The Bloodsand clan's underground cave fell into absolute silence.
The Bloodsand Patriarch and the two elders looked at the deep crater where Lam Minh had just vanished, feeling a mix of satisfaction and an indescribable awe for the Tenth Holy Messenger. The power of a Nascent Soul expert was truly too terrifying.
Tenth stood there, hovering in mid-air, his black robe fluttering slightly in the wind. He retracted his hand, his expression emotionless, as if he had just done something not worth mentioning.
"A worthless ant," he murmured.
But, just as he was about to turn and "educate" the Bloodsand wastes, a strange phenomenon began to occur.
From the center of the crater, where nothing remained but dust, tiny specks of golden light began to appear again.
10...
9...
8...
Tenth froze, his blood-red eyes under the robe narrowing. "What is this?"
He had heard reports about Lam Minh's strange regenerative ability. But he had assumed it was just some kind of deceptive trick, that it couldn't possibly be effective against the absolute power of a Nascent Soul.
7...
6...
5...
The specks of light gathered faster and faster, forming a faint human figure.
[Host has died. Killed by the spiritual pressure of an Initial-Stage Nascent Soul expert. Received a massive bonus: 200,000 Immortality Points.]
[STATE [IMMUNITY] ACTIVATED. TIME REMAINING: 29:59]
4...
3...
2...
The figure had fully solidified. It was Lam Minh. Still stark naked, without a single scratch.
1...
0!
Lam Minh opened his eyes. He could feel the boundless energy surging through his body, a feeling of being invincible, undefeatable.
He looked at the stunned Tenth and gave a confident smile.
"Surprise, three-eyes?" he said, his tone a bit teasing. "Is that all your attack can do?"
(Translator's Note: "Three-eyes" is a guess; it's a taunt, but the original text doesn't specify Tenth's appearance.)
"No... impossible!" Tenth, for the first time in his life, felt a true shock. He couldn't understand it. He had used the pressure of a Nascent Soul, something that could crush even the soul. How could he have come back to life?
Lam Minh didn't give him time to think. He was confident in the system's power, in his 30 minutes of immortality.
"Time to return the favor!"
He roared, activating his Dragon God Battle Armor. He charged straight at Tenth with the speed of a lightning bolt. He wanted to test what he, in his strongest state, could do to a Nascent Soul expert.
But he had severely underestimated the difference between major realms.
Faced with the charging Lam Minh, Tenth, though still astonished, only had to do one thing.
He glared.
A flash of light shot from his blood-red eyes. An irresistible spiritual power, the will of a Nascent Soul expert, shot straight at Lam Minh.
Lam Minh felt as if an invisible mountain had slammed into his soul.
BOOM!!!
His body, though in the [Immunity] state and unharmed, was sent flying by a terrifying force.
He flew backward like a cannonball.
He shot through the ceiling of the cave, through hundreds of meters of earth and rock, and soared into the desert sky.
He continued to fly, for dozens of kilometers, completely out of control.
Finally, he slammed into a giant rock mountain on the edge of the desert.
RUMBLE...!!!!
The entire mountain shook violently, then cracked and collapsed into rubble.
Lam Minh was buried under tens of thousands of tons of rock and earth.
A long moment later, a hand reached out from the rubble, and then his entire body slowly crawled out. He had no clothes, but the Dragon God Battle Armor was still intact, albeit with a few minor cracks.
He coughed a few times, spitting out some dust.
He looked towards the distant desert, his eyes filled with shock.
"A Nascent Soul... is truly terrifying..." he murmured.
Just a single glare held such power. Although his body was unharmed thanks to the system, his soul had been violently shaken.
Before he could even compose himself, a black shadow appeared right in front of him.
It was Tenth.
He had followed him at an unimaginable speed.
He didn't say a word. He just raised his leg and delivered a very ordinary-looking kick.
Lam Minh hastily raised his arms to block.
BOOM!!!
He was sent flying again.
This time, he flew even farther, for dozens of kilometers, crashing straight into a dense forest.
The ground was torn up in a long gash. Thousands of trees were flattened, creating a huge, deep crater.
Lam Minh lay at the bottom of the crater, his body aching, but still without a single wound.
Tenth hovered at the edge of the crater, looking down at him, his voice full of contempt and a hint of confusion.
"You little rat. You really are a hard-to-kill cockroach."
He paused, then sneered.
"But no matter. The Saintly Way is inviolable. Eleventh and Twelfth were truly a disgrace to the Saintly Way. Thank you for 'purifying the bloodline' for me."
...
Lam Minh slowly climbed up from the bottom of the crater, brushing the dirt off himself. The Dragon God Battle Armor was still there, without a single crack. The [Immunity] state was truly paradoxical; it made him an unbreakable fortress.
He looked up at Tenth, who was hovering at the edge of the crater.
Tenth also looked down at him, the contempt in his eyes gone, replaced by confusion and a hint of... annoyance.
"You... are harder to kill than I thought," Tenth said coldly.
This was an admission. A Nascent Soul expert had to admit that he couldn't easily kill a Golden Core cultivator. To him, this was already a humiliation.
"Purifying the bloodline for you?" Lam Minh sneered, deliberately bringing up Tenth's earlier words. "I think those two were much stronger than you. You must be the weakest among the Holy Messengers, which is why you have to do these menial jobs, right?"
This sentence was like a spark, directly igniting the powder keg in Tenth's heart.
"The weakest?" He gritted his teeth, his killing intent exploding once more.
An image of another person suddenly appeared in his mind. Someone named "Zeros."
He recalled that after the old Eleventh and Twelfth were killed by Lam Minh, the Holy Master had ordered a re-selection. The new Twelfth was an unremarkable Mid-Stage Golden Core. But the new Eleventh's position went to someone completely unexpected.
Zeros. A nameless person, who appeared out of nowhere. Within a month, he had continuously challenged and defeated countless strong opponents, his cultivation advancing at an absurd rate, convincingly taking the Eleventh position. He was cold, ruthless, and extremely belligerent.
And what annoyed Tenth the most were the whispers within the Saintly Way.
"That Zeros guy is terrifying. I heard he's about to break through to Nascent Soul."
"That's right. At this rate, he'll be challenging Tenth soon."
"I think the future Tenth position is more deserving of Zeros."
Those words were like knives, stabbing into his pride. He was Tenth, one of the strongest, yet he was being compared to a newly emerged nobody. Even the Holy Master showed great interest and wanted to cultivate Zeros into his right-hand man.
The jealousy and anger he had accumulated for so long now had nowhere to go. And Lam Minh, with his unkillable ability and provocative mouth, had inadvertently become the most perfect punching bag for him.
"You... want to die that badly?" Tenth roared, his anger towards Zeros now fully vented on Lam Minh. "Fine! I'll grant you your wish! I will beat you to dust again and again, and see how many times you can resurrect!"
He wasted no more words. He shot down like a hawk, carrying all his anger and resentment.
Lam Minh looked at the charging enemy, and a secret smile formed in his heart.
"That's right. Get angry. Go ahead and hit me. The harder, the better. My points... are waiting for you."
He knew that a "beating" that was both comical and "nutritious" was about to begin.