"Clink."
A faint, crisp sound rang out.
The tiny metal fishhook caught the edge of badge number 44 with perfect precision.
Got it!
Joy surged through Lin Yan. He snapped his wrist back, trying to reel the badge in.
But in the next instant, a force so terrifying it made his very soul tremble came crashing down the fishing line!
Hisoka reacted faster than he had imagined!
The man did not even look down at the line. The instant the hook caught his badge, his left hand shot out like lightning and seized the slender fishing line!
"Mmm~ Caught you, you naughty little mouse~"
His voice, tinged with excitement and amusement, reached Lin Yan's ears with perfect clarity.
Thick, chilling Nen surged back along the line like a pink swamp.
The force possessed a bizarre elasticity and tenacity. Not only did it cancel out his pull, it threatened to drag him bodily from his hiding place.
"Szzzz-"
The fishing line groaned under the strain of two utterly different forces.
Lin Yan felt as though a red-hot iron had seared the arm holding his fishing rod. A burning, invasive pain shot straight into his brain.
That was high-density Nen eating away at his Qi!
The dantian embryo in his dantian shuddered violently, sounding an alarm!
Damn it!
Why was this lunatic's Nen so strange?
Was this what peak Transmutation felt like?
Cold sweat instantly soaked his back, but his hands did not hesitate.
Run!
That thought was crystal clear.
Meet him head-on? That would be suicide! Even another tenth of a second might let that bizarre Nen crawl up the line, coil around him, and strangle him to death.
"Break!"
A fierce light flashed in Lin Yan's eyes. The True Qi in his dantian erupted without restraint, surging through his meridians into his right arm.
He did not try to use that power against Hisoka. Instead, he employed an exquisitely clever method-vibration!
Bzzzz!!!
A high-frequency vibration traveled through the rod and into the fishing line, stretched taut to its limit.
"Snap!"
The fishing line, infused with True Qi and Hisoka's Nen, had endured two utterly different yet equally terrifying forces.
At last, it reached its breaking point and snapped less than half a meter from the hook!
Sacrifice the tail to survive!
Using the recoil from the snapping line, Lin Yan shot backward like an arrow loosed from a bow.
In midair, he flicked his wrist.
Badge number 44, still trailing the hook and a short length of broken line, traced an arc through the moonlight. He caught it cleanly in his palm.
It was cold to the touch, with traces of Hisoka's chilling presence still lingering on it.
There was no time to think. Lin Yan planted both feet hard against a thick tree trunk behind him!
Shrinking Space to Inches!
"Bang!"
A deep crater burst open in the trunk, sending wood chips flying.
Propelled by that force, his figure blurred into an afterimage and plunged into the dark forest behind him without a backward glance.
From detonating the gunpowder to set the formation in motion, to casting the hook, snapping the line, and escaping.
In the blink of an eye, the outcome was decided.
Moonlight spilled over the clearing once more, cold and pale as frost.
Hisoka stood where he was, making no immediate move to pursue.
He looked down at the broken line in his hand, then at his now-empty chest. A flicker of astonishment crossed his narrow eyes.
It seemed he had not encountered a "thief" capable of snatching something from his grasp in a very long time.
Then that astonishment swiftly ripened into a deeply sick flush.
His mouth stretched into an exaggerated grin. His shoulders began trembling uncontrollably, and laughter he could no longer suppress squeezed out from deep in his throat.
"Heh... hehehe..."
"Hehehehehahahahahaha!"
A burst of spine-chilling laughter echoed beneath the silent night sky, startling countless birds from the trees.
"Delicious... so delicious!"
He extended his bright red tongue and greedily licked his dry lips, the excitement in his eyes almost spilling over.
"Not one of those rotten apples that bursts at a touch..."
"But a little fruit... unripe, thorny, yet giving off such a strange fragrance!"
He suddenly raised his head, his gaze fixing precisely on the direction in which Lin Yan had vanished.
That immense purple malice swept forth like a tangible pink tide, engulfing everything in its path!
"Don't think you can run... the game has only just begun~"
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"
Lin Yan tore through the forest, his heart pounding as though it might leap out of his throat.
He did not dare look back.
The bone-chilling malice behind him clung like a parasite, locked firmly onto him. No matter how he changed direction or used the terrain, he could not shake it.
There was no outright killing intent in that malice. Instead, it brimmed with the playful cruelty of a cat toying with a mouse.
But that was precisely what made it even more terrifying!
He could tell Hisoka was not pursuing him at full speed.
He merely trailed behind at an unhurried pace, savoring the hunt.
Yet with every step he drew closer, the pressure of that immense aura made Lin Yan feel as though a mountain rested on his back. Even breathing became difficult.
That explosive burst earlier had consumed almost eighty percent of his True Qi.
Now waves of sharp pain ran through his meridians, and his legs felt heavy as lead.
The dantian embryo in his dantian worked frantically, trying to squeeze out more energy, but it was still nowhere near enough.
This couldn't go on!
Countless thoughts exploded through his mind.
There was no way he could escape. The gap in stamina and energy was too vast. If he kept running like this, he would collapse from exhaustion in five minutes at most, leaving himself at Hisoka's mercy.
He had to find a way!
Just then, the rushing sound of water came from ahead.
A river!
Lin Yan's eyes suddenly lit up as a mad idea took shape in his mind.
Without the slightest hesitation, he burst out of the trees onto a broad stretch of riverbank.
He did not jump into the river to escape. That would only make him an even more obvious target.
He stopped abruptly and turned to face the unfathomable darkness behind him.
"Hah... hah..."
He gulped down air, his chest heaving violently.
He glanced at the fishing rod in his hand, its line already broken. Then he did something that surprised even Hisoka, watching from the shadows.
Gripping the rod with both hands, he used the last of his strength to drive it hard into the riverbank beneath his feet!
"Thud."
Beneath the moonlight, the broken fishing rod stood like a solitary gravestone.
With that done, Lin Yan took two steps back.
He forced down the terror in his heart and slowly rounded his arms before him, assuming the opening posture of Taoism's Primordial Chaos Stance.
He was adjusting.
Adjusting his breathing, his heartbeat, and the heart that trembled with fear.
Within a few brief moments, his breathing changed from ragged gasps to long, steady breaths.
He raised his head and gazed calmly into the darkness and malice ahead.
Since he couldn't escape, he would stop running.
Beg for mercy? Useless.
Fight to the death? He couldn't win.
His only chance of survival lay in the mind.
He would gamble that this lunatic's curiosity about the unknown outweighed his twisted lust for slaughter.
He would face one of this world's greatest monsters head-on in an all-or-nothing psychological gamble!
Before you continue