Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 163 - 155 VS Great Success Rank 3

Chapter 163: 155 VS Great Success Rank 3

Though it was just a brief exchange, I had already analyzed the strengths and weaknesses between my enemy and myself.

In terms of destructive power alone, the "Water Navy Xuanwu" before me had not shown any performance that surpassed mine. Not just in destructive power, but also in terms of movement speed, he was definitely not fast enough to prevent me from reacting.

However, in the realm of combat technique and experience, he held a tremendous advantage over me. Contrary to myself, who always relied on overwhelming power to defeat enemies, he was not lacking in experience fighting opponents of equal strength, and even those stronger than him while at a disadvantage. His eyes were sharp, his movements quick; he wouldn’t take anything lightly, and as an outsider, I couldn’t find any flaws in his rhythm.

Since that was the case, the only option I had was to win with a surprise move. It was clear that he possessed considerable fighting skill, and at such a close distance, he would not miss any strange movements from my arms and legs. However, if the real trap lay in the shattered remains of a skull, then even he would be caught off guard.

There definitely wasn’t a martial art in the world that taught how to deal with "a hand growing out of the enemy’s severed neck."

Flames violently erupted right in front of me.

At the critical moment, "Water Navy Xuanwu" suddenly raised his left hand and, using it as a knife, cut off his own restrained right arm.

It was the first time I had seen anyone perform such an action with a hand chop. As long as the speed was fast enough, even a bare hand could act as a blade that nothing could withstand, let alone this man’s supersonic hand chop filled with mana. Breaking free from the restraint, he quickly retreated, narrowly avoiding the explosion of the flames at close range, with only his severed arm being blasted into fragments.

However, the flames I had unleashed swallowed up a range of two hundred meters in front of me. He kept retreating but couldn’t escape unscathed. No matter how fast he was, faced with such an extensive area, the flames inevitably chased him down. His clothes were licked away by the tongues of fire.

Perhaps he had momentarily relaxed, thinking he’d escaped my attack range, but my assault wasn’t over. The body that had been licked by the flames was now coated with my fire and heat; I could now directly attack his very being.

This time, I didn’t make any extravagant or weird movements; I simply concentrated my thoughts.

The distant flames and heat suddenly magnified a thousandfold, transforming into a massive fireball that engulfed him. Clearly caught off guard, he let out a piteous, agonized scream in the high heat. In the glow of the fire, one could only faintly see the shadow of his body losing moisture, shrinking, and withering.

After ten seconds, a ghastly charred corpse fell from the fireball.

That was the remains of the enemy. Indeed, befitting someone of the Great Success Rank, even in death, he looked different from my previous opponents who had turned to ash upon defeat. He was resistant to burning; his charred body retained a human shape even after being aflame for a good while.

Yet, I still felt a sense of dissatisfaction. Despite suffering severe soul pain, I was still jumping around lively. The soul, unlike the body, does not show wounds or bleed explicitly, so I wasn’t sure how badly I was hurt. Since it didn’t affect my mobility or power, it probably wasn’t a serious injury.

It couldn’t be that I only felt pain without any real damage. Pain serves to warn living beings of wounds, so I suspect I was injured to some extent.

It’s even possible that the injuries might present severe consequences after some delay, ones that the sufferer perceives to be minor. Perhaps I should have Zhu Shi check on me later. Since her ability is to see flaws, she should be able to see wounds in the soul too... No, wait, didn’t she say before that I was too bright for her to see clearly...

...Additionally, wait a second, thinking calmly, did I just do something irreversible?

Did I just kill the being suspected of being Water Navy Xuanwu?

Who would heal Mazao afterward?

As I saw the charred remains falling faster and faster, I immediately dove in that direction.

I wonder if I handed this charred corpse to Mazao, could she revert it from death to a living state... But even she can’t resurrect the dead, right? At the very least, I’ll retrieve the char body for her to extract some useful information...

My thoughts were in turmoil, but as it turned out, my worries were possibly unfounded.

Because the enemy wasn’t actually dead.

Before I could recover it, the charred remains underwent an unthinkable transformation.

A mass of flesh, like earthworms frantically burrowing up from beneath the soil, started to grow from the face, torso, and limbs of the charred remains with a horrifying momentum. During this process, mana fluctuations burst forth from his body, expelling the residual heat.

