Chapter 24: Chapter 24: A Sword’s Cry Like a Dragon’s Roar
"What’s that thing?"
Su Xing saw a person on the mountain and immediately realized this was the one who had been spying on him.
At the same time, Su Xing noticed something wasn’t right about this person. He was crouched on the ground, with tufts of fur sprouting from his body. In the moonlight, he had a dark, metallic sheen like refined iron.
’What kind of monster is this?’
’Or is it some strange Sequence?’
Su Xing’s eyes narrowed, his gaze turning cold. He tightened his grip on the sword in his hand, ready to unleash a full-power strike at any moment.
"Heh... Su Yu’s older brother, Su Xing?"
"You’re quite famous in our Spiritual Sect. Just an ordinary person, yet you got dragged into this whole mess. How pitiful. Why don’t you be a good boy and let me eat you? I’ll free you from this life of misery!"
Lou Zhen spoke in a mocking tone. His mouth twitched, stretching into an unnaturally wide grin as he stared fixedly at Su Xing. His crimson eyes held a feral glint, like a beast that had cornered its prey.
Greed and desire.
His desires were eroding his sanity. Or perhaps he never saw Su Xing as a threat in the first place.
The moment he finished speaking, Lou Zhen dropped to all fours like a dark hound. With a kick of his legs, he became a blur and lunged straight at Su Xing.
He moved with incredible speed.
In the blink of an eye, the silver claws on his hands were right before Su Xing.
If Shen Ruyun had been there, she would have been astonished by Lou Zhen’s speed. This lunge was incomparably faster than when he had fought her. If Lou Zhen had used his full power from the start, she doubted she could have even wounded him.
Lou Zhen’s crimson eyes, like liquid, left trails of red light as he flew through the air.
It was accompanied by the roar of a fierce gale—not from a Wind Sequence, just pure brute force. A vicious light flared in Lou Zhen’s eyes as his right hand, now a beast’s claw, smashed toward Su Xing like a giant hammer.
He was fast, but Su Xing was faster!
As the giant hammer of a fist smashed toward him, Su Xing, right hand tight on his hilt, drew his sword in a flash. A brilliant white light flared into existence before coalescing into a single, straight line that pierced through Lou Zhen’s torso. In its wake, a dense web of smaller white lines bloomed and spread.
All of these white lines slashed into Lou Zhen’s body.
VMM! VMM! VMM!
The sword’s hum rang out again and again. All Lou Zhen felt was a sudden, jarring impact.
Su Xing suddenly appeared behind him. Lou Zhen found himself frozen in place, unable to move. He felt the web of white lines inside him, a sensation like being slowly carved apart by a dull blade, as if his body was being systematically dissected.
Chunks of his flesh began to slough off and fall to the ground like scrap, and blood erupted from him in fountains.
’This *Drawing Stance* and *Slicing White Lines* combo is seriously powerful.’
Su Xing mused to himself, gripping the heavy sword in his hand.
He turned to look back at the man he had just run through, but his brief moment of satisfaction vanished like smoke. His brow furrowed even more tightly.
Cracks spiderwebbed across Lou Zhen’s entire body, and chunks of his flesh wouldn’t stop falling off. Yet, Lou Zhen showed no signs of being near death.
His body was like a flesh factory running at full tilt. The severed chunks of meat regenerated at an unimaginable speed, only this time, they were covered in dense layers of black fur.
’What powerful regenerative abilities.’
Su Xing sheathed his sword, watching the man behind him get back to his feet.
’If he could even be called human anymore...’
By now, Lou Zhen had completely lost his human form. His body was a mass of writhing, misshapen muscle, all of it covered in dense black fur. He looked like a true beast.
"Heh... I never expected you to be the one hiding his true strength."
Lou Zhen looked down at the dense web of sword wounds that covered nearly his entire body. His voice was low and raspy as he spoke:
"You’re the mysterious powerhouse, aren’t you?"
"What Sequence is this? Did your ’Him,’ the one you all act so mysterious about, grant it to you?"
Su Xing didn’t answer him. He only narrowed his eyes and patted the longsword at his waist.
Seeing Su Xing pat his sword, Lou Zhen listlessly stuck out his bright red tongue and licked his furry palm. Then he slowly placed his hand back on the ground, his crimson eyes locked on Su Xing as he suddenly spoke:
"Threatening me?"
"Heh... As if you’re worthy."
VMM!
Before he could finish his sentence, the sharp ring of a sword drowned out his voice.
Lou Zhen suddenly couldn’t hear his own words. A torrent of white lines erupted from in front of Su Xing, twisting and spinning together to form a spiraling tunnel that engulfed him.
Wounds began to appear on his newly-healed body once more, but compared to the last attack, these were nothing. It was like comparing a calf to a bull.
He narrowed his eyes and laughed arrogantly.
"Is that all you’ve got?!"
After the vortex of endless white lines dissipated,
Lou Zhen finally realized that Su Xing had somehow closed the distance between them. Su Xing took a large step forward, his right hand gripping the hilt. With a sudden draw, he brought the sword down directly on Lou Zhen’s head.
"Just die!"
Su Xing’s clear voice echoed through the expanse of white light.
Lou Zhen felt as if his head had been hit by a truck loaded with weapons. The force of the blow sent him flying backward, and he crashed heavily to the ground, gouging out a deep crater.
BOOM!
A tremendous crash kicked up a massive cloud of dust.
’Something’s not right...’
Su Xing’s brow furrowed even more tightly.
That strike hadn’t gone the way he’d imagined.
’A sword strike shouldn’t have sent the man flying; it should have sent his head rolling. I’m using a sword, not a club. How could it have just knocked him back?’
’Unless...’
’His body has already become this tough.’
’So his physical durability increases every time he heals?’
Su Xing suddenly understood the true nature of the man’s Sequence. It wasn’t just about turning him into some inhuman monster. More importantly, every time he was wounded but not killed, he came back even stronger after healing.
"Heh heh... what incredible power."
"But... I think you’ve had enough fun now, don’t you?"
A cold, icy voice cut through the settling dust and reached Su Xing’s ears.
Su Xing focused his gaze and saw, through the swirling dust, a creature that was neither human nor beast staggering to its feet. It remained on all fours, baring its fangs at him.
A huge, crater-like dent was caved into Lou Zhen’s head, as if he had been struck by a massive hammer.
But even an injury like this wasn’t enough to kill him.
A stream of energy flowed ceaselessly toward the wound. In the blink of an eye, the massive crater in his head smoothed over, a new patch of black fur sprouting in its place.
His crimson eyes blazed like taillights in the dark, leaving long trails of red.
With unimaginable speed, Lou Zhen’s figure crossed the distance between them and appeared before Su Xing. He had played enough; now it was time to savor the fruits of his victory.
BOOM!
Lou Zhen’s claws smashed down like a heavy hammer, whipping up a gale even fiercer than before as they descended on Su Xing!
"Die, you little bastard!"
Seeing Su Xing slowly reaching for his sword hilt, Lou Zhen assumed he had given up all hope. A maniacal laugh escaped him as his lips peeled back in a grin that almost reached his eyes.
"Heh... so you’re good at regenerating, are you?"
"In that case... let’s see you recover after I slice you in half!"
Su Xing took a step forward and drew his sword in a flash. Its ring was like the roar of a dragon!
