Chapter 167 The Hand of Misfortune
Luo Hun was trapped deep in the pit, the fist force in his body kept exploding, and the impact caused it made his mind go blank.
He couldn't understand how he'd been injured. There was no way a 2-point martial cultivator could harm him in the fog. Was it a high-level relic with a guaranteed hit? Or was there a high-point bloodline hidden within his body? Even with Luohun's experience, he couldn't come up with an answer.
Luo Hun propped himself up on the sand and stood up. He saw the killer standing defiantly. Instead of pursuing him, he pulled his left fist back to his waist, as if to signal his intention. A direct punch was coming. Luo Hun abandoned his ineffective mist movement and thrust his hands out flat, creating a wall of mist in front of him.
"Shen——"
The movement of the punch could not be seen, nor the trajectory of the punch could be seen clearly. All one could hear was the explosion of the fist wind, which pierced through the fog. The swift blow penetrated the fog and hit Luohun's abdomen directly. The messenger's tall body arched like a shrimp!
Luohun didn't have time to think; the assassin was already standing behind him. Chu Hengkong's right palm collided with his left fist, unleashing all his strength through the collision, his elbow driving directly into Luohun's spine. The messenger's bent body was forcibly straightened. Then Chu Hengkong raised his right leg high above his head and delivered a vicious kick from above, returning the blow he had previously dodged!
The fallen soul in mid-air uttered unconsciously: "Impossible...!"
This wasn't an emotional exclamation, but rather an objective impossibility. The Mist of History was a power bestowed upon each cohort member by the Undertaker God. Its essence was the manifestation of the eternal time of the Second Abyss, possessing an innate ability to suppress all beings of Sephiroth 6 and below. It would be fine if this person were a Celestial Eye cultivator, but a mere Hard-Bone Walker, no matter how gifted, couldn't possibly pierce the Mist!
Chu Hengkong opened and closed his left fist. He kept trying new arms and showed a satisfied smile.
"Fander, what's the principle behind this?"
—What a joke, don’t you understand?!
At the back of the battlefield, the Eye Demon raised its tentacles joyfully: "I was afraid that the status was too low to suppress it, so I stuffed the ingredients of doom in there!"
……doom?
The oldest delusion?
My mind instinctively rejected the connection, but my intuition supported this absurd conclusion. The silver arm exuded an ominous presence. Its structure resembled the body of a worm, nestled segment by segment within the original, rotting flesh. A rusty chain entwined itself, crisscrossing the prosthetic hand several times, like a "lock" sealing the arm.
There's no mistake. That's it. The moment he recognized the chains, Luohun confirmed his guess. But the power of the Delusion Demon shouldn't be lost. Even if a spirit of such a high-ranking being was defeated, there shouldn't be any left behind.
This was a relic that "shouldn't" exist, and its origin had to be confirmed. Luohun turned and rushed towards the suspicious Eye Demon. Midway through his charge, he suddenly threw a punch, intersecting with Chu Hengkong's kick.
"I haven't allowed you to escape yet," said the killer.
Luo Hun retracted his arm, mist swirling around his limbs, turning his fists and feet to dry bones. The gray power that marked aging coalesced at his fingertips. He ducked and lunged, stabbing his throat with a claw. Chu Hengkong, with his right hand behind his back, struck Luo Hun's wrist with a knife-like hand, deflecting the thrust, and then countered with a punch, deflecting a hook aimed at his face.
Luo Hun raised his knee and struck Chu Hengkong's lower body. Chu Hengkong arrived first and kicked Luo Hun's face bone. His heel slammed down and bit Luo Hun's instep. The iron-like step made Luo Hun's bone claws sink into the ground. Chu Hengkong took this opportunity to kick out with force, and a whip-like side kick swept Luo Hun's chin.
Luo Hun threw his head back sharply, and used his claws to pinch Chu Hengkong's ankles again. However, this time Chu Hengkong reacted faster. He turned and pulled his legs to dodge the attack, and then spun half a circle with his left fist, striking like a bell, and hit Luo Hun's heart again! Luo Hun's offensive completely collapsed!
"I see...I underestimated you!"
Luohun realized the reason for the reversal of the battle. The prosthetic arm not only provided a means to penetrate the fog, but also allowed Chu Hengkong to focus on the battlefield without having to distract himself from suppressing the arm.
