Chapter 640: The Finance Department Can Never Become the Strongest (This chapter is 4,500 words)

Chapter 640: The Finance Department Will Never Be the Strongest (4500+ words this chapter)

Zhang Yu understood that the key to the impending clash with Jiu Tianliu lay in swaying the hearts of the masses and diminishing his opponent's providence.

And the crux of it all was to manifest a miracle! To put on a dazzling show!

"Not only shall I take Jiu Tianliu's strike head-on, but I shall receive it with absolute flair..."

"Only then can I turn the tide of public sentiment and erode his heavenly fortune."

At that very moment, four white dragons, bred from pure dragon blood, stood clad in golden armor and wielding longswords, exuding wave upon wave of formidable aura.

These four white dragons were precisely the combat dragon beasts Zhang Yu had bred through the Azure Water Golden Crystal Armor.

Right at the onset of the battle, Zhang Yu had already cast the Azure Water Golden Crystal Armor into the earth, summoning a torrential flood to commence the breeding process.

Having purchased the rights from Ying Mingchi, Zhang Yu had also secured his technical support; now, the quality and speed of breeding these combat dragon beasts far surpassed his performance from a mere week ago.

Bolstered especially by the Demon Saint's Myriad Changes Divine Scripture, these four dragon beasts served as his demonic avatars—not only were they fiercely powerful, but they also acted as seamless extensions of his own limbs, responding to his will with absolute mastery.

Under such circumstances, Zhang Yu further infused them with his Formless Cloud Aura, amalgamated with the Taiyi Golden Liquid Elixir, enveloping each colossal dragon in a glittering golden radiance that not only enhanced their majestic appearance but also granted them formidable defense.

The three characters of Ying Mingchi inscribed upon the foreheads of the dragon beasts further proclaimed their exalted and costly bloodline.

At this moment, guarded by the four colossal dragons, Zhang Yu faced Jiu Tianliu's second strike head-on, while lines of projected text from the Spirit Realm materialized at high speed behind him: "Very good, Jiu Tianliu. It seems your momentum has surged even further, and your strength has truly reached its zenith."

"Then come."

"Attack me with all your might."

"Let me see just what exquisite brilliance lies within the immortal slaughter techniques of the Finance Department."

Reading these lines of text, Jiu Tianliu seethed with hidden irritation: "This fellow, clearly having all his future possibilities locked down by me, leaving him with nowhere to dodge or hide, yet he still dares to speak such grand words..."

"Then... take this strike, and be utterly defeated by my hand."

The invisible giant hand, carrying a sky full of spiritual energy, surged toward Zhang Yu and violently clenched to crush him.

Amidst the earth-shattering explosion, the four giant dragons had already coiled tightly around Zhang Yu, shielding him in the innermost sanctum.

Simultaneously, Zhang Yu opened his mouth and exhaled; the Heavenly Sun Brilliant God transformed into a roaring flame, unleashing a surging shockwave to form the first line of defense.

Boom!

The flames were effortlessly torn apart.

The Primordial Qi Invisible Giant Handprint paused for a fraction of a second, and in the next instant, it had already clamped down upon the four giant dragons.

The golden armor of true qi shattered with a deafening crash.

Then came the shattering of dragon scales, followed by the tearing of flesh and blood.

As the giant dragons perished one by one, Zhang Yu let out a low shout; the Heaven and Earth Ruin Tribulation Invisible Heart Weapon was fiercely activated, transforming the encircling dragon corpses into temporary magical treasures to shield the greater part of his body.

The reason he shielded only the greater part of his body was that Zhang Yu intended for Jiu Tianliu's attack to strike him in staggered waves.

"The Earth and Wood Holy Body is a chained spell matrix that amplifies defense as the body's injuries worsen."

"That is to say, the very moment my body is most intact is when my defense is at its lowest, making it the most perilous time."

"So, after using the Heavenly Sun Brilliant God, the true qi armor, and the combat dragon beasts to absorb part of the damage, I then use the dragon corpses, transformed into temporary treasures, to divide the offensive..."

With the partial resistance of the dragon corpses, a fraction of the Primordial Qi Invisible Giant Handprint's power struck Zhang Yu's body first, while the remainder crashed into him only after pulverizing the draconic remains.

The initial wave of the Primordial Qi Invisible Giant Handprint slammed into the Azure Water Golden Crystal Armor.

The Azure Water Golden Crystal Armor resisted for a fleeting moment before Zhang Yu withdrew it, forcing his mortal flesh to bear the brunt of the blow.

