184: Chapter 183 Ambush
The dragon slaying sword swept across, the golden patterns on the blade glowing to the extreme, the sword body letting out a low dragon roar as it sliced through the air.
Zhou Tiannan had no time to dodge and could only raise his arms to block.
Clang—!
Sparks flew in all directions.
Zhou Tiannan was sent flying by the shock of the sword strike, tumbling several times in the air before stabilizing himself.
Two deep sword marks appeared on his arms, and purple blood gushed from the wounds—after burning his Origin, the blood in his body had turned into liquid fire.
However, the wounds quickly began to heal; although the recovery speed from burning his Origin was not as good as Lin Feng's percentage-based healing, it was still quite astonishing.
"You can't kill me."
Zhou Tiannan looked up, a hideous smile appearing on his flame-covered face.
"I have burned my Origin; as long as the fire of my Origin is not extinguished, I am immortal."
"No matter how strong your attacks are, they can only wound me, not kill me."
"And your skills always have cooldowns, and your mana will eventually run out."
"I can afford to wait."
Lin Feng looked at him and suddenly smiled.
"Who said I only have skills? I still have my fists."
He clenched his left hand into a fist, which was larger than a villa, and smashed it toward Zhou Tiannan.
Zhou Tiannan dodged, and the golden fist grazed his body, smashing into the villa ruins.
A fist print dozens of meters in diameter appeared directly on the ruins, the concrete at the edges of the print compressed as smooth as a mirror.
Taking advantage of the gap as Lin Feng withdrew his fist, Zhou Tiannan moved like lightning, circling to Lin Feng's side.
He pressed his palms together to condense a flame spear once more and thrust it toward Lin Feng's ribs.
Lin Feng lunged aside to avoid it, swinging the dragon slaying sword back with his right hand, and Zhou Tiannan dodged again with extreme speed.
The two of them thus began a fierce struggle in the air above the villa ruins.
Lin Feng's fists and sword edge fell continuously, causing the ground to vibrate violently as shockwaves rippled outward one after another.
Zhou Tiannan's purple flames sprayed incessantly; the Heaven-Burning Purple Flame melted stone on contact, charred trees to cinders, and melted lava pits into the ground.
The two fought from the ground to mid-air, from mid-air to the mountain top, and then from the mountain top back to the villa ruins.
The entire West Mountain was trembling, and cracks appeared all over the mountain body.
Boiling lava gushed from the cracks—formed after Zhou Tiannan's flames melted the rock.
At the foot of the mountain, those Zhou Family guards who had escaped watched the earth-shattering battle on the summit from afar, their faces pale.
"He... he's fighting the Acting Head to a draw..."
A young guard said with a trembling voice.
His uniform was covered in dust, his helmet was lost somewhere, and his face was stained black and white with soot.
"It's not a draw."
The square-faced captain stood at the front of the crowd, looking up at the two figures colliding frantically on the mountain top.
His eyes were bloodshot, his lips were dry and cracked, and his voice was hoarse.
"The Acting Head has burned his Origin; this is his final trump card. He didn't even use this move during the East Sea Beast Tide years ago."
"But that Lin Feng, he hasn't even gone all out—see? He's been fighting for so long, yet his breathing isn't even disturbed."
"What... what kind of monster is he?"
"He is not a monster."
"He is a national hero—the one who fought seven Iron Bone Clan warriors alone at the Yanjiao Arena Tournament."
"Back then, we all thought it was an exaggeration, but now we know the rumors didn't exaggerate at all."
"It's we who underestimated him."
The captain fell silent after saying this.
He remembered a few months ago when this youth first came to the Zhou Family, and he had stood at the door to block him.
Although Lin Feng was stubborn then, he didn't have this suffocating sense of pressure that he had now.
It had only been a few months? How did he become so strong?
If another few months passed, how strong would he become?
The captain did not dare to think further.
On the mountain top, the struggle between Lin Feng and Zhou Tiannan continued.
Lin Feng slashed down, and Zhou Tiannan dodged.
The sword edge grazed his shoulder and struck the hillside behind him, carving a deep gully into the slope as dirt and rubble rolled down the incline.
Zhou Tiannan took the opportunity to rush in front of Lin Feng, striking with both palms.
Two balls of purple fire blasted toward Lin Feng's chest simultaneously.
