The Black Iron Heaven-Measuring Ruler let out a low wail.
The thirty-six graduations on its body flashed simultaneously, after which their dark purple glow dimmed by thirty percent.
Qingyangzi felt a strange, ominous force he had never experienced before transmit through the ruler into his right hand.
Containing both eerie coldness and scorching heat, that force surged wildly through his meridians, throwing his Boundless Realm internal energy into utter disarray.
With a muffled groan, his body involuntarily flew backward through the air for more than ten zhang.
The skin between his thumb and index finger split open into a bloody wound, fresh blood trickling down along the ruler's body.
Losing the support of his qi, the thirty-six ruler phantoms vanished into thin air at the same time.
Seeing this, nearby Lu Yang hovered in midair while holding his wrought iron staff, his weathered face filled with utter disbelief.
He looked at Qingyangzi, who had been pushed back over ten zhang by a single spear thrust, and then looked at Chen Zui, who hovered in place without a change in expression. Only after a long moment did he squeeze out a sentence.
“Kid... did you really just break through?”
Qingyangzi stabilized his stance, a violent storm churning deep in his eyes.
Having cultivated the Dao for nearly a century—from Mount Longhu's Heavenly Master Mansion to the Hall of Consecrated Retainers in the Third Prince's manor—he had seen countless geniuses.
Yet he had never met anyone who could break through two major realms back-to-back within a single quarter-hour and then wield the powers of the new realm so effortlessly immediately afterward.
This was no longer just a genius; this was a monster!
That young man's spear thrust alone proved that his combat power was no longer beneath his own.
And with Lu Yang eyeing him like a tiger watching its prey beside him, Qingyangzi stood no chance in a two-on-one fight.
At this thought, Qingyangzi glanced back toward Wangchao Pavilion.
At the ninth-floor window, Zhao Li's figure still stood there.
However, his expression could not be seen clearly in the twilight.
Qingyangzi took a deep breath.
A faint smile suddenly appeared on his aged face.
Twenty years ago, when he violated sect rules and was expelled from Mount Longhu, it was the Third Prince who had taken him in.
Twenty years of meals, clothing, and sustenance; twenty years of being treated with respect and honor.
It was time to repay this debt of gratitude.
He held the Black Iron Heaven-Measuring Ruler horizontally before him.
Bringing his left index and middle fingers together, he tapped thirty-six consecutive times on the ruler's body.
With every tap, one graduation on the ruler went dark.
As each graduation dimmed, a fist-sized dark purple sphere of light peeled off from the ruler and hovered around his body.
Burning the Ruler.
Using the spiritual essence of his natal divine weapon as fuel and his own essence blood as a fuse, he detonated his entire life's cultivation in a single instant.
This was the final form of the Black Iron Heaven-Measuring Ruler, and Qingyangzi's last trump card.
“Your Highness.”
His voice pierced through the sea breeze, reaching the ninth-floor window of Wangchao Pavilion.
“Today, this poor Daoist returns this life to Your Highness.”
The thirty-six dark purple spheres of light around his body flared up simultaneously.
The light grew brighter and more dazzling, illuminating the entire reef beach like daylight.
Lu Yang's expression changed drastically.
“Not good! He's going all out!”
With a thunderous shout, the golden staff aura on his wrought iron staff surged wildly as he prepared to pounce toward Qingyangzi.
But it was already too late.
Qingyangzi plunged the Black Iron Heaven-Measuring Ruler into the ground, burying three cun of the body into the reef.
The thirty-six light spheres began to spin rapidly around him, driving the surrounding air into a massive vortex.
From within the vortex came a low roar like muffled thunder as the qi of heaven and earth was forcibly compressed to its absolute limit.
Chen Zui's pupils narrowed slightly.
He saw it with crystal clarity.
The attack range of Qingyangzi's move was not limited to just himself and Lu Yang.
Once that wildly violent force erupted, the resulting shockwave would level the entire reef beach along with the walls of Jinyang City behind them.
