However, the most crucial flaw was that this guy could actually pinpoint his location.
“Where did you get the information?” Jie Ming asked bluntly.
Hogg answered with equal candor. “I can’t say. Professional ethics.”
The corner of Jie Ming’s mouth twitched. Professional ethics... since when did a bandit care about that?
Even though Hogg was perfectly calm, Jie Ming never relaxed his guard for a moment. He didn’t believe a single word the man had said. In fact, he vaguely suspected that the “robbery” was just an excuse Hogg had come up with on the spot; the real motive was probably far from that simple.
Seeing that Jie Ming remained silent, Hogg wasn’t in a hurry. Instead, he patiently persuaded, “Wizard Jie Ming, I really suggest you consider it carefully. I’m just after wealth, after all. Give me some resources, and I’ll leave immediately. We both save ourselves trouble, why make things unpleasant? What do you say?”
“I don’t agree.” Jie Ming shook his head. “I’m not in the habit of handing over my resources so freely.”
Hogg let out a light sigh, carrying a trace of having expected this. “Ah... just as I thought. I knew this would be the result.” As he spoke, he rolled his shoulders as if stretching.
Crack, crack...
With a series of bone-rattling sounds, Hogg’s body began to swell violently. In the blink of an eye, a giant tens of thousands of meters tall stood towering between heaven and earth.
At the same time, the seventh-level Law-Crystallization Domain exploded outward, causing space for millions of kilometers around to tremble. A furious, devastating pressure surged like a monstrous tsunami, sweeping over everything in its path.
Jie Ming’s expression darkened. Without the slightest hesitation, he assumed his combat stance.
Boom!
A Dharma Aspect spanning 250,000 kilometers suddenly descended, an enormous dark-gold figure that seemed to tear through the void.
Then, a blinding beam of light shot into the sky, and the entire Dharma Aspect quickly transformed into a dazzling stream of light.
Dharma Aspect + Light God Transformation!
Terrifying energy erupted like a red star, instantly dispersing the vast layers of sullen, low-hanging fog.
Hogg’s eyes lit up, and he couldn’t help but praise sincerely, “Good lord! To possess power on this scale at the sixth level—you really live up to the title of a genius!”
Before he even finished speaking, he took a step forward. Despite being smaller in size, the tens-of-thousands-of-meters-tall giant attacked without hesitation. With the Law-Crystallization Domain wrapped around his body, his fist came smashing down with terrifying pressure.
At the same time, Jie Ming unflinchingly drove his Dharma Aspect to take a step forward and met him with a punch of his own.
There were no fancy moves between them. The two colossal figures charged at each other like falling stars racing toward a head-on collision!
Boom!!!
A deafening roar resounded through the void, and a frightful shockwave swept across millions of li. The entire plane fragment serving as the battlefield split apart on the spot; countless mountain peaks shot upward, only to be reduced to flying gravel in the violent elemental storm.
Before the afterwaves could dissipate, the two terrifying forces crashed together again in the void.
Rumble...
The deafening booming swept outward. The gray-black void, already covered in cracks from the previous exchange, looked like a mirror struck savagely by a hammer. Massive wrinkles of space spread wildly; space cracks hundreds of thousands of kilometers long crisscrossed every direction; countless fragments of space were caught up in the elemental storm, coalescing into a destructive torrent in the Endless Chaotic Void.
Jie Ming’s Dharma Aspect stood firm between heaven and earth, radiant light flowing around it unceasingly, like a great sun illuminating the void. With each punch thrown, brilliant divine light erupted; wherever the fist went, the void was scorched with dazzling traces of light.
Hogg, in the form of the tens-of-thousands-of-meters-tall giant, was not to be outdone. His body was covered in ferocious dark-red muscle, with writhing black patterns crawling across the surface of his skin. Every movement caused large numbers of runes to pour out from deep within his flesh, seething like living things.
Feeling the terrifying power coming from the Light Giant’s fists, as well as his own enormously backward-surging body, Hogg took a deep breath of the elemental storm and stomped down again.
Bang!
Large swaths of space ruptured with a loud crack. His immense body moved so fast it was almost unbelievable, closing in on the chest of Jie Ming’s Dharma Aspect in the space of a breath.
“Boy! Let me see whether a genius like you is really worth that many resources!”
Before the words died, he threw a punch.
Pure force mixed with elemental power coalesced into a blood-red fist imprint; everything along its path was compressed hard, space included.
Jie Ming remained as calm as still water. The Dharma Aspect’s fist, which had just shattered, healed in the blink of an eye, and he swung it in response.
Boom!!!
Two fists of wildly disproportionate sizes collided directly once more.
In the next instant, the entire plane fragment shook violently. The shockwave turned into a ring-shaped storm sweeping in all directions.
Hogg’s smile suddenly froze, because in this exchange... he actually hadn’t gained the slightest upper hand!
