As the Killing God's words fell, he struck first.
A Killing God's Sword formed from divine consciousness appeared in his hand, slashing out. The sword light was silent; killing intent transformed into a blood-colored ribbon, shooting straight at Huo Yuhao's brow.
Perhaps an ordinary person would need time to adapt to this space—after all, what was pulled in was their spiritual body, requiring them to wield spiritual power against enemies. If one wasn't skilled at this, they could only wait for death.
But divine-level experts were different. Most could use their divine consciousness to execute most of their abilities and techniques.
The Killing God naturally could as well.
However—executed with pure divine consciousness, this attack was naturally far weaker than his true body's.
Huo Yuhao didn't dodge. His left hand rose, and an icy chill surged from his palm. The extreme cold instantly formed a translucent ice wall, blocking the space between him and the sword light.
BOOM!
The blood-colored sword light slammed into the ice wall. Cold and killing intent collided, shattering into ice crystals. The ice wall was covered in cracks, but it had held the sword light back. The chill backlashed along the sword, coating the Killing God's blade with a thin layer of frost.
At the same time, golden light blazed in Huo Yuhao's eyes. Vast divine consciousness condensed into needles, sharp and piercing, shooting toward the Killing God's spiritual body with lightning speed.
Spiritual Shock!
The Killing God's expression shifted slightly. Killing intent, combined with divine consciousness, formed a barrier before him, trying to block the spiritual shock.
But Huo Yuhao's boosted spiritual power had temporarily surpassed him, and the level of concentration of this spiritual shock completely exceeded his expectations!
His barrier was like thin paper before the spiritual shock, lasting only an instant before being pierced.
"Ugh!" The Killing God grunted, stumbling back as a sharp pain pierced his mind.
This was the first time since their battle began that he'd been at a disadvantage.
Still, he quickly suppressed the mental pain, retreating to avoid Huo Yuhao's next attack, then fixed his gaze on him.
"Your specialty is the spiritual path?"
Since what had entered this space were spiritual bodies, the strength of one's spiritual power and their control over it were crucial.
Some had vast spiritual power but could only use it crudely; true masters of spiritual control could achieve far greater effects with equal or even weaker power.
And Huo Yuhao's control over divine consciousness was somewhat unexpected for the Killing God.
If Huo Yuhao's application of divine power was slightly unpolished, his control over divine consciousness actually surpassed the Killing God's.
But how was that possible? True, he wasn't a spiritual-path expert, but it wasn't a weakness either. How could a young mortal surpass him—a former second-class deity—in spiritual control? How had he developed such mastery?
Was this person simply too monstrous?!
Huo Yuhao didn't answer, simply continuing to fight.
Extreme cold radiated from him, spreading through this space.
The sky's temperature plummeted. The heavens shattered like a mirror, scattering into ice crystals, dyeing the space silver-white.
Absolute Zero!
Huo Yuhao pressed his left hand down, and the ice crystals exploded into a white cold front, sweeping toward the Killing God.
Where the cold front passed, even the void froze; even spiritual power's flow slowed and solidified.
The Killing God's expression shifted sharply. Blood light blazed from his sword; killing intent surged like a tsunami, meeting the cold front head-on.
BOOM!
Blood-colored sword light and extreme cold ice mist collided, sending visible ripples through the spiritual space.
Cold and killing intent clashed fiercely. The piercing chill seeped along the sword light into the Killing God's divine consciousness, slowing his movements.
Just then, Huo Yuhao was already before him. A thorn-like halo blazed around him, spiritual power spreading outward like vines.
Thorn Halo!
Having never seen this technique before, the Killing God's pupils contracted. Unprepared, he instinctively slashed.
But the moment the sword light touched Huo Yuhao, a stinging pain rebounded, stabbing deep into the Killing God's sea of consciousness, making it tremble.
The Killing God's face went pale. Even the Killing God's Sword in his hand momentarily faltered.
"This is—a spiritual rebound?!"
That thorn-like halo had directly converted half his attack into a spiritual assault, corroding his sea of consciousness!
As the Killing God realized this, Huo Yuhao—having weathered the sword light—closed in.
A palm imbued with the chaotic power of the seven elements struck his chest.
BOOM!
