Elder Withered Bone

The sound was like two pieces of rotted, dry bones scraping together, carrying a soul-piercing chill that ignored distance and exploded directly in Fang Gang's ear:

"Junior... you destroyed my Holy Cult's foundation... killed my priests..."

"Your flesh and blood... your soul... will be perfect... to fill..."

The moment the voice sounded, Fang Gang's every hair stood on end!

A decaying pressure, far exceeding that of the Blood Sacrifice Priest, so cold it was extreme, like an invisible iceberg, crushed down with a roar!

The surging blood and qi around him instantly froze. His heart felt like it was clutched tightly by an unseen, icy hand, making even breathing incredibly difficult!

Veins bulged on his bald head. Fang Gang sharply bit his tongue. The intense pain mixed with the taste of blood, forcibly stimulating his nerves!

His surging blood and qi, like an enraged ancient dragon, roared madly through his meridians!

The Dragon Elephant particles vibrated violently, emitting a mighty power that suppressed his own being!

"Open!"

Fang Gang issued a deep, angry roar from his throat!

His golden-red blood and qi, mixed with a dark golden sheen, erupted explosively. It forcibly pushed open a distorted force field around his body, temporarily repelling the soul-freezing, terrifying pressure by three feet!

He abruptly raised his head, his gaze like lightning. It pierced through layers of spatial obstruction, locking onto the direction the pressure came from—far in the sky, a churning mass of dark red clouds, like solidified blood plasma!

Deep within the clouds, two points of faint green light, like will-o'-the-wisps, ignited, looking down at him without a hint of emotion.

A hunched, withered, indistinct figure, seemingly pieced together from countless white bones, flickered in and out of view within the dark red clouds.

In his hand, he propped a bizarre wailing staff, forged from a single, twisted spinal bone and capped with a pale skull at its tip!

Elder Withered Bone! The true elder-level existence of the Nightmare Holy Cult! His strength far surpassed S-class!

"Ant... your struggles... end here." The bone-scraping voice sounded again, carrying a detached indifference of looking down upon dust.

He didn't even deign to descend personally, merely raising the Myriad Bone Wailing Staff held in his hand from a vast distance!

Woooo—!!!

From the skull's hollow eye sockets, the faint green ghost-fire surged violently!

An intangible, formless, yet containing the ultimate rules of decay, decline, and withering, a spiritual impact, like trillions of invisible ice picks, ignored physical distance and instantly pierced into Fang Gang's sea of consciousness!

This time, it wasn't merely a pressure of power, but a spiritual erasure containing the force of rules!

At the center of Fang Gang's sea of consciousness, the Heart Mirror, as firm as glazed glass, instantly blazed with light!

But the spiritual impact of decay and withering was too terrifying. Like a maggot clinging to bone, carrying a deathly still will that wore down all things, it fiercely struck the Heart Mirror!

"Buzz—!"

The Heart Mirror vibrated violently. Its clear, glazed radiance flickered like a candle in the wind!

Fine cracks instantly spread across its surface!

An indescribable cold, decaying, and all-ending despair surged madly against Fang Gang's will!

It was as if it wanted to drag him into eternal slumber, to turn him into withered bone!

[Warning! SS+ Level Spiritual Rule Attack Received: Decay and Withering!]

[Heart Like Glazed Glass Status Fluctuating Wildly! Mental Defense Rapidly Decreasing!]

[Detecting Rule-Level Erosion... Willpower Source Under Impact...]

The system's blood-red alarms flashed frantically!

"Old bone!"

Fang Gang's eyes blazed golden-red. The corners of his eyes even cracked, spilling blood from the immense mental pressure!

He let out a defiant roar in his heart, "You want to erase me from this far away? Dream on!"

At the critical juncture of life and death!

The Dragon Elephant particles within his body roared, unable to bear the strain!

The Nine Yang True Fire, and the boundless vitality that had been suppressed to its limit by the rule of decay, guided by the sliver of insight and tenacious will remaining after the hundredfold mental amplification had completely faded, erupted like a spring compressed to its absolute limit!

BOOM!!!

A surge of blood and qi, unprecedented and carrying a desperate will of burning bridges behind him, mixed with the Dragon Elephant's shattering true intent and the Nine Yang's power to incinerate all evil, exploded outwards from him!

It actually managed to temporarily disperse some of the physical suppression from the decaying pressure!

At the same time, he poured all his remaining strength, all his power to resist the spiritual erosion, into the Heart Mirror!

"Condense for me—!!!"

In his sea of consciousness, the Heart Mirror, on the verge of shattering, unleashed its final, brilliant radiance!

On its surface, the gray patterns representing the rules of decay and withering were forcibly repelled and scorched!

Although the Heart Mirror's volume shrunk by a third, its light became more condensed, more pure!

It was like an indestructible glazed heart, tempered in desperation!

Fang Gang spat out a mouthful of black blood containing fragments of internal organs, his body swaying violently, his sea of consciousness feeling like it was being churned by countless steel needles, splitting with pain!

