"A complete corpse?" Lin Fan laughed. "You're actually quite a nice person."
He dropped his lazy expression, his gaze darkened slightly, and Chaos Immortal Qi surged around him, like a volcano slowly awakening.
"However, I have a habit: I get upset if I'm disturbed while eating."
Three beams of Immortal Qi shone simultaneously, like three unsealed dragons coiling around him. The gray-gold light instantly illuminated the entire courtyard, overshadowing the moonlight and the glow of the campfire.
When I'm in a bad mood, I tend to hit harder.
He took a step forward, and his figure vanished from the spot in an instant.
He appeared at a point less than ten feet in front of the Qingtong- masked man.
His speed was so fast that even the Qingtong- masked man at the Peak Quasi-Emperor couldn't completely track his movements.
The Qingtong- masked man's pupils contracted sharply. He subconsciously raised his hand, and a dark law condensed in his palm into a pitch-black short knife, which he slashed horizontally towards Lin Fan's neck.
Lin Fan did not dodge.
He raised his right hand, his five fingers together, and the Chaos Qi condensed into a gray-gold light pattern on his fist. Three streams of Immortal Qi surged into it at the same time, like a star compressed to its limit burning on the surface of his fist.
One punch.
There were no superfluous moves, no fancy supernatural powers, just a simple punch.
But the moment that punch landed, the air in the entire courtyard seemed to be compressed for a moment, and then suddenly exploded.
The moment the Qingtong- masked man's short sword came into contact with the force of the fist, it shattered inch by inch, starting from the tip. The cracks spread like a spider web to the hilt, and then the entire short sword shattered into countless fragments.
The force of the punch, still strong, struck the chest of the man in the Qingtong mask.
"Puff!"
The Qingtong- masked man was sent flying backward like a cannonball, smashing through three old locust trees behind him and creating a large hole in the courtyard wall before finally regaining his balance and spitting out a mouthful of dark red blood.
He glanced down at the deep, bone-revealing fist mark on his chest, then looked up at Lin Fan in the distance, his eyes flashing intensely with a crimson light.
"You... your power..."
Lin Fan shook his hand, his tone slightly dissatisfied. "Tsk, I thought you could at least withstand a couple more punches, but you were sent flying with just one. What a disappointment."
The surrounding dark creatures and puppets did not stop after their leader was defeated; they continued to surge towards Lin Fan like a tide driven by some kind of will.
Lin Fan didn't look at the Qingtong- masked man again.
He turned around to face the surging tide of darkness, raised his hand, spread his fingers, and swirled Chaos Qi in his palm...
" Heaven-Swallowing Demonic Art!!"
"Since you like resurrecting, let's see how many times you can resurrect."
The chaotic vortex suddenly expanded, like an invisible maw, sucking in all the surging dark creatures. The dark creatures shattered, disintegrated, and dissipated within the vortex, transforming into strands of pure Dark Origin, which were crushed, refined, and absorbed by the Chaos Qi.
"Laugh..."
Before the dark puppet could even get within three zhang of him, it was swept into the vortex and vanished into nothingness.
The Qingtong- masked man struggled to his feet from the ruins. Upon seeing this scene, his pupils constricted, and his voice betrayed undisguised terror. " The Heaven-Swallowing Demonic Art? You actually know such a forbidden technique?!"
Forbidden technique?
Lin Fan glanced at him and smiled. "You call this a forbidden technique? This is called skill."
As soon as he finished speaking, an extremely subtle fluctuation of law suddenly emanated from behind him.
It is neither a dark creature nor a puppet.
Rather, it was a more precise and restrained killing intent, like a poisoned needle, silently protruding from the shadows.
Quasi-Emperor- level assassin.
The needle pierced straight into Lin Fan's back.
The timing was impeccable, occurring precisely the instant he turned to deal with the Qingtong- masked man. His aura was also perfectly concealed, like a drop of water blending into the night, almost imperceptible.
But Lin Fan's Double Pupils saw it.
Just three inches from his back, Lin Fan's body shifted slightly to the side. The needle grazed his robe and landed on the wall in the distance, corroding a fist-sized black hole in the entire wall.
"Um?"
The assassin lurking in the shadows hesitated to act.
Lin Fan didn't turn around. He grabbed back, and the Chaos Qi condensed into a hand, precisely grasping the wrist that emerged from the shadows.
"Click."
The sound of bones cracking was particularly crisp in the night wind.
A figure fell from the shadows, dressed in black and boots, his face shrouded in a dark aura of law, still clutching the broken handle of the short needle in his hand, his wrist hanging at an unnatural angle.
The aura of the Peak Quasi-Emperor Realm was now like that of a chicken being choked, unable to move.
"You... how could you...?"
"I know a lot of things, do you want to try them one by one?" Lin Fan glanced at him, his tone as calm as if he were talking about the weather, "But you don't have a chance."
With his other hand, he joined his fingers like a sword, and a beam of sword light burst forth from his fingertips, precisely piercing the black-clad assassin's dantian.
"Puff!"
The assassin in black froze for a moment, then collapsed to the ground like a skeletonless doll, his life force fading away rapidly.
[Ding! Host has killed Peak Quasi-Emperor, a Silver-level assassin, which is consistent with villainous behavior. Receive 300,000 Villain Points!]
Lin Fan withdrew his hand and turned his gaze back to what was in front of him.
The Qingtong- masked man had stood up again. Although the fist-shaped mark on his chest was still bleeding, he did not retreat. Instead, he raised his hand and took out a palm-sized, jet-black bone bell from his pocket.
The bone bell was entirely black, its surface covered with fine, dark red patterns, like a compressed ancient talisman net, and it throbbed gently in his palm.
"Bite!"
A clear, ringing sound carried on the night breeze.
Wherever the bell rang, the shadows on the ground began to writhe like a swarm of snakes awakened, and twisted, dark silhouettes crawled out of the shadows, more than twice as many as before.
"Summoning spells? You know that too?" Lin Fan raised an eyebrow. "Are you using it to clear the minion wave?"
The Qingtong- masked man didn't answer, but gritted his teeth and shook the bone bell again.
The bell rang more urgently, and the dark outline began to solidify at an accelerated pace, almost engulfing the entire courtyard in darkness.
Lin Fan cracked his knuckles, a hint of boredom in his voice. "Alright, that's enough fun."
He raised his hand, and a ball of milky white flame appeared in his palm.
Purifying Lotus Immortal Flame.
The flame was not large, only the size of a fist, but it exuded an ancient Daoist charm completely different from this world, pure, ancient, like a spark that had fallen from the Immortal Realm.
As soon as the flames lit up, the surrounding Dark Matter began to surge violently, hissing as if a red-hot iron needle were being plunged into ice water, and evaporated and dissipated in large swaths.
Lin Fan casually pushed the ball of immortal fire forward.
The flames landed on the ground, instantly exploding into a ring of white fire. Wherever they passed, the Dark Matter burned away like flaming paper, leaving not even ashes.
Sizzle!
The dark silhouette that had just emerged from the shadows had not yet fully taken shape before it turned into wisps of black smoke and dissipated in the night wind amidst the flames.
"How could your fire possibly suppress the Dark Origin?!"
The Qingtong- masked man's voice finally carried a hint of genuine fear, "This is impossible..."