Although the monster had used the divine ability of time stopping, it was still a Fiend in the end and not a Saint. Using this divine ability was its limit, and complete control was an impossibility. There was why Zheng had a sliver of a chance to escape. Of course, Zheng, who was trapped in a time stop, was naturally unaware of all this. Only Xuan had calculated all this out.

Meanwhile, as Xuan flew into the sky, what was below his feet was the fortress capital. He was holding a Gauss pistol in one hand, his eyes full of fervour. At the same time, his power of faith had been completely activated and reached the current maximum power he could use, even unlocking the initial fourth stage.

“I can definitely shoot through to the Abyss. I can definitely shoot through! DEFINITELY!” Xuan roared passionately. The Gauss pistol immediately emitted thousands of metres of radiant light. It was more acute than any time power of faith had been used before. In this instant, time seemed to pause around Xuan. All the brilliance concentrated around the muzzle of the Gauss pistol. With the high degree of concentration, the power of faith finally activated, and the Gauss pistol bullet carried the brilliance as it was fired with a violent boom. The millimetres sized bullet looked like it carried limited power, but when this bullet struck the ground, that brilliance was let off as well...

The far-off Wangxia was looking very anxiously at the sky. He finally saw a ball of brilliance crash into the ground when Xuan used the power of faith,. When it struck, it immediately let off a radiance as dazzling as the sun. It pierced into his eyes, turning everything white. The ground began violently trembling before the brilliance could dim down, as if there was an earthquake of magnitude eight or nine. Wangxia wasn’t able to prepare in time and fell onto the ground from the quaking. Only when the earthquake and brilliance disappeared did Wangxia anxiously get to his feet and looked at the far-off distance. The area had been shot through and turned into a giant hole, with a diameter about two hundred meters, with an unknown depth. This shot’s power was actually large to this extent. No, to be accurate, the might of the power of faith was actually at this ridiculous level.

“How ridiculous. Even ten miniature nuclear bombs couldn’t compare to this shot’s power, right? Could Xuan be stronger than Zheng?” Wangxia muttered to himself. After saying a few sentences, he suddenly exclaimed, “That’s right, it’s the power of faith! Doesn’t it consume life force? He used such power, so his life...” As he shouted, Wangxia took out the Sky Stick, planning to rush over there. But before he could, his surroundings were suddenly engulfed in darkness. A giant creature flew down from the sky, flying past five or six metres above his head. The enormous wind pressure stopped him from taking to the skies, and at the same time, a human figure shouted as it fell down, finally crushing the Sky Stick and him beneath it.

“...Cheng Xiao. It’s really painful having you crush me...”

“Sorry, I was suddenly thrown down. I don’t have any energy to move for a while. Don’t worry, I’m just a hundred and something kilograms. You can’t possibly be unable to endure something like this, right?”

“Even so... Do you think having most of a hundred and something kilograms crushing you is pleasant? Get lost!”

Putting aside Wangxia yelling as he pushed Cheng Xiao away, the giant dragon on the other side had flown over at high speed from far off. Its flight speed was extremely fast, perhaps the result of using draconic energy. Based on physics, this speed, where a single flap of the wings carried it several hundred metres, wasn’t possible on such an enormous reptile-like body.

This giant black dragon didn’t overthink things. When it flew to the airspace above the capital, it bent its body down and charged straight down. It charged straight into the underground hole Xuan had shot through with power of faith. It extended and waved a claw, actually grabbing a man with completely white coloured hair. This man was indeed Xuan, who had fainted after overextending himself due to using power of faith. The black dragon didn’t have the slightest pause, and continued charging downwards after grabbing Xuan.

Going back to when Xuan had used the power of faith. That Gauss bullet had carried power of faith and penetrated the earth. At the moment of firing, Xuan had finally confirmed something that he had always been hypothesizing about, which was about the power of faith’s Lambda Driver’s maximum output and energy consumption.

Xuan had been systematically researching his enhancement, the Lambda Drive’s method of manifesting power since a long time ago. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the necessary large amounts of equipment and facilities. These cutting-edge facilities couldn’t be created by his basement and could only be exchanged through God. Xuan had never had much points or ranked rewards from the start. When he could exchange these facilities, he had obtained the Cultivation techniques and treasures that needed analysis. So, he didn’t have the corresponding facilities to analyse the power of faith until now. What he had were mostly hypotheses.

The might of the Lambda Drive was limitless. When used, it could also ignore some of the laws of physics. For example, Xuan had once used his body to stand on a beam of light. This power merely needed belief that you could do it. As long as you believed you could do it, anything, no matter how preposterous, could be accomplished. Of course, paying an equivalent life force to balance it out was understandable.

It was just that it was much easier said than done. Man’s consciousness wasn’t a machine. It couldn’t have an absolute belief like a machine. The smarter someone was, the harder it would be to display this power. Even if they hypnotized themselves into a zealot or hot-blooded youth, there would always be wavering in the deepest recesses of the heart from what they did. Even a slight wavering could decrease power of faith, or even cancel it out completely. For example, if a sick person were to pick up a slingshot to shoot the moon, it was impossible for them to have the belief that it was possible. Even if they were hypnotized, there would be wavering, which was why power of faith was so hard to unleash. How to unleash power of faith to the utmost had been the direction of research Xuan was consistently pursuing.

The second point was just a pure guess. A powerful method of attack like power of faith couldn’t possibly not consume energy to initiate attacks. Based on the law of Conservation of Energy, the life force lost everytime couldn’t possibly be the source of all the energy for power of faith. So, the depletion in life force likely existed only as a backlash for power of faith. The true energy should come from the energy freely existing within space. This time, Xuan had completely unleashed power of faith and had shot through several hundred metres of earth, straight to the Abyss, with one shot from the sky.

This power was sufficient to prove that life force wasn’t the energy source of power of faith, but the energy freely floating within space. If so, a certain use Xuan had for this ability was now viable, but that was to come in the future. It wasn’t to be mentioned now, as Xuan was unaware of all this. Although the life force depletion was just a backlash, he hadn’t been able to bear it and immediately fainted dead away after using this absolutely powerful strike. If the dragon hadn’t grabbed him, then the later uses would just become a joke.

Ignoring the schemes for the final battle for now and returning to the present, although the monster’s divine ability wasn’t complete and even its own time slowed down, it still slowly fled from Tiger’s Soul. The surrounding runes began to shine, seemingly to prepare to use some ability to kill Zheng. Several minutes had passed since it used time stop. Zheng and the surroundings were still peacefully frozen. Then, a bullet of light descended from the sky.

The bullet of light struck a hundred metres away from the monster with incredible speed. The bullet of light exploded, and enormous energies chaotically assaulted in all directions. The energy around the monster existed in a form similar to electric components. Once disrupted, the divine ability immediately disappeared. It wasn’t a Saint after all, and wasn’t able to prevent this instantaneous destruction.

An instant later, a bang rang out, and a chasm ten metres wide and hundred metres deep was rent open by Zheng.

Zheng’s reaction was also extremely quick. He suddenly discovered the monster wasn’t under his sabre, but instead several tens of metres away. Freezing for a moment, he stepped down, and a small mushroom cloud formed on the ground. In the next moment, Zheng had already run through the monster’s body with Tiger’s Soul, forming a hole several metres in diameter within its body starting from its chest.

The monster wailed pitifully, and the runes surrounding its body began to gather. Although Zheng didn’t know what was going on, how could he let this monster recover its battle strength once more since the runes were already destroyed? His two legs immediately kicked out in mid-air, his entire figure charging over like a flaming arrow. With a bang, he slammed into the monster’s Light of the Soul once again. It was an extremely barbaric way of attacking, as he didn’t use his own Light of the Soul to neutralise it, but instead directly collide with it, forming another hole.

The monster was helpless. There were already two holes in its body within a short one or two seconds. Thinking about it, this monster should be a Fiend of the magic type. Although that body was over a hundred metres and it couldn’t be incompetent in close combat, Zheng while in Chaos, Genesis Splitter, had close combat power that could annihilate the Heavens and decimate the Earth. The monster simply wasn’t able to keep up with his speed. If this carried on, it would most likely die before the surrounding energy settled down.

Left with no alternative, all nine mouths of the monster opened, belching out green poison at Zheng.

How could Zheng fear mere poison? He hadn’t been afraid of even the Alien’s corrosive liquid, and he immediately slashed away the poison. He collided once more into the Light of the Soul, opening another hole in the monster.

However, less than a second later, in the instant Zheng exited the monster’s body, his instincts screamed danger. Several drops of poison had landed on his stomach and a thigh. He didn’t know what the composition of this poison was, as it instantly began corroding inwards. Zheng’s body actually couldn’t block this mere poison. Just two or three drops had corroded through his right thigh. Finally, the corrosion slowed through the dilution from a large volume of blood. Even so, his right lung had already vanished.

A right leg was also so, and had been corroded into nothingness from the inside. The bottom part of the leg directly fell off, while the upper right leg was still slowly corroding. It was too ridiculous. This poison was so acute that it wouldn’t rest until he was completely corroded through.

The monster didn’t seem like it had fared well either. It looked exhausted after belching out poison, and looked extremely dreadful together with the three holes it had. Just as it was about to belch out poison once again, God’s voice rang out in Zheng’s mind.

“Side quest complete. All members receive five thousand points and one ranked B reward.”

Zheng was both surprised and happy. He immediately started laughing wildly, although he was also coughing out blood at the same time.

(That was lucky. Although I don’t know why this monster can’t use magic abilities, but it’s fortunate. The side quest also happened to be completed now. I didn’t expect to survive this... This poison is too overbearing. My body also can’t endure Chaos, Genesis Splitter and is starting to collapse. I hope I can last another minute.)

