At this moment, his breathing, heartbeat, blood flow, metabolism, body temperature, and every other physiological function had dropped to levels even more absurdly low than those of reptiles. It was a state of suspended death even more extreme than hibernation.
As for visual detection... with Honkai traces radiating from his body as well, how was he any different from a Death Trooper?
It was said that in the Previous Era, fusion warriors could use this to blend in among Honkai Beasts, who, lacking much intelligence, would regard them as their own kind.
If he remained still, they would even consider him the same sort of "background object" as skyscrapers, the ground, or trash cans.
As long as he did not block their way, hinder them, or expose himself before intelligent individuals, they could coexist peacefully.
Coexist peacefully?
"Ha."
With a soft laugh, Fang Jie looked at the Death Troopers who had stopped moving because of his "breathing" and turned toward him.
"Leaves fall in this world; all men must die."
Oh, so he dared to speak!
The previously uncertain Death Troopers instantly stopped treating him as a corpse. Guided by their instinct to kill, they pounced at him at two hundred kilometers per hour, faster than the swiftest beasts on land.
Terrifying. No wonder people kept developing Death Troopers as weapons, constantly... creating monsters, arming monsters, training monsters, organizing monsters, transporting monsters, deploying monsters, commanding monsters...
Death Troopers really were fast.
But not fast enough.
Purple-black lightning flickered around Fang Jie's legs. His body left an afterimage as he burst into the Death Trooper horde in an instant.
"First Strike!"
There was no need to wield the baseball bat. It was far too fragile. How could mere steel harm Death Troopers strengthened by Honkai energy? These were monsters that required superhuman Valkyries to deal with, and he did not possess the advanced technique of reinforcing weapons with Honkai energy.
What he could reinforce was himself.
His five fingers formed a hand blade that slashed across a throat and struck bones harder than steel under Honkai energy reinforcement. There was no refined technique like a master butcher dissecting an ox—he simply severed the head with brutal force.
Compared to the Death Troopers, who were like wild beasts trying to rip open his chest with their claws, Fang Jie was far more elegant.
"Second Strike!"
The encirclement had already been torn open, but he had no intention of escaping through the opening, resetting his stance, and repeatedly charging through the Death Trooper horde like opposing cavalry.
Because he was faster!
Not only was he faster in a straight sprint, he was also more agile. The ground shattered beneath his feet, and the new shoes he had only recently changed into became innocent casualties. Barefoot, he flashed with lightning as he supported his explosive movements in this lightning-fast battle.
—Spin!
People had two hands. When his fingers formed twin blades and danced in a circle, he was not limited to the neck, the weakness of humanoid creatures. Wherever his hand blades struck, flesh and bone alike collapsed.
The spinning multi-hit attack tore apart the Death Troopers' shells, exposing their writhing organs before slicing, shredding, and severing them all.
In that instant of crisscrossing strikes, the Death Trooper horde was slaughtered.
But the battle was not over. Once exposed, it was difficult to return to that peaceful coexistence of invisibility. Even if he looked like a Death Trooper or Honkai Beast now, their instinctive response to one of their kind slaughtering others had already activated.
It could be called—self-defense assault!
A Chariot-class creature as massive as a skyscraper charged toward him. The "slow" and "low-speed" descriptions in its files were measured against Valkyries, against those superhumans who piloted Valkyrie mechs and maneuvered fighter jets at supersonic speeds.
In reality, it was faster than any heavy truck, rumbling toward him like a train.
In response,
"Third Strike is enough!"
Having made his judgment, Fang Jie crouched slightly, then leaped at the instant he collided with the Honkai Beast. He was slammed in midair, which looked extremely unfavorable.
Even though his hand blade shattered the Honkai Beast's shell and gave him a huge advantage.
How long was his arm, after all?
Compared to that, the damage he dealt was roughly equivalent to stabbing a human with a toothpick. And aside from the core inside its body, the Honkai Beast had no weak points. As long as it had enough Honkai energy, it could regenerate, and the areas Fang Jie damaged were continuously restoring themselves...
But he had already won.
Although he did not possess the power brought by the local Stigmata awakenings, nor Kevin's talent to kill Honkai Beasts with a baseball bat, Fang Jie—whose frontal combat capability against such a massive Honkai Beast was limited to ordinary humans, Death Troopers, Honkai Beasts under ten meters, excluding high-level Death Troopers—was not without a solution.
He was not relying on the "electric discharge" he had just gained. This was not electricity at all, but the most basic kind of physical enhancement, just like Path energy. Those sparks were merely special effects.
Just like the special effects to come.
Though his entire body had been struck, he had not been smashed into Fang Jie paste. Instead, the five fingers of his right hand, which had pierced through the Honkai Beast, spread open, treating the Honkai Beast's regenerating flesh as if it were no obstacle.