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But he endured it! The mirror of his mind did not shatter! His will did not break!

"Eh?" From the distant sky, within the dark red clouds, the withered bone figure emitted a very faint fluctuation, carrying a hint of surprise.

It seemed it hadn't expected a junior in the Marrow Cleansing Realm to withstand its mental erasure imbued with the power of rules!

During this moment of surprise from Elder Withered Bone!

Fang Gang's eyes erupted with fierce light! He had been waiting for this very moment!

"World Shaking Dragon Fist — Dragon Roars Through Nine Heavens!"

Ignoring the searing pain in his sea of consciousness, ignoring the internal injuries, he poured all the power he could muster within his body—his remaining blood and qi, the leftover strength from the Dragon Elephant particles, even the mental will that had been refined and condensed even further by resisting the power of decay—all into his right fist!

Above his fist, the phantom of a dragon claw was no longer visible. Instead, a more solid, more majestic, ferocious dragon head, as if condensed from molten dark gold lava, had formed!

The dragon head opened its massive maw, and a domineering dragon's roar, imbued with the will to shatter space and tear apart rules, erupted along with compressed golden-red true fire, blasting outwards!

The target was not the distant body of Elder Withered Bone, but the very ground beneath his feet, which had been contaminated by the Blood Sacrifice Domain and shrouded in the oppressive aura of decay!

BOOM—!!!!

The dark gold dragon-head fist aura, with a roar that tore through everything, slammed fiercely onto the "mirror surface" beneath his feet!

CRACK! RUMBLE-RUMBLE!!!

A deafening roar, more terrifying than any previous collision, erupted!

The ground crazily cracked and collapsed like fragile eggshells!

A massive, bottomless black hole with a diameter exceeding a hundred meters instantly formed!

Furious torrents of energy mixed with shattered rule fragments and spatial distortions created a destructive energy storm that surged skyward from the center of the black hole! It instantly disrupted the space in this area, which had been locked onto by Elder Withered Bone's will!

"You court death!" Elder Withered Bone's voice, like the grinding of dry bones, carried a clear trace of anger for the first time!

Clearly, it hadn't anticipated Fang Gang's recklessness, daring to break free in such a manner!

Although the chaotic energy storm surging skyward was incapable of harming its true form, it was enough to temporarily interfere with its long-range targeting and attacks!

Taking advantage of the moment when the chaotic storm surged upwards, briefly obscuring its vision!

Fang Gang didn't hesitate, stomping his foot fiercely! The two million jin of force he had been accumulating erupted!

The already cracked ground beneath him exploded into a large pit!

His figure shot out like a cannonball, no, faster than a cannonball!

Transforming into a stream of dark gold light that tore through the air, he madly streaked towards the direction completely opposite to Elder Withered Bone's location!

His speed was so great that it left behind a lingering afterimage in his wake!

Facing such a terrifying existence that surpassed comprehension, a direct confrontation was a dead end!

He needed time!

He needed to digest the insights he had gained in that desperate situation and that sliver of refined power!

"Trying to escape?" Within the dark red clouds, Elder Withered Bone's voice was chillingly cold, filled with the rage of being toyed with by an ant. It heavily stomped its Myriad Bone Wailing Staff!

The space hundreds of meters in front of Fang Gang distorted violently like the surface of water!

A massive bone claw, condensed from eerie white bones and entwined with dense, decaying death energy, appeared out of nowhere, ignoring the spatial distance!

Carrying the terrifying might to crush stars, it fiercely clawed down towards Fang Gang's fleeing figure!

Before the bone claw even arrived, the soul-freezing, all-corrupting power of rules had already descended!

Fang Gang felt his speed suddenly slow, as if he had plunged into an invisible quagmire!

"Get lost!" Fang Gang's eyes split, his roar shaking the heavens!

His fleeing figure forcibly twisted, and his right fist once again condensed his remaining strength. The phantom of the dark gold dragon head reappeared, and he ferociously smashed it towards the massive bone claw that was grabbing at him!

BOOM—!!!

The dark gold fist aura fiercely collided with the massive bone claw!

CRACK! PUH!

The massive bone claw was pulverized by more than half by the violent fist aura! But the remaining force still struck Fang Gang's hastily raised arms fiercely!

Fang Gang felt as if he had been hit by a meteorite. The golden-red qi and blood protective aura shattered instantly!

A sickening bone-cracking sound echoed from his arms!

His entire body was like a kite with its strings cut, spewing blood from his mouth. He was sent flying violently, his speed increasing instead of decreasing, transforming into a streak of blood that instantly disappeared into the distant mountain forest!

Only the incomplete bone claw remained where he had been, slowly dissipating, along with Elder Withered Bone's chillingly cold, ultimate will echoing:

"A dying struggle... Your aura... has been locked..."

"When my true form descends... it will be the time you... turn to withered bone..."