Chapter 52

Qi Xing threw his head back and laughed.

Just that one sentence from Elaine was more powerful to him than any blessing buff! His entire body was now filled with infinite strength!

Is this what being a virgin is like? How terrifying!

"So that's how it is."

Romanie jumped out of the human-shaped crater, brushed the dust off his body, and remained completely unscathed.

But Qi Xing was no longer even annoyed by this. So what if he had an immortal body? What was there to fear about an immortal body? He could slowly kill Romanie five hundred times over.

Besides, Francesca had said that Romanie's [Wife] was hidden deep within the [Inner Realm] here.

"What worldly affairs, what discarding trash? You idiot, you think you're the one who abandoned others, but in reality, no one has ever truly loved you, you black guy!"

So Qi Xing kept laughing!

"What they loved was just that ice-coated █ of yours!"

These words finally made Romanie frown.

He was clever, after all, and after a moment of contemplation, he guessed about seventy percent of the Truth: "So that's how it is, I understand what's going on, [Master Leipu]. You are likely using desires like [Love] to drive the silver coin."

"The power of your silver coin is [Domination]… or something similar, which is why you crave to establish long-lasting relationships, just like the previous holder of your silver coin."

Although mocked by Qi Xing, Romanie remained quite calm,

"But my silver coin likely possesses powers related to [Change]."

"Therefore, I do not need the love you speak of. Nor can I derive pleasure from it."

"The lives of those mortal ants are too fragile, and human emotions are unreliable, easily swayed."

"Even if one were to meet a so-called soulmate, a hundred years later she would only turn into withered bones."

"Since death is inevitable, what difference does it make if they die now or eighty years later?"

"By becoming souls under my command, at least they can go down in history, right?"

While talking, the battle continued.

Romanie's footsteps were so light, his body seemingly weightless, spinning and leaping in a waltz-like rhythm, dodging every fist strike Qi Xing launched. His figure rolled like ocean waves, sometimes bending low to the ground, sometimes leaping into the air, his toes slicing through the air as sharp whip kicks arrived with the sound of breaking wind.

Qi Xing countered with overwhelming force. Every heavy fist that landed was like a thunderbolt cracking the earth. The storm whipped up by his fist roared, power erupting the moment his fist landed, making the air howl and scream.

The battle intertwined in an instant, with both sides trading blows, as if time had been stretched thin at this moment.

An immortal body; a powerhouse is not so easily defeated after all. Oh Qi Xing, do you intend to keep fighting this slowly?

Of course not.

Suddenly, Romanie felt a terrifying aura sweeping across the area like a gale. The air was vibrating violently, dust was pushed away by invisible waves of energy, and rubble rolled in the tremors, as if foreseeing the coming destruction.

Taking advantage of a gap when Romanie was knocked back during the fierce battle, Qi Xing had already raised his fist high.

"I am Osiris! The Lord of the Underworld, the King of the Edge of the World (Neb-ertcher)!"

"My roots go deep into the world, my will tears the earth apart!"

His veins were bulging, his muscles tightened, and then, with the force of ten thousand tons, he slammed his right fist into the ground!

In an instant, a loud noise exploded like the wrath of a god! The land of the ancient city could not withstand the command of this King, collapsing instantly, and the entire ruin began to wail!

One punch!

A punch converging the power of [Domination] caused cracks to spread crazily, centered on the point of impact! The stone slabs of the ancient city broke layer by layer, the massive impact causing the earth to burst open, buildings losing support in an instant, remaining stone pillars collapsing with a crash, and dust and rubble turning into a violent torrent, pushed into the sky by the shockwave!

The next second, the entire ancient city collapsed and sank! The ground roared and shattered in a chain reaction, stones rolled, streets caved in, and everything was dragged into the abyss beneath the ruins!

It was as if the earth had been torn open with a terrifying wound, revealing unfathomable darkness!

This was the [Inner Realm] that [Black Spartacus] had hidden beneath the ancient city!

Qi Xing had actually smashed this entire Herculaneum into the deep layer of the [Inner Realm]!

055: The Great Hero, Personal Attacks

Does everyone still remember the basic structure of the [Inner Realm]?

The [Inner Realm] is located in a dimension deeper than the human material world.

It lies between the [Dream of All Living Beings] of all humanity and the material world.

In other words, if the material world is compared to [Air], and the collective unconscious of humanity is compared to the [Ocean], then the [Inner Realm] is the bubble floating in the sea, bobbing up and down, sinking and rising.

Therefore, the surface layer of every [Inner Realm] overlaps with the material world. Only the deep layers and the [Heart Chamber] are hidden in the dream world, just like an iceberg floating on the sea.

Long before crashing in on the missile, Qi Xing had already sensed that Herculaneum was the surface layer of this [Inner Realm].

Originally, breaking through from the surface to the deep layer might have required solving a puzzle. But since Francesca had already revealed the answer in advance, and since Qi Xing already understood Romanie's mythological symbol, why delay any further?

He would just use his power of [Domination] to smash this iceberg on the sea directly into the ocean!

One punch!

[Rep-Man] had let the entire Herculaneum sink completely into the bottomless pit, annihilated in the [Dream of All Living Beings]!

But as the deep layer of the [Inner Realm] was revealed, Qi Xing was slightly startled when he saw it.

The deep layer of the [Inner Realm] is always associated with its mythological archetype symbol.

Romanie's mythological archetype is the Asura King, Vritra. Qi Xing had read the Shiva Purana and had originally thought that the deep layer of this [Inner Realm] would be the Asura Demon Palace from Indian mythology, or perhaps a battlefield where Asuras and Devas fought. However, his thinking was too complicated. In fact, it didn't need to be that complex at all.

At first, what he saw was an ocean. The endless sea surface spread slowly across the horizon, reflecting the firmament.

However, as Qi Xing stared carefully, after a moment, a strange scene emerged—the azure ocean was rendered in an eerie crimson, as if the sun had melted in the depths of the sea, turning into a twisted and demonic halo.

Firelight flickered.

The ocean was burning. This was the origin of the Vritra story in the Puranic mythology.

Flames engulfed the waves, golden-red fire rolling along the swells like an inextinguishable rage, turning the entire ocean into a burning abyss. The firelight reddened the sky, thick black smoke rising to meet the clouds at the horizon, forming blurred, indistinct shapes.

A giant wave crashed, but before the droplets could fall back into the sea, they were swallowed by scorching tongues of fire, turning into burning steam that tumbled and twisted in the air, deforming amidst the rolling waves, and turning into countless evil Asuras dancing in the sea of flames.

Waves burned, flames surged, as if even the deepest part of the sea had been ignited. Occasionally, a pillar of fire would burst out from the sea surface, like an angry beast roaring in the deep sea. The scorching flames would instantly soar into the sky, then slowly extinguish, turning into black smoke and sinking into the burning abyss.

This was a burning ocean, a place where destruction and flames intertwined, a world that even the Sea God had abandoned.

Dozens of horned Asuras, holding shining, strange weapons, screamed as they materialized from the steam mist, preparing to swarm [Rep-Man].

But before Qi Xing could blast them to death, Romanie, who had also fallen into this ocean, raised his hand first, and a cold light shot out, directly chopping all these fodder Asuras to pieces!

Right.

Although it was natural for the [Inner Realm] to spawn fodder monsters, given Romanie's personality—Qi Xing now understood him a little—he certainly wouldn't let a group of fodder swarm Qi Xing during his own world-shocking battle.

"Since you have seen through my myth, [Master Leipu], then welcome my unreserved full power!"

Without even glancing at those fodder Asuras, Romanie laughed aloud as he pushed his silver coin—his divine power—to the limit.

In an instant, an unimaginably massive aura suddenly erupted, and the air in this small world was almost ignited! His eyes were as deep as a bottomless abyss, his aura as violent as a hurricane on the sea, and the entire ocean trembled with his breathing! Violent light erupted from within Romanie, tearing through the air like a surging torrent and rushing toward the firmament!

That was no ordinary light, but twisted flames, with strange golden, blue, and purple interwoven brilliance churning within the fire, like the wrath of a god, and like the roar of the deep sea. The light and flames condensed and rose, eventually turning into an apparition that pierced through heaven and earth—[Vritra]—the King of the Angry Sea, the rebel against the gods!

A burning Asura Demon Palace appeared behind [Black Spartacus], standing tall above this monstrous tide. Inside the palace, deep blue flames burned fiercely, inextinguishable and ceaseless. It was as if the heaven and earth of the three realms were about to twist under its destruction. A six-armed Asura Demon King stood proudly in the center of the palace. One hand held up a violent tsunami, another held Shiva's trident, and the remaining arms were spread wide, as if to tear the sky apart. His six eyes each burned with proud rage, and his long hair danced wildly in the storm, like angry waves sweeping across heaven and earth.

Beneath his throne, countless fallen Devas turned into remains, floating in the dark ocean, never able to return to the celestial realm. This was the victory of Vritra, the subversion of the Devas' righteous law by the Asura Demon King.

I am the enemy of the gods! I am the usurper of divine power!

Romanie stood at the center of this destruction and glory.

His physical body had transformed into the six-armed Demon King, his aura consuming heaven and earth, the air around him twisting into a vortex, and the gale howling in anger. He slowly raised one hand, and instantly, the surging angry waves rose along with his movement, and the monstrous giant wave smashed down directly toward Qi Xing!

The ancients often used [Moving Mountains and Draining Seas] to describe the extent of great supernatural powers.

The kind of [Moving Mountains and Draining Seas] in legends where one directly carries a mountain to smash people. Honestly, Qi Xing, this half-baked immortal, couldn't do that. He certainly didn't have the power of the Buddha, who flipped his hand to create the Five Finger Mountain and pressed the Monkey King for five hundred years. But it wasn't that difficult for Romanie to bring the waters of the vast sea in his own [Inner Realm] and smash them down hard on Qi Xing.

At the critical moment, the silver coin popped into Qi Xing's hand, turning into a golden scimitar flowing with the radiance of the sun. He raised the sword high above his head, turned his wrist, and the blade sliced through the air, outlining a fiercely burning halo that enveloped his entire body.

