"Eight Dragon Spear!" "War Blade!" Ye Chen and Nandu spoke simultaneously. Whoosh!

Whoosh! A gate slid open at the base of the metal clock, and two dark shadows floated out, settling before each of them.

A war blade, wide as a palm and forged of pure black gold, descended from above, embedding itself tip-first just before Ye Chen’s feet, the hilt trembling slightly as the blade sank into the ground. Ye Chen’s expression was cold as he reached out, gripping the end of the hilt.

Surging energy, like an incoming tide, poured from him into the blade. The entire war blade hummed softly as it was drawn out of the soil, inch by painstaking inch.

For every inch it rose, the light it emitted intensified by a full zhang, until the blade was completely free of the earth, blazing with incandescent light and wreathed in fierce flames. Ye Chen could sense the extreme hardness of the blade’s material, yet it bore no imprinted laws; it was not a true Divine Artifact.

"Combat begins!" the system voice from within the metal clock announced with chilling clarity. The moment the voice faded, the entire arena fell instantly silent.

Every spectator focused intently, their gazes fixed upon the platform. A cold smile touched Nandu’s lips.

With a sudden movement, he gripped the spear in his hand, and a terrifying aura erupted from his body, stirring up gravel and debris from the ground as he charged forward. Facing Nandu’s swift approach, Ye Chen’s expression remained impassive.

He slowly tightened his grip on the war blade, instantly activating his Blood God Mode, burning fifty thousand years of his lifespan in the process! Boom!

A sound like detonating bombs echoed through his bones and sinews, rattling the teeth of onlookers. His raven-black hair began to transform from the roots, shifting to a vibrant crimson, radiating a thick, sanguine stench.

Ye Chen raised his head, watching Nandu rapidly close the distance. He slowly drove the war blade into the ground, bracing it with both hands, allowing his energy to surge outward through his palms.

"Mysterious Tome of Blazing Flames!" Flames erupted from every pore of Ye Chen’s skin. The fire blazing in his hands rapidly coalesced, forming an ancient war hammer and a finely wrought shield.

The instant the ancient war hammer took shape, the entire crowd fell deathly silent. Every eye contracted, their faces etched with inexpressible shock.

"Mysterious Tome of Blazing Flames!" "That's the Royal Family’s secret manual!" "That’s the foundational rite of the Empire!!" As the assembly was stunned, Nandu’s pupils suddenly narrowed, his expression changing drastically. He halted his rapid charge with astonishing speed, almost without conscious thought.

He flicked his fingers, discarding the spear, and brought his hands together, holding them before his chest with reverence. A purple ancient scroll slowly materialized above his brow.

"Epic Civilization, Innate Secret Art!" "Grand Eulogy!" He closed his eyes, and energy drifted from his pores. As his lips whispered the incantation, they transformed into glowing energy characters that floated out, permeating the entire sky.

These energy characters were the script of the Epic Civilization, incomprehensible to ordinary people. Now, they rapidly converged, twisting into a colossal golden dragon whose scales, claws, and even tufts of hair were vividly rendered.

It roared and hurtled towards Ye Chen. "He’s using it!" "That’s the Grand Eulogy talent of the Epic Civilization!" "If Nandu were at the Divine Realm, coupled with this Grand Eulogy, a single spoken word would command the laws of heaven and earth—that is true power!" The crowd’s eyes glittered as they watched the golden dragon woven from countless energy characters.

Beneath that brilliant golden light, Ye Chen’s dark hair whipped backward. His expression remained unchanged, facing the clawing, snarling golden dragon without fear.

Between the ancient war hammer and the refined shield in his hands, a powerful magnetic field seemed to spark, generating arcs of electricity. Suddenly, a black aperture tore open above his head, from which a pillar of fiery red light blasted down, entering his body through the Baihui acupoint and flowing through his major meridians.

Ye Chen felt his muscles flooding with power; his eyes turned ice-cold. Fixing his gaze on the approaching golden dragon, he took a decisive step forward, raising the ancient war hammer in his hand, and brought it down in a thunderous smash toward the dragon’s head.

This golden dragon spanned a thousand zhang, its head the size of a massive boulder, utterly disproportionate to Ye Chen’s body. The great and the small collided with devastating force!

Boom!! The entire battle stage trembled faintly.

Raging bands of red and gold light soared wildly, and fierce energy gusts swept the surrounding gravel backward in a torrent. The majestic golden dragon seemed frozen in mid-air.

After a moment, thin red lines rapidly spread across its entire body, glowing with intense light. Crack!

The entire golden dragon exploded outwards. Nandu, who had been standing in pious silence, reciting his mantra, suddenly snapped his eyes open, revealing an expression of horrified disbelief.

He let out a choked cry and was swept away by an invisible, tremendous force, tumbling a dozen times across the platform before his momentum finally ceased at the edge of the arena. Although a thin layer of dust now covered the stage, those seated in the hovering chairs high above, thanks to their astonishing vision, could clearly discern the battle's outcome.

