Chapter 0496: Is It Not Too Late to Give Up the Challenge Now?

“Huang Long, it’s not too late for you to give up this challenge!” Augustus said coldly, staring at Huang Long. “Over 500 million years ago, there was someone who, like you, became a champion with a hundred consecutive victories. He continued to challenge others—do you know what happened to him?”
Huang Long replied indifferently, “I have no need to know what happened to him.” He understood what Augustus meant. Needless to say, that champion must have been killed by Augustus when challenging him, as Augustus was still alive today.
“He died, and a miserable death at that!” Augustus sneered. “In the end, he even knelt and begged me to spare his life, but I split his body in two with a single sword strike—head and body separated!”
The gods surrounding the arena watched Huang Long and Augustus nervously, listening to their conversation without anyone daring to speak.
Huang Long stared at his opponent and asked, “Are you done talking?”
Augustus’s expression darkened. Seeing that Huang Long remained unconcerned, he realized further talk was pointless. He said gravely, “Human greed knows no bounds. I want to see if you have the ability to take my place as the city lord!” With that, he dashed forward, transforming into a divine sword and slashing at Huang Long.
After achieving a hundred consecutive victories, if one succeeded in challenging the city lord of Red Flame City, they could abandon further challenges against the elders of the Red Flame Divine Sect and become the new city lord.
Thus, Augustus harbored fierce intent to kill Huang Long, who dared challenge him.
Huang Long watched Augustus transform into a sword and charge at him. His eyes narrowed as he swiftly used his teleportation technique to dodge the attack in an instant.
Although Augustus and the master of Guangqing Cave were both at level eight, one was at the peak while the other was in the later stages—there was a huge difference between them. Augustus’s attack earlier had been extremely powerful, on par with that of an ordinary peerless warrior.
Seeing that his full-power attack had been easily dodged by Huang Long, Augustus frowned and launched another attack. This time, unlike before, he stretched out his hand, and countless crimson swords appeared out of thin air. With a shake, they swarmed toward Huang Long.
Although Augustus’s attack was not aimed at the gods around him, the fierce sword energy forced them to retreat in shock.
Huang Long observed Augustus’s attack and nodded inwardly. Augustus’s sword skills were strong. With his peak level eight strength combined with those skills, it would be difficult even for an ordinary peerless warrior to defeat him.
In the Pangu World, ordinary sword cultivators had very strong attacks, slightly superior to those of warriors at the same level.
However, though Augustus’s sword skills were strong, he was facing Huang Long.

Swordsmanship? Huang Long sneered. Watching Augustus attack again, he thought for a moment and summoned the Sword of Cutting Immortals. In mid-air, the sword emitted a dazzling dark blue glow, instantly generating countless sword energies. Countless sword energies, brimming with murderous intent! “The Dayan Extinction Sword Formation!” Suddenly, those countless sword energies descended violently, enveloping Augustus and the numerous red swords he had launched in attack. Initially attacking, Augustus suddenly saw a flash of dark blue light. Looking up, he saw a rain of dark blue swords pouring down like a waterfall. Shocked, he quickly waved his hands, causing the numerous red swords to retract around his body, forming a sword armor. As the armor rotated, it emitted waves of fierce sword energies. Protected by the sword armor, Augustus darted back quickly. When he stepped back, he saw the rain of dark blue swords pour onto the arena, with continuous loud explosions coming from it. The arena surface, engraved with restriction magic arrays, collapsed after a series of booms and finally lay limp on the ground. Standing in mid-air, Augustus stared at Huang Long, his eyes filled with shock. The gods surrounding the arena felt the same way. This was the first time the gods had seen Huang Long use sword techniques in this competition. Earlier, when he defeated Jia Ai and the master of Guangqing Cave, Huang Long had fought unarmed. Augustus remained wary. After his attack, Huang Long did not pursue further but stood there, watching Augustus. The Sword of Cutting Immortals hovered above Huang Long’s head, its dark blue glow pulsing rhythmically, each pulse making the surrounding gods tense. Augustus’s aura grew stronger by the moment. “Huang Long, I’ll show you my true strength now!” Augustus’s deep voice echoed, releasing an aura different from the previous fierce sword energies. This aura was as violent as boiling fire and as relentless as a roaring sea. Red and light blue lights alternated on Augustus’s body, then spun upward into the sky, stirring the clouds. “Mastering both water and fire?” Huang Long frowned. Indeed, the red and light blue lights on Augustus’s divine body were the powers of water and fire. Generally, it was difficult for a god-tier warrior to master both powers in one divine body, but exceptions did exist. For example, Sid, the divine clone of the Gibran family who had competed with Huang Long for first place in the Land of Forgetfulness in the underworld, possessed the powers of darkness and death.

