Diamond Indestructible Body (Third Update)

"Raise!" "Show your cards!" "No more bets!" "Grand slam!"

Rubble rained down like a storm. The battered gambling tables kept emitting cheerful mechanical voices, while the catgirl dealer crouched beneath one, trembling. She desperately prayed that the important figures in the hall would not notice a little cat like her, but reality was always far crueler than imagination. A hand black as petroleum pierced through the gambling table and stood right before her. The catgirl screamed desperately. That hand yanked up the entire table and hurled it aside, taking away her only shield.

It was Visaf. The second son, dressed like a gentleman, had completely gone mad. He pressed hard against his shoulder as black blood gushed from the wound. The blood overflowed, swelled, then boiled, tearing apart his cultured fleshly shell and reforming him into the Fallen's true visage.

The catgirl's scream turned into a howl as though she had seen a ghost. She watched the "second young master" become wrapped in black blood, transforming into a bloated monster whose waist was as broad as a gambling table. The creature had no lower body. From its obese upper half hung two withered, chicken-claw-like hands, while its tiny-featured head wore an expression of rage. Its claws stabbed straight at the catgirl's heart!

Wetness spread around the catgirl's waist. At the critical moment, silver tentacles lashed in from the side, wrapped around her, and flung her toward the stairwell on the other side. "Inspector! Monster!!" she cried, unable to tell whether it was fear or gratitude. Chu Hengkong withdrew his tentacles and raised his blade one-handed in a fighting stance. Three steps away, the eldest daughter Carmel had also revealed her Fallen form. Her legs had become thin and long as needles, her upper body voluptuous, but her head had turned into an "empty shell" like half a broken eggshell.

The two Fallen roared at Chu Hengkong at once. "Use your flesh and blood to honor our eldest brother!" "You'll regret ever being born into this world!"

"What disgraceful young master and young miss," Chu Hengkong said.

Visaf took out a strangely shaped deck of cards. Each card bore a human figure painted in gemstones, glittering beneath the light. The cards flew into the air, then expanded and transformed amid phantom-like ripples, splitting into eight distorted monsters identical to Visaf.

The multiplied bloated monsters filled the hall to bursting. Visaf and his clones swung their claws and pounced together. Chu Hengkong had long fixed his eyes on the original that threw the cards, and the instant the cards transformed, he struck first with his tentacle blade. Yet his thrust stopped in midair. A ring of black light spread from deep within Visaf's body. The halo carried an immensely powerful repulsive force, forcibly shoving the extended blade back.

"Repulsion Halo!" Carmel shrieked.

Identical black halos appeared within Visaf's eight clones, expanding with the speed of wind and pressing inch by inch toward Chu Hengkong in the center of the hall. Wary, Chu Hengkong withdrew his blade and leaped up, intending to leave the encirclement before making another plan. But two of Visaf's clones sprang into the air with the movements of bouncing balls, allowing their spreading halos to touch Chu Hengkong's arm and instantly slam him from the center of the hall into the doorless stairwell!

The impact spread from his arm through his entire body. The dizziness attacking his brain was even worse than Hundred Palms's strikes had been. This was Carmel's ability as Point One "Faint Light": using living beings as a medium to release powerful repulsive halos. And when that ability combined with Visaf's clones, its threat level soared explosively.

These enemies were not merely Fallen, but Ascendants as well. Beyond their aberrant bodies, they possessed Point One abilities!

Chu Hengkong drove his blade into the ground with a backhand strike, braking sharply just before he fell into the stairwell. Visaf's clones pursued him closely. Seizing the moment, he leaped over a halo and brought down a diagonal slash, severing one clone's head. Yet when the head hit the ground, sparks of light splashed out. Using the fallen head as a foundation, another new Visaf clone grew forth.

The new clone and the headless clone swung their claws together. Chu Hengkong raised his blade to defend, only to be knocked back by the monsters' claw strikes. A newly formed Repulsion Halo struck him, and a dull sound of bones shifting rang out from deep within his body. These clones were actually living creatures capable of proliferating, and every proliferated clone generated a new Repulsion Halo. Visaf and his clones took advantage of the chaos to form an encirclement. Ten Repulsion Halos surged and spread without pause, smashing viciously into Chu Hengkong with terrifying force!

"I told you! You'll die a miserable, miserable death!!" Visaf shrieked with delight. His chicken-claw-like malformed arms became an advantage at this moment, allowing him to maintain his distance while attacking continuously with fingernails like long claws. Chu Hengkong crossed his arms in defense. Blows powerful enough to smash through walls battered him without cease, while ghastly bloody gashes were torn across his arms and face.

