As the black spiritforce spread bit by bit, a powerful devouring force surged around Ren Pingsheng’s body.
By now, he had completely digested Grand Emperor Tun Ri’s legacy.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to enter the Heavenly Dao Academy through such fierce competition.
It had been a long time since they last met, and he seemed to have grown much more than before.
He wore a long black robe, with a matching black cloak.
The collar of the robe was high, wrapping completely around his neck.
His gaze was calm, with a faint trace of anger.
His thick black brows framed eyes in which a faint black spiritforce churned.
On his back, he carried a giant axe.
The axe was pitch black, engraved with streaks of white and purple.
It was steeped in ancient aura, looking heavy and domineering.
Ren Pingsheng raised his right hand, endless devouring power condensing within it.
He struck straight at his opponent with a punch.
Wang Lang, standing opposite him, was clearly no ordinary figure either. White spiritforce surrounded him like foam, surging endlessly.
The eight pulse gates within his body were open, releasing the vast might of the God Meridian Realm.
At this stage, anyone who could enter the Heavenly Dao Academy was at least at the God Meridian Realm, since everyone was making their final preparations for competing over the Heaven’s Will.
Their fists collided between them, detonating in an explosion.
A wave of force burst out, sending both of their figures flying backward.
Wang Lang’s white spiritforce was extremely resilient, endlessly flowing in waves, like a surging tide, supple yet forceful.
“You’re nothing special,” Wang Lang said coldly.
Three explosive sounds rang from within his body, and then the white spiritforce erupted in full force.
The sound of rushing water could be heard.
Behind him, waves and undercurrents actually took form.
“Seven Styles of Surging Waves,” Wang Lang called out in a low shout.
Dark currents gathered in his fists, as if the waters of a vast lake were converging and crossing over each other, striking straight at Ren Pingsheng.
“You’re still not enough,” Ren Pingsheng said calmly. In his fists, a pitch-black vortex appeared.
The vortex spun rapidly like a black hole.
From within it, waves of devouring power spread outward.
For the moment, neither could gain the upper hand.
Wang Lang’s Seven Styles of Surging Waves came one after another, each strike increasing in power severalfold.
As for Ren Pingsheng, his devouring force was an innate advantage, it could swallow the opponent’s power and send it back with equal force.
…
“How did those two end up fighting like this?”
Some confused onlookers asked curiously.
“I heard it’s over a woman,” someone whispered.
“No way.”
“That’s what I heard. But supposedly, it had nothing to do with Wang Lang originally. It was between Ren Pingsheng and the Azure Dragon Crown Prince. Wang Lang just runs with the Crown Prince, so he stepped up to provoke Ren Pingsheng.”
“The Azure Dragon Crown Prince? You mean…” someone said in shock.
“That’s right, the ruler of the Ancient Dragon Dynasty. Keep your voice down; don’t let him hear you.”
Hearing this, the others quickly nodded.
Someone glanced to the side.
In that group, the young man in the blue robe was the Azure Dragon Crown Prince.
His gaze was domineering, faint pressure radiating from his body. Many people didn’t even dare to stand too close to him.
Beside him were several other men and women, all with extraordinary bearing, clearly from great sects or immortal clans.
As the saying goes, like attracts like.
The Ancient Dragon Dynasty was one of the old imperial lineages of the Overlord Region.
One dynasty, two emperors.
In the era when Zhen Wu ushered in the flourishing Imperial Era, the Sky Shroud War God once nearly wiped out the dragon race.
If, in that time of near-extinction, any true dragons still existed, people would have naturally thought of the Ancient Dragon Dynasty.
That was many eras ago, when some drew dragon tendons, drank dragon blood, replaced their bones with dragon bones, and cultivated the dragon race’s peerless arts.
In the end, when the Heaven’s Will descended, they transformed into an ancient dragon, horned like a true dragon, winged like a heavenly roc.
With their bloodline returning to its ancestral form, their dragon might shook the world, and they bore that era’s Heaven's Will.
The Ancient Dragon Emperor, the dynasty’s founder, was its progenitor and the emperor most closely tied to the dragon race.
Many years later, the Ancient Dragon Dynasty produced another peerless genius.
He did not choose to transform into a dragon. Instead, he began as the weakest form of a snake.
He grew into a python, then into a giant constrictor, and then into a flood dragon.
Just as he was about to advance from flood dragon to true dragon, for reasons unknown, he crippled all of his own cultivation.
This man was Grand Emperor Jia Nan.
Grand Emperor Jia Nan’s story was long, but before the students discussing the Ancient Dragon Dynasty’s history could continue, the duel on the arena stage had already changed.
The two combatants had unleashed their true fates, boundless might pressing down from above.
Wang Lang’s true fate was a Bloodthirsty Ghost Shark.
Since his spiritforce was of the water element, it matched this creature perfectly.
The ghost shark’s shadowy eyes locked onto Ren Pingsheng.
Around it, raging waves crashed endlessly, the roaring sea breaking apart the very space around it.
Ren Pingsheng was not to be outdone. He bore Grand Emperor Tun Ri’s legacy, and had carved the Sun-Devouring Axe into his own true fate.
Behind him, the phantom of the Sun-Devouring Axe shot up to the heavens, an axe, sharp, heavy, and unyielding.
Not only did the phantom stand behind him, but he also slowly drew the actual Sun-Devouring Axe, a Grand Emperor True Treasure, from his back.
In that moment, wind and sand whipped up as endless devouring power surged stronger and stronger.
Ren Pingsheng slowly lifted the Sun-Devouring Axe.
The true fate behind him moved with him, merging as one.
In an instant, an infinite suppressive force exploded outward.
Everyone present felt as if they could hardly breathe.
“My ancestor once swept across an era, the five regions and five continents, none dared disobey,” Ren Pingsheng said, his gaze deep.
His calm words carried pride and dominance.
“Though the descendant today is incompetent and cannot pass on that glory, you are not the sort of petty man who can jump around unchecked.”
As his words fell, the Sun-Devouring Axe struck forward with tremendous might.
In an instant, the axe grew dozens of times larger.
With each movement, the very world seemed to lose its color, even the sun above obscured.
Thunderous booms rang out.
The surrounding void, unable to bear the pressure, shattered even before the blow landed.
…
As the Sun-Devouring Axe fell, a vast swath of void collapsed.
Wang Lang’s face changed slightly, but the Bloodthirsty Ghost Shark behind him still roared as it charged forward.
Another booming explosion followed, making everyone feel as though their eardrums would split.
The devouring force on the giant axe grew ever stronger.
The ghost shark roared in defiance.