Zheng couldn’t be any clearer about his body’s condition. With the usage of Chaos, Genesis Splitter, his body had begun to collapse, while the poison only expedited this process. Fortunately, the side quest had completed in time, and Zheng could finally leave the Abyss. So, he immediately fled into the sky. Even if his body would collapse in several tens of seconds, a starved camel was still larger than a horse. The power of Chaos, Genesis Splitter was sufficient to let him charge out of the Abyss.

(Good! I’ve charged out of the hole. The hypnosis in the passageway has already disappeared. Then... Damn!)

Zheng had merely stepped down in the Abyss. The enormous force had propelled him through the ten thousand metres of sky into the upper layer. He was exhausted, while his body continued collapsing. The remaining power of Chaos, Genesis Splitter wasn’t even thirty percent of usual. As he charged out of the hole, however, he was greeted with a spray of violent flames. He finally remembered Galbatorix, as well as the dragon who was standing guard over here with him. However, he was already exhausted, and wasn’t able to agilely dodge it. He could only brandish Tiger’s Soul to welcome those flames, and split apart those waterfall-like flames with a chop. He could still use Chaos, Genesis Splitter’s power after all. At the same time, the giant dragon bore down on him without any regard for its life after belching those flames. It actually wanted to push him back down into the Abyss.

The current Zheng was indeed like a candle about to be extinguished. Not mentioning the poison in his body, he was at the stage where he could no longer endure Chaos, Genesis Splitter. The remaining power left was sufficient to only either swing his sabre one more time, or kick down and charge upwards one more time. Close to complete despair, he saw that giant dragon bearing down, as well as king Galbatorix clamouring out.

“Return to the Abyss! No monster may pass through me to enter the human world!” Galbatorix said loudly. He ruthlessly cast out his dragon spear, and it abruptly pierced through Zheng’s lower abdomen. Then, the giant black dragon grabbed at Zheng with its claws. A black shadow enveloped him. His heart sunk into despair, as he could no longer think of a way this time.

“ROAR!” There was suddenly a deep and resounding draconic roar. A giant black dragon charged down from the sky. Just as king Galbatorix’s dragon grabbed Zheng, the second giant dragon was the second to start but still the first to reach, and howled as it bit at Galbatorix’s dragon’s claw. Unable to guard in time, the dragon’s claw was given a vicious bite. When Zheng was extricated from the claw, he was grabbed by the smaller black dragon in its claw.

The two giant dragons naturally couldn’t determine the victor with a single bite. Unwilling to be outdone, the other giant dragon aggressively bit at the newcomer. Like this, the two giant dragon rolled about at the hole, ramming and biting at each other. Gradually, both sides approached that bottomless Abyss.

Zheng was in the claw of the black dragon that rushed over, and a strange energy entered his body from where it was in contact. The energy was vast and full of vitality. Although it couldn’t compare to the Refined Qi and Magic in his body, it was a class above that of Qi and Blood Energy. This energy began repairing Zheng’s body upon entry. Although this body had been hurt to the point that it couldn’t be damaged further, and had begun a collapse all the way from its most fundamental atoms, his body’s collapse slowed down as this vital energy entered. Chaos, Genesis Splitter’s power begun flowing once again as well.

“Is it the little doggy? Haha, you’ve really grown up?”

Zheng’s mind flashed, and immediately realized the energy entering his body was pure draconic energy and the dragon that saved him was pure black. It should be that young dragon of his that grew up. As the energy within his body gathered once more, he could activate Chaos, Genesis Splitter once more. When he saw they were about to drop into the Abyss once more, he struggled out from the claw. One hand of his grabbed the dragon claw, then he stepped down on mid-air, and actually ridiculously brought along the black dragon as he shot into the sky. How enormous was the might of Chaos, Genesis Splitter? The shockwaves from the step violently exploded outwards, and the other black dragon was momentarily knocked out. When Galbatorix and the dragon recovered, Zheng had already brought his dragon out into the sky through the passageway Xuan made, and was already over a thousand metres up in the sky.

“Who’s next to the Magic Cannon?” Zheng howled as he shot into the sky.

Wangxia and Cheng Xiao had long since gotten up from their scuffle on the ground. Zero and the rest were escorting the elf princess and her group to the plains the opposite direction of the capital. The two heard Zheng’s yells, and shouted into the metal piece at the same time. “Wangxia (Cheng Xiao)!”

“Good!” By this point, Zheng was already over two thousand metres in the sky. King Galbatorix and his dragon had just come out of the hole. Zheng, who had escaped with his life was incomparably excited. “Wangxia and Cheng Xiao, use the Magic Cannon to kill the giant dragon! We’re not going to let go of Eragon’s ranked rewards!”

“Hah! We’ve finally... lived on!”

End of Volume 21: Dragon Slaying

Next, Volume 22: Final Act before the Storm