From the moment the Tiger Pillar God possessed him, Li Fan had felt an intense sense of panic.
He was terrified.
At first, Li Fan had assumed he was afraid of the Spider-Legged Monster, or that it was some manifestation of his fear of clustered things.
But now, having calmed down, he realized the fear wasn't coming from inside him.
It was coming from the Tiger Pillar God.
On closer examination, the Tiger Pillar God wasn't afraid of the Spider-Legged Monster, either.
He was afraid of Li Fan.
Li Fan felt both baffled and amused, but suddenly understood.
The Tiger Pillar God must have been afraid of him, the Lord of the Prison of Suppression.
He immediately comforted it through their shared consciousness:
"Afraid of what? Get out there and fight! If you can't even beat a mop, I'll twist your tiger head off when we get back!"
If I can't handle the Cleaning Association, I can still handle you, can't I?
Sure enough, after he reassured the Tiger Pillar God, Li Fan could clearly feel the panic intensify, then grudgingly ease.
Meanwhile, the power he received from the Tiger Pillar God grew stronger.
His body now seemed to brim with endless strength. Keratinized scales began to appear on both arms.
His teeth started growing longer and sharper.
His toenails likewise began to curl and sharpen.
His arms moved with a light flick, extending forward in sinuous twists as if they had no bones.
The snakes covering the Spider-Legged Monster let out a hiss. Suddenly, they burst out of its body, forming something like a huge bouquet, and charged at Li Fan!
The Spider-Legged Monster's hole-riddled body leaped up, too. Its spider legs, covered in sharp spines, descended, aiming to stab into Li Fan and tear him apart!
At the same time, Li Fan felt a strange mental force wrap around his body, making his muscles ache and giving him the sensation that he was melting.
But that was all.
He felt a tingling itch in his sciatic nerve. Then he suddenly spun in place like a top, and the tail-like mental projection extending from his back swept across the oncoming snakes.
Boom!
The snakes were left battered and torn, raining down across the surrounding ground.
A few managed to dodge the blow and pounced on Li Fan, but for the time being, they couldn't tear through the Tiger Pillar God's mental projection and burrow inside.
At the same time, Li Fan raised both arms. Two giant python-like mental projections shot out and clamped their jaws around the Spider-Legged Monster's falling body, stopping it in midair.
They yanked in opposite directions, and the Spider-Legged Monster's arms were torn right off. Its mangled body fell from the sky and crashed to the ground.
Li Fan felt his strength surge once more. The Spider-Legged Monster, which had seemed so terrifying before, now felt like it wasn't even in the same league as him.
So this was the Tiger Pillar God's true strength?
Li Fan nodded.
It had "God" in its name, after all. It should at least have something to show for it.
But why hadn't it used its strength sooner? It had left him, the Lord of the Prison of Suppression, in such a sorry state.
Scree! The Spider-Legged Monster's armless body hit the ground with a heavy thud and let out a shriek. Its severed arms scuttled across the ground toward it on their fingers.
In the blink of an eye, the arms reattached themselves to its body. The Spider-Legged Monster let out another strange cry, then scattered with the Human-Faced Snakes across the ground, trying to flee!
If they got away...
Li Fan furrowed his brows, growing a little angry.
Then he felt the Tiger Pillar God's deep fear again.
The next instant, a surge of its frenzied mental power burst forth. The python-like projections on Li Fan's arms broke free and swept across the ground, drawing two glowing circles of mental energy over an area dozens of meters wide.
Draw a Circle as a Prison!
The Human-Faced Snakes were all stopped by the rings of mental energy on the ground. They bounced off like ping-pong balls.
They turned around and burrowed back into the Spider-Legged Monster, once more forming its complete body.
The Spider-Legged Monster seemed to fly into a rage. The huge vertical crack in its chest sprang open, and a face crawled out from inside!
Its presence swelled!
The Human-Faced Snakes seemed to have taken some kind of tonic. They rapidly grew thicker, each becoming as wide as a goose egg. They were long and thick, writhing densely in the gloom.
The face that had emerged from the Spider-Legged Monster's chest was deathly pale and sinister. Bloody tears streamed from its eyes as it glared at Li Fan with venomous hatred.
It seemed that forcing its way out of the Spider-Legged Monster's chest had cost it a great deal of mental energy. It hardly seemed worth it.
The blood-teared face suddenly opened its mouth and shrieked, eyes bulging. The Spider-Legged Monster, now stronger, charged straight at Li Fan!
Li Fan flinched. Suddenly, without meaning to, he threw back his head and let out a tiger's roar.
The Spider-Legged Monster seemed to have enraged the Tiger Pillar God, and it was getting fired up!
Frenzied mental power surged out of Li Fan. Then came indistinct words, as though someone were whispering, along with solemn, dignified speech that he couldn't understand at all. It sounded like a sacred ritual was underway.
Li Fan rose onto his hind legs without meaning to and spread his arms toward the space ahead.
A massive phantom bronze pillar thrust up from the ground, along with chain after chain, blocking the Spider-Legged Monster as it leaped toward him. The chains writhed like living things, binding it fast.
Around the phantom bronze pillar, blurry figures appeared, kneeling with devout gestures.
The Spider-Legged Monster struggled desperately, but it couldn't break free. Even every Human-Faced Snake was tightly bound by slender chains.
Li Fan recognized it at once.
This was the kind of sacrificial scene the Tiger Pillar God had tried to create when they first met.
He hadn't expected it to be such a powerful attack.
This was something else. Mental projection attacks that looked like they'd come straight from a myth.
What should he do next?
As he wondered, the Tiger Pillar God's power surged into him again. Li Fan's whole body shuddered. He began taking strange steps, his entire body shaking as he walked toward the bound Spider-Legged Monster.
He chanted strange words.
With every step, his mental power grew stronger!
This was the Nuoyi Ritual of ancient shamans!
He thought wryly:
Two weaklings clashing, and we're acting like this is the real deal...
More than ten blocks away, just as the Spider-Legged Monster's second face appeared, Yang Gan was pedaling along on his bicycle when the Mental Radiation Detector suddenly began to beep.
He glanced down and nearly toppled over.
Snap. The right pedal broke off under his foot.
The bicycle came to an abrupt stop.
The reading on the Mental Radiation Detector had climbed above 800!
Yang Gan felt his breathing grow labored in an instant.
An anomalous mental energy reading over 800 was already enough to trigger a yellow alert!
And it was happening right in the city!
What the hell was that thing!?
They had to evacuate the public at once!
But before he could even think it through, the Mental Radiation Detector in his hand began beeping again. This time, it was much louder than before.
Yang Gan glanced down again, and the hairs on his body stood on end.
The screen showed the reading of a newly appeared anomalous mental entity.
2,000!
And it was still climbing!
What kind of being was this!?
(I've adjusted the mental energy reading. It was 6,000 before, which was a bit too ridiculous.)
Please vote, guys!
Before you continue