Martial Ascent to Divinity-Chapter 738 - 712: Giant Power

It was a giant creature twenty meters tall, having devoured countless flesh throughout its life. Rumors say it has swallowed five Demigods and possesses near-immortal abilities.

The Eternal Dark Lantern is an underling of the Blood and Flesh Monarch.

Once war is declared upon the Eternal Dark Lantern, the Blood and Flesh Monarch will quickly arrive, necessitating a swift resolution.

The Endless Battlefield is much larger than Earth by many magnitudes. Zhou Leng calculated that if he searched chaotically, he wouldn’t know how long it would take to find the next one. It’s better to kill first and then look for another newly ascended Demigod if necessary.

Unlike the muscle-headed Demigods like the Sword of Innocence, the Eternal Dark Lantern is a mage and will have all sorts of strategies and calculations.

As expected, he will surely suspect that a Demigod will hunt him and prepare in advance.

But time waits for no one, and only one month is available.

Zhou Leng could not approach closely. He captured nearby patrolling Demons to learn about the Eternal Dark Lantern in detail and combined this with the information within his Demon Brain to prepare adequately.

The Eternal Dark Lantern has twelve demon lamps, but only the details of seven are known, while the other five have never been seen by anyone.

Subsequently, a plan was formulated.

After drafting the plan repeatedly, an irreparable flaw was found—no plan could mitigate it.

Fighting away from home, lacking advantageous timing, terrain, and support.

Zhou Leng thought for a moment and decided to choose the most straightforward approach.

When the time came, assuming the identity of the Blood Butcher, he entered the Eternal Dark Lantern’s camp looking like a wriggling, big fat man.

The small palace of the Eternal Dark Lantern was situated at the center of the camp.

The palace was constructed with spells, roughly fifty meters in diameter.

When the two were three hundred meters apart, Zhou Leng selected a great hammer from his spoils of war.

A weapon of the Demigod Beastman, six meters long.

Without another word, he gripped it with both hands, activated the Great Sun Divine Skill, and smashed it forcefully to the ground.

Boom!

Mighty starry cosmic energy spread from the power of the Half-Divine Artifact, radiating in all directions on the ground.

Vast cracks spread, expanding and raising circular waves of earth.

Underground, dense magical lights flickered.

The Demon Magic Array and spells, which the Eternal Dark Lantern had long prepared, were all destroyed.

Outside the palace, layers of dense shields appeared, dazzling layer by layer, shattering layer by layer.

Carrying the great hammer, Zhou Leng took one step forward, instantly appearing in front of the Eternal Dark Lantern’s palace, and struck again without pause.

Boom!

The great hammer descended, producing a massive white circular shockwave, like a radial circle of water waves, enveloping everything and landing on the palace.

Rumble...the palace collapsed.

While approaching, he sensed the Celestial Ladder mark on his forehead heating up—a newly ascended Demigod was nearby.

Zhou Leng knew the terror of mages well.

Though the multi-core explosion technique looks strong, if the Demigod Mages are fully prepared, it can’t hurt them at all.

To fight a mage, there is only one method: ambush them up close before they’re ready.

But the Eternal Dark Lantern was already prepared, unsuitable for a close ambush.

Zhou Leng stepped sideways, circling the palace’s edge, frantically swinging the demigod great hammer, striking repeatedly.

With one strike, he raised a massive hemispherical white shockwave. The earth sank, and with the power penetrating the void and martial domain, strong starry cosmic energy spread within a hundred meters, covering the entire palace.

With another strike, another massive hemispherical white shockwave erupted...

Zhou Leng, akin to pounding a mole, circled the palace edge swinging the hammer, never stepping into the palace, never falling into the Eternal Dark Lantern’s ambush.

Waves of earth and air surged forward relentlessly.

The earth within a five-hundred-meter radius continuously sank.

With one strike, it sank five to six meters.

When Zhou Leng finished a hundred strikes, the entire palace, with him, sank hundreds of meters below ground.

