And Born

Wu Pifu felt as if his consciousness were trapped in an abyss.

If an ordinary person's mental state was like a calm sea, then after a terrible fright, when emotions surged wildly and hot blood rushed to the head, they would become dazed and muddle-headed. At the height of their excitement, they might not even know what they were doing, blindly committing irreversible acts. At such times, the mind was in a state of raging storms, and few could remain calm and clear-headed.

But Wu Pifu felt that he had gone a step further. His self-awareness seemed to have condensed into a faint, barely perceptible spark of spirit-sense, drifting amid endless darkness, emptiness, stray thoughts, and demonic thoughts.

Within that boundless darkness and void, only this tiny glimmer of sleepless spirit-light flickered...

Wu Pifu rose from beneath the broken wall. He knew he had begun to fall to demonic deviation. He knew he was controlling his body, yet could no longer control it completely. The sole thought left in his chest was to desperately resist the darkness and void. Beyond that, it seemed he could do nothing.

The Tiger Demon Art took the tiger as its form and the demon as its spirit. At its core, the entire technique was about cultivating a spark of Sleepless Spirit-Sense, then gradually strengthening it by using stray thoughts, demonic thoughts, and evil thoughts as nourishment. In the end, one would see one's true nature and true heart, and the Tiger Demon Art would be complete.

But this technique was sinister and strange, so it was naturally extraordinarily difficult to cultivate. Perhaps only one martial artist among hundreds or thousands could develop Sleepless Spirit-Sense. As for the rest who practiced the Tiger Demon Art, their likely fate was... falling to demonic deviation!

And within the Tiger Demon Art was a circulation route for qi and blood specifically meant for falling to demonic deviation, intended to drag one's enemy to death together in utter despair!!

The instant he was struck, Wu Pifu knew that he could not defeat the Half-Paper Man before him... It was too strong!

That bizarre, sinister-cold energy, unleashed with a martial arts master's control, methods, and techniques, was like a traditional martial artist using the internal energy of wuxia legends. Its effect was far more than one plus one equaling two. Even with Wu Pifu's physical constitution, he could not contend against it.

In a single move, he had suffered grievous injuries. Seven or eight ribs on both sides had been broken, fragments had pierced backward into his lungs, his organs had been shaken and torn, and that sinister-cold, bizarre energy had begun freezing his heart, lungs, and blood vessels, making it nearly impossible for him even to breathe.

At this point, Wu Pifu knew he had lost. Everyone had lost. What came next was nothing more than being tortured to death, or becoming a paper man and suffering eternal damnation.

So he... activated the qi-and-blood route for demonic deviation, forcing his qi and blood to flow in reverse up from his spine and finally driving it directly into his spirit platform!

His pair of blood-red pupils were red because beneath his eye membranes raged surging torrents of blood!

The Half-Paper Man, all the paper men, and even Lin Heier and the others all looked toward Wu Pifu. The Half-Paper Man and the paper men aside, the moment Lin Heier and the others saw Wu Pifu, an immense terror inexplicably rose in their hearts. They could only stand frozen in place, not daring to move, like small animals before their natural predator.

Something that transcended Wu Pifu's very essence was gradually awakening within this flesh-and-blood body.

"It's ready!"

Just then, Yamadai's shout rang out. He leaped directly down from the throwing device in midair, rolled upon landing, ran over to grab two torches, and then rushed to Xu Shilan's side.

He had not yet seen Wu Pifu's current state.

But that shout jolted everyone awake. Suppressing the fear in their hearts, they raised their torches toward the Half-Paper Man and the paper men.

The paper men began moving again, flying over to surround them. But the Half-Paper Man stood motionless where it was, staring fixedly at Wu Pifu as he stepped out from the broken wall one step at a time. Then everyone saw a thread descend from the sky and hang over the Half-Paper Man's head. At the same time, a strange tone came from its mouth.

But the instant that tone sounded, half the Half-Paper Man's head exploded. Its mouth and throat were nearly blasted to pieces, and the thread above its head snapped at once. The next second, at least several hundred threads descended from the heavens, densely piercing the area around the entire mortuary.

