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nTranslator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

nAll of Song Tongheng’s exposed skin glowed blood-red. It felt as if a powerful surge of energy was raging within him, and every single pore oozed formidable power.

nPower burst from all over Song Tongheng under the effects of such an enormous surge of energy.

nHowever, the expression on his face was one of pain. The surging power seemed to be constantly tearing at the muscles of his body.

nYet, his expression was ferocious at the same time because the surge of energy all over him was unmistakable.

nSuch was the power of one at Deity level.

nSuch massive powers would only last for a short period of time, with severe side effects waiting to happen later, and he would no longer be able to progress any further for the rest of his life.

nBut given the circumstances he was already in, there was little or nothing to fear anymore.

nAt that moment, he felt as if he’d achieved godhood. Such was the illusion that came with this great power.

n“Die!”

nFury was written all over Song Tongheng’s face as he pounced on Lu Xuan within mere moments, throwing out a punch as he went.

nTerrifying energy burst from him alongside the attack that Song Tongheng performed as he threw that punch at Lu Xuan.

nHis power rating became far higher than what it had been back when he was just a National Guardian.

nBoom!

nThe punch landed squarely on Lu Xuan’s face, yet he was unable to even punch through the Shield of Vigor wrapping around the young man.

n“How is this possible? I’ve gotten so powerful, so why am I unable even to penetrate your Shield of Vigor?”

nSong Tongheng looked at the Shield of Vigor around Lu Xuan, which had gotten so thick that he was almost able to see it with his naked eyes. He was utterly confused, and his mind was in total chaos.

nHe was indeed able to sense that his powers had reached more or less the level heard of in legends after he’d ingested that forbidden red pill. His power had made a huge leap past his limits, enabling him to reach Deity level right away from National Guardian level.

nSuch a level of power would be considered massively formidable, regardless of the standard used for measurement.

nHowever, he absolutely did not expect his enhanced power to have utterly no effect on Lu Xuan at all.

nThat was an unmistakably huge blow to him.

n“What a joke. You think a half-baked nobody like you, whose powers came from a pill, could stand a chance of beating me? What do you take me for?” Lu Xuan snickered.

nIt was not like he had never seen people boosting their powers forcibly by means of alkahestry. He too had used similar measures in his past life. But he was unlike those antagonistic bosses that he had beaten back then. Even if Song Tongheng were to become a Deity through the usual means, he still would not have been able to beat Lu Xuan. Imagining that he’d be able to beat Lu Xuan by swallowing some pill meant that he really had underestimated Lu Xuan.

nIt was only then that Song Tongheng finally realized how vast the gap between him and Lu Xuan truly was. This gap was not one that could be bridged just by forcibly boosting himself to a level similar to Lu Xuan.

nEven the Great Ancestor of the Song Clan, Song Lingfeng, who claimed that his cultivation level had reached its peak and was about to make it past Level Nine, had ended up little more than a paper tiger when fighting Lu Xuan, after all.

nDespite the fact that both of them were Deities, their powers had definitely not been on the same order of magnitude.

nWhile Song Tongheng had indeed broken into the Deity level, his actual powers were not all that different from that of Qiu Zhen, whom Lu Xuan had killed long ago. The power difference between Lu Xuan and Qiu Zhen had been even wider, and Lu Xuan was evidently even more powerful than when he fought Qiu Zhen.

nThe cold hard fact of that impossibly huge difference snapped Song Tongheng from his frenzied state back to reality right away.

nOnce he truly realized the difference between him and Lu Xuan, he backed away immediately, not daring to stay close.

nThe palm print on his chest remained, and it caused his chest to cave in. The injury, however, was forcibly suppressed by the workings of the pill, making him feel as though he was about to burst with all that latent potential in his body.

nSong Tongheng was unable to do much more than grit his teeth as he glared at Lu Xuan. He’d realized by then that it was utterly impossible for him to defeat Lu Xuan. The only thing he was still able to do was to buy time.

nHe squared himself up and went into full defensive mode, but Lu Xuan made a move right at the very next second, just to let him just how foolish he was being.

nLu Xuan charged at lightning speed at the other man and delivered a slap just as quickly.

nBam!

nThe slap landed squarely on Song Tongheng’s face, and the defensive mode he’d put himself in was revealed to be utterly pointless against an attack from Lu Xuan. His body crashed onto the ground instantly from that single slap.

nPfftt!

nBlood spilled from Song Tongheng’s mouth right away. He struggled to get up, but that remained utterly futile. Lu Xuan stomped on the man right away, bringing down a force comparable to a pile driver onto the injury on his chest.

nSong Tongheng whimpered for a moment before falling entirely still. Despite being at Deity level at the moment, there was no way he could withstand such an injury.

nLu Xuan went deeper into the compound. He saw Song Maoxun, the Patriarch of the Song Clan, chanting some ancient mantra in the depths of the place, looking rather anxious while doing so.

nBoom!

nA beam of intense light burst from the heavens, seemingly about to penetrate the barrier and shine on Song Maoxun.

nHowever, the beam was torn apart immediately by the barrier erected from the powers of the four sacred beasts, with only scattered bits making it through the barrier and landing on Song Maoxun.

nLu Xuan saw millions of specks of light unleashed from Song Maoxun’s body. The bearing of his entire being seemed to have jumped several orders of magnitude at once.

nSong Maoxun was able to easily make it from his state at the pinnacle of National Guardian level up to Level Eight Deity. Compared to Song Tongheng, who had only been able to boost his powers forcibly using pills, Song Maoxun’s state as a Deity was far superior.

nWhile Song Maoxun was basking in his newly obtained power, he still felt suspicious. The difference between what he got and what he expected to get was just too great.

nAccording to his calculations, such a method of enhancement should have boosted his powers beyond Level Nine. Even if the time and space involved diminished the power quite a bit, it should have still been far more than what he’d received at that moment.

nHe looked up at the night sky and saw the vague outline of a barrier erected above the ancestral land of the Song Clan.

nThat was the barrier that had stopped the rush of energy from pouring down onto him in its entirety.

n“Why is there a barrier?” Song Maoxun’s eyes opened wide. It wasn’t that there were no barriers to be found in the estate’s vicinity, but he knew of all the barriers that existed very well, and there had definitely never one like the one he just saw.

n“Because I put it there,” Lu Xuan explained slowly, with a hint of sarcasm in his eyes.

n“You?” Song Maoxun scowled at Lu Xuan. Intense killing intent was seen in his eyes, but there was a hint of wariness in them, too.

nThe pressure emitted by Lu Xuan’s power was unmistakably huge.

n“How did you know of the trump card of the Song Clan?” Song Maoxun continued glaring at Lu Xuan.

nHe wanted nothing more than to tear Lu Xuan to pieces right there and then.

nHowever, he remained puzzled as to how Lu Xuan had been able to lay down such a specific countermeasure against the clan. He did not believe that Lu Xuan just happened to have set up something that worked by coincidence.

nIt was clear that Lu Xuan had come prepared.

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