And this strike was truly Jiu Tianliu's blow transcending the Foundation Establishment realm; even after being resisted layer by layer and its force so divided, the single impact still set Zhang Yu's internal organs ablaze, making the flesh, blood, and bones of his entire body groan in agony, leaving him grievously wounded.

Blood seemed on the verge of pouring from his seven orifices at any moment, but Zhang Yu forcibly choked it back.

"Hold on!"

"This is the hardest wave; as long as I can survive this wave..."

Allowing his insides to be ravaged mercilessly, Zhang Yu devoted every ounce of his strength to keeping the blood from erupting from his body.

Just as he strained to hold on, the subsequent wave of the Primordial Qi Invisible Giant Handprint came crashing down.

However, due to the severe trauma from the first wave, Zhang Yu's defense had surged immensely thanks to the Earth and Wood Holy Body, making it feel somewhat easier for him to withstand this follow-up strike.

After enduring the entirety of the Primordial Qi Invisible Giant Handprint in this manner, Zhang Yu's insides had been churned into a mess by the violent force, with numerous internal organs ruptured, bones shattered, and meridians severed...

Yet Zhang Yu paid no heed to any of this; he merely tensed the skin all over his body, feeling as though countless wounds were about to gape open like mouths from head to toe, threatening to spew blood in a frenzy.

Endure it!

Accompanied by the roar of the four-headed white ox, his physical activation was pushed to the absolute limit, tightly sealing every wound and every bleeding point.

Simultaneously, the Deep Cold Meridian circulated violently, freezing the wounds and staunching the flow of blood, further sustaining Zhang Yu.

Wherever his endurance still faltered, the Heavenly Sun Brilliant God would summon flames to incinerate the blood on the verge of overflowing, turning it into a wisp of azure smoke that dissipated into the air.

And in the live broadcast feed, beneath Jiu Tianliu's earth-shattering blow, the dragon beasts guarding Zhang Yu all dissolved into nothingness, leaving only Zhang Yu standing in place, seemingly unscathed.

"This move... not bad."

Zhang Yu parted his lips slightly, his mouth thick with the metallic tang of blood, and offered Jiu Tianliu a smile.

Jiu Tianliu's gaze hardened, the number of viewers in his vision who believed he would win still hovering at eighty percent.

Though it had not dropped, it had also ceased to grow, which was evidently because Zhang Yu had just absorbed his strike head-on.

At the same time, lines of projected text continued to materialize behind Zhang Yu.

"Jiu Tianliu, do you believe your strike just now has transcended Foundation Establishment and reached an unprecedented zenith?"

"Then I shall insist on meeting your zenith head-on, defeating your zenith, and crushing your zenith."

"Next, I will stand right here, neither dodging nor hiding, and take nine more of your strikes head-on."

"Whatever killing moves you possess, bring them forth."

While projecting these words, Zhang Yu mused: "The key to this battle lies not only in the combat itself, but also in the clash of words. Especially when it comes to swaying the hearts of the masses, sometimes the text carries more weight than the visuals."

"Jiu Tianliu, that was your absolute zenith just now. If you cannot defeat me, then beyond the peak lies only a sheer cliff."

At the same time, the data in Jiu Tianliu's eyes shifted once more, the proportion of viewers believing in his victory dropping from eighty percent to seventy-seven.

Just a single sentence from Zhang Yu had produced an even more staggering effect than physically absorbing the strike.

Jiu Tianliu raged inwardly: "A bunch of fools who mistake a breeze for a storm!"

Naturally, he could not allow Zhang Yu to dictate the rhythm of the battle; even as he unleashed the Primordial Qi Invisible Giant Handprint once more, lines of projected text also emerged from behind him.

"Zhang Yu, all your possibilities have been completely locked down by my grand model; you have nowhere to hide and nowhere to flee."

"And after that last strike, you are grievously wounded and lack the strength to fight me."

"You have already lost."

At the same time, Jiu Tianliu, who had originally intended to obliterate Zhang Yu in a single blow to ascend to the pinnacle, now formed a Daoist seal with his other hand, pointing a finger at Zhang Yu from afar to weaken his opponent's cultivation.

But in the very next moment, Jiu Tianliu's expression shifted slightly.

Accompanied by the booming explosion of the Primordial Qi Invisible Giant Handprint, Zhang Yu tensed his body once more, his flesh and blood radiating waves of biting chill summoned by the Deep Cold Meridian; he stood seemingly unscathed in the very spot that had been blasted into a deep crater.