This man's martial arts skills were astonishingly strong, surpassing most martial artists he had ever met in terms of skill alone. This skill allowed him to overcome the natural barriers of physical fitness and fight against foes stronger than himself.
but……
"The blessings brought by martial arts are limited!"
Luohun retreated a few steps, then leaned forward like a beast poised for prey. Mist enveloped his sides, causing his flesh to wither and his blood to dry up. In the blink of an eye, he went from a thriving, sturdy man to a skeleton wrapped in a thin layer of skin. Gray hair sprouted from his hide, and his skull twisted and protruded forward, like the decayed head of an animal.
The Fallen Soul gazed at the killer through its empty eye sockets, two pinpricks of gray soul fire igniting within them. "Convert to deification," the former Bone Prayer Monk whispered. Its fists had become bony claws, and the sides of its arms sprouted periosteum like glider wings. The Fallen Soul leaped high into the air, like a skeletal bat, its claws forming gray spheres riddled with spikes.
"Fear True Ball."
Luohun lashed out with a claw, and the sphere vanished, mysteriously reappearing from Chu Hengkong's left, cloaked in mist. Chu Hengkong slapped the sphere away with a palm, and suddenly his vision darkened. Unwilling memories of the past flooded back, and the intense pain made him feel like he was in a nightmare. This was the very tool Luohun used to impose taxes, the power of fear bestowed upon every messenger by Vansalar.
Taking advantage of Chu Hengkong's moment of being pinned down by the True Spheres, Luohun soared higher, its wings barely scraping the sandy bottom. More True Spheres of Fear spawned within his periosteum, ten... a hundred... a full 370! Even a tenth of them would be enough to shatter Particle 3's spirit. Luohun opened his palm and struck the mist. "Go!" All 370 True Spheres vanished simultaneously, reappearing in the mist at varying distances and angles, charging at him with the same swiftness of their strike.
"Don't take it!" Vander yelled. "We'll get hit too." "We're going to die!" The researchers grabbed it and fled in panic. Chu Hengkong raised his left palm, a drop of muddy rain rolling in his palm. The droplet grew larger as it spun, and the killer clenched his fist to crush it, and the muddy droplet suddenly burst out.
"Bad rain!"
The forced force rose into the air, and a torrential downpour suddenly fell from the deep sea valley. Raindrops streamed across the surface of the sphere, seeping its turbid power into it. 370 lethal attacks landed scattering, none of them hitting. The killer, unscathed, continued through the rain. This was the most direct manifestation of the power of doom, a torrent of rain that disrupted probability and isolated attacks. At this moment, probability was in the killer's hands!
The fallen soul felt dizzy in the rain, realizing that it was being affected by bad luck and that its wide-area attacks were no longer effective. It increased its speed to dodge the raindrops, and the haze of fear formed lightning-shaped darts between its claws.
"Thunder Sword!" Luohun hurled the hidden weapon with lightning-fast speed, imbued with the elemental power bestowed upon it by the Nightmare King! The force of thunder, carried by the rain, reached the earth, forming a lightning web resembling a ghostly mask. The experienced envoy now used the environment to his advantage. The assassin on the ground similarly swung his arm, raindrops flying from his fingertips, transformed into a hard blade by the infusion of his willpower.
The rain blades and the thunder sword collided in mid-air, clashing and exploding simultaneously. Chu Hengkong seized the opportunity to dash into the rain, his soul-falling form hurling thunderbolts like a divine messenger. The assassin always arrived first, shattering the thunder sword with his unfavorable rain blades. The thunder sword possessed greater destructive power and speed, but Chu Hengkong, with his astonishing foresight, always sought out its weak points, shattering them with his minimally consuming rain blades and seizing the opportunity to close the gap, a stark reflection of the skill gap between the two.
In a flash, Chu Hengkong was directly beneath Luohun. He stepped on the rocks and chased them skyward, like a wolf biting a bat. "Don't even think about it." Luohun summoned a large amount of mist, and the fog of history vanished, carrying the rocks that should have disappeared long ago. Chu Hengkong lost his footing after leaping. Luohun grabbed a new bolt of lightning and smashed it down. At this moment, it saw its own skull face. The lightning sword exploded an inch in front of it... A mountain of ice rose from the ground!