Augustus’s aura continued to surge, its immense power causing the surrounding space to howl and tremble. The arena, already half-destroyed by the Yellow Dragon’s sword energy, emitted grating noises under Augustus’s pressure before finally collapsing completely.
“Yellow Dragon, die!” When Augustus’s aura reached its peak, he suddenly dashed forward at the Yellow Dragon. With a slap of his left hand, red flames erupted, while his right hand sent waves of water surging forward.
The red flames and water waves instantly struck the Yellow Dragon.
The Yellow Dragon soared into the air without counterattacking. Under the puzzled gazes of the gods, it opened its mouth. As it did, it sucked in the red flames and water waves heading toward it—those flames and waves were all absorbed into its body?!
How is that even possible?!
The gods were shocked. Augustus, the ruler of their Red Flame City, whose powerful attack had been “devoured” by the Yellow Dragon!
Augustus himself was also stunned.
At that moment, the Yellow Dragon, with its body still unchanged, stretched out its palms. Countless purple lightning appeared out of thin air, filling every corner of the arena before instantly coalescing into a thunderous sword.
“Purple Thunder Sky Sword!”
With a roaring sound, the sword sliced through space, rushing toward Augustus in an instant.
Space split open like torn bark.
Augustus tried to retreat in panic but found that the Purple Thunder Sky Sword had already reached him. There was no time to back away. With a resolute decision, he sacrificed his primary divine essence.
Instead of protecting himself above his head, Augustus’s sacrificed divine essence flew toward the Yellow Dragon, cutting through space and transforming into a massive fireball meant to burn the Yellow Dragon to ashes.
Just then, a figure identical to Augustus appeared within him—his wind-based divine avatar.
The gods watched in astonishment.
The Yellow Dragon sneered inwardly. Augustus had come up with a clever plan—sacrificing his primary divine essence to kill it, even at the risk of destroying his own body.
Kill it? Instead of retreating, the Yellow Dragon advanced. With a motion of its right hand, a golden light enveloped Augustus’s sacrificed divine essence. The golden light wrapped around it like countless threads of gold. The moment it covered it, Augustus felt a loss of connection between his mind, soul, and his primary divine essence!
“Spatial confinement?!” Augustus exclaimed in shock.
At that moment, the Purple Thunder Sky Sword sliced through Augustus’s primary divine essence.

With a thought, Huang Long’s Sword of Cutting Immortals transformed into a dark blue beam that shot forward. As August’s wind-based divine avatar fled from its main body, it was instantly pierced by that beam. Almost simultaneously, as August’s main body shattered into two and collapsed, its wind-based divine avatar also fell to the ground with a crash. Two dull thuds echoed from the ruined arena as dust rose into the air. Huang Long grasped August’s main divine essence in his hand, hovered in the air, and stood above the fallen main body and avatar. “Lord August, the city lord, has been defeated by Lord Huang Long?!” The gods surrounding the arena stared at August, buried under the dust, in shock. Defeated? To be more precise, dead! As the city lord of Red Flame City, August held a high status, second only to the leader of the Red Flame Divine Sect, Hogen, and the four elders. Even in the eyes of some godly strongmen on Red Flame Mountain, his status was not lower than that of the four elders. Yet now, August’s divine body lay there, and the gods could hardly accept it. Although they had guessed the outcome of the battle between Huang Long and August earlier, none of them expected August to be killed by him. It wasn’t that Huang Long had killed him that made the gods sad—it was the suddenness of it all. After a long while, the arena host finally snapped out of his shock, flew over to August in panic, and called out respectfully, “Lord City Lord!” “Lord City Lord!” Yet, despite the host calling out dozens of times, August remained unresponsive. By the end, his voice was trembling and barely audible. Huang Long did not interrupt the host but simply stood motionless in the air. After a while, the host stood up and said to the gods around the arena with a complex expression, “In this competition, Lord Huang Long has won!” With utmost respect, he then stepped forward to Huang Long and said, “Congratulations, Lord Huang Long!” The surrounding gods realized what had happened and joined in the congratulations, creating a wave of praise. Huang Long raised his hand to signal for silence. The gods promptly stopped talking. “Then, may I challenge your four elders of the divine sect next?” Huang Long turned to the arena host. “Chall, challenge our four elders of the divine sect?!” The host’s voice trembled. “Exactly,” Huang Long nodded calmly before looking toward the peak of Red Flame Mountain. From the top of Red Flame Mountain, from the Red Flame Temple, four powerful auras shot forth.