Once the encirclement of clones and halos had fully formed, the hunted prey had no way out. Even risking his life to attack would only add to his enemies for nothing. Carmel's heart brimmed with the exhilaration of revenge. Clapping her hands, she laughed loudly. "This is what happens when you oppose the family! After you die, kneel before our eldest brother and beg for forgiveness!"

The absolute victory had already been decided. To be safe, they could not let any unexpected twists arise; they should maintain their formation and grind the enemy to death. Yet Visaf still felt a faint unease, because the enemy's cold gaze was like two sharp knives, chilling him to the bone. He told himself not to throw himself into confusion. The enemy merely hoped to lure him into revealing an opening. The formation had been maintained for nearly half a minute. No matter how tough the enemy's body was, he should have dropped dead by now...

No! At that thought, Visaf realized it. No matter what, the enemy was only a Skillful Hands. Point One's endurance was nowhere near enough to sustain him for this long. He should have been ground to pieces beneath the encirclement long ago. Yet beneath those torn clothes gleamed a reflection like black iron. Chu Hengkong was wearing Relic light armor beneath his outer clothing. If he had deliberately endured the attacks...!

A chill ran through Visaf's whole body. He leaped backward. "Carmel! Change tactics!" But at that very moment, Chu Hengkong changed his posture for taking the blows. His arms, crossed before him, separated vertically. His right arm stood upright at his side, while his left tentacle hand locked tightly against his waist. He turned sideways toward the attacks in an aggressively poised stance. The instant a halo struck his body, incomparably majestic power erupted from within him.

"Break!"

In an instant, the pitch-black halo shattered. Chu Hengkong stood amid flying motes of light. Carmel's halo had actually been smashed apart in return—by the martial artist's hardened flesh!

He drew back his right fist and right leg, twisting his body around at an exaggerated angle. His left tentacle arm swung out with the force of wind and thunder, and a white sonic boom burst through the air. This was the Thunder Whip that had shattered the Torchlight Corpse Heap. The strike, charged for so long, swept across the entire hall and smashed Visaf and his nine clones alike into indistinct masses of flesh and blood.

The damage he had suffered earlier was real enough, but the Relic light armor's restorative ability was sufficient to contend with wounds of this degree. What remained was merely a matter of willpower: enduring the pain of the halos' blows, twisting his muscles with pain greater still, and using a secret art to turn his body into an Indestructible Vajra fortress. Then, at the instant he was struck, he reversed his muscles and struck back with nearly twice the force.

That was the confidence that allowed Chu Hengkong to withstand their attacks, and the result of his relentless training ever since returning from the swamp—

Dragon Village Boxing: Immovable!

"Impossible! What absurdity!" Visaf, his body shattered, fell into panic. Chu Hengkong decisively drew his blade and sprinted forward, his slash aimed directly at Visaf's exposed heart. At that moment, a barely formed halo blasted Visaf away. Carmel compressed the repulsive light into a short-spear-like beam and hurled it with a scream. "Die! Ah!" Having lost control of the situation, she simply did not know what to do.

Chu Hengkong flickered aside from the spear of light, winding through the hall like an agile long snake. In the blink of an eye, he reached Carmel's side. Two snow-bright blade flashes cut out in a cross. One slash severed all her needle-like long legs, while the other sprang upward from below, carving a straight blade mark along the side of Carmel's grotesque body. The cut was so deep that it exposed her rotten heart.

"Lowly human! Get away!!!" Carmel completely lost control. Three halos formed over her body at once. Her instinct to survive wrung out every last shred of strength, making her willing to pay any price to shove Chu Hengkong away. But Chu Hengkong merely turned sideways and raised an arm. He was pushed back five meters by the halos, yet he absorbed the blows completely with the secret art of Immovable.

Carmel regenerated her lower body and crawled away across the ground in a centipede-like, ugly posture. Her body was regenerating at high speed. This time, she deliberately formed a snow-white suit of bone armor, attempting to preserve her life.

Chu Hengkong slowly exhaled and withdrew his right arm. He twisted his waist and stepped forward, his whole body rotating along its central axis. The impact force condensed through Immovable gathered with that simple motion, and then the tentacle coiled at his waist erupted.

The silver spear shattered the bone armor and pierced Carmel's rotten heart!

(Oh my god, truly, truly, thank you to the Silver Alliance Leader Filth of Praise. I really never imagined this book of ours could have four Silver Alliance Leaders...)