"Blow his head off, Sora!!"
Ji Huaisu thrust her sword into the air, the wind of her sword transforming into an iceberg that pointed straight to the sky. Behind the iceberg, Ye Xing Wuyan swung his sword, and in a split second, too fast for instinct to react, the entire iceberg shattered into thirteen thousand neatly arranged pieces. The shattered iceberg crumbled and fell, but the killer had already reached the summit before the blow was struck. He leaped onto the shattered ice crystals, towering above Luohun and the messenger of the evil god!
Luohun thrust his Thunder Sword upward. Chu Hengkong grabbed the lightning with his prosthetic hand and crushed it. His iron fist, piercing with lightning, smashed into Luohun's facial bones! "Hah!" Luohun was slammed to the ground, tumbling and bouncing like a pebble on water. It bounced past the terrified and excited monsters, past the howling researchers, and crashed into the pitiful house made of piled white sand.
Chu Hengkong landed a little later, propping himself up on his thighs and breathing slowly. His body was riddled with bloody wounds. Even with his Immortal Technique at full power, it could only counteract the ravages of aging. Furthermore, he still bore the scars from the old man's gift. But he didn't stop, his fierce gaze still etched. At the same moment, Luohun rose, its skull cracked. This messenger had been cornered, completely destitute of ammunition and food!
"Particle 2? Not even a Walker. Just an ordinary Strong Bone?" The soul fire in Luohun's eyes was so fragile that it was about to go out. It opened the Book of Revelation it carried with it, and destiny allowed it to find the name of its enemy. "How absurd! You should have died in the Netherworld Kingdom, perishing alongside the Immortal Machine... but you've survived until now! Even to the territory of Lord Vansalar!
What a terrible man, I must kill you!"
Chu Hengkong clenched his fists and charged at the weakened enemy. The Fallen Soul extended its arms wide, the soul fire in its eyes extinguished, the force that sustained its existence seeping into its bones, amplifying its final attack. Its bony claws attacked Chu Hengkong left and right, accelerating faster and faster, piercing through the myriad streams of light. These were the few remaining abilities of the Fallen Soul, retained after its transformation by Vansalar. It was a punishment inflicted upon those who should have died, a devastating attack created to uphold the right destiny.
"Residual Light Fist: Light After Death!"
Chu Hengkong remained facing the enemy with his hands behind his back, bracing himself with a single hand against the hail of blows and palms. The swift blows of his fists connected into opposing whirlwinds of two colors, but this time the killer couldn't maintain balance. The gray wind unleashed by Luohun's punches gradually closed in on Chu Hengkong... 50 centimeters, 30 centimeters, 10 centimeters... The distance was so close that the claws were nearly touching the killer's eyes! Luohun had completely gained the upper hand!
Luo Hun stared at the enemy's scars, looking at those aging scars that were inflicted by his own hands and had not yet healed.
"You've managed to push me to this point with your Qi Qianqiu, which is truly remarkable... However, even secret teachings have their limits. Your speed and reflexes can no longer be improved, as your vitality has been depleted. No matter how hard you try, you can't suppress any more energy."
Luohun's roar was like a resounding bell: "Stop dreaming of changing the world. This moment is the end of your fate!"
Finally, the killer responded to his words.
"You seem to be mistaken."
Chu Hengkong raised his head and said lightly.
"I haven't used Yiqi Qianqiu yet."
——————
Shock, astonishment, confusion, doubt—no emotion remained in his hollow eye sockets, yet the shifting of his bony claws proved his inner turmoil. Chu Hengkong allowed the soul-destroying claws to pierce his eyeballs, only raising a finger to his chest. A fiery spirit flickered at his fingertips, like a blood-red fire burning the dark night.
"Now, use the speed of Yiqi Qianqiu!"
He pointed his finger, piercing Luo Hun's thoracic vertebrae in an instant. Thousands of palm strikes instantly dissipated, and Luo Hun's hands were sent flying high into the sky.
Chu Hengkong withdrew his hand and stabbed again. In a breath, he stabbed out thirty-six piercing palms. The dense palm shadows penetrated the skeleton body and smashed Luohun into powder!
(End of this chapter)
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