Worth Acknowledging

The monster stopped.

Wait—

What just happened?

It had been blasted away and crashed into a roadside building. After just one breath, it had fully recovered and charged back out.

What happened in that single breath?

Outside the pill furnace.

Yang Xiaobing, Zhao Ajiu, and Jiang Xueyao stood in a row, forming spell seals at the same time.

Pillfire: Furnace Incineration!

Three spells struck the Eight Trigrams Furnace at once.

The glowing patterns on the furnace lit up.

Fire.

It roared to life inside the furnace.

The lid slammed shut.

"A trap!"

The monster's voice rang out, furious and alarmed.

When it had been knocked into the building, the three of them had jumped out of the furnace with the child and hidden behind it.

In fact.

If the monster had looked a little more closely, it would have noticed.

But Xu Yuan had climbed onto the furnace and pretended he was about to pull someone out.

In its rush to reach them, the monster had missed its chance to look carefully!

That had given Xu Yuan his match point!

The next instant—

The lid was thrown open by a tremendous force.

The monster was coming out!

If it escaped now, it could kill them all in an instant!

"Dream on."

Xu Yuan was already standing atop the furnace, sniper rifle in hand, aiming into it—

Bang!

One shot, straight to the soul!

The monster's head burst apart, and its body fell back down.

Xu Yuan caught the lid and forced it shut, pinning it with his foot. He swiftly reloaded and said evenly:

"The human skin draws its strength from the earth."

"Now you can't touch the ground. Let's see how you heal!"

Clang—

The lid was thrown open again, and Xu Yuan's rifle met it at once—

Bang!

A high-explosive armor-piercing round flew out.

The monster was blasted back down into the roaring flames.

The lid slammed shut.

In that brief opening.

Xu Yuan glanced back.

His three teammates were desperately stoking the Pill Flame to refine the monster.

Zhao Afei had collapsed from exhaustion, but he still held one hand aloft, maintaining the spell seal and pouring out the last trace of his spiritual power.

Yang Xiaobing swayed, looking as though she might fall at any moment.

Jiang Xueyao stood steady, maintaining the alchemical fire spell with her hands. Her voice was calm as she said:

"The monster fears fire. We need to keep refining it. Don't let it out, or everything we've done will be for nothing."

"Got it." Xu Yuan finished reloading and raised the rifle again.

Boom—

The lid was flung open once more.

The monster crawled outward through the roar of the sniper rifle, heedless of the hole blown through its body.

Xu Yuan swiftly switched guns.

A shotgun!

Click—bang—

The force of the blast sent the monster plunging back down.

At the very last instant.

The monster reached out a hand and dug its fingers into the rim of the furnace.

"Don't think—"

It roared and hauled itself upward.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Xu Yuan ignored whatever it had to say. He emptied all five shotgun rounds in one burst, tossed the gun aside, and pulled a submachine gun from his back.

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat—

The magazine ran dry.

He threw the submachine gun aside too.

He drew the Qiong Jia Sword and raised it high. Channeling his spiritual power, he slashed down with all his might—

The monster's hand was severed.

A heavy thud sounded from within the furnace.

The monster had finally been driven back in!

Xu Yuan kicked its severed hand into the furnace, closed the lid, and held the Qiong Jia Sword horizontally beside it. Then he shut his eyes and stood still.

He looked as though he were fishing.

Except he had no line or hook, only a sword held crosswise.

The furnace fire surged.

The monster's agonized wails could be heard faintly.

"What are you doing?"

Jiang Xueyao's puzzled voice came from behind him again.

Xu Yuan did not answer. Eyes closed, he continued sensing everything happening inside the furnace.

Standing on top of it was enough to feel its vibrations.

The human-skin monster hammered at the walls and slammed against them. It stumbled, fell, and rolled, each movement sending sounds and tremors through the furnace—

If he quieted his mind and paid close attention, he could feel it all!

Then, at one moment.

Every impact inside the furnace ceased.

Thud.

With a deep, muffled sound, all eight legs of the furnace lurched downward—

Now!

Xu Yuan's eyes snapped open. Gripping the sword with both hands, he raised it high and swung down with all his strength!

"Aah—"

A roar burst from his throat.

"Aaaah!" The monster's howl rose almost at the same instant.

The lid flew off.

The monster, its whole body scorched by the flames, surged upward, on the verge of clearing the rim.

But—

But its movements, even the lid flying away, seemed to be working in concert with Xu Yuan's sword stroke.

Everything happened at precisely the right moment.

