Elder Withered Bone

The voice sounded like two rotten, withered bones grinding together, carrying a chill that pierced the soul. Ignoring the distance through space, it exploded directly beside Fang Gang's ear:

"Young one... you destroyed the foundation of my holy cult... killed my priest..."

"Your flesh and blood... your divine soul... will do nicely... to fill the gap..."

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

A decayed, ice-cold pressure far surpassing that of the Blood Sacrifice Priest crashed down like an invisible iceberg!

His surging blood and qi instantly froze. It felt as though an invisible, icy hand had seized his heart in a death grip, making even breathing exceptionally difficult!

Veins bulged across Fang Gang's bald head as he bit through his tongue. The searing pain and taste of blood forcibly stimulated his nerves!

His vast blood and qi roared madly through his meridians like an enraged dragon!

The Dragon Elephant Particles trembled violently, radiating a mighty power that suppressed the pressure bearing down on him!

"Break!"

A deep roar burst from Fang Gang's throat!

Golden-red blood and qi, mixed with a dark golden glow, erupted with a bang. It forcibly spread a distorted force field around him, temporarily driving that soul-freezing pressure back three feet!

He suddenly looked up, his gaze like lightning as it pierced through layer upon layer of spatial barriers and locked onto the direction from which the pressure came—the distant horizon, where dark crimson clouds churned like congealed blood!

Deep within the clouds, two ghostly green lights lit up like will-o'-wisps, looking down upon him without the slightest trace of emotion.

A hunched, gaunt, blurry figure seemed to be formed from countless assembled bones, appearing and vanishing within the dark crimson clouds.

In its hand was a strange mourning staff forged from an entire twisted spinal column, with a deathly pale skull embedded at its tip!

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

"Ant... your struggle... ends here." The bone-grinding voice sounded again, carrying the indifference of one looking down upon dust.

He could not even be bothered to descend in person. From an immense distance away, he merely raised the Myriad Bone Wailing Staff in his hand!

Woooo—!!!

Ghostly green flames suddenly flared within the skull's hollow eye sockets!

An intangible mental assault containing the ultimate laws of decay, decline, and withering became like countless invisible ice spikes. Ignoring physical distance, it instantly pierced Fang Gang's sea of consciousness!

This time, it was no longer mere oppressive force, but a spiritual erasure containing the power of laws!

At the center of Fang Gang's sea of consciousness, the Heart Like Glazed Glass mirror, solid as crystal, instantly shone brilliantly!

But that decaying mental assault was too terrifying. Like maggots clinging to bone, it carried a deathly will capable of wearing away all things as it slammed viciously against the heart mirror!

"Buzz—!"

The heart mirror trembled violently, its clear glazed radiance flickering like a dying candle in the wind!

Fine cracks instantly spread across its surface!

An indescribable sense of icy decay and despair at the end of all things crazily battered Fang Gang's will!

It seemed determined to drag him into eternal slumber and turn him into withered bones!

Warning! Under SS+-rank mental law attack: Decay and Withering!

Heart Like Glazed Glass state fluctuating violently! Mental defense rapidly declining!

Law-level erosion detected... will origin under assault...

The system's blood-red warnings flashed madly!

"You old bag of bones!"

Fang Gang's eyes glowed crimson gold, and blood even seeped from the corners of his eyes under the immense mental pressure!

He roared unyieldingly in his heart, You think you can erase me from this far away? Dream on!

At the brink of life and death!

The Dragon Elephant Particles within him let out an overloaded roar!

The Nine Yang True Fire, along with the vast life force suppressed to its limit by the law of decay, erupted like a spring compressed to the extreme under the guidance of the last trace of insight and tenacious will remaining after the hundredfold mental enhancement had completely faded!

Boom!!!

An unprecedented torrent of blood and qi, carrying the desperate resolve to stake everything on one throw, mixed with the Dragon Elephant's true intent of pulverization and the Nine Yang power to burn away all evil. It exploded outward with Fang Gang at its center!

For a brief moment, it scattered part of the decaying pressure suppressing his physical body!

At the same time, he poured every last bit of power he had to resist the mental erosion into the heart mirror!

"Condense for me—!!!"

Within his sea of consciousness, the heart mirror on the verge of shattering burst forth with one final dazzling radiance!

The gray patterns representing the laws of decay and withering were forcibly driven back and burned away from its surface!

Though the heart mirror had shrunk by a full circle, its light became more condensed and purer!

Like an immortal glazed heart tempered in utter despair!