As if it were tofu.
What had happened?
He had actively relinquished his resistance. From the direction of his right hand, Honkai energy erosion instantly broke through the resistance Fang Jie had been maintaining all along. Or rather, he had actively dispersed the Path energy there. With the resolve to abandon his right hand, he activated his "superpower."
It was not leaping into a new world or banishing it to snowy plains for training, but the preparation stage—the step of absorbing energy to charge up.
Therefore, the Honkai Beast that should have defeated him in a second-dimensional fashion...
The Honkai Beast, which had been exerting all its strength to destroy him, suddenly froze. Even the limb it had raised to stomp him halted in midair. A terrifying devouring force swept through it in an instant. Honkai energy—no, every kind of energy in its body—was gathering toward one point...
"Crack, crack—!"
The strange sound of freezing was nearly inaudible. More noteworthy was the energy inside the Honkai Beast. Fang Jie, who had always resisted Honkai energy due to its corruptive nature, now carelessly drove his right hand into the creature's body, hard enough to withstand railgun fire, and began absorbing it.
The body transformed from Honkai energy, the silicon-based body capable of supporting such immense mass, the body with Honkai energy flowing through it—all of it distorted as a result.
"Crack, crack—!"
A body capable of easily tearing apart the earth, of resisting any military weapon lacking sufficient yield, so monstrous that Valkyries needed to burn their lives to defeat it—merely "touched" by a human hand, it gave off a sound like a dying, agonized wail. It warped irreversibly, bulging and collapsing in grotesque ways.
"Roar!!"
The Honkai Beast, enormous enough to inspire fear of colossal things, let out a shrill scream!
Yes, a scream.
It was in pain, so it was afraid. Even monsters were not without the ability to feel pain.
The Honkai energy that had filled every inch of its body was being rapidly plundered! Even its other energy was not spared! Even its body was collapsing inward!
All that immense energy was absorbed into Fang Jie's body. He seemed like a bottomless pit—no, his right hand seemed like a bottomless pit. Though he had dispersed his protection and crystalline patterns of even fiercer erosion spread the instant he touched Honkai energy, they stopped at his right hand, containing the massive Honkai energy. Not only the energy inside the Honkai Beast right before him, but even the energy permeating the air was absorbed.
Compared to pure, free Path energy—which, with the Trailblaze dead, could be absorbed freely without attracting an Aeon's gaze, easily filling his SP to open a new world while passively strengthening his body like rain nourishing the earth—contact with Honkai energy brought pain like burning fire, no different from bone-piercing cold at its most extreme.
Fang Jie had no intention of letting it spread through more of his body, erode him, or sacrifice anything beyond his right hand. In almost a single second, he drained the Honkai Beast dry.
That was only because his current smallest unit of time perception was usually a second.
And in exchange, the progress bar on the Kiana mascot icon in his mind advanced by such an insignificant amount that it was impossible to see, and it still had to be calculated together with the portion from the previous Great Eruption impact.
As the Honkai Beast lost its energy and could no longer even support its own weight, it crashed to the ground. Despite being mentally prepared, Fang Jie was still dazed for a moment.
It had gone smoothly, sure, but this efficiency... Just how much had he siphoned while holding the Domain Anchor...? Forget it. The Trailblaze had a vast fortune; how could it possibly not be enough to feed him?
Regaining his senses, Fang Jie felt as though his right hand were burning after coming into close contact with such massive Honkai energy. It felt like severe frostbite. Amid the pain, he simply cut off the blood flow and paralyzed that limb. The searing sensation remained, and even covering it with Path energy again could not soothe it.
That was why he had limited it to his right hand. If it had spread across his entire body... he probably would have been finished.
Fortunately, everything had gone smoothly. Fang Jie had been prepared to run if his right hand was not enough as a medium and the Honkai energy had to invade his brain... He would not absorb even a bit more.
After all, he was not sure where the energy he absorbed ultimately went. In any case, the passive energy reinforcement benefited his entire body.
Now, everything had gone well. Extremely well.
"What do you know, I have Honkai energy resistance too."
He looked at his right hand. Even after actively dispersing its energy protection, it had merely continued suffering erosion instead of disintegrating into ashes.
Being eroded was a minor issue. Even if it was irreversible, replacing it with a mechanical hand or regenerating it once would mean he had effectively not been injured. Pride surged through him. This was his true power.
"Whew—"
He extravagantly let out a long breath. It should have been waste air filled with heat from his body, yet it was exceedingly cold, emerging as white mist. That heat was absorbed the instant it left his body, and his breath turned into frost that fell to the ground.
Just special effects.
The key was energy absorption. After testing, the scope of this energy included, but was not limited to, kinetic energy, potential energy, chemical energy, internal energy, static energy, Path energy, and Honkai energy.