Lin Feng did not dodge—he wanted to see to what extent he could face Zhou Tiannan's Heaven-Burning Purple Flame now that his attributes were fully stacked.
The purple fire slammed into his chest, exploding into a ball of blinding purple light.
Lin Feng was jolted back half a step, and a small patch of the light element on his chest was burned away, revealing a shallow scorch mark.
But in the next second, the scorch mark was repaired by the Source of Life, the recovery speed so fast that Zhou Tiannan almost thought it was an illusion.
"Your defense is also this strong?!"
Zhou Tiannan's voice went out of tune.
Even Rank 80 experts wouldn't dare to take his Heaven-Burning Purple Flame head-on after he burned his Origin.
But Lin Feng took it head-on and only lost half a bar of health.
"I told you, your Heaven-Burning Purple Flame isn't even as good as a sneeze from a Taotie."
Lin Feng said indifferently while throwing a left punch.
Zhou Tiannan dodged, and the golden fist smashed into the villa ruins, adding another deep fist print to the wreckage.
But this time, there was no longer astonishment or anger on his face.
Instead, a strange smile emerged.
"You are indeed very strong. Strong beyond my expectations. But did you think I wouldn't have a backup plan?"
Lin Feng's brow furrowed slightly.
A backup plan? What other backup plan could the Zhou Family have?
Zhou Tiannan suddenly threw his head back and roared, his voice piercing through the clouds and carrying far into the distance.
"Aren't you going to strike yet?! What are you waiting for!"
Lin Feng's heart tightened—he still had an accomplice?
At almost the same instant, the space behind Lin Feng split open silently.
It wasn't an explosion or a loud noise, but an extremely thin and fine crack, like a cut made on a mirror.
There was no sound, no light, and no energy fluctuations whatsoever.
A hand reached out from the crack.
That hand was wrapped in black bandages, with each finger wound round and round with black cloth.
Only the fingernails were exposed—the nails were dark purple, as if coated with a layer of dried poisonous blood.
The hand held a short blade.
The blade was as black as ink, without a single reflection, as if even light would be sucked into it.
The tip of the blade was aimed at the center of Lin Feng's back.
Then, it stabbed down fiercely.
Pfft—!
The blade tip pierced through Lin Feng's back and emerged from his chest.
Lin Feng lowered his head, looking at the section of black blade tip that had suddenly appeared from his chest.
The blade tip was stained with his blood.
Golden blood—in his Giant of Light form, his blood had all turned into light element.
But the position this blade struck was exactly the core where he condensed his physical form; the blood was still red, only with golden light flowing on the surface.
"Lin Feng—!"
Xiao Guang's scream came from by his feet.
The thirty-centimeter golden little person's eyes widened, and for the first time, an expression of fear appeared on that handsome little face.
The posture of its hands forming seals suddenly stopped, and the Six Harmonies Heaven-Sealing Array above its head vibrated violently several times.
Because it had lost the caster's mental maintenance, the golden light net split open with a gap in the middle.
Xiao Jin also saw that scene.
Its mouth, which was holding half a Spirit Stone, opened, and the Spirit Stone fell to the ground, rolling into a crack in the ruins.
The black blade tip in Lin Feng's chest was reflected in its compound eyes; its antennae suddenly froze, and the purple light patterns all went out in an instant.
It had never seen Lin Feng suffer such a heavy injury.
When fighting the Taotie in the Secret Realm, Lin Feng had also bled, but he had never been pierced through the chest.
Lin Feng wanted to turn around, but a sudden sense of intense weakness washed over his body.
It wasn't weakness from the injury—with his current health points, even having his heart pierced was not fatal.
The Source of Life's recovery rate of 1.78 million per second was enough to heal the wound within a few seconds.
This weakness came from the blade itself.
Some kind of eerie power seemed to be attached to the blade—the power spread through his body like living insects.
It spread from the wound to his limbs, and everywhere it passed, the light element solidified, shattered, and dissipated as if frozen.
Maintaining the size of the Law of Heaven and Earth required a stable flow of light element; now, the light element was being blocked by that power.
His body began to shrink uncontrollably.
One hundred and seventy meters, one hundred and fifty meters, one hundred and twenty meters, ninety meters, fifty meters, twenty meters, ten meters, five meters.
The Giant of Light's massive body shrank rapidly like a punctured balloon, finally returning to his normal size.