A strange and bizarre sensation began to spread.

No one understood what was happening, but fear arose naturally in their hearts.

The Half-Paper Man grabbed another paper man and stuffed it deep into its throat. As Wu Pifu drew closer step by step, its head returned to normal. Then the Half-Paper Man said, "How strange. Mother wishes to speak to you herself, so I can't kill you now?"

By then, Wu Pifu had reached a point two meters in front of the Half-Paper Man. He assumed no stance. Instead, he leaned his upper body slightly forward, spread his feet a little apart, and reached both hands out in claws.

The Half-Paper Man extended its hands as well, still using the Furnace Millstone Palm. One palm spiraled clockwise, the other counterclockwise, but both were aimed at Wu Pifu's arms.

Yet the instant those palms extended, Wu Pifu's two tiger claws had already landed on the tiger-mouth gaps between its thumbs and forefingers. The speed was astonishing. Not only had the Half-Paper Man failed to react, even Lin Heier, watching from afar, could not see Wu Pifu's movements. It was as if his tiger claws had been resting in those gaps all along.

But the Half-Paper Man made no other move. Its palms simply continued spiraling forward.

This was the marvel of the Furnace Millstone Palm. Once activated, the power it accumulated would grow ever greater, breaking through from hidden force into transformed force, even reaching a peak strike of transformed force. It was almost impossible to interrupt midway. If one tried to forcefully reach in and disrupt the spiraling rotation of the two palms, the result would be like Wu Pifu's earlier situation—tiger claws caught within, leaving one's center wide open for a devastating blow.

The Half-Paper Man simply continued rotating its palms, and then it froze.

Its arms no longer had hands...

Where had its two huge hands gone?

Everyone saw that the Half-Paper Man's arms were now handless. Its empty arms continued swinging, but its two hands had been caught in the claws of Wu Pifu's left and right tiger claws.

No one saw exactly how Wu Pifu had done it. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, he had removed both of the Half-Paper Man's hands. But his own hands were just as badly damaged. Both claws had twisted into mangled spirals, and even the bones of his fingers had pierced through the flesh.

"He's fallen to demonic deviation!" Lin Heier muttered, her expression incomparably grave.

Traditional martial arts also had cases of demonic deviation, though most people who suffered it died on the spot. Traditional martial arts relied on circulating one's own qi and blood to achieve explosive force. Once one fell to demonic deviation and their qi and blood went out of control, the mild result was paralysis, while the severe result was immediate death.

But in extremely rare cases, qi and blood would rush straight into the brain. This became another kind of demonic deviation. A martial artist in this state would madly attack every living thing around them, regardless of kinship or enmity.

Moreover, their strength, speed, and physique would surpass their limits and reach unimaginable heights. But they harmed others and themselves alike. In the end, they either exhausted their qi and blood through frenzied movement and died, or suffered fatal injuries while attacking others. There were almost no survivors.

Yamadai and Xu Shilan had naturally seen all this as well, but what they thought of was far more "scientific."

"Edman Syndrome!" Yamadai said with an ugly expression.

"An unconscious limit-breaking state!?" Xu Shilan said as well.

Though they called it different things, they meant the same thing: someone had lost consciousness for some reason, yet their body continued moving by instinct.

At such times, the body would ignore its own protective limits and do countless unbelievable things. For example, punching through a thin steel plate while reducing one's own arm to pulp, or running one hundred meters in around two seconds while tearing apart one's ligaments, muscles, tendons, and bones.

Both had witnessed such things with their own eyes. One had seen it on the battlefield of the Third War, and the other among the internal security personnel of Thirteen Singularity Technology Corporation.

At that moment, Wu Pifu moved his feet. In a flash, he appeared behind the Half-Paper Man. Immediately after, the Half-Paper Man's arms and legs split apart simultaneously, its head was bent directly backward behind its neck, and its paper body twisted and crumpled.

