Crushed by Rules: What of Half-Step Fourth Tier?

Rumble-!!!

With a casual snap of Su Bai's fingers, the space throughout the Eye of the Abyss basin seemed to be forcibly torn apart in an instant by some indescribably terrifying force!

Under Blood Wolf's horrified gaze,

a massive black abyss, dozens of meters long, split open in the void behind Su Bai!

Black wasteland contamination fog of 99.5% purity came pouring into the basin already shrouded in miasma, like the celestial river bursting through a broken dike, bringing endless deathly silence, despair, and corruption!

The two different kinds of contamination collided violently in midair, producing an ear-grating sizzle.

But clearly, Su Bai's wasteland contamination utterly crushed the wild miasma of the secret realm in both purity and level. Wherever the black fog passed, the miasma was instantly devoured and assimilated, as though it had met its natural predator.

"Wh-what kind of Divine Kingdom is this?!"

Blood Wolf's face, hidden beneath his wolf-head mask, turned deathly pale.

As a Half-Step Fourth Tier powerhouse, he had seen the Divine Kingdoms of countless geniuses, but never a world composed purely of dark matter and the rules of death!

Before he could recover from his shock,

Screech-!!!

An ear-piercing braking sound, as though it could tear a soul apart, exploded from within the black fog!

A massive, dilapidated black bus flickering with eerie green ghost flames roared straight out of the Divine Kingdom's rift, its engine raging as it slammed into the phantom of the two-headed blood wolf charging toward it!

[Midnight School Bus core rule one: Forced Boarding, activation check triggered!]

Although the two-headed blood wolf was a Half-Step Fourth Tier dependent, it was ultimately formed from divine power and the desire to kill. The moment it heard the brakes, its violent killing intent triggered the school bus's passenger-soliciting rule!

Hum!

An incomparably tyrannical spatial pulling force instantly locked onto the two-headed blood wolf's enormous body.

"Roar?!"

The two-headed blood wolf let out a terrified roar and swung its claws desperately, trying to tear apart the invisible chains. But the school bus's power of rules clung to it like maggots on a bone, dragging it inexorably toward the door!

"Damn it! Get back here!"

Blood Wolf's expression changed drastically. He frantically drove the core of his Divine Kingdom, trying to recall his dependent.

But to his horror, he discovered that the strange bus was gradually severing the connection between him and his dependent!

"Trying to run? How can you board my bus without paying the fare?"

Su Bai sneered.

Hiss-

The school bus door slid open.

Inside, fourteen evil spirits let out excited shrieks. After absorbing the souls of those assassins and mercenaries earlier, their baleful aura had reached an exceptionally terrifying level.

Whoosh!

The two-headed blood wolf's enormous phantom was forcibly dragged into the bus.

Bang! The door closed.

Immediately afterward, spine-chilling sounds of tearing and biting erupted from inside, along with the dependent's desperate wails.

Even a Half-Step Fourth Tier dependent, trapped inside an enclosed three-star ghost story Domain and besieged by fourteen frenzied high-tier evil spirits, could only end up being torn apart and eaten!

"Pfft-!"

With his dependent forcibly devoured, Blood Wolf suffered a severe backlash and spat out a great mouthful of blood, staining even his mask red.

"Y-you... what kind of monster are you?!"

Blood Wolf stared fixedly at Su Bai. For the first time, an emotion called fear appeared in his eyes.

One move! Just one move!

The Half-Step Fourth Tier dependent he was so proud of had been completely gobbled up by a beat-up bus?!

Was this guy really a high school student?! He was clearly an abyssal demon god wearing human skin!

"Me? I'm just an ordinary Wasteland Divine Kingdom owner."

With his hands in his pockets, Su Bai walked toward the altar, one step at a time.

"It's just that I like to follow the rules. Since you've put up an illegal structure on my turf, I'll have to carry out a forced demolition."

"Arrogant! Do you really think my Blood Wolf Mercenary Corps is a bunch of pushovers?!"

Blood Wolf roared. He knew that if he didn't fight with everything he had today, he would never make it out of the basin.

He pulled a pill radiating a strong blood-red light from his robes and swallowed it in one gulp.

Boom!

The instant he swallowed it, Blood Wolf's aura surged wildly, seemingly breaking through the Half-Step Fourth Tier bottleneck and reaching the threshold of a true Fourth Tier true god!

His eyes turned crimson, and the muscles all over his body bulged, bursting through his blood-red robes.

"I'm going to tear you to pieces and feed your soul to the Mist Lord!"

Blood Wolf became a streak of blood-red lightning, moving more than ten times faster than before. He went straight around the Midnight School Bus, condensed a ten-meter-long blade of blood-red light in his hand, and slashed viciously at Su Bai's head!

