Zhang Nu and Emperor Frelio exchanged blows for dozens of rounds. What seemed like a long fight was actually just a blink of an eye. The emperor could clearly feel that the Demon King held an absolute advantage in sheer power. Even though both were at the level of a Level 6 legendary, the Demon King had continually enhanced his stats and mastered various new skills after reaching Level 6 legendary status, even absorbing the crystals of several top Heroes.
The disparity in their raw strength was significant. In every aspect, the Demon King was an extremely terrifying entity, but the emperor also had his own advantages. First, he was fighting on home turf. He could continuously draw power from the temple and Hall of Valor, thus obtaining an almost inexhaustible supply of HP and MP recovery.
Additionally, Emperor Frelio was equipped from head to toe, inside and out, with epic gear. Even a mere fodder, if clad in such top-tier equipment, could exhibit considerable combat effectiveness, let alone the current Emperor Frelio. He could also summon the spirits of past emperors. These spirits were indestructible; as long as Emperor Frelio was alive and the empire's temples remained intact, they could revive indefinitely, each possessing the strength of a Level 6 monarch.
Thus, the actual gap between the two sides seemed not so vast. Emperor Frelio XVI believed that with his current capabilities, even when facing the great Demon King, he was fully capable of holding his own.
However, before Emperor Frelio could contemplate further, Zhang Nu launched an attack. He instantly gathered a Mind Qi and unleashed a fierce mental attack, stabbing a psychic sword directly into Frelio’s psyche.
-5000!
This was a master technique of the Inner-Eye Sword School of the Sunset Empire. Frelio suffered significant damage and was also afflicted with severe psychic trauma, which theoretically should have left him dazed or weakened. However, a necklace around Frelio’s neck flashed with light. All his abnormal mental conditions were removed, and simultaneously, his health rapidly restored to its peak state in the blink of an eye.
"Hahaha! It's impossible to defeat me in this state with your methods!" Emperor Frelio XVI was full of confidence. "Now, I am bolstered by the fortune of the entire empire, gathering the national spirit of the entire empire. What are you compared to that, thinking you can contend with me?"
As he spoke, the various rings on Frelio’s hands each released different energies. Layer upon layer of powerful enhancements and strengths continually enveloped him, substantially increasing his already formidable aura by nearly double.
Indeed, he was difficult to handle. Zhang Nu noted that Frelio’s equipment was far more extensive than expected. In addition to his highly defensive golden armor and extremely powerful crystal sword, Frelio's cape, shoes, rings, necklace, bracelets, and even his helmet were all enveloped with potent auras. That was to say, Emperor Frelio was adorned from head to toe. He wore dozens of pieces of gear, each of epic quality. Any one of these items was not inferior to Zhang Nu’s Heart of Space in terms of quality, and the power and effects they could unleash were astonishing.
These items encompassed defense, attack, support, healing, and control. With the emperor naturally bolstered by the empire's spirit, any damage or physical harm he received could rapidly heal, unless he could be killed in one blow. Otherwise, this man was nearly immortal. But how could a Level 6 legendary being, so terrifyingly powerful, possibly be killed in a single attack? No matter how one looks at it, it seems like a fairy tale!
"I want to see what tricks you still have left!" Emperor Frelio roared furiously, and his fifteen spirit avatars charged simultaneously, swiftly surrounding Zhang Nu.
"Fiery Heaven!"
Zhang Nu activated an S-tier skill. A fierce explosion of fire instantly blew away the fifteen nearby spirits. However, the spirits were immortal. Despite being severely damaged and blown apart, they would soon recover.
Zhang Nu teleported in front of Emperor Frelio, using a sword technique to condense a blade of thunder and flame, indestructible and further bolstered with Mind Qi, he swung it, creating a dense flurry of sword light.
"It's useless!"
"You can't kill me!"
Emperor Frelio calmly released a defensive shield to block the attacks. As the attacks landed from all directions, he felt no threat or pressure.
Such a feeble attack trying to kill him, the Emperor?
"Hmph, has the Demon King run out of tricks?” But just as the Emperor was about to activate the effects of his epic gear, he was shocked to discover that his armor and various epic gears were unresponsive. "What's going on? What have you done!"
