Chapter 1178, The Final Strike

Translator: Silavin

 

The might of the Skill rained down upon the Slaughter Ancient God in a torrent of unrelenting ferocity.

 

The Slaughter Ancient God poured every last drop of his Ancient God Power into recovery, desperately trying to mend the wounds Lu Fan had carved into his body, to knit his flesh back together.

 

Such a savage Skill, such merciless output, and yet, if he could only weather this one moment, the boost to his strength would reach a level of truly machine-like terror.

 

But could he actually hold on?

 

Even the Slaughter Ancient God himself panicked for a moment.

 

His Ancient God Power could grant him a recovery ability of terrifying speed, but it did not make him undying and unkillable.

 

If Lu Fan’s Damage Output far exceeded the limits of what he could endure, then he would still die.

 

The Slaughter Ancient God refused to allow such a thing to happen. He struggled with all his might, simultaneously driving his Ancient God Power to its absolute limit, healing his wounds as rapidly as he possibly could, hoping against hope that he would not lose his life beneath this single strike from Lu Fan.

 

But very quickly, the Slaughter Ancient God realised that Lu Fan’s Damage Output was simply too overwhelming, and at the same time, his Ancient God Power was beginning to show faint signs of being unable to keep up with demand.

 

He immediately understood, it was most likely because of the battle he had fought against the Devouring Dragon King earlier, which had consumed an enormous amount of his Ancient God Power, leaving his current reserves struggling to sustain him.

 

His Ancient God Power, though vast and surging, was not without end. Every time he fought an enemy, enhanced his own strength, or healed his own wounds, he had to expend Ancient God Power.

 

And the heavier the wound, the more Ancient God Power was needed for recovery.

 

The battle against Lu Fan and the others earlier had already drained a considerable portion of his Ancient God Power.

 

Then the Devouring Dragon King followed up with a relentless barrage of attacks, consuming his Ancient God Power down to perhaps thirty to twenty percent.

 

After all, the Slaughter Ancient God’s degree of awakening was still incomplete, while the Devouring Dragon King was a Combat Specialised Dragon King that had already reached the Eternal Phase, a being whose power could be said to stand at the very pinnacle of this era.

 

One battle after another, without pause, had left the Slaughter Ancient God’s Ancient God Power far too lacking.

 

Originally, by his own estimation, with the Ancient God Power he had remaining, he could continue to spar with the Devouring Dragon King and Lu Fan, steadily elevating his strength to a level where he could cut them both down.

 

At that point, the initiative of the entire battle would rest in his hands.

 

Even if Lu Fan and the others truly had some special method to flee from this place, the Slaughter Ancient God would not have cared in the slightest.

 

After all, he had gained enormously from this battle, having obtained a level of power of truly machine-like terror.

 

It did not matter if the fight had to wait until later. Once his Ancient God Power recovered even a little, he would emerge from the Jiang Family Sacred Land, devour every last Sacred Land and Ancient Noble Family in the Western Border, and then depart, gradually drawing the entirety of Dragon Country into his grasp, slowly consuming every resource in his path.

 

With his current power, there was absolutely no being anywhere in Dragon Country that could stand against him.

 

By that time, his degree of awakening would also be considerably higher, and he might even be able to measure himself against the Fallen Corpse Ancient God.

 

And yet, ideals are always full, while reality is always gaunt.

 

This sudden strike from Lu Fan had caught him off-guard.

 

He could feel his Vitality and Ancient God Power rapidly draining away beneath the consumption of Lu Fan’s Skill, and the speed of that drain was swift enough that even he could feel the threat of death drawing near.

 

He desperately wanted to flee, but faced with such absolute and overwhelming power, he did not even have the opportunity to escape. He could only endure the pain radiating from every corner of his body, straining to mobilise every last drop of Ancient God Power available to him, trying to resist being extinguished by Lu Fan’s Skill.

 

The might of Fury of All Dragons continued to pour forth without relent. Its overwhelming power and duration left Ouyang Bai Ge and the others utterly speechless where they stood, while the hope of victory began to shimmer before their eyes.

 

Under Lu Fan’s onslaught, the Slaughter Ancient God’s body gradually turned to ash, his Life Essence growing fainter and fainter with each passing moment.

 

As the strength of the Slaughter Ancient God’s struggle grew weaker and weaker, and the Ancient God Power within him edged ever closer to exhaustion, unable to sustain the speed at which his body was recovering, the scales of victory seemed to have tipped irrevocably towards Lu Fan.

 

But just as the Slaughter Ancient God’s Ancient God Power had grown so faint it was barely perceptible, a sudden silver radiance began to flicker across the body of the great Silver Dragon.

 

Then, the silver Dragon Breath cut off abruptly, and the body of the Silver Dragon dissolved and scattered.

 

“This…” Ouyang Bai Ge started, then immediately understood, this must mean that the effect of Lu Fan’s Skill had run its course.

 

Which made sense. A Skill this terrifying, one that could even erase an Ancient God, could not possibly be released freely and without cost.

 

To have sustained such a horrifying Damage Output for so long was already the product of Lu Fan’s absolute maximum effort.

 

As the silver light receded, Lu Fan’s body reappeared before everyone’s eyes.

 

His condition, however, was far from good. He lay collapsed on the ground, utterly drained of strength. He looked as though even moving a single finger would cost him tremendous effort.

 

Nearby, the body of the Slaughter Ancient God lay buried within a mound of ash. One could just barely make out the outline of a black, skeletal form roughly ten or so metres long.

 

Every other part of the Slaughter Ancient God’s body had been incinerated to nothing by Lu Fan’s Fury of All Dragons, but even with only these bones remaining, a faint breath of life still clung to him. He had not been completely erased.

 

It was just that at this moment, the Slaughter Ancient God’s Ancient God Power had also been completely exhausted, and his bodily wounds were unable to recover.

 

By comparison, his condition was not much better than Lu Fan’s.

 

Such a mutually devastating outcome left everyone momentarily stunned.

 

Lu Fan reacted quickly. He could sense that the Slaughter Ancient God was frantically gathering what little Ancient God Power he could, attempting to use it to restore his body once more.

 

It was difficult to imagine, after such a life-and-death battle that had very nearly claimed his life, just how terrifying his strength would become once he recovered.

 

Lu Fan cast aside the pain wracking his entire body and called out with every ounce of voice he could muster, shouting at everyone present. “Stop standing there! Attack him! Don’t give him a single moment to breathe! Right now, he is at his weakest! Once you let him recover, there’ll be no way of killing him again!”

 

This string of warnings from Lu Fan jolted everyone back to their senses at once.

 

Ye Wuxian immediately soared into the air, thrusting the long spear in her hand forward. Towering flames swept outward, enveloping the Slaughter Ancient God’s body and continuing to burn away at it.

 

Ye Wuxian’s Damage Output might have been somewhat insufficient when measured against a veteran Ancient God.

 

But her Ancient God Power, which could incinerate everything in its path, could still inflict Sustainable Damage Over Time upon the Slaughter Ancient God, and could even burn away the Ancient God Power he was attempting to condense along with everything else.

 

In doing so, it made it all the more difficult for the Slaughter Ancient God to recover, and bought the rest of the group both the opportunity and the time to continue their assault.

 

The others likewise moved to activate their Skills, pouring every last drop of Damage they could into the Slaughter Ancient God’s body, striving to extinguish him completely.