At first, the air rippled like the surface of water. The ripples grew more and more violent, until at last—a purple fissure tore open in midair. It stood three or four meters tall, its edges flashing with blinding light. A deep rumble sounded from within.
Ning Rongrong's breathing quickened.
The fissure widened until it was large enough for someone to pass through. Then a foot stepped out.
It was twice the size of an ordinary person's foot, bare, with skin as rough as tree bark. Then came the rest of him—over two meters tall, bare-chested, his muscles knotted like rock, bald, with a face full of heavy jowls.
The fissure slowly closed behind him.
He stood in the middle of the lot, drew a deep breath, and grinned.
"So this is the new world?"
His voice was rough, like stone scraping against stone.
He raised his right hand, clenched it into a fist, then slammed it into the rusted excavator beside him—
Boom!
A huge dent caved into the excavator's side. Its entire body slid three or four meters, its tracks gouging deep furrows in the ground.
Ning Rongrong clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle a scream.
Soul Rings began to appear beneath the man's feet.
Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black.
Six Soul Rings revolved slowly around him, their light radiating an overwhelming pressure into the night.
Huyan Li.
An heir of the Elephant Armor Sect. A sixty-fifth-level Spirit Emperor.
His gaze swept across the ruins. Then he suddenly spoke. "Little girl from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, I know you're here."
Ning Rongrong went rigid.
Huyan Li grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth. "Come out. I can smell you."
He strode farther in.
Chen Mo gripped Ning Rongrong's hand and whispered in her ear, "Don't move."
Ning Rongrong nodded.
Huyan Li walked slowly, each heavy step making the ground tremble faintly. He stopped in front of the first pile of scrap, studied the chunks of concrete, then punched—
Rumble!
The pile exploded, sending fragments flying.
Ning Rongrong nearly screamed, but Chen Mo covered her mouth.
Huyan Li stared at the scattered debris, frowned, and continued onward.
He was heading straight for the depths of the maze.
Chen Mo silently counted in his head.
Ten steps... eight steps... six steps...
Huyan Li caught his foot on the first tripwire—steel rebar buried under broken bricks. He stumbled, looked down, then snapped the rebar with one stomp and kept going.
But that stumble had slowed him by half a beat.
That was the half beat Chen Mo had been waiting for.
He released Ning Rongrong's hand and shot out of his hiding place.
Behind him, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda appeared in an instant.
"First Spirit Skill, Strength Boost!"
"Second Spirit Skill, Agility Boost!"
Two beams of rainbow light fell on Chen Mo at once. Boosted by their speed, he reached Huyan Li in the blink of an eye and thrust the rebar in his hand toward the back of his neck—
Huyan Li didn't even turn around. He threw a punch behind himself!
The wind of his fist howled. Chen Mo twisted aside, and the rebar scraped across his arm. It pierced the skin, but left only a shallow, bloody mark.
Huyan Li turned to face Chen Mo, his eyes lighting up.
"You can hurt me?" He grinned, thrilled. "Interesting!"
His right fist shot out again, this time glowing with Soul Power.
Chen Mo didn't dare take it head-on. He dodged with the Agility Boost and swept the rebar into Huyan Li's side. But this time, it didn't even break the skin. It left only a white streak.
Huyan Li roared with laughter. "Is that supposed to tickle?"
He reached for Chen Mo with both hands.
Chen Mo turned and ran, ducking into the maze.
Huyan Li chased after him, but his massive frame couldn't fit through the narrow passageways between the piles of debris, forcing him to take the long way around. Chen Mo darted through the maze, veering left and right and leading Huyan Li in circles.
Ning Rongrong hid in the shadows, using Heart Separation Control with all her might to keep the boosts steadily flowing to Chen Mo.
But she knew she couldn't keep it up for long.
She gritted her teeth, then suddenly stood and let the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda blaze with light.
"Third Spirit Skill, Soul Power Amplification!"
Another beam of light fell on Chen Mo.
Huyan Li whipped around and saw her.
"Little girl!" He grinned, abandoned Chen Mo, and charged at Ning Rongrong.
Chen Mo's expression changed. He turned and chased after him, but although Huyan Li was slow, that was only by the standards of Soul Masters. To Ning Rongrong, a twelve-year-old support-type Soul Master, he was still far too fast.
In the blink of an eye, he was right in front of her, his enormous hand reaching to grab her—
"Heart Separation Control!"
Ning Rongrong cried out. Four boosts fell on her at once—she had given herself Agility and Defense boosts, but as a support-type Soul Master, even with Agility boosted she was no match for a Spirit Emperor.
Just as that hand was about to seize her—
A figure slammed into Huyan Li.
Chen Mo.
He threw all his strength into ramming Huyan Li in the side, making him stumble a step. The hand snatched at empty air, brushing past Ning Rongrong's hair.
But the force of the impact sent Chen Mo flying back too. He slammed into a pile of concrete and grunted.
Huyan Li steadied himself and turned to look at him. His expression changed.
"You're asking to die."
He strode toward Chen Mo.
Ning Rongrong wanted to shout, but it felt like something had clogged her throat.
Chen Mo braced himself against the ground and stood. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, but his gaze remained steady. Looking at Huyan Li as he approached, he suddenly gave a small smile.
"You said just now..." He wiped the blood from his mouth. "That I was tickling you?"
He flipped his right hand and drew a short sword from behind his waist.
It was only about thirty centimeters long, its blade mottled with dark green rust. Yet in the moonlight, its edge gleamed with a bone-chilling light.
Huyan Li saw the sword, and his pupils contracted slightly.
