Chapter 219: A Brutal Beating
Chen Chang'an struggled to steady himself as he gently lifted Ji Hongli into his arms. At this moment, her body felt weightless—like mist that might vanish at any second.
He carefully laid her beside a smooth boulder, brushing his fingers across her blood-stained hair with a tenderness that did not belong on a battlefield drenched in death.
"The rest… leave it to me."
His voice was quiet but carried an unshakable resolve.
Ji Hongli opened her mouth as if to speak, but in the end, she only clutched tightly at his sleeve. Her eyes were filled with reluctance and worry.
Chen Chang'an smiled softly at her, then slowly turned to face Ming Xin.
—That should meet the conditions now, right?
He repeated the thought silently in his mind, as though waiting for something to answer him.
Sure enough—
"Ding—"
A cold, mechanical voice echoed through his consciousness:
[Warning: Host's life force under severe threat. Temporarily unlocking access to Backup Cultivation Pool.]
[Alert: With the host's current cultivation, the pool can only be used for five minutes. Exceeding this limit risks bodily rupture.]
[Backup Cultivation Pool — Current stored cultivation: 11,622,313 years.]
Chen Chang'an raised an eyebrow slightly.
Hmm… so last time he only consumed about a million years.
He slowly lifted his gaze toward Ming Xin, who was still smiling calmly.
"Well then…"
"…Round two begins."
As the words fell, an overwhelming, starry force exploded from his body!
Heaven and earth fell silent.
The aura around Chen Chang'an surged like a breached galaxy. Vast, immeasurable spiritual power roared from his body, twisting the heavens themselves under its weight.
"Boom!"
The void shuddered as clouds were ripped apart.
His robe fluttered wildly without wind, and his hair shimmered with a divine starlight. Each breath of his aura weighed like a mountain, crushing the surrounding space until it cried in protest. The ground beneath his feet silently caved in; shattered stones floated up, only to disintegrate into dust within three feet of him.
For the first time, Ming Xin's smile froze.
The arrogance vanished from his face as his pupils contracted sharply. His brow furrowed.
—Danger.
The word flashed through his mind like lightning, and the thought itself felt absurd.
From beginning to end, he had treated Chen Chang'an like prey—a cat toying with a dying mouse. The difference between a Saint and an Immortal Sovereign was supposed to be an unbridgeable abyss. Even if Chen Chang'an and Ji Hongli fought together, it would have been meaningless.
But now—
Chen Chang'an merely stood there, yet his aura was fathomless—like an endless sea.
"I… actually feel danger from him?"
Ming Xin murmured, disbelief flickering in his eyes.
Could this man truly threaten me? Impossible!
The wind howled violently as Chen Chang'an slowly lifted his gaze, starlight swirling within his eyes.
He said nothing—but the heavens and earth changed color in response.
"Bald donkey—die!"
With a thunderous roar, Chen Chang'an threw a punch!
There was no technique, no grand spell—just pure, primal power. The moment his fist struck, the void shattered like glass, black cracks spreading outward like a web. Even the laws of heaven seemed to scream under his blow.
Ming Xin's pupils constricted violently as a surge of dread slammed into him.
"Not good!"
He dared not hesitate. With a flash of golden light, he summoned the Extinction Vajra Pestle, Buddhist scripture glowing brightly upon its shaft as it met Chen Chang'an's fist head-on!
"Boom!!!"
The moment their powers collided, a shockwave tore across a thousand li, shattering the clouds and making the earth rise and fall like waves.
"Crack!"
A sharp sound rang out—Ming Xin's face went pale in disbelief.
The legendary Extinction Vajra Pestle—renowned as the most powerful offensive weapon in all of Buddhism—now bore a deep, jagged fracture.
"One force to crush ten thousand arts… this—this is the Dao of Power?! At mere Saint Realm? Impossible!!"
Ming Xin staggered backward, horror filling his heart, but Chen Chang'an's assault came like a raging storm!
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Each punch was simple and unadorned, yet each carried the force to shatter worlds. Ming Xin's Buddhist techniques flashed like lightning, his body flickering like a phantom—but no matter how he dodged, the crushing pressure followed him relentlessly.
"Bang!"
A golden barrier formed by Buddhist light appeared before him—only to shatter like glass the instant Chen Chang'an's fist touched it. Ming Xin grunted, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, his expression finally turning grave.
"This boy… has refined the Dao of Power to such a level?! Why hasn't he ascended yet?!"
The Dao of Power—among the three thousand Daos, the most domineering of all.
No external tools. No divine arts. Pure strength, breaking all laws of heaven and earth.
