Chapter 1175: Crystal Sword

After High Priest Poer maximized the power of the holy artifact, he was now half a step from the divine level, and seemed to become a different person. It could also be said that he was not a person anymore. His whole body crystallized, and his hair turned snow-white. He was like a crystal statue that radiated light from the core.

As Poer’s mana accumulated to its threshold, the artifact in his hand suddenly flew from his hands, and circled around him like a satellite. His arms were stretched out to both sides, and crystal-like flames emerged from his palm, burning the expensive magic staff in his other hand to ashes.

Poer’s arms were spread open, and the crystal-like flames continued to hover above his palms. The artifact continued to circle around him, and the phantom-like wings behind him slowly flapped. He emitted an extremely dangerous aura that caused everyone below to feel oppressed and breathless.

The saint from Illuminati, Edmund, looked really stupefied when he saw Poer’s transformation. Fear could be seen in his eyes.

“How could the ancient God of Light come out of his seal?” gasped Edmund.

Edmund’s exclamation changed Elder Zumar’s expression. “Saint, what are you saying, isn’t the ancient god suppressed in the seal?” he asked.

Both of the men directed their gazes to the center of the seven monuments. They saw the ball of light floating within the shield calmly. It looked as though it had just gone back to sleep.

Despite the transformation, Edmund and Zumar felt a strong sense of unease. When the High Priest Poer was at the peak of the Sanctuary-realm, they could still see a strand of hope that Lin Li could defeat him, even though he was less powerful than Poer. Now that Poer had risen to the stage where he was half a step from the divine level, they were convinced that the high priest was not what common Sanctuary powerhouses could handle. Even if Lin Li had rich battling experience, he would never be able to make up such a huge gap in power.

Edmund and Zumar were not the only ones worrying about this; Lin Li thought of the darn issue as well. Although he had learned a lot from Geresco, and had definitely mastered the ability to battle across levels, there was still a limit to the number of levels.

What did it mean for someone to be half a step from being a divine? It suggested that although one had yet to ascend to the seat of a divinity, he had definitely left the Sanctuary-realm, and could be considered as a semi-divinity.

While Lin Li had confidence in his own ability, he absolutely did not have the ego to believe that he had the ability to confront a semi-divine. It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that the difference in their abilities was as huge as the distance between heaven and earth.

But, despite the awareness of the power gap he had with Poer, Lin Li was not panicking. Instead, he was calmer than before because he knew very well that panicking was useless at a time like this, and could only put him to death even faster.

Moreover, Lin Li was extremely clear that there could only be one winner between himself and the high priest. Since Poer was determined to get rid of Lin Li, the only choice the latter had was to fight for himself.

Poer did not speak as many futile words as before. He moved his hands and transformed the two crystal-like flames into two long crystal swords that emitted white flames.

Immediately after, Poer disappeared from his location, and reappeared in front of Lin Li. He pointed one of the crystal swords at Lin Li’s heart and the other horizontally towards his neck. It was enough to give any Sanctuary powerhouse an instant death.

His movement did not make use of the law of space. The speed of his movement was based on pure power that was comparable to the speed of light. Despite expecting the speedy attack, Lin Li was still caught off guard. It was lucky for him to have his defensive spells ready on his body. The spells were triggered when the attack arrived.

Lin Li reacted by sending a ring of fire from his body into the surrounding space. This was a common spell used by magicians to prevent enemies from giving close-up attacks.

Although the level of the Resistance Ring Of Fire was not high, and it could be used by any Archmage, its effect was different when it was cast by a Sanctuary powerhouse like Lin Li. The flames had a golden glow, and encompassed Lin Li’s knowledge of the debris of the stars Raging Flames. It definitely also displayed the strength of a Sanctuary powerhouse in optimizing the laws of magic.

If this ring of resistance was set against ordinary Sanctuary powerhouses, the terrifying force would create a headache for its opponent. However, Lin Li’s opponent was not any common Sanctuary powerhouse. He was one that had already surpassed the Sanctuary level, and was half a step from becoming a divinity. The effect of the ring of fire could only be discounted before Poer.

The high priest did not even look at the ring of fire. The two long crystal swords remained in his hands as he allowed the fire to rush towards him. As the fire came into contact with his body, it was extinguished almost instantaneously as though it was a spark of fire under a crazy wind.

