"Careful. This place is absorbing our mental energy. Seal off your consciousness," Mother said, frowning.
Everyone present felt as though whirlpools had appeared around them, sucking the mental energy from their bodies and drawing it into the void. They immediately put up their defenses.
At the same time, a torrent of mental energy surged into Li Fan from every direction beneath the ground. The fierce impact made his head swell in an instant, and blood began running from his nose.
It felt like eating three huge bowls of ginseng and deer antler for dinner, then chewing down seventeen or eighteen sea cucumbers and two boxes of aphrodisiac pills.
"Sir, are you all right?" Auntie Zhang cried, her face full of concern.
The other members of the Cleaning Association looked equally shocked.
In all these years, they had never seen the Collector get hurt.
Clearly, the attack had struck the Collector directly. The invisible assault he was taking might have been several times—or even dozens of times—stronger than theirs!
Huo Lei had also noticed that something was wrong with Li Fan. He laughed loudly.
"So much for the Collector. You're nothing special. The Tiger Pillar God alone is more than enough to wipe you all out. There's no need to wait for King Dian Li to revive."
By now, capillaries had burst across Li Fan's forehead and cheeks, and blood seeped from them. Even his teeth were beginning to sharpen. A ghostly light gleamed in his eyes as his appearance changed beyond recognition.
He shook his head to show that he was fine.
Right now, he needed to let it out!
His muscles rippling, Li Fan strode forward, leaving a blur behind as he charged at the giant Tai Sui body controlled by Huo Lei!
Huo Lei grinned savagely. Dozens of arms sprouted from the giant Tai Sui's body and reached for Li Fan.
At the same time, the bones and ruined corpses hanging in the bloody forest shuddered and writhed. Controlled by vines connected to the trees, they lunged at the other members of the Cleaning Association.
Li Fan fought back the urge to bite, then flung himself straight into the forest of Tai Sui's arms.
His long, clawed hands tore viciously, ripping more than a dozen arms clean off!
Huo Lei's eyes widened. He clearly hadn't expected the Collector to be so formidable in close combat. The massive Tai Sui body suddenly coiled, then swung its thick tail high into the air, bringing its many arms crashing down on Li Fan.
Thud! Li Fan was pinned underneath.
But Huo Lei's expression changed. He immediately raised the tail again and whipped it around wildly.
Li Fan had torn a huge hole in Tai Sui's body and burrowed inside. He kept ripping, pulling out corpse after corpse fused together within it!
Broken limbs and other body parts were flung into the air!
The members of the Cleaning Association gaped at the sight.
"Is he not using any weapons?" Old Sun asked, dodging an attack from a ruined corpse in front of him. Roots sprouted from the corpse the next instant, pinning it firmly to the ground.
"I brought him some equipment, but it's all in here..." Mother said gravely, exhaling a cloud of smoke that instantly blew a corpse's head apart. She lifted a small black suitcase.
These were the Collector's basic combat tools. A case like this could hold about ten heads.
The other members of the Cleaning Association looked just as shocked.
As the Collector's subordinates, they had seen him fight before.
Back then, he'd used those shriveled heads as weapons, unleashing such astonishing combat power that it chilled them to the bone.
But he'd had weapons in hand then.
Now, the Collector had torn apart that enormous Tai Sui with his bare hands!
"He's not as strong as when he has a weapon, but for him to do this with his bare hands... His strength really has grown," Auntie Zhang murmured.
Father opened his enormous mouth and swallowed several frenzied corpses whole. He crunched them to pieces in an instant, then spat them out with a violent heave.
"...They taste awful. We need to step it up too. We absolutely can't become a burden to him. Otherwise..."
The four of them shuddered in unison, then burst into action and fought with everything they had.
They had to keep up with the Collector!
"Tiger Pillar God, awaken!" Seeing that the Collector had torn away a quarter of Tai Sui's divine body, Huo Lei immediately shouted and once more offered up mental energy to the Tiger Pillar God.
But the more he sacrificed, the more frenzied the Collector became.
When the Tiger Pillar God showed no sign of stirring, Huo Lei finally understood: that powerful anomaly might not be nearby at all.
By now, Li Fan looked like a beast. His hooked claws rapidly tore apart the corpses that made up Tai Sui.
The scene he had once witnessed—Liu Dalong dissecting Tai Sui—was etched in his mind with perfect clarity. It made his movements precise and swift. He took care not to damage the corpses, cutting them free along the gaps between them.
The surrounding corpses suddenly opened their eyes. They reached for Li Fan with both arms and laughed in unison.
"Collector! Since you're so fond of entering my body, why not become a part of me?"
As they spoke, liquid began to seep from all the corpses at once. Thick, highly corrosive liquid surged toward Li Fan.
Sizzle... Li Fan's claws plunged into the liquid, and a violent sizzling sound rang out. Several of his nails were corroded away completely.
Li Fan snorted. He opened his mouth and roared, spewing a stream of blue mental-energy flames. The liquid evaporated at once, and the flames burned a huge hole through Tai Sui's body!
In the blink of an eye, Tai Sui's enormous body had crawled beneath the Bronze Hanging Coffin. Li Fan had torn it to pieces, leaving less than a tenth of its original mass.
Ruined and intact corpses alike were scattered throughout the underground palace, forming a Fibonacci sequence.
Tai Sui's battered body suddenly shook Li Fan off. Using more than a dozen limbs, it climbed onto the Bronze Hanging Coffin, then looked down at Li Fan and grinned savagely.
"Collector, I admit you're not all reputation and no substance. But you're still just a brute with strength and no brains. Thanks for helping me sacrifice the Amalgam. Now all the conditions have been met. Welcome to the true terror of the awakening."
Li Fan narrowed his eyes, leaped into the air, and lunged at Huo Lei on top of the Bronze Hanging Coffin.
Huo Lei laughed manically. Tai Sui's battered body grabbed the coffin lid and wrenched it open.
A frenzied, cruel presence surged out of the Bronze Hanging Coffin.
Midair, Li Fan saw that all it contained was a battered skull and a pile of rotten clothes. Yet together they seemed to form a human shape made of mental energy.
A ghastly white corpse emerged from Tai Sui, climbed into the Bronze Hanging Coffin, and swiftly fused with the battered skull!
The corpse's features melted like wax, leaving it Faceless.
A torrent of mental energy surged from the scattered remains of Tai Sui, merging with the increasingly dense anomalous mental energy in the underground palace before pouring into the Bronze Hanging Coffin!
Voom—
A ripple of mental energy, far more violent than before, howled out in every direction!
The members of the Cleaning Association, still fighting, all felt an oppression and terror rising from the depths of their hearts.
The invisible mental energy swept Li Fan away. He tumbled through the air several times before crashing down.
The Tai Sui controlled by Huo Lei leaped down from the Bronze Hanging Coffin. It landed and prostrated itself on the ground, a mocking smile appearing on its exposed faces.
"King from the Abyss of Time, king from the bloody legends, king feared by fools—awaken!"
Inside the Bronze Hanging Coffin, the ghastly white Faceless One slowly sat up.
Turning to "look" in Li Fan's direction, the Faceless One raised a hand and pointed. Its mental energy surged as it "spoke."
"Whoever stands before the king without kneeling deserves to have his legs amputated."
As soon as the words fell, a sharp pain shot through Li Fan's knees. His legs instantly gave way, and he pitched forward!
Before you continue