Chapter 245 - The Last Strike

Chu Yueli was not just shocked; she was already completely speechless. The amount of astonishment she felt in her heart, even greatly exceeded that of what others felt. This was because she most clearly knew what Yun Che’s condition was like eighteen months ago. Honestly speaking, the Yun Che back then was only a pile of mud that could never support a wall in her eyes. If not for Xia Qingyue’s own insistence on marrying him, she would not have even taken a single straight glance at him.

Meanwhile, Xia Qingyue’s aptitude, comprehension ability, as well as her mentality, were completely unheard of in Chu Yueli’s entire life. Her constitution that could cultivate profound arts disregarding profound strength requirements and could even directly open a Domain, made even the Palace Mistress Gong Yuxian unable to hold back her amazement. She had taken Xia Qingyue as a disciple since she was twelve and had instructed her in Frozen Cloud Arts. She had even personally helped Xia Qingyue tune her body using her own power of the Sky Profound Realm. During the time she was in Frozen Cloud Immortal Palace, countless priceless treasures they had collected over their thousand year of heritage were all unrestrainedly used on her. Furthermore, Xia Qingyue not only had Chu Yueli as master; the two strongest beings in Frozen Cloud Immortal Palace——Chu Yuechan and Gong Yuxian——had both spent a large amount of effort on her. To make her Frozen Cloud Energy reach extreme purity, Chu Yuechan had even gone to obtain three Sky Profound Realm beast cores despite facing immense risk...

Looking through the history of Frozen Cloud Immortal Palace, they had never invested so much on any single disciple.

Only after all that, did the current Xia Qingyue come to be.

Yet right now, Chu Yueli had just stood there and watched as that youth who could only be considered trash originally, break down Xia Qingyue’s Frozen Cloud Domain!

Xia Qingyue being able to open a Domain, had flipped everyone’s knowledge of common sense upside down. But Yun Che actually being able to destroy the Domain, could only be described as an inexplicable miracle.

After destroying the Frozen Cloud Domain with the use of phoenix blood, Yun Che’s strength was nearly depleted, and Xia Qingyue’s condition was also no better off than his. Opening a Domain by utilizing a profound strength of the Earth Profound Realm, the expenditure was undoubtedly extremely enormous. Just conjuring the Domain had already drained over seventy percent of Xia Qingyue’s profound energy. Sustaining it for a few short breaths of time after, again depleted over sixty percent of her remaining strength. In addition to the various expenditures earlier, the current her did not even have five percent of her usual strength left. Moreover, when the Domain was destroyed, it also made her suffer a certain amount of backlash, which had damaged her profound veins quite a bit, causing her control over profound energy to start becoming awkward.

Xia Qingyue’s face was already snow white to begin with, but right now, it was white to the extreme, to the extent where you could not even see the slightest hint of blood color. But at least, she looked a lot better than Yun Che who could not even stand steadily.

Both of them looked straight at the other across less than thirty meters of distance between them. Pain and strenuousness continuously flashed amidst the calm within Yun Che’s eyes, while Xia Qingyue’s eyes instead turmoiled intensely, as if she had yet to recover from the shock she received just now.

“Ugh…” As he quietly groaned with pain, Yun Che slowly stood up using the Dragon Fault as support. He lightly clenched his teeth, looked at Xia Qingyue who was right in front of his eyes, and said in a low voice: “You actually… did not get injured by the flames just now… That’s fine too. The flames just now, even I was unable to fully control them. If you had been engulfed by them, perhaps… they would have severely injured you… If… your clothing were burnt down… Heh, I don’t want my wife, to be seen by others…”

Yun Che’s words were spoken discontinuously, and every few words were accompanied by heavy gasping.

Xia Qingyue: “...”

Yun Che’s hands were tightly gripped on the Dragon Fault, but he did not pull it out from the ground, as if he no longer had ample strength. Yun Che closed both of his eyes, and after a long burst of intense gasping, his aura and voice suddenly started to gradually calm down: “My remaining strength, is only sufficient enough for me to swing out one more strike... If you’re able to receive this strike, then it means that you have won... However...however, I absolutely...absolutely will not lose to you... So this sword strike, no matter what you do, it will be impossible to receive!”

Poof!

The Dragon Fault was pulled out of the ground. Over four thousand kilograms of weight, caused the two hands Yun Che gripped on it to slightly tremble: “Prepare to receive my sword... Qingyue. Keep the glory for your sect in mind, and also recall what I said to you before the fight; give me everything you’ve got! Otherwise, you will be letting the Frozen Cloud Immortal Palace down, letting me down, and also letting yourself down!”

