Chapter 519: The Tide Begins to Turn

BOOM!!!

Two fists, clad in utterly different forces, slammed into each other in midair!

On Gao Jie Ming's fist, pale golden Qi Refining light and the lingering traces of the 【Fiction】 law violently entwined, annihilating each other in a thunderous, muffled roar!

Pure physical strength clashed head-on with law erosion; the spilled energy formed a visible ring-shaped shockwave, stripping another thick layer from the already shattered desert rock below, crushing it to dust!

The black-robed wizard, seemingly to conserve his quota, no longer flickered unpredictably—he moved with a strange gait that skipped part of the acceleration process, gliding like a phantom to close the distance!

Every strike he delivered was brutally simple and razor-sharp!

And each blow carried the feeling of a preordained outcome.

Often, the moment he launched an attack, the result—whether a hit or a specific effect—was already partially manifested, making defense nearly impossible!

Gao Jie Ming's pupils contracted sharply as he unleashed the Grand Void Step to its full potential!

His body darted like a golden streak, performing impossible dodges and blocks within inches of space!

His fists and kicks were equally crushing, each strike infused with the terrifying physical power forged by the Qi Refining Art and the vast spiritual power of a Soul Transformation cultivator!

In another instant of fist meeting palm—

A highly compressed beam of Dispersing Flame Destruction Light exploded at the point of contact, its dark golden radiance erupting violently!

The black-robed wizard frowned slightly; though he had already "defined" the outcome of successful defense, the hem of his robe still bore a charred trace from the glancing blow.

Gao Jie Ming's eyes lit up.

His battle instinct, pushed to the edge of death, surged wildly—he immediately caught this detail with his bloodshot eyes.

This was the opening!

If he attacked frequently enough, forcing the opponent to exhaust their quota within a given time, he could inflict real damage!

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

But before he could rejoice, a continuous series of bone-snapping sounds rang out clearly, sending chills down his spine!

This exchange shattered one of Gao Jie Ming's arms, bone by bone.

From finger bones to wrist bones, from forearm to shoulder blade, every single bone exploded into fragments!

Flesh and blood turned into a mist of crimson!

Only pale white bone shards remained, barely held together by tendons and membranes.

Yet in the next instant, the broken bones on that arm spontaneously healed, flesh and skin rapidly covering them at visible speed!

The black-robed wizard paused slightly, then pressed forward again.

Seeing the palm closing in once more, Gao Jie Ming raised his other arm without hesitation to block.

As he blocked, Gao Jie Ming rotated his elbow half a breath early, shifting the point of impact from the vulnerable joint to the sturdier forearm.

CRACK!

This time, only the ulna of his lower arm shattered!

Pale golden regeneration light surged forth almost the instant the bone broke, healing at a speed half a beat faster than before!

The black-robed wizard's assault remained a relentless storm, but the "willow-fluff fragility" in Gao Jie Ming's movements was rapidly fading, replaced by an extreme, taut resilience!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!

Continuous explosions shattered the sky above the gray-white wasteland!

Dark golden light, invisible law ripples, and pure force shockwaves turned this entire region into an absolute wasteland of rampant energy!

The earth groaned as it sank, cracked, and melted; the sky was stained with chaotic, surreal hues by the turbulent energy flows!

From afar, it looked like the end of the world!

Gao Jie Ming realized: this black-robed wizard was also an absolute master of hand-to-hand combat!

His techniques were exquisitely refined, his power delivery bizarre and unpredictable, his control over his body astonishing.

Combined with the unpredictable 【Fiction】 effect, every strike was deadly, capable of killing in an instant!

"Of course—" Gao Jie Ming understood inwardly.

As a law that "skips the process to reach the result," the 【Fiction】 power is ideally suited for two extreme combat styles: one, long-range, large-area "result definition," such as directly causing a region to collapse or a group of targets to vanish.

The second is precisely this: close-range instant kill!

The 【Fiction】 law achieves the complex outcome of "attack lands and inflicts maximum damage" with maximum efficiency!

With every clash, Gao Jie Ming's arms, legs, even his shoulder blades and ribs, shattered and dissolved under the combined force and 【Fiction】 erosion!

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

The sound of snapping bones never ceased!

Agony surged through every nerve like a tidal wave, threatening to drown his consciousness!

But—

The adaptive evolution of the Qi Refining Art revealed its terrifying power at this moment!

Before the shattered flesh fully scattered and the broken bones fully separated, a torrent of vitality surged forth!

Flesh writhed and interwove like a living thing!

Bones mended and reshaped at visible speed!

Often, within a blink, a wound severe enough to disable a fifth-level wizard was fully restored!

Even the newly regenerated tissue appeared denser at the microscopic level, increasing resistance to 【Fiction】 power by a fraction!