Upon those walls were thousands of martial artists and commoners watching the fight, as well as Qin Tiegu and A-Tong.
Without time for a second thought, he took a step forward.
【Unmoving Like a Mountain】
Holding the long spear horizontally before him, he swept the shaft along the ground, tracing a deep arc onto the reef.
The instant the arc formed a complete circle, a wall of golden light rose sharply from the spear mark.
It completely enveloped himself, Lu Yang, and the entire reef beach behind them.
Just as the wall of golden light took shape, the power of Qingyangzi's Burning the Ruler exploded.
The thirty-six dark purple light spheres burst at the exact same moment, each explosion unleashing a dark purple light pillar a zhang thick.
The thirty-six light pillars converged together, forming a world-destroying shockwave.
Wherever the shockwave passed, the rocks on the reef beach did not merely shatter—they were directly vaporized, leaving not even powder behind.
The shockwave slammed heavily into the golden light wall.
BOOM!
The entire Eastern Sea violently trembled in this deafening roar.
The golden light wall shook violently, the golden light on its surface stripped away layer by layer by the shockwave, only to be regenerated layer by layer once again.
Chen Zui gripped the spear shaft with both hands in a death grip.
All the internal energy of his mid-stage Wind-Riding Realm poured into the spear like a bursting dam, keeping 【Unmoving Like a Mountain】 active.
Wave after wave of shockwaves pounded against it.
Cracks spread across the golden light wall, growing more numerous and dense.
The skin between Chen Zui's thumbs and index fingers tore open, blood trickling down the spear shaft.
His feet plowed two deep grooves a cun deep into the reef, his entire body pushed backward several zhang by the force of the shockwave.
And then...
Crack.
A extremely faint, crisp sound rang out from his hands.
It was not the sound of the golden light wall shattering.
It was the red-tasseled spear in his hands.
The hundred-refined steel spear he had bought for eight taels of silver at a blacksmith shop, the weapon that had accompanied him for five or six years, had cracked!
The crack began spreading from the middle of the spear body, extending cun by cun toward both ends.
With every shockwave that slammed into the light wall, the crack extended another cun.
Chen Zui gritted his teeth and refused to let go.
He channeled every last drop of internal energy in his body into the spear shaft, maintaining the integrity of the light wall.
The shockwaves finally began to wane.
When the final wave shattered against the light wall, the golden wall could no longer hold out, dissolving into a sky full of golden specks of light that dispersed into the twilight.
Chen Zui dropped to one knee, his hands still clutching the spear shaft.
Or rather, clutching two halves of a spear shaft.
At this moment, the red-tasseled spear that had accompanied him for five or six years was broken cleanly in two down the middle.
The wooden splinters at the break were jagged and uneven, and the red tassel on the spear body had been shredded by the shockwaves into a few remaining strands that fluttered helplessly in the wind.
A deep crater several dozen zhang in diameter had exploded into existence on the reef beach.
At the center of the crater, the Black Iron Heaven-Measuring Ruler remained planted in place, covered in cracks, now nothing more than a piece of scrap iron.
As for Qingyangzi himself, not even a scrap of his robes remained.
Meanwhile, the ninth-floor window of Wangchao Pavilion was now empty.
In the fraction of a second before Qingyangzi detonated the power of Burning the Ruler, a ray of dark purple light had separated from the ruler array, wrapping around Third Prince Zhao Li's figure and shooting out toward the outskirts of Jinyang City like a falling star.
That was the final teleportation Daoist art Qingyangzi had split off from the power of Burning the Ruler.
Even in death and the dissolution of his Dao, he would send His Highness out of danger.
Chen Zui stood up with great difficulty.
He looked down at the two halves of the broken spear in his hands, remaining silent for a moment.
Then, he aligned the two broken pieces, wrapped the remaining red tassel around them several times, tied it into a firm knot, and strapped the spear back onto his back.
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