There was no contempt or mockery in his tone.
It was as though he were merely stating something utterly insignificant as a matter of course.
Yet in the sudden silence, countless scarlet blood vessels rapidly surfaced in the corpse's single eye, and its violent fury became impossible to contain.
The arrogance remaining within that Heart of Rock and Iron, along with the Gnome King's rage, swallowed the corpse's last shred of reason in an instant, driving it completely mad beneath this unprecedented humiliation.
"You... damned... maggot!!!!"
The corpse roared. The Sorrowful Rope tightened, and the pulley blocks and winches let out a shrill groan under unbearable strain. Amid the spray of sparks, the charging Avatar of Fury suddenly ground to a halt.
The sound of steel collapsing rang out.
The winches fastened to Afang shattered amid a roar, countless fragments scattering. At last, the Gnome King's mangled remains broke free from the chains and climbed up from the ground.
It raised a palm covered in the color of rock and iron and slammed it down at Huai Shi!
A thunderous boom erupted.
The earth rippled like waves, sweeping through the entire settlement in an instant as countless clouds of dust billowed into the air.
But Huai Shi's figure vanished in that moment.
Then he emerged once more from the Shadow Burial Shuttle, still standing where he had been. He raised one foot, stepped on the Gnome King's palm embedded in the rock, and crushed down.
And Afang fell from between Huai Shi's opened fingers.
Afang, infused with all of Great Siming's Source Matter, once again revealed its full mass. In an instant, it tore through the swollen, rotting flesh and pinned the giant hand to the ground like a nail.
The corpse howled in pain. Its other mutilated palm came