The whole palace was pulverized, but held together by various magical powers, forming a mound.

Zhou Leng, giving his all, continuously struck a hundred times, panting heavily.

He remained vigilant, gazing at the mound without a moment of relaxation.

Mages are notorious for their insidiousness and cunning. This Eternal Dark Lantern, arriving three days early, must have prepared thoroughly.

Zhou Leng thought for a moment, circled the palace again, hammering down strike after strike.

101st strike, 102nd strike...

133rd strike...

Bang!

Suddenly, a surge of spell brilliance exploded like a fountain of colors; Zhou Leng retreated swiftly, squinting his eyes.

As expected...

The terrifying magical power surged thousands of meters high, enough to kill an unprepared lower demigod.

When the magical power finished erupting, it exploded with a boom.

Where the palace once stood, only a large pit remained, with a lamp demon’s body shattered into hundreds of pieces, lying in the pit.

Its twelve demon lamps were shattered into ten pieces.

On the last two cracked lamps, a bloodshot eye appeared on each.

The two large eyes looked at Zhou Leng, filled with despair, confusion, anger, and rage.

"Who are you!"

"What are you doing!"

"As a Demon Demigod, how can you be so rude!"

"I set up 77 demon arrays and 360 kinds of spells in the palace, none of which worked..."

"Before seeing you, I have to, die..."

A voice filled with endless resentment echoed in the sky, and then the last two demon lamps shattered.

Zhou Leng’s brow heated up.

Successful in killing an equivalent rank Demigod, the Celestial Ladder mark was completed.

The mark on his forehead receded slowly, retracting beneath the skin.

Even though the Eternal Dark Lantern was dead, Zhou Leng did not approach. Instead, he released a Grandmaster puppet to let it enter the pit.

The puppet walked to the edge of the corpse fragments and picked up the tattered Magic Spirit Bag.

The Magic Spirit Bag suddenly exploded, revealing the ghostly Eternal Dark Lantern, half-transparent but otherwise identical.

Zhou Leng raised the great hammer and, circling the pit, refrained from approaching, repeatedly pounding.

Wave after wave of power pushed forward, and layer upon layer of earth waves and air waves surged relentlessly.

The specter desperately used spell attacks, but all spells were shattered by Zhou Leng’s terrifying force and star energy, and finally, the specter was smashed to pieces and exploded.

Fragments of the Eternal Darkness Lamp’s corpse were ground into powder, mixed with the soil.

Zhou Leng dispatched a second Grandmaster puppet to approach.

Boom!

A burst of green flame exploded, instantly covering hundreds of meters.

Zhou Leng rapidly retreated, but his body was still contaminated by the green flame.

Sizzle...

The green flame attached to his skin.

The green flame was strong and could not be dispersed, and even Zhou Leng’s skin was burned.

0.001 seconds after being burned, his skin recovered.

Zhou Leng knew well the Demigod Mage’s cunning and insidious nature, decided not to continue attacking the corpse, and quickly flew out of the large pit, escaping into the distance.

On the way, his whole body was burning with green flames.

No matter what methods were used, the green flame could not be dispersed, but fortunately, it did not cause much damage, so he allowed it to burn.

After running for dozens of seconds, a flaming meteor descended from the sky at an unimaginable speed, crashing onto the ground, blocking his path.

Within the red flames, a massive giant stood up.

Standing as tall as seven floors, his entire body composed of countless fragments of flesh and blood from various races, including body components of demigods.

Overall, he was giant-shaped, each hand holding a massive butcher knife over ten meters long.

The knives were thick and wide, covered in bloodstains, with dense black specters floating on the surface. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Lower-Rank Demigod, Blood and Flesh Monarch.

This Blood and Flesh Monarch possessed godlike power and was well-known in Demon Purgatory and the Ten Realms.

He had faced Giants and Giant Dragons of the same rank head-on, and shattered many Demigod Giants and Demigod Giant Dragons.

