That single glance was cold and indifferent, like a butcher looking at livestock waiting to be slaughtered.
The sly, vicious look in the donkey monster's human head was instantly drowned beneath boundless terror! It let out a strange cry, violently twisting its slender body as it tried to flee at full speed.
But it was already too late.
Commander Chen's left hand moved for the second time. This time, it was no longer merely shaking the saber's scabbard.
His thumb fully pushed open the latch.
"Clang!"
A bleak, frigid gleam, as though it had condensed ten thousand years of dark ice and endless night, flowed out from the long, narrow scabbard.
There was no earth-shaking momentum, no dazzling brilliance. There was only a streak of light—light faster than sight, faster than thought, as though it had been cleaved from a gap in time.
Wherever the blade-light passed, space seemed to split open soundlessly.
The donkey monster, which had been about to flee, suddenly froze. A thread-thin, faint red line appeared around its slender neck beneath the human head.
In the next moment, the donkey head and donkey body slowly slid apart, the cut as smooth as a mirror. The enormous donkey body crashed to the ground, blood surging skyward from the severed neck like a fountain. Even on the rolling human head, an expression of utter terror and bewilderment remained frozen.
Commander Chen's figure had appeared beside the donkey monster's corpse at some unknown point. There was a saber in his hand now. Its blade was long and narrow, straight-edged, without a guard, its design ancient and simple to the extreme. Its entire body was a deep, dim black, as though it could absorb every ray of light. Only along its edge flowed a line of secluded radiance that refused to disperse. Fine, scale-like ancient patterns could vaguely be seen across the blade, now radiating a chill that made the soul tremble.
The hand gripping the saber was steady without the slightest tremor. The tip pointed diagonally at the ground, and a drop of viscous monster blood slowly slid down the blade's icy edge.
"Moo!!!"
On the other side, the Ox Monster struggled up from the rubble. Having witnessed its companion being killed in an instant, it showed no fear—instead, its ferocity was fully aroused. Its human head let out a sky-shaking roar, its blood-red eyes locked firmly on Commander Chen. Muscles bulged across its body, and Monster Qi mixed with its savage human aura boiled to its peak. Lowering its head, it launched another charge, even more violent and reckless than before! Its four hooves thundered against the ground, and the entire ruined banquet hall trembled. It was like a mountain formed from flesh and Monster Qi, determined to smash the hunched old soldier before it to pieces and grind him into dust!
Faced with this charge several times more ferocious than the previous one, Commander Chen finally raised his saber-wielding right hand.
He did not dodge. He did not block.
He merely raised the long, narrow, dark saber in his hand levelly, its tip pointing forward, and aimed it at the Ox Monster's brow as it charged.
The movement was simple, even somewhat clumsy, like someone who had never practiced with a blade raising it forward in panic.
Yet the instant he raised the saber, his hunched back seemed to straighten by an almost imperceptible degree. The aura around him, silent for twenty years like a dead volcano sealed beneath ten thousand years of ice, loosened ever so slightly. That sliver of intent alone caused the temperature throughout the ruined banquet hall to plummet. Tiny ice crystals condensed in the air, while the scorching monster wind brought by the charging Ox Monster was forcibly frozen and driven back!
The Ox Monster was upon him! Its black, curved horns, glinting with metallic chill, were less than three feet from the saber tip held level by Commander Chen! The violent airflow already whipped his tattered robes loudly, sending his graying hair into a wild dance.
Commander Chen's saber-wielding wrist was utterly steady as he gently sent it forward.
The movement remained slow and straight, without the slightest flourish.
"Pfft."
The sound was so faint it was nearly drowned out by the Ox Monster's thunderous charge and the wind.
It was like a red-hot iron rod piercing a slab of congealed lard.
The dark, narrow straight blade, its tip swirling with secluded radiance, struck the exact center of the Ox Monster's brow. That was the core where its Monster Qi and human aura circulated together—and the location of the hardest skull in its mutated body.
Time seemed to freeze at that instant.