“How is that possible?!”
His pupils shrank as he felt his arm still faintly numb.
Though less than half a second had passed since the fight began, the two had already clashed countless times. Up until now, he had used every ounce of his strength, but... the guy in front of him was still growing stronger?!
He might have just advanced, but he was still a Level Seven wizard, while this opponent was merely Level Six!
The moment his mind wavered, Jie Ming attacked.
Relying on the light-speed movement of the Light God Transformation, the Dharma Aspect vanished and instantly appeared above Hogg.
Boom boom boom boom boom...
A storm of fist shadows poured down like a torrential downpour, each fist wrapped in vast, matchless power.
Hogg roared. He barely managed to cross his arms in front of his head.
Unfortunately, the disadvantage brought by their difference in size was all too obvious at this moment. Jie Ming didn’t care about Hogg’s defensive posture at all—every punch thrown by the Dharma Aspect completely covered Hogg’s entire body!
Even so, Hogg’s body displayed an unreasonable toughness. Although every clash forced his huge form to stagger backward, space collapsed in large sheets and elemental currents exploded one after another.
Yet Hogg’s body remained undamaged, resilient to a shocking degree.
But even so, the more he fought, the colder his heart grew.
He had thought this would be an easy job, but clearly, this Level Six wizard truly deserved his reputation as a genius. Strength, speed, defense... the man had virtually no weaknesses.
Especially that almost unfair regeneration ability! His attacks had just torn open a tear several thousand kilometers long on the other’s body, but in the blinking of an eye, a gray-white wisp of breath flashed by, and the wound healed as if time itself had flowed backward!
“Damn it! Is this guy really a Level Six wizard?!” Hogg cursed in a low voice, his eyes full of shock.
He recalled his own performance back when he was Level Six; even when he’d been on the verge of advancing, he’d never been this absurd!
Suddenly, Hogg stopped trying to fight head-on. He slapped both palms against the void.
Hum...
With the violent vibration of the runes on his body, countless patches of dark-red flesh swelled out from within him. In a flash, millions of thick muscle tendrils shot out, each coiled with solidified elemental power.
These flesh tendrils formed a massive forest of flesh and blood that blotted out the sky, instantly swallowing the entire battlefield.
Watching the forest of flesh surging toward him, Jie Ming narrowed his eyes and brought the Dharma Aspect’s palms together.
Under his control, the blinding light contracted abruptly, and a giant blade of light tens of thousands of kilometers long slowly took shape between the Dharma Aspect’s palms.
Cut!
Swoosh!!
There was no trickery to this strike—only pure, ultimate destructive power. Where the light passed, the entire forest of flesh and blood was split in two in an instant; millions of tendrils snapped at once and fell like severed threads in a curtain of rain.
At the appalling sight, Hogg’s expression drastically changed, and he instinctively began to retreat.
But before he could get away, Jie Ming was already upon him.
One punch!
Boom!!
A large chunk of Hogg’s chest blasted apart. His colossal body flew back like a shell fired from a cannon, slamming into the ground. The supposedly solid earth behaved like water, offering almost no resistance except for wave after wave of rolling soil.
Finally, just as he was about to pierce through the entire continent, Hogg managed to stop himself with his own strength.
Rumble...
Broken stones filled the air, blotting out half the sky.
Hogg struggled to his feet from the rubble, the wound on his chest healing frantically. But his expression had turned exceptionally ugly.
Because he suddenly realized that this young wizard was rapidly adapting to his power. At the very beginning, his attacks could easily shatter a large part of the Light Giant’s body; but when he counterattacked while being knocked away just now, all he could leave on the opponent’s chest was a spiderweb of cracks.
“No... I can’t drag this out...” A cruel glint flickered in Hogg’s eyes. Every muscle in his body bulged frantically; countless black patterns lit up at once, and his entire presence exploded upward once more.
Clearly, he was preparing to go all out.
Jie Ming showed no intention of backing down either. Behind the Dharma Aspect, a blazing halo of light slowly rose.
Both charged at the same time.
Boom!!
The two figures slammed into each other once more.
The storm swept across a million li. Space collapsed and then repaired itself over and over.
The battle had entered its most brutal phase.
Hogg kept coughing up blood, and Jie Ming’s Dharma Aspect also accumulated damage after damage. Yet his Reversal Palm activated again and again, restoring the shattered Dharma Aspect to its original state.
But Hogg, facing him, had no such ability.
As time slowly passed, the scales of victory began to tilt.
Finally...
Boom!!
Jie Ming seized an opening in Hogg’s defense. The Dharma Aspect’s two fists struck simultaneously. One punch shattered the shield; the other smashed through the body below the chest.
Pfft!!
Hogg violently sprayed out a huge mouthful of blood. His massive frame stumbled backward, and the patterns all over his body shattered one after another.
He had completely lost the ability to continue fighting.