Piercing

At the spot on its flank where it had been hit, a charred web of cracks emerged beneath its dark purple mane, like a tree trunk struck by lightning. The fractures spread outward from the wound.

Even stranger, wisps of white vapor continuously rose from the wound, as though its flesh and blood were being scorched and evaporated from within by some intense heat.

Neighhh!!!!

The Purple Thunder Demonic Steed let out a pained, furious whinny!

It had never experienced an attack like this.

It was not merely lightning damage, nor was it an ordinary strike from a soul skill!

The bizarre azure lightning had, at the instant of impact, seemed to throw the lightning essence within its body into utter chaos. The purple thunder it had always taken pride in, the thunder it had been born with, now seemed suppressed by something of a higher order. Its circulation slowed, and its reactions dulled!

Its dark purple beast eyes stared fixedly at the small human figure in the distance.

This human had killed its mate.

This human also used lightning.

And his lightning! It was nobler than its own.

That realization made the Purple Thunder Demonic Steed's fury burn even fiercer!

Boom!!!

Purple lightning erupted all over its body! This was no longer the tentative crackling of electric arcs from before, but a true all-out burst! Dark purple lightning surged madly from every strand of mane and every inch of skin like an erupting volcano, enveloping its entire body in a violent sphere of thunder!

This was the lightning of life essence belonging to a three-thousand-year lightning-attribute soul beast!

The mass of lightning frantically gathered at the single horn atop its head, compressing, condensing, compressing again, condensing again! The purple lightning pillar, originally as thick as an arm, gradually became narrow, profound, and nearly ink-purple under the repeated compression!

This was a full-power strike backed by three thousand years of cultivation!

The Purple Thunder Demonic Steed pawed at the ground, plowing four deep trenches into the earth with its savage strength. It lowered its head and aimed the horn, which had gathered all the lightning power in its body, at Chen Li's heart!

Then!

It charged!

Its speed was astonishing! The full burst of a three-thousand-year soul beast turned it into a purple-black afterimage across the mere few dozen meters!

That horn was like a spear personally forged by the Thunder God, carrying an aura capable of destroying everything as it stabbed straight toward Chen Li's chest!

Chen Li stood where he was.

A bead of cold sweat slowly slid down his forehead.

A level-twenty Soul Grandmaster, facing a desperate strike from a three-thousand-year lightning-attribute soul beast alone! That gap could not be easily erased by sheer will.

His body screamed at him to dodge, every nerve frantically sounding the alarm.

But!

"I won't... admit defeat just like this!"

In that instant, Chen Li's gaze changed dramatically.

He was no longer a calm observer, no longer a calculating hunter! He was madness.

The ferocity that erupted from the deepest depths of the soul when one was driven into a corner with nowhere left to retreat, willing to risk everything!

He did not dodge!

He did not even take a defensive stance!

He merely frantically gathered all the lightning Soul Power in his body into his right arm. The blue-white lightning in his palm throbbed violently like a vicious beast about to break free of its restraints!

Seeking death?!

A flicker of astonishment flashed through the Purple Thunder Demonic Steed's beast eyes, only to be replaced by even more savage excitement!

It did not know what this human was planning, but it knew! As long as this strike landed, no defense would matter!

It would crush this human's heart completely beneath its horn!

Crackle!!!!

It was the explosive roar of lightning tearing through the air!

The purple-black horn, carrying destructive power, pierced straight through Chen Li's chest!

Splurt!!

A dull sound of penetration!

The Purple Thunder Demonic Steed's entire body passed through Chen Li! Its horn entered through his chest and emerged from his back, bringing with it a shocking spray of blood mist!

A horrifying fist-sized bloody hole that pierced straight through his body appeared in Chen Li's chest!

The Purple Thunder Demonic Steed charged forward another dozen meters under the force of momentum before barely coming to a stop, its four hooves scraping against the ground with a piercing shriek. It panted heavily, two streams of white vapor spraying from its nostrils. The purple lightning around its body had visibly dimmed from the expenditure of that strike.

But it did not turn back.

It had already felt the sensation of piercing through a heart.

That detestable human was dead.

It slowly turned around, wanting to see with its own eyes the miserable state of the murderer who had killed its mate, now collapsed on the ground!

Then, its beast eyes suddenly contracted!

Chen Li was still standing!

That human whose chest had been blasted open was actually still standing there perfectly fine!

No! That was not right!

The Purple Thunder Demonic Steed stared fixedly at the bloody hole in Chen Li's chest and finally saw the truth!

That was not a bloody hole at all!

It was a mass of blue-white lightning violently pulsing!

Chen Li lowered his head and looked at the spot in his chest that had been pierced through by the Purple Thunder Demonic Steed's horn. The flesh there had indeed vanished, replaced by a body of energy made purely of lightning. The blue-white arcs raced and reassembled at high speed, gradually filling in the flesh that had been torn apart.

"Elementalization..." Chen Li murmured softly, a somewhat weak smile pulling at the corner of his lips. "That really is a good life-saving method."

This was one of the most heaven-defying abilities granted to him by the Rumble-Rumble Fruit! At the instant he suffered a lethal physical attack, it transformed the injured area into lightning, allowing the attack to pass directly through his body without causing real harm.

Of course, this move consumed an enormous amount of energy as well. At this moment, less than thirty percent of the Soul Power in his body remained.

But!

It was enough.

Before the Purple Thunder Demonic Steed could recover from its shock over why it had failed to kill him with that stab, it felt a weight land on its back!

It abruptly raised its head!

That detestable human had somehow leaped onto its body and was sitting firmly behind its neck!

"I've got you now." Chen Li's voice came from above its head, calm with a trace of panting, yet terrifyingly cold.

The Purple Thunder Demonic Steed began struggling wildly! Purple lightning erupted from its body once more as it tried to throw the human off its back and char him to ash! It leaped, bucked, and rolled madly across the ground!

But Chen Li's left hand gripped the mane at its neck tightly. Like a parasite clinging to bone, he refused to let go no matter what!

At the same time, he raised his right hand high.

In his palm, a profound purple bolt of lightning, so deep it was almost eerie, was frantically gathering!

It was the glow of his first soul ring!!

"First Soul Skill!!!!"

Chen Li's voice exploded like thunder!

"Lightning Strike - Law Breaker!!!!"

Boom!!!!

That immensely condensed purple lightning burst forth from his palm!

It did not surge forth, did not spray outward, and was not released in any conventional sense.

It pierced! Or rather, it punctured.

That purple lightning was not massive enough to shake heaven and earth, nor did it possess a violent momentum that swept away all before it. It was merely a purple line as thin as a hair!

Yet it was sharp enough to cut through every rule of defense!