Imhotep and Hao Tian’s faces carried traces of lingering fear. The Xuans’ attacks just now was different from Hao Tian’s Holy Light. It was a type of attack that annihilated energy. Within the gorge left behind, other than the rocks blown away by the shockwaves, everything within had been obliterated by the power of faith. If it had landed on them... They weren’t unable to imagine it. They just didn’t dare to.
The two were afraid and immediately began to use their maximum power. Under that pressure to survive, the two didn’t intend to hold back. Stay away from Xuan if you cherished your life. This wasn’t just a pretty slogan for team China and team Devil that had both suffered under Xuans.
“Did you know? There are many secrets behind Holy Light. It’s one of the most pinnacle forms of Light of the Soul. The only Light of the Soul I know that equals it is Gando’s A.T. Field. Zheng’s world destroying flames can surpass it as well. There’s only these two that equals or surpasses it!” Hao Tian shouted. He was telling the truth. He had never seen any other Light of the Soul that reached Holy Light’s standard. Perhaps it was just that other’s Light of the Soul hadn’t manifested its form yet, but this still showed the power of Holy Light.
As Hao Tian manipulated his Holy Light, the golden light gradually solidified into half-body armour on his body and a longspear in his hand. Apart from his head, his chest, wrists and other critical parts of his body were all covered. Golden light was behind his back in a manner reminiscent of wings, giving him the imposingness of an angel of war. There was no flaw outside of the fear mixed with madness in his expression.
Imhotep’s showing wasn’t bad either. He had created a granite giant. It was no longer the colour of sand, but rather the colour of an amethyst-like granite. Although it wasn’t as ridiculous as a hundred meters, but it still stood tall at fifty meters, and obviously possessed shocking power. It looked slightly stronger than that tiny Hao Tian in the air.
Of course, the truth wasn’t merely what could be seen. The gap in strength wasn’t what could be seen with the eyes. When the granite giant appeared, Hao Tian abruptly descended, covering the short hundred meters in two or three seconds. His longspear stabbed into the giant’s arm it used to protect its head, and the several meter thick arm was actually pierced through and broken by this small longspear. Just as Hao Tian was preparing to stab the giant again, its other arm came attacking and its fist that hit from above sent Hao Tian crashing into the ground. At the same time, the giant raised its snapped off wrist and pummeled the sand Hao Tian had fallen into. Every pounding it gave would send sand flying dozens of meters up, the enormous force quickly creating a deep pit.
“This is a pure energy type attack, isn’t it? Dammit, you learnt unexpectedly fast!” Hao Tian’s enraged bellows rung out from the deep pit. There was a flash of golden light as a golden figure covered in blood appeared before the granite figure.
Energy was opposing, and there was no absolute suppression. Just as light could suppress darkness, so too could darkness suppress light. Hao Tian’s energy could dissolve the energy in Imhotep’s body, and the opposite was true as well. It was just which side could give the other more damage. Imhotep had given Hao Tian a good beating and completely erased Hao Tian’s advantage.
Hao Tian didn’t show any weakness as the golden light on his body remained vigorous. Under the pressure for survival, or rather, the pressure of Xuans’, he unleashed an unimaginable passion for battle. Although he had been given a thrashing, he still dropped down from above the giant and a foot pressed down on the giant's forehead, disintegrating it into powder with a flash of golden light. The giant roared as its entire body began to tremble. However, it merely trembled and hadn’t been brought down by Hao Tian’s blow, instead waving its arm to strike the mid-air Hao Tian again.
This punch hit hard, and sent Hao Tian flying a hundred meters away. Hao Tian was lucky to have the golden light’s protection, or this punch would have reduced him to a meat paste. However, the giant actually hadn’t finished venting, as it ripped out a chunk of granite from its body and hurled it at him. A ball of golden light descended from above and exploded on the granite, sending tremendous shockwaves through the surroundings. The sand and dust cloud raised obscured the giant’s vision and when it settled down a dozen seconds later, Hao Tian was within the sand, over a hundred balls of light around him, which all shone brilliantly over the area.
“I really am an idiot. I was actually delayed so long by a weakling like you. Forget it. I’ll kill you even if I have to go all-out. I no longer care how much weaker I’ll be after that. I’ll be tied down and die here if I don’t kill you. Thus, I’ll leave it up to fate!” Hao Tian laughed madly as his entire body trembled. He had to overdraft from his life force to release so much Holy Light this time was for his level of power. He would die this time if he wasn’t able to kill Imhotep. This was what was meant by betting it all on a single throw.
Imhotep could see incoming danger, and the giant began to come apart. It seemed he wanted to enter the sand again. However, the granite giant came apart much slower than the sand man, and Hao Tian couldn't possibly let him slowly escape. He leapt up, his legs shining resplendently as he kicked the over hundred balls at the giant. Every ball that came into contact would result in golden light coating the giant like liquid. Ball by ball, layer by layer, the giant’s figure was forcibly corroded by the golden liquid.
Hao Tian gave the giant a powerful and bold kick, but its speed after hitting the giant was very slow, as if it was mired in mud. However, every inch it entered would break apart the thick granite body, as well as corroding the black energy within away. After a dozen seconds, half of the giant’s body had been eaten away, and the remaining half broke apart, reforming into a mass of black energy.
The mass of black energy raced downwards madly. However, for some reason, under the might of the golden light, it was unable to dig into the sandy ground and could only let out roars as it thrashed about under the balls of lights’ pressure. Unfortunately, the pressure was too great and left the shadow unable to move.
“You can’t run! Die!”
Hao Tian had gone mad, and had already used all the power in his body. When he had jumped up to attack before, he had infused a portion of Holy Light into the sandy ground to seal off the giant’s path of retreat. This complete eruption had left his body without a scrap of power. The Holy Light that was outside his body, on the surface of his body and in the sand were part of his resolve to kill off Imhotep. Not long after, there was a bang as Hao Tian’s feet finally landed on the ground, the final bit of shadow crushed. He could faintly hear a man screaming out the word Anck-Su-Namun, before no sound was left.
“I won…?”
Hao Tian fell down lying on the ground without a care for how he looked. He cut an embarrassing figure as his final frenzied attack had completely torn apart his clothes, leaving him completely naked with even his underwear not spared. He no longer had any Holy Light left in him, and the current him was in a similar position to Cheng Xiao where any zombie appearing would be the end of him.
However, Hao Tian’s luck held. Imhotep using the Suna Suna no Mi to turn the surrounding area into sand as well the shockwaves from Xuans’ battle had left no zombies or mutated organisms in the vicinity.
After a long while, Hao Tian finally stood up, his body trembling. He looked quietly at the sand below him, sighing as he took out a Sky Stick before flying into the sky. “We’re just chess pieces in this scheme. Our life and death isn't even up to us. Why fight until both sides are hurt? I ask you to what end? Was it worth it?”
Hao Tian VS Imhotep… Hao Tian’s victory!
Team China Fallen: Xiao Honglu, Zero, Anck-Su-Namun, Qi Tengyi, Dragon, Kampa, Lan Feng, Imhotep
Remaining Survivors: Zheng Zha, Chu Xuan, Cheng Xiao, Zhang Heng, Zhao Yingkong, Luo Yinglong, Ming Yanwei, Liu Yu, Lin Juntian, Wangxia