The lid flew off.

The sword came down.

The monster charged straight into its edge.

It was a perfect convergence!

The blade flashed.

Xu Yuan's spiritual power unleashed Divine Might: Blowing Snow!

Eight white streams of Sword Qi slashed out in overlapping arcs, a flurry of cuts exploding across the monster's burning body.

Flying Swallow Chain!

The Qiong Jia Sword's sharpness: +5!

It was a terrifying number.

The sword could easily cut through other swords. What chance did a scorched human-skin monster, its strength greatly diminished, have against it?

"No—"

The monster let out a despairing scream. Its body fell apart into several pieces and dropped back into the furnace.

The Pill Flame soared skyward.

It burned and burned.

A full seven or eight breaths passed.

The monster did not come up again.

Xu Yuan still did not relax. He kept his sword level beside the furnace opening, eyes half closed, quietly sensing what was happening inside.

More time passed.

The sounds inside the furnace gradually stopped.

Xu Yuan suddenly opened his eyes and said with regret:

"Are you dying?"

He lowered his sword until it stood upright by the furnace opening, but received no answer.

He had not had his fill.

Xu Yuan sighed and looked into the furnace.

Most of the monster's body had burned to ash. Only its head remained, attached to its neck, staring straight back at him.

"In a contest of strength, you were no match for me," the monster snarled bitterly.

Flames were devouring what remained of it.

Soon, nothing would be left.

Xu Yuan regarded the monster thoughtfully.

This monster could heal again and again, and it had strength and agility to spare. That chase had been exhilarating.

All along the way, he had escorted civilians, ridden a flying vehicle, and used all kinds of firearms and tactics.

It had been a thrill.

At the end, he had even been forced to use tactics like "the King of Qin circling a pillar," moving around the furnace while attacks from within it wore the monster down.

It had been dangerous. Exciting.

But—

You only had one phase?

No second transformation?

Not even a third-phase resurrection with a weapon upgrade and an epic twist that changed the whole battlefield?

...Forget it.

People were like that.

It was normal to hold oneself to high standards, but he could not demand the same of others.

By then, the flames inside the furnace had climbed onto the monster's face.

"Let's analyze that fight together," Xu Yuan said.

The monster stared at him, its gaze dark and venomous.

"Don't look at me like that. Put your feelings aside. Let's discuss the technical side—"

Xu Yuan spread his hands and continued in the tone of someone reviewing a match afterward:

"The truth is, you were too impatient."

"With your strength, you didn't need to chase us so frantically. If you'd just harassed us now and then, keeping us from recovering our spiritual power in peace, you'd have had a sixty percent chance of winning."

"Because our total spiritual power is so limited."

"That's why you saw me fighting with guns."

Xu Yuan spoke frankly.

"I only lost because I fell for your trick at the end," the monster said bitterly.

"Didn't you hear what I just said?"

"You were too impatient! If you'd taken your time and kept following us, we'd have been the ones worn down in the end. Then we would've had to seek you out for a decisive battle," Xu Yuan said earnestly.

"Then I would have held the initiative," the monster said.

"You held the initiative throughout the fight because you were so much stronger than us. But you never used it," Xu Yuan said.

The monster fell silent.

It lowered its eyes, as though recalling the fight just now.

With that, the anger, resentment, malice, and hatred vanished from its face.

"If—you were me—"

Those were its final words.

"If I were you, I would hide, lie in wait without a trace, and follow them until the moment these students let down their guard. Then I would strike with everything I had," Xu Yuan said.

"You were at the ninth layer of Qi Refining, fighting someone at the Qi Refining Second Layer, and you'd still go through all those twists and turns?" the monster could not help asking.

"Even a lion hunting a rabbit uses all its strength. If you don't have that kind of professional attitude, you shouldn't be in this line of work."

So said Xu Yuan.

The monster fell silent for several breaths before asking:

"How much of your strength did you use just now—"

It never finished.

The flames burned away its neck and jaw. Only half its face remained, and it could no longer make a sound.

But it kept staring at Xu Yuan.

It was waiting for an answer.

This was their final farewell.

Xu Yuan began with praise:

"You fought hard. You gave it everything you had."

"You even knew how to threaten your enemy with words and shake their resolve."

"In those two respects, your performance deserves recognition."

He looked down at the half-face left in the pill furnace.

It was still waiting for an answer.

Very well.

"I didn't win easily—"

"I even broke a sweat."

Xu Yuan said it with utter sincerity, then raised his hand and waved toward the furnace, as if saying goodbye.