The Shining Star Above The Heaven-Chapter 601: Battle of Speed

The black substance was like hardened rock but with a glistening surface. It formed shapes like walls, protecting Zhang Haoran and the altar. The moment it took a direct hit from the Pillar of Heaven’s Judgement—

Dong! Rumble!

A loud sound, like metal being struck, resounded as the entire area trembled under the impact. The ground beneath the defensive wall was pushed back by the force of the strike, the black wall trembled heavily, but, amazingly, it was not destroyed.

Aldrian, watching this, raised his eyebrows. The defensive wall still held even after taking a direct hit from his full-powered Pillar of Heaven’s Judgement was truly surprising, but not unexpected. He knew Zhang Haoran might possess methods unknown to him.

Zhang Haoran held knowledge of the higher heavens, after all, and must have many tricks to block attacks like this.

Unknown to Aldrian, what Zhang Haoran had just used was his most powerful defensive technique, one he received directly from Tarius. This technique was a reward given to him after completing a certain mission in the past.

It was Zhang Haoran’s trump card in defense, something that normally wouldn’t be brought out during the initial phase of battle. However, he truly had no choice. The attack Aldrian unleashed was terrifying for his current self.

The strange properties of the golden energy and the sheer power behind the strike made him unwilling to rely on the invisible shield protecting the altar. He had no idea what kind of effect that golden energy might have on the barrier surrounding it.

It was better to use his strongest defensive technique first, as it was the only one capable of withstanding an attack at the level of the Pseudo Immortal Foundation stage.

Sensing the power of the attack, he was glad he had used it from the start, as the force behind it was truly terrifying. But he did not wait or remain passive, he immediately used another one of his techniques.

He touched the ground, and suddenly, many giant symbols of a summoning formation appeared around him. There were a total of twenty summoning formations!

The moment the symbols appeared, red light shone, and then—

Roar!

Shriek!

The beasts started to pour out from the summoning formations. There were phoenixes, dragons, hydras, cerberus, and great pengs. All of them instantly leapt out from the formations and took flight, each one radiating the aura of the peak emperor stage.

They appeared from behind the wall, intent on attacking Aldrian, but before they could strike, they saw that Aldrian was no longer in his place.

At that moment, Zhang Haoran had also vanished from his position. Having comprehended the space laws , he used a teleportation technique to move a distance away from where he had been. He had narrowly evaded Aldrian’s sword strike, Aldrian had suddenly stopped his assault on the wall and teleported right beside him in a surprise attack.

Zhang Haoran had not expected that Aldrian could teleport without creating even the slightest trace of energy or spatial disturbance. He already knew from reports that Aldrian relied heavily on space laws, teleportation was one of his specialties.

But now, he finally understood just how masterful Aldrian’s control over space truly was. He could even mask the spatial disturbance at the target’s location caused by the teleportation technique.

Unfortunately for Zhang Haoran, what he did not know was that the teleportation inside Aldrian’s domain was not a technique of Aldrian himself. It was one of the domain’s cheat-like abilities, allowing him to teleport anywhere he wished.

Taaang!

The sound of the clash resounded, followed by billowing wind sweeping through their surroundings, as Zhang Haoran suddenly grasped a long spear that radiated the aura of a peak divine-grade artifact.

However, Aldrian didn’t seem to care. He teleported to Zhang Haoran’s other side and slashed at him again.

Zhang Haoran met the strike with his spear but was forced to teleport to another location to maintain distance. Aldrian’s silent teleportation was truly dangerous, if he stayed in one place, he would remain in a constantly passive position.

While both of them teleported across the battlefield, they continued clashing in rapid succession.

The summoned beasts tried to assist by attacking Aldrian, but his movements were too fast. Even their eyes couldn’t follow him, and their attacks couldn’t reach him before he teleported again.

Tang!

Ting! Rumble!

Boom! Tang!

Their clashes tore through the surroundings, creating spatial cracks everywhere. Each time their bodies reappeared, the ground shattered, space split, and the wind was blown away.

Aldrian could follow where Zhang Haoran teleported, as he could sense the direction through the spatial disturbance. A split second before Zhang Haoran reached his destination, Aldrian would already teleport there and intercept him. This repeated again and again, leaving Zhang Haoran unable to find an opening to strike back.

