The one-eyed giant roared, his face twisted with malice. With each thunderous step, the earth trembled beneath him.

Engulfed in the fiery essence of his blood, he resembled a towering flame giant, his Blood Qi overwhelming. At this moment, he swung the steel stick in his hand toward Long Chen again.

In response, Long Chen simply extended his hand against this attack.

“What?! Even at this stage, he’s still going to try to block a Saint weapon barehanded?!”

BOOM!

A powerful qi wave erupted, and a giant lightning sphere expanded from the epicenter of their clash.

Within that sphere, Long Chen and the one-eyed giant stood motionless, looking like statues.

However, the guards felt like their hearts had stopped beating. They saw Long Chen’s hand holding onto that steel rod that had seemed completely unstoppable just moments before.

“He… he caught it…”

Audible gulps could be heard. They could not believe what they were seeing.

Although they didn’t know the one-eyed giant’s origins, just from the shape of his body and Blood Qi, they knew he was a power-type fighter. However, Long Chen had easily stopped his strongest attack.

“You damn human, how can you have this kind of power?! I refuse to believe this!” roared the one-eyed giant.

He pulled at his steel rod with all his power, causing the void beneath him to rumble as if it would explode. As muscles bulged along his arms, runes danced like tiny serpents wriggling beneath his skin. But no matter what he did, his divine weapon was stuck to Long Chen’s hand, and he couldn’t even move it in the slightest.

“Give it back… Y-you inferior human…”

The one-eyed giant’s arms quivered as he pulled with all his might. His steel rod started to slowly deform from the immense power.

A giant was competing with a human over power. Despite the vast difference in size, Long Chen stood unwavering, as solid as a mountain. His composure reached a level of ease so profound, it bordered on divine.

Then, in a moment that caught the giant off guard, Long Chen released his grip. The unexpected move sent the steel rod hurtling back toward the one-eyed giant with unstoppable force, crashing into his head with brutal impact.

BANG!

Sparks flew from the impact. This level of power would have blasted a normal person’s head like a watermelon, but this giant was exceptionally tough. Only a small lump grew out of his head.

“What a tough head!” Someone let out a surprised shout. Indeed, this one-eyed giant was really resilient.

Although his head wasn’t crushed, being struck by his own power left him dizzy. The world spun around him, and stars were spinning in his eyes. Confusion clouded his senses, leaving him disoriented and unable to distinguish between left and right.

By the time he recovered, Long Chen was already standing on his head, his finger pressed against the giant’s forehead.

“Die.”

A tiny flame lotus condensed at the tip of Long Chen’s finger and pierced into the one-eyed giant’s head.

Like a hot knife through butter, the flame lotus came straight out of the giant’s head, along with a rain of blood. However, his blood instantly froze and shattered.

The one-eyed giant’s mouth was open, an expression of confusion still vivid in his eyes. He didn’t even know how he died.

As his body slowly fell, a chilling frost covered it. Upon impact with the ground, his corpse shattered into countless frozen fragments, disintegrating into powder.

Thus fell another formidable monster, vanquished in the simplest and most direct day. He had no ability to fight back.

“There was only a pea-sized brain in that giant head.” Long Chen slowly lowered his hand, looking at the ice powder on the ground indifferently.

The giant was truly powerful. Given the number of runes covering his body, he had to have many powerful divine abilities that he hadn’t unleashed. Unfortunately, he had been so set on beating Long Chen with power that he didn’t use them.

Before the merger with the essence blood of the mysterious dragon expert, Long Chen would have been no match for the one-eyed giant in raw power alone. Yet, even without such strength, Long Chen would have a hundred ways to kill him. After the merger, this one-eyed giant’s power wasn’t even worth mentioning.

Moreover, Long Chen had comprehended the essence of the Nirvana Scripture, getting new insights that greatly enhanced the World Extermination Flame Lotus.

Long Chen had compressed the power of the World Extermination Flame Lotus to its absolute limit. Hence, despite its small appearance, its killing power was truly staggering.

Its strongest point was its fully compressed state, which meant that not even a bit of its power leaked, making it exceedingly challenging for others to detect the imminent danger.

Thus, when Long Chen's finger pressed against his head, the one-eyed giant remained oblivious to any impending danger. Even in his final moments, he was unaware of what had brought about his death.

Despite its strong points, it also had some drawbacks. The World Extermination Flame Lotus was so difficult to compress that it posed a heavy burden on the caster.

While the original version of the World Extermination Flame Lotus manifested externally, the fully compressed variant originated from within the caster. During its formation, if the caster couldn’t withstand the burden, they would simply explode.

Thankfully, Long Chen’s enhanced constitution allowed him to wield this technique with ease.

Once again, Long Chen had slain a terrifying nine-star Heavenly Doyen. This time, he really shocked everyone. While his first victory could be attributed partially to luck, with his opponent underestimating him, this time was different.

The one-eyed giant had launched two full-powered assaults against Long Chen, and he had withstood those attacks in the simplest, most direct manner. There were no tricks behind this.

Killing the one-eyed giant in this manner was a testament that Long Chen’s power far surpassed his.

Amidst the fervent attention drawn towards Long Chen for his consecutive victories against two nine-star Heavenly Doyens, thousands of people shouted in unison in the distance.

“Boss, we’re here!”

Hearing that, Long Chen smiled. “You’re finally here. Then it’s time to settle our grudges.”