The charging Ox Monster, its mountain-sized body, abruptly stiffened! It maintained its lowered-head charging posture, its four hooves sinking deeply into the ground and plowing out deep furrows, yet it could not advance another inch. The savagery rapidly faded from its blood-red bull eyes—human eyes—and was replaced by boundless emptiness and bewilderment.
A tiny crack silently appeared at the point where the blade tip touched its brow.
Then the crack spread as though alive! In the blink of an eye, it covered every inch of the bull-headed human face, even extending deep into its thick neck and massive shoulders and back...
"Crack... crack-crack..."
Dense, teeth-grating sounds of shattering rang out.
The Ox Monster's enormous body, along with its hideous human head, was like a glass sculpture struck by a heavy hammer. It began shattering and collapsing inch by inch from within! No blood sprayed, no flesh flew. All its flesh, bones, and Monster Qi turned into the finest gray-black dust amid the silently spreading cracks, raining down with a soft rustle.
In its place remained only a small pile of ash in the shape of a human figure, along with a pair of black curved horns that had lost their luster and clattered to the ground.
Commander Chen slowly withdrew his saber. The blade remained dark and did not bear a speck of dust. With a turn of his wrist, he soundlessly returned the long saber to its scabbard. The faint click of the latch rang exceptionally clearly through the deathly silent ruins.
He hunched his back again, as though the figure that had straightened by a hair like a sword leaving its sheath had merely been an illusion. He raised his murky eyes toward Li Chongshan in the seat of honor and spoke hoarsely:
"You worked on this for so many years, and this is what you came up with?"
His tone was flat, yet carried contempt that sank into the marrow.
"With trash like this... trash that cannot even be called defective goods, who exactly were you planning to answer to?"
Li Chongshan's face had already changed from iron-blue to an unnatural pallor. He stared fixedly at Commander Chen, then at the ordinary-looking dark straight saber returned to its scabbard in his hand. The corner of his eye twitched uncontrollably. Commander Chen's words were like a poisoned thorn, stabbing viciously into the most secret—and most untouchable—corner of his heart.
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"Stand down." Li Chongshan's voice was somewhat dry. He acted as though he could not see the pile of ash or the headless donkey corpse in the corner. "Two pieces of trash."
He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. The pallor on his face gradually gave way to a sickly flush. The last trace of feigned gentleness in his eyes peeled away completely, leaving only naked, surging malice and... excitement suppressed to its absolute limit.
"It seems ordinary works truly cannot meet Lord Chen's discerning eye." Li Chongshan slowly rose and casually tore off his luxurious brocade outer robe, revealing a dark-purple fitted outfit beneath. He twisted his neck, and his joints burst with popping sounds.
"Very well." He bared his teeth in a smile, the twisted and savage expression utterly unlike his usual refined and genteel appearance. "Then let Lord Chen personally savor Li's true 'achievement' from these past years."
Before his voice had even faded, a sudden transformation occurred!
A horrifying sound came from within Li Chongshan's body, as though countless shells were rubbing together, bones were rearranging, and organs were shifting! His back suddenly arched. Purple-black, hard carapace glinting with metallic chill pierced through his fitted clothes, rapidly extending and unfolding! They were not simple shells, but eight grotesque jointed limbs over ten feet long, covered in barbs, their joints bent backward like the legs of a gigantic spider!
His head remained human, but below the neck, his chest and abdomen swelled and twisted violently. His skin transformed into dark, nearly black armor. A huge vertical slit opened down the center, revealing a terrifying mouthpart lined with rings of spiral, razor-sharp teeth! Deep within the mouth, beneath Li Chongshan's original head, twisted sinews could vaguely be seen connecting downward. This enormous mouth occupied nearly half his torso and radiated a thick, sweet stench mingled with a corrosive odor.
That was not all! The carapace behind his spine split open, and a grotesque tail spike resembling a scorpion's tail suddenly shot out! The spike gleamed with a pitch-black sheen. Its tip was not an ordinary stinger, but a strange bud-like structure covered in fine pores. As it opened and closed slightly, a ghostly green venomous light flickered within.