In just one-hundredth of a second, Qi Xing had transformed again into the golden Sun God King, holding a giant scythe. In the center of the waves, he raised the scythe with one hand, and the golden engravings on his armor resonated with thunder. Qi Xing did not retreat, but stepped forward to meet the giant wave head-on.

"Thunder responds to me, the gale dances with me! That blade of death in your hand cannot cut through the waves of the King of the Angry Sea!"

Romanie laughed aloud.

Actually, Qi Xing didn't really know how to use a giant scythe.

After all, he hadn't learned those martial arts using exotic weapons… Was there really a school in the country that taught using a giant scythe as a weapon? He had truly seen schools that used hoes… In any case, the weapon-based martial arts Qi Xing had learned were only staff, spear, single/double swords. As far as weapons go, he really hadn't learned that many. But when martial arts reach a certain level, even swinging a stool can kill.

The Demon King's arm swung down, and the violent, angry waves were about to completely swallow Qi Xing!

And the golden scythe bloomed with thunderous radiance amidst the giant waves. The angry waves swept in, but he did not retreat, instead swinging his blade fiercely, tearing through the darkness with a golden arc of light!

"I am the King who rules the Underworld, the dead of the past, the divine lord of today!"

"Once shattered, once resurrected; the great waters cannot drown me—I sit as King upon the flood, until eternity!"

Almost driven by the instinct of the Demon King, Qi Xing, subconsciously, had already recited these words possessing the power of Truth. If Elaine were watching nearby, she would likely be stunned to hear this.

This was Qi Xing's silver coin, the power of [Domination], of rule—in other words, the power to resist being influenced by others, to refuse to be swallowed by the surrounding world!

Neither death nor pain was worth fearing. The only thing he feared—was that he would no longer be worthy of being [Himself].

As the command left Qi Xing's mouth, the giant waves of this small world were about to submit to his will.

His scythe slashed through, and the golden blade light broke through the angry waves, colliding head-on with the six-armed Demon God!

The black tide tried to swallow this thunderous light, but the radiance of the scythe sliced through the seawater, like the judgment of the King of the Underworld, making everything return to silence!

"Stop talking to yourself, Romani Domingo."

Qi Xing finally spoke, his voice resonating with thunder and lightning,

"You keep proclaiming that you don't need it, only because you have never truly experienced love."

"Your so-called fragility of life and unreliability of emotions is just because you have never experienced that heart-pounding sensation that makes your soul tremble!"

Although that was said, in reality, Qi Xing was just a virgin who had been confessed to by a beautiful girl an hour ago. Fortunately, Romanie didn't know what was actually going on, otherwise, Qi Xing's words would certainly lack persuasiveness. Fortunately, in any case, the battle between Qi Xing and Romanie could only be decided by the most real, brutal fighting.

Breaking through the giant waves, Qi Xing suddenly accelerated, a golden afterimage tearing through the sea storm, his armor erupting with fierce radiance, the scythe carving out a perfect arc as it slashed toward Romanie's neck!

Romanie laughed in return, his figure suddenly turning into countless phantoms. The golden scythe missed, the six-armed Demon God appeared behind Qi Xing, and Shiva's trident slashed and pierced at him!—but Qi Xing's scythe had already rotated with the momentum, sweeping across mid-air with the thunderous light of death!

Golden light swallowed everything, the trajectory of the scythe's slash tearing apart the afterimages of the six-armed Demon God. Between sea and sky, only the ripples of the two clashing remained!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Hundreds of sonic booms exploded in an instant, and the two figures crisscrossed in the violent electric light. Their battle had long since transcended the limits of mortals; it was the war of ancient gods descended upon the modern era!

A war between the light of the Sun and Thunder God King, and the Sea and Dark Shadows of the Demon God.

Every clash sent endless turmoil rolling in waves across the [Dream of All Living Beings]. Qi Xing cast his powerful golden lightning into Romanie's sea again and again, and, he seemed to be winning.

Setting aside the part about Brahma's blessing of immortality—that part was a separate issue, as it was a mechanic that couldn't be hard-killed—looking only at pure strength, pure stats, and pure combat, the armor on Qi Xing's body still hadn't shown a single crack.

And Romanie had been blasted by him with lethal force at least twenty times. To use a game analogy, Qi Xing had already emptied his health bar twenty times. It was just that each time, Romanie relied on system mechanics to refresh from 1HP back to full health.

Setting aside whether this counted as cheating, since everyone had cheats, no one could be accused of cheating, and Qi Xing didn't feel annoyed now. But as they fought on, he gradually noticed something strange.

Actually, Romanie wasn't really that strong, was he?

Combat techniques, martial arts level, complete realm, these were only seven to eight tenths of Qi Xing's to begin with, but let's not mention that. The point was, this [Vritra] that Romanie had transformed into seemed even weaker than Qi Xing had imagined. It even felt… not much stronger than Professor Van Stra.

If Qi Xing had really brought Gwendolyn, the Knight Commander, along, maybe she could have really served as his assistant and provided support—this fact itself made the situation seem very strange.

This made Qi Xing feel that something was very wrong.

"You say we are the same kind, but I don't see that you are as strong as I am."