Chapter 481: Great Battle! (Two-in-One)

As soon as Yan Jing spoke, the surrounding atmosphere took on a delicate edge.

This ranking match concerned Yueyin's reputation, so it was undeniably important.

But when it came to personal interests, what truly mattered was the God's Candidate Ticket.

Watching the others' gazes flicker with calculation, Wan Yicheng's expression darkened. He looked at Yan Jing.

"Mr. Yan, isn't it a bit inappropriate for you to so blatantly sow discord between me and my team members?"

Yan Jing smiled.

"I'm merely stating the truth. Besides, I don't see anyone else objecting to my proposal, do I?"

His gaze swept across the rest of the group. Zhou Kai, Shui Nianshuang, and even the vice-captain kept their eyes averted, saying nothing. Xu Feng opened his mouth as if to speak, but ultimately stopped himself, remaining silent.

Just as Wan Yicheng's expression turned even uglier, Sheng Xia stepped forward and looked at Yan Jing.

"Mr. Yan, the six of us from the First Ring Domain stand together. If you make a move against Brother Wan, I won't sit idly by." "Little Xia..."

Wan Yicheng looked at Sheng Xia, his expression softening considerably.

"Alright, then I'll fight two," Yan Jing said, nodding with a smile.

The others stared in astonishment, suspecting the man in front of them had truly lost his mind.

Yan Jing merely smiled at Wan Yicheng and Sheng Xia.

"Are you ready, you two?"

"Let's begin, then."

Surface World, First Ring Domain.

[The team led by the player with the honorary title Ehuang has encountered a mysterious entity.]

[The team led by the player with the honorary title Full Moon has encountered a mysterious entity.]

[The team led by the player with the honorary title Yi has encountered a mysterious entity.]

[The team led by the player with the honorary title Ehuang... is engaged in a bitter struggle. Only two remain.]

[The team led by the player with the honorary title Full Moon... has sustained heavy injuries. Only Full Moon remains in relatively good condition.]

[The player with the honorary title Yi has brutalized a mysterious entity.]

[The player with the honorary title Yi is hunting down a mysterious entity.]

[The player with the honorary title Yi attempted to kill a mysterious entity but was stopped by another mysterious entity. The two have made a deal.]

[The strength of the other two mysterious entities has been severely weakened.]

[The players with the honorary titles Ehuang and Dragon Caller have narrowly defeated a mysterious entity.]

[The team led by the player with the honorary title Full Moon has narrowly defeated a mysterious entity.]

[The team led by the player with the honorary title Yi encountered the heavily injured Ehuang and Dragon Caller. Five players with the honorary titles Steel King, Phantom, Victor, Ghost Face, and River of Destiny have stayed behind to fight them.]

[The player with the honorary title Yi encountered the team led by the player with the honorary title Full Moon alone.]

[Preparing to engage.]

Message after message refreshed on the ranking board, coming so fast the spectators could barely keep up.

Often, before the shock of the previous update could fade, the next one had already appeared.

Right now, everyone was talking about only one person.

"Yan Jing."

"God Yan, I yield."

"God Yan, I submit."

"God Yan, I..."

"Speaking objectively as a neutral observer, God Yan's performance is easily the strongest of anyone here. The opponents he's defeated include the Ninth Son and Eighth Son of Tianzi, the Self Faction's Fist, and he even defeated the Self Faction's Colossus under the Fifth Monarch of the Beast Lord, along with another Monarch of the Beast Lord and several mysterious entities," someone analyzed, firmly placing Yan Jing at the very top of the ranking match.

In terms of pure impact, Yan Jing had completely overshadowed everyone else.

"I agree with most of what the poster above said... but I don't think we can jump to conclusions that easily. As everyone can see, God Yan still lacks a definitive, conclusive battle."

"After all, most of the people God Yan has defeated so far were the lowest-ranked members of other ring domains. And while that includes several mysterious entities, the previous text updates made it clear there's a significant power gap between different mysterious entities."

"Look at Wan Yicheng, the First Son of Tianzi, and the First Monarch of the Beast Lord. They've all defeated mysterious entities before, but when they ran into new ones later, they still ended up locked in bitter struggles."

"It's hard to say whether the mysterious entity Yan Jing just defeated was actually on the same level as the ones the other two teams encountered."

"So I think... it's still too early to call."

This perspective earned a lot of agreement. Broken down like that, it was true that Yan Jing had yet to clash directly with any of the other leading figures. "It doesn't matter, this next fight is the one!"

"Exactly! You've got this, God Yan!"

"Go, God Yan!"

Of course, there was also a faction that wasn't quite as supportive of him.

"He's just a despicable snake, and you guys are out here calling him a god. It's hilarious. Look at him—when has he ever not relied on cheap tricks to get the upper hand?" "Seriously. Honestly, even if he really is the strongest, would you feel safe letting someone like that represent Yueyin? Because I wouldn't." "The main issue is that he's just too sinister. It's the kind of sinister that makes your blood run cold, you know?"

