You Think You're So Tough? Show Me Again!

The Bronze Bull charged first, its enormous crimson eyes gleaming with the light of death.

Everyone believed this little thief was finished. He was as good as dead!

When the Bronze Bull's eyes lit up, it meant its instant-kill skill, Death Gaze, had activated. The next second, this little thief's soul would be utterly destroyed, leaving behind a soulless corpse... The guard captain had already closed his eyes, unable to bear watching any longer. Two grimoire contractors had died in White Stone City. White Stone City was destined to provoke a war, perhaps one that would leave the entire city awash in blood. The forces behind these two little thieves would never let this revenge go easily.

Especially since the strongest of them, that Level Four Hero, was a grimoire contractor from Butterfly Hundred-Flower Valley.

The guard captain truly could not imagine how much it had cost Butterfly Hundred-Flower Valley to nurture such a young Level Four Hero with a Silver Grimoire. If such a gifted warrior were killed, how could Butterfly Hundred-Flower Valley possibly let it rest?

Yet even knowing disaster was about to strike, the guard captain could not stop Wu Yi and Evil Fire from joining forces to kill these two extraordinary little thieves.

The forces behind Wu Yi and Evil Fire were equally enormous. Such matters were far beyond what a mere guard captain like him could afford to interfere with. He had originally hoped that the master of Golden Saber Tower, who had gone out with the White Stone City Lord, would hear the news and return in time to stop this disaster!

But now, it seemed everything was already too late...

"Ha ha ha ha!" Wu Yi's smug laughter rang out across the field, his sinister cackle like an owl's cry, leaving everyone deeply unsettled.

But three seconds later, his laughter stopped as abruptly as if cut by a blade.

If anyone had previously claimed that a Level Five Bronze Bull could not kill a little thief with Death Gaze, everyone would have thought that person insane! Yet now, the truth stood right before them. Yue Yang's body swayed, then immediately returned to normal. Every warrior who saw the outcome of the battle froze solid, their mouths hanging wide enough to fit a War Kodo Beast inside.

Even Yue Yang found this outcome somewhat unexpected.

His original plan for dealing with the Bronze Bull had been to use Phantom, a Life Guardian Beast that could never truly die, to block its gaze.

The instant the Bronze Bull activated Death Gaze, Yue Yang had already dodged away, leaving behind only a Phantom.

He had wanted to use that shadow to test the true power of Death Gaze.

Was it an instant kill?

Or was it ineffective?

In that one second, through the Phantom struck by Death Gaze, Yue Yang sensed something within that wondrous space of consciousness. An image, swift as lightning and unbelievably fast, emerged from the Bronze Bull's soul and lunged into his world of consciousness before vanishing in a flash. That grim reaper-like image seemed to be trying to capture the Phantom within his consciousness, but it grasped at empty air. It clearly had not noticed that Yue Yang was observing everything. After its attack missed, the grim reaper-like image swiftly disappeared into nothingness.

In that instant, Yue Yang perceived much profound and mysterious information, and his heart surged with the excitement of having seen through the truth.

He discovered that after this insight, his Keen Eye ability had mysteriously improved.

An impulse rose naturally from the depths of Yue Yang's soul: If I had used Binding Chain just now, perhaps I could have captured that "grim reaper image" instead.

What would happen if he captured that "grim reaper image"?

Yue Yang did not know yet, but he believed it would not be a bad thing. It was definitely worth trying!

Unfortunately, he had been too cautious just now and had not used Binding Chain on the grim reaper image that vanished in an instant.

Although he had missed his chance, Yue Yang was still inexplicably excited. After his Keen Eye improved, he could actually see several hidden abilities within Phantom itself. One of them was the ability to merge several shadows together and transform them into a Giant Shadow.

The Giant Shadow existed for an extremely short time, only one minute.

Each additional shadow stacked onto it could only extend that time by around thirty seconds. However, this short-lived Giant Shadow possessed astonishing strength, practically equal to a Titan Giant. When Yue Yang stacked five Phantoms together into a Giant Shadow, then used it to enhance himself, he was shocked to find that his strength had increased by at least a hundredfold.

Though the duration was less than three minutes, Yue Yang now had complete confidence in wrestling a Rock Golem head-on.

