The figure swimming beneath the water moved fast, but no matter how fast, it could not shake Shadow’s pursuit.
The figure sensed soone chasing and tried to slip deeper into the ocean, constantly changing direction, but it was simply impossible to get away.
Guided by Chen Na, who had her Perception Domain active, Guan Tong clung on without letting go. After nearly ten minutes of pursuit, the other party could no longer hide underwater and broke the surface.
“Wow, he’s so ugly…”
The mont Yuzawa Jun surfaced, Chen Na, seeing his grotesque appearance, suddenly found it hard to look.
If judged only by the face, Yuzawa Jun could still be called a “handso youth.”
But everything below the face was unbearable to look at.
Whether it was the torso composed of several heads strung together, or the snake tail with strange fins for a lower body, it looked like a stitched-together monster, far from human.
“Shadow… you really are persistent.”
Yuzawa Jun stared at Guan Tong, his body rising and falling with the waves, each head forming his torso furrowing its brow as if about to open its eyes at any mont.
“Failing to kill you the first ti was my mistake,” Guan Tong said. “I won’t make the sa mistake again.”
As he spoke, he made a judgnt in his mind.
Yuzawa Jun’s deep-sea roaming must consu a huge amount of Mind Power, otherwise he would not give up his advantage and co out. He had to be dealt with quickly, without ti to recover.
“Shadow, why must you and I fight to the death?” Yuzawa Jun tried to reason. “Is it worth dying over that grudge? Have you thought, if we joined forces, we could conquer the whole world?”
“No interest.”
Guan Tong said, then quietly to Chen Na, whom he held in his left arm, “Xiao Na, I’m going to summon a room in a mont. Get in imdiately.”
Chen Na had no combat ability. If a fight broke out, Guan Tong might not be able to protect her, so she had to go into the shelter.
“Okay!”
Chen Na answered at once. She would not be a burden or hold Guan Tong back.
“So what are you interested in then?”
Yuzawa Jun on the other side still refused to give up, attempting to persuade Guan Tong with words.
“Wealth, power, won—you’re not interested in any of those. Then I guess you’re the martyr type who only cares about ideals? Planning to live to the end to expose the Fire Thief’s secrets? I can help you with that too.”
“Think about it! All of Sakura Prayer Country is controlled by my Yuzawa Family. If you agree to cooperate, I can have the whole of Sakura Prayer supply you with Mind Power. Don’t you have the reserve Mind Power ability? Isn’t that important to you?”
“If you and I fight to the death, regardless of who wins, others profit. Even if you win, do you think the rulers of Sakura Prayer will agree to funnel the populace’s Mind Power to you? Can anyone else give you the terms I’m offering?”
Yuzawa Jun stared at Guan Tong with fixed eyes. He was indeed skilled at reading and manipulating people, correctly analyzing that Guan Tong’s goal was to uncover the truth, and judging that what he lacked most was a Mind Power supply.
“You’re not wrong, but…”
Guan Tong said, secretly using Shadow to flip through the pages of the Wordless Book he held.
When he reached the page for the shelter, he poured in Mind Power to summon it.
The shelter abruptly appeared on the sea surface, its door opening, and he imdiately sent Chen Na inside using Shadow.
A cold glint flashed in Yuzawa Jun’s eyes; he saw Guan Tong preparing to act, proving his words had failed to sway him.
“But I will never cooperate with trash like you.”
Guan Tong said, retracting the shelter.
Unexpectedly, at the mont before the door closed, a black shape suddenly sprang out.
Coal Ball?
Guan Tong had not expected Coal Ball to dash out. The shelter had already been retracted back into the Wordless Book. Out there was open sea; Coal Ball plunged in at once, but popped his head back up the next mont, looking like he could swim.
“…”
Guan Tong was irritated inwardly. This little creature popping out only made trouble.
If he summoned the shelter again, Yuzawa Jun, now prepared, would surely attack.
…Kill Yuzawa Jun first, then worry about everything else.
Guan Tong made a firm decision, and Yuzawa Jun imdiately sensed it.
“Killing intent is strong, hehe. Seems my earlier words were wasted. But if you think I spoke so much because I feared you, you’re wrong…”
Yuzawa Jun struck preemptively. Before he finished speaking, the six heads that made up his torso simultaneously opened their eyes.
In an instant, seven pairs of eyes all stared at Guan Tong, and green beams of light sparked from six of those pairs.
Guan Tong used Body Swap at once, exchanging places with Shadow.
The mont he vanished, the fourth head in the middle of Yuzawa Jun’s torso suddenly rotated one hundred and eighty degrees and laughed wildly at the figure that had appeared behind him.
“I knew you’d teleport behind !”
Szz—!
Green light shot from that head’s eyes, instantly freezing the figure behind Yuzawa Jun into a rigid bronze-green.
This was one of the abilities that ca with Yuzawa Jun’s bloodline: petrifying gaze.
But he imdiately realized sothing was off.
The petrified figure did not seem to be Guan Tong himself.
Above?!
All seven heads rolled their eyes upward at once. A pitch-black sphere was now extrely close.
It was that space…!
The Small Space silently and suddenly devoured, instantly destroying the topmost head of Yuzawa Jun.
Its montum did not abate; it kept obliterating the second, the third…
Guan Tong had known Yuzawa Jun would guard against his teleport, so the figure that had appeared behind Yuzawa Jun was not his true body but Shadow transford into his appearance.
The real Guan Tong had teleported to a high spot above Yuzawa Jun and, using the acceleration of the fall, intended to destroy all seven of Yuzawa Jun’s heads in one blow with the Small Space!
When the Small Space sphere destroyed the fourth head, the remaining three heads let out a shrill, pitiful screech and were flung out with several “puf” sounds.
Guan Tong jumped to the side imdiately, landing on the hovering platform ford by Shadow to observe.
He saw those three ejected heads hanging independently above the sea, each connected below by a deep-red blood strand, an especially eerie sight.
“Shadow!”
“You destroyed so many of my heads!”
“I’ll kill you, kill you!”
The three heads—all spoke at once—then all three reared up. One pair of eyes glowed green with petrifying light, another suddenly opened a wide mouth and spat a mouthful of brownish-green viscous fluid, while the third emitted a piercing shriek.
The three heads used different abilities, but all targeted Guan Tong.
The petrifying green light, the toxic viscous fluid, and the mind-disturbing shriek combined into a devastating mixed assault.
Guan Tong raised a Shadow Wall to block the viscous fluid, and used Shadow to seal his ears, protecting himself from the ntal interference.
Before the petrifying green light reached him, he manipulated the shadow platform beneath his feet to rise so the attack missed.
But the next second he realized Yuzawa Jun’s attacks seed ant to buy ti.
While Guan Tong dodged, the three heads rapidly reconnected. Two shut