The moment the words left his mouth, the Hairy Person abruptly leaped backward.
The man behind Jiang Ran looked at the Hairy Person's grotesque grin, stretched almost to his ears, and his head, which looked ready to split open. Instinctively, he blurted out a classic expletive:
"Holy shit!!!"
Using both his hands and feet, he scrambled backward.
Hearing the commotion behind him, Jiang Ran didn't even turn around. His voice remained calm:
"If you don't want to die, stay right where you are."
Only then did the man stop moving in a daze and look up at the black figure.
A hooded sweatshirt, a mask, a tall, well-proportioned build...
The more he looked, the more familiar the figure seemed.
As if remembering something, he couldn't help asking:
"Are you—!?"
He didn't get to finish.
Jiang Ran and the Hairy Person vanished at the same time.
The next second...
BOOM!!!
A deafening crash erupted in the middle of the basement.
A wave of air blasted the dust outward, sending the man tumbling backward until his back slammed hard into the wall.
His eyes widened in horror as he looked ahead.
Amid the billowing dust,
two figures appeared in the center of the basement.
The crash had come from their right fists colliding.
For a moment, silence fell.
Old Zhang slowly lifted his head and looked at Jiang Ran, a hint of confusion in his eyes.
His lips parted, and a string of strange syllables rolled from his throat:
"￥#%@..."
Jiang Ran frowned slightly.
He couldn't understand him.
It didn't sound like any regional dialect, either.
The Hairy Person seemed relieved.
His mouth pulled wide again, that grin stretching to his ears. When he spoke, his voice was now fluent modern Chinese:
"Who gave you the nerve... to come looking for me!?"
Before he'd even finished speaking,
the Hairy Person lunged forward.
His mouth split open to its limit, his face nearly cleaving in two. Foul-smelling saliva dripped from his jaws as he snapped at Jiang Ran's head.
Jiang Ran frowned and tilted his head slightly, letting that gaping maw graze past his ear.
A stench swept over him.
Then...
He bent his right arm and drove his elbow forward like a cannonball.
THUD!!!
His powerful rising elbow struck the Hairy Person squarely in the chest.
The ferocious grin froze on the Hairy Person's face.
He flew backward like a kite with its strings cut, his back slamming into a basement support pillar with a sickening thud.
But Jiang Ran's movements didn't stop.
Almost the instant his elbow connected, Eight-Step Cicada Chase kicked in.
Qi and blood thundered through the meridians in his legs.
His figure left a blurred afterimage where he stood.
He caught up with the Hairy Person as he flew backward.
The Hairy Person's pupils contracted. In his backward-spinning field of vision, the black figure pursued him like a shadow, moving at an unimaginable speed.
A flicker of astonishment finally crossed his face.
Then...
He saw scarlet qi and blood erupt around Jiang Ran, rising like a volcanic plume!
Phantom dragons and tigers coiled around Jiang Ran's arms, golden light flowing over them.
BOOM!!!
The Hairy Person didn't even have time to adjust his posture.
Jiang Ran's right fist slammed into his face.
The blow abruptly changed the direction of the Hairy Person's flight, sending him crashing downward like a cannonball.
BAM!!
The ground burst open, forming a crater.
Dust surged skyward.
Jiang Ran landed in a one-knee crouch at the edge of the crater, staring down with an expressionless face.
The dust slowly settled.
At the bottom of the crater,
the Hairy Person lay on his back, his head smashed into the concrete by Jiang Ran, with only half his face exposed.
Jiang Ran didn't pause.
He leaped into the crater, straddled the Hairy Person, and raised his fists...
Then brought them down.
THUD! THUD! THUD!!!
Dragon-Tiger Fist rained down like a storm.
Every punch carried the roar of a dragon and the growl of a tiger, each one landing squarely on the Hairy Person's head.
The concrete kept caving in, and dust sifted from the surrounding walls.
The man in the corner was stunned.
He clamped a hand over his mouth to keep from making a sound, his eyes wide with disbelief.
The visual impact of the video hadn't come close to what he was seeing in person.
C-could a human really do this!?
But as Jiang Ran kept punching, his brows gradually drew together.
Something was wrong.
With level-three Dragon-Tiger Fist and the qi and blood of the Blood Sensing Realm, he could punch straight through even reinforced concrete.
But now...
His opponent's skull was far harder than he'd imagined.
Sure enough, the next second,
a hand shot up from below and caught Jiang Ran's descending right fist.
A cold voice rang out:
"Enough!!!"
The next moment, Jiang Ran didn't even have time to react before he was hurled away.
He flipped through the air. Eight-Step Cicada Chase activated on instinct, and qi and blood surged through his body to disperse the force. His feet gouged two furrows in the ground before he barely managed to steady himself.
At the bottom of the crater, the Hairy Person slowly sat up.
He wiped the dust from his face, and his body began to change dramatically.
His clothes split as his rapidly expanding body strained against them.
Black fur burst from beneath his skin, each hair standing stiff as a steel needle.
His body grew taller before Jiang Ran's eyes.
One meter eighty, two meters, two meters thirty...
He finally stopped at around two and a half meters.
Thick, beastlike black fur covered his body. His muscles bulged like coiling dragons, and his limbs were massive.
Black fur covered his face, leaving only a pair of blood-red eyes visible.
He slowly rose to his feet.
