"Get the hell out of my way!"
Rumble!
A furious shout was followed by deafening thunder.
At the market entrance.
A house exploded with a thunderous boom.
The walls shattered into pieces, sending bricks and wood splinters flying everywhere.
Wrapped in black lightning, Jiang Qiao charged out of the house. Every step he took left deep footprints in the ground, smashing the paving stones beneath his feet.
Ahead of him.
A shadowy figure was about to flee into the neighboring street.
However.
Whoosh—!
The lightning transformed into a vine-like whip, instantly wrapping around its neck and viciously yanking it back. It crashed to the ground, revealing its face.
It was a skinny old man barely three feet tall.
His body was hunched.
His chest was sunken, and his back was stooped.
His entire body was covered in dry, yellow, cracked skin that looked like tree bark.
"Running?"
"Where do you think you're going?"
Jiang Qiao's expression was hostile.
"Impossible."
The old man raised his head. His dead-fish eyes, without eyelids, stared at Jiang Qiao, his voice filled with fear and disbelief. "You're only Fourth Tier. Why aren't you affected mentally?"
"Because you're too weak."
Jiang Qiao blurred forward and threw a punch. Lightning tore through the air, forming a terrifying, clearly visible bolt like the branches of an ancient tree, and slammed heavily into the old man.
Rumble!
The paving stones exploded into the air.
A huge crater appeared on the spot.
"Ah—!"
The old man let out a shriek as his body visibly charred.
The strange thing was—
Under its carbonized skin—
The outlines of human faces began to appear.
Some were joyful.
Some were furious.
Some were aggrieved.
Some were terrified.
Those outlines seemed to have been able to move before, but under the lightning, they were frozen