Chapter 734 Who Lives, Who Dies; Who Flees, Who Chases?

Buzz!

The ice crystals on the arm armor shattered instantly, turning into a cloud of white ice mist.

Almost simultaneously, his left leg swept out like a steel whip, whistling through the air, and kicked the raven in the lower abdomen.

The kick was so fast that the surging heat wave melted the ice on the ground, leaving a charred mark.

Raven's pupils contracted slightly. With a light touch of its toes on the ice, it floated backward as if weightless, its palms rapidly drawing circles in front of it, creating layers of chilling palm shadows as a defense.

"Bang!"

The impact of the kicks and palms created a dull thud, like the beating of a large cowhide drum.

Raven's blocking arm and sleeve were instantly shattered, and the exposed skin turned an abnormal bluish-purple, a result of the immense force shaking his blood and qi.

He used the momentum to retreat again, the ice beneath his feet cracking and shattering, dissipating the terrifying force, but the lingering, horrifying power that had invaded his body still made his throat taste sweet.

The white-masked man, having gained the upper hand, pressed his petite body against her like a persistent, invasive infection.

His attacks were dazzling, with punches, palms, fingers, and legs. Each strike perfectly combined the amplification of his exoskeleton with his own blood and qi, so fast that it left afterimages, and his power was incredibly ferocious.

Judging by appearance, it's slightly less powerful than the punch Zhang Shenyi delivered to Feng Mu, but not by much.

What's even more challenging is his extreme agility, which matches his petite stature.

Generally speaking, people with great strength tend to be larger and heavier, but less agile. This falls under the category of basic physics.

But the white-masked man in front of him was different; he was an absolute dwarf.

It possesses unnatural strength and lightning-fast movements, with cunning and ruthless attack angles, specifically targeting the abdomen, groin, and legs.

"What a treacherous tactic!" Raven felt a sudden gust of wind rushing down his groin.

He had misunderstood White Mask. The other party didn't want it to be like this either, but given his height, he really had no choice but to be good at this.

They were forced into it!

"Bang!"

White Mask unleashed a vicious low kick, aiming straight for Raven's lower body. Raven bent her knee to block, her shin colliding violently with White Mask's.

Visible to the naked eye, a layer of ice crystals shimmering with a cold, eerie blue light rapidly spread upwards from the point of impact between the two, towards the white-masked exoskeleton's lower leg.

The biting cold penetrated the exoskeleton, invading the flesh and blood vessels within.

The white-masked man's calf muscles tensed suddenly, and his exoskeleton unleashed an even stronger energy output.

"Crack! Crack!!"

The ice crystals covering it were shattered inch by inch by his forceful shaking, turning into ice powder that fell down in a flurry, but his leg movements also paused involuntarily.

Raven wasn't feeling much better either. He felt a tremendous force running down his calves, making his groin tremble and his testicles shake violently.

"I can't afford to get even a little bit brushed against!" Raven thought with a chill.

Beneath the mask, his brows were furrowed, and his breath condensed into fine white frost, staining the edges of the dark, dull mask with a faint, desolate white.

A fierce glint appeared in his eyes, and in an instant, the temperature within a radius of several meters centered on the raven plummeted.

The moisture in the air no longer condenses into frost, but instead turns directly into fine ice crystal dust, which falls down in a soft rustling sound.

The ground beneath their feet, which was originally covered with only a thin layer of ice, is now thickening and spreading at a visible speed, as if it were a living thing climbing upwards, trying to entangle the white-masked man's feet.

The surrounding weeds, whether with sturdy stems or withered leaves, instantly lost all moisture and resilience, becoming as fragile as glass.

The two figures separated briefly before reuniting and engaging in combat once more.

Relying on absolute strength, uncanny agility, and the powerful defense and amplification of his exoskeleton, the White Mask launched an attack like a whirlwind, turning every part of his body—fists, feet, elbows, knees—into deadly weapons.

Raven, on the other hand, brought out the subtle and unpredictable nature of the Nine Yin Manual to its fullest extent.

He rarely clashed head-on with his opponents, relying more on dodging, deflecting force, and pulling. As his palms flew, the chilling energy, like an invisible venomous snake, seeped into the gaps in his opponent's exoskeleton and the weak points of their joints. With each touch, it left behind a trail of spreading ice crystals.

The weeds within a radius of several meters had already been frozen so hard that their roots and stems were shattered into dust in the aftershocks of the two men's fight.

The battle reached a stalemate.