For Honkai lifeforms derived from Honkai energy, Honkai energy was the source of their life activities. Fang Jie's highly efficient method of plundering energy was like the "Soul-Absorbing Technique" from martial arts novels, sucking away someone's very life. It was even more brutal than the "Northern Darkness Divine Skill."
Once he touched them, even their originally indestructible bodies formed from Honkai energy became blocks of tofu, collapsing toward his right hand and becoming coated in a layer of icy white frost. Eventually, their bodies could no longer support their own weight and collapsed on their own, finally contracting into twisted shapes and rolling away, frozen in poses with both claws stretched desperately forward, as though trying to attack something—or flee from something.
From square to round, revealing the principle of stopping at the square and moving in circles!
Fang Jie shattered and shook off the frozen obstruction on his hand. He needed contact to activate his ability. It could be said that the contact surface was the killing surface, and this unavoidable freezing phenomenon instead hindered its performance. He could imagine that if he went all out and used his entire body as the contact surface, he might freeze himself into an ice block instead.
"So the primary goal should be killing, not energy absorption. That should be a means. Let's give it a name—Divine Grace... Forget it. Honkai Killer."
It truly was a Honkai Killer. Once it made contact, it was difficult to escape, because Honkai energy attracted itself and flowed naturally, just as heat naturally gathered in colder places. It was fundamentally drawn together through the phenomenon known as "entropy increase."
The core of the law of entropy increase was that heat always flowed from high-temperature objects to low-temperature objects. This process was irreversible, causing the total disorder of the system to increase.
Therefore, Fang Jie's right-hand medium, once it began absorbing energy, became the point of greatest entropy increase and the singularity from which Honkai energy could not escape, even if it was limited by the act and range of contact.
For Honkai Beasts incapable of controlling the energy in their bodies, Fang Jie only needed to touch them and absorb energy. He could easily plunder all their Honkai energy, as well as kinetic energy, potential energy, chemical energy, internal energy, static energy, and more, until they became wreckage.
Fang Jie withdrew his gaze from "evaluating" the effect of his ability on "living creatures" and continued looking around.
There were still enemies.
It did not matter. If he could beat them, he would kill them. If he could not, he would finish them instantly. If neither worked, he would run.
Lightning erupted from his legs again. This too was a special effect. Beneath those special effects, his speed and strength instantly rose to their limits—or rather, the opposite. He charged toward the Honkai monsters, toward stronger Honkai Beasts.
"Back off, or die!"
Their response was equally resolute. Not one of them was a coward who fled.
Until—
"An alien?!"
A joyous, disbelieving shout came riding on the wind.
This Was No Ordinary Herrscher Anymore, Prepare the Honkai Fission Bomb
"Haha! It really is you! You're alive and well too!"
Kiana charged over with her teeth bared—or rather, with her arms flailing in excitement—throwing the formation of the team behind her into disarray.
Raiden Mei, and Bronya.
And the Honkai Beasts that had been chasing them all the way here.
"How about I die for you to see?"
He did not know what to say. But seeing Kiana so lively, even livelier than before, Fang Jie sincerely understood Dan Heng's feelings. This was on the same level as March 7th when she had not encountered a Stellaron Spirit.
He truly was not good at dealing with overly enthusiastic girls.
So he simply headed in Kiana's direction. Amid her noisy cries of "Aah, aah, aah, don't come over here, run!" he charged toward the Honkai Beasts—massive Honkai Beasts that Raiden Mei could not fight, Bronya was slacking against, and Kiana could not possibly defeat alone, leaving them no choice but to run.
—Honkai Killer!
Only then did Kiana finally fall silent. Having turned around to charge in as well, she stared blankly at the brutal scene alongside Raiden Mei, who silently retreated behind her, and Bronya.
"Idiot Kiana, who is he?"
Bronya initiated the conversation in an almost inorganic voice.
"You're the idiot, idiot Bronya!" Seeing that she was not needed, Kiana also sighed in relief and steadied her breathing. "This is Fang Jie, a chuunibyou I met before. He said he came from outside this world, that he was an alien, and that he had superpowers... Well, looks like the superpowers part was true."
If being able to fight counted as a superpower, everyone here was a superpowered person.
Bronya had no objection to that. But an alien, from outside the world...
Mm. It suited telling stories to this white-haired idiot, Kiana.
After slaughtering the pursuing Honkai Beasts, Fang Jie returned. He did not come too close, stopping with Kiana between them.
"When a story ends, we always think back to how it began, as though everything has returned to before."
"Huh?"
Kiana did not understand why he was saying that now.
"What I mean is, it looks like you need help." Fang Jie said no more and took the lead. "Come on. I'll escort you out of Chang Kong City."
"Okay, okay! Let's all escape together."
Before you continue