Bang! Bang!
A series of dull explosions rang out from within Li Zhexian's body.
He had forcibly shattered his own flesh and bones with Spirit Power, driving himself to the brink of death.
At the instant when his life force hovered between extinguished and lingering—
Buzz—
Buzz—
The fourth Spirit Ring suddenly expanded. Blood-red light engulfed several miles of sea, and a crimson pillar of light pierced straight through heaven and earth.
Calamity Rebirth—reappeared in the mortal realm!
But this time, it was entirely different…
After being tempered by the Dragon God's essence blood, the fourth Spirit Ring had transformed beyond the hundred-thousand-year threshold.
Within the crimson pillar, ancient and majestic golden patterns flowed.
It was as if a life-ephemeral flower that transcended racial boundaries
was slowly unfurling layers upon layers of branches and leaves.
This was no longer a mere Spirit Ability, but a true ultimate sublimation—
its leap in power could be called the greatest technique since ancient times!
Boom boom boom boom!!!
The deep, dark firmament was forcibly torn apart by crimson light.
A pressure no weaker than the Sea God's surged outward, standing in equal opposition to the azure divine radiance.
The vortex-like eyes of "Tang San" widened abruptly, disbelief erupting on his face for the first time.
"How can mortal Spirit Power rival divine power?!"
"Fall back! Quickly!" Qian Daoliu shouted, dragging the ship in a frantic retreat, the veins on his forehead bulging.
It was too terrifying!
The collision of two god-tier auras—
even the residual shockwaves made this Limit Douluo's soul tremble!
If they did not withdraw in time,
the overflowing energy alone would be enough to erase everyone on the ship.
"Zhexian is using that move again!" Zhu Zhuqing, Dugu Yan, and Yu Tianheng turned deathly pale. They knew all too well the tragic price Li Zhexian had to pay to unleash this technique.
"Stay calm!" Qian Daoliu used his Light Spirit Power to pull back those who were about to leap into the sea.
He gritted his teeth and sprinted forward,
leaving twin white wakes across the ocean's surface.
"This is different from before!"
"Since Zhexian gave no final instructions, he must already have a way to offset the cost!"
"Rushing in now would only distract him!"
These words eased their hearts slightly,
yet they still stared anxiously at the sea where crimson and azure interwove.
At the same time, Sea God Island mobilized in full.
Although Bo Saixi had previously driven all fishing vessels away from the ocean,
the tsunami triggered by a battle between gods still slammed into coastal cities.
Thousands of Sea Spirit Masters formed arrays to resist the monstrous waves.
The Six Sacred Pillar Guardians trembled as they looked up at the two opposing figures.
"Lord Sea God has descended!"
"Li Zhexian can actually contend with a god!"
Watching the shattered crimson expanse, Bo Saixi's pupils shook violently.
Only now did she truly understand—
How much restraint Li Zhexian had shown in their earlier battle.
...
Li Zhexian's hand tightened around the sword hilt as he slowly drew it out.
Clang!
The friction between blade and sheath produced a clear, lingering resonance.
It was not harsh.
Yet it overwhelmed all other sounds.
The roaring waves, the thunderous energies—even the pressure of a god…
At this moment—
Between heaven and earth, only the sound of the sword being drawn remained.
Clang!
Clang!
As the blade emerged inch by inch,
an indescribable aura spread forth.
Not killing intent.
Not sword intent.
But mortal-world intent.
The smoke of cooking fires in back alleys,
the entanglement of love and hatred,
the cycle of birth, aging, sickness, and death,
the sorrows and joys of all living beings—
The myriad aspects of human existence, the seven emotions and six desires,
all seemed condensed here, coiling around the sword's edge.
As the blade was drawn further and further out,
The pitch-black heavens, darkened by the Big Dipper, were carved open with crack after crack in rhythm with the motion.
As if even the sky itself could not bear the boundless mortal world contained within this sword.