Emperor Frelio then realized that each of Zhang Nu's sword strikes, though they did not break his defenses, released a subtle blood-red aura. This aura was not just any aura, but the corrupted blood emitted by the fragment of the Evil God known as the "Source of Corruption"!
The effect of the corrupted was extremely powerful, and when a sufficient dose was accumulated, it could corrupt anything in the world. The barrage of attacks from Zhang Nu was actually a feint; during this process, a large amount of corrupted blood had coated the Emperor's entire figure. While it had not yet penetrated the Emperor's body, the epic gear enveloping him had been contaminated. Their functions ceased, rendering them as useless as mere iron.
"Damn it!"
Emperor Frelio realized the danger and quickly moved out of the Demon King's attack range. He tried to cleanse the corrupted blood from his gear using his Qi and magic, but the contamination from the Evil God proved difficult to remove with conventional means.
This left Emperor Frelio without his usual defenses.
Zhang Nu seized the opportunity for an attack and wasted no time. The vertical eye on his forehead opened, unleashing the powers of the Eye of Death, the Eye of Dominion, and the Eye of Regeneration—all strong forces of an Evil God manifested simultaneously.
"Death Sacrifice!"
Zhang Nu activated Death Sacrifice, converting all his HP into power. Normally, using such power would be nearly suicidal, but Zhang Nu, with his internal undying phoenix fire and the S-tier skill, Rebirth from within the Flames, could restore himself to full condition. He continued to use Death Sacrifice and Rebirth from within the Flames repeatedly. By leveraging the power of the Eye of Regeneration and the abundant phoenix fire, he repeatedly sacrificed his HP.
After several cycles, the power Zhang Nu had accumulated was unimaginably immense. He concentrated all this immense power and energy into the vertical eye on his forehead, preparing for the attack.
This next strike, amplified by at least five rounds of Death Sacrifice, was so potent that not only peers of the same level but even beings a rank higher or even a complete Evil God might struggle to withstand it. Although the attack had not yet struck, Emperor Frelio already sensed the danger. He instinctively wanted to flee but was immobilized by an overwhelmingly powerful psychic force that almost blotted out the sky, pinning him in place.
"Shit!!" Emperor Frelio XVI's face turned pale with horror. Zhang Nu had neutralized the emperor's equipment with corrupted blood, repeatedly amplified the power of his Death Sacrifice using the Eye of Regeneration, and then used the Eye of Dominion to control Emperor Frelio XVI.
Finally, he activated the Eye of Death.
Zhang Nu unleashed a "Death Gaze"!
Emperor Frelio's armor shattered instantly, and in terror, he shouted, "I am willing to negotiate! Stop!"
Negotiate? It was too late! The Demon King had no need to negotiate with a defeated foe! Emperor Frelio was overwhelmed by the devastating power of the Evil God, which was after all Zhang Nu's strongest single-target attack skill, especially after it had been boosted by so many rounds of HP sacrifice as the cost.
-999999!
Emperor Frelio's HP pool was wiped out. Even in his wildest dreams, the emperor could not have imagined that after receiving the blessings of the empire's fortune and the spirits of past emperors, he could still be killed, and the adversary had only launched one attack.
"No!" In his screams, the emperor's body irreversibly disintegrated. This famous, ambitious emperor of the empire cracked and ultimately turned to ashes, with no one able to stop this process.
[You have slain the Thunder Empire Emperor, Gold +17???!]
The Thunder Emperor was dead. He died so swiftly, so decisively, without even a chance to resist. Remember, he was a Level 6 legendary being at the time! What does Level 6 legendary represent? It's the standard of an emperor-level strength!
The process of Zhang Nu defeating Emperor Frelio wasn't complex. He could say he hardly exerted any effort in dealing with this adversary and he resolved the biggest enemy and threat to the Chaos Federation.
With the emperor's fall, the fate of the entire empire was approaching its end. The great Thunder Empire, from this moment, began to collapse officially. This place would soon become the first empire-level power to be conquered by the Demon King!"