"WE'RE STUNNED!!!"
"My god!"
"Am I... Am I watching a movie?!"
"How can she be so strong?!"
"Simply outrageous!"
"Hard to imagine!!"
"Is this still martial arts?!!"
At the same time, quite a few Martial Artists also noticed the incredibly exquisite fist and footwork Seraphine had just displayed.
Seraphine, like a Martial God descended to the mortal realm, was revealing divine martial skills before their eyes.
Shock.
Reverence.
That was all they could feel in this moment.
And the set of moves just now was none other than the supreme combat art, 《Drifting Cloud Hands》, deduced by Seraphine herself from the essence of hundreds of martial styles.
Its core lay in intentionless offense and effortless defense, inaction that guided foresight; drifting like clouds, devouring all, with divine marrow as its heart. Endless variations, ultimately returning to the nine scattered strike forms.
On the stage.
Velos, who had suffered blow after blow, had become a torn-apart skeleton, yellowed and half-rotted.
Bits of decaying flesh still clung to his frame, barely twitching on the ground, caught between life and death.
Suddenly.
CRACK CRACK CRACK!!!
Bloody sludge surged over the skeleton like a tide, rapidly repairing his body in a frenzy.
"His Vitality is this stubborn? Now that's interesting."
Seraphine saw Velos miraculously piecing himself back together, standing up again with rage burning on his face. Instead of anger, she was intrigued, eager, even.
Without hesitation, she charged forward again and unleashed the full flow of 《Drifting Cloud Hands》 upon him once more.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The sounds followed one after another: bones snapping, organs bursting, blood spraying, agonized groans, rage-filled howls.
An unending string of impact and chaos.
Everyone in the arena sat stunned, slack-jawed.
It felt like the terrifying tension from earlier had been completely wiped away. Now, the scene almost seemed absurd, comical, even.
“The way she moves, it’s like a wild stallion galloping across the skies! But at the same time, sharp and precise, leaving no trace behind!”
From afar, Vale watched Seraphine's 《Drifting Cloud Hands》, completely awestruck.
“It’s like storm clouds rolling from beyond the heavens, commanding wind and thunder. You can’t even describe it with words. This may be the absolute peak of hand-to-hand combat,”
Abbot Veritas murmured in disbelief.
And then.
Velos, now nothing more than a blood-drenched skeleton on the stage, suddenly threw his head back and roared:
“Threefold Death Technique—explode!!!”
BOOM!!!
A surge of crimson energy burst forth, engulfing Velos and launching him into the sky.
As he ascended, the bloody aura began to spin violently, slicing through the air with piercing shrieks.
Seraphine simply raised her head and watched.
“Ah... another trick? Didn’t I tell you earlier to use all your trump cards at once? Clearly, I didn’t hit you hard enough.”
She sighed and shook her head.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!!!
Moments later, the mist cleared.
A grotesque figure hovered in the air, blood-red, with giant bat-like wings stretching out from its back.
It was Velos, alive again, thanks to some forbidden art.
“Hahaha! HAHAHA! I’m still alive! You couldn’t kill me! I survived!!”
Velos flapped his wings manically, doubled over in crazed laughter.
Then, suddenly, he snapped his head toward Seraphine, his eyes seething.
"You wanted to kill me, didn’t you? Go on! Do it! Come and kill me!!”
Spittle flying, Velos screamed:
“I’ll tear off your limbs and rip out your eyes! I’ll grind you into filth that writhes forever in the dirt! I’ll butcher your family, slice them to pieces and force you to eat them, hahahahaha!!”
“Enough with the barking.”
Seraphine frowned.
Then, with a slight shift, her form shimmered, and four or five identical versions of her stepped forward.
"Rage," they said in unison, "is usually the result of one's own powerlessness."
Velos froze mid-rant.
"What… what the hell?!"
The Seraphines below began to move again, each one duplicating herself further.
One became two, two became four, four became eight.
It was like watching human division, multiplying like cells.
In just seconds, the entire arena was filled with over a hundred Seraphines.
Each one radiated the same overwhelming presence, an unstoppable force blanketing the arena.
Gasps filled the air.
“A duplication technique?!”
“How is that even possible?!”
Kael grabbed Alban and shouted:
“What martial art is that?! What’s the Ninth Highness using?! Do you know?!”
