Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Chapter 1061: The Golden Fist and the Furnace

The eerie silence stretching over the ruined capital finally broke when Matriarch Olenna lost the last remnants of her patience. She had waited for the arrogant youth to strike first so she could show him the true despair of their cultivation gap but Zhan Chen simply continued standing there with his arms crossed over his chest while his golden aura flared brightly against the darkened sky.A harsh scoff escaped her wrinkled lips as the old woman raised her hands and the space behind her violently twisted to answer her call. A towering phantom image materialized from the void, taking the shape of an ancient bronze furnace. The heavy lid of her martial spirit rattled as dark red flames roared to life inside its belly while the surrounding ambient Qi rushed toward the furnace, drawn in like kindling to fuel the unnatural heat radiating from her body.

“If you choose to court death with such arrogance, I will gladly refine your soul!” Olenna declared.

“You talk too much for someone who hides underground,” Zhan Chen replied with a relaxed smile.

Olenna thrust her palm forward and the massive bronze furnace tipped over, pouring out a rushing river of dark crimson fire. The flames quickly formed into dozens of roaring serpents that tore through the sky toward the golden Sovereign. The heat radiating from the attack warped the air so severely that the stone rubble on the ground below began to melt into glowing slag.

Zhan Chen did not retreat a single step though. He uncrossed his arms and clenched his right fist tightly. Golden Qi erupted from his pores, forming a dense armor of light over his skin to protect his body. He punched forward into the empty air, generating a shockwave of physical force mixed with his tyrannical energy. The golden fist collided with the swarm of fire serpents, shattering their flaming bodies into harmless sparks that rained down upon the city. The impact rang out like a struck bell, sending ripples of force echoing across the battlefield.

Olenna narrowed her eyes and realized the youth was not just acting arrogant but had ample power to back up his behavior. His foundation was incredibly stable and his martial intent was sharp enough to cut right through her Creation Lord domain. She pressed her hands together and chanted a brief incantation to elevate her assault to another level. The bronze furnace behind her grew larger and spat out three condensed spheres of blinding white fire. These spheres spun rapidly around each other, forming a sealing formation that descended upon Zhan Chen to trap him inside a cage of refined heat.

Before the fiery cage could snap shut, a beam of pale silver light struck the side of the formation and caused the white fire to sputter violently. Grandmaster Orion had finally joined the fray to give a helping hand. The commander of the Lunaris fleet had leaped from the deck of his warship and soared toward the center of the battlefield. A beautiful martial spirit materialized behind his back in the form of a giant pale moth. The wide wings of the moth fluttered gently, releasing a trail of glittering silver dust that carried a Yin chilling effect. The lunar energy clashed with the fire and neutralized a bit of the overwhelming heat of the furnace.

“Do not think you can stand against the Solaris Kingdom alone,” Orion shouted as he gathered more silver moonlight into his open palms.

Zhan Chen glanced sideways at the grandmaster and gave a short nod of acknowledgment. Having a bit of support to offset the heavy suppression of a Creation Lord was always useful during a prolonged fight.

‘Judging by her aura and how she is attacking, she probably just made it to creation lord not long ago. The chances of her being able to project her inner world out is slim and that means I have nothing to fear from her.’ Zhan Chen reasoned but had a defensive treasure ready in case she was able to.

Olenna sneered at the new arrival with deep disgust. “A mere fool dares to interfere in my battle. I shall burn your pale wings to ash.”

She pointed a single bony finger directly at Orion and the dark flames wrapping around her furnace surged outward and took the shape of a colossal hand. The flaming hand crossed the distance in the blink of an eye while reaching out to crush Orion right where he hovered in the sky.

The grandmaster felt the terrifying pressure of a realm higher than his own and it was locking his body in place. The blazing heat threatened to ignite his internal Qi pathways just from being near the attack. He tried to push his hands forward to cast a lunar shield but his movements were far too slow under the crushing domain of the angry Matriarch.

A flash of golden light intercepted the giant flaming hand before it could close. Zhan Chen appeared directly in front of Orion and delivered a sweeping kick that tore through the very center of the fiery palm. The physical attack severed the connection to the furnace, causing the remaining fire to disperse harmlessly into the wind.

“Watch your positioning out here,” Zhan Chen said over his shoulder while keeping his eyes on the old woman. “She is still a realm above us in cultivation. Do not let her lock onto you or you will not be able to move.”

Orion let out a ragged breath and nodded his head in understanding. “My apologies for the misstep. Her pressure is much heavier than I anticipated it would be.”

“Stay on the outside edge of the fight. Strike her when I break her guard and keep her occupied,” Zhan Chen commanded before launching himself directly at the Matriarch.

The sky quickly became a chaotic canvas of gold and crimson light. Zhan Chen closed the distance and engaged Olenna in brutal close quarters combat where he knew he held the advantage. His fists and legs became blurs of golden energy and were striking with heavy weight. Olenna defended herself by summoning thick barriers of condensed fire and constantly shifting the position of her bronze furnace to block his heaviest physical blows.