The white-masked man possessed overwhelming power and astonishing speed, but the raven's chilling aura was like a persistent, bone-deep wound, greatly slowing his movements and consuming his vital energy.

If it weren't for his abundant blood and qi and domineering power, which allowed him to continuously shatter the ice layer on his body, he probably would have already followed in the footsteps of the group.

Although Raven temporarily stabilized himself with his exquisite skills and experience, muffled coughs that he couldn't suppress kept coming from under his mask.

"Cough cough..."

This is a ailment he developed in his early years when he disregarded the damage to his foundation and frantically practiced the "Nine Yin Manual" in pursuit of quick success.

When he was young, he relied on his good physical condition and did not feel any major problems. However, as he got older, especially as his skill in the Nine Yin Manual became more and more profound, he could no longer suppress the backlash of the Yin and cold energy on himself.

Every time he exerts his full power to fight the enemy, the cold energy will damage his own lungs and some meridians first, like drinking poison to quench thirst, harming himself before harming the enemy.

At that moment, he felt as if countless tiny ice needles were pricking his chest, and a cold, metallic taste filled his throat.

If he continues to push himself at such a high intensity, even if he eventually manages to take down the white mask, he will inevitably be seriously injured and will not be able to recover without three to five months of rest.

"We can't linger in this battle... we must escape as soon as possible!" Raven was extremely anxious.

He had no desire to fight the white-masked man in front of him, not because he felt he couldn't win or was afraid of him, but simply because he felt it wouldn't be worth the risk.

His main concern was that he might attract the attention of some monster in the distance, which would make it impossible for him to leave.

It would be hilarious if someone came to do good and protect the other person, but ended up getting themselves into trouble because the person they were protecting was too strong.

However, in this world, what you fear most is often what comes to pass.

It is generally believed that the lower city is inherently evil, and it is specifically designed to subdue all kinds of disobedience and wishful thinking.

Just as Raven was dealing with the white mask while keeping a watchful eye on the situation in the center of the battlefield, the scene he least wanted to see happened.

In the distance, the petite figure with pigtails seemed to sense something, and suddenly tiptoed, lightly flipped over, and landed steadily on the broad, rock-like shoulders of the burly giant.

Then, climbing to a high vantage point, his eyes gleaming, he pointed in their direction, looking like a cunning little fox discovering two... frantic rabbits fighting in the grass.

The mad rabbit wasn't afraid of the fox, but it was terrified of the giant beast beneath the fox's feet.

"This is bad!!"

Raven was horrified. A chilling coldness shot from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, even more piercing than the cold energy of the Nine Yin Manual he had activated.

He no longer cared about the recurrence of his old illness or the need for future recuperation. If he were to be entangled by the giant beast at the fox's feet, there would be no "future" for him.

"Drink up—!"

The raven let out a suppressed growl, and a sound as if something was shattering came from within its body. The power of the Nine Yin Manual within its body was circulating wildly at an unprecedented speed.

An even deeper chill erupted from him.

The white, chilling energy that had been swirling around his palms suddenly condensed and compressed, changing from pale to a deeper, more chilling, ghostly white.

It is no longer simply cold air, but a highly condensed, almost liquefied, extreme cold energy.

It was as if his two hands were no longer flesh and blood, but had transformed into two ghostly hands shaped by "liquid nitrogen".

The surrounding air was so cold that even the light was distorted.

Just as the white-masked figure was about to pounce again, its pupils suddenly contracted to the size of pinpoints, and the expression on its face beneath the mask underwent its first dramatic change.

It wasn't just fear, but more of a shock at finally recognizing the other person's identity.

There are quite a few martial arts techniques that contain the attribute of coldness and yin, including some profound martial arts techniques that can condense qi into ice and freeze metal and stone.

But to his knowledge, there is only one place in the world that can compress and transform the cold energy to such an extent that it exhibits characteristics of "liquid extreme cold".

"The Nine Yin Manual? You're the Night Watchman—?!!"

His exclamation abruptly stopped!

The raven didn't give him a chance to finish speaking.

The hand, wreathed in a chilling, liquid nitrogen-like aura, swiftly pressed forward, striking the white-masked exoskeleton arms that were crossed and blocking the chest.

"Crackling sound—!"

The white-masked man felt the space around him suddenly freeze.

This is not a simple case of freezing at low temperatures, but a more fundamental feeling of "movement" and "heat" being forcibly stripped away and stifled.

The blood and qi surging wildly within his body, and the exoskeleton providing the powerful energy, all stiffened at this moment.