All the paper men around them howled as they surged toward Wu Pifu, yet they could not even touch his shadow.

To everyone's eyes, Wu Pifu now displayed a strange frame-skipping effect. In the blink of an eye, he would suddenly be somewhere else, while no one could see the process in between.

One paper man after another was torn apart by him. Only skeletal remains were left of his hands, but even with nothing but bones, none of the paper men could last a second before him.

Only the Half-Paper Man's paper body seemed extraordinarily tough, making it difficult for him to tear apart, while the Half-Paper Man was rapidly healing.

In only a few seconds, Wu Pifu had torn apart at least twenty paper men. Their fragments swirled through the air around them, turning into chunks of flesh embedded with human faces.

Xu Shilan suddenly shouted, "Wu Pifu! Can you still hear me? Go break that round hole! Something is descending!!"

As hundreds of threads descended from the sky and landed around the mortuary, everyone could instinctively feel terror. Goosebumps rose over their skin, and all of them felt bone-piercing cold. But it was a supernatural cold, affecting both body and mind.

By then, the Half-Paper Man had completely healed. It roared, tore apart many of the flying chunks of flesh, stuffed them into its mouth, and lunged toward Wu Pifu.

But just as the Half-Paper Man was about to land on him, Wu Pifu suddenly vanished from where he stood. When he reappeared, everyone saw his ruined claws gripping torches again. He began setting the surrounding buildings alight one by one, then poured the remaining oil canisters over himself. After finishing all that, he appeared atop the throwing device, using a torch to burn its trigger mechanism—a vine stretched taut around the device.

By then, the Half-Paper Man had devoured an unknown number of flesh chunks made from paper men. Its body had expanded to nearly three meters tall, and apart from its arms and legs, parts of its paper body had begun turning to flesh.

Seeing Wu Pifu step onto the throwing device and ignite the surrounding buildings, the Half-Paper Man roared and charged toward the points where the device was anchored into the surrounding structures. But after only a few steps, Yamadai lunged at its waist from the side.

"Ah!"

The instant he grabbed the Half-Paper Man, the parts of Yamadai's body touching it began to freeze and necrotize. Yet he was resolute. Not only did he refuse to let go, he raised his torch and set both himself and the Half-Paper Man on fire.

The Half-Paper Man dragged Yamadai several more meters. As it ran, it raised one arm, then whipped it down like a lash across Yamadai's spine. With a single blow, it bent Yamadai backward, folding his entire spine into a straight line.

At the same time, Xu Shilan had somehow lifted a canister of fuel. When Yamadai was struck backward, she threw the fuel directly at the Half-Paper Man.

Seeing the fuel flying toward it, the Half-Paper Man actually grabbed the limp and powerless Yamadai and hurled him out. Not only did he knock the fuel away, he slammed Yamadai directly into Xu Shilan, shattering her breastbone. The two rolled into a corner, their lives and deaths unknown.

Just as the Half-Paper Man turned to continue charging toward the throwing device, it saw, in the instant it turned its head, a woman in red clothes and red trousers leap into the air and catch the fuel canister that had been knocked away. Then, at the instant it turned, all the fuel poured down from above, directly igniting the small flame Yamadai had just lit at its waist...

With a thunderous boom, flames erupted across the Half-Paper Man's body.

Wu Pifu, atop the throwing device, had already burned through the vine. The next second, he actually held the torch to himself and set himself ablaze, turning himself into a living torch.

The throwing device activated. Four crisp snaps rang out in succession, and Wu Pifu was launched high into the air.

At that very moment between life and death, the Sleepless Spirit-Sense in Wu Pifu's consciousness suddenly blazed brilliantly, suppressing all the surging darkness, emptiness, demonic thoughts, and stray thoughts.

Then Wu Pifu, burning from head to toe as if he could not feel pain at all, calmly raised his arms in guard, crossed his legs, sank his force into his dantian, and guided his qi through the Governor and Conception Vessels...

Before him, a gigantic twisted humanoid hung high in the air, with hundreds of threads descending from a round hole!!