Before long, the two factions were directly arguing with each other in the live comments.

Within the First Ring Domain, the three domain lords were currently feeling no more relaxed than the spectators.

They stared intently at the screens, each hoping their last remaining seed would take the top spot.

This match was far more than a simple qualifying tournament; a much larger gamble was hidden behind the scenes.

At this moment, both the T-shirt-wearing Long Quezhou and the tiger-skin skirt-wearing Wang Yu were breathing erratically from tension. Compared to Yueyin, their teams had far fewer members remaining.

The only silver lining was that Yan Jing and Wan Yicheng had finally run into each other.

And the two were preparing to fight.

If the two of them heavily wounded each other, it would be the best possible outcome.

Beneath her white veil, Liu Xiaoyue was in an equally terrible mood.

Seeing most of the participants from the other two domains eliminated, she had initially been full of joy. She never expected Yan Jing to suddenly track down the First Ring Domain's team at a time like this.

"What exactly are you trying to..."

She lowered her eyes, a layer of frost seeming to form in their depths as she murmured softly.

Right then, Wang Yu stood up beside her and quickly walked out the door.

She went to the corner of an empty Domain and pulled out that Beast Tooth once again.

"Bai Ya! Bai Ya! Are you listening?!"

Bai Ya infuriated her so much that she ground her teeth in anger, but he was her only remaining candidate. Swallowing her fury, she spoke:

"That guy named Yan Jing is currently slaughtering Yueyin's First Ring Domain team. Find an opening and see if you can reap the fisherman's profit while they fight." "Tianzi's side is also tied up right now. This is the perfect opportunity. Hey, Bai Ya, are you listening to me?!"

However, there was still no response from the Beast Tooth.

What Wang Yu didn't realize was that Bai Ya's current situation wasn't exactly optimistic either.

On a single-plank bridge.

Listening to the Tiger-Skin Skirt Woman's voice, Bai Ya wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and chuckled.

"That damn old hag is so long-winded."

He raised his head, looked at the six people standing opposite him, and smiled.

"Hey! For you guys to actually be able to block the Inner World's messages, you're not half bad."

"The gear you're carrying must be pretty nice. How about you lend it to this king to play with?"

The six people across from him just stared back with indifferent expressions.

Despite Bai Ya's desperate resistance just now, only the weakest two or three of the six had sustained any injuries.

The rest were completely unharmed.

Bai Ya spat out a mouthful of bloody foam and grinned.

"But I'm really not scared! Come on!!!"

With that, he took a heavy step forward. The string of earrings on his ear chimed, and weird energy surged around his body.

The fierce battle was on the verge of erupting once again.

The dense forest.

"Let's begin, then."

As soon as Yan Jing spoke, his figure blinked, instantly appearing directly in front of Wan Yicheng and launching a flying kick.

Everyone's attention was still fixed on where Yan Jing had been standing a second ago. It wasn't until Wan Yicheng's body was sent violently flying several meters away that they realized what they were looking at was merely Yan Jing's afterimage.

Such incredible speed!

The onlookers' eyes narrowed sharply.

Wan Yicheng's black trench coat was ripped to shreds by the sheer force of Yan Jing's kick. Even the shirt underneath was reduced to tatters, revealing a well-proportioned, heavily muscled torso.

The diagonal imprint of a leg slanted down his chest, turning visibly red as blood pooled beneath the skin.

Yan Jing smiled and beckoned to Wan Yicheng.

"Mr. Wan, I hear you're Yueyin's top seed."

"I hope you don't go easy on me."

Hum— As soon as Yan Jing spoke, a crisp hum rang out, and brilliant light instantly illuminated the surrounding darkness.

In the dense forest, several phantom projections materialized behind Wan Yicheng.

Purple, purple-black, black, black, orange, red, silver-red.

Six Extreme! One Perfect!!!

For the first time, the true strength of Yueyin's number one prodigy of this generation was laid bare before everyone.

Other than the Fourth Rite, every other Ritual he possessed was an Extreme Ritual!!!

This meant that he had nearly reached the absolute pinnacle of perfection within the ritual system.

By comparison, Zhou Kai, Shui Nianshuang, and Xu Feng each only had four Extreme-quality Rituals!

That was the vast gulf between them.

"Moonlight."

He spoke softly, and his First Ritual instantly ignited.

It was a stone. Its surface was pockmarked with craters, yet it looked unexpectedly smooth, as though it had been tempered by intense heat.

It looked exactly like the meteoric iron described in ancient books.

High above in the night sky, the bright moon cast down a pristine white glow that blanketed Wan Yicheng. Countless motes of white light visibly converged around his body.