Whatever technique you use, I shatter it with a single punch!
Chen Chang'an's blows came endlessly, each strike like the collapse of mountains and seas. Ming Xin could only retreat again and again, his counterattacks crushed before they could even form.
"Damn it!"
Ming Xin's fury burned, but beneath it—undeniable fear.
He, a dignified Immortal Venerable, was actually being forced into such a pitiful state by someone only at the Saint Realm?!
But Chen Chang'an's Dao of Power restrained every form of embellishment and trickery—he couldn't afford to meet him head-on!
"I must find a way to break this stalemate!"
A cold glint flashed in Ming Xin's eyes. His palms pressed together, and a thunderous Sanskrit chant erupted from his mouth.
"Om—!"
The void trembled. Behind him, a colossal Thousand-Armed Buddha manifested, each palm forming seals as a deluge of golden Buddhist light poured down like a heavenly river, crashing toward Chen Chang'an!
Chen Chang'an sneered. He neither dodged nor retreated. His right fist drew back, and the starlight around him blazed like a sun going supernova.
"Break!"
He punched.
The Thousand-Armed Buddha's image shattered clean through, Buddhist light collapsing into fragments. Ming Xin was thrown back again, his face pale as paper!
"Now's my chance!"
A sharp glint flared in Chen Chang'an's eyes as he lunged forward like lightning!
Ming Xin hastily summoned a shield of Buddhist light, but Chen Chang'an didn't evade. He drove forward, taking the blow head-on with his chest—
"Pfft!"
Ming Xin's palm pierced through Chen Chang'an's shoulder, golden blood spraying through the air. Yet at the same instant, Chen Chang'an's fist crashed squarely into Ming Xin's chest!
"Crack!"
The sound of bones splintering echoed clearly! Ming Xin spat out a mouthful of golden blood as his body shot backward like a comet, slamming into a distant mountain with an earth-shaking crash!
Dust filled the sky. Chen Chang'an dropped to one knee, his shoulder mangled and dripping gold, but his eyes still burned with fierce, searing battle spirit.
"An Immortal Venerable… is nothing special after all."
Far away, within the shattered ruins of the mountain, Ming Xin struggled to rise. His golden robes were soaked in blood, his expression twisted with disbelief—and for the first time, true fear.
He lay amid the broken rocks, the threads of his golden kasaya torn apart and dark with blood. He coughed a mouthful of shimmering blood, his eyes showing a terror he hadn't felt in millennia.
"So that's how it is…"
Before he could finish, Chen Chang'an had already appeared above him again, fist raised. A faint smile tugged at his lips.
"Your Immortal Venerable cultivation—it was forced through merit, wasn't it?"
The words struck Ming Xin's heart like a blade. His entire body trembled; the Buddha crown atop his head slipped sideways, veins bulging on his temple.
It was true—his so-called cultivation had been obtained through the Supreme Scripture of Salvation, each life recycled, each rebirth building false merit. In truth…
He had no Dao of his own.
Chen Chang'an's fist fell again!
"Bang!"
Ming Xin's left cheek caved in, golden teeth and blood flying.
"This punch—
for your deceit and hypocrisy!"
"Crack!"
The sound of ribs snapping rang out clearly.
"This punch—
for your tyranny and arrogance!"
Ming Xin's body was flung up like a rag doll, then slammed into the ground once more. He tried to summon his Buddhist light, but the power of merit he once commanded like an extension of his will—
—was melting away before the true Dao.
This… was what real suppression felt like.
This was the crushing power of a true Immortal Venerable!
Chen Chang'an mounted Ming Xin, his fists gleaming gold, dripping blood and light alike.
Beneath him, the once-proud Immortal Venerable had his nose broken, his brow pierced, and streams of pale golden liquid poured from his forehead—the sign of a collapsing Merit Body.
"One last punch."
Chen Chang'an raised his right fist slowly, blood and energy swirling between his fingers.
"I'll send you… to Avici Hell."
Suddenly—
"Ding—"
A cold mechanical chime echoed in his mind.
Chen Chang'an's pupils contracted. The vast oceanic aura within him drained away instantly. His descending fist grew light, weak—caught in midair by a skeletal, bloodstained hand.
That hand was scarred, the prayer beads around the wrist long since broken, yet its five fingers clamped down like iron.
Ming Xin smiled through bloodstained teeth.
"What's wrong…? Suddenly gone weak?"
Beneath his tattered robes, the golden glow of merit began to slowly knit itself back together.
Meanwhile, thin beads of blood began seeping from every pore of Chen Chang'an's skin…
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