Baiyu immediately clutched the area over his chest, leaning against the vehicle's railing, ensuring he didn't completely collapse onto the ground.

But it wasn't just Baiyu who was affected.

Every creature on this vehicle was within the range of that strike.

The four bishops of the Holy Light Church maintaining the purification ceremony clutched their hearts and fell to the ground, blood uncontrollably trickling from the corners of their mouths, even mixed with some damaged internal organs.

The members of the Mechanical God Church fared slightly better, perhaps due to their highly mechanized bodies.

However, it was only slightly better.

At this moment, they all lost their ability to move, severely injured by that single strike, lying on the ground.

If not for the fact they were still breathing.

Baiyu might have thought they were dead.

The only person who indeed died on the vehicle was the guide who followed them inside, his chest exploding as if a bomb had been implanted there.

He immediately fell to the ground.

Blood poured from the wound, quickly becoming a cold corpse.

Baiyu clenched his fist, taking two deep breaths.

The only ones still able to fight here were Qian Xin and himself.

"Defense!"

At that moment.

Qian Xin didn't continue to attack, instead drawing a shield-like rune, chanting in mystical language, infusing it with spirituality, raising a solid spiritual wall around the armored vehicle.

The maid of pain wasn't in a rush to act either.

She was chanting in a language Baiyu couldn't understand, a bit like mystical language but with even stranger and older pronunciations.

"It's a summoning ceremony… She wants to sacrifice all creatures in this city to summon the Red Cup!"

Qian Xin's face grew heavy.

Summon the Red Cup's descent!

A thunderstrike seemed to hit Baiyu's mind, he dared not imagine what would happen if the Red Cup descended.

It turns out they corrupted Eternal Sleep City and lured it into decay for this purpose.

"Can it succeed? The descent of a divine spirit requires extremely harsh conditions, massive preparations, and immense energy beforehand!"

Baiyu urgently asked.

Qian Xin's face was full of solemnity: "I'm not sure, but Eternal Sleep City already meets the conditions for descent, combined with previous preparations, there's a high chance. The East Prosperity Empire's investigation was incomplete, they didn't mention a named one in Eternal Sleep City!

Even if this time it's not the entity descending, it's certainly a terrifying existence related to a deity.

Either a substitute carrying the Red Cup's divinity, or an offspring birthed by the Red Cup leveraging creatures from the real world. In the coming battle, be careful yourself, if anything goes wrong, flee immediately, life is most important, this body I'm using is just a split."

After explaining this.

Qian Xin stepped forward for the first time, seemingly teleporting, appearing behind the maid of pain in the blink of an eye.

She pulled with her right hand.

A silver-white thin sword, somehow drawn from somewhere, held tightly, stabbed towards the maid of pain.

Crunch.

Again, the same situation as before.

The maid of pain's body shattered, scattering into countless fragments, rapidly transforming into light spots and disappearing.

But unlike last time.

This time the maid of pain reappeared, becoming two.

One continued the ceremony, while the other charged at Qian Xin.

"Penance Whip!"

The maid of pain raised her right hand, wielding a pitch-black, grotesquely barbed, constantly writhing thing like intestines, fiercely swinging out.

A violent spiritual whirlwind arose.

Qian Xin couldn't possibly manage both opponents at the same time, battling the named one, she couldn't afford distraction.

But Baiyu sniffed the scent of opportunity.

Evidently.

The real combatant was the maid of pain fighting Qian Xin, not the one performing the ceremony.

If he could take her down.

Then he could prevent the Red Cup's descent!

Leaving only one named one, though troublesome, wouldn't be particularly hard to handle.

But there was also a problem.

If killing this maid of pain led to her splitting again, what then?

Her power comes from the divine spirit, and only divine power might counter it.

But regardless.

He must give it a try.

Thinking this through.

Baiyu stopped hesitating, unleashing power from within, his whole body instantly turning golden, flowing with immensely powerful strength.

He crouched his legs.

Leveraging the terrifying burst, he rushed towards the maid of pain constantly chanting, hands raised as if welcoming the divine spirit.

Facing such an entity.

Baiyu dared not hold back, channeling the power of destruction throughout his body into his right fist, striking at the maid of pain. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

The air compressed intensely by the force.

Boom!

Behind the maid of pain, buildings covered with blood-vessel-like red vines collapsed one after another, the ground cracking with ravines.

This was just the aftermath of Baiyu's punch.

The direct impact.

All fell on the maid of pain conducting the ceremony.

Enough force to crush a being of the Eclipse Moon Realm landed fully on her, she didn't dodge, yet it caused little harm.

Only the spiritual wall surrounding her began to fill with cracks.

The maid of pain didn't intend to care about Baiyu.

Except.

Her spirituality seemed to have noticed something, soon halting the ceremony temporarily, her beautiful gaze assessing Baiyu:

"You have my lord's scent on you, but it's faint, already removed."

"I understand now, you previously bore my lord's mark, looks like you have quite the talent, earning my lord's favor."

"It's unexpected, however, that you'd remove such a favor, this is the most disgraceful betrayal, the most unforgivable act."

The maid of pain's face displayed anger, she actually stopped the ceremony, starting a direct attack on Baiyu.

Damn it, is this for real?

Baiyu wanted to curse, he'd never seen a ceremony stop halfway before.

But evidently.

This named one managed it, possibly due to a deeper connection with the divine spirit!

Counts of thorns grew spontaneously from the void, as the maid of pain prepared to attack, Baiyu instantly felt immense pressure.

Those thorns twisted and coiled, like a slew of venomous snakes surging towards him.

"Golden Fist!!"

Baiyu activated the golden blood within, clenched his fists, crashing them into each other before his chest.

A tremendous power exploded from the collision point, the growth rate of surrounding thorns slowing rapidly.

The maid of pain glanced at Baiyu, her killing intent surged: "Golden Race, never thought there'd be survivors still, your blood must be truly sweet!"

She raised both hands.

Two blood-vessel-like long whips appeared in her hands, then lashed towards Baiyu.

These whips didn't fly fast.

But.

Baiyu found himself unable to dodge regardless, watching helplessly as they struck him.