The injuries on his skin rapidly healed, and his aura steadily climbed higher and higher.

Before long, it had completely eclipsed that of an ordinary Seventh Rank.

Boom!

The next instant, he moved. His Second Ritual flared behind him, and his figure vanished into the moonlight, instantly reappearing right behind Yan Jing.

He locked his hands together and smashed downward with devastating force.

Under the sheer weight of this strike, huge chunks of the ground beneath everyone's feet caved in. A web of fissures spread out from where Yan Jing stood, instantly widening into several ravines nearly a meter across.

Faced with such overwhelming power, the spectators were forced to retreat. Wan Yicheng's expression, however, shifted. He could feel that his fully charged strike hadn't achieved the expected effect.

He tried to pull back, but it was too late. A hand rested "lightly" against his wrist. A terrifying force surged into him like an avalanche, instantly stripping him of all bodily control as he was violently launched into the air.

With a deafening crash, Wan Yicheng was smashed against the edge of the ravine beneath them. His figure abruptly dissolved into moonlight.

When he reappeared, he was standing amidst the moonlight, his face deathly pale.

Right then, a gentle glow cascaded over his body.

Rituals materialized around Sheng Xia: purple, purple-black, black, black, orange, red, red.

Five Extreme, two Perfect!

Activating her First Ritual, she cast a gentle light that began to heal Wan Yicheng's injuries.

But a split second later, Sheng Xia's face dropped. Her Second Ritual flared, and she raised her hand toward Wan Yicheng, throwing up a barrier in front of him. But she was too slow. A blur slammed into Wan Yicheng, sending him hurtling backward once again.

Pfft!!!

Wan Yicheng sprayed a mouthful of blood, his eyes wide with disbelief. The moment he touched the moonlight, his Third Ritual activated, and his body vanished into the ambient glow.

Without a doubt, it was a concealment skill.

"Enhancement, healing, moonlight mobility, moonlight damage mitigation, concealment..."

Yan Jing smiled faintly. The next instant, a blindingly intense light flared right in front of him.

His vision was instantly stolen away. Sheng Xia had struck again, unleashing an absolutely terrifying brilliance within the dense forest.

This wasn't just a simple flash. The light was so impossibly bright it felt as if a miniature sun had detonated. The expressions of the other First Ring Domain members plummeted, and the moment the light erupted, they instinctively buried their faces in their arms.

The blinding radiance blossomed fully, sweeping out of the dense forest, racing across the wilderness, and reaching all the way to the skies above the volcano, turning the entire night sky as bright as day. Standing at the epicenter of the blast, Yan Jing felt a searing pain in his eyes and a vicious burning sensation across his skin, even with his heavily reinforced body.

On top of that, a deafening roar instantly blew out his hearing.

Within that sea of light, Sheng Xia was the only person capable of keeping her eyes open.

A bright, flowing luminescence seemed to coat her eyes, leaving faint trails of light at the corners. She walked out from the artificial daylight and stared at Yan Jing, her gaze laced with simmering fury.

"Mr. Yan, you've truly crossed the line this time."

"Eight o'clock, thirty-one meters!!!"

She shouted. A figure with tightly shut eyes materialized from the light, wielding a Pure White Giant Sickle that stretched for dozens of meters, cleaving it ruthlessly toward Yan Jing!

But the instant the giant sickle was about to sever Yan Jing's neck, he reached out a single fingertip, as if he had seen it coming.

He stopped the edge of the giant sickle dead in its tracks.

Under Sheng Xia's incredulous stare, Yan Jing smiled.

"You aren't the only one capable of calling out coordinates, Miss Sheng."

"Iya iya~~"

At that moment, Xiao Xin grabbed onto Yan Jing's fingertip and pointed toward the handle of the giant sickle.

Yan Jing shifted his fingertip into a palm and slapped forward forcefully.

The impact struck the flat of the sickle's blade with the catastrophic force of a ten-thousand-ton mountain. Wan Yicheng, still flying blind, felt violent tremors wrack his arms. The hilt nearly flew right out of his grip.

An instant later, his breath caught in his throat as Sheng Xia's voice blared through the screen of light in his ear:

"Brother Wan!! Look out! He's coming!!!"

A ferocious gust of wind from a fist literally scraped a layer of skin off his face. Without a second thought, he abandoned the giant sickle and plunged himself back into the concealment of the moonlight.

Sheng Xia stared at Yan Jing, who was clearly still blinded. She bit her lower lip as her Fifth Ritual bloomed behind her. Instantly, every trace of ambient light in the surrounding area was violently sucked away and condensed into the palm of her hand.

It formed a tiny, unimaginably incandescent orb of light.

Normally, there wouldn't be much light to draw from in the dead of night, but she had just flooded the sky with her artificial daylight. Because of that, the orb of light in her palm now radiated lethally volatile energy. It was so intense it hurt to look at, vibrating violently in her grasp as though it might detonate at any second.