He sensed danger.
But he didn't stop. He charged even faster, his right fist crashing forward with the force of a thousand tons—
Chen Mo didn't dodge.
He gripped the short sword and thrust it toward that fist.
The short sword pierced the skin, punched through the bone, and emerged from the back of Huyan Li's hand—
Blood sprayed everywhere.
Huyan Li screamed and snatched back his hand. He stared at his mangled fist, his face filled with disbelief.
"What... what is this?"
Chen Mo didn't answer.
He gripped the short sword and stared at Huyan Li, speaking one word at a time.
"My family's Fish Gut Sword. It's made to pierce heavy armor."
Huyan Li's face turned livid.
He glanced at his still-bleeding hand, then at the short sword in Chen Mo's grip. Suddenly, he threw back his head and laughed.
"Good! Good! Good!"
He said it three times, his eyes turning wild.
"Fifth Spirit Skill—"
The fifth Soul Ring beneath his feet flared, black light surging outward.
"Diamond Mammoth Avatar!"
His body began to swell. His muscles bulged one by one, and a golden layer of hornlike armor appeared across his skin. It grew thicker and brighter until it covered him from head to toe, like a suit of diamond armor.
His body grew to over three meters tall. The two front teeth in his upper jaw grew longer and thicker, protruding from the corners of his mouth like a mammoth's tusks.
He raised his injured hand and looked at the still-bleeding wound. Diamond armor spread over it, sealing the injury inside.
Then he looked at Chen Mo and grinned.
"Now, try stabbing me again."
He strode toward Chen Mo.
The ground trembled with every step.
Chen Mo tightened his grip on the Fish Gut Sword, staring at the Diamond Mammoth towering over three meters tall. He didn't retreat.
Ning Rongrong watched from a distance, her heart pounding so hard it felt ready to leap out of her throat.
She watched Chen Mo's back, the hand gripping his sword, the way he faced that giant.
She suddenly remembered what he'd said—
"If I ran, I'd have to take you with me."
She clenched her teeth, and the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda appeared again.
This time, it wasn't one or two.
It was all of them.
"First Spirit Skill, Strength Boost!"
"Second Spirit Skill, Agility Boost!"
"Third Spirit Skill, Soul Power Amplification!"
"Fourth Spirit Skill, Soul Power Amplification Stack!"
Four beams of rainbow light fell on Chen Mo at once.
Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, and blood began to seep from the seven apertures of her face. But she gritted her teeth and kept the boosts going, refusing to let herself collapse.
Chen Mo felt endless power surge into his body. He gripped the Fish Gut Sword and watched the Diamond Mammoth draw closer, silently calculating the distance.
Ten meters.
Eight meters.
Five meters.
Huyan Li raised his massive fist and brought it down on him—
Chen Mo moved.
Instead of dodging, he charged straight at that fist.
As it came down, he leaped high, planted his feet on the fist, and used it to launch himself forward. He shot toward Huyan Li's head like an arrow.
The Fish Gut Sword stabbed straight for his right eye!
The tip slipped through a gap in the diamond armor and pierced his eyeball—
Huyan Li screamed, blood gushing from his right eye.
But in his death throes, he swung his other hand hard and struck Chen Mo in the chest.
The sound of his breastbone shattering rang clear.
Chen Mo flew backward and slammed into a pile of debris more than ten meters away, crushing the stack of concrete beneath him.
"Chen Mo—!"
Ning Rongrong screamed and ran out, stumbling as she rushed toward the debris.
Clutching his blinded right eye, Huyan Li panted heavily. He looked at the pile of debris and grinned, his mouth full of blood.
"He's... he's dead, right..."
Before the words had even left his mouth, the debris shifted.
Chen Mo crawled out.
He was covered in blood, his chest caved in, his left arm twisted at an unnatural angle. But he stood up.
He gripped the Fish Gut Sword, looked at Huyan Li, and walked toward him one step at a time.
Huyan Li stared with his one remaining eye. For the first time, his face showed fear.
"You... what kind of monster are you?"
Chen Mo said nothing.
He walked right up to Huyan Li and raised the Fish Gut Sword.
Huyan Li tried to dodge, but the Diamond Mammoth Avatar was too cumbersome. He couldn't move fast enough.
The Fish Gut Sword pierced his throat.
It went in through the front and came out the back.
Huyan Li's eyes widened. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but all that came out was a mouthful of blood.
Then his enormous body crashed to the ground.
The earth shuddered.
Dust billowed.
Chen Mo stood there, sword in hand, staring at the corpse as he gasped for breath.
Then he turned and looked at Ning Rongrong.
She stood not far away, her face streaked with tears and her body covered in blood—he didn't know whether it was his or hers.
He smiled at her.
"I won."
Then his vision went black, and he collapsed to the ground.
Ning Rongrong ran over, dropped to her knees beside him, and held him, sobbing her heart out.
"Chen Mo! Chen Mo, wake up! Don't scare me..."
But Chen Mo didn't respond.
In the distance, the system's voice rang out in the night sky, but Ning Rongrong could no longer hear it.
All she knew was that the person in her arms was ice-cold.
Who knew how much time had passed when Chen Mo's fingers twitched.
Ning Rongrong quickly lowered her head and saw him open his eyes and look at her.
His lips moved, his voice so faint she could barely hear him:
"Don't cry... I'm not going to die..."
Ning Rongrong froze for a moment, then hugged him tighter and sobbed even louder.
In the distance, the horizon began to pale like a fish's belly.
A new day was coming.
Before you continue