Gem Space

As Toby pointed toward where Chen Qiang stood, countless hands suddenly emerged from the dark space, piercing into Chen Qiang's body as if they were weightless.

The moment these hands entered his body, Chen Qiang immediately felt a powerful force permeate his entire being, as if something had suddenly seized his blood and bones.

With just a slight tug from that force, the bones within Chen Qiang's body were ripped away from his muscles, causing blood to erupt from his entire frame and staining the ground where he stood into a pool of gore.

Simultaneously, as the force persisted, Chen Qiang's skeleton was pulled directly out of his body, a scene of visceral and bloody violence.

"Poison Gem!"

While Chen Qiang was still enduring the agony of his bones being separated from his flesh, the deep green gems that had been hovering around him exploded one after another, enveloping him completely in thick, toxic gas.

"The Undying Chen Qiang, let's see how you escape this time!" Seeing Chen Qiang engulfed by the poison he had unleashed, Toby nodded in great satisfaction.

"Are you stupid? My entire skeleton has been dragged out, and my organs were shattered in the process long ago. Without organs or nerve connections, what meaning does this poison have for me!"

Just as Toby prepared to disperse the gas to witness Chen Qiang's miserable state, Chen Qiang's hoarse voice suddenly emanated from within the toxic cloud.

As the poison gas slowly dissipated, the situation inside was revealed.

At this moment, Chen Qiang's flesh had completely vanished under the intense corrosive power of the poison, leaving behind only a pile of rotting meat.

Yet, the voice had come from the skeleton that had been stripped away earlier.

On the skull of the skeleton, blood-red flames burned; in its hand, it gripped a blood-colored long blade, and the chains draped over its bones were also stained a deep, blood-red hue as it stepped toward Toby.

With every step it took, a bit of flesh would regenerate on its frame, only to quickly necrotize and fall off the bones due to the lingering effects of the poison.

"Clatter, clatter."

Before Toby could recover from his shock, Chen Qiang grabbed the chains on his body with his left hand and gave them a slight shake. With the sound of clashing metal, he flew rapidly toward Toby's position.

The skeletal Chen Qiang did not remain stationary either; he pushed off the pool of blood he had left behind and charged toward Toby with lightning speed.

As he stepped into the blood, the liquid was drawn to him, quickly coating Chen Qiang's bones and surging forward with him to slam into Toby.

The sight of Chen Qiang's skeleton walking had been so shocking that Toby only managed to react by the time Chen Qiang was right in front of him.

Unfortunately, it was already too late, for the Seastone chains Chen Qiang had launched earlier were already wrapped around him. As Chen Qiang arrived and raised his blade to strike, Toby's entire body came into contact with the Seastone, leaving him in a state of total powerlessness, making it impossible for him to dodge the blow.

"Slash!"

A blood-red blade of light cut through the pitch-black space, cleaving Toby in two.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

Just as Toby was cut in half, the emerald gems in the space exploded one after another. A powerful surge of life energy emerged, instantly covering Toby's severed body and mending his wounds.

Taking advantage of the moment before Chen Qiang could retract his blade, Toby kicked off the skeleton, propelling himself backward. By the time he stood up again, he had already put a significant distance between them.

"This recovery ability is truly troublesome! But since I can cut you once, I can do it a second time!"

For the first time, Chen Qiang felt that such rapid recovery was incredibly difficult to deal with, though he failed to consider that when it came to recovery, no one could compare to him.

After a brief moment of complaint, Chen Qiang raised his blade once more and charged at Toby.

"What a monster. Only a fool would keep playing with you!"

Toby, having regained his footing, muttered in disbelief at Chen Qiang's abilities. After all, even after being reduced to a skeleton, he acted as if nothing had happened, charging forward to strike.

Although he possessed strong recovery abilities himself, Toby knew his own limits; his regeneration had a ceiling. Once his stamina was exhausted, he would no longer be able to heal his wounds, and he would surely die. As for Chen Qiang, Toby could see no limit to his recovery at all.

After all, to be a skeleton and still be able to leap about and fight—what kind of monstrous recovery was that? If this continued, he would definitely be the one to lose.

It wasn't a lack of confidence, but rather that his opponent was simply too abnormal. Even if he were to use his trump card, he wasn't certain he could handle him. Since that was the case, it was better to flee and notify his superiors to send reinforcements.

Seeing Chen Qiang charging at him again, he didn't hesitate. He turned, transformed into a streak of black light, and vanished from the space.

"Pathetic. To run away just like that? And they call you an Underground Emperor? It's an insult to the very word!"

Chen Qiang had just charged forward only to see Toby transform into black light and escape. He curled his lip in disdain and stood in place, waiting for his body to regenerate. Although he possessed a certain level of combat power in his skeletal form, it was far inferior to his flesh-and-blood state.

He had been able to cleave his opponent in two earlier only by utilizing the blood he had left on the ground. Now, he intended to leave, but he didn't know what the situation was outside. What if the opponent wasn't just running away, but setting an ambush for him?

Therefore, it was safer to restore his body before heading out.

"Tiger Rend!"

Soon, within a minute or two, Chen Qiang's skeletal body rapidly recovered to its original state. He walked back to where he had stood, picked up his pants from the ground, and put them on. Once again holding his blade horizontally before his chest, a massive blood-red tiger manifested and slammed directly into the wall of the Gem Space.

"Boom!"

A massive shockwave erupted from the black gem in the plaza. Aside from the magnificent palace, all the buildings in the front row collapsed under the force of the blast.

"Crack!"

Following the shockwave, the massive black gem began to crack inch by inch, eventually dissolving into wisps of black smoke and vanishing completely.

In the center of the pitted plaza, Chen Qiang stood alone, chains wrapped around his body, holding his blade in one hand where the gem had once been.

As for Toby, he had long since used the yellow gems atop the city to escape, and there was no telling where he had fled to now.