Dare You Bet?

Almost simultaneously with the attack from Lei Lute, Gu Ding moved. In an instant, he appeared behind Lei Lute, placing a finger on Lei Lute's spine. This was the target of his Absolute Finger attack; in truth, for a god, attacking from any point was irrelevant, but Gu Ding was already accustomed to this method.

Seven consecutive black Finger Force strikes shot out from between the index finger's fingers, disappearing into Lei Lute's body. Almost the instant the Finger Force entered, Lei Lute's divine body, entirely constructed of energy, seemed to be struck by a powerful energy impact. His entire back collapsed at a visible speed, like the ground being hit by a powerful bomb. The collapse deepened until finally, a terrifying hole formed in his chest cavity, from which a stream of black energy pierced through.

Lei Lute had no idea what was happening. He only felt his energy being drained to repair his wounds, but even after his energy was exhausted, the hole in his chest, as thick as a bucket, showed no signs of healing. Nearly a third of his body was destroyed. This terrified him, and he trembled at Gu Ding's power. If the attack had been any stronger, he would likely have perished on the spot. Because once energy was depleted and more than half of the body was destroyed, a god would perish.

"You didn't perish because my attack wasn't strong enough." Gu Ding's voice rang out from behind Lei Lute, making him completely afraid to make the slightest move.

Johnny was somewhat stunned by Gu Ding's power. He hadn't expected Gu Ding's explosive force to be so strong, severely injuring Lei Lute in an instant. Having explored Gu Ding's memories, he was familiar with this domain of Gu Ding's. Although it was a suppression and amplification of Combat Strength, it didn't affect the defensive capabilities of either side. No matter how much Lei Lute was suppressed, his defensive power was still at the level of Three-Star Low-rank God. The fact that Gu Ding could inflict such a severe injury on him meant that the intensity of Gu Ding's attack had reached the level of Three-Star Low-rank God.

"Let's make a deal," Gu Ding shouted at Johnny, grabbing Lei Lute's collar with one hand.

At this moment, Lei Lute was completely captured by Gu Ding. Having lost a third of his divine body, he dared not even launch an attack, for even the slightest further energy expenditure could cause him to perish due to the dissipation of his divine body. He had just secretly tried to open his Storage Space, only to find that his Smart Watch was completely unresponsive, leading him to suspect that it had been damaged in the energy surge. In reality, it was the Sea Emperor who had tampered with it.

"What exactly do you want?" Johnny looked at Gu Ding with suspicion. He had absolutely no idea what Gu Ding's abilities were; he hadn't encountered an enemy like this in a long time. In the past, before each attack, he would use the Eye of Truth to examine his opponent's information, gather complete data, and then formulate a strategy. But this time, apart from this domain, Gu Ding's abilities were completely unknown.

"I just want you not to leave here until Elizabeth finishes treating my companion," Gu Ding stated his purpose. "That way, the fat man can survive. If you can't agree to that, I'll have to kill him."

"You're negotiating with me now, even though you have the upper hand. It's because you can't seriously injure me. One possibility is that you can't use that move a second time. Or perhaps, that level of attack was your limit." Johnny narrowed his eyes slightly. He believed that Gu Ding's concessions under such an advantageous situation could only mean that he lacked confidence in winning.

"Oh, so that's what you think?" Gu Ding couldn't help but grin when he heard the other person say that. "In that case, how about you take a gamble?"

"If I win, you cannot stop us from leaving your territory, and you are not allowed to lay a hand on the fat man. Also, return Elizabeth to us unharmed."

"No problem. However, if I win, you two will stay obediently in my territory until Elizabeth's treatment is complete. Then I will let you leave safely. During this time, you must not inform anyone or do anything else. Also, I want your Smart Watch."

Johnny found the request for Smart Watch a bit odd. Smart Watch wouldn't be useful to anyone else, as only its owner could unlock it. Furthermore, if the Smart Watch were lost, simply reporting it to the Federal Government and obtaining a new one would renumber and reconnect the Storage Space, ensuring nothing was missing.

"Let me make this clear beforehand: my watch broke during the fight just now. Even if you win, you can't use that as a reason to detain me," the burly-faced Lei Lute shouted hastily.

"It's okay if it's broken. I just like collecting trophies." Gu Ding glanced at his watch. He knew that what Lei Lute called "broken" was actually just that Sea Emperor had forcibly shut it down.

"Let's begin, Fatty, stay back, you'll die if you get caught in the blast," Johnny shouted at Lei Lute.

Gu Ding loosened his collar and hurriedly jogged away, his spherical body swaying as he ran into the distance.

Seeing Lei Lute run away, Johnny made the first move, extending both palms simultaneously. Two cyan energy balls quickly condensed in the air and then shot out towards Gu Ding's location.

He saw that Lei Lute had been nearly killed by Gu Ding's close-range attack, so he came up with a countermeasure: to attack from a distance and prevent Gu Ding from getting close.

Upon seeing this attack, Gu Ding immediately understood his thoughts and chuckled inwardly, "How naive! The greatest characteristic of the Shadow Step is that it makes the enemy unable to predict the landing point. This kind of attack cannot even harm a hair on my head."

But what Gu Ding hadn't anticipated was that after his first dodge, the two cyan energy balls changed direction in mid-air and continued their pursuit. Even after two more dodges, he still couldn't shake them off.

Meanwhile, more energy balls condensed from Johnny's palm and continued to chase after him. In just a few seconds, more than a dozen cyan energy balls were chasing after Gu Ding.

"Sigh, I was originally going to see how long you were going to keep running, but I couldn't bear to watch any longer." The Sea Emperor's voice suddenly rang out. "Divine Source is a kind of living energy, similar to a life form. Once it locks onto an opponent, it will automatically pursue. Running away like this is completely useless. The Divine Source within your body is constructed through eighty-one small cycles and nine large cycles. Whether in terms of quality or quantity, your Divine Source can completely suppress him, and it even has a small amount of energy-devouring effect. Why did you choose to dodge?"

The Sea Emperor's reminder immediately prompted Gu Ding to unleash black divine energy from within his body, first covering his entire body, then emanating from his palms. Like black smoke, it rapidly spread outwards, quickly splitting into more than ten streams, each like tentacles, wrapping around the energy shot by Johnny, and then completely enveloping the cyan energy spheres. The energy spheres that had been hurtling towards Gu Ding were significantly slowed after being enveloped, until they finally hovered motionless in the air.

Under the cover of the black mist, the cyan energy balls grew smaller and smaller, and in less than a minute, they were all swallowed up by the black mist.

Johnny hadn't expected that his divine source was inferior to that of a mere demigod. Seeing the devouring divine source coiling towards him, he immediately went into defensive mode, surrounding himself with a layer of azure divine source to block it. That black mist could even devour divine source; who knew what effect it would have on his body? He dared not try it rashly.

Seeing this, Gu Ding grinned. He took a step forward and reappeared in front of Johnny. Johnny was startled, knowing it was too late to dodge. He threw a punch, not to injure his enemy, but only to force Gu Ding away. Unexpectedly, Gu Ding pointed a finger, directly meeting his fist.

Nine consecutive black Finger Force strikes shot out from Gu Ding's index finger, slamming into Johnny's fist. Johnny only saw his fist disintegrate the instant it made contact with the Finger Force strikes, like paper touching a flame, utterly destroyed the moment it touched it.

Gu Ding's Finger Force strikes penetrated deeper and deeper into Johnny's arm, dismantling that strong arm inch by inch. But this wasn't the end; the black Finger Force continued to penetrate, frantically destroying Johnny's entire right upper body. Johnny was already quite thin, and Gu Ding's attack caused the lower right side of his neck to disappear completely down to his waist.

Like Lei Lute, Johnny's body suffered a massive loss of energy the moment he was injured. Aside from maintaining his existing divine form, he had almost no energy left to heal. However, he fared slightly better than Lei Lute; his body was only damaged by less than a quarter of its original size.

This attack, aimed at Johnny, was Gu Ding's strongest strike. Because the previous attacks had already amplified the damage once, Gu Ding delivered nine more consecutive blows, stacking the damage tenfold. This caused what was originally a one-star Combat Strength to be amplified to four-star Combat Strength. Even Johnny, at the peak of three stars, would have his body disintegrate under such an attack.

"I lost..." Johnny's body had no more energy to repair itself. If Gu Ding launched another attack like that, he would be completely destroyed. He could only admit defeat. Only now did he realize that his previous assessment was completely wrong. He originally thought that Gu Ding yielded because he was no match for him, but he did not expect that Gu Ding simply did not want to kill him.

Johnny took off his Smart Watch and tossed it to Gu Ding. "The watch is yours. I won't try to break through your territory to escape, but I also hope you'll keep your promise and let us leave safely once your partner has recovered."

Not far away, Lei Lute jogged over, took off his watch, and handed it to Gu Ding. "Gu Ding, you have to keep your word."

"Don't worry, I'll do what I said I would." Gu Ding nodded, opened the domain exit, and stepped out, leaving the domain. (To be continued.)