Moreover, he had single-handedly defeated five human Martial Saints.

Among all the lower demigods in the world, he ranked in the forefront.

Zhou Leng, having just undergone a fierce battle, was aware of his opponent’s strength, and since he obtained the Celestial Ladder mark, saw no need for reckless combat, and thus turned and ran.

"Submit to me, and I will spare your life," the Blood and Flesh Monarch shouted, taking large strides to pursue Zhou Leng.

Such a massive body reached over 10 times the speed of sound in moments, and in a blink of an eye, achieved 20 times the speed of sound.

Zhou Leng’s agility allowed him to be slightly faster than the Blood and Flesh Monarch, gradually increasing the distance between them.

Seeing he couldn’t catch Zhou Leng, the Blood and Flesh Monarch suddenly accelerated in a desperate charge, then raised the half-divine butcher knife in his right hand and hurled it forward.

Boom...

The Blood and Flesh butcher knife, being a half-divine artifact, held incredible power, and now thrown with full force by the Blood and Flesh Monarch, resembling a flying mountain, charging towards Zhou Leng with speed far surpassing running.

The butcher knife was so fast, it was like a meteor, igniting the air.

By the time Zhou Leng noticed and turned his head, the fire-enveloped butcher knife had already reached behind him.

The Blood and Flesh Monarch smiled, as if he saw his butcher knife drawing a graceful arc, slicing the damned enemy in half.

Zhou Leng had no way to avoid it, instinctively extending his hands to grab the three-story-high knife.

His arm muscles bulged, his feet dug into the ground, and his body was pushed straight back, leaving two deep... two-centimeter-deep grooves in the ground.

A full... one meter long, not even a step.

"Huh?"

Both men froze simultaneously.

The Blood and Flesh Monarch couldn’t understand how a mere newly ascended demigod-level flesh butcher, akin to a junior, could so easily catch his knife?

Zhou Leng also couldn’t comprehend - wasn’t the Blood and Flesh Monarch supposed to be immensely strong, capable of shattering Giant Demigods?

He glanced down at the marks on the ground.

The key was, he exerted force hastily.

Both stared wide-eyed at each other.

A gust of wind blew past, raising a large cloud of dust before them.

Zhou Leng, holding onto the butcher knife’s handle, charged towards the Blood and Flesh Monarch like wielding a giant door.

An unprecedented feeling of humiliation surged straight to the Blood and Flesh Monarch’s head.

"I want you dead!"

The Blood and Flesh Monarch grasped the other Blood and Flesh butcher knife with both hands, slashing at Zhou Leng.

Inside Zhou Leng’s abdomen, the sun core surged with a roar.

The flames erupted, dispersing the green fire formed by the death curse of the Eternal Darkness Lamp.

The vast power echoed within his body.

The two approached, their giant knives collided.

Boom!

Both retreated simultaneously, Zhou Leng stepped back three whole steps.

The Blood and Flesh Monarch, too massive, lost balance and fell backward, his body rolling under the impact of immense power.

When he stood up, both hands were covered with countless wounds, blood gushing.

He looked at Zhou Leng.

Zhou Leng’s hands, with skin as fine as before, seemed unscathed.

Both exchanged puzzled looks.

One thought, what’s going on?

The other also wondered, what’s going on?

Zhou Leng leaped forward, swinging the Blood and Flesh butcher knife at the Blood and Flesh Monarch.

In an instant, delivering a hundred strikes.

Boom boom boom...

The demons in the distance saw continuous white shockwaves spreading, raising clouds of dust, obscuring all else.

After an uncertain number of thousands of impacts, it finally stopped.

Zhou Leng threw away the battered Blood and Flesh butcher knife, standing atop the hacked-up corpse of the Blood and Flesh Monarch, gasping for breath.

"Still quite hard to kill."

He picked up the Magic Spirit Bag and dismembered the Blood and Flesh Monarch.

Sorted out seventeen components of the Headless God, a great harvest.