Alban just shook his head, eyes blank: “I don’t know! I don’t know anything! My mind’s gone blank!!”
“Hahaha—HAH!!!”
Vale coughed blood, laughing like a madman.
“Velos, you’re so damn dead! Hahaha!”
Even though he had no idea how Seraphine pulled it off, he knew one thing, Velos was finished.
The old monk Veritas clasped his hands and whispered: “Amitabha… it seems the Ninth Highness has truly stepped into a realm no longer bound by common understanding.”
Up in the sky, Velos’s pupils trembled.
“No... no! This is an illusion! Just an illusion! You’re not fooling me!”
BOOM!!!
A thunderous quake split the arena as the hundred Seraphines stomped simultaneously, shaking the earth.
The ground cracked like a spider’s web.
The Seraphines all launched into the sky like arrows, bursting toward the terrified Velos.
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!
Before Velos could react, he was surrounded.
They blitzed through the air, each step crushing the wind itself, and unleashed a storm of attacks, fists, elbows, knees, stomps!
CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK!!!
They struck from every angle.
The Seraphines, blurred into streaks of light, tore into Velos with relentless fury.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
Velos, who had been left half-broken by 《Drifting Cloud Hands》, now screamed in agony like never before.
Because this time, Seraphine unleashed another technique:
《Dragonwave Crash》.
A terrifying martial art she developed herself, integrating principles from hundreds of combat disciplines.
It wasn’t just a technique, it was a complete encyclopedia of physical destruction.
Whoever was hit by it, no matter their defenses, nerves, pressure points, internal organs, or bone structure, would be ravaged by a serpent-like surge of force.
The energy was brutal. It didn’t just harm the body.
It crept into the Soul.
It shredded the Spirit.
To remove its force, one needed to be at the Mystic Aperture level and cultivate Ether. Even then, days of healing might not be enough.
It was that cruel.
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!!
The relentless pounding echoed through the arena like heavy artillery fire. Even the ground trembled, sending up massive clouds of dust.
Everyone watching had gone completely silent.
Seraphine had stunned them into pure, speechless awe.
From the crowd, some of the more perceptive Martial Artists could barely make out the twisted, bloodied shape of Velos in mid-air. He was shrouded in a storm of Energy, his form changing with every brutal strike.
Others, more attuned to Soul techniques, could feel Velos's mental state with terrifying clarity:
Confusion.
Agony.
Terror.
Despair.
Yes.
Velos, tormented like a man being devoured alive, was beginning to regret his own resilience.
He hated his Strength.
He hated that he couldn’t die fast enough.
All he could do now was endure a suffering that felt like it would never end.
And then.
More than a hundred Seraphines leapt into the air, flipping mid-flight, feet-first above Velos.
BANG!!
They struck the sky with enough power to rupture the air itself, kicking a hole into the atmosphere.
And like a storm of lightning.
They crashed down.
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Over two hundred palms struck the bloody pulp that was Velos.
BANG!!
In that moment, he became nothing more than a red smear shooting down like a meteor toward the center of the stage.
BOOOOOOM!!!
The impact was cataclysmic, like a missile hitting the earth.
A shockwave of fire, dust, and noise erupted in a blinding flash, covering everything in a hundred-meter radius.
"Hoo ~"
Kael let out a long sigh of relief, his face filled with shock and amazement. "So terrifying. This battle is simply terrifying, like a myth!"
"Indeed!"
Alban's expression was also shocked. He nodded heavily, exhaling. "Witnessing this battle, I feel like my Martial Arts are a joke!"
THUMP THUMP ~
In the vast pit cloaked in rising dust and smoke, Velos, now little more than a blackened skeleton, lay crumpled in the ruins. His life force ebbed like a dying ember, and for the first time, he felt something he’d never allowed himself before.
Despair.
With the last flicker of his fading consciousness, he forced out a thread of Soul perception and looked ahead.
There, descending from the heavens like a slow, divine judgment, were more than a hundred Seraphines. Their presence cast long shadows across the broken earth.
Velos let out a hoarse, broken laugh. It echoed weakly through the crater.
"I... who walked the Martial Path... crushed like this? Hah. My defeat, it’s all because I was too weak. Too proud. If I had just waited... trained longer... refined my Divine Arts..."