The Killing God shot backward like a meteor, crashing into the spiritual space's ground, blasting a crater several deep, dust and gravel shooting skyward.
When the dust cleared, the Killing God stood in the crater, blood light shielding him, his gaze dark as he stared at Huo Yuhao.
"Impressive. You dared to pull me into this spiritual space—you do have some tricks. But this alone won't defeat me!"
As he spoke, a thousand red beams exploded before him—not spirit abilities, not sword qi, but the Killing God's fists.
In that instant, he'd thrown a thousand punches, each wrapped in killing intent. The intersecting fist shadows formed a mysterious formation, sealing Huo Yuhao's space and leaving him nowhere to dodge or retreat.
Seeing this, a glint of sharpness flashed in Huo Yuhao's eyes. Instead of dodging, he met the thousand fists head-on. A fist intent that could destroy all things and shake the void erupted!
The two forces collided. Void shattered; shockwaves spread for kilometers.
Feeling Huo Yuhao's fist intent—approaching the level of laws—the Killing God's pupils contracted.
This bastard was learning his technique of condensing killing intent and sword intent to the level of laws!
This instantly reminded the Killing God of how Huo Yuhao had continuously improved his divine power control outside.
"He pulled me into this spiritual space not to defeat me, but to continue using me to temper himself." The Killing God's heart sank. "A fine whetstone."
Even though divine power couldn't be used here, he clearly had other things worth learning.
This battle wasn't a fight for Huo Yuhao—it was a lesson. And he, the Killing God, was the teaching tool.
With that thought, the Killing God frowned, instinctively wanting to reduce the battle's intensity, exposing fewer of his techniques.
But the next moment, Huo Yuhao's overwhelming assault pressed down like a storm, not giving him a chance to breathe, let alone hold back.
The Killing God realized—this wasn't the outside world.
Outside, he could suppress Huo Yuhao. Here, he was the one being suppressed.
The situation had reversed.
Most importantly, he was now a spiritual body—not nearly as durable as Huo Yuhao's physical form.
If he held back, his spirit could be gravely wounded!
For a divine-level expert, both divine consciousness and divine power were essential. If his spirit suffered severe damage here, his divine consciousness would be impaired, and his strength outside would be significantly affected.
And that would be the best-case scenario. If his spirit died here—
The Killing God was so frustrated he could almost spit blood, but he had no choice. He had to go along with Huo Yuhao's intentions, giving him lessons.
Advance, and Huo Yuhao would keep stealing his techniques and adapting to the rhythm. Retreat, and his spirit would be damaged, with endless consequences. No matter what, he'd fallen into this mortal's rhythm.
So he could only choose the lesser of two evils.
Still, during the battle, the Killing God adjusted his strategy, focusing more on defense.
Though it went against his combat style, with Huo Yuhao clearly in the advantage, full-on offense would only benefit the other more. So he switched to a reactive approach, minimizing his losses.
His spiritual power was at the third-class Divine Origin level—if not for Huo Yuhao's Creation Awakening, he'd actually have the advantage. And boosted states had time limits. Once Huo Yuhao's condition dropped enough, he could escape this spiritual space.
Then he'd make the other pay!
As time passed, Huo Yuhao grew more fluid, even increasingly adept at suppressing the Killing God as he grew familiar with his techniques.
Every move flowed like water, precisely dismantling the Killing God's attacks and defenses, forcing this former second-class deity to retreat step by step—a complete reversal from outside.
Though the Killing God also grew familiar with Huo Yuhao's abilities, he couldn't feel glad about it.
He'd lived for so long, never been pushed to such a point!
Ji Dong had only sealed him by taking advantage of his exhaustion; Lie Yan had reduced him to divine consciousness through terrain and self-destruction. But no one had ever forced him into such a humiliating position of feeding techniques to an opponent.
Fortunately, he sensed that the surrounding spiritual space was no longer as stable as before.
Just a little longer, and he could escape.
Though his divine consciousness had suffered some damage, it was within acceptable limits—better than he'd expected.
With that thought, the Killing God looked at Huo Yuhao, a dark, suppressed fury in his eyes. "Using me to hone yourself, even giving up greater gains... I hope you don't regret missing your chance!"
His words were low, each syllable seeming forced through clenched teeth.
