Xia Yuanba's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Impossible..."
"Pitiful," the Devil God's voice rasped. It hadn't even flinched.
The difference in their level of power, the very quality of their energy, was absolute.
The restored Heavenly Laws of the God Realm were still infinitely inferior to the primordial power of a True Devil God.
Before Yuanba could react, the Devil God's hand clenched.
The space around Xia Yuanba imploded.
"GRAAAAAHH!"
It wasn't a strike. It was an execution. The darkness profound energy crushed him from every angle.
Yuanba's golden aura shattered like glass. His bones, harder than any divine artifact, snapped and fractured.
Blood burst from his mouth as he was blasted backward, his body a broken wreck.
He crashed into a distant, dead moon, the impact obliterating it into a cloud of dust.
"YUANBA!" Chi Wuyao's voice was sharp.
The Devil God began to move, its hand raised to deliver the final, soul-extinguishing blow.
"We forfeit this match!" Chi Wuyao's voice thundered across the void.
Jasmine, watching from her throne of darkness, gestured lazily.
The Devil God halted, its killing intent receding as it turned away in disdain.
The match was over.
Mu Xuanyin and several others instantly teleported, retrieving Xia Yuanba's unconscious and broken body.
His life was saved, but the hope of the God Realm was shattered.
"One," Jasmine's voice echoed. "Two matches remain."
The despair was palpable. Xia Yuanba, their titan of pure strength, had been defeated so effortlessly it was humiliating.
"This is not a duel," the Purple Micro God Emperor whispered, his voice trembling.
"It is a culling. She is playing with us."
"The power... the law... it is of a different origin," Mu Xuanyin said, her voice tight as she administered life-saving ice to Yuanba's wounds.
"His Tyrannical Emperor's energy could not even find purchase. It was like... like trying to punch the wind, only for the wind to turn to steel and shatter his hand."
The hope that had flickered in the hall was extinguished, replaced by a cold, suffocating dread.