Xia Qingyue: “...”

The youth of the same age in front of her seemingly appeared very distant; because compared to when his Profound Veins were crippled back then, the Yun Che in front of her eyes and the Xiao Che from before were in all ways people from two different worlds. But in the eyes of Xia Qingyue, the youth in front of her whose fate flipped upside-down was incomparably familiar. His gaze, the tone when he spoke, the pridefulness that was carved into his bones... Especially the stubborness that could not be pulled away with even a hundred thousand bulls; they were all exactly the same as the Yun Che she had gotten to know after those short few days and nights with him.

Xia Qingyue did not say anything, but the ice spirits that had originally disappeared once again appeared and floated around her. Behind her, a gigantic ice lotus gradually bloomed. The Ice Phoenix Snowflower Ribbon floated in front of her, and displayed a strange “S” shape. An extremely dangerous aura was released and emitted from every single centimeter and inch of the Ice Phoenix Snowflower Ribbon, exerting an extremely heavy pressure towards Yun Che.

“This is… ‘Frozen Cloud Ultimate Skill: Ode of the Crescent Moon’s elementary style. Junior Sister Xia’s presence is extremely weak right now. Can she still execute this skill?” Looking at Xi Qingyue’s condition, Shui Wushuang worriedly said.

“It’s barely possible. Looks like, Qingyue is also going to give it her all. This move, is not something that’s possible for Yun Che defend against.” Chu Yueli said. But when she spoke those words, she more or less lacked confidence. Although the current Yun Che didn’t seem to be able to even keep his balance, the various things he displayed from him before, especially the flames that burnt through even the Frozen Cloud Domain, made Chu Yueli no longer dare to look down on this seemingly unthreatening young man at all.

She already did not dare guess what earthshaking feat he would do next.

The Dragon Fault was gradually raised by Yun Che above his head. The fifty four Heretic God’s Profound Entrances speedily expanded, madly gathering all of the remaining Profound Energy in his body. Suddenly, he let out a loud roar as the surface of the ground under his feet shattered. And just as he leapt from the ground, the heavy sword soared through the air and heavily slashed downwards...

“Overlord’s Fury!”

Although the power behind this sword strike was much weaker than the previous one at the start, it's was still very frightening. Xia Qingyue also jumped upwards, all of the ice spirits around her flashed with a chaotic brilliance. Her Ice Phoenix Snowflower Ribbon turned softness into resilience, and folded into a snow white crescent moon. While being imbued with Frozen Cloud Energy, it glimmered with a blinding radiance of ice crystals and fiercely clashed in midair with the Dragon Fault.

With a loud sound, an enormous ring of spatial distortion rippled out far away from where Dragon Fault and Ice Phoenix Snowflower Ribbon clashed. The incomparably cold aura completely engulfed Yun Che, and the enormous power that came from the Ice Phoenix Snowflower Ribbon forcefully smashed the Dragon’s Fault into a crescent moon shape.

Yue Che’s eyes were widened abruptly. In that instant of collision, his hands became almost completely numb. He unyieldingly clenched his teeth, and channeled all of his power into the Dragon Fault. But his remaining power was too far-off from Xia Qingyue’s strike of full strength. The power of the Overlord’s Fury was completely blocked, and even the power’s residue were being rapidly engulfed, and a burst of icy cold power, which could thoroughly defeat him, pounced towards his face.

So there was no choice but to use that after all...

This kind of situation, did not surprise Yue Che in the slightest. After all, he understood his own current situation better than anyone else. Feeling that his own power being completely suppressed, he took a sudden breath, and let out a beast-like howl from his mouth...

My profound veins and body… You must to hold on!

“Heretic God’s Third Realm: Purgatory!!”

Following Yun Che’s internal silent chant, the Heretic God’s Profound Vein’s third gate... Purgatory, opened for the first time.

In the instant “Purgatory” opened, a strange, demonic red light was suddenly released from the third gate, illuminating the entirety of the Profound Veins with crimson red as if they were dyed in fresh blood. The red light did not only exist within the Profound Veins, and also gushed out from the profound veins, forming a layer of blood red radiance around Yue Che’s body.

The whites in both of Yun Che’s eyes completely disappeared, and replacing them, were two pupils that turned completely blood-red. An wicked and malicious aura akin to that coming from the purgatory, was also suddenly emanated from his body, causing Xia Qingyue to completely suffocate in an instant .

“Heretic God’s Third Style: Destroying Sky Decimating Earth!”

BOOM!!!!!!

