Long Haochen could also use some enhancements to reach the level of a ninth-tier powerhouse in a short period, but he didn’t have a spiritual core, which was the difference between him and a true ninth-tier powerhouse. When he killed the Insight Demon God Crocell, there was indeed an element of luck involved. Crocell himself didn’t have a domain, and demon gods only had demon crystals, not spiritual cores. Moreover, Crocell’s combat power was far less powerful than his insight abilities. Facing a demon god focused on combat, it would have been very difficult for Long Haochen to defeat him alone.

In the battle before them, Chen Hongyu displayed the power of his spiritual core from the very beginning, showing that he didn’t underestimate Long Haochen and his team at all, and went all out from the start.

The soft white light surrounding Chen Hongyu’s body made him look like he was standing in a doorway of light. As Lin Xin’s exploding fireballs approached, Chen Hongyu pointed his right hand, and a soft white light floated out. One of the six spiritual core images around his body emitted a soft glow, and a strange beast resembling a rabbit suddenly appeared out of nowhere, biting down on the exploding fireball.

Strangely, despite the high temperature of the Heart Flame and its larger size compared to the rabbit, it didn’t explode when it hit the rabbit beast. Instead, it disappeared rapidly. The rabbit beast’s belly instantly swelled, and as it landed gently, it spat out a ball of flame towards Long Haochen and his team.

What kind of beast was this? Not only did Long Haochen not recognize it, but even Chen Ying’er was a little stunned. She didn’t recognize this kind of rabbit either!

The battle had begun, and both sides unleashed their full power. Chen Hongyu’s incantation began immediately, and even more strangely, the six spiritual core images around his body produced a strange echo during his incantation, sounding like seven people completing the incantation in the same rhythm.

Long Haochen blocked the Heart Flame spit out by the rabbit with his Sun Moon Divine Snail Shield in his left hand. In his right hand, the Aria of the Goddess of Light slightly condensed, making a sweeping motion close to the ground. Instantly, a red-gold light blade with unparalleled sword intent shot towards Chen Hongyu in the distance.

Keep in mind that there was a distance of nearly a hundred meters between him and Chen Hongyu. Launching the Light Slash Sword from such a distance seemed impossible to hit Chen Hongyu’s main body.

However, Chen Hongyu felt differently. When Long Haochen unleashed this sword strike, he felt that his body was locked on. Although the Light Slash Sword was extremely far away, the sharpness brought by the fierce sword intent directly affected his incantation speed to some extent.

“Such a strong sword intent.” Chen Hongyu’s eyes narrowed slightly. He had to admit that these young people really gave him a lot of surprises.

While Long Haochen launched his attack, he also led his team to charge towards Chen Hongyu. Whenever facing a mage, the most effective combat method is to close the distance between the two sides.

But not everyone charged towards Chen Hongyu. Han Yu, Lin Xin, and Chen Ying’er stayed behind.

Chen Ying’er had already begun to sit cross-legged on the ground, chanting. Holding the crystal ball in both hands, her eyes were full of concentration and determination.

Lin Xin was also chanting a spell. Unlike Chen Ying’er’s concentration, Lin Xin’s feet were constantly moving during the incantation. Each time his foot landed on the ground, it left a footprint with blue flames. These residual flames began to emit violent spiritual power fluctuations, amplifying his own spiritual power output.

Han Yu blocked in front of them, his Crimson Blood’s Rampage pointing diagonally at the ground, his shield held in front of his chest. One low-level light-attribute amplification spell after another spread out from his body.

As a guardian knight, Han Yu’s light had always been overshadowed by Long Haochen, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t strong enough. On the contrary, if he were on a different team, with his current strength, he would definitely be qualified to become the leader of a king-level demon hunter team.

His aura skills were released extremely quickly, and they weren’t area-of-effect releases, but rather targeted deployments. Each aura only landed on one person. The amplification effect produced was at least twice that of area-of-effect auras. Moreover, this amplification wouldn’t be weakened as the amplified person moved further away from him.

Long Haochen was the fastest in charging. In the instant of launching, he had already used Light Speed Flash. The four huge spiritual wings on his back unfolded, and with a powerful flap, he instantly crossed a hundred meters and arrived in front of Chen Hongyu. He actually caught up with the Light Slash Sword he had launched earlier. The Aria of the Goddess of Light swept the light blade on the Light Slash Sword, re-absorbing it onto the divine sword, and then struck towards Chen Hongyu with a seemingly slow sword.

Chen Hongyu’s incantation never paused for a moment. Just as Long Haochen arrived in front of him, the six spiritual core images around his body all shone brightly and shattered simultaneously, turning into six halos that fell on the ground in front of him.