In the blink of an eye, "Water Navy Xuanwu" reappeared, unscathed.

He opened his eyes and hovered naked in the air, then looked my way.

To think he could come back to life? I had felt it clearly; all his blood had evaporated, his flesh had dried up, and his internal organs and brain tissue were completely charred. In theory, under such high temperatures, not a single cell inside him could have survived. To avoid death after being inactivated by such temperatures, such regeneration power was beyond the limits of common sense.

However, this also suggested that there was a part of him that I hadn’t completely incinerated. Something beyond his flesh—his soul?

The "fatal wound" from before seemed to have had an effect on him after all. His breathing had turned significantly heavier, and there was a sense of wariness in his gaze as he looked at me.

I first halted my plunging motion, taking the opportunity to restore the shape of my head, before initiating the first conversation since the start of the fight.

"Are you Xuanwu?"

"Xuanwu..."

He repeated the name as if it were foreign to him, showing no intention of responding to my question.

"Why did you attack the Zhu’s mansion?" I asked, "And where is Changan?"

"That half-demon bastard? I’ve killed him," he said.

The fact that he could say "half-demon" upon hearing the name Changan clearly indicated that this Great Success Rank enemy was familiar with Changan.

His words, however, were not trustworthy. If Changan were dead, I would at least be able to sense his corpse beneath the rubble. Moreover, since he admitted to it in front of me, there was no need to dispose of the body.

It was possible that Changan had urgently hidden himself somewhere that obstructed my senses when the enemy arrived.

Even so, I found it unforgivable that he would claim to have killed my friend right to my face.

"So, you want to kill me? Your murderous intent is showing. It seems you value your relationships deeply. I don’t dislike people like you," he said. "But unfortunately, you can’t kill me."

"Can’t kill you? Is it because of your regeneration power?" I countered.

At the same time, I launched my own attack.

This time, I used a skill that allowed me to ignite flames with my gaze. Of course, I didn’t expect to harm him with such a skill. The mana wrapped around him acted like huge armor, preventing the invasion of my spirit, and the flames couldn’t ignite directly on him. However, starting a fire around him was possible.

Flames formed six walls around him, appearing above, below, and on all sides, like a prison cell, then began to close in on him.

His regeneration power was indeed formidable, but his labored breathing suggested that the astounding regenerative ability must be depleting his strength. Whether it was draining his mana or something else, his number of regenerations had to be finite. No immortal body could come back endlessly, and he was no exception. So, the next step was to simply continue depleting him.

As for whether or not he was Water Navy Xuanwu, that was no longer important. Judging by the way he had sounded unfamiliar with the name "Xuanwu," he probably wasn’t. Even if he was, since he had attacked the Zhu family, there was no point in hoping he would uphold his promise to Mr. Zhu to craft an elixir. Killing him here meant getting rid of a threat sooner rather than later.

Then, he demonstrated an astonishing ability that I had never anticipated.

He raised his right hand, made a loose fist, and from between his clenched fingers burst a large amount of black substance. This black material turned into a shield as tall as a man, which he then pushed forward, charging through one of the walls of fire.

I recognized the true nature of that black substance immediately.

There was no mistake, that was a power I had seen many times before, the ability to manipulate shadows!

The reason he had made a loose fist with his right hand was to generate shadows inside it, while the black shield was made from shadow material.

The black shield collided directly with the wall of flames. From my past experience, shadow material would be destroyed instantly under the scorching of my flames, but this time was different. The black shield actually absorbed the flames it touched, and he managed to break out of the fiery prison by pushing the shield.

No, it wasn’t "absorption."

It was the power of Shadow Transmission.

That black shield was unmistakably a Teleportation Door, with the fire being transferred to the Shadow World.

I immediately directed the other flames towards his back, only to see the shield in his hand deform instantly, transforming into armor that enveloped him completely. He neither dodged nor defended against the attacking flames, allowing them to engulf him.

The next moment, all the flames that hit him passed through that strange armor and entered another world!

The man clad in Dark Armor turned around and attacked me. Now, he was in a state where no attack could interfere with him, making him invincible, and I was left speechless for a moment.

He had actually turned himself into a human-shaped Teleportation Door!

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