The Debut of a Secret Technique

The moment Chu Hengkong leaped out of the swamp, the Swamp Hexer turned and fled. He was neither an Ascendant nor possessed by a demon. He had made his name entirely through poison and relic weapons, yet his best swamp trap could not hold this fiend for even a second. What use was there in staying except to wait for death?

So he ran without hesitation, throwing both his client and that damned one million out of his mind. The boots beneath his feet howled, making him literally swift as the wind. These were Wind Boots, capable of boosting his burst speed for a short time. The Swamp Hexer had escaped pursuit time and again thanks to this relic. Riding the wind, he fled onto the rooftops, determined to get completely away from this cursed place.

But another rush of wind followed behind the howling—the sound of Chu Hengkong in pursuit. With nothing but his own legs, he kept pace with the relic-enhanced speed, and the tentacle whip was already about to lash down.

"Then go fight Hundred Palms if you've got the guts!" The Swamp Hexer dodged the whip in a panic. "I'll kill you first." Chu Hengkong accelerated and ran alongside him. The two leaped from the edge of the rooftop at the same time, punching in midair! The Swamp Hexer threw out his right fist as if fighting for his life, but Chu Hengkong's tentacle coiled around it. Then Chu Hengkong struck with three lightning-fast blows in succession.

"Ugh—!"

Abdomen, chest, philtrum—the three knuckle-jutting strikes landed almost simultaneously. The Swamp Hexer was on the verge of losing consciousness, but he forced himself to blow a flute note, turning their landing point into a swamp in an attempt to delay Chu Hengkong. But Chu Hengkong's assault was not over. After the three-hit combo, he used his tentacle to yank the Swamp Hexer closer and followed up with a knee strike in midair!

Saliva, stomach acid, and blood sprayed from the Swamp Hexer's mouth. The agony was enough to snap his nerves. He lost consciousness and fell into the mire he had created, while Chu Hengkong hooked a tentacle around the burglar bars outside a building, lightly swung back into the market, and landed ten meters behind Hundred Palms. Information on his enemy flashed through his mind.

["Hundred Palms"]

Bounty: 170,000 Flow Pearls.

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Unusual faith, bloodthirsty by nature, physically powerful.

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Active in the eastern district of the Central District, randomly murders people with cruel methods.

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Singularity One "Skillful Hands"! Terrifying pressure, kills in a single strike!

He had hit the Swamp Hexer the hardest because the poisonous swamp posed a greater threat than any weapon. The final enemy was a "Skillful Hands," and he had no desire to fight a Singularity One on ground soaked in poison.

"Fucking useless. Those two spearmen who didn't even use poison lasted longer!"

Hundred Palms cursed as he turned around. His palms were huge, his skin equally rough, and crescent-shaped scars were carved across his solid chest, making him look especially ominous. This time, Chu Hengkong did not close in as usual. He flung two Water Bullets at Hundred Palms's eyes. Hundred Palms raised his hands to block. The Water Bullets struck his palms and burst into sprays of water, yet Hundred Palms remained completely unharmed.

"Doesn't matter..." Hundred Palms raised a hand with a savage grin. "I'll kill you anyway!"

He slapped a corrugated-metal noodle stall by the roadside. With a teeth-grating creak, the entire storefront collapsed. The people inside had already fled screaming. They watched as the shelter, large enough to hold several people, shrank layer by layer beneath the pressure of his palm, becoming a metal ball the size of a fist in the blink of an eye. Hundred Palms scooped up the metal ball and hurled it with a roar. It brushed past the dodging Chu Hengkong and smashed a deep crater into the ground.

This was why Chu Hengkong had not rashly closed the distance. The intelligence said this man's Skillful Hands possessed an almost certain-kill compression ability, enough to forcibly compress a person into a ball of blood and bones. Chu Hengkong had no intention of using that thing to test his physical toughness. As he dodged, he threw Water Bullets back in rapid succession, but Hundred Palms's broad palms blocked them like shields. That "pressure" could also crush incoming bullets and hidden weapons flat. His reactions were far quicker than he looked, and his defense was equally watertight.

"What's wrong, Chief Inspector? Is that all you've got?" Hundred Palms compressed dirt and metal one after another and threw them. Three more enormously heavy projectiles came screaming through the air. Chu Hengkong stopped throwing Water Bullets. He planted his stance and swung his tentacles. The silver whips struck the projectiles, but did not split them apart as everyone expected. The tentacles bent like rubber bands, using their elasticity to turn the projectiles around and send them flying back.

Before new stones could form, the old projectiles had already turned around and flown back. Hundred Palms hurriedly withdrew one palm to defend himself, crushing the three projectiles with a sweep of his hand. But the exploding dirt and rubble obscured his vision. Chu Hengkong seized the chance to dash forward, shooting behind Hundred Palms like an arrow loosed from the bow. He intended to attack from the blind spot of those palms and crush his opponent with a single killing punch.

Yet Chu Hengkong's punch came a beat too late. Only after reaching his opponent's rear did he clearly see the other hand hanging at Hundred Palms's side. That hand held a transparent sphere—a reserve move heavily compressed by Skillful Hands...

It was highly compressed air!