Zhang Yu laughed aloud: "Jiu Tianliu, this strike of yours is weaker! Is it because your providence has waned? Or because you were just distracted casting a Daoist spell, trying to sap my cultivation?"

Jiu Tianliu frowned, realizing to his dismay that his recent attempt to cripple Zhang Yu's cultivation had utterly failed.

Behind Zhang Yu, a multitude of textual projections continued to materialize: "Are you wondering why your Dao arts failed? Why you couldn't diminish my cultivation?"

"It is quite simple, really. Your intelligence was flawed."

"Finance is built on belief, and my companions, my colleagues, my classmates—they all believe in me far more than they ever could in you. Thus, you could not buy them off; instead, you could only harvest false intelligence from them."

Jiu Tianliu's brow furrowed deeper as he muttered inwardly, "How is this possible? The intel provided by those fools in Zhang Yu's company was perfectly consistent. If it was all wrong, does that mean they colluded to feed me fabricated data?"

"The entire company, colluding in perfect unison? Not a single soul willing to betray Zhang Yu?"

At that very moment, Jiu Tianliu watched the data within his eye-socket artifact plummet once more, dropping from seventy-seven percent to seventy-five.

Zhang Yu urged him on, "Two moves have passed. Aren't you going to seize the moment, Jiu Tianliu?"

Jiu Tianliu sneered coldly, "Let us see how many more strikes you can stubbornly endure!"

The formless palm seal of primal qi erupted once again, inflicting grievous wounds upon Zhang Yu's mortal flesh.

Three consecutive strikes were unleashed by Jiu Tianliu, leaving Zhang Yu's physical form nearly bereft of mobility; he felt an overwhelming weakness coursing through his entire being, and were it not for the divine mountain-moving strength of Tiankunlun sustaining him, he would no longer be able to remain standing.

Yet, his body's defensive prowess had simultaneously surged to an unprecedented zenith.

Conversely, the data within Jiu Tianliu's eye-socket artifact continued its steady decline.

As Zhang Yu appeared entirely unscathed beneath the onslaught of those three mighty palm seals, the figures in Jiu Tianliu's ocular artifact plunged straight from seventy-five percent, shattering the sixty percent mark.

When Jiu Tianliu conjured the formless primal qi palm seal once more, Zhang Yu could sense that his opponent's offensive was vastly weaker than at the outset, struggling even more to yield any results against his vastly fortified defenses.

"Just as I thought." Though Zhang Yu was profoundly weakened at this moment, the fighting spirit and confidence within his heart were surging wildly.

"The first strike rouses the spirit, the second wanes, and the third exhausts it entirely. With each of Jiu Tianliu's assaults that I withstand, the tide of fortune begins to turn."

"Public opinion shifts, the hearts of men waver, and once that final threshold of qualitative change is reached... Jiu Tianliu's fortune will collapse entirely."

"I must hold out until that very moment of transformation."

Meanwhile, Jiu Tianliu bellowed, "Zhang Yu, if you keep forcing yourself to endure, you'll be dead soon, won't you?"

Jiu Tianliu absolutely refused to believe that Zhang Yu could emerge unscathed from his relentless barrage; even Dao Qiankun and Kuang Tianqing could not have weathered such direct assaults without a scratch.

"He's bluffing through the pain!" Jiu Tianliu thought to himself. "This bastard is gambling that my fortune will collapse!"

Zhang Yu offered a faint smile, well aware that his opponent's constant harping on his injuries was merely a ploy to steady the hearts of the masses and secure his own fortune.

"But will it work?" Zhang Yu mused inwardly. "Jiu Tianliu, in your frenzied crusade to defeat me these past days, you blindly gathered support regardless of the quality of your fortune. But look at the crowd you've assembled. Vocational students? Demon-blooded descendants? Nothing but dirty traffic, a mob of low cultivation, low wealth, and low education."

Zhang Yu reflected, "Such people are far too easily blinded, far too easily deceived. Seeing me stand here unharmed, their minds will be all too easy to sway..."

"Jiu Tianliu, let us see who can hold out to the bitter end."

Under the relentless bombardment of the formless primal qi palm seals, by the time the tenth strike was spent, Zhang Yu's physical body had completely lost its capacity to fight, while the data in Jiu Tianliu's eye-socket artifact had plummeted past the forty percent mark.

