Rezen was definitely not being kind or anything but rather wanted to fish in troubled waters
While his escaping abilities are top-notch, the same cannot be said for his fighting abilities
He is still only at the 6th fusion rank or what the rest of the world call the peak of the apprentice rank
His power is far from enough to fight against mages that condensed a Blessed Land using the earth realm’s origin energy
As such, he cannot let the Serpentine Empress be alone on the gathering point. There is a need for someone to fight her and in this case, it would be the realm’s chosen which was none other than Claude Preston
As soon as Claude was sent out of Rezen’s farm, he found himself at one of the seemingly infinite folds of space
The space that held the Blessed Lands from all the fallen 7th rank mages and the space that the realm has chosen to purify the said Blessed Lands
“C-Claude Preston!” A surprised voice exclaimed as the Serpentine Empress stared at the realm’s chosen in disbelief
She is aware of how overpowered and blessed a realm’s chosen could be but this is still beyond her expectations
Claude was fast! He was too fast!
Even at the most conservative calculation of the Serpentine Empress, Claude still arrived too early
There was still quite a long time before the Blessed Lands were thoroughly purified, giving others a chance to use the origin energy whether that person is Claude or the Serpentine Empress
This development has stunned the Serpentine Empress but she and Claude was no different than mortal enemies
There was no need to have a lengthy conversation between the two of them. They knew that they cannot let the other continue to live and the only way they could do that was to fight and try to kill the other
This was especially so for the Serpentine Empress’s side. While she has confidence that she could mobilize the origin energy and use it as a fuel to escape from this broken realm, that is if the realm’s chosen is out of the picture
As the darling of the realm, Claude would be able to take the origin energy easier and faster than the Serpentine Empress could
This situation was far from desirable to the Serpentine Empress and she could only fight
Neither of the two hold back on their attacks. Both of them unleashed their overwhelming might at the same time as soon as their eyes landed on each other
The surrounding space was automatically locked. They might be deep in the folds of earth’s space but considering that their might could literally shatter the fabric of space, it doesn’t matter
Their attacks has the potential to destroy the surface world even if that was not what they intended to do
Above the Serpentine Empress, the projection of her Blessed Land appeared. That was the biggest Blessed Land that Claude has ever seen
In fact, the Serpentine Empress is definitely the mage with the largest Blessed Land in the entire history of the earth realm
With such a large Blessed Land, who could actually mock her and think that she is weak?
This is the strongest enemy that Claude could possibly fight and the outcome of it is also a great decisive factor on whether the realm would be save or not
With the power boost provided by the Blessed Land, the Serpentine Empress conjured black whips on her hands and these whips acted like agile and tricky snakes
They twisted in the air in a bizarre way, leaving a long trail of ruptured space. The whips’ might was literally apocalyptic and is not something that anyone below the 7th rank could possibly endure
As for Claude, as usual, he started by conjuring his chains of light that either wrapped or pierced through the Serpentine Empress’s Blessed Land
Because of the chains of light, the Serpentine Empress’s power faltered. Her black whips flickered for a moment as if they were about to fade before they were forcefully restored to their peak by her
The connection she has with her Blessed Land was hindered, making it harder to extract power from it
Claude could give a huge debuff on his enemies using these chains and that always gave him great advantages on the battle
With the Serpentine Empress experiencing unusual difficulty in using her strength, Claude bursts into black smoke that condensed in front of his enemy
The two went face to face though the Serpentine Empress still has a dark fog covering her face
As soon as Claude’s figure reappeared, his palm already has his iconic Yin-Yang symbol
The symbol that holds the power of both light and darkness, the two extreme opposites of each other
“[Yin-Yang Palm!]”
Without a shred of hesitation, Claude slammed his [Yin-Yang Palm] on the Serpentine Empress’s stomach
Surprisingly, he actually succeeded in landing a strike this early on the fight
With the [Yin-Yang Palm] on his enemy’s stomach, Claude didn’t waste any time and he quickly pulled his palm back
He wanted to steal a part of the Serpentine Empress’s Blessed Land. Not only would this make her weaker than before but would also make him stronger and he would obtain more ‘fuel’
This is a chance that Claude would not pass by
At first, it looks like he succeeded. On his palm, a twisted image of a chunk of the Serpentine Empress’s Blessed Land could be seen
He was half-way from stealing it from her when the unexpected happened
The Blessed Land dissolved into pure golden origin energy and since Claude technically hasn’t obtained this chunk yet, the Serpentine Empress still has some control over it
Claude’s enemy succeeded on using the origin energy that was still hers and it bursts into bright purple flames
Even a speck of fire could destroy an entire mountain depending on the strength it possesses or the type of energy used to create it
As the purple flames were fueled by the precious and powerful origin energy, any normal flames don’t have a chance to match it
The purple flames spreads from Claude’s palm until it engulfed his entire body
This was the first time that he had experienced something like this
In the past, whenever his [Yin-Yang Palm] landed on the target, the work was already done. He had successfully stolen a part of their Blessed Land
However, the Serpentine Empress is really the Serpentine Empress. Just like a realm’s chosen, an outsider of the earth realm also cannot be judged using common sense
Even when Claude already half-succeeded, she still managed to turn the tides of the battle
In fact, this result might even be something that she had planned to happen
As the flames engulfed Claude, excruciating pain filled his senses. However, that was not the most shocking and anxiety inducing thing
Claude could feel that his energy whatever the form is was being ‘burned’ by the flames
Whether that energy was his lifeforce, mana, or even origin energy, all of them were being burned to continue fueling the purple flames
On the earth realm, the highest form of energy is origin energy. There should be nothing that could burn it aside from another origin energy but even that has a limit
Using origin energy to burn origin energy is like using the same amount of origin energy to cancel out the same amount of origin energy
However, these purple flames are completely different. Claude could feel that it could burn far more origin energy than what was used to create it!
Claude circulated his energy especially his origin energy to try and expel these flames as he stared at the flames’ maker
“How could you…” he muttered before seeing the Serpentine Empress’s body trembling
If it was not for Claude’s excellent vision that was the realm’s blessing for him, he wouldn’t have noticed that on the Serpentine Empress’s fair white arm, a tiny crack could be seen
That crack seems to be the same crack that appeared on the mirror and compass that she previously used
That mirror and compass is ‘hated’ by the realm. Their level is above than what the realm could tolerate and the more that they are used, the faster they were destroyed
It seems that it was not only lifeless objects that would experience that. Even people once they exceeded what the realm could tolerate would also be destroyed
The crack on the Serpentine Empress’s hand was a proof of that. The power she used to create the purple flames is a power that shouldn’t exist in the broken earth realm. Hence, the reason why a crack appeared on her body
If she were to continue using that kind of power, no doubt that she would suffer the same fate as the treasures that she previously used
This was a useful piece of information for Claude that he could possibly exploit to emerge as the victor
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