Chapter 455: Indestructible, Just Enemies

"Good!"

Having parried the strike aimed at his brain, Wang Yu was met with a cheer from Ethan, whose tone held not malice, but a genuine sense of delight and satisfaction. He seemed truly overjoyed to have found such an opponent.

"Boom!"

A foot wreathed in the flames of sorcery slammed into the earth, the impact erupting with immense force. It left behind a blinding, searing trail of fire that twisted the very air, as Wang Yu charged toward Ethan Harris—not with a fist or a kick, but with a raw, brutal collision.

"Clang!"

The battle-aura longsword descended in a vertical slash. *Internal Submersion: Sudden Rain* shattered the force of the blow into countless fragments, arranging them perfectly along Wang Yu’s path; half served as razor-sharp strikes, while the other half exerted precise, orderly pressure to forcibly deflect him.

"!"

"Step, bang!"

The next moment, he shattered the ground with a single stride. The recoil surged from his sole to his right fist, which, wreathed in scorching flames, hammered toward Ethan Morris’s chin. The terrifying speed of the punch detonated a shockwave that sounded like a true explosion, deafening in its intensity.

With his left hand poised in a sword-finger gesture, he tore through space, pulling Ethan back a dozen meters in the nick of time. The shockwave from the uppercut whipped up a gale that sent Ethan’s hair streaming backward. In the eyes that watched Wang Yu, beyond the admiration, there was now a flicker of surprise: what had just happened?

Giving Ethan no time to react, Wang Yu, fueled by his Blood-Burning Drive, surged forward. As his life force incinerated, the ghostly green sorcery flames shifted to crimson, then intensified once more into a nearly transparent, azure brilliance. Even without Wang Yu doing anything, the earth beneath him rapidly melted into lava.

The violent sorcery flames converted his internal energy into pure power, while the Void Engine channeled this surge to every corner of his body, causing his attributes to climb steadily throughout the fray.

Stronger with every blow—that was Wang Yu’s state. The blood pool still held ample supply for him to burn, and more importantly, Ethan’s strikes seemed no longer capable of affecting him.

Before Ethan could move, the azure radiance was upon him. Fingers pressed together, Wang Yu’s hand became a blade, slashing diagonally upward. Battle aura erupted from his body, wrapped in high-temperature blue flames. It was the first time Wang Yu had utilized aura projection in this battle, and the strike was devastating.

"Break!"

Utterly focused, devoid of panic, Ethan’s internal aura accelerated in a heartbeat. The overload caused self-inflicted damage to his body, but granted him a momentary, explosive burst of speed. He thrust his battle-aura sword directly into the flaming blade of air.

The sword’s strike carried an effect that seemed to defy the definition of mere "force," much like how he had previously drawn Wang Yu’s lightning onto his blade. This fierce thrust warped the surrounding space; the flames, along with the attached aura blade, were forcibly pierced. The longsword then struck Wang Yu’s chest with peerless sharpness.

"Ding!"

A familiar, non-existent sound echoed—the same chime that rang out when the space-cleaving blade aimed at Wang Yu’s brain had been blocked. Though it struck his chest, the moment the golden shimmer ignited, all meaning and effect vanished.

"Crack!"

Expressionless, Wang Yu delivered a knee strike. The battle-aura sword pressed against his chest shattered instantly. In the next heartbeat, he tilted his body, his right leg fully extending to kick cruelly at Ethan’s head.

"Ineffective?"

Ethan’s left hand desperately slashed at the incoming leg. They collided, and the hasty strike was instantly pulverized by Wang Yu, whose attributes were soaring even beyond their already astonishing baseline. Unable to dodge, the desperate parry barely mitigated the force; the kick landed squarely on Ethan’s skull.

"Splat!"

The thunderous sound of a bursting cranium and the spray of blood marked a brutal blow that shattered Ethan’s head. Yet, at that very moment, Wang Yu noticed Ethan’s body turning into a semi-transparent void, the ruined head repairing itself in an instant.

He threw a follow-up punch, but it passed through the ethereal form, hitting nothing. The moment the body fully vanished, Ethan reappeared in the distance, gazing at Wang Yu, who narrowed his eyes.

"Truly strong. That was my only means of survival. How do you manage to ignore my attacks?"

Speaking with a tone of reflection, Ethan once again manifested his battle-aura longsword. This time, his left hand gripped a smaller shortsword. He raised them, pointing toward the poised Wang Yu.

"..."

No answer. Wang Yu simply accumulated his power in silence. What had happened to his opponent was, simply put, a relic—a life-saving relic. A rare and precious thing indeed.

"Will you not tell me? Then let me see if I can cleave through that impenetrable defense of yours."

Regretting Wang Yu’s silence, Ethan fully mobilized his body. At the Legend stage, everyone possessed some form of desperate, final gambit.

Ethan did not specialize in this power, but that did not mean he was incapable of it. His body entered an overload state, sacrificing his own flesh to provide an explosive surge of aura and a boost to speed and strength.

Both charged at the same instant, colliding in the next. The flaming right fist met the longsword, while the left-hand slash crossed with the shortsword. They clashed with terrifying speed; sword against hand, the bodies of top-tier Legends drove the frequency of the collision to an unimaginable level. The surrounding environment disintegrated under the pressure of this seemingly light, yet hyper-fast confrontation.