That was also the reason Zhang Haoran remained in a passive position. He was trying to escape this situation and searching for Aldrian’s weakness when he finally noticed something—something that might be his opportunity.

After exchanging hundreds of blows, he found one weakness he could exploit in order to fight back against Aldrian: the difference in the quality of their artifacts.

He had seen it, Aldrian did not always use his sword to clash with his spear. Instead, he sometimes used a spatial shield that coated his palm to block the spear with one hand while attacking his body with the sword in the other.

To others, it might seem meaningless. But to Zhang Haoran, it revealed a detail that could shift the battle in his favor.

He might know exactly why Aldrian did that. The reason was—

The durability of the artifact.

Clashing directly with a peak divine-grade artifact using a middle divine-grade artifact would eventually break the latter as time passed. The sword would not hold if it kept clashing directly with his spear.

Thinking this, he decided to use another tactic. He ordered his summoned beasts to focus their attacks on a single spot, one where he planned to teleport. All twenty beasts obeyed, directing their strikes at an empty space a few kilometers away.

A split second before their attacks landed, Zhang Haoran teleported there with Aldrian—

Whoozz, Boom!

The combined assault of twenty peak emperor-stage beasts shook the land and created spatial cracks that spiraled into a spatial storm.

But elsewhere, Aldrian and Zhang Haoran had already reappeared, and this time, Zhang Haoran took the initiative to attack.

He focused on striking with the intent of forcing Aldrian to block with his sword, targeting the side where Aldrian held it and pressing his offense in that direction.

Tang! Ting! Boom! ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

Whoozz!

Aldrian, now in the disadvantaged position, had to defend himself against Zhang Haoran’s relentless attacks. He genuinely commended Zhang Haoran’s strategy, using the summoned beasts to strike the location they would teleport to had disrupted his attack tempo.

Forced to defend against the combined assault of the beasts, he gave Zhang Haoran a window to press the offensive. Zhang Haoran had used a type of defensive talisman the moment the combined attack from the twenty beasts landed, protecting himself from the effects of friendly fire.

In this current clash, Aldrian had no choice but to use his sword to actively block the attacks, which was bad news for him. If this continued, it would only be a matter of time before Eternal Spirit broke. There was no way a middle divine-grade artifact could hold out for long in direct clashes against a peak divine-grade weapon.

However, in this battle of speed and power, he had the upper hand compared to Zhang Haoran, that was the silent teleportation ability granted by the domain. Zhang Haoran had to sharpen his senses and extend them across a wide area just to detect where Aldrian would teleport.

That method had its limitations. It still created a split-second delay for Zhang Haoran to react and teleport to the place where Aldrian was. In the end, Zhang Haoran was merely following where Aldrian had already teleported, and this weakness could be exploited.

It was different for Aldrian earlier. He was the one attacking and pursuing Zhang Haoran because he sensed where Zhang Haoran would teleport in advance. As a result, they would appear at the same place at the same time, allowing Aldrian to consistently gain the upper hand.

While their clash continued, Aldrian had already prepared to use another spatial technique, and then—

Dack!

Zhang Haoran was suddenly struck by something in the middle of attacking and pursuing Aldrian. His body was repelled in the opposite direction, giving Aldrian the opportunity to counterattack. He slashed several times toward Zhang Haoran with his sword technique, Slash of Vanguard—each strike carrying the power of a peak emperor-stage attack.

Zhang Haoran had no time to think about what had just happened. He immediately teleported again to evade. The slashing energy flew past as it missed him, his body had already reappeared elsewhere. But Aldrian had already anticipated it.

He also attacked in that direction using Slash of Vanguard. The moment Zhang Haoran’s figure appeared at the teleportation point, the slash was already right in front of him.

Zhang Haoran looked at the incoming slash, but then, as if time had suddenly slowed, the attack’s speed seemed to drop for just a second, allowing him to teleport away again in the nick of time.

However, he struck something mid-teleportation, his movement suddenly hindered, and that moment was not wasted by Aldrian. His body had already appeared behind Zhang Haoran, sword pointed at his heart, and—

Pierced!

The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel