Facing the Emperor Unbowed, You Shall Be Mutilated

"Careful, this godforsaken place is absorbing mental energy. Keep your consciousness sealed," Mother said, her brow furrowed.

Everyone present simultaneously felt as if whirlpools had manifested around them, drawing the mental energy from within their bodies and surging it into the void. They immediately erected their defenses.

At the same time, a violent surge of mental energy poured into Li Fan from all directions. The intense impact instantly made his head swell, and blood began to drip from his nose.

The sensation was akin to eating three giant bowls of ginseng and deer antler as a meal, followed by dry-chewing seventeen or eighteen sea cucumbers and two boxes of fur seal pills.

"Sir, are you alright?" Auntie Zhang exclaimed, her face etched with worry.

The surrounding members of the Cleaning Association all wore expressions of shock.

In all these years, they had never seen the Collector injured.

Clearly, the enemy's attack was concentrated on the Collector; the invisible pressure he was enduring was likely several, if not dozens of times greater than theirs!

Huo Lei also noticed Li Fan's anomaly and laughed wildly:

"So much for the Collector. You're nothing special. There's no need for King Dian Li to awaken; the Tiger Pillar God alone is enough to wipe you all out."

At this moment, the capillaries on Li Fan's forehead and cheeks ruptured, blood seeping from every pore. Even his teeth began to sharpen, and a ghostly light flickered in his eyes. His entire appearance had undergone a drastic transformation.

He shook his head to signal he was fine.

Right now, he needed to vent!

With his muscles rippling, Li Fan took a long stride, leaving behind an afterimage as he instantly charged toward the giant Tai Sui body controlled by Huo Lei!

Huo Lei gave a sinister grin, and dozens of arms sprouted from the massive Tai Sui body, reaching out to grab Li Fan.

Meanwhile, the skeletons and mangled corpses hanging in the forest of flesh trembled and writhed, spurred by the vines connected to the trees, and lunged at the rest of the Cleaning Association.

Li Fan suppressed the urge to tear into them with his teeth and dove straight into the forest of the Tai Sui's arms.

His long, sharp claws slashed down viciously, severing a dozen of the Tai Sui's arms at the root!

Huo Lei's eyes widened; he clearly hadn't expected the Collector's melee combat prowess to be so formidable. The massive Tai Sui body lashed out, raising its thick tail high and swinging a barrage of arms toward Li Fan.

"Boom!" With a dull thud, Li Fan was pinned underneath.

But a moment later, Huo Lei's expression shifted, and he frantically whipped his tail back and forth again.

Li Fan had already ripped a massive hole in the Tai Sui's body and burrowed inside, tearing away relentlessly and pulling out the fused corpses one by one!

Even the severed limbs and fragments were tossed into the air!

The members of the Cleaning Association watched this scene, dumbfounded.

"Is he not using his armaments?" Old Sun said, dodging an attack from a mangled corpse that had already sprouted roots, pinning it firmly to the ground.

"I brought some gear for him, but it's all here..." Mother puffed out a cloud of smoke, instantly shattering the head of a corpse, her expression grave as she lifted a small black suitcase.

This was the Collector's simple combat kit; a case like this could hold about ten heads.

The surrounding members of the Cleaning Association were equally shocked.

As the Collector's subordinates, they had witnessed his combat before.

Back then, he had used those shriveled heads as weapons, unleashing terrifying power that made one's blood run cold.

But that was when he was armed.

Yet now, the Collector was tearing that massive Tai Sui to pieces with his bare hands!

"It's not as efficient as when he has his weapons, but to achieve this level with his bare hands... his strength has truly grown even greater," Auntie Zhang murmured.

Father opened his massive maw, swallowed several frenzied corpses, chewed them into pulp, and spat them out:

"...Tastes terrible. We need to step it up, too. We absolutely cannot become a burden to him, otherwise..."

The four of them shivered in unison, then erupted into a frenzy of combat.

They had to keep pace with the Collector!

"Tiger Pillar God, awaken!" Seeing that a quarter of the Tai Sui's divine body had been dismantled by the Collector, Huo Lei roared, once again channeling mental energy to sacrifice to the Tiger Pillar God.

Yet the more he sacrificed, the more insane the Collector became.

Seeing that the Tiger Pillar God remained completely motionless, Huo Lei finally realized that the powerful anomaly might not be nearby.

Li Fan now looked like a wild beast, his hook-like claws rapidly tearing through the corpses that made up the Tai Sui.

The memory of watching Liu Dalong dissect a Tai Sui was as clear as if it were etched into his mind, allowing his movements to be incredibly precise and swift, cutting along the seams to avoid damaging the corpses.

The surrounding corpses suddenly opened their eyes, waving their arms to grab at Li Fan while laughing in unison:

"Collector! Since you love entering my body so much, then become a part of me!"

As they spoke, the corpses began to secrete a viscous, highly corrosive liquid that surged toward Li Fan.

"Sizzle..." Li Fan's claws pierced into the liquid, and a violent corrosive sound erupted, melting several of his fingernails away.

Li Fan snorted, let out a roar, and exhaled a stream of blue mental flames, instantly evaporating the liquid and burning a massive hole through the Tai Sui's interior!

In the blink of an eye, the Tai Sui's massive body had crawled beneath the Bronze Hanging Coffin. Its once-colossal form had been dismantled by Li Fan until less than a tenth remained.

Various mangled or intact corpses lay scattered around the underground palace, forming a Fibonacci sequence.

The remnants of the Tai Sui body violently shook Li Fan off, using its dozen limbs to scramble up the Bronze Hanging Coffin, where it looked down at Li Fan and grinned hideously:

"Collector, I admit you are no mere fraud, but you are nothing more than a brute with power and no brain. Thank you for helping me sacrifice the Amalgam; now that all conditions have been met, welcome to the true terror of the awakening."

Li Fan narrowed his eyes, vaulted into the air, and lunged toward Huo Lei atop the Bronze Hanging Coffin.

Huo Lei laughed maniacally, his tattered Tai Sui body gripping the lid of the Bronze Hanging Coffin and ripping it open with a violent heave.

A frantic, cruel aura surged forth from the Bronze Hanging Coffin.

Mid-air, Li Fan saw that the coffin contained only a shattered skull and a pile of rotted clothing, yet they faintly formed a humanoid shape composed of psychic energy.

A pale corpse crawled out from the Tai Sui, slithered into the Bronze Hanging Coffin, and rapidly fused with the shattered skull!

The corpse's facial features melted like wax, transforming it into a Faceless One.

Violent psychic energy erupted from the scattered Tai Sui remains, merging with the increasingly dense anomalous psychic energy within the underground palace, and poured into the Bronze Hanging Coffin!

"Hum—"

A ripple of psychic energy, far more violent than before, whistled out in all directions!

The members of the Cleaning Association currently in battle all felt a sense of pressure and panic rising from the depths of their souls.

Li Fan was swept away by this invisible psychic energy, tumbling several times in the air before slamming into the ground.

The Tai Sui controlled by Huo Lei leaped down from the Bronze Hanging Coffin, landing and prostrating itself on the ground, the several faces exposed on its body wearing mocking grins:

"King from the Abyss of Time, King from the bloody legends, King from the fears of the foolish, awaken!"

Inside the Bronze Hanging Coffin, the pale Faceless One slowly sat up.

Turning its head to "look" in Li Fan's direction, the Faceless One raised a hand, its psychic energy surging as it "spoke":

"To face a monarch without kneeling is to invite the amputation of your feet."

No sooner had the words fallen than Li Fan felt a sharp, agonizing pain shoot through his knees; his legs instantly gave way, and he collapsed forward!