In the blink of an eye, Li Chongshan had transformed into a terrifying monster with a human head, spider legs, a giant-mouthed torso, and a scorpion tail spike! Nearly twenty feet tall, he was supported above the ground by eight long spider legs. His giant mouth opened and closed, dripping highly corrosive saliva that burned the ground and sent up sizzling white smoke. The scorpion tail swayed slowly through the air, locking onto Commander Chen below.
On the monster's head—Li Chongshan's face—appeared a smile mingling pain, madness, and extreme pleasure. His voice became hoarse and layered, as though countless voices were speaking at once:
"Scarface Chen... this form is called Spider Scorpion. It fuses the sturdy legs and concealment of the Cave Demon Spider, the soul-devouring kiss of the Rotten Swamp Great Mouth Demon, and the 'Bone Corroding Tail Needle' of the Netherworld Poison Scorpion... supplemented by the bloodline essences of seven different monsters. After eight years of work, I finally obtained this body."
He lowered the terrifying giant-mouthed torso slightly. Eight ghostly glimmers like compound eyes flickered faintly around his head as he stared fixedly at Commander Chen:
"Be careful."
The instant those final three words fell, the scorpion tail that had been swaying slowly moved without warning!
It did not stab. Instead, it whipped out like a steel lash! It moved so fast that only a ghostly green afterimage remained, tearing through the air with a sharp shriek like Ghost Cry as it lashed toward Commander Chen's waist! Before the tail whip even arrived, a pungent, sweet poisonous wind already struck his face, making him dizzy and light-headed.
The instant the scorpion tail moved, Commander Chen had already slipped sideways. His motion seemed unhurried, yet he narrowly allowed the tail whip, powerful enough to split stone and shatter monuments, to skim past his waist. Missing its target, the tail whip smashed viciously into a nearby bluestone corridor pillar.
"Boom-crack!"
The hard pillar, as thick as a barrel, was shattered by the blow, sending fragments flying as it snapped in half! The break was not a simple fracture, but looked melted, as though corroded by strong acid, sizzling as poisonous smoke rose from it.
After missing once, the Spider Scorpion formed from Li Chongshan did not pause. Its eight long spider legs stamped fiercely against the ground. Its enormous body displayed terrifying agility completely at odds with its size, springing into the air and pouncing down! Its frontal giant mouth opened like an abyss, spiral teeth spinning madly and creating a terrifying suction force that enveloped Commander Chen, seeking to swallow him along with the surrounding bricks and stones and crush and digest him within that soul-devouring kiss! At the same time, the two sharpest spider legs at the front swung like gigantic sickles, crossing from left and right toward Commander Chen's neck and waist! The scorpion tail waited like a venomous snake, its ghostly green stinger making slight adjustments as it sealed off every possible avenue of escape.
A net cast across heaven and earth—a killing formation with no escape!
At last, a trace of solemn light appeared in Commander Chen's murky eyes. He no longer relied on that supernatural, minute shifting movement. Instead, for the first time, he truly swung the saber in his hand.
The saber was still in its scabbard.
He gripped both saber and scabbard with both hands, using the scabbard as the blade, and swept it upward at an angle! The movement was ancient and heavy, carrying a savage force capable of splitting mountains and cracking rocks.
"Clang!!!"
The scabbard collided violently with the spider sickle-leg slashing in from the left! A tremendous clash of metal erupted, sparks flying everywhere! The razor-sharp sickle-leg, powerful enough to cut metal and sever jade, was forcibly blocked by the seemingly crude wooden-and-stone scabbard—which actually contained black iron—and could advance no further!
Borrowing the rebound force, Commander Chen spun rapidly like a top. His scabbard swept horizontally with the motion and smashed into the side of the other sickle-leg attacking from the right, knocking it aside. At the same time, he pivoted on his left foot, infused his right foot with vital energy and blood, and stomped fiercely on the ground!
"Boom!"
The ground shook violently. A condensed force penetrated into the earth, then exploded ahead, throwing the suction field created by the giant mouth into disarray. Commander Chen's figure slipped out like a ghost through that fleeting gap, narrowly avoiding the giant mouth's devouring and the silent backstab of the scorpion-tail stinger.
