Above the Five Elements Ring, three streams of light swirled like three juvenile dragons. The surrounding space was saturated with immense pressure and force, creating a sense of near suffocation.

He Yiming found his rhythm as the fight progressed. He dispensed with any special combat techniques, relying solely on the potent might of the Five Elements Ring to firmly trap Gabri within the core of the tri-colored radiance, using him as a static target to be hammered again and again.

Compared to ten days prior, He Yiming was vastly different now. Not only did he steadily dominate the opponent in the clash of auras, but the sheer power emanating from the Five Elements Ring far surpassed Gabri’s sword-and-shield combination.

In a mere ten days, the balance of power between the two seemed to have flipped dramatically, their roles of offense and defense having interchanged.

While He Yiming grew increasingly invigorated by the battle, Gabri became more alarmed, feeling a boundless sense of humiliation.

Yet, he vaguely suspected that the overwhelming might He Yiming could unleash was tied to the peculiar arcane weapon in his hands.

However, being a Westerner, Gabri knew nothing of the Five Elements Ring, a divine artifact that had vanished for millennia, so he failed to recognize the provenance of this replica artifact.

If Gabri had known earlier that He Yiming possessed such a successfully refined imitation artifact, he might not have dared to face He Yiming alone.

But now, after suffering a barrage of blows beyond his expectations, his face contorted into a terrifying grimace. With a sudden, loud roar, three distinct colors erupted from his body. These colors instantly merged, coiling around him like a giant tri-colored python before surging into his greatsword held in his right hand.

The shield in his left hand vanished instantly. Gabri gripped the greatsword with both hands, and the weapon seemed to suddenly expand several times its size. The resulting sword light was even larger than the blade itself, and he hacked towards He Yiming without regard for anything else.

In that moment, it seemed he had cast aside all other thoughts, pouring his entire focus and energy into this single strike.

Around him, an incredibly wild and relentlessly ascending aura rolled, and when this momentum peaked, even his body began to faintly shimmer.

He Yiming’s expression immediately grew solemn. He had been enjoying himself immensely just moments before, fully releasing the stifling oppression he felt from the giant python, achieving an unprecedented sense of mental ease.

Now, sensing the tremendous aura surrounding Gabri, and knowing this attack represented the Western Venerable casting aside his pride to fight desperately, He Yiming’s heart swelled with pride and confidence.

As a newly ascended Venerable, to force a peer who had achieved the same rank decades earlier into this desperate position—what more could he ask for?

The heavy sword, accompanied by its massive blade light, sliced through the void like a meteor, seeming to appear directly above his head in an instant.

Gabri had locked onto his vital energy signature firmly. He Yiming felt that no matter how far he fled to the ends of the earth, he could not escape this peerless, heaven-shaking sword strike.

He planted his feet steadily, and the tri-colored light radiating from the Five Elements Ring instantly condensed into a single cord.

A strange sensation bloomed in his heart. The fusion of these three elemental forces wasn't just integrating his own power; it was also merging with the special world power of the Five Elements within the Ring.

The strength of this borrowed power was in no way inferior to his own inherent might.

It was as if, whatever power he could draw and condense in this world, the spatial world within the Five Elements Ring could provide an equal amount of energy.

At that moment, He Yiming even entertained the bizarre notion that he was not fighting alone, but rather fighting with two selves, effectively doubling his usable power.

A colossal phantom image of the Five Elements Ring manifested before He Yiming, appearing like a huge, spinning wheel suspended in the sky, rising to meet the giant sword cleaving down from above.

A deafening explosion tore through the air, sounding like the collapse of heaven and earth, a noise so immense it threatened to drown out everything else.

Then, Gabri could no longer maintain his footing. With a whoosh, he was propelled from his spot, tumbling backward in utter disarray.

He Yiming stood with his feet angled outwards, his eyes blazing with vigor. After driving the might of the Five Elements Ring to its absolute limit, he had actually managed to borrow the power of its self-contained space. This was an unexpected boon.

In that instant, He Yiming possessed the strength of two Venerables combined.

Moreover, these were two Venerables whose complete power had been perfectly unified.

With two against one, He Yiming's power was simply not on the same scale as Gabri’s. The result of their head-on collision was an undeniable ejection of Gabri.

He Yiming was overcome with wild joy; his confidence surged instantly, and the last vestiges of his previous doubts vanished completely.

With a slight stomp of his feet, He Yiming shot forward like a bolt of lightning to pursue.