Clang!
The Qinglian Sword was fully unsheathed.
A resonant chime, as if heaven and earth were first opened, rippled outward.
High above—
Those cracks in the sky connected end to end, forming a ten-thousand-meter-long chasm spanning the firmament.
What made all living beings' expressions change even more was this—
the outline of that rift was unmistakably shaped like a sword.
"Qinglian Sword Song, Tenth Form—"
Li Zhexian's voice sounded calm,
yet it seemed to whisper directly into the hearts of all beings.
"Aspect of All Living Beings."
This was his mortal-world sword intent,
revealed for the first time to the world—and to the transcendent god.
The moment the words fell,
the Qinglian Sword in his hand became illusory,
then transformed into a streak of flowing light filled with the smoke and fire of the mortal world.
It shot skyward,
merging into the ten-thousand-meter-long sword-shaped chasm in the heavens.
In the next instant,
that scar upon the sky truly became his sword.
This was a sword using heaven as its sheath.
Li Zhexian stood between sea and sky.
He slowly raised his hand and grasped toward the firmament from afar.
He seized the hilt of that sword stretched across the heavens,
and slashed downward at the distant "Tang San," whose divine might surged endlessly.
There was no dazzling brilliance.
No piercing shriek.
Only a ten-thousand-meter sword scar, carrying rolling mortal dust and towering worldly fire,
descended in utter silence.
Beneath the blade,
all things were assimilated into fragments of the mortal world…
Countless phantom cities, condensed joys and sorrows were born and extinguished within it.
Divine might was stained; laws were overwritten.
Where this sword reached,
all things entered the mortal realm,
and all laws returned to the mundane.
This was the ultimate strike—
humanity's power condensed to challenge a god.
The ten-thousand-meter sword forged from boundless mortal dust
collided head-on with the Sea God's trident, which drew upon the power of countless stars.
Before the mortal world sword intent,
that God-King–level attack—capable of twisting stellar trajectories—
was stripped away layer by layer,
like ice and snow meeting a blazing sun.
In the end, it dissolved into nothingness,
becoming faint azure motes of light that melted into the sea.
The shock froze on "Tang San's" face.
In those godly eyes, deep as the ocean abyss, flickered an incredulous terror.
He could clearly sense it—
his pure, flawless divine power was being permeated
by that omnipresent mortal-world aura,
growing turbid and heavy,
as though bearing the weight of the entire human world.
The god lost to the man.
"Ugh!" He let out a muffled groan.
The golden trident in his hand emitted a strained crack.
Several fissures burst open along the shaft.
His divine consciousness, as if pierced by a red-hot blade,
was forced to withdraw from Tang San's mortal body and return to its true form in the Divine Realm.
However—
that mortal-world sword followed like a shadow,
surpassing the limits of space and dimension.
At the very instant the Sea God's consciousness returned to its true body
and had just solidified in the Divine Realm Plaza—
Pfft!
A sword intent condensed from surging mortal dust appeared out of thin air.
With irresistible force,
it pierced straight through his divine body.
The impact hurled him backward,
pinning him violently to the pillar that upheld the cosmos in the Divine Realm Plaza.
Before the eyes of Ji Dong, the Asura God,
and one god after another who had been shaken by the mortal sword intent
and torn through space to arrive from all corners of the God Realm—
"Puh—!"
The Sea God spat out a mouthful of azure divine blood.
The divine radiance around him dimmed abruptly,
his aura withering.
Under countless horrified and solemn gazes,
this ancient god who ruled the oceans
lowered his head—one that had never bowed before—
and, with great difficulty, uttered three words:
"I... have lost."
The God of Destruction coldly swept his gaze over the gods, who were silent as cicadas in winter.
"Since you are all here,"
"convene a Divine Realm council immediately."
"This meeting…"
"will discuss the authority and seat of the new god, Li Zhexian, within the Divine Realm."