The Incarnation of Light could no longer be maintained either; his body reverted from a light element state back to a body of flesh and blood.
A wave of tearing pain spread through his entire body; his muscles were convulsing, and his bones were making faint creaking sounds.
The sense of weakness grew stronger and stronger, as if an invisible giant hand was frantically draining the life force from within him.
Pain radiated densely from his chest to his entire body.
"Pfft—"
Lin Feng opened his mouth and sprayed out a large mouthful of fresh blood.
The blood was bright red, shining with a piercing light in the afternoon sun as it traced an arc in the air.
It splashed onto the ruins beneath his feet and was quickly evaporated into a wisp of white steam by the boiling lava.
His legs went soft, and his whole body fell toward the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
The wind whistled past his ears, blowing his blood-stained clothes, the hem making a snapping sound.
He listened to the sound of the wind, his mind momentarily blank.
Finally, only one clear thought echoed repeatedly—there was poison on the blade, the edge was coated with something targeting the light element Physique, and this sneak attacker's Rank was definitely no lower than seventy-five.
"Lin Feng—!"
Xiao Guang screamed and rushed over.
It was too small; its thirty-centimeter-tall body was as tiny as a golden grain of rice in front of Lin Feng's falling, large frame.
But it still rushed over, reaching out its tiny golden arms, wanting to catch Lin Feng.
It grabbed Lin Feng's collar, but the force of Lin Feng's fall was too heavy, and even it was pulled down.
The person and the gold fell toward the ground like two meteors.
Xiao Jin also rushed over.
Its six golden legs made a piercing friction sound against the ground, leaving six charred marks on the asphalt road.
It rushed to a relatively flat position and suddenly flopped down, using its entire back to catch Lin Feng.
It usually only knew how to eat and sleep, but at this moment, it did not hesitate at all.
It was too small, only thirty centimeters long.
But Lin Feng had also shrunk, changing from a giant's body back into a youth of about a hundred pounds.
Xiao Jin caught him steadily, its six legs bending sharply under the impact, letting out a dull sound of metal friction.
It gritted its teeth and endured that massive impact, its four back legs dragging two long furrows into the ground.
The asphalt road was carved into two deep trenches by its legs.
"Squeak squeak!"
It let out an anxious cry, its antennae moving rapidly as it hurriedly checked Lin Feng's breath.
Lin Feng lay on its back, his mouth covered in blood, and the wound pierced by the short blade in his chest was still seeping blood.
But the Source of Life was still operating, and the edges of the wound were slowly healing.
Only the healing speed was significantly slower than before—the poison on that blade was still suppressing the light element in his body.
"Lin Feng! Lin Feng, how are you! Don't scare me!"
Xiao Guang dropped from the sky, its tiny golden hands looking all over Lin Feng's face, peeling back his eyelids and checking his pulse.
"There's poison on that blade! It's specifically targeted at the light element Physique! Your light element is being suppressed, and the recovery speed has slowed down significantly."
"You need to quickly mobilize wood element or water element to neutralize the toxin; you can't let it continue to spread through your Meridians, otherwise—"
"Otherwise what?"
Lin Feng opened his eyes, his voice weak but relatively steady.
"Otherwise you're a goner."
Lin Feng wanted to sit up, but the sharp pain in his chest made him gasp.
He glanced down at the wound—the blade tip had entered from his back and emerged through his chest.
A strange purple pattern was constantly spreading around the edges of the wound, very similar to the Shadow Corrosion previously used by Inoue Nofuo, but stronger and more poisonous.
"Baga Country Ninja. High-tier Shadow Talent. Much stronger than Inoue Nofuo. Rank seventy-five or above."
He said each word with difficulty.
Xiao Guang followed his gaze toward the dark figure stepping out of the void.
It was a tall and thin humanoid, entirely wrapped in a black ninja outfit, with only his eyes exposed.
Those eyes were blood-red, and the pupils were vertical, like a snake, a lizard, or some kind of cold-blooded animal.
He held a short blade in his right hand—a short blade identical to the one pulled from Lin Feng's chest, with Lin Feng's fresh blood still on the blade, dripping down.
His left hand was forming a strange hand seal, his fingers wrapped in layer upon layer of black bandages, between which some kind of dark purple runes could be seen flickering faintly.
"Mr. Zhou."
His voice was hoarse and low, like sandpaper rubbing against wood.
"Are you satisfied with the timing of my strike?"