Every time Zhan Chen struck the side of the furnace, a loud metallic clang echoed over the ruined city. The raw physical power of his body pushed the old woman back step by step while preventing her from gathering enough breath to cast her larger scale destruction techniques.

Seeing Zhan Chen pressing the advantage, Orion took his opportunity to strike as well. The grandmaster channeled his flowing Qi into his pale moth martial spirit. The moth opened its mandibles and unleashed a concentrated beam of freezing Yin energy. The lunar strike bypassed the chaotic melee taking place and struck Olenna squarely in her left shoulder.

The old woman hissed in pain as a layer of thick frost spread across her dark robes. The freezing energy of the moon invaded her meridians while causing her internal Qi flow to stagnate for a brief second. It was not a fatal injury by any means but the disruptive nature of the Yin strike genuinely hurt her flesh and put her even more behind against Zhan Chen.

Zhan Chen capitalized on the sudden opening immediately. He slipped past her faltering fire barrier and landed a heavy palm strike directly on her chest with ruthless aggression, nothing like his fight against the ancestor before. The impact sent a shockwave of golden energy bursting through her back and forced her to cough up a mouthful of darkened blood.

Olenna staggered backward in the air while clutching her chest with her eyes burned with a furious and hateful light. Being pushed back by two Sovereigns was an insult her pride could not stomach.

“You miserable children,” she snarled with venom dripping from her words. The bronze furnace behind her let out a deafening roar to match her anger. The dark flames shifted color, turning into a deep and sickening shade of purple.

She ignored Zhan Chen for a moment and locked her hateful gaze entirely onto Orion. She slapped her hands together and unleashed a roaring torrent of purple fire that took the shape of a spinning vortex. The vortex carried a terrifying suction force that pulled everything in the surrounding area toward its burning center.

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Orion cried out as the sudden pull caught him off guard and his pale moth flapped its wings frantically to escape but could not escape the hungry purple flames. The grandmaster was dragged through the air toward the deadly vortex against his will as he formed hand seals rapidly, launching crescent blades of moonlight to cut himself free but his attacks simply melted away before they even touched the roaring fire.

He was quickly becoming a hindrance in the fight and was unable to break the specialized refinement techniques of a genuine Creation Lord. Zhan Chen clicked his tongue in mild annoyance at this old man who came running here with good intentions but out of foolishness. Zhan Chen stomped his foot heavily against the empty air and pushed off with explosive speed. He caught Orion by the thick collar of his robes just as the grandmaster was about to be pulled headfirst into the burning vortex, which brought a smile to his own face but it quickly disappeared..

With a loud grunt of exertion, Zhan Chen hurled Orion backward to safety. He then turned his body to face the incoming purple fire. Instead of dodging out of the way, he let his golden aura flare to its peak. He drew his fist back until his muscles strained against his sleeves.

‘Time to see how tough this old woman really is,’ Zhan Chen thought with a smirk.

He punched forward with a mighty shout while releasing a golden dragon projection that roared loudly as it met the purple vortex head on. The two overwhelming forces clashed in the sky and created a blinding explosion of colored light that forced Li Yu to shield his eyes behind Krag down on the ground.

When the bright light finally faded, Zhan Chen stood in the sky with his robes smoking slightly but his body remained unharmed. Olenna on the other hand hovered opposite him while breathing heavily from the exertion. Her wrinkled face was twisted in deep disbelief that a mere Sovereign had just shattered her strongest technique.

Orion floated a safe distance away and wiped a layer of sweat from his brow. “Thank you again for the save. I could not break that force on my own.”

“Focus on survival first and help out where you can. You are not doing bad.” Zhan Chen replied without looking back at his ally.

The battle resumed with a fierce intensity that shook the heavens. Olenna grew increasingly desperate and was throwing wide waves of dark fire, summoning blazing fireballs from the clouds and using her bronze furnace to smash at Zhan Chen from different angles. Zhan Chen met every single attack with martial prowess. He did not rely on flashy magical arts or complex arrays, choosing instead to use his physical body as the ultimate weapon. His punches shattered her fireballs into dust and his sweeping kicks redirected the burning furnace time and time again.

Whenever Olenna tried to pin Zhan Chen down with a complex sealing art, Orion would interject from afar to ruin her plans. The grandmaster sent showers of silver Yin needles or wide blasts of lunar frost to disrupt her concentration just enough for Zhan Chen to handle the rest. The cold energy stung her pathways and slowed her casting speed just enough for Zhan Chen to break free from the pressure and launch a counterattack.

However, Orion was always walking a fine line between helping and dying, which to his credit showed how powerful he was. Olenna would frequently shift her attention to swat at the annoying grandmaster with long whips of purple fire. Each time she did, Zhan Chen had to abandon his offensive push to intercept the flaming blow and prevent Orion from being turned to ash on the spot. The constant back and forth rhythm turned the sky into a wild tempest of clashing colors.