"Wsssh!" The scorpion-tail stinger skimmed Commander Chen's shoulder, drawing a streak of blood-light. The flesh there instantly turned black, and the darkness rapidly spread outward with a faint sizzling corrosion.
Commander Chen did not even crease his brow. He extended the fingers of his left hand like a blade and struck several points around the wound in a flash. His vital energy and blood surged, forcibly expelling the venomous blood that had seeped inside, temporarily halting the spread of the blackness. But the movement had ultimately slowed him by half a beat.
"Hahaha! How does my Netherworld Scorpion Poison taste?" Li Chongshan's grotesque laughter came from his head. His eight legs danced as his enormous body pressed forward once more. His attacks surged like a tide, giving Commander Chen no chance to catch his breath. The sickle-legs hacked, the giant mouth bit, and the scorpion tail lashed and stabbed with venom. The three forms of attack were bizarre and unpredictable yet perfectly coordinated, displaying the cunning and treachery of an insect predator alongside overwhelming savage force.
Commander Chen swung the long saber and scabbard together. His movements were broad and forceful, seemingly clumsy, yet he always dodged fatal attacks by the width of a hair or used the scabbard to deflect sickle-legs he could not evade. His saber technique followed no fixed pattern. At times it was heavy as a mountain; at times it was nimble as the wind. He adapted completely to the Spider Scorpion's attacks in the moment. The collisions of scabbard, carapace, and sickle-legs came as densely as rain, sparks constantly bursting forth.
He no longer shifted about lightly. Instead, he rooted himself within the three feet beneath his feet, like a reef amid raging currents. No matter how ferocious the Spider Scorpion's attacks became, he remained unmoving. Yet the scorpion poison was clearly no ordinary venom. Though temporarily suppressed, it continued slowly corroding his vital energy, blood, and movements, causing his reactions and strength to decline bit by bit at a speed too subtle for the naked eye to detect.
The battle fell into a brutal deadlock.
The Spider Scorpion's carapace and sickle-legs were incomparably hard. With the scabbard standing in for the saber, Commander Chen could inflict no effective damage, leaving behind shallow white marks at most. The Spider Scorpion's attacks were violent, yet Commander Chen's nearly prescient battle instincts and simple, effective blocks and dodges dissolved them one by one. Even when he was struck occasionally, the blows were not fatal. Only the elusive scorpion-tail stinger posed the greatest threat. It had already left several wounds on Commander Chen. Though he had forced out the poison in time, the accumulated venom and blood loss were gradually weakening him.
"Bang!" Commander Chen once again swept aside a crossing sickle slash with his scabbard. His body swayed slightly, and for the first time, his steps became visibly unsteady.
"I've got you!" A cruel glint flashed through Li Chongshan's eyes. The giant mouth that had been gathering power suddenly sprayed a thick, dark-green venom, covering an enormous area and sealing off Commander Chen's routes of escape to either side. At the same time, two spider sickle-legs—one above and one below—sealed heaven and earth, while the scorpion-tail stinger, like a lurking venomous snake, silently stabbed toward the opening in Commander Chen's back exposed as he blocked the sickle-legs!
The killing move had returned!
Commander Chen seemed unable to deal with the fatal attacks coming from three directions at once. A sharp glint flashed through his eyes. He actually ignored the sickle-legs above and below and did not evade the venom enveloping him. Instead, he instantly poured all his vital energy and blood into both arms, wielded the scabbard like a staff, and brought down a plain yet all-out "Force-Splitting Mount Hua" toward the giant mouth spraying venom directly before him! It was a desperate move meant to take both sides down together!
"Trying to trade lives? Dream on!" Li Chongshan laughed wildly. The giant mouth snapped shut, the two sickle-legs accelerated downward, and the scorpion-tail stinger shot forward even faster! Confident in the defense of his carapace, he believed he could withstand the blunt strike without trouble, while Commander Chen would certainly be dismembered and poisoned to death!
"Clang!! Crack!"