Chapter 673: Formless Will

Even so, the Jindao warlord didn't intend to give up. Zhang Lie wasn't in a rush, either. He was waiting for the Jindao to break open the treasury first. The Jindao were clearly prepared; they might actually be able to manage such a feat.

The imperial treasury was where the king of the realm amassed the rare and precious treasures he had acquired with his authority over the world.

Just as Zhang Lie thought the Jindao warlord was about to give up, the Jindao warlord howled. The radiance of a soulshard emanated from his body, transforming Zhang Lie's oppressive pressure into a force which propelled the Jindao's next attack.

The Jindao was supremely confident in his attack; it was what allowed him to defeat the previous 90th-ranked warlord.

The strength of this attack was commensurate with his opponent's techniques. It combined the force of Zhang Lie's [Fists of the Silent Sea], the gravity from his dragonturtle tablets, as well as Jin Yu's own martial ability.

The resulting counterattack shook the entire capital. Even the king of the realm, quelling the beast horde gathered outside the capital's borders, could feel the strength propagating through the air.

Sword energy flashed through the entirety of the capital.

"Interesting." Zhang Lie chuckled, curling his fingers leisurely. He wasn't at all panicked by the counterattack.

Jin Yu's soulshard-and-technique combination would prove quite interesting to behold.

Jin Yu howled, "Fall to your own blade!"

"You're trying to attack me with my own techniques? I don't think so—[Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]!" Zhang Lie punched forward once more, using a technique with such strength it made the very air warp and crushing all resistance in its way.

"How could this be!" Jin Yu was shocked, but he was a veteran of such battles and was able to respond quickly. Another beam of sword energy shot into the air.

The image of a dragonturtle materialized behind Zhang Lie once more as the two gravity-altering tablets crashed down by Jin Yu's side. Black ripples emanated from the two gravity-altering tablets, forming a localized region of distorted gravity.

Jin Yu, who had just leapt into the air, lost all his momentum immediately and almost fell straight down.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]!" Zhang Lie's fist morphed into a demonic serpent which shot out into the air, dissolving the space around it to strengthen its physical form. Where the serpent passed by, it left behind a small patch of dark void, like a pitch-black stream.

Jin Yu knew that he would be unable to defend against this technique. He had no choice but to use his final trump card.

Jin Yu's sword swung through the air, harvesting the energy of the realm. A golden qilin's scale manifested out of thin air, forming a shield that stood before Jin Yu. It was formed out of a combination of gold-attuned energy and spatial force.

As the demonic serpent clashed against the golden qilin shield, a huge explosion rang out. Waves of energy buffeted Zhang Lie and Jin Yu. The ground shook, and a gigantic pit opened up beneath them.

The golden qilin shield were strong enough to bear the initial wave of corrosive energy, but the serpent still lingered even after the attack, causing the shield to rapidly tarnish with its presence.

Jin Yu's face grew alarmed. No one had ever managed to break through his defense using such a technique before!

Once again, he launched a counterattack with his technique that reflected an opponent's blow. The demonic serpent's corrosive energy twined with the golden qilin shield.

Jin Yu caused the shield to explode, shattering the serpent's form. The corrosive energy that erupted from the explosion combined with the golden qilin's energy, growing sharper and more penetrating as Jin Yu infused spatial force into the attack.

As expected of a third-realm warlord—this was his ace in the hole.

Zhang Lie thought that Jin Yu's combat style was focused on defense, but he had been mistaken. Jin Yu focused on capturing his opponents' attacks with his defense, then retaliating by converting those attacks into his offense. Not only that, his attacks weren't weak in their own right.

Jin Yu's current combat strength was infinitesimally close to that of a disaster-grade lifeform, but unfortunately for him, it was nothing in comparison to Zhang Lie's, who had already been deemed a disaster-grade lifeform by the will of the world.

"[The Boundless Blade: Expulsion]!" Instead of drawing his sword, Zhang Lie simply made a stroke with his finger. A formless will shot forth, dull and colorless, but the strongest fighters situated in the capital all took note.

It seemed entirely unthreatening, but the moment Jin Yu sensed the energy, his eyes grew wide.

The energy cut through Jin Yu's aura, through his sturdy golden qilin scales, with effortless ease, as though it was only natural. That was what made the attack so sinister. Jin Yu's golden scales, sturdy as steel and reinforced with spatial aura, could hardly be cut so cleanly or easily, and Zhang Lie's corrosive energy was much the same.

However, Zhang Lie had easily cut apart something that should not have been cut, as though the energy that dissipated from Zhang Lie belonged to a higher dimension.

Jin Yu had no choice but to materialize another golden qilin shield, a whole row of them, forming an impenetrable wall.

Each scale was composed of gold-attuned energy and reinforced with spatial force, then reinforced once again by the array Jin Yu was utilizing for the technique.

However, the formless energy sliced through this wall as easily as any obstacle that had come before, as though it were made of papier mache.

How could this be??The Jindao prided themselves on the strength of their gold-attuned genetic energy, purer, sharper, and stronger than those of other races. How could their pride have been sliced apart so easily by Zhang Lie?

Jin Yu was truly at a loss...