For a moment, there was absolute silence. In a single move, he had struck down Nandu, who had deployed his innate secret art!

Everyone stared at the wretched figure lying amidst the rubble, barely clinging to life, finding it impossible to reconcile him with the glorious Nandu they knew. Just then— Whoosh!

A gentle breeze swept past, quickly clearing the dust. A dark figure arrived before Nandu and looked down.

With one hand, he seized Nandu, lifting him up and clamping down on his throat. A slight squeeze would crush his vital spot; even activating his superhuman mode would be too late now.

Blood trickled from the corner of Nandu’s mouth. He looked at Ye Chen with difficulty, straining to pinch the arm holding him, but it felt like gripping a slab of iron—without the slightest effect.

The hand gripping his throat was like a massive iron clamp, imbued with incredible strength. "Is he really only in the Demigod Realm?" A ridiculous thought surfaced in his mind, deepening his bitterness.

He clenched his fist, gritting his teeth, and spoke with humiliation: "I concede—" Before the word "lose" could fully leave his lips, he felt a searing pain in his throat. A sharp crack echoed as his windpipe shattered, the word lodging hopelessly in his throat.

His eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at Ye Chen. When he saw the cruel curve on the man's lips, sheer terror flooded his gaze.

He opened his mouth, trying to scream for help, but not a single sound emerged. "Die!" Ye Chen’s eyes were icy.

His fingers suddenly tightened. Bang!

Nandu’s entire throat was crushed, transforming into a pulpy sludge, a sticky mess of bloody tissue smeared on Ye Chen’s palm. Viscous blood seeped from where his throat had been.

Nandu’s eyes were bloodshot, fixed rigidly on Ye Chen, his mouth agape in a terrifying grimace. Yet, judging by the venom in his gaze, he was not yet ready to perish.

With the peak Demigod Realm physique, life force would not immediately extinguish even with a pulverized throat. Ye Chen sneered, reaching out and gripping Nandu’s skull.

He lifted the entire head, severing the arteries and veins still trailing from the throat, looking like a Shura from hell with his cold expression, and suddenly exerted force with his palm. Crash!

The entire head exploded like a balloon. Time seemed to freeze in that instant.

The entire floating island fell into profound silence. Around the arena, on the cloud-like floating chairs scattered in the sky, the spectators who witnessed the brutally violent scene were utterly mute, as if even the gentle breeze had become timid and soundless.

"Ye Chen wins!" The system voice from the metal clock echoed jarringly, like the cold reaper in the stillness. Dense flames materialized on Ye Chen’s palm, instantly evaporating the blood residue, leaving behind wisps of faint mist.

He turned his head, his icy gaze sweeping across the entire crowd. Then, he moved, creating ripples in the void, and vanished a thousand zhang away, disappearing after only a few blinks.

After Ye Chen departed, the crowd still felt as if they were waking from a dream, yet the crimson blood staining the platform, like a bizarre, eye-searing flower, was undeniably real. "Nandu is..." "How is that possible!!!" "Can someone tell me this is a dream?" "Absolutely impossible!!" The entire assembly erupted into sudden clamor, stirring up a massive uproar.

Although everyone present was an extraordinary genius with refined cultivation, they found it impossible to remain composed in the face of what they had just witnessed. Nandu, the foremost genius of the Supreme Genius Hall, was killed so easily by a newcomer!

And it had only taken one move! News of Nandu's death immediately spread like a hurricane through the second-tier powers of the Yan God Empire, and even many first-tier powers and transcendent ancient families caught wind of it.

The Genius Hall was a heavily protected entity within the Yan God Empire, surrounded by layers of security, rarely falling victim to assassination by foreign agents—a member might go centuries without dying. Yet, in just a few short months, two geniuses had fallen consecutively, both members of the Supreme Genius Hall!

This constituted an incalculable loss for the Yan God Empire. Following this battle, Ye Chen’s name resonated throughout all the second-tier powers of the Yan God Empire; even the first-tier powers began paying close attention, activating every network they possessed to trace Ye Chen’s background.

The information gathered indicated that this individual had transmigrated from Earth to the Ancient World just four and a half years prior! For these powers, searching for a single person was exceedingly easy, especially since Ye Chen had no major influential force shielding him, and he had not deliberately erased the traces of his past actions.

They quickly uncovered his history. In the Thunder Roar Plaza of the White Lotus Divine Province, he had plundered seven or eight civilizations and raided the assets of the Fengyue Family, one of the nine major cities, having once been affiliated with the Scarlet Extinction Sect in that city.

In just a few years, he had shot up from the Ghost God Realm to the peak of the Demigod Realm. Shortly after arriving on the Ancient Continent, he became a member of the Genius Hall and had climbed the ranks by stepping over the bodies of other geniuses until he stood proudly in the Supreme Genius Hall!

These exploits, once uncovered by the major factions, caused countless observers to gape in astonished disbelief. For a mere youth from the Ghost God Realm to achieve such a rapid leap in strength within a few years suggested that some form of trickery must have been involved!