Hundred Palms crushed the air sphere. The bursting airflow became invisible blades, surging straight at Chu Hengkong's face. Chu Hengkong immediately crossed his arms in defense. He felt as though he had been struck head-on by a sedan, the wild force blasting him several meters away in an instant. He plowed through countless melons, fruits, and vegetables before barely stopping against a concrete wall.

The overwhelming impact left spiderweb cracks across the wall. Air blades carved wound after wound into his arms, and silver blood flowed from his tentacles. Chu Hengkong drew a deep breath and compressed his muscles to forcibly stop the bleeding. Hundred Palms's laughter stabbed into his ears. He held both hands level and charged recklessly, as vicious as a truck with its accelerator floored.

"I'll offer your flesh and blood to the moon!" Hundred Palms laughed maniacally. "Look carefully before you die. This... is Skillful Hands!"

The crescent scar on his chest shone with an inky-black light. Ugly flesh-colored bulges grew on either side of his wrists. The flesh that had appeared from nowhere rapidly swelled and took shape, becoming another pair of palms. The four palms continued multiplying without pause—four became eight, eight became sixteen... In the blink of an eye, the shadows of giant hands carpeted the earth. Hundred Palms became a great tree spreading branches and leaves, those ever-growing giant hands its branches and foliage. A hundred palms formed a net around Chu Hengkong. Every palm possessed that dreadful compression ability. Every palm was a Skillful Hands!

This was the origin of Hundred Palms's title. He was a powerhouse with a hundred Skillful Hands; even an elite force of a hundred men would be no match for him. Amid the oppression, Chu Hengkong found it difficult to breathe. The air within the net was dwindling, and a hundred compressed air spheres were forming at once. Hundred Palms intended to blast him alive inside the net. And if he dared to break through rashly, he would die in those palms.

"Brute force without dexterity," Chu Hengkong said. "That is not Skillful Hands."

At a time like this, he still had the leisure to smile, commenting on his enemy's methods like an old master. The long-awaited injury from earlier had excited him. His fighting spirit, so rarely stirred, had awakened, allowing the martial artist within him to eclipse the assassin. Chu Hengkong drew his right hand behind his back, leaned slightly forward, and tightened the tentacle on his left arm like a silver flexible sword. He thrust that flexible sword straight out at one of the Hundred Palms before him.

Bloodthirsty excitement filled Hundred Palms's eyes. He awaited the spray of blood when that tentacle was crushed flat. But suddenly, he felt a needle-prick pain. The pain bored into his marrow, seized his nerves, and made his palm turn involuntarily. The half-formed air bullet ruptured as a result, and the rampaging wind blades cut his own palm!

Hundred Palms stared in stunned disbelief. Through the gaps between his fingers, he saw Chu Hengkong smiling. After that furtive thrust, the tentacle withdrew. Then came a rainstorm of flashing thrusts, each landing with vicious precision. They struck the pads of fingers, lashed the base of palms, sometimes merely brushed past fingertips. Yet once they landed, the palms began flailing uncontrollably. The rhythm of the compressed air bullets was thrown into complete chaos. Wild wind blades shredded flesh, causing bloody blossoms to bloom across Hundred Palms's net.

Hundred Palms's assault was torn apart in an instant, because from the moment Chu Hengkong struck, his enemy's flesh no longer belonged to him. This was true Skillful Hands: the ability to control every scrap of flesh on one's own body, and thus freely control the bodies of others. In some legends, this was called acupoint striking. Certain faiths called it the demon's puppet hand. But on most Dust Islands in the Sinking Motion Realm, it bore a name as thunderous as a roar—

Dragon Village Boxing!

"You... a Dragon Village martial cultivator?!"

Bright red blood fell like rain. The net of Skillful Hands was effortlessly ripped apart, and Hundred Palms cried out in disbelieving pain. Chu Hengkong leaped through a gap in the net, flipped in midair, and landed behind Hundred Palms. In his panic, Hundred Palms abandoned the encirclement and turned, spreading both palms before himself in defense. Chu Hengkong focused, preparing to kill his enemy with one fierce heavy punch. But then his tentacle gave an eager twitch. His battle-hungry spirit, excited by the fight, seemed to awaken an inspiration, giving him a faint echo of how he had felt on the day of his Ascension.

He followed that marvelous feeling and changed his stance, letting inspiration surge through his body. The right fist he had been about to throw loosened into a claw, while his surging force flowed into his left arm, compressing the tentacle inward inch by inch. When the power accumulated to its limit, Chu Hengkong's eyes lit up like bright lamps. He exhaled with a shout, stomped forward with his left foot, and united the strength of his entire body in an instant. His erupting left arm became a flash of silver!

This was the fastest strike of Chu Hengkong's life. The exploding tentacle was like an invincible spear, and a white sonic boom erupted from its tip. The explosive force blasted open Hundred Palms's hands and punched a bloody hole through his chest and abdomen!

Hundred Palms was blown high into the sky by the surging gale, his blood splashing down to form a crimson trail. The team members behind them had been holding communicators and calling for reinforcements, but now they unconsciously lowered their arms. Along with the citizens, they stared at the man who had thrown that punch as if gazing up at a hero beyond human understanding.

Chu Hengkong retracted his tentacles and brushed the dust from his body, exceedingly satisfied with this marvelous move born from inspiration. As he considered what to call it, he turned and saw Ji Huaishu leading the team members over to support him.

"Wow." The blonde girl's mouth hung open. "Tentacle Spring Fist!"