Boundless ice stretched endlessly beneath the stormy sky.
A raging blizzard howled through the heavens and earth.
At this moment
A monstrous being, standing over ten feet tall with six arms and four legs, thundered across the thick ice, charging toward the desolate island standing alone amidst the icy expanse.
With each step, it crossed an entire mile in a single breath, its massive form stirring up violent gusts that sent layers of snow swirling into the air.
Three hundred zhang away.
Jiang Ning stood on the cliff's edge, silently observing the rapidly approaching Wind God Envoy.
The pressure from facing a fully transformed Divine Scion Wind God Envoy was immense.
After all, even his wind-thunder-infused arrows had failed to harm the enemy.
And his Wind-Thunder Archery was not just an ordinary middle-tier martial art it was a middle-tier technique that had undergone three limit breaks.
The power of such a technique had already surpassed most upper-tier martial arts.
Although his current bow could not fully unleash the true potential of his Wind-Thunder Archery, Jiang Ning estimated that even if he had a weapon perfectly suited for him, allowing him to wield the technique at full strength, he would still struggle to deliver a fatal blow to the Wind God Envoy in this state.
After all, a fully transformed Divine Scion was not only physically formidable but also possessed an almost immortal body.
No matter how severe the injury, it would regenerate at an alarming speed.
With such endurance combined with an indestructible physique, killing it was near impossible.
Unless the Wind God Envoy willingly stood still and let Jiang Ning shoot an arrow straight through its skull, the chance of death was slim.
Of course, this was merely Jiang Ning's estimation.
A more suitable bow, one capable of drawing out the full potential of his Wind-Thunder Archery, could potentially tip the scales in his favor.
But ideal conditions never exist in battle.
Even so, instead of fear or unease, a strange excitement began to stir in Jiang Ning's heart.
Since stepping onto the path of martial arts
He had never encountered a truly fitting opponent to test his strength.
His previous adversaries were either far too powerful, rendering him completely helpless, or far too weak, allowing him to kill them in just a few moves.
But the Wind God Envoy was different.
It exerted just enough pressure to force him to push his limits, yet it didn't make the battle feel unwinnable.
Moreover, he had recently undergone a massive surge in strength he needed a formidable enemy to gauge his true capabilities.
Watching the Wind God Envoy close the remaining three hundred zhang, Jiang Ning slowly clenched his fist.
He was building momentum.
At this moment, deep within his heart, something stirred
It was as if a ferocious tiger, wreathed in flames, was trapped within a cage.
The tiger, king of the mountains and ruler of beasts, would never accept being confined in such a small prison.
It lifted its gaze to the sky above.
In its eyes burned an unyielding fury.
It was accumulating its strength, preparing for the moment it would break free of its chains in a single, explosive leap.
Meanwhile.
Even in his transformed state, the Wind God Envoy's massive frame encountered more air resistance than before.
Yet, his speed remained unchanged still crossing over a mile in a single breath.
A mere three hundred zhang was less than a second's travel.
In an instant.
The six-armed, Divine Scion Wind God Envoy arrived at the edge of the island's rocky coastline.
Boom!
With a single stomp, he shattered a jagged rock that had endured countless years of harsh blizzards, sending fragments flying in all directions.
Then, like a cannonball, his massive frame blasted forward, shooting straight toward Jiang Ning.
A thousand zhang away.
The Star Guardian locked his eyes on the unfolding battle atop the island.
He had spent many days in Luoshui County, carefully gathering information.
He knew one thing for certain
Jiang Ning was not a reckless man.
If Jiang Ning chose to stand his ground, rather than flee, then he must have something to rely on.
And that was precisely what the Star Guardian was curious about.
What exactly was Jiang Ning's trump card?
What gave him the confidence to face a being as terrifying as the Wind God Envoy without the slightest sign of fear?
On the cliff.
The cold winds howled.
Jiang Ning's robes flapped violently in the storm.
His long black hair had long since become disheveled, wildly thrashing in the wind.
At this moment
Jiang Ning had already closed his eyes, focusing solely on accumulating momentum and testing himself.
Even as the Wind God Envoy shattered the rocky shoreline and soared toward him like a meteor, Jiang Ning's expression remained completely unchanged.
With his heightened five senses, there was no difference between closing and opening his eyes.
Moreover, his spiritual field had already expanded, enveloping a hundred-meter radius.
Every single movement of the six-armed Wind God Envoy was perfectly captured in his mind.
Then
As the transformed Wind God Envoy closed the distance to seventy zhang,
Jiang Ning remained motionless.
With every inch the Wind God Envoy ascended, its momentum weakened.
There was no need to rush.
And then
The distance between them shrank even further.
Sixty Zhang, Fifty Zhang, Forty Zhang...
When the distance between them shrank to just thirty zhang, Jiang Ning could already feel the astonishing heat radiating from the six-armed divine Scion, the Wind Deity Envoy.