Huo Yuhao's assault paused slightly. His gaze fell on the Killing God, his expression ambiguous. "A chance? Yes, it's time for the second round."
The Killing God sneered, blood light swirling in his eyes. "Stop bluffing. I've already seen through your tricks. Even if you go all out now, what can you do to me—"
His words cut off.
Behind Huo Yuhao, nine figures appeared beside him—Skydream Iceworm, Ice Empress, Evil Emperor, Liya, Wang Chuan Qiu Shui Lu, Octagonal Mystic Ice Grass, Blazing Apricot, Ice Dragon King, Fire Dragon King.
Nine Spirit Souls lined up, their auras resonating with Huo Yuhao's. Ten vast spiritual forces surged like a tide, pressing down on the Killing God.
Huo Yuhao looked at him calmly. "I didn't pull only you in here."
Staring at the figures that seemed to transcend ordinary Spirit Souls, the Killing God's heart sank completely.
Having been on this continent for a while, he naturally knew about Spirit Souls.
Ordinary Spirit Souls needed their soul master to provide spirit power to use their abilities. In this space, they could only borrow Huo Yuhao's divine consciousness—ordinary Spirit Souls couldn't do that.
But these beings clearly couldn't be judged by common sense. They could probably use their own abilities through divine consciousness. After all, they were close to transcending the Spirit Soul level entirely!
No—he couldn't let them assist Huo Yuhao!
Without a word, the Killing God transformed into a blood-colored streak, charging at Skydream—seemingly the weakest of the group.
But Ice Dragon King and Fire Dragon King, fully empowered by Huo Yuhao's divine consciousness, moved simultaneously. Ice and fire dragon roars echoed through the spiritual space. The Ice Dragon King's breath and the Fire Dragon King's flames interwove into a twin dragon vortex, meeting the blood streak head-on.
BOOM!
The three forces collided. Though the twin dragon vortex was mostly torn apart by the blood sword light, it successfully blocked the attack.
The Killing God steadied himself with a grim expression, watching the charging dragon kings, then looked up.
Blazing Apricot and Octagonal Mystic Ice Grass had settled on Huo Yuhao's shoulders. Ultimate fire and ultimate ice interwove around him into an Ice Fire Taiji Diagram, his power surging.
Liya and Wang Chuan Qiu Shui Lu stood on either side, casting abilities to enhance spiritual power.
Mermaid Duet!
Autumn Water Breaking Illusion!
Evil Emperor, Ice Empress, and Skydream poured their power into Huo Yuhao.
Watching the Killing God below, still entangled with the dragon kings, Huo Yuhao's expression sharpened.
"It's time to end this."
"Space-Time Light!"
A beam of light erupted from his eyes, instantly covering the space where the Killing God stood. Time seemed to freeze—the Killing God's movements, the dragon kings' breath, the ice crystals floating in the void—all frozen in place.
"Ninth Spirit Ability—Ice Fire... Infinite!"
Huo Yuhao brought his hands together. Two ultimate forces interwove and merged in his palms, forming an Ice Fire Taiji Diagram that slowly rotated, each revolution radiating world-destroying pressure.
He pushed the diagram forward. The sphere of light trailed a long tail of flame, descending upon the frozen Killing God.
Watching the incoming attack, the Killing God's eyes nearly split.
Move—body, move!
He screamed internally, killing intent surging within, trying to break the Space-Time Light's bind.
Blood light swelled around him; cracks spread through the frozen void—he finally broke free a sliver, barely raising the Killing God's Sword before him.
But it was too late.
BOOM!!!
The Ice Fire Taiji Diagram crashed into the blade. Ultimate ice and ultimate fire exploded. The Killing God was instantly consumed by the destructive force. The entire spiritual space was also affected, trembling violently, cracks spreading like a spiderweb in all directions.
Finally, with a crack, the space shattered.
Outside, to the onlookers, Huo Yuhao and the Killing God had only paused for an instant.
The next moment—
"Ugh—!"
The Killing God let out a groan, stumbling back as if struck.
His face drained of all color, pale as paper. Dark red blood seeped from his ears and nose. His sword arm trembled violently; the blood light on the Killing God's Sword suddenly dimmed, nearly extinguishing.
Clearly—his divine consciousness had been severely wounded.