"Brother Bai, watch out! He forcibly raised his cultivation level!" Lin Que screamed in fright from a distance.

Shen Yueli also raised her staff at once, preparing to cast Moonlight Shield.

But Su Bai still didn't dodge.

He didn't even glance at the descending blood-red blade of light, merely tilting his head slightly.

"Hongdou, you're up."

Hum-!

A flash of brilliant scarlet appeared instantly above Su Bai's head, as though it had crossed the boundaries of space.

Hongdou!

Her scarlet wedding gown snapped in the wind. Beneath her waist-length hair, her pale, featureless face was tilted slightly as she "looked" straight at Blood Wolf in midair.

[Core rule one: Death Gaze, stacked activation triggered!]

Although Blood Wolf had forcibly raised his cultivation level, he was still human.

The instant he looked directly at Hongdou, he felt an indescribable, extreme chill and despair freeze his soul!

Crack!

The crisp sound of cracking bone echoed through the basin.

The blood-red blade of light that Blood Wolf had aimed at Su Bai came to an abrupt halt in midair.

Under the strangling force of Hongdou's invisible rule, his neck began twisting backward beyond his control!

"No... impossible! I'm fourth tier! How can a low-level rule like this control me?!"

Blood Wolf shouted in terror, desperately driving the raging divine power within him in an attempt to resist the force twisting his neck.

A Fourth Tier powerhouse's vitality was exceptionally tenacious. Though Hongdou's Death Gaze had activated, it couldn't immediately snap his neck the way it could instantly kill someone at the Second Tier.

The two sides fell into a brief stalemate of rules.

"Heh, fourth tier really is a little tough."

Su Bai sneered as he watched Blood Wolf struggle desperately in midair.

"But I never said I only had one ghost story."

Su Bai snapped his fingers.

"The Thirteen Steps, turn up the pressure on him."

Rumble-!!!

Just as Blood Wolf was desperately resisting Hongdou's rule,

the ground beneath him suddenly churned violently.

A ruined staircase covered in moss and bloodstains rose from the ground like the gates of hell, slamming into place beneath Blood Wolf's feet!

And Blood Wolf happened to be caught at the Thirteenth Step!

"Blood Wolf..."

A faint, drifting call, as though from the deepest depths of hell, suddenly rang out beside Blood Wolf's ear.

Blood Wolf was doing everything he could to resist Hongdou, his nerves stretched taut. Hearing someone call his name, he answered reflexively, "Who?!"

[The Thirteen Steps core rule two: Roll-Call Response, check successful!]

Hum-!

At that moment, the two terrifying powers of rules stacked together perfectly!

"Aaaaagh-!!!"

Blood Wolf let out the most agonized scream of his life.

To his horror, he discovered that his right arm, the one holding the blood-red blade of light, had vanished into thin air in an instant!

There was no blood, no wound, as though it had been rubbed away with an eraser!

And on the wall of the Thirteen Steps, a writhing tentacle of flesh had appeared.

Having lost an arm, Blood Wolf instantly exposed a gap in the circulation of his divine power.

And Hongdou would never let the opportunity slip.

"It hurts so much..."

Hongdou's ethereal murmur exploded in Blood Wolf's mind once more.

Crack!!!

This time, there was no resistance.

Blood Wolf's neck was forcibly twisted a hundred and eighty degrees!

Eternal fear and unwillingness froze in his crimson eyes.

Bang!

Half-Step Fourth Tier powerhouse, Blood Wolf Mercenary Corps commander, had fallen.

His corpse, along with the vast Divine Kingdom origin within him, crashed heavily onto the Thirteen Steps and was then greedily devoured by the staircase.

[Ding! Successfully devoured one Half-Step Fourth Tier False God's corpse!]

[Ding! The female ghost in red has absorbed a large amount of high-tier resentment and broken through the third-tier threshold! Rule strength greatly increased!]

[Ding! The Thirteen Steps has absorbed high-tier flesh and blood. The maze has expanded to seven floors! New rule added: Hallucination Deprivation!]

[Divine Kingdom area expanding... current area: 40 square kilometers!]

Listening to the continuous system notifications in his mind, Su Bai stretched luxuriously.

"What a haul, what a haul."

He turned to look at the black ball of flesh in the center of the altar, still writhing violently, as though it might burst out of its cocoon at any moment.

That was the Half-Step Fourth Tier Anomaly awakening there—the Mist Lord.

Su Bai licked his lips, a fervent light flashing in his eyes.

"Next, you're the only main course left."

"Forbidden Hospital, get ready to welcome a guest. Today, we're going to make a real Fourth Tier big boss!"