"It ends here, Mr. Yan."

"Brother Wan!"

She shouted, hurling the orb of light directly at him.

Prompted by Xiao Xin's warning, Yan Jing threw himself backward. But right at that moment, Wan Yicheng burst out from the moonlight, his Fifth Ritual blazing to life. The orb of light, which would have cleanly missed, was abruptly yanked off its trajectory by an invisible hand and forced directly in front of Yan Jing.

BOOM!!!

The terrifying mass of energy detonated!

Even though Wan Yicheng immediately merged back into the moonlight, the sheer scope of the blast wave caught him, ripping bloody gashes across his body just before he vanished.

The earth-shattering explosion ripped through the ground like a true heavenly punishment. Even the fighters battling in the distant hills beyond the wilderness heard it. Their hearts trembled, entirely unsure of what had just happened.

Smoke, dust, and fire... everything was blown apart by the blast before being rapidly swallowed by the sheer destructive glare. More than half of the dense forest was wiped out in an instant.

This combination attack was the pinnacle of their teamwork. The destructive energy it unleashed was catastrophic enough that even that person would have to expend serious effort to block it, and even then, there was no guarantee they would walk away unscathed.

And that was assuming that person knew the attack was coming.

After what felt like an eternity, the thunderous roaring slowly faded, and the lingering shockwaves finally settled.

Wan Yicheng walked out of the moonlight, his body covered in lacerations. Lifting his exhausted eyes, he glared coldly at Zhou Kai and the others in the distance. "I'll deal with you lot in a minute."

At this point, he had completely dropped his 'good captain' persona.

He had finally seen what he wanted to see—that Sheng Xia was ultimately on his side.

And he had finally accomplished what he set out to do—killing Yan Jing.

He trudged toward the smoke-filled epicenter of the explosion. Sheng Xia had already arrived.

He looked at Sheng Xia and smiled.

"Thank you, Little Xia."

"...It's nothing."

Sheng Xia remained silent for a few seconds before shaking her head.

Although she felt a deep pang of regret for Yan Jing, they were ultimately enemies.

"Brother Wan... when we get out of here, let's all sit down for a good meal and clear the air."

"Alright."

Wan Yicheng nodded, a gentle expression on his face.

Sheng Xia took one last look at the smoke-shrouded crater, feeling mentally exhausted.

Yan Jing must have used his Crystal Stone to escape the Dungeon at the last second.

She comforted herself with that thought.

In the face of an attack like that, nobody would dare gamble with their life.

But the very moment the two of them turned to leave, a raspy voice drifted out from the center of the crater.

"That was a very impressive combination attack, Mr. Wan, Miss Sheng."

The instant they heard Yan Jing's voice, both of them flinched. They subconsciously looked at each other, seeing the same utter disbelief mirrored in each other's eyes. Slowly, they turned back around.

Through the drifting smoke, a figure—both familiar and entirely alien—walked out.

Not a single patch of intact skin remained on Yan Jing's body. The handsome face that so often drew stares was now completely obscured by grime and dark crimson blood caking every inch of his features.

"It's a pity. A real pity, Miss Sheng."

Yan Jing let out a sigh.

"I felt it, you know."

"I felt your overwhelming killing intent."

"So, just as you said. It ends here."

"The warm-up is over."

As his words fell, an ultimate brilliance erupted from his body. It wasn't as blinding as the light the two of them had produced earlier, but it was incomparably dense. His charred, exposed flesh now hummed with an unfathomable amount of raw energy, warping the space around him in a violent distortion. Swish!

It was like a gust of wind brushing past their eyes. Their minds were still processing the second-to-last sentence Yan Jing had spoken, but he was already standing right in front of them.

He reached out with both hands, seized them by the hair with terrifying strength, and smashed their heads together!!!

Crunch!

Under that terrifying impact, their skulls fractured simultaneously, spraying fresh blood. Sheng Xia caught the worst of it; her practically flawless head instantly caved in on one side.

In the next instant, Wan Yicheng dissolved into moonlight and vanished.

Sheng Xia tried to trigger her own escape method, but Yan Jing drove a fist straight into her chest.

It felt like an impossibly massive mountain had plummeted out of the sky and crushed her.

The monstrous kinetic force instantly shattered the flow of weird energy in her body and obliterated her consciousness.

Every inch of bone and every shred of muscle in her body ruptured on impact. Her pupils dilated completely. Yan Jing hoisted her into the air by the neck; she hung limply from his grip like a sack of deboned meat, her eyes completely lifeless.

With a single punch, it was over.

Yan Jing dangled her there, smiling out at the pristine moonlight drifting down around them.

"Mr. Wan, you have feelings for Miss Sheng, don't you?"

"Tell you what. I'll give you a chance. Come out, and I'll let Miss Sheng go."