This was an explosive rumble as if the sky and earth had collapsed. The entire Sword Discourse Arena trembled with incomparable intensity, and even the entire area of the ground started to sway, as if a terrifying natural disaster had suddenly descended. Within the huge explosive sound, some lower-leveled profound practitioner's’ ears immediately lost their ability to hear. And on the Sword Discourse Arena, the flying shattered rocks and sand flew to a height of nearly three hundred meters, and for a moment blotted out the sky and the sun, while also completely hiding Yue Che’s and Xia Qingyue’s figures.

Screams of fear resounded throughout the entire Sword Discourse Arena, and incomparable astonishment emerged onto every single person’s face once again. No matter if it was Yue Che, or Xia Qingyue, they were both clearly near exhausted of their profound energy; yet the might of this strike surpassed their everything from before. It was entirely not inferior to that overwhelming flame wave, which even burnt down the Frozen Cloud Domain, in any way. It was difficult for even a powerful Earth Profound Realm expert to generate such a terrifying wave of air current and might, so how was it possible for it to appear within the clash between two young profound practioners who already had a large portion of their power depleted!

The dust filled the air, and no one could clearly see what exactly was happening. Even if they were to try to imagine, they were completely unable to imagine just what they used to create such an earthshaking collision.

The tremoring of the Sword Discourse Arena soon stopped, and the dust also started to disperse. As their lines of sight became clear, everyone fiercely took in a gasp of cold air.

What appeared before their eyes, was a huge crater of at least two hundred meters in diameter!

The edges of the Sword Discourse Arena had also been completely destroyed, and not a single complete piece of the stage could be found.

In the center area of the huge pit, were two completely still silhouettes… Looking at them, everyone held their breaths. Their gazes froze, and they were unable to even make the slightest trace of sound from their throats.

Xia Qingyue silently stood there, her long black hair in a mess, and her entire body tainted by dirt. There was a type of indescribable “daze” within her clear eyes, as she stupefyingly looked at the Yun Che in front of her.

Yun Che had collapsed less than ten steps away from her. All of his clothing were in shreds and his entire body lied flat on the ground face down. From the corner of his mouth, forehead, limbs, back...on basically every single possible part of his body, streams of blood were flowing out. His left hand gripped the ground, the back of his right hand was already completely dyed red by the bloodstain, yet it still firmly grasped onto the Dragon Fault’s handle.

“Finally… It’s over.”

Although “Purgatory” had merely opened for no longer than three breaths of time, for Yun Che’s body that was almost entirely out of strength, it was without doubt a burden that was almost destructive. Furthermore, while under “Purgatory”, he also forcefully executed the complementary Heretic God’s third style “Destroying Sky Decimating Earth”.... That was the ultimate strike he released using the strength from his willpower and his soul. It made even his soul withstand an immense amount of burden that wasn’t in the slightest short of the burden on his body. It was nothing short of a miracle that he was still able to temporarily maintain his consciousness.

The surface of his body had innumerable wounds, and only his internal organs were not as badly damaged. Yun Che managed to widen the corner of his mouth with great difficulty and let out a relaxed, satisfied smile that also carried a deep joyousness. He closed his eyes, freely letting his consciousness plummet toward the darkness. The last bit of awareness, turned into a trace of voice that only Xia Qingyue could hear...

“The second reason I came to the Ranking Tournament… was to prove to you that… I… Yun Che… am qualified to be your husband… and not… your return of gratitude…

…and…char..ity…”

Xia Qingyue: “...”

Time slowly passed in dead silence… One breath, two breaths, three breaths, four breaths...

It was only until Yun Che fainted and there was no longer any movement, did the audience finally regain their senses.

This match, has finally ended...

Nine breaths, ten breaths...

Ling Wugou had always been the closest to the match from the start to finish, and was also the one who most vividly felt the earthshaking strike earlier. If someone came close to him right now, they would realise that his forehead was fully and densely covered with cold sweat... That’s right! A supreme expert of the Sky Profound Realm rank eight, who held an extremely high position even in the Heavenly Sword Villa, was actually startled to the point of coldly sweating from a battle between two youngsters.

After ten breaths of time passed, Ling Wugou finally regained his wits. He glanced at Yun Che with an extremely complex gaze, before quickly calming his state of mind and loudly declaring with a vigorous voice: “Yun Che has fallen for ten breaths of time. The winner of this Ranking Tournament’s final battle is…”;

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Translator Note: Author has permanently swapped Purgatory with Rumbling Heaven in the later chapters. We have decided to make the switch now instead of later. From now on, Purgatory is the Heretic God's 3rd Realm while Rumbling Heaven is the 4th. alyschu has replaced all previous mentions of Rumbling Heaven being the third realm with Purgatory.