The enfeebled Zhang Yu simply collapsed onto the ground, letting out a soft chuckle as he said, "Ten moves have passed, Jiu Tianliu! Now, it is my turn!"

As he spoke, four draconic shadows surged into the heavens amidst a torrential flood, clad in golden armor of astral qi and wielding the Taihao Holy Law flying swords, already closing in to besiege Jiu Tianliu.

Jiu Tianliu's gaze sharpened, and he sneered, "Zhang Yu, having exhausted your own strength to fight, are you reduced to sending beastly dragons and magical treasures to do battle for you?"

Zhang Yu replied indifferently, "Jiu Tianliu, your ten moves just now have deeply disappointed me."

"To defeat you, these four dragon beasts under my command are more than enough."

As Zhang Yu's words fell, the data in Jiu Tianliu's eye-socket artifact dropped straight to thirty-eight percent, enraging him to the point of cursing inwardly, "A bunch of imbeciles! Their minds swayed by a single sentence, all of them fools! All of them trash!"

Amidst the fierce clash, two of the great dragons were swiftly slain, yet the few opportunistic strikes Jiu Tianliu aimed at Zhang Yu failed to yield any effect.

Watching the data in his ocular artifact sink to thirty-five percent, Jiu Tianliu let out a mighty roar and directly displayed his account balance.

A staggering balance of fifteen hundred spirit coins instantly provoked a celestial anomaly.

"Zhang Yu!" Jiu Tianliu roared. "I still have this much wealth; on what grounds do you dare to fight me?"

Zhang Yu laughed, "If having more money means winning, we might as well skip the tournament and just compare account balances. True strength lies in wielding the same amount of wealth to achieve far greater impact."

"Your massive balance only proves you haven't given it your all, nor do you possess the absolute certainty of victory, whereas I..."

With that, Zhang Yu revealed his own account balance: zero.

Zhang Yu declared proudly, "Long before this battle began, I wagered everything, spent every last coin, and maximized every leverage. This is true devotion to the Immortal Dao, the genuine conviction of certain victory."

Of course, Zhang Yu could not possibly be left with zero spirit coins; he had merely transferred his balance to Yu Xinghan beforehand, solely for the sake of this very display.

And following his declaration, Jiu Tianliu's approval rating dropped once more, plunging straight to thirty-two percent.

At the same time, a series of Jiu Tianliu's phantoms began to materialize behind Zhang Yu.

Among them, one phantom of Jiu Tianliu shouted aloud, "The demon-blooded are the cornerstone of Kunxu!"

"Vocational students are the cornerstone of Kunxu!"

"Lower-tier school students are the cornerstone of Kunxu!"

"Civil engineering is the cornerstone of Kunxu!"

"Logistics is the cornerstone of Kunxu!"

Zhang Yu sneered, "Jiu Tianliu, resorting to any means necessary to drum up popularity, thinking such tactics could secure your victory over me? How utterly naive."

As hordes of demon-blooded and vocational students turned their backs on him, Jiu Tianliu's support rating plummeted wildly, crashing straight past the twenty percent mark.

Watching the data plunge in a straight line and feeling the faint, ominous backlash of fortune within his body, Jiu Tianliu's gaze toward Zhang Yu grew dark and unsettled.

"This bastard Zhang Yu, just how much longer can he hold out?"

He could sense that his opponent's magical fluctuations, vital blood state, and physical functions had all severely declined; it would only take a few more moves to bring him down.

But how many moves exactly was a few?

What if his own fortune backlashed before that moment arrived?

Support rating: fifteen percent.

Zhang Yu's complexion grew ever more pallid, his lips seemingly drained of the last trace of color.

Support rating: twelve percent.

Frigid qi surged wildly around Zhang Yu; with the activation of the Deep Cold Meridian, it seemed as though he were on the verge of being frozen into an icy corpse.

Support rating: eleven percent.

After another bout of fierce combat, watching his support rating continue its relentless descent and feeling the imminent backlash of his fortune, Jiu Tianliu finally found himself unable to endure any longer.

Jiu Tianliu sent a private voice transmission: "You're better at spinning tales than I am. You should have transferred to the Finance Department."

Then, with a sigh in the private channel, Jiu Tianliu added, "Let's negotiate and bring this battle to a dignified end."

Zhang Yu immediately broke into a smile, thinking to himself, "Another weakness of the Finance Department: they will never fight to the bitter end. The moment defeat looms, they will concede voluntarily just to cut their losses."

"And so, the Finance Department will never become the strongest."

(End of Chapter)