The Five Elements Ring in his hands spun ever faster, its potent energy surging like a rising tide, forming massive circles that securely trapped Gabri, leaving him willing but powerless to flee far away.

Gabri wildly swung his great shield, desperately resisting He Yiming’s unparalleled onslaught, while letting out a long cry that sounded somewhat like a cornered dog preparing to leap.

After clashing directly with that absolute power once, his heart had turned utterly cold; he no longer harbored any illusions of defeating He Yiming through sheer individual effort.

When he saw He Yiming reappear within his line of sight, he had initially thought it was his best chance. But he never imagined that what awaited him was not a docile rabbit, but a ferocious lion.

Wielding the Five Elements Ring, He Yiming suddenly felt that although he had refined this replica divine weapon, he had not truly merged with it yet.

He vaguely sensed that within the center of the Five Elements Ring's world, there existed an independent space nurturing immense power. However, the power He Yiming could currently summon was only a fraction of it, limited by the extent of his own true energy.

This realization, while bringing him delight, also brought a trace of frustration. He felt a strange intuition: if he could wield the full power of the Five Elements Ring’s internal space, he would not fail again even if he encountered the giant python from the peak of Ghost Crying Ridge once more.

Even so, He Yiming was quite satisfied with the present situation.

After channeling the power from the Five Elements Ring’s space, for every attack he launched, an identical stream of energy would flow from within the Ring to merge with it. Once these two forces united, they melded completely, with no sense of repulsion or hindrance, as if they were always meant to be one.

Thus, in his flurry of movements, He Yiming was actually only expending fifty percent of his true energy, yet he had already forced Gabri into a state of scrambling defense, leaving him only able to parry.

If Gabri knew that He Yiming was engaging him with the mindset of merely playing and testing the weapon, the shock would surely cause him to cough up blood and die.

The Five Elements Ring in his hand suddenly condensed, and He Yiming’s movements slowed. Yet, although his movements were slower, the power exerted was no less, perhaps even superior.

He began executing the thirty-six forms of Mountain Splitting Technique one by one with the Ring.

Although this metal-elemental technique could be performed with fists or palms, or even with an axe or saber, using the Five Elements Ring—an arcane weapon—was a first for He Yiming.

However, the Five Elements Ring was no ordinary divine weapon; its flashing light seemed capable of imitating any elemental weapon in the world.

Streams of metallic light shot out from the Ring, appearing like immense flying axes, carrying infinite Metal Essence, surging forcefully to permeate every inch of the surrounding space.

Gabri waved his shield frantically, managing to intercept these axe-like light projections through a dizzying blur of motion.

But as He Yiming reached the thirteenth form of the Mountain Splitting Technique, its power doubled out of nowhere. The number of flying axes in the air, and their offensive strength, were incomparable to what had come before.

Every contact between a light-projection axe and Gabri’s shield felt like a peak first-line expert striking with full force. While the martial power of a mere first-line expert was insignificant to Gabri, when thousands of such experts appeared and attacked ceaselessly, even a Venerable-level master would be drenched in sweat and utterly wretched within a short time.

The infinite light, controlled by the Five Elements Ring, could strike from any angle. Some Metal Essence attacks even burrowed into the ground, circling beneath before abruptly emerging from beneath Gabri’s feet.

It seemed as if every axe light projection possessed its own unique thought and intelligence, maximizing its destructive potential.

Starting from the twenty-first form of the Mountain Splitting Technique, the power shifted again. The dispersed axe projections ceased their random flight; instead, they circled once in the air and then suddenly coalesced.

A massive light axe appeared atop the Five Elements Ring, its axe head glowing with an almost substantive, glazed light.

He Yiming let out a tremendous roar and brought the axe down with full force.

Gabri dared not meet the blow with his greatsword again. He raised his shield high, curling the majority of his body beneath it, bracing the shield firmly with his right shoulder while concentrating all his remaining strength onto that single point of impact.

Clang…

A massive sound instantly erupted, and the light axe vanished. But almost simultaneously, after a momentary resistance, fine, dense fissures began to spiderweb outward from the point where the shield and the light axe had met.

The twenty-first form of the metal-elemental Mountain Splitting Technique had unleashed such devastating power that it had literally shattered Gabri’s divine artifact shield!

Ps: The battle for Monthly Tickets is fierce. Although White Crane barely holds second place, it could fall at any moment. I won't say anything more; White Crane is going back to type. Tomorrow will also feature five updates. Readers who still have guaranteed monthly tickets, please do not hold back; White Crane has done his utmost. Thank you...