For now, their physical stats were near-equal, but Ethan’s technique far surpassed Wang Yu’s. In the gaps of the collision, he tilted slightly to dodge Wang Yu’s left-hand grab, and the shortsword tore through space, opening several rift-slashes at Wang Yu’s back, neck, brow, and ribs.

"Ding-ding-ding-ding!"

Yet, the recurring non-existent sound declared the futility of Ethan’s attacks. As Wang Yu had decided earlier, he had abandoned defense; he only needed to attack, leaving the defense to Aviya.

Indeed, the one manipulating that "Golden Body" was the girl within the void. That was why she had not used magic to assist Wang Yu in his attacks.

The unremarkable Perfect Fractal Lens over his right eye had been collecting data on Ethan’s attacks since the start of the battle. The name of the spell, *Perfect Fractal*, meant to fractalize all things and analyze everything. Combined with the *Chariot’s Might*—a "scanner" that transcended limits—seeing through the attacks released by Ethan’s *Internal Submersion: Sudden Rain* was not difficult.

The "Golden Body," Wang Yu’s strongest defensive ability, would have been too slow for him to manage against Ethan’s speed, but in the girl’s hands, it was entirely different.

The *Perfect Fractal* spell had been connected to the Tree of the Night Sky, using this divine tree of the dark night—possessing incalculable processing power—as the "host" to complete the calculations after analysis.

*Chariot’s Might* collected the precursors of Ethan’s attacks and passed them to the *Perfect Fractal* spell. The spell combined this data with its own algorithms and transmitted them to the Tree of the Night Sky. The tree calculated the result—where to manifest the "Golden Body"—and the girl, holding the authority of the *Chariot’s Might*, executed it on Wang Yu. This was what made him impenetrable.

Every incoming attack was predicted. Ethan’s slashes were useless against Wang Yu. Attack, and attack again! Ignore everything and charge through!

"Boom!"

Ethan’s attack was blocked once more. Wang Yu seized the opportunity, throwing a left-handed punch. High-energy blood and his own raw power shattered space, detonating a terrifying shockwave in front of Ethan, who was sent flying, skidding back a dozen meters before stabilizing.

"Cough... though it is presumptuous, may I ask you to let me try my final strike against your defense?"

Spitting out blood, the Sword Saint discarded the shortsword, gripping the battle-aura longsword firmly with both hands. He spoke to Wang Yu with earnestness. No matter what, he wanted to see if he could pierce that defense—a form he had never seen, which forcibly nullified attacks through unknown principles.

"..."

Wang Yu did not speak. He merely bent his waist and abdomen, gathering all his strength into his right fist, performing an obvious charging motion. He did not immediately attack the distant Ethan.

"A worthy opponent. Thank you for this opportunity."

Ethan’s expression lifted, his eyes turning grave. The opponent’s intent was clear: Wang Yu would meet his strongest strike with his own. He had been granted this chance.

He could not let it slip. His strongest sword strike—how could he cleave through a defense where even the feedback of a hit did not exist? Space? No, those golden lights could forcibly block even spatial rifts. Then what should he use...

"It must be this."

Years of practicing the sword surfaced in his mind, a sudden enlightenment dawning. Was the greatest destruction the cleaving of space? No, it was the power that allowed space to crack. And where did that power originate? Clearly, it was the sword in his hand, and his own self.

A sliver of pitch-black substance coiled around the blade of Ethan Harris’s sword. It was a power he had never used. With this enlightenment, he touched a new stage, a new ability. The blade became black as nothingness, like the backdrop of the void itself.

"Come! This is the cleaving of—"

With a hint of enlightened excitement, Ethan looked at Wang Yu, who was gathering his strength in the distance. He muttered to himself, wondering if this strike could break that defense.

However, his words remained unfinished. In an instant, everything before his eyes turned to nothingness. All perception was blocked for a heartbeat. Even after he forcibly broke through the sensory blockade—derived from the power of the Night God—with his Legend-tier strength, everything remained void. He was dead.

Sorcery flames increase in intensity as they burn, accelerating the incineration of life force. With every color shift, they reach a new stage, and at each stage, the burning speed and flame intensity increase exponentially.

During the charging phase, Wang Yu’s blood pool, starting from a base of half-consumed, had 75% remaining. As the charge neared completion, the azure flames burned it down to 50%.

At this moment, the flame color shifted again, turning into a pure, colorless transparency. In a single instant, the remaining blood was incinerated, and his power reached a peak that transcended all limits.

"Bang!"

A charge indistinguishable from teleportation. Without giving Ethan the chance to unleash his final strike, Wang Yu’s figure appeared seventeen kilometers away after throwing his punch. Everything in his path, including the Sword Saint, Ethan Harris, was reduced to dust.

"Hummmmmmmmm!"

The uncanny reverberations arrived belatedly, as if the devastation wrought by Wang Yu’s strike—a blow of immeasurable speed and force—required a moment of hesitation before truly manifesting: two colossal craters at the origin and terminus, scorched and molten; a hillside pierced clean through; and a jagged, hideous fissure in the earth, ten meters wide, several meters deep, and stretching for seventeen kilometers.

As for Ethan Harris, Wang Yu could discern that the man was a martial fanatic of the highest order, one who had not even exerted his full strength at the onset of their duel; yet, what of it? Did he truly believe Wang Yu would grant him such an indulgence?

An enemy is an enemy, and there is no such thing as an adversary worthy of respect.