The pale white ice layer no longer spread out, but instead burst forth from the ground beneath his feet and condensed in the air around him, like a crystal forest that grew instantly, at a speed ten times faster than before.

His entire being, from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, along with the words he hadn't finished speaking, was completely and entirely sealed within a massive, crystal-clear block of ice, about 1.4 meters high, with a faint blue light flowing inside!

It's done!

A lifelike ice sculpture!

"puff--!"

Raven suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with ice shards, staining his chest red. His violent coughing almost made him unable to straighten up, and his face under the mask was as pale as paper.

But he dared not linger for even a moment!

He endured the excruciating pain in his chest, as if it were being cut by countless ice blades, and abruptly straightened up. Raising his trembling hand, he slammed it heavily onto the center of the ice sculpture's chest.

"Thump!"

The ice sculpture trembled violently, its surface cracked, but it did not shatter immediately—the white mask's defensive capabilities far surpassed those of the previous three.

Without even looking at the result, Raven used the recoil from the blow to suddenly twist its body, channeling all the power it could muster into its legs, even at the cost of aggravating its old injuries, and ran away without looking back in the opposite direction from the center of the battlefield.

At the same moment that the raven struck out with its paw and turned to flee.

Hongya, perched on Li Bashan's shoulder, showed an even greater expression of surprise and excitement. She pointed with her little finger in the direction the ravens had fled, chirping excitedly:

"Senior Brother, look over there! There are two more people there! They're fighting quite fiercely! Junior Brother doesn't seem to have noticed them!"

Her little brain quickly made a judgment, and pointing at the raven's disheveled retreating figure, she said urgently:

"Huh? One of them turned into an ice pop? Oh no, the other dark-looking thing is trying to escape. It doesn't look like a good thing. Senior Brother, hurry and chase after it!!"

Li Bashan's tiger-like eyes darted around, looking in that direction.

The next instant, his enormous foot, clad in ordinary cloth shoes, seemingly casually stomped on the ground.

"BOOM—!!"

It was as if a heavy bomb had detonated on the spot!

Turf, soil, and gravel shot up like a fountain, leaving a huge crater more than three meters in diameter.

Li Bashan, with his imposing physique and the red-haired girl on his shoulder, was like a humanoid cannonball thrown by a giant, suddenly soaring into the air with the red-haired girl on his shoulder.

With this leap, he covered a distance of nearly 100 meters.

Then, like a shooting star falling to earth.

"Bang!!!"

With another deep, thunderous roar, Li Bashan crashed heavily into the dense grass. The moment his feet touched the ground, another circular crater of almost the same size exploded, and the shockwave crushed and shattered all the surrounding grass.

Without any pause, the moment he landed, the muscles in his legs erupted with devastating power once more, creating a second giant crater beneath his feet, and he was once again propelled into the air.

Takeoff, crash, takeoff again, crash again...

Hongya, who was sitting on his shoulders, had long since switched from standing to a comfortable straddling position. Her little red shoes swung merrily in the air, moving rhythmically with her senior brother's movements.

The pigtails that stick up on both sides of her head also follow this violent rhythm, sometimes being pulled straight down by the downward gravity, and sometimes flying up in the inertia of the ascent.

Her little face showed no fear whatsoever, but rather an expression of excitement and joy.

The entire battlefield, regardless of friend or foe, was forcibly drawn to the continuous booming sound.

In their horrified, bewildered, or fearful gazes, the enormous figure, constantly launched and falling, was like a super shell that never exploded, leaving a series of remarkably uniform circular "scars" in the vast grass.

Viewed from the perspective of a high-altitude stealth drone, this scene is filled with a strange beauty that is both violent and orderly.

A series of nearly perfect circular pits connected at an astonishing speed, forming a straight, unreasonable pursuit line that rapidly extended toward the small gray dot desperately fleeing in the distance.

……..

Zhang Shenyi was jolted awake from the brink of unconsciousness by waves of intense tremors coming from the ground.

He felt as if all the bones in his body had fallen apart, and every part of his body ached; his internal organs also felt as if they had shifted.

"Strange... I'm not dead?!"

He was still seeing stars, his ears were ringing, and his mind was completely muddled.

“Strange, why did I say ‘again’…”

He struggled to lift his head, his blurred vision catching glimpses of a terrifying figure rising and falling in the distance, creating an earthquake. The lingering fear of surviving the ordeal instantly brought him back to his senses.

(End of this chapter)