The engine of the hovering sports car let out a desperate wail as it swerved left and right through the narrow, dilapidated alleys of the old district like a headless fly.
The body was covered in alarming scratches and dents, the result of being grazed by the shockwaves of Mercenary Tao's casually unleashed blades of air. The onboard alarm wailed without pause, and red failure warnings flashed frantically across the screen.
"Warning! Power system damaged by 37%!"
"Warning! Right rear stabilizer wing disabled!"
"Warning! High-energy reaction rapidly approaching!"
Lin Fan's face was pale as he gripped the steering wheel tightly, his knuckles white with strain.
He pushed the Wind Control Art almost to its limit—not to fly, but to predict the trajectory of the next attack from the deathly specter behind him!
His divine sense was draining at an unprecedented rate. His temples throbbed, and waves of needle-sharp pain kept stabbing through him.
He had already lost count of how many shoddily made Illusion Talismans and Trap Talismans he had thrown out.
Those little tricks, imbued with his meager True Qi and divine sense, were like soap bubbles in the sunlight before Mercenary Tao's overwhelming power. They burst at the slightest touch, at most making that white figure of death pause for a fraction of a second or drawing an even more impatient scoff from him.
The gap in their strength was simply too great!
It was a despairing chasm, impossible to cross!
"Dead end ahead! Dead end ahead!"
The car's onboard assistant issued its cold warning.
Lin Fan jerked his head up, his heart nearly skipping a beat!
The car was racing toward a dead-end alley blocked by enormous abandoned pipes and collapsed buildings!
On either side stood towering, smooth metal walls. There was nowhere to escape!
"Turn around! Turn around, quick!"
Lin Fan shouted.
Screech—!
Another concentrated blade of air swept over the car's roof like the scythe of the Reaper, slicing through the crisscrossing pipes overhead in one clean stroke!
Burning wires and leaking fluids rained down, pounding against the roof!
The sports car braked hard and drifted, its tires shrieking and spewing thick smoke as they scraped across the filthy ground. It stopped just short of the rubble, skidding sideways across the middle of the road.
It was over!
As the thought flashed through Lin Fan's mind, a muffled thud came from the roof!
It sounded as if something incredibly heavy had landed on it.
The entire roof buckled downward at once, bending into a terrifying arc!
The bulletproof windows groaned under the strain, cracks spreading across them like a spiderweb!
Lin Fan jerked his head up. Through the cracked window, he met a pair of cold, indifferent eyes, devoid of any human emotion.
Mercenary Tao stood on one foot atop the car, gazing down at him with his head slightly lowered, as if Lin Fan were an insect pinned to a specimen board.
"Insects are insects."
"No matter how much they struggle, they can't change their fate of being crushed."
His voice carried clearly through the metal and glass, calm as a death sentence.
Inside the car, red warning lights flashed frantically, casting a look of utter despair over Lin Fan's bloodless face.
There was no escape!
Lin Fan gritted his teeth, a flash of resolve in his eyes!
He kicked open the car door and sprang out like a leopard, forming hand seals in front of himself as fast as he could!
All the perfected-stage Qi Refining True Qi in his body surged out without reserve!
At the same time, he pulled out the several alloy plates he had swiped from Bulma's lab, etched with basic defensive runes, along with the few barely usable "Diamond Talismans" left over from failed experiments, and flung them forward as if they cost nothing!
"True Qi Shield!"
"Diamond Talismans! Activate!"
"Defend!"
He rasped the words as he layered every defensive measure he had in an instant!
A nearly transparent, distorted barrier of highly condensed True Qi appeared right in front of him!
The alloy plates and talismans also lit with dim glimmers, forming two or three thin layers of light behind the True Qi Shield!
This was the strongest defense he could muster right now! He was exerting even more effort than he had when blocking Tien Shinhan's Tri-Beam!
Yet Mercenary Tao, standing atop the car, watched his desperate struggle without even the slightest hint of mockery on his face.
He merely raised his right hand and pointed his index finger straight down at Lin Fan, who had just managed to steady himself.
A point of intensely condensed white light, radiating an aura of destruction, suddenly blazed at his fingertip!
The light wasn't dazzling, but it carried a sense of extreme danger that made the air around it stiffen and tremble!
"Dodon Ray."
Mercenary Tao uttered the three words calmly.
Whoosh—!!!
A beam of white energy, concentrated to the extreme, burst from his fingertip like the Reaper's finger!
It made no sound, yet moved faster than the eye could follow!
Space seemed to be pierced and distorted wherever it passed!
Lin Fan's pupils contracted!
In his perception, the beam seemed to become the only thing in the heavens and earth, carrying an irresistible will of death!
The next moment!
Pfft—!
The seemingly sturdy True Qi Shield was pierced through effortlessly in an instant by the Dodon Ray, concentrated to the extreme, as though it were butter beneath a hot knife!
It didn't even hold it back for a tenth of a second!
Then! The few dimly glowing Diamond Talismans and the flimsy layers of light formed by the alloy plates vanished without a sound the moment the white beam touched them, evaporating like paper!
The Dodon Ray didn't slow down in the slightest, nor did it lose any of its power. It continued toward Lin Fan's chest with cold precision!
"Ugh!"
Lin Fan managed only a brief, pained groan!
He hadn't even seen what happened. He only felt an indescribably sharp and terrifying force pierce straight through his body!
It was like being stabbed through by a red-hot iron!
Every defense he had layered in front of himself was useless against the ultimate technique of the world's greatest assassin!
Bang!
Lin Fan's body flew backward as if he'd been struck head-on by a speeding train, slamming into the abandoned pipes and the rubble of reinforced concrete blocking the road behind him!
The heavy impact made one's teeth ache!
Pfft—!
A mouthful of scalding blood burst uncontrollably from his mouth, tracing a startling red arc through the air. A horrifying, charred hole gaped in his chest. The clothes and flesh around its edges had been instantly carbonized, giving off an eerie wisp of smoke.
Pain surged over him like a tide, swallowing all his awareness!
His vision went black, countless stars burst before his eyes, and his ears rang. It felt as though the world were drifting away from him.
The strength drained from his body like the receding tide. Even lifting a single finger became an enormous struggle.
Through his blurred consciousness, he saw Mercenary Tao lightly descend from the wrecked car and walk slowly toward him, his pace unhurried.
Those cold eyes remained utterly emotionless, as if he had merely come to complete an insignificant bit of cleanup.
Was he... going to die?
Lin Fan's consciousness rose and sank in an abyss of pain and icy despair.
An unprecedented sense of helplessness gripped his heart.
So this was... the absolute difference in strength...
Mercenary Tao stopped several meters in front of him and tilted his head slightly as he looked at Lin Fan, who lay in the rubble with a hole through his chest and barely half a breath left, seemingly checking the result.
Then he slowly raised his finger again.
At its tip, that despairing white light began to gather once more.
A finishing blow.
The world's greatest assassin never gave his targets the slightest chance of surviving.
The shadow of death swallowed Lin Fan completely.
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