Fang Gang suddenly spat out a mouthful of black blood mixed with fragments of his organs. His body swayed violently, while his sea of consciousness felt as though it were being churned by countless steel needles, the pain nearly splitting his head apart!

But he held on through sheer force of will! The heart mirror had not shattered! His will had not been extinguished!

"Hm?" From within the distant dark crimson clouds, the skeletal figure released an extremely faint ripple of surprise.

It seemed not to have expected that a mere junior in the Marrow Cleansing Realm could withstand its spiritual erasure containing the power of laws!

In that instant of surprise from Elder Withered Bone!

A savage light burst from Fang Gang's eyes! This was exactly the moment he had been waiting for!

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

Ignoring the agonizing pain in his sea of consciousness and the grievous injuries to his internal organs, he poured every ounce of power he could muster—his remaining blood and qi, the residual strength of the Dragon Elephant Particles, even the mental will that had been tempered into greater solidity while resisting the law of decay—into his right fist!

No longer was there merely the phantom of a dragon claw around his fist. Instead, a more solid, more majestic ferocious dragon head seemed to have condensed from dark golden molten rock!

The dragon head opened its huge maw in fury. A domineering dragon roar carrying the will to shatter the void and tear apart laws erupted together with golden-red true fire compressed to the limit!

His target was not Elder Withered Bone's true body in the distance, but the ground beneath his feet, polluted by the Blood Sacrifice Domain and shrouded in decaying pressure!

Boom—!!!!

The dark golden dragon-head fist force roared as though it could tear apart everything, smashing viciously into the "mirror" beneath his feet!

Crack! Rumble—!!!

An explosion even more terrifying than any previous collision erupted!

The earth crazily shattered and collapsed like a fragile eggshell!

A gigantic black hole more than a hundred meters across and bottomless in depth instantly formed!

Violent energy currents, shattered fragments of laws, and torn spatial turbulence blended together into a destructive energy storm that shot into the sky with the black hole at its center!

It instantly disrupted the spatial lock Elder Withered Bone's will had placed over this area!

"You seek death!" Elder Withered Bone's bone-grinding voice carried clear fury for the first time!

He had clearly not expected Fang Gang to be so insane, daring to break the deadlock in such a manner!

Though that chaotic energy storm shooting into the sky could not harm his true body, it was enough to temporarily interfere with his long-range lock and attack!

The instant the chaotic storm rose into the sky and briefly blocked his line of sight!

Fang Gang did not hesitate. He stomped down fiercely! The two-million-jin force he had long been holding in reserve erupted!

The already shattered ground beneath his feet exploded into a massive crater!

His body shot out like a cannonball—no, faster than a cannonball!

He turned into a dark golden streak that tore through the air, madly shooting in the direction completely opposite to Elder Withered Bone!

He moved so fast that a lingering afterimage remained in place!

Against such a terrifying existence beyond comprehension, a direct confrontation meant certain death!

He needed time!

Time to digest the insights he had gained in that desperate situation, as well as that trace of newly tempered strength!

"Trying to run?" From the dark crimson clouds, Elder Withered Bone's voice was icy to the bone, filled with the fury of having been toyed with by an ant. The Myriad Bone Wailing Staff in his hand struck down heavily!

The space several hundred meters ahead of Fang Gang twisted violently like water!

A gigantic skeletal claw condensed from stark white bones and wrapped in dense, decaying death energy appeared out of thin air, ignoring the distance through space!

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

Before the claw even arrived, the power of laws that froze souls and decayed all things had already descended!

Fang Gang felt his speed abruptly slow, as if he had fallen into an invisible swamp!

"Get lost!" Fang Gang roared, his eyes splitting wide!

His fleeing body forcibly twisted around. Residual power gathered in his right fist once more, and the phantom of a dark golden dragon head reappeared as he fearlessly punched toward the massive skeletal claw!

Boom—!!!

The dark golden fist force slammed viciously into the massive skeletal claw!

Crack! Spurt!

The violent fist force blasted away nearly half of the skeletal claw! But its remaining power still struck Fang Gang's hastily raised arms with crushing force!

It was as if Fang Gang had been struck by a meteor. The golden-red blood and qi barrier around his body instantly shattered!

A bone-cracking sound that made teeth ache came from both his arms!

Like a kite with its string cut, he spewed blood wildly and was sent flying. Rather than slowing, his speed increased as he turned into a streak of blood and vanished into the distant mountains and forests!

Only the incomplete skeletal claw slowly dissipating remained behind, along with the echo of Elder Withered Bone's incomparably cold will:

"Pointless struggle... your aura... has already been locked on..."

"When my true body descends... that will be the moment... you become withered bones..."