"Your path was wrong."
The voice that answered was not mocking. It was vast. Resonant. Divine.
It wasn’t just heard, it shook the bones of every soul in the arena.
Velos froze.
“What...?!”
He looked up again, his skull-like face twisting in disbelief.
Floating in the air, Seraphine had stopped her descent. She stood motionless in the sky as if carried by the wind itself. Her calm voice now echoed across the entire arena:
"You have lingered too long in the realm of mortals. You've mistaken this small plateau for the summit. You've forgotten how to dream, how to climb higher."
The voice didn't come just from her mouth. It filled the space, as if the sky itself was speaking.
"So today, I will show you what the Martial Path truly looks like when it ascends beyond limits."
Velos, crumbling in the pit, weakly raised his charred head.
Kael. Alban. Vale. Veritas. Every single Martial Artist in the crowd, whether a seasoned elder or a wide-eyed novice, turned their gaze skyward.
And there.
Far above.
The clouds began to part.
As though the heavens themselves were being peeled open, the dense blue canopy split with a great roar. Through the rift emerged a blazing Great Sun.
Not the sun they knew. Not the familiar star that warmed their days.
No, this one was alive. Divine. Breathing. Terrifying.
Golden light erupted from it in radiant streaks, piercing the firmament and washing the sky in holy fire.
The clouds didn’t disperse. They evaporated.
In seconds, the entire sky was lit by that impossible radiance, blinding, pure, and all-encompassing.
Pillars of golden brilliance poured downward like rivers, stabbing through the air and penetrating layers of gray mist and shadow. They spread endlessly, swallowing the land beneath in a sea of shining gold.
Mountains far on the horizon were bathed in light.
The air was still, but hearts thundered like drums.
It was breathtaking. It was terrifying.
It was... divine.
In that instant, the entire martial arena felt like it had been lifted to some celestial plane.
The crowd could feel it in their bones, in their very souls.
They were no longer standing in an arena of stone.
They were somewhere else.
Somewhere higher.
Somewhere... closer to godhood.
It felt like they had ascended to the courts of heaven, like they were lesser spirits awaiting the judgment of a supreme deity.
Even the seasoned monks held their breath. Even the proudest warriors lowered their heads.
Then.
The Great Sun trembled.
And began to descend.
Straight toward them.
A collective scream caught in everyone's throat. They couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.
All they could do was watch.
As it fell closer, closer still, its light grew ever more intense, ever more blinding.
But it didn’t burn.
It embraced.
At the last moment, the golden sun didn’t crash. It enveloped.
FWOOOM ~
The golden radiance spread like a wave, wrapping around the arena.
And silently, effortlessly.
It erased everything.
Stone seats, collapsed walls, the three-hundred-meter-wide central platform, everything disappeared.
Disintegrated into golden dust and vanished.
All that remained was empty space, a smoldering crater, and the people, untouched.
Not a single soul had been harmed.
Instead, every Martial Artist found themselves gently lowered to the ground, as if the golden light had carried them to safety.
There was no applause.
No shouting.
Only silence.
Because they knew.
If this light had wanted to destroy them, it could have.
And nothing, no army, no tank, no fighter jet, no superweapon, would have made a difference.
Against this?
They were less than ants.
Alban slowly landed, looking at the all-pervading golden radiance around him and sighed.
"This level of power is enough to annihilate an army. If the power of the path forward in martial arts is truly this terrifying, the era is truly about to change."
He seemed to see the not-too-distant future.
As more and more martial artists possessing this terrifying power emerge, the world's structure will undergo a breakthrough change.
When the power of the individual completely surpasses that of the collective.
Then, for such a powerful individual, do the so-called morals and laws defined by the collective still hold meaning?
He was not the only one who thought this way.
More people also had the same thoughts.
Some had worried expressions, some had flickering eyes, and some had hidden ambitions.
But what remained the same was the fact that everyone present now believed this Ninth Princess was undoubtedly the number one martial artist in Emberlight!
The hundred-plus Seraphines lingering in the air began to dissolve, silently and solemnly, into streaks of pale white light.
Like falling stars in reverse, they drifted upward and merged into the golden sea of light still suspended across the sky, washing over the crowd with divine warmth.
In the blazing glow, Velos, charred, broken, and dying, murmured faintly.
"Th-this... What is this...?"
It was the same question etched into the mind of every person present.
And then.
WHOOSH... WHOOSH... WHOOSH...
Countless threads of white energy shimmered into being, weaving together midair in full view of the arena. Ethereal, delicate, yet purposeful, like divine brushstrokes painting on air.
They wove a silhouette.
A human shape.
Seraphine.
Her eyes opened, glowing faintly with golden light, and her voice rang out, not loud, but powerful enough to command absolute silence.
"The seven realms of martial cultivation are merely the excavation of the human body's hidden potential."
"Evershield Body represents the mortal limit."
She raised her hand, and as if responding to her will, radiant diagrams flickered through the light around her.
"To go beyond this limit, one must use the body’s 108 vital apertures as gateways, channels through which Ether is introduced."
"This Ether tempers the flesh, strengthens the soul, and forces evolution."
"When vital energy is refined through this transformation, it becomes something greater."
"It becomes Aether."
As her final words settled over the hushed audience, Seraphine's figure began to glow from within.
The warriors below squinted, straining to see.
Through the translucent glow of her form, it became clear: this wasn’t a living body.
There were no organs.
No heart, no lungs, no viscera.
Only threads of golden Aether, glowing softly, flowing like rivers within her frame.
"Aether threads form the bones."
"Vital energy becomes the flesh and sinew."
"And spirit, the power of pure will, serves as the soul’s guiding flame."
She looked down upon them, her voice now soft, almost gentle.
"Aether is simply the transcendence of vital energy. The same root, the same origin. Not opposites, but echoes destined to merge."
"This is the method of the Aether Clone."
And then.
The shining figure of Seraphine flickered, blurred, and in an instant, vanished, dissipating into the golden air like scattered light.
Kael said dumbfoundedly.
"You mean, the one who just beat Velos so terribly was just a clone of the Ninth Highness?!"
Alban's expression was shaken, and he stammered.
"The difference is too great!"
Vale looked up and sighed serenely: "So martial arts can be this powerful. Your Highness is truly a divine being!"
Veritas also clasped his hands in admiration: "Amitabha, all conditioned phenomena, like a dream, illusion, bubble, or shadow, like dew or lightning, should be viewed as such.
This old monk observes the Ninth Highness, and she has truly stepped into the supreme realm!"
Everyone present was indescribably shocked.
Both shocked by the various mysteries and great power of Seraphine after stepping onto the path forward in martial arts, and shocked by her boundlessly powerful martial arts cultivation.
It turned out that the Ninth Princess, who seemed so powerful in their eyes just now, was merely a clone of the true Ninth Princess.
At this moment.
They felt that compared to Seraphine, they were simply like tiny, inaudible ants.
Among them, Velos, lying on the ground, was the most indescribably shocked.
"So the one who fought with me was just a clone?!"
He never expected it.
The Ninth Princess who had just tormented him so miserably was actually not her true body.
Then how strong should her true body be?!!
While the crowd was still sighing, suddenly.
BUZZ ~~
Suddenly!
A blinding divine figure, whose aura was hundreds of thousands of times stronger than the clone from before, appeared in the air.
This divine figure was entirely enveloped in white light, its true face indistinguishable.
It was like a sun that could not be directly looked at, slowly descending from the sky.
This radiant divine figure was surrounded by one hundred and eight brilliant swirling lights, constantly swallowing boundless Ether from the world outside.
Everyone present was completely stunned.
Everyone's body and soul were crushed by that holy, supreme majesty. They couldn't even move.
Abbot Veritas was shaking with excitement, his hands clasped as he whispered, "Amitabha! This is the supreme truth!"
Velos, whose life was fading like a flickering lamp, paradoxically had the clearest mind in this final moment.
He realized instantly that his path...
Was a total lie.
A disaster!
"AH, HAHAHA! HAHAHAHA!"
Velos’s broken skeleton shook as he laughed a tragic, hollow sound.
"So my path was wrong?!"
"So my entire life was a waste?!! I am a fool! I am mediocre!! HAHAHAHA!"
Seraphine looked down at him from the sky, her voice cold and steady.
"I only wanted to see what your path looked like. I never expected it to be so pathetic."
"I am deeply disappointed."
