"Damn it! This can't be happening!" The Divine roared, transforming once more into a bolt of slashing lightning, darting forward at a speed that could give a cheetah an existential crisis. When it comes to making a getaway, the Divine—who can turn into lightning—is top of the charts, worldwide.
But Jill Young didn’t budge—she just stood there quietly, stone-faced.
As waves of refined energy transformed into true essence, rapidly filling her world-shaking meridians and acupoints, the Essence Field around her grew more solid and unbreakable. At the same time, a strange symbol appeared on her brow—a blazing sun, much like the old Solar Crest. But now, at the center of the once-empty sun, there was a flame formed by three sparks.
A transcendent and unusual aura appeared on her, and although the pattern was slightly different, there was no doubt—just like Joan, she had achieved a great breakthrough in essence, energy, and spirit: the Threefold Harmony!
In an instant, a sense of grand harmony and perfect balance enveloped Jill Young. Her essence, energy, and spirit finally hit the same level, and her internal power’s ability to unify her body and mind skyrocketed. As the bridge between refined essence and divine essence, her Essence Field transformed, giving her a combat upgrade that felt like jumping from dial-up to fiber optic.
At the same time, even just her internal power alone was now packing some serious firepower.
After 130 years, Sacred Essence without limits was light-years beyond her old 99 years of innate cultivation. Bind Force—Caged Bird—had also leveled up. During this move, no matter how the Divine zipped around like a rogue lightning bolt, he couldn’t break out of Jill Young’s ten-meter no-fly zone.
A ten-meter boundary—the ultimate 'draw a line, make a jail.'
Upside down and inside out—nobody’s escaping this!
Boom! The Divine smashed into the ground—again. Before he could even get up, snap—his ankle was caught in a death grip. Crack! The yellow glow on his skin shattered, and a jolt of bone-crushing pain shot through his ankle. That familiar feeling, that familiar taste—the Divine looked down, couldn’t help but blurt, "Wait..."
Boom!
The ground caved in as the Divine was slammed hard into the earth.
Fire erupted in Jill Young's eyes as the power in her hands grew even more violent.
Bind Force—Land of Tenderness—Iron-Blooded Chronicle!
Bang...
Bang...
Bang...
Jill Young swung the Divine's body in rage, smashing him down again and again. The Divine's protective yellow glow caved in, weakened, cracked, and shattered—then so did his body. Blood gushed from his broken skin, seeping first in defiance, then bursting in collapse. Splashes of blood followed Jill's swings, as if she were a calligraphy master painting an Iron-Blooded Chronicle on a battlefield straight out of hell.
A thousand words for the Chronicle, all written with a mighty brush.
In the blink of an eye, the story reached its end.
This Iron-Blooded Chronicle needed a powerful final stroke. So the Divine was lifted high and slammed down hard. The earth, under the strange force, became a rigid tabletop, and Jill Young was the historian with the final stroke. As for the Divine, he was just a brush—splattering ink in the story’s last flourish.
Blood surged out like ocean waves, sweeping in all directions.
Bang—a gourd leaf appeared at the spot again, this time green and rippling with energy like water. Jill Young picked it up expressionlessly, bent her knees, and shot skyward.
The changes brought by the breakthrough to Sacred Essence without limits were immense, and the ten-meter Essence Field wasn’t just for show. Jill Young had already seen Joan grab and manipulate elemental energy at will. Now, she understood that deep mastery of the Essence Field was key.
From Sacred Essence without limits onward, internal power users could draw not only on their own strength. Put simply, they could borrow the power of heaven and earth. In practical terms, as long as they were within the Essence Field, elemental energy could be commandeered and controlled, enabling feats beyond even innate true qi.
Jill Young shot up with unprecedented speed, the air’s resistance swept away by the Essence Field. Even the once thunderous sonic boom was barely audible.
This leap was also unprecedentedly free. She no longer needed to rely on arm movements or clothing for aerodynamics like a glider. The ten-meter field was the best flight kit, the perfect launch engine.
From the moment of Essence Awakening, Jill Young finally understood how Joan’s lightness skill allowed her to soar freely. As long as she had a breath of essence, she no longer needed to calculate potential energy or how many steps she could take in midair. She could accelerate like the Silver Priest, or soar like an eagle.
With infinite essence, theoretically, she could fly forever—never needing to touch the ground again.
Whoosh—sharp and swift, Jill Young leapt like a mermaid, tracing a grand arc over New York’s sky and vanishing into the swirling clouds in the blink of an eye.
Endless thick clouds swept past, water vapor and poison mingling together. The hellish toxic clouds had been deeply eroded by the hurricane. Jill Young didn’t open her eyes—she didn’t need to.
After Divine Life Swap, the Divine could appear anywhere, shrinking and hiding his form like a sewer rat. Without x-ray vision, it would be nearly impossible to find him in the vastness of New York.
Jill Young didn’t need to search herself—energy would do the work. The ten-meter field vastly expanded her energy sensing, and the Flame Tide used the hellish clouds as probes, tightly monitoring the entire hurricane.
The world is balanced—even a natural body can’t come from nothing. The Divine’s old body had become a vivid painting on the earth, so even if he could rebuild his body, he’d need energy.
A massive amount of energy.
This energy could only be drawn from the hurricane overhead—like a desperate thirst for water, it was an unstoppable instinct.
So...
Whoosh—Jill Young pierced through the clouds, plummeting at high speed. Head down, feet up, like a meteor falling through the atmosphere. Her platinum hair suddenly flared with a red tail.
In an instant, she descended from the sky. Her target was an empty patch of ground, but she didn’t slow down—she knew the Divine was rebuilding his body in the tunnels beneath.
Then—
The earth rushed up—Jill Young snapped her eyes open, clenched her right fist, and swung fiercely at the ground above her head.
Shatter Force—Crystal Shard!