movements were perfectly synchronized as they simultaneously assumed attack stances!

"Starlight Extinction!"

"Great Horn!"

"Galaxian Explosion!"

"..."

Twelve devastating attacks surged from all directions like the Heavenly River bursting its banks!

The light instantly swallowed Lu Yin's figure, leaving only pure gold and the roar of energy in the entire temple.

However, at the very moment this torrent of destruction was about to completely annihilate him.

He moved.

Lu Yin did not flee in panic, nor did he try to head-on resist any of those attacks capable of crushing mountains and splitting peaks.

He simply turned his body slightly, and the blade of annihilation in his hand traced twelve hidden trajectories in the void before him with a strange and soothing rhythm.

These trajectories were subtle and dim, as if they were just ink marks doodled at random.

Compared to that overwhelming golden divine might, they were too small to be worth mentioning.

In the next second, a magical scene appeared.

The majestic and surging energy attacks exploded three feet in front of Lu Yin.

It was as if they had hit an invisible wall, diverting to both sides and leaving him unscathed in the eye of the storm.

Twelve bottomless ravines were plowed into the temple floor.

Only the area where Lu Yin stood, a radius of one zhang, was perfectly intact.

Amidst the dust, a slight ripple appeared in the Athena Projection's golden eyes.

But only for an instant, then her figure disappeared from the divine throne.

Lu Yin's gaze suddenly froze; the tip of the spear of victory was already three inches from his brow.

Before the pure white divine fire even touched him, the tips of the hair on Lu Yin's forehead had already begun to turn to ash.

The Athena Projection's speed was too fast.

So fast it surpassed vision, even surpassed perception.

Even the current Lu Yin could not react in that split second.

Although Lu Yin hadn't reacted, his body's instinct showed no delay.

A moment before the spear tip reached his body, his head shifted half an inch to the left, and the blade of annihilation slashed upward at an angle toward Athena's spear-wielding wrist.

"Death Soul Slash!"

Before the blade even arrived, the power of death caused the eternally burning holy fire in the temple to dim.

The Athena Projection withdrew her spear, and the shield on her forearm moved as if it had a mind of its own.

Clang!

The blade of annihilation struck the Aegis Shield, letting out a crisp sound.

Lu Yin felt that the counter-shock force from the blade was not a brute impact, but a rejection on the level of rules.

The power of death and immortal divinity clashed violently; black ripples and golden divinity splashed wildly at the point where the blade and shield met.

The Athena Projection's eyes remained as calm as a deep pool, reflecting Lu Yin's slightly frowning face.

But in this instant, her movements underwent an exquisitely subtle change.

The Aegis Shield spun gently.

In an instant, a mysterious traction field spread silently.

Alarm bells rang in Lu Yin's heart, but his body was already uncontrollably stuck to the rotating edge of the shield, as if falling into invisible golden quicksand.

The Athena Projection's wrist turned slightly, the shield face rotating from horizontal to vertical, and the traction force suddenly turned into repulsion.

A flexible yet majestic divine power surged up the blade of annihilation like a giant wave crashing against the shore!

"Ugh!"

Lu Yin groaned, his right arm holding the blade instantly went numb, and he was actually dragged forward half a step by this clever force.

This half-step of imbalance was a fatal flaw in a top-level duel.

The Athena Projection's holy face remained as calm as a well, as if everything was calculated.

Her right hand holding the spear didn't even make any extra movements; just by taking advantage of Lu Yin's forward lean, the spear of victory moved from static to active.

The tip of the spear was like a venomous snake's tongue, pointing with extreme precision at his throat, which was exposed due to his instability.

Fast! Accurate! And completely effortless!

The chill of death instantly froze Lu Yin's thoughts.

His pupils constricted as that speck of pure white rapidly enlarged in his field of vision.

Between life and death, what rose in Lu Yin's heart was not fear, but an exquisitely strange clarity.

The strange clarity in his eyes suddenly spread, and the entire world seemed to be immersed in thick mercury.

Time was dragged by an invisible force, flowing slowly.

Lu Yin saw clearly.

The pure white divine fire leaping on the spear of victory; the trajectory of every flame's extension was visible in minute detail, like a blooming pale flower.

On the surface of the Aegis Shield, those ancient and holy patterns were flowing with a light that surpassed physical laws.

Every flicker of the light was as long as the breathing of stars.

He could even see in front of the spear tip, the air being compressed by extreme divine power and speed, generating faint blue electric sparks that were spreading forward at a snail's pace.

Everything turned into frame-by-frame moving stills.

And he himself stood at the center of it all.

Lu Yin only felt that the speed of his thoughts had been elevated to an unimaginable degree.

But his body seemed... still trapped in that slowly flowing mercury.

No, not trapped.

Lu Yin instantly realized that it wasn't that external time had actually slowed down.

Rather, it was his own "perception" and "thought" that, under the pressure of death, were forcibly catalyzed and stretched, entering an unprecedented overclocked state.

Yes, this was the prototype of the Athena Projection's predictive ability that he had vaguely felt before but had never been able to actively touch!

No, perhaps not exactly the same.

Athena's "omniscience" leaned more toward absolute insight and calculation of rules, energy, and trajectories.

Whereas his current state was more like infinitely stretching the present moment of life and death, forcibly creating a gap for thought and reaction.

Though different, for Lu Yin, it was still an epic-level improvement.