"You only lived this long because of my mercy. Now, I am taking your life back."
"So... that's... how... it... is..."
Velos whispered, his eyes clouded with confusion.
In the next heartbeat.
BOOM!
A massive force dropped from the heavens. Velos’s mangled body instantly turned to ash.
Body and spirit, both erased forever.
Then, every injured Martial Artist within Seraphine’s energy field began to tremble.
BUZZ...
They felt a huge wave of Vitality pour into them. Injuries vanished instantly. Bodies were restored to perfect health.
Vale’s severed arm even regrew in seconds, as if it had never been gone.
"This power!"
He clenched his new fist, shocked. "This is truly a miracle!"
In that moment, Vale’s expression shifted. He made a choice.
Old Monk Veritas felt the vast energy in his veins and thought of how he had doubted her. He sighed with regret.
"Amitabha. My spirit is too weak for this; I must continue my training."
The others began to shout in excitement, amazed by the changes in their bodies.
Seraphine, glowing like a golden deity, sat in mid-air and felt the shift within herself.
After pushing the Aether Domain to its ninth layer, she hadn't stopped.
She had compressed the energy further, refining it into something much denser.
After absorbing a massive amount of Ether, she reached the absolute limit.
Her energy field grew from 100 meters to 333 meters in diameter.
The Aether Domain was already as hard as steel.
But the Aether created from Seraphine’s 《Auric Illusion Art》 was even stronger.
Releasing her field was now like surrounding herself with a steel wall three hundred meters thick.
Even a Big Ivan bomb might not be able to break through a wall of that scale.
Still, Seraphine wasn't sure if her Aether Domain could handle the hundred-million-degree heat at the center of a nuclear blast.
Without data, it was all just theory.
After this Ether tide, her cultivation had reached a new peak. She checked her attributes.
【Host: Seraphine】
【Physical Strength: 1,515,247】
【Soul: 1,514,395】
Her values had jumped more than tenfold.
Both had finally crossed the million mark.
Compared to when she first started her path just a few days ago, her attributes had grown nearly five hundred times.
The aggressive strategy was working.
Seraphine slowly pulled back the massive energy field. She turned toward the sky, ready to leave.
"Ninth Highness, wait!!" Vale shouted, standing up quickly.
"What is it?" Seraphine glanced back at him.
Everyone watched, wondering what he wanted.
To their shock, Vale scrambled forward and dropped to his knees before Seraphine, kowtowing three times.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The impacts were so hard the ground shook.
The crowd was frozen in disbelief.
"Please, Master! Accept this old man as your disciple!"
Vale looked up at her, his face full of worship.
The crowd was even more stunned.
This old man actually threw away his pride like this? they all thought.
"Hey, hey! Me too! I want to be a disciple too!!"
Kael reacted quickly. He ran over, knelt next to Vale, and kowtowed three times.
Vale twitched. This kid is shameless, he thought.
The other Martial Artists were speechless.
Alban was the most shocked of all. His mind was blank.
Old Monk Veritas gaped, unable to find words.
Even Seraphine raised an eyebrow. She looked at Vale.
"Vale, you are a hundred years older than me. You want me to be your Master?"
Then she looked at Kael.
"And you? What are you trying to do?"
Vale laughed loudly.
"Master, I am an orphan. I don't care about fancy manners or what the world thinks. I never joined a big sect. I learned Martial Arts on my own, and luckily, I reached Evershield Body."
He shook his head and sighed.
"But I have been stuck at Evershield Body for ten years. I can't move forward."
"My only goal in life is Martial Arts. I don't fear death or shame. I just want to see the view from the top."
"On this path, you are peerless. No one in Emberlight has matched you in thousands of years. Those who know the way are the teachers. Who else in this world can lead me to the next realm?!"
Seraphine nodded, thinking it over.
"You aren't wrong. But why should I take you?"
Vale smiled. "You are a god of Martial Arts, and the Ninth Princess of Emberlight."
"You shouldn't have to deal with minor chores yourself. It would damage your dignity. I have lived for over a hundred years and I own many businesses. They are worth tens of billions."
"I will give everything I own to you, Master. I only keep my heart that seeks the path."
From a distance, Abbot Veritas clasped his hands. "Amitabha. He is a true seeker!"
