Chapter 673: The Strongest True God

A single punch from Zhu Ji destroyed all the blazing meteors.

Flames rained down like a torrential downpour around him, but he remained unshaken.

His short, sturdy stature stood lofty in the cascading flames like an overlord towering over heaven and earth.

Although he looked small, he was no less imposing than Yan Lie.

At that moment, the onlookers understood why Zhu Ji was hailed as the strongest True God of the human race!

Lie Yang, Jing Sha, and Sha Jia all drew sharp breaths.

"Zhu Ji!"

"A talent like that exists among the human race?"

"What a terrifying man!"

𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

The strength Zhu Ji displayed left them overwhelmed with helplessness and fear. They realized that none of them could withstand even that punch from him.

The murky energy of the Fifth World surged around Zhu Ji like tidal waves.

His small stature appeared as immovable as a mountain.

Everything about him carried an awe-inspiring force.

His eyes held terrifying weight, his will bore power, and his every exhale stirred the fabric of the world.

Despite ascending to godhood using Fortune, he could unexpectedly command the murky energy of the Fifth World at will!

Zhu Ji could draw upon every form of energy, regardless of whether natural or summoned.

This included the blazing rays of sunlight and torrents of fire within Lie Yang's Primordial Sun Diagram, Jing Sha's shadowy spectral force, Sha Jia's radiant light, and Ah Man's earthen might.

Zhu Ji could shatter all techniques with sheer power alone!

His Dao was power itself, the sum of all the energies and forces in existence. The deeper truths of any one element or the laws that governed them did not matter to him. He simply wielded it.

Power, raw and unfiltered, was his weapon.

Zhu Ji shattered the massive blazing meteors using the murky energy of the Fifth World alongside the energies leaking from Lie Yang, Jing Sha, Sha Jia, and Ah Man.

Insights and esoteric truths meant nothing to Zhu Ji.

So long as it could generate energy, create force, or unleash destructive power, it was his to command.

He wielded energy itself.

"I drew upon the ambient spiritual qi of the heavens and earth while in the First and Second Worlds because it was abundant there. In the Fifth World, I do the same with murky energy—I bend it to my will.

"When I break free from the Abyss, the myriad energies in the starry skies will similarly become part of my strength.

"I don't care about the laws or the Daos. I will break them all."

Zhu Ji struck again, fist crashing forward.

Endless murky energy surged forth, and a strange phenomenon formed in the skies of the Fifth World. It was as if billowing clouds were converging upon Zhu Ji's fist.

The Fifth World itself responded to the swing of his fist. Heaven and earth stirred, and the pressure of his strike sent tremors through all the living beings in the Fifth World.

Even the dense murky energy that had gathered above Fire God Yan Lie's head was drawn toward his fist, pulled into the magnetic momentum of his strike.

All the energy within ten thousand li was drawn into his fist. Then, with the grandeur of a divine being cleaving open the heavens and earth, Zhu Ji punched straight at Yan Lie.

The outwardly unremarkable Zhu Ji had become the center of attention.

Zhu Ji's strength and mastery of his unique Heavenly Dao surpassed Yan Lie's expectations.

Yan Lie was finally forced to reveal his divine form.

His body grew to ten thousand zhang tall. Hundreds of fiery streams flowed across his skin, arcs of flame and lightning rippling over his body.

Flame Spirits emerged from his sleeves, brows, shoulders, and even earlobes, all dancing and crackling with life.

These animated Flame Spirits had souls, flesh, and bone. They were a wondrous race born alongside Yan Lie himself.

In their eyes, Yan Lie was their father, progenitor, and creator.

They evolved naturally over time, aiding Yan Lie in his pursuit of the Dao of Fire. They offered him their wisdom, lives, and power. Together, they upheld the majesty of his divine form.

Yan Lie's divine domain manifested above his head.

The Flame Spirits surged forth, pouring into the Fire God's divine domain to forge blazing worlds, construct divine kingdoms, build citadels, and uphold the delicate balance of the worlds.

Divine kingdoms took shape in the blink of an eye, skipping over tens of millions of years of growth as they blossomed into wonders.

Awe-inspiring ancient Fire Gods emerged within Yan Lie's divine domain, bearing torches, braziers, and furnaces, each raising their sacred artifacts high toward the heavens.

An external force threatened to invade their worlds.

They stood in united defense, summoning every ounce of power they had to counter the assault.

The sight left all the spectators stunned.

Gui Mu, Lie Yang, Ah Man, Jing Sha, and Sha Jia froze in place.

None of them could tell whether the divine kingdoms, citadels, fiery worlds, living beings, and divine beings within Yan Lie's divine domain were real or a dazzling illusion.

Regardless, Yan Lie's divine domain successfully withstood Zhu Ji's fearsome punch.

