181: Chapter 181 Stripped of Disguise, The Nailed Parasite

"Burp—!"

Deep in his mind, the strange mouth on the cover let out a loud burp, as if it were stuffed.

The long, purplish-black tongue licked its fangs with lingering desire before slowly closing, turning back into the eerie pattern on the cover.

The next second.

Two streams of scalding heat surged back along his optic nerves, as if someone had poured molten iron into Chen Du's eye sockets!

Pain!

A heart-piercing, bone-eroding agony!

His eyeballs felt like they were about to explode!

Chen Du's body swayed slightly, but he didn't make a sound.

He squeezed his eyes shut, yet the corners of his mouth curled into a nearly morbid, fanatical arc.

This feeling of power rampaging through his body... it had been a long time.

When he opened his eyes again, the world had changed.

Energy particles drifting in the air, residual elemental structures in the ice beneath his feet, even the flickering light on Lin Keke's armor in the distance... the entire world was stripped of its surface in his eyes, leaving only its most fundamental form.

The notebook flipped open, and small blood-red characters appeared once more.

【Talent Advancement: Eye of Truth】

【Delusion Breaker: Can see through all falsehoods, illusions, and energy disguises, looking directly into the essence of the target's soul.】

【Judgment: Attacks carry the True attribute, capable of dealing direct damage to spiritual and elemental entities.】

"I see."

Chen Du slowly raised his gaze.

His pupils had turned into flowing molten gold, with ancient patterns faintly rotating deep within, like a lens through which a god gazes upon the mortal realm.

He looked at the floating show-off not far away.

He smiled.

"True damage? How thoughtful!"

"You... what did you do to the Divinity?!"

Watching the lead box vanish into thin air, the mask of the Reaper, usually so calm and composed, finally cracked.

That was his ladder to ascension!

His only hope of escaping this rotting shell!

"Give it back to me!!"

A shriek pierced the eardrums as the Reaper completely lost his composure.

His body pulled into a gray, decayed afterimage!

The claw, carrying the scent of decay, ignored spatial distance and aimed straight for Chen Du's crown!

This strike was not a physical attack, but a direct tearing of the soul!

Three seconds ago, Chen Du would have had to dodge its edge.

But now?

Chen Du stood his ground, not even bothering to lift an eyelid.

He simply kept one hand in his pocket, his thoughts shifting slightly.

Buzz!

The shadow beneath his feet suddenly surged up!

It was no longer a flat dark shadow; it instantly gained a sense of physical weight, transforming into a hideous, pitch-black giant hand that slammed into the ghostly claw!

"Can you even catch it?" the Reaper laughed loudly.

Normally, the two would pass through each other.

But this time.

Clap!

A crisp thud, like striking solid wood, erupted!

"What?!"

The Reaper's wrist was clamped tight like it was caught in a hydraulic press, unable to move!

Sizzle—!

The True attribute attached to the shadow hand began to take effect, burning his soul form until wisps of green smoke rose from it.

"This... how is this possible?!"

The Reaper was terrified and struggled desperately.

His body flickered violently between illusion and reality, like an old television with a poor signal.

"I am void! I am not bound by physical laws! How could you possibly touch me?!"

He was a high-dimensional being!

Even if he was a defective product, he wasn't something a yellow-skinned monkey like this could touch!

"Void?"

Chen Du tilted his head slightly, his burning golden eyes full of mockery.

"Are you talking about that lump of thing clinging to your spine?"

In his vision, there was no elegant gentleman.

The tailcoat, the mask, the noble aura... all of it vanished.

The opponent was merely a dried corpse floating in mid-air, riddled with gray energy tubes!

And on the mummy's spine sat a fat, slimy, squirming black mollusk-like monster!

Like a leech gorged on pus and blood.

That was the true body.

Disgusting, greedy, parasitic.

"Blegh..."

Behind him, Lin Keke clutched her mouth and gagged, her face turning green.

"Holy crap! This is such a sanity-drain! I thought he looked a bit cool just now, but he's just a damn parasite!"

The moment its true form was exposed, the Reaper—or rather, that parasitic mollusk—panicked completely.

Fear.

This was the first time it, as a high-tier being, felt such an emotion from a human.

This man's eyes... could see it! He really could kill it!

"Shut up! Shut up, ahhh!!"

It let out a piercing scream, no longer maintaining its humanoid disguise.

The mollusk on the mummy's back suddenly exploded!

It transformed into dozens of sharp tentacles, swarming toward Chen Du from all directions!

"Go to hell!!"

"Getting desperate?"

Chen Du sneered, his gaze turning cold.

"Get down—on your knees."

Boom—!!

As his words fell, the shadow beneath his feet boiled and expanded once more!

It surged upward with a terrifying speed that struck second but arrived first!

【Shadow · Judgment】!

Puchi puchi puchi puchi!

There was no world-shaking explosion.

Only the smooth sound of a hot knife cutting through butter.

The moment the Reaper's tentacles touched Chen Du's shadow spikes, they melted away like ice and snow!

Immediately after.

A black shadow as thick as a child's arm precisely bypassed the mummy meat shield and ruthlessly impaled the fat mollusk monster on the spine!

"Screech—!!!"

A shrill scream echoed through the night sky, making one's skin crawl.

The Reaper's true body was pinned firmly in mid-air like a specimen.

Large clumps of black, foul blood gushed out, corroding smoking pits into the concrete where they fell.

"Physical immunity?"

Chen Du manipulated the shadow, slowly pulling the still-twitching monster before him.

Under the swirling smoke, his smile was cruel and violent.

"Now, who's the prey?"

"No... impossible... this involves power from another level... you're just a mortal..."

The Reaper convulsed in pain.

The mask lay shattered on the ground, revealing the mummy's terror-stricken, withered face.

It couldn't understand!

How could an otherworld human who had only recently awakened master a power specifically designed to counter spiritual entities?!

It was like a player in a starter village suddenly pulling out a GM-exclusive ban hammer!

At this moment of life and death—

Boom!

From the direction of the distant pier, a violent blaze suddenly erupted!

Dense gunfire and explosions merged together, turning half the sky red!

The Reaper's eyes suddenly lit up.

Ignoring the intense pain of being impaled, it let out a neurotic, wild laugh.

"Cough cough... Hahaha! Chen Du!"

Wriggling its broken body, it pointed toward the pier where the fire reached the sky, its gaze venomous and crazed:

"So what if you kill me?"

"You still lose!"

"My ace squad has been lying in ambush there for a long time! It's a full C-rank peak assassin group!"

"Those women of yours... that little girl with the bow, and those useless trash... they've probably been blown into mincemeat by now!"

"Listen to that sound! How pleasant!"

It stared intently at Chen Du's face.

Attempting to see panic, regret, or even a hint of wavering on the man's face.

That was its final revenge.

To satisfy its soon-to-collapse vanity.

However.

Chen Du's expression didn't change in the slightest.

He even had the leisure to fish a lighter out of his pocket and relight a cigarette.

"Exhale..."

A thick cloud of white smoke was exhaled directly into the Reaper's face.

Chen Du's eyelids lowered slightly, his expression three parts cold and seven parts mocking.

"Who gave you the confidence to think that group of trash could hurt my people?"

"Is there a possibility..."

"...that the ones blown into mincemeat were your people?"