The Eternal Emperor: Reborn to Slaughter The Gods

One Strike to Shatter the Heavens

The blinding, golden flames of my cousin's sword rushed toward my face, hot enough to singe the loose hairs on my brow, yet I didn't even blink.

"Die, you worthless trash!" Lu Jin screamed, his face completely distorted by the fiery reflection of his own blade.

"Is this the absolute best you can do?" I asked softly, my voice easily cutting through the roaring heat of his technique.

To the thousands of spectators cheering in the stands, I looked like a frozen corpse, a boy paralyzed by the overwhelming majesty of a superior warrior. But within the quiet expanse of my mind, his trajectory was incredibly flawed, his weight entirely shifted onto his front heel, and his chest completely exposed beneath his raised arms. His fourth-stage body refinement was nothing more than an empty shell built on stolen pills.

I waited until the burning edge of the broadsword was less than two inches from my forehead.

Then, I shifted my left foot back half a step, letting the massive blade slide past my shoulder, the wind pressure tearing a clean rip through my gray robe. Before Lu Jin could even realize he had missed, I thrust my right hand forward, my fingers curling into a simple, elegant palm strike that carried the entire, dense weight of my fifth-stage refinement.

*Crunch.*

My palm connected directly with the center of his white iron scale armor, right over his lower abdomen. The reinforced metal plates didn't just bend; they exploded outward in a shower of sharp silver fragments as my strike drove deep into his flesh, bypassing his physical defenses entirely to target his inner foundation.

"What did you...." Lu Jin choked out, his golden flames vanishing instantly as his eyes nearly popped out of his sockets.

"I am taking back what you stole," I whispered into the sudden silence.

A localized shockwave of dark energy erupted from my palm, traveling straight through his flesh and striking his cultivation core. The fragile, newly formed sphere inside his abdomen shattered into a thousand jagged pieces under the immense pressure of my refined power.

Lu Jin's entire body went rigid. A massive fountain of thick, crimson blood sprayed from his mouth as the concussive force sent him flying backward across the arena like a broken ragdoll. He crashed violently through the translucent blue magical barrier, shattering the array pillars entirely, and tumbled into the dirt outside the ring, rolling several times before coming to a dead halt, bloody and broken.

The deafening roar of the stadium vanished in a single fraction of a second.

Thousands of spectators sat frozen in their seats, their mouths wide open, their half-eaten fruits dropping to the stone steps. The referee stood near the edge of the broken ring, his bronze medallion slipping from his trembling fingers and clinking softly against the stone. Nobody spoke. Nobody cheered. The absolute silence was so heavy that the gentle rustling of the wind through the arena flags sounded like a thunderstorm.

"He... he broke the armor," a spectator in the front row finally whispered, his voice shaking with pure disbelief.

"Did young master Jin just lose?" another asked, rubbing his eyes. "In one move? By a cripple?"

"Look at his stomach," a third voice gasped, pointing a trembling finger at the bloody mess outside the ring. "His core is completely gone. He is ruined."

I stood in the center of the dusty stage, slowly lowering my hand and smoothing down the torn fabric of my gray sleeve. I didn't look at the crowd, nor did I celebrate. To me, defeating a spoiled child was not a victory; it was simply a necessary piece of maintenance.

"The match is over, elder," I said, turning my gaze toward the stunned referee. "You can call the results now."

"I... I..." the referee stammered, his face turning completely pale as he looked up toward the VIP grandstand. "The winner is..."

"You dare murder my son in broad daylight!" A furious, booming voice shattered the quiet air.

First Elder Lu Chang leaps from the VIP grandstand in a rage, drawing his weapon to execute Lu Tian on the spot for ruining his son. The purple-robed elder bypassed the stone steps entirely, his body erupting with the terrifying, suffocating aura of a peak Meridian Opening master as he soared through the air, his long silver hair flying wild. In his right hand, a massive, crystalline longsword gleamed with a violent, murderous blue light that threatened to split the very stadium in half.

"Lu Chang, stop!" the city registry official shouted from the pavilion, but his warning came far too late.

"I will tear you into a thousand pieces, you demonic brat!" Lu Chang roared, his eyes completely bloodshot as he descended upon the ring like a vengeful god, his blade aimed directly at my throat.