His crimson eyes fixed on Jiang Ran. His lips parted.
"You're pretty lucky. In just a few days, you've gained so many abilities..."
"Back in the day, you might've had what it took... to become a Heavenly Prodigy."
Jiang Ran felt a stir in his heart as he listened.
But his face remained expressionless.
He slowly stood up, dusted off his hoodie, and replied calmly:
"You're pretty lucky, too."
"I didn't manage to kill you."
At that, the Hairy Person chuckled.
"Too bad..."
"You won't live to see that day."
The instant the last word fell,
the black fur on the Hairy Person's body bristled.
Dark gray energy emerged across his skin, swirling like mist.
The next moment, he vanished.
Jiang Ran frowned at the sight.
Combat Intuition blared warnings, and Prediction kicked in at full force.
Countless possible attack trajectories flashed through his mind.
To the right!!!
Eight-Step Cicada Chase activated on instinct, and qi and blood burst through the meridians in Jiang Ran's legs.
He shot backward and to the side.
Almost in the same instant...
A black-furred fist appeared out of nowhere where he'd just been standing, grazing Jiang Ran's chest as it passed.
But the moment Jiang Ran's heels touched the ground,
a second punch was already coming for his face.
Too fast!
He had no time to dodge.
Jiang Ran crossed his arms in front of his chest.
Qi and blood flooded them as he drove Golden Bell Shield to its limit.
The invisible energy covering his skin instantly solidified, gleaming with a faint golden light.
BANG!!!
Fist and arms collided.
Golden Bell Shield's energy let out a shriek, webbed with cracks that spread rapidly across the golden glow.
Jiang Ran felt immense force rush through his arms.
Crack...
A faint sound of bone fracturing rang out.
Jiang Ran grunted as the punch lifted him off the ground and sent him flying.
Like a kite with its strings cut, he crashed through the wall behind him and vanished into the dust-filled rubble.
For a moment, only dust drifted slowly through the air.
The Hairy Person slowly withdrew his fist and shook his wrist.
He lowered his gaze to his knuckles, where a few drops of blood clung.
"Tsk."
The Hairy Person smacked his lips, a greedy glint flashing in his crimson eyes.
"Such pure qi and blood..."
He turned and looked at the man trembling in the corner.
His mouth stretched into that trademark grin.
"You're the only one left."
The man slumped against the wall, his face deathly pale.
He wanted to run, but his legs were as weak as noodles. He couldn't move them at all.
All he could do was watch as the terrifying, two-and-a-half-meter figure drew closer.
The Hairy Person stopped in front of him and bent down.
He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply.
A look of bliss spread across his face.
"Brother..."
"You smell so good."
He opened his mouth, drool dripping, and slowly lowered it toward the man's neck.
Just then.
BOOM!!!
A dull thud came from deep within the ruins behind him.
The Hairy Person froze.
He whipped around!
Golden rays shone through the gaps in the pile of bricks and rubble that had buried Jiang Ran...
The ruins began to tremble.
A half-meter-high concrete beam was shoved aside from within and came tumbling down in the distance.
Another thick chunk of load-bearing wall broke loose, slammed into the ceiling, and sent more dust raining down.
More and more rubble was brutally shoved outward from within.
As if some colossal creature...
Were breaking free from deep within the ruins and slowly rising to its feet.
The stiff black bristles covering the Hairy Person's body stood on end.
His scarlet eyes fixed on the increasingly powerful golden light, and a low growl rumbled from his throat.
"Quit pretending to be—"
He didn't finish.
The ruins suddenly exploded apart!
Bricks and rubble flew in every direction.
A gigantic hand made entirely of golden light burst through the clouds of smoke and flying debris, spread its five fingers wide, and reached toward the Hairy Person...
Then clenched tight!!!
The Hairy Person's pupils contracted!
He roared as dark gray energy burst from his body. His figure blurred as he tried to dart sideways.
But the gigantic golden hand seemed to have already predicted every escape route.
Its five fingers closed like mountains.
The Hairy Person didn't even have time to make a second move.
The gigantic golden hand clamped his entire grotesque body in the center of its palm!
"Urgh!!"
A shrill scream rang through the basement.
The gigantic golden hand lifted the struggling monster.
Three feet off the ground.
The dust gradually settled.
Amid the ruins.
A five-meter-tall Furious Vajra Manifestation stood towering and imposing.
Scarlet qi and blood surged around him like blazing flames, intertwining with the brilliant golden light and illuminating the entire basement as bright as day.
Beneath the manifestation.
Jiang Ran stood atop the ruins.
Blood streamed from a gash at his temple, staining half his face and his mask. His disheveled bangs clung to his forehead, and his torn clothes exposed his lean, well-proportioned muscles.
Those eyes...
Despite the blood framing them, remained calm.
Jiang Ran raised his head slightly and looked at the Hairy Person writhing wildly in the golden palm.
He spoke softly.
"Now, I ask the questions, and you answer. Understand?"
At those words...
The Hairy Person, who had been struggling violently, suddenly stopped moving and no longer tried to break free.
He simply let the tightening hand squeeze his body.
Beneath his bristles, his scarlet eyes stared fixedly at Jiang Ran as he spoke calmly.
"You're going to die."
"All of you are going to die."
"From the moment you chose to come in here... the fate of every one of you was already sealed."
Before you continue