Of course, this was not the only defensive spell that Lin Li covered his body with. Just when he triggered the ring of resistance, he held a massive ice shield before him, and cast all kinds of defensive spells around himself.

However, Lin Li knew that his defenses could only work against common powerhouses in the Sanctuary realm. He could only use them to buy time before an opponent who was half a step from becoming a divine. The time he could buy was not substantial, either—at most a 10th of a second.

An average person might not be able to do anything within a 10th of a second. However, it was enough time for Lin Li to trigger the powers from his space robe. Just when Poer’s swords broke the different layers of defense, and were about to reach Lin Li’s body, Lin Li’s space robe glowed, and only left his afterimage behind.

The afterimage vanished when the swords pierced through it. The high priest would have cussed if he had been the usual Poer. But, it seemed that he did not mind this failure. He only waved his swords, and drew a flaming cross in the air.

The direction the flaming cross came right at Lin Li, who just reappeared in the void. This time, he was prepared for the attack. His Helios’ Scepter glowed, and he waved a Light and Darkness Sword at the flaming cross.

However, Lin Li did not stop to look at the results afterward. He activated his space robe and reappeared in another location. The reality showed that he had certainly made the right choice. Just when the formidable Light and Darkness Sword came into contact with the flaming cross, the sword dissipated in the blink of an eye. The flaming cross was not affected at all. It shot along its original trajectory, and shattered the space with its flames.

After avoiding the flaming cross, Lin Li immediately called out his strongest defenses: the World Domain. At this point, Lin Li was not thinking about retaliation at all. Doing so would only be equivalent to an ant attempting to shake a tree. He might not even injure Poer if he used the World Sword.

Poer appeared behind Lin Li right after the latter displayed his Domain World. The former waved his crystal swords at the Domain World, and it resulted in something that was more terrifying than Lin Li’s World Sword. It created countless cracks in Lin Li’s Domain World as if it was made of glass.

Fortunately, Lin Li had already integrated the seven pieces of the debris of stars into the Domain World before this. The debris’ formidable powers helped to protect the Domain World from being destroyed by the swords within a single blow. However, the immense impact from Poer’s sword flung Lin Li straight to the ground like a ball.

POM!

A sound of explosion erupted as a huge sandpit appeared on the ground. It was as if a meteor had hit the ground. However, it did not stop Poer. After he bashed Lin Li to the ground, he dashed after him like a flash of lightning, diving into the sandpit.

Shortly after the high priest entered the sandpit, a thunderous sound roared from the sandpit and its surrounding ground. What followed was streaks of light that spewed out of the ground. They brought a figure into the sky, and the figure was none other than Lin Li whom Poer had sent into the ground earlier on.

At this moment, Lin Li was certainly in a daze. Seeing that Poer’s movements were not at all hindered below the sand made Lin Li feel as if he was ambushed by thousands and millions of people. The attacks were all-encompassing and had almost no loopholes.

The terrible thing was how each and every attack was filled with immense force. The effects of subsequent attacks were not at all hindered by the number of spells that were cast. Every attack created huge damage to Lin Li’s Domain World, and it could have been destroyed if not for the seven pieces of the debris of the stars. Because of the time needed to repair the damage, Lin Li did not have a chance to use his space robe before he was flung out from the ground.

Although the Domain World had not yet been destroyed, Lin Li’s condition was not ideal. As the Domain World was closely related to its creator, mana was not its only concern; mental strength and soul were involved as well. If Lin Li had been replaced by Edmund or other Sanctuary powerhouses, they would have lost it after their Domain World got damaged.

When Edmund and the rest witnessed Lin Li falling from the sky and being blasted back up, their hearts sank to rock bottom. It was very obvious that Lin Li’s rich combat experience was useless before the high priest who was half-a-step from being a divine. The former could only allow himself to be beaten from the start to the end.

Although Lin Li had not yet been killed by Poer, Edmund and the others saw no hope for him. It seemed like it was only a matter of time before it happened. None of them could think of any possibility for Lin Li to turn the tables.

Similarly, the people from the Tower of Dusk were incredibly anxious as well. Not to mention Connoris, the rookie mages from the team could also tell that Poer had gained the upper hand. But, they also knew that their anxiety was of no use. This was not a battle they had the ability to participate in.

Lin Li, however, felt no such sense of disparity. He had not given up. While the power disparity made the situation seem bleak to the rest of the people, Lin Li knew that he would only lose all hope if he were to give up at this juncture.