# 1604
Chapter 1599: Its True Meaning
Looking at his attack being caught by Lin Qiye, Shen Qingzhu's face showed astonishment.
Although he hadn't used his full strength, he was now a Six-Winged Seraph after all—this punch alone would be more than enough for an ordinary Lesser God to swallow, yet Lin Qiye caught it with just one hand.
Lin Qiye gripped Shen Qingzhu's fist and thrust hard, terrifying force pouring directly into both their palms, forcibly sending Shen Qingzhu stumbling back dozens of meters before he slowly came to a halt.
"This body..." Lin Qiye lowered his head to look at his palm, the shock in his eyes growing ever more intense.
He took a deep breath, speaking to Shen Qingzhu once more:
"Again, use your full strength this time."
"Full strength?" Shen Qingzhu's expression was somewhat odd. "Are you sure?"
"Um... eighty percent."
"Alright."
With Lin Qiye in an extremely vigilant combat stance, six-winged Shen Qingzhu vanished on the spot. At that same instant, Lin Qiye's pupils contracted slightly, lightning-swift twisting his body, a heavy punch blazing toward what was behind him!
BOOM—!!!
The two fists collided, visible shockwaves directly tearing apart the earth beneath their feet, but Lin Qiye's body not only didn't retreat, instead leveraging to step another half-step forward, a second fist already swinging out!
Seeing this, Shen Qingzhu no longer restrained his power, fully engaging in close-quarters combat with Lin Qiye!
Successive explosions rang through the air. In just half a second, the two exchanged dozens of blows, so fast that even Wu Quan at the Klein level standing on the mountain peak couldn't track their movements—the surrounding air and earth continuously warped, directly creating a vacuum domain!
In the dazzling display of afterimages, one figure hurtled backward with a howl. To Wu Quan's shock, the one sent flying wasn't Lin Qiye without God's Ruins, but the six-winged Shen Qingzhu!
Shen Qingzhu's wings quivered as he landed, his gaze fixing on that unshakable silhouette through the dust. His expression had completely changed.
"How is your physical body this powerful?!"
Lin Qiye was a Human Apex; Shen Qingzhu was a Chief God. From the perspective of realm, they weren't that far apart, but comprehensively speaking, the former would find it extremely difficult to defeat the latter.
Human Apex was a human realm; Chief God was a divine realm.
A Human Apex might stand on par with a Chief God, but among the countless apex figures throughout history, only a rare few had managed to overpower a Chief God through pure strength alone. Setting aside how the absence of divine law alone created an enormous gap, the difference in species alone was nearly impossible to overcome.
When a human cut a god, the god might bleed; but when a god cut a human, the human would surely be gravely wounded. This was a difference in physiological structure.
Humans and gods were fundamentally different species. So for humans to become gods was as difficult as ascending to heaven... and to achieve this, one absolutely had to face the transformation of physiological structure. Zhou Ping used the sword as his body; Si Xiaonan had the Immortality Elixir; Wang Mian had Time Reversal—all fundamentally aimed at overcoming this defect.
But the current Lin Qiye, merely at Human Apex, could rely solely on his physical body to repel a Chief God like Shen Qingzhu. Although the latter hadn't employed God's Ruins, this was still extraordinary!
"What is the origin of this body?" The one equally shocked, besides Shen Qingzhu, was Lin Qiye himself.
He knew the three Heavenly Court members had replaced his body, but he never could have imagined it would be this formidable... Without spiritual realm, relying only on physical strength to match a Chief God—was such a body even possible?
Lin Qiye didn't know what this body was, but there was no doubt that even to the Heavenly Court, this was extremely precious, perhaps even one of a kind in all heaven and earth.
"Again!" Lin Qiye adjusted his breathing and charged toward Shen Qingzhu!
Shen Qingzhu naturally wouldn't dodge. The two clashed once more, and the mountains beneath their feet trembled violently!
About a dozen minutes later, the two had already left that area.
It wasn't that they didn't want to continue fighting, but if they did, it wouldn't just be these mountains—even the topsoil might be torn away. They were after all at the outskirts of Shangjing City; causing too big a disturbance wasn't appropriate.
Where this body's limits lay would have to be tested in actual combat.
"By the way, did none of your abilities survive?" Walking alongside, Shen Qingzhu asked.
"No." Lin Qiye shook his head. "All my previous powers feel completely out of reach now... 【Chaos】 must have used some method to lock them all within my original body. If my soul hadn't left an 'anchor,' I'd likely have already perished.
I estimate He's had His eyes on my body and abilities for quite some time."
Lin Qiye's heart was full of regret. Including the Mortal Divine Realm, his original God's Ruins numbered seven, plus the abilities obtained from lottery draws, totaling around fourteen or fifteen... and there was the Dark Origin, faith power...
Without exaggeration, if Lin Qiye still possessed that body, he would absolutely have been one of the strongest apex figures in history.
"Maybe this is also a good thing." Shen Qingzhu tried to comfort him. "Your previous abilities were too numerous, too scattered, and those were all granted by gods. No matter how many gods you represented, you were ultimately just an agent, not your true self.
Without those abilities, perhaps you can go further."
"Further?" Lin Qiye smiled helplessly. "With just this body of mine, a pseudo-apex with no Forbidden Ruins?"
"Not having them now doesn't mean you won't have them later... Weren't all your previous abilities from the gods you represented? The Forbidden Ruins truly belonging to you haven't been discovered yet, have they?"
Hearing these words, Lin Qiye's footsteps halted.
"What's wrong?" Shen Qingzhu asked.
Lin Qiye seemed to have thought of something, murmuring to himself: "Sails exhaust all mist; barefoot walk the wasteland, asking the original heart... Did the Marquis mean this?"
At the National Fortune Island, the words Marquis Huo Qubing had spoken to him alone—Lin Qiye had never understood their meaning... At this moment, Shen Qingzhu's words enlightened Lin Qiye.
Could the Marquis have known long ago that he would face this tribulation?
But how could he have known?
Lin Qiye made a silent determination that once he had sorted out his current affairs, he would personally visit the National Fortune Island again to ask the Marquis about this.
"By the way, the meeting with the Special Squad is tomorrow?" Lin Qiye seemed to have thought of something.
"That's right."
"Then we should hurry back and prepare... Though everyone's familiar, as the new director of the Special Operations Department, I need to bring something to the table." Lin Qiye mused for a moment. "I need to go to Night Watch headquarters first."