79: Chapter 79 Emerging from the ashes, Armament Haki!

The dark-gold flames raged wildly across the stage, heating the air until it let out ear-piercing crackles.

Scorching heatwaves leaked through the cracks of the damaged energy barrier, forcing the front-row spectators to raise their arms to shield their faces.

"The match is over."

Looking at the sea of fire at the center of the stage, where even the specially made alloy had melted into lava, the military referee shook his head.

At a high temperature of three thousand degrees, no sign of life could possibly survive.

Taking a deep breath, he picked up the silver whistle hanging from his chest, placed it in his mouth, and raised his right hand high, preparing to blow the whistle to declare the end of the match.

At the edge of the sea of fire, Zhao Kuang knelt on one knee, panting heavily.

His battle armor was covered in cracks from overloading, billowing plumes of black smoke, but he was completely oblivious. He just stared at the sea of fire, his mouth stretching into a hysterical grin.

"Hahaha! Dead! He's finally dead!"

"Fight with me? I'll make sure not even your ashes remain!"

At the exact moment the referee's cheeks puffed up, about to blow the whistle,

and at this very moment, when Zhao Kuang's wild laughter reached its climax, echoing throughout the hundred-thousand-person Arena—

an extremely steady sound of footsteps suddenly echoed from the deepest depths of the dark-gold sea of fire that could melt even steel.

The sound wasn't loud.

But captured by the high-precision sound-recording Formation spread across the entire stage, these rhythmic footsteps pounded like heavy hammers, striking clearly against the eardrums of the hundred thousand spectators in the audience!

"Tweet—!"

The referee had just blown a short, airy sound when his entire body froze in place as if his pressure points had been struck. He stared wide-eyed at the center of the sea of fire, and the whistle in his mouth fell to the ground with a clack.

As for Zhao Kuang's laughter, it was instantly cut short as if by a pair of invisible scissors.

The expression on his face froze in an instant, quickly replaced by utter disbelief and terror.

"Who? Who's in there?!"

Zhao Kuang pushed himself halfway up from the ground, staring at the surging dark-gold flames as if he had seen a ghost, his voice cracking from sheer panic: "Impossible... This is absolutely impossible! How could anyone still be alive?!"

The hundred thousand people in the stands all held their breath.

In the VIP viewing area, Liu Ruyan, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, suddenly stood up, her hands tightly gripping the railing in front of her, her fingernails digging deep into the wood.

"Thud... Thud..."

The footsteps continued, neither fast nor slow, the interval between each step so precise it seemed as if it were measured with a ruler.

Along with these death-knell footsteps,

a sudden anomaly occurred at the center of the sea of fire.

The dark-gold waves of fire, which had been burning furiously and were enough to swallow everything, suddenly seemed to hit some invisible yet irresistible physical barrier.

The flames were violently pushed aside to both sides by an extremely tyrannical, invisible force!

Immediately after,

under the gaze of the hundred thousand pairs of dilated pupils in the audience,

a figure slowly walked out from the parted path in the sea of fire.

It was Su Chen.

The ordinary black shirt on his upper body had long since turned to ash in the three-thousand-degree heat, vanishing completely.

But he had not been burned to a crisp.

At this moment, everyone's eyes were locked dead onto Su Chen's body!

From his neck down to his lean, muscular torso, and then to his two slender arms,

the skin all over his body had completely transformed!

There was no human flesh tone; instead, it was replaced by a layer of mysterious black that shimmered with a cold, metallic luster!

It completely covered his upper body. Under the reflection of the surrounding dark-gold flames, this layer of mysterious black "skin" not only failed to reflect any firelight, but instead swallowed all the light that drew near!

"What is this..."

The referee backed up repeatedly, dumbfounded.

There was no halo of psionic fluctuation, nor any Protective Aura projected from his vital energy.

This high-density will, compressed and materialized to the extreme, not only granted Su Chen indestructible, absolute physical hardness, but also demonstrated its unreasonable defensive mechanism at this very moment!

A temperature of three thousand degrees?

Pervasive fire poison?

In the face of the Armament Haki covering his entire body, all of it was completely shut out!

"Whoosh—"

The Radiant Gold Flame of several thousand degrees surged wildly, like a venomous snake flicking its tongue, frantically licking Su Chen's black torso and arms.

But no matter how the flames burned,

not to mention being burned, not even a single white mark from the high-temperature roasting could be left on that mysterious black surface!

Su Chen just braved the sky-covering sea of fire like this, not even taking his hands out, keeping them casually stuffed inside the pockets of his tactical trousers made of special fire-resistant Materials.

Beneath his feet was the alloy lava, which had been burned red-hot and was in a semi-molten state.

"Sizzle—"

His tactical boots stepped on the boiling hot lava, making a sharp, sizzling sound.

But Su Chen's steps did not falter in the slightest.

He strolled leisurely.

It was as if he were walking along a shaded path in the morning, rather than through a purgatorial sea of fire capable of melting gold and iron.

Those dark-gold flames, which were enough to instantly vaporize a person, were like a layer of temperatureless red gauze before him, effortlessly pushed aside and torn apart.

"Monster... Monster!!!"

Looking at that god-and-demon-like figure who emerged from the fire, his body pitch-black as iron, Zhao Kuang completely broke down.

He backed up repeatedly until his legs gave out, and he slumped onto the ground again, his hands desperately pushing back against the floor, leaving trails of blood as they scraped against the shattered alloy plates.

He couldn't comprehend anything he was seeing.

His common sense, his pride, and the S-Grade Talent he was so proud of were crushed into nothingness before this man who strolled through the sea of fire.

"Stop! Don't come any closer!"

Zhao Kuang pointed at Su Chen, his voice shrill like a madman driven into a corner.

Su Chen ignored his shouting.

Stepping through the dark-gold flames, he walked out of the sea of fire step by step.

Ultimately, Su Chen stopped less than three meters away from Zhao Kuang.

A gentle breeze blew across the stage, kicking up a heatwave mixed with ashes.

Su Chen still had his hands in his pockets.

He lowered his eyes, looking down at Zhao Kuang, who was slumped on the ground, trembling with fear, without even the courage to stand up.

In the depths of those pitch-black eyes, there was neither anger nor killing intent.

There was only a high-and-mighty, ultimate contempt, as if looking at an insect.

"Crack... crack."

Amidst the dead silence of the hundred thousand people in the audience,

Su Chen tilted his head and cracked his neck with extreme indifference.

A few crisp popping sounds echoed from his cervical vertebrae.

Then,

looking at Zhao Kuang who was already on the verge of collapse before him, his thin lips parted slightly.

His voice was calm, without a single ripple of emotion, spreading clearly through the loudspeakers across the massive Arena.

"The temperature is decent, but unfortunately..."

Su Chen spoke indifferently, his tone as if he were commenting on today's weather.

"With just this much fire, you can't even cook a steak."