In a nearly frantic roar, six huge figures, like six mountains, completely blocked Chen Hongyu’s body behind them. They were actually six ape-like beasts.

Each ape was over three meters tall, with blood-red eyes filled with fierce killing intent. The first ape rushed towards Long Haochen, and in a roar, a strong yellow light was released from all six apes at the same time.

Long Haochen only felt his body sink. During his rapid charge, he was directly pulled to the ground. Gravity spell.

He was very familiar with this earth-attribute magic. Saint Guard No. 9 was good at this magic. The six apes in front of him were all earth-attribute beasts, simultaneously casting gravity spells. Moreover, the six gravity spells actually had a stacking effect.

There was no time to judge how strong these beasts were. Long Haochen’s Aria of the Goddess of Light still slashed out.

There was no ear-piercing scream, only a flash of golden-red light. The ape that rushed towards Long Haochen almost stopped in the air instantly. Then, a golden-red line extended from the top of its head all the way down to its crotch. With a burst of blood, it fell to the ground.

The powerful gravity spell could restrain Long Haochen’s Light Speed Flash. With the superposition of six gravity spells, even a ninth-tier powerhouse would be delayed. However, the gravity spell couldn’t delay Long Haochen’s sword intent. How could the sword intent that had reached the realm of sword heart transparency, coupled with a divine sword like the Aria of the Goddess of Light, be so easily resisted?

The battle truly began at this moment. The other five apes also took action, with two each rushing towards Wang Yuanyuan and Sima Xian, and the other three rushing towards Long Haochen together.

The apes coordinated very well. Among the three apes rushing towards Long Haochen, two were rushing directly at him, while the other pounded its thick chest, raised its arms, and a strong yellow light bloomed in its palms. A boulder with a diameter of one meter, entirely formed of energy, was directly thrown towards Long Haochen.

Long Haochen, in a battle state, gave people a completely different feeling. His gaze was calm and cold, and his whole body exuded an unstoppable sharpness.

The Sun Moon Divine Snail Shield was put away, and Blue Rain, the Light’s Hibiscus, appeared out of thin air with emerald-like luster. Then, Long Haochen’s body spun rapidly in place. Red and green vortexes instantly appeared on the battlefield.

The terrifying spiritual power fluctuation actually carried an unmatched suction force. Whether it was the boulder thrown at him or the other two apes rushing towards him, they were almost instantly drawn into this vortex.

Amidst screams, the two apes disappeared. The entire vortex only lasted for less than two seconds before suddenly stopping. A cross light slash with red and green intertwined, overlapping into a deep blue color in the sky, shot out, heading straight for the last ape.

Without any suspense, how could this eighth-level earth-attribute beast withstand the combined attack of two divine swords? The third ape instantly turned into fragments, and the dark blue light blade went straight for the retreating Chen Hongyu.

Sword Blade Storm followed by Cross Slash. During the brief Sword Blade Storm, Long Haochen didn’t hesitate to consume a large amount of his own spiritual power to use Spiritual Gang, urging the two divine swords to launch a Cross Slash.

Haoyue’s evolution helped him further improve his spiritual power, and at the same time, it greatly enhanced Long Haochen’s external spiritual power. This made the backlash on his body much smaller during the process of controlling the Spiritual Gang. Therefore, even without Haoyue’s armor transformation, he could now inject Spiritual Gang into the two divine swords. Of course, this also consumed a great deal of his spiritual power.

The reason why Long Haochen chose to launch a full-force attack from the start was naturally for a reason. He firmly believed that with Chen Hongyu’s status, he would definitely still have some contempt for them, but as the battle continued, this contempt would not last long. He wanted to seize Chen Hongyu’s psychology and use the most powerful attack from the start to gain the upper hand.

Facts proved that Long Haochen’s guess was completely correct. Although Chen Hongyu already regarded these young people very highly, he was, after all, the Temple Head of the Soul Temple! In his opinion, no matter how strong these young people were, they were still juniors. He was fighting with all his strength, but he didn’t think that Long Haochen and his team could really threaten him. It wasn’t until the dark blue light appeared in his field of vision that Chen Hongyu truly understood that these young people indeed possessed combat power sufficient to threaten his life.

Taking a deep breath, Chen Hongyu let out a low roar, and a layer of strong black light suddenly rose from under him. This layer of black light immediately spread out, turning into a dark purple halo. Then, four rays of light shot out simultaneously, converging into one in the air, and bombarded the dark blue light emitted by Long Haochen.

(To be continued)