Zhan Chen stepped into her guard and punched the side of the bronze furnace and sent the heavy vessel spinning away from its master. He looked at the old woman and realized he had finally seen enough to understand her limits. Zhan Chen had gauged her reaction speed, her defensive capabilities and the true depth of her Qi reserves during the prolonged exchange. Despite being a Creation Lord, she relied too heavily on her domain, Qi and her external furnace. Her physical body was frail and her martial arts were sloppy, lacking the refined discipline like someone from the Zhan Clan.

“I think we are done here,” Zhan Chen stated plainly as his confident demeanor vanished in an instant. His handsome face settled into a mask of cold and ruthless intent. The golden aura surrounding his body compressed tightly, pulling inward against his skin until he glowed like a solid star.

Olenna felt a primal sense of dread wash over her weary mind in this instant. The heavy killing intent radiating from his form was palpable and suffocating.

“You cannot defeat me. I am a Creation Lord!” she screamed while pulling her spinning furnace back to her side. She fed her own life essence into the bronze vessel and caused the metal to glow white hot with unstable power.

Zhan Chen did not bother to reply to her desperate words, he simply vanished from her sight. He moved so fast that the air did not even have time to crack behind his passing form. He appeared directly in front of Matriarch Olenna, slipping past her thick defensive flame domain as if it were made of thin paper. The old woman widened her eyes in stark terror as she raised her right arm to cast a close range fire technique into his chest but she was far too slow to catch him.

Zhan Chen grabbed her right wrist with a grip like a tightened jaw that would never release its prey. He did not use a fancy technique or a glowing weapon to strike her. He twisted his waist with incredible torque and pulled backward with explosive physical strength. The sickening sound of tearing flesh and snapping bone echoed loudly over the now quiet battlefield.

Olenna let out a bloodcurdling shriek as Zhan Chen literally ripped her right arm cleanly out of its shoulder socket. Dark blood sprayed into the air like a macabre fountain. Before the Matriarch could even process the crippling pain shooting through her nerves, Zhan Chen stepped forward, flipped the arm around and swung the severed limb like a crude club.

He slapped her violently across the face with her own bloody hand and the impact was devastating to witness, Li Yu physically flinched down below. The physical force behind the bizarre strike shattered her jaw and sent several teeth flying into the wind. The kinetic energy of the heavy blow launched her backward through the sky like a broken doll thrown by a giant.

Orion watched the brutal display with wide eyes, his flowing lunar Qi stuttering in shock at the sheer savagery at what he had just seen and how this man turned it in an instant.

Olenna tumbled wildly through the air while clutching her bleeding shoulder with her remaining hand. Her vision spun in dizzying circles and her mind fractured under the overwhelming agony of what had just happened. She tried to stabilize her falling flight path but the warrior was already hunting her through the clouds.

Zhan Chen blurred out of existence once more and appeared directly below the tumbling old woman. He looked up at her falling form with cold and unfeeling eyes. He reached his hand up and grabbed her right ankle just as she passed over his head.

He dug his strong fingers deep into her flesh, locking his iron grip around her leg bone. With a vicious downward yank, he applied the monstrous strength of his Sovereign body once again. Another sickening tear ripped through the sky above the city as he tore her right leg away from her hip in another shower of crimson blood.

Olenna could not even scream this time. The intense shock robbed the air straight from her lungs. Zhan Chen spun his body in a tight circle and was using the momentum of his rapid movement to swing the severed leg. He kicked her squarely in her mangled face using her own bloodied boot. The impact sounded like a solid boulder striking a thick castle wall.

The immense force of the strike blasted the Matriarch straight down toward the earth far outside the city walls. Her rapid descent left a long trail of blood in her wake as she crashed into the grassy plains with a deafening boom. The violent impact cratered the earth, throwing up a tall cloud of dirt and pulverized rock high into the sky.

Zhan Chen paused for just a slight moment to let his robes flap in the wind. However, it was just for a fleeting moment before heading down instantly to finish the execution properly. He pointed his body straight downward and dove toward the rising dust cloud like a golden meteor falling from the heavens. He gathered his Qi and compressed it tightly into his right fist until the light was blinding to look at.

He appeared in the center of the deep crater where the broken body of Matriarch Olenna lay twitching in the ruined dirt. Her eyes were glazed over with pain and her breath came in wet and shallow gasps. She looked up at the descending fist of gold with a gaze filled with despair.

Zhan Chen drove his fist downward with his full and unbridled power. He punched directly through her abdomen and was aiming straight for her vital cultivation core. His Qi erupted from his knuckles while tearing a gaping hole straight through where her dantian rested inside her body. The delicate spiritual structure that housed her Creation Lord cultivation shattered into a million useless pieces.

Her broken body gave one final and violent spasm before going limp against the cracked earth. The dark karma that had saturated the area began to rapidly dissipate into the wind and began clearing the air of its oppressive weight for those that could feel it. Zhan Chen stood up from the bloody crater and shook the gore from his hand as he looked down at the lifeless husk of the former mastermind. He quickly took to the air and floated above the battlefield like a god looking down on his defeated enemy.