“Your Holiness!”
“His Holiness has finally made his move!”
“His Holiness is a lesser deity and the top expert in Light Continent. With him around, that evil deity is doomed!”
“Your Holiness, you must kill that evil deity...”
Everyone in the Light Church went into a frenzy the moment Pope Hayes launched his attack.
Their eyes, full of anticipation, shone brightly and keenly as they watched the pope in the sky.
“Sir, you’ll definitely beat him! Definitely!”
The Holy Maiden of Light’s expression was filled with hope, too.
Now that things had come to such a pass, the Light Church could be said to have revealed all of its trump cards. If even the pope couldn’t defeat Meng Lei, then only one outcome awaited the Light Church—annihilation.
Therefore, everyone had pinned all their hopes on Pope Hayes.
At the same time, while all these happened, the seven true gods that had previously fled actually hadn’t completely left yet. After fleeing for a distance that they felt was safe enough, they stopped to observe the battleground from a far distance.
All of them wanted to know how the battle today would conclude and who the victor would be.
Boom!
Golden divine light shone down from above, instantly shrouding Meng Lei within. Fearsome power capable of melting things assaulted him and began to furiously dissolve his body.
Meng Lei’s clothes had been fully dissolved in the blink of an eye, revealing his long, slender, and well-built physique—including his shaft.
“As long as you’re a lesser deity, you’ll definitely perish under my attacks!”
Pope Hayes watched Meng Lei closely. He was fairly confident in his abilities.
After all, he was a pinnacle-level lesser deity. On top of that, his By Our Lord’s Decree secret arts even had its origins from the Celestial Realm. It was ten times more powerful than pure light-elemental divine techniques.
How could lesser deities possibly withstand attacks like that?
However, one second passed... Three seconds passed... Ten seconds passed... Half a minute passed...
Yet Meng Lei remained well and intact. Aside from his clothes that had dissolved, his divine body showed no signs of dissolving at all. In fact, every strand of body hair was standing tall and proud.
“So, that’s what your attack is like, Your Holiness?”
Netherworld Divine Fire rose around him and covered his “vital parts”. Meng Lei looked at Pope Hayes and said dispassionately, “Isn’t it a little too weak? It can’t even count as a tickle.”
“Why is this happening?”
Pope Hayes was filled with disbelief. He exclaimed, “My divine technique attacks are capable of inflicting grievous wounds on lesser deities. You can’t possibly be unaffected at all! Absolutely not!”
“Your Holiness, you might be mistaken about something,” Meng Lei shook his head, “I’ve never said that I’m a lesser deity.”
“Not a lesser deity? Could you be—”
Pope Hayes’ expression changed drastically. Meng Lei teleported right in front of him at this moment and dealt a light palm strike against his chest.
“Ugh!”
Pope Hayes coughed up blood and fell backward, crashing violently against the milky-white light shield.
“Sir!!”
“Your Holiness!”
The expressions of everyone from the Light Church changed greatly as they stared at the sight in disbelief.
A single move!
He had defeated the pope with just a single move!
Just how frighteningly strong was he?
“An intermediate deity! He must be an intermediate deity!”
Fear and horror surfaced in the Holy Maiden of Light’s eyes as she murmured, “O noble Lord, he’s actually an intermediate deity! How can he be an intermediate deity?”
Intermediate deities were absolute invincible existences on the Heaven’s Vault Continent existential plane. There was no way they could defeat an intermediate deity even if they were to amass all of the Light Church’s power. The gap in strength was too great!
“A miscalculation! I’ve made a miscalculation!”
An unsteady Pope Hayes flew back into the air. There was blood at the corners of his lips. He said, “I didn’t expect Your Holiness to be an intermediate deity. I was blind!”
“It’s not too late to become aware of it now.”
Meng Lei flicked his fingers and said dispassionately, “Your Holiness, I admire your strength and courage very much. I’ll give you a chance to live—submit to me and become the Meng Lei Holy Cult’s pope!”
“I’m afraid I’ll have to let you down, Your Holiness.”