"Damn, is this how Ultraman transforms?" Yue Yang stretched out his hands, enhanced by the Giant Shadow, and gripped the Bronze Bull's sharp curved horns. Deep inside, Yue Yang could not help but unleash an incomparably ferocious roar: "ROAAAR!"

The sound crashed down like thunder, shaking heaven and earth and draining all color from everyone's faces.

The Bronze Bull, whose body was like a wall, was forcibly flipped onto the ground by Yue Yang's immense strength.

Since this was Yue Yang's first time using the Giant Shadow's power, he had used too much force and failed to find the proper point of leverage. One of the Bronze Bull's incomparably hard horns snapped in two with a crack. Yue Yang had not intended to flip the Bronze Bull over. He had meant to lift it up and smash its body into the Rock Golem. Unexpectedly, he failed to lift it and merely overturned the Bronze Bull, even accidentally breaking off its horn.

None of the onlookers knew this had happened because Yue Yang had misjudged his strength. Instead, they thought he had deliberately snapped the horn to display that terrifying power.

For a moment, every watching warrior was frightened out of their wits, their faces ashen.

"Heavens, is that even human strength?"

"I'm going to faint!"

"An illusion, this is an illusion! I refuse to believe it, I absolutely refuse to believe it... It's impossible, absolutely impossible!" Wu Yi refused to accept reality. He believed everything before him was an illusion, that this little thief had used a battle beast capable of hypnosis to confuse him.

An ordinary human could never possibly flip a Level Five Bronze Bull onto the ground.

Much less break off its horn. That was the hardest part of its body, more than ten times harder than steel. How could someone possibly snap it off with bare hands?

Besides, even if this little thief truly possessed such monstrous strength, he could not possibly have survived the Bronze Bull's Death Gaze. Unless he were a super expert far stronger than the Bronze Bull, a Level Six Grandmaster only a step away from the Innate Realm, an ordinary warrior could never withstand the Bronze Bull's Death Gaze, which ignored physical defenses and directly destroyed the soul... Could this little thief actually be a Level Six Grandmaster? Impossible! He was clearly only a Level One beginner apprentice!

If Wu Yi were to believe that this kid was a Level Six Grandmaster, he might as well believe his own father was a woman!

What happened next left the watching warriors going from petrified to weathered away.

They felt they might as well let a gust of wind scatter them into dust and die on the spot. This result was simply too impossible to accept... The Rock Golem, which had rushed menacingly toward the little thief, raised its huge fist, and prepared to smash him into meat paste, actually betrayed its master after he reached out and gently touched it!

The Rock Golem, which possessed neither intelligence nor thoughts, raised its massive fist and viciously pounded the Bronze Bull still lying on the ground.

After the little thief simply stretched out a hand, it became his summoned battle beast.

This... was utterly impossible!

Puppet-type war constructs would never betray their masters. That was their greatest defining trait. They had no intelligence, only combat instincts, so they did not even understand what betrayal was. Once contracted, they would submit forever.

What truly drove Wu Yi to despair was that, within his consciousness, this Rock Golem that was mercilessly beating the Bronze Bull had not defected at all. It was still his summoned battle beast. It had merely been controlled by some unknown external force. It ignored his commands, acted on its own, and attacked the Bronze Bull without authorization!

A Rock Golem that occupied one of his summon slots yet refused to obey its master—was that not the greatest tragedy of his life?

Wu Yi wanted to cry, but no tears would come.

He wanted to die, but it was too late to slash his own throat with a dagger.

Because that little thief, whose strength was supposedly only that of a beginner apprentice, was already standing before him, looking down at him from on high.

At that moment, Wu Yi felt incomparably small. If his opponent was a man-eating tiger, then he was a tiny mouse not even worthy of filling the gaps between its teeth... For the first time in his life, he felt so weak, so terrified!

"Aren't you supposed to be an expert? Go on, give me that smug grin again. Act tough for me again. Keep being such hot shit!" Yue Yang kicked the trembling Wu Yi to the ground, ignored the surrounding stares, and savagely stomped and kicked his body, beating him without restraint.

"..." Seeing a Level One beginner apprentice brutally beat a Level Three high-ranking Hero, everyone felt the urge to smash their heads into tofu and die.