This allowed Gao Jie Ming to fight like an unrelenting, self-reinforcing war machine, engaging in the most brutal exchange of damage against the black-robed wizard!

Broken arms regrew, shattered bones restored, flesh reformed—

Yet as the fight continued, Gao Jie Ming's initial excitement cooled, his brow slightly furrowing.

Though he had regained the upper hand, he now faced a new bottleneck.

The Qi Refining Art's evolution primarily enhanced survival and endurance.

His fists could barely withstand the opponent's strikes without being completely annihilated—but his own attacks, whether the crushing physical blows or the close-range bursts of Dispersing Flame Light or spatial rips, had negligible effect when striking the black-robed wizard!

Clearly, after realizing he could not swiftly dismantle Gao Jie Ming with 【Fiction】 in a short time, the black-robed wizard swiftly adjusted his strategy.

He prioritized allocating more of his available quota to defense!

Gao Jie Ming's spiritual-power-charged punch slammed into the wizard's chest—its force vanished like a cow sinking into mud, entirely absorbed by an invisible barrier!

A Dispersing Flame Light blast detonated mere inches from the wizard's skin—then vanished soundlessly before contact!

With quota shifted toward defense, the opening Gao Jie Ming had discovered vanished instantly; the black-robed wizard now seemed clad in a conceptual "absolute defense armor!"

Though his attack frequency and instantaneous threat level dropped, he now stood nearly invincible!

"Tch—annoying." Gao Jie Ming muttered inwardly.

He could take it, he could strike, he could recover—

But he just couldn't break through!

On the other side, as the black-robed wizard calmly parried Gao Jie Ming's relentless, ever-changing assault, his inner shock and confusion grew like wild grass!

This young wizard was riddled with impossibilities!

The defenses, attacks, summons, and bizarre movement techniques beyond his level—fine.

The monstrous body that resisted 【Fiction】 erosion without disintegrating—set aside for now.

What baffled him most was Gao Jie Ming's seemingly endless stamina and recovery resources!

They had been engaged in this high-intensity, ground-shattering, close-range brawl for nearly ten minutes!

To a mortal, ten minutes was brief.

But for a wizard, whose neural reaction speed increased exponentially with rank, every second stretched impossibly long—enough for dozens, even hundreds of tactical thoughts, energy adjustments, and technique changes!

Remember: from the moment they first met, through all the probing, long-range attacks, deceptive defenses, arm-severing, and evolution—

Until Gao Jie Ming's adaptive Qi Refining Art allowed him to withstand even a single blow from the wizard, the entire span had lasted no more than a few seconds.

And after that, they had fought for ten more minutes.

Imagine how intense the confrontation had been during that "long" ten minutes!

The black-robed wizard himself had lost count of how many times he had shattered Gao Jie Ming's body.

Arms, legs, chest—even his skull—had all been deformed and crushed beneath his fists!

Yet each time, the opponent restored himself instantly, leaping back up, alive and roaring!

"Just how much biomass and energy does this guy have stored?!" the black-robed wizard roared inwardly.

He had long ago used the 【Fiction】 law's nature to "define" and destroy every spatial storage device he could perceive on Gao Jie Ming's person.

Logically, a wizard without storage gear was cut off from supplies!

But Gao Jie Ming?

Where did his regenerated biomass and energy come from?!

Did he have an internal elemental reservoir and biomass synthesis factory?!

How was this even possible for a fifth-level wizard?!

Worse, even the wizard himself had consumed a significant portion of his own stored high-grade energy crystals, rapid-recovery elixirs, and spare wizarding materials during these ten minutes of intense combat!

Sustaining high-frequency use of the 【Fiction】 law—especially allocating massive quota to defense—demanded enormous spiritual energy and specific resources!

In contrast, Gao Jie Ming—

His face had grown pale from pain and depletion, yet his breath grew deeper, his eyes brighter!

Even when counterattacking, his power and energy intensity showed subtle signs of increase!

"He's getting stronger the longer he fights? What kind of monster is this?!"

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The black-robed wizard felt a wave of absurdity and creeping unease.

Gao Jie Ming, on his end, indeed felt his condition was excellent.

The energy transfer between his inner dantian and the incense deity Dao was stable and efficient, with spiritual energy flowing endlessly.

Under sustained high-pressure combat, the Body Forging Art's evolution rate seemed to be accelerating further!

From initially having to sacrifice his entire arm to block a single strike, he now often only needed to endure damage from the forearm to the palm to neutralize it.

The exchange of offense and defense had transformed from his initial one-sided beating into a back-and-forth struggle!

He could even seize opportunities to launch effective counterattacks, forcing his opponent to expend more defensive quota.

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