Pope Hayes coughed up a mouthful of blood and said, “As our Lord’s servant, I will only worship our noble Lord for all of my life. It’s impossible for me to change my faith to worship someone else.”
“What a real shame!” Meng Lei was rather regretful. “In that case, sorry about this!”
Meng Lei slowly raised a finger. Netherworld Divine Fire burst forth from his fingertip, and a black spear aimed from a distance at Pope Hayes quietly formed.
“Netherworld Divine Fire!”
Pope Hayes’ pupils constricted. He could sense great danger approaching. He hastily wielded the pastoral staff in his hand and commanded, “By Our Lord’s Decree—Let There Be Light!”
Whoosh!
Surging golden divine light gushed from the pastoral staff, forming a golden wall in front of him as he prepared to block Meng Lei’s attack.
“This move again? Looks like you’ve exhausted all your abilities, Your Holiness.”
The black spear formed from Netherworld Divine Fire shot out like a piercing arrow with a casual wave from Meng Lei and instantly appeared right in front of the golden wall.
Splurt!
It pierced through the golden wall with barely any obstruction before, subsequently piercing through Pope Hayes’ chest and coming out from the other side.
“Ugh!”
Blood spurted from Pope Hayes’ mouth. He stared at the black hole in his chest in stunned silence, all his fighting spirit and determination turning into despair and a sense of powerlessness at this moment.
“It’s too great! The gap between the two of us is simply too great!”
Pope Hayes let out a resigned laugh and said, “Now that things have reached such a pass, I can only resort to that!”
Then, he looked at Meng Lei and then at the Shrine of Light and the Light Church masses shrouded by the light shield. He let out a hoarse shout, “The Light Church lives on! Our Lord’s brilliance will shine upon the world for all of eternity!
“Immolate!”
Dazzling flames of light suddenly burst forth from all over him. Then, the originally holy and sacred flames of light began to burn Pope Hayes furiously.
His life force began to wane at a terrifying speed, like water rapidly flowing out of a bottomless bucket.
“This is... An immolation spell?”
Ol’ Amos’ expression changed drastically at the sight. He shouted, “Meng Lei, stop him! He’s immolating! He’s summoning the Angels! Things would become troublesome once the Angels descend!”
“Immolating? Summoning the Angels?”
Meng Lei raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t that surprised, though.
Ol’ Amos had already told him that the Light Church was capable of summoning Angels from the Celestial Realm. However, the move was highly reminiscent of the Seven Injuries Fist[1].
If one wished to summon beings, then they must first offer sacrifices.
Immolation would burn away almost all of the sacrifice’s life essence and the greater half of their divine spirit. In less severe cases, they would suffer a great loss of combat prowess, while in serious cases, they might lose their lives!
Immolation could be said to be an act that was close to going down together with the enemy. It was precisely because the price they had to pay for immolation was too great that the seven true gods from earlier would rather flee.
“The stronger the sacrifice is, the more powerful the summoned Angel would be!”
Ol’ Amos shouted in a deep voice, “Pope Hayes is a lesser deity, so the Angel that he’ll summon in return for burning his divine body and divine spirit would definitely be incredibly fearsome!”
Meng Lei shook his head lightly and said with a smile, “I’ve not seen a real Angel yet, Ol’ President. Just as well that I take this opportunity to take a good look!”
“Take a good look?”
Ol’ Amos was rather incensed. He said, “This is a matter of grave importance that concerns your life, yet you’re saying that you want to ‘take a good look’? What if the Angel that he summons is stronger than you?”
“It’ll be fine! Don’t worry. No one can be stronger than me in this existential plane!”
Buzz...
The pope’s divine body began to visibly wane and shrivel up as the immolation continued. His originally strong and powerful divine spirit also weakened further and further...
At last, by the final stages of the immolation process, Pope Hayes had completely become an old man that was all skin and bone and with one foot in the grave. A golden dimensional gate had also appeared above him.
“Who has summoned me?”
[1] The Kongtong Sect’s signature move in Louis Cha’s martial novels. It allows the user to inflict severe internal injuries on an opponent at the cost of long-term damage to the user’s internal organs as the user progresses from one stage to the next