Murky energy surged without end.

It converged from across the skies, the seven continents, and every corner of the Fifth World, finding direction and purpose through Zhu Ji.

Zhu Ji wielded the murky energy of the Fifth World to strike at Yan Lie's divine domain.

The vividly real divine domain recreated the life cycle of a starry domain in the starry skies, rising from nothingness to vibrant prosperity, then fading into desolation and ultimately ruin.

Yan Lie's profound understanding of the Heavenly Dao and insight into the transformations of the starry skies inspired awe in formidable beings like Gui Mu and Lie Yang.

Only after witnessing this sight did they truly understand the chasm that lay between them and the mighty Outer Gods.

None among them could have stood Yan Lie in the same way. Only Zhu Ji, with his Dao that embodied the very essence of power, could do so.

"No wonder Li Wang left with such ease of mind," Sha Jia murmured with a tinge of dismay, still seated atop Ah Man's broad shoulder, "We underestimated the True Gods of the human race."

Ah Man grunted in agreement. "Without a mighty Outer God present, Zhu Ji alone could have wiped us all out."

Sha Jia gave a bitter nod, her silence filled with reluctant assent.

Those in the Abyss had long known Zhu Ji was powerful, but they never comprehended the reason behind it until now.

He could draw upon all the energy in the entire Abyss, transforming it into the raw essence of power and turning it into a weapon to crush his foes.

Zhu Ji's Dao of Power not only empowered him within the confines of the Abyss but also beyond it. Even in the vast expanse of the starry skies, his Dao would remain just as mighty.

If he ever broke through the barrier and left the Abyss, he would be able to wield all the cosmic energies in the starry skies.

He appeared to possess nearly limitless power.

Unless he was cast into true nothingness, a place utterly devoid of all worldly energy, Zhu Ji was like a perpetual engine, never in danger of exhausting his strength.

Perhaps the Sovereign had recognized the terrifying potential of Zhu Ji's Dao and sent him to the Sixth World through the six artifacts to wear him down.

Unfortunately for her, the Sixth World still had murky energy, and Zhu Ji never truly suffered from its corruption.

A single protective shield had been enough for him to keep murky energy from seeping into his body and disrupting the balance of his inner spiritual power.

"I never left the Abyss because Li Wang begged me to stay and help the human race weather another crisis.

"Li Wang wanted me to stand guard against beings like you, that Sovereign, and the Primordial Demon—Outer Gods who defy all order. It doesn't matter what conventional rules you all break here in the Abyss; none of you can wield your peak combat prowess here.

"As for me, I can no longer be measured by the standards of a normal True God."

Zhu Ji stilled his punches.

The vast murky energy of the Fifth World gathered around where he hovered motionless above Yan Lie's divine domain.

This murky energy was no longer intangible. Instead, it took form as visible gray-brown, violet-blue, pale green, and deep black clusters as they surged toward Zhu Ji in churning waves.

Zhu Ji had condensed the murky energy and refined it into a tangible form.

At that moment, the True Gods above tore through the sky of the Fifth World and descended.

They were left stunned at the scene before them.

The high-ranking Outer God Yan Lie had unleashed his divine form and even summoned his divine domain.

Despite this, Zhu Ji was single-handedly suppressing him, using the condensed murky energy of the entire Fifth World to wear down Yan Lie's divine domain.

This murky energy slowly burned away when it entered Yan Lie's divine domain, draining its supply in the Fifth World.

As the battle dragged on, the ability of murky energy to rise into the upper worlds became limited. The foreign races' dream of using it to breach the Second World would soon be impossible to realize.

"Truly worthy of the title of the strongest among the True Gods," Li Zhaotian said, sighing in admiration at the overwhelming power surging around Zhu Ji.

After fusing with the barrier of the Abyss, Li Zhaotian gained the ability to draw upon its might to empower the True Gods and greatly enhance his strength in the First and Second Worlds.

However, it was still a far cry from Zhu Ji's terrifying Heavenly Dao, which encompassed all sources of energy and claimed all energies as its own.

Such a Heavenly Dao would allow Zhu Ji to remain peerless even beyond the Abyss.

As long as Zhu Ji lived and grew, the Hall of Gods would surely one day be shaken again.

"Once this crisis is weathered, I'll leave the Abyss," Zhu Ji said, turning his head to look at Li Zhaotian and the others. "Be careful. There are two more troublesome Outer Gods besides Yan Lie."

The Primordial Demon had yet to show himself, and Luo Hongyan's whereabouts remained unknown.

In Zhu Ji's eyes, the Primordial Demon and Luo Hongyan posed far greater threats than Yan Lie.

The battle between the human race and the foreign races had fully broken out, and he feared those two would suddenly appear when they least expected it.