“What?”
Chen Ping’s pupils contracted sharply, a storm of shock surging through his heart.
His time-slowing domain was actually ineffective against this opponent?
Worse, it seemed to have been exploited by the enemy instead?
In that split second, there was no time for further thought. The accelerated fist was already upon him.
“Five Elements Sword Gang, protect me!”
Chen Ping roared. Five-coloured sword qi burst forth instantly, weaving into a dazzling sword net that shielded his front.
Indestructible Golden Body activated at once, wrapping him tightly in impenetrable defence.
At the same time, he stamped his feet in rapid steps, pushing his speed to the limit in an attempt to evade this bizarre punch.
BOOM!
The sword net formed by the Five Elements Sword Gang held for less than a breath before it shattered explosively the moment it met the fist.
Although Chen Ping dodged with all his might, his shoulder was still grazed by the fist wind.
CRACK!
A clear sound of bone fracturing rang out.
Chen Ping grunted, his left shoulder collapsing inward instantly, pain drilling straight into his heart.
His entire body was sent flying once more, blood spraying from his mouth while still in mid-air.
“Chen Ping!”
Liu Xue could no longer hold back. With a delicate shout, her ice-blue long sword transformed into a heaven-splitting rainbow, carrying a blizzard across the sky as she slashed at the burly man, trying to relieve the pressure on Chen Ping.
“Ant, get lost.”
The burly man did not even glance at her. He simply swung his palm casually.
A gust of palm wind containing the power to distort time howled forth.
As Liu Xue’s fierce sword momentum approached the palm wind, it seemed to sink into mud. Its speed plummeted abruptly, and the sword light visibly dimmed at a speed the naked eye could catch, as though eroded by countless years, its power greatly diminished.
BANG!
The palm wind struck her long sword. She suffered a heavy blow, the sword flying from her hand as she vomited blood violently and was flung backwards. Yan Nantian hurriedly caught her, but her face was already ashen, her aura feeble.
“His power… can erode time itself…”
Liu Xue said with difficulty, her eyes filled with horror.
Yan Nantian’s face was livid, his fists clenched so tightly that his nails dug deep into his flesh.
He wanted to step forward, but he knew that even Chen Ping and Liu Xue had been overwhelmed so easily. Charging in would only mean throwing his life away.
At this moment, he could only pin his hopes on Chen Ping, and on the mysterious expert who might be backing him.
Watching the scene, the Soul-Devouring Venerable’s smile grew increasingly delighted, as if he were thoroughly enjoying this game of cat and mouse.
Chen Ping crashed heavily to the ground but bounced back up immediately. He had no time to wipe the blood from his lips. The searing pain in his right shoulder and Liu Xue’s grave injuries ignited raging fury in his heart, yet even more than that, an icy rationality prevailed.
“Time… the time origin he controls is far more profound than mine!”
Chen Ping stared fixedly at the burly man. “My time-slowing domain is useless against him. It can even be reversed and used to accelerate his attacks instead… Liu Xue’s strike just now was also eroded by the power of time… could it be…”
A terrifying conjecture surfaced in Chen Ping’s mind.
At that very moment, the burly man closed in once more, throwing another plain, unadorned punch straight at Chen Ping’s face.
This punch seemed intent on exploding his skull outright.
Chen Ping gritted his teeth, mobilising his time-slowing domain with full force while simultaneously unleashing Holy Light Fist. A golden fist imprint carrying a solemn aura that purified evil and demons thundered forward.
He wanted to feel at close range exactly what the opponent’s time laws were doing.
HUM!
Just as his Holy Light Fist was about to collide with the enemy’s fist, that familiar, higher-tier fluctuation of time laws appeared again.
This time, Chen Ping concentrated every shred of his divine sense, perceiving the changes in that fleeting instant with absolute focus.
He “saw” it!
At the critical point of contact between their powers, on the edge of the burly man’s fist, time… underwent an extremely subtle… reversal!
It was neither acceleration nor deceleration, but a genuine, localised, small-scale reversal of time!
Though the reversal lasted an incredibly brief duration, perhaps less than one hundredth of a breath, it was already horrifying enough!
Precisely because of this infinitesimal reversal, Chen Ping’s Holy Light Fist, at the very peak of its explosive power, right at the moment it was about to clash head-on, was forcibly “pulled back” to the state where its power had only just begun and had not yet reached its zenith!
Meanwhile, the opponent’s fist took advantage of that tiny temporal gap and landed solidly on the now-weakened Holy Light Fist!
The outcome was inevitable.
PFF!
The golden fist imprint disintegrated instantly. Chen Ping’s Holy Light Fist was shattered completely.
The punch carrying the power of time reversal smashed ruthlessly into his chest once more!
