Chapter 377 - 376: A Wager at Heaven’s Gate

The Imperial Guard stepped forward and passed effortlessly through the boundary of the first glowing brick wall, emerging on the open platform as though the enormous formation were nothing more than mist.

His starlight armor shimmered as he stood before Lin Yuan, leaving the Golden Gate behind him and placing himself directly between the cultivators and their only apparent route into the Imperial Domain.

"Here is the wager, King of the Dirt," he declared, his eyes flashing with supreme arrogance. "I stand at the Void Refinement realm. My armor is forged from celestial starlight, and my foundation is nourished by the flawless spiritual Qi of the Imperial Domain. I will not use my spear, nor will I employ any offensive technique against you."

He extended his remaining hand and tapped the center of his breastplate.

"If you, a mere Early Stage Soul Transformation insect, can land exactly one hit on my body, I will personally dismantle one hundred of the Three Thousand Great Dao Barrier walls. I will give you the opening you seek and allow you to deliver your warnings to the Imperial Domain."

Bai Qingyue’s eyes narrowed as she studied the guard’s armor. Her black hair moved gently in the cold wind sweeping across the Floating Mountains, and the Fortune Banner remained firmly within her grasp. Although she did not interrupt the exchange, her expression revealed that she understood the true nature of the wager.

"Yuan, be careful," she warned quietly. "His armor is saturated with spatial distortion laws. Even if he does not actively defend himself, it may redirect or reflect the force of your attacks. He is offering you a challenge that appears simple only because he believes his defenses make it impossible for you to succeed."

Ku Ming tightened his grip on his prayer beads, his golden Buddhist aura becoming tense as he observed the Imperial Guard. He had already witnessed Lin Yuan’s strength, but the difference between Soul Transformation and Void Refinement remained substantial. The guard’s confidence was not entirely baseless, and the power of the Imperial Domain’s resources could not be dismissed simply because the man was arrogant.

"Benefactor Lin, this is an extremely dangerous wager," the monk added. "However, the terms are clear. If he honors his promise, one hundred walls will be removed, and we may have a chance to draw the attention of those within the gate. If he does not, we will learn something equally important about the nature of the Imperial Domain."

Lin Yuan did not look back at either of them. His deep purple eyes remained fixed on the guard, and his expression revealed none of the uncertainty that might have been expected from someone standing before an opponent several major realms above him.

Why should he reject an opportunity that could force the Imperial Domain to acknowledge the crisis?

His attempt to damage the Three Thousand Great Dao Barrier had already demonstrated that brute force alone would not be enough to overcome the formation.

However, the Imperial Guard had now offered him a different route. If he could land a single strike, the guard would be forced by his own promise to remove one hundred walls, creating an opening that might allow them to communicate with the Grand Ascendants.

Even if the guard intended to deceive him, the wager offered an opportunity to test the defensive principles of the Imperial Domain’s cultivators.

And if the guard broke his vow after losing, Lin Yuan would have even more reason to question the supposed superiority of the people behind the Golden Gate.

"A hundred walls for a single strike," Lin Yuan stated calmly. "I accept."

The Imperial Guard’s smile widened into a vicious sneer.

"Excellent. Come, mortal. Show me the absolute pinnacle of your ruined world."

Lin Yuan did not hesitate.

He had already examined the guard’s armor through his Dao Fruit and understood that a direct exchange of conventional attacks would be inefficient. The starlight armor was designed to manipulate spatial distortion, allowing it to redirect external force and reduce the effectiveness of attacks that relied entirely upon physical strength or ordinary spiritual Qi.

If he simply concentrated more energy into a punch, the armor might absorb the attack and return its force against him, just as the Three Thousand Great Dao Barrier had done.

The solution was not to strike harder.

It was to strike in a way the armor could not properly process.

Lin Yuan’s Primordial Spirit began circulating the Dao Fruit of Three Rebirths at its maximum speed. Golden-purple lightning flashed across the crystalline sphere, while silver-blue rain flowed through its inner structure. The deeper principle of rebirth connected the two forces, allowing them to interact without losing their individual characteristics.

He did not slowly gather his spiritual Qi or test the waters with probing attacks. Lin Yuan understood that fighting an opponent who possessed both a superior cultivation realm and a better cultivation environment. The longer he allowed the guard to control the rhythm of the encounter, the more opportunities the man would have to exploit his advantages.

He exploded into motion.

BOOM!

The jade platform cracked beneath his boots as Immortal Cloud Step propelled him forward. His body crossed the distance in an instant, leaving behind a trail of distorted air as the suppressive gravity of the Floating Mountains struggled to keep pace with his acceleration. His Dao Fruit rotated wildly, flooding his meridians with the concentrated power of his Dao Intent.

The Imperial Guard’s expression remained relaxed.

"Too slow!"

He raised his left hand, and the starlight armor emitted a blinding pulse. A palmstrike of pure Void Refinement authority erupted from his arm, compressing the surrounding space into a solid wall of crushing force.

Rather than attempting to intercept Lin Yuan’s body directly, the attack spread across the space in front of him, creating a barrier of compressed spatial energy intended to flatten him against the jade platform before he could close the distance.

Lin Yuan’s eyes flashed with the three-colored light of rebirth.

He did not attempt to meet the palmstrike with brute force. His Dao Fruit allowed him to perceive the exact flow of the starlight energy, revealing the manner in which the compressed space interacted with the surrounding laws. The silver-blue rain traced the trajectory of the distortion, while the principle of Three Rebirths mapped the point at which the compressed space would begin expanding again.

Within that seemingly solid wall of force, there was a microscopic seam.

Lin Yuan shifted his weight by a fraction of a millimeter.

Immortal Cloud Step carried him through the narrow opening between the guard’s spatial compression and the ambient laws of the mountain. The massive palmstrike passed harmlessly beside his shoulder, its remaining force continuing forward until it struck a nearby stone pillar. The pillar disintegrated instantly, scattering fragments across the platform, but not even the fabric of Lin Yuan’s robes was touched.

The Imperial Guard’s eyes widened in genuine shock.

A Soul Transformation cultivator had just bypassed a spatial lock established by a Void Refinement expert.

Before the guard could retract his arm, Lin Yuan was already within striking distance.

"Six Arms of Reincarnation," Lin Yuan whispered.