The divine-transformed Wind Deity Envoy was vastly different from ordinary people his body temperature was frighteningly high.
At a mere twenty zhang apart, Jiang Ning remained motionless.
By now, the air itself was compressed by the approaching force of the punch, sending his temple-side strands of hair flying backward.
At just ten zhang
Jiang Ning's eyes suddenly snapped open.
In that instant, two tigers wreathed in blazing flames emerged within his pupils.
One on the left.
One on the right.
Two fiery tigers appeared in his eyes, their heads raised toward the sky as if roaring at the heavens.
As his gaze sharpened, he finally chose to strike.
His body moved.
A fist shot out.
ROAR
In that moment
A thousand meters away, the Star Protector suddenly heard an earth-shaking tiger's roar, resounding through the sky.
At the same time, he saw a massive, flame-wreathed tiger appear on the cliffside.
The tiger leaped from the cliff, pouncing toward the ascending Wind Protector.
"Fist momentum!"
"What terrifying fist momentum!!"
The Star Protector's expression changed dramatically, his eyes flashing with deep apprehension.
He had speculated many possibilities, but he never expected Jiang Ning's trump card to be his fist momentum flames raging, tigers roaring at the heavens.
With just this one punch, the Star Protector saw the makings of a grandmaster, someone who, shortly, would step beyond that threshold with his martial arts.
He understood it well.
The blazing tiger, the sky-shaking roar
Neither truly existed.
Just like the sound of the roar if he closed his eyes, unable to witness the clash on the cliff, he wouldn't have heard that deafening tiger's cry.
The roaring tiger, the flaming beast reflected in his vision these were mere illusions imprinted into his mind, seared into his spiritual world by the sheer force of the fist momentum.
This was an illusion yet not an illusion.
It was the manifestation of momentum at the mental level. If one couldn't break free from its influence, it was no different from reality.
Enveloped by the fist momentum, one's spirit was shaken, and their attacks would be inherently weaker.
Movements would slow. Reactions would dull.
The stronger the momentum, the more pronounced the effect.
In extreme cases, sheer momentum alone could unbalance an opponent's spirit, robbing them of the will to strike back.
Like a mouse encountering a cat, left trembling in place.
Such was the terror of momentum.
Only by shattering the suppression of momentum could one unleash their full strength.
At that moment
In his perception of the world, Jiang Ning had already become a blazing tiger, each strike accompanied by an earth-shaking roar.
Even from a thousand meters away, the sheer, unbridled fury was palpable.
Seeing this, the Star Protector's eyes filled with deep envy.
To command such a formidable fist momentum this was the key to stepping from the Fifth Rank into the Fourth.
A key he had desperately yearned for.
Yet now, it lay in the hands of Jiang Ning, a man more than ten years his junior.
At this moment, he fully understood the vast gulf between himself and a true prodigy.
A gap so insurmountable, that it left him in utter despair.
A distance he could never hope to close in this lifetime.
While he had reached his current level through shortcuts, the next step was an impassable chasm.
On the cliffside.
As their blows separated, Jiang Ning immediately felt an overwhelming force crash into his body.
The sheer power far exceeded his own.
A head-on clash.
Though he managed to push back the Wind Deity Envoy briefly, his own body endured the brunt of the terrifying force. His bones felt displaced, and his muscles screamed with tearing pain.
"Such terrifying power!!" Jiang Ning inwardly marveled.
Just one exchange was enough to make him realize
In terms of strength and physical durability, he was no match for the divine-transformed Wind Deity Envoy.
In the next moment
A numbing sensation spread throughout his body.
His subtly displaced bones realigned themselves.
Torn muscle fibers rapidly regenerate.
In mere seconds, all his internal injuries vanished, and his body was restored to peak condition.
This was the power of his authority at work.
Moreover, he could feel its influence on his newly forged Mystic Bone physique, which had been strengthening slowly, and was now evolving at an accelerated rate.
A process that would have taken hours had now been completed in a brief moment of breaking and reforging.
Exhilarating
Sensing the changes in his body, Jiang Ning felt a surge of satisfaction.
As he watched the Wind Deity Envoy leap up from the cliff's edge once more, his body suddenly sprang into action.
ROAR
In the Wind Deity Envoy's eyes
The moment he reached the cliffside, he was met with the sight of a blazing tiger pouncing toward him, like a predator locking onto its prey.
Along with a soul-shaking tiger's roar.
There was no time to prepare.
BOOM
A direct clash.
With a single blow, Jiang Ning was sent flying several zhang backward.
Yet the next moment
The Wind Deity Envoy saw him once again transforming into a raging tiger, launching forward.
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
With each collision, thunderous explosions shook the battlefield.
Shards of stone flew in all directions beneath the two fighters' feet,
shooting out like cannonballs.
Thick trees, as wide as a bowl's rim, were shattered in half under the force of the airborne debris.
Not far away, towering boulders were broken into countless fragments in mere moments, scattering chaotically across the ground.
Even the ice sheet below the cliff was struck by a massive flying rock, leaving behind cracks that spread like a spider's web.
At this moment, the Wind God Envoy grew increasingly alarmed as he fought.
He could sense that, though his mind was partially captivated by his opponent's aura, limiting him to only seventy or eighty percent of his full strength,
even so, every strike of his was strong enough to overpower Jiang Ning.
Each blow sent Jiang Ning retreating with ease.
He was well aware of his bodily strength any one of his attacks could split a mountain apart.
A mere few punches would be enough to blast through an ordinary county's city gate.
Even if his attacks did not land directly on Jiang Ning's body, the sheer force of their clashes should have been enough to shake Jiang Ning's internal organs,
leaving him injured with each successive impact.
By his calculations, after just a few more exchanges, Jiang Ning should have been completely unable to resist.
Yet the reality was entirely different from his expectations.
After more than ten clashes,
every time Jiang Ning was sent flying, he would swiftly rebound,
returning to the fight full of energy.
What was even more shocking Jiang Ning's body seemed to be growing stronger with each exchange.
The force of his counterattacks increased with every move.
Moreover, each time they clashed, Jiang Ning would break away instantly, never lingering in close combat.
This completely neutralized the advantage of his six arms.
It was said that two fists could not match four hands,
and with his six arms, he should have easily been able to fight three opponents at once.
Normally, having four extra arms would grant an overwhelming advantage in close combat.
Yet, Jiang Ning's combat style left him with no opportunity to capitalize on this strength.
Touch and retreat coming and going like the wind.
His short-range footwork and evasive movements were even more agile than the Wind God Envoy's own.
And with each clash, Jiang Ning's movements grew even sharper.
On the other side,
Jiang Ning only grew more exhilarated as the battle raged on.
The sensation of fist meeting fist sent his blood surging with excitement.
As for the injuries, his body sustained from the sheer intensity of their clashes
they healed instantly as if they had never existed.
This process of destruction and rebirth allowed his physical transformation originally expected to take days to accelerate at a shocking rate.
The continued enhancement of his physical strength and power only made him feel even more exhilarated.
In the next instant,
after exchanging another blow,
facing the two sweeping strikes from the Wind God Envoy, Jiang Ning suddenly leaped away like a white ape.
From a thousand meters away, the Star Guardian watched in astonishment.
He saw Jiang Ning transform from a blazing tiger bathed in flames into a white ape enveloped in radiant light.
Every strand of fur on the white ape's body seemed to glow with pure brilliance, exuding an almost sacred aura.
Yet at the same time, it radiated an undeniable sharpness
as if his fur was not hair at all, but countless divine swords exuding sword energy.
"A tiger first, and now an ape!!"
"Could it be the Five Animals Fist?!!"
The Star Guardian muttered in disbelief, his expression shifting between shock and doubt.
He had spent days in Luoshui County investigating Jiang Ning,
so how could he not know about the Five Animals Fist?
"No… it shouldn't be. The Five Animals Fist is merely a lower-tier martial art!"
"How could such a low-tier martial art possibly manifest such a powerful aura?"
He immediately dismissed the idea with a shake of his head.
Yet moments later,
he witnessed Jiang Ning shift again this time into an earthen-hued savage bear,
which crashed ferociously into the Wind God Envoy in his divine six-armed form.
The impact sent the six-armed Wind God Envoy flying nearly ten meters.
Jiang Ning then proceeded to display the ethereal grace of the Water Crane and the grounded stability of the Wood Deer.
As the battle progressed, he continuously cycled through all five forms.
At times, he was a blazing tiger, a sword-wielding white ape,
a bear channeling the power of the earth itself.
As the fierce battle continued,
though the Wind God Envoy, in his six-armed divine form, maintained his dominance over Jiang Ning,
the Star Guardian already knew he had lost.
Revealing his divine six-armed form and failing to secure a decisive victory was equivalent to defeat.
Or rather, failing to end the battle swiftly was already a loss.
The longer he maintained this state, the more his rationality would be eroded.
If this continued, a moment would come when he would completely lose his sanity
never to return to his original self.
He would become a God Puppet.
Throughout the church's history, there have already been multiple cases of this happening.
Those who had once wielded immense martial power,
blessed by Him, the Flesh and Blood God,
had all ultimately succumbed to madness.
Ever since the failure of the man-made gods,
and the apparent awakening of some lingering will from a true deity,
the Church of Divine Worship had shifted from being led by its two chief priests
to be ruled by that divine will itself.
Deep down, he had long harbored a dreadful realization
Martial power granted through Him would ultimately lead to the same fate:
the loss of reason,
The descent into madness,
the transformation into a mere God Puppet.
To avoid this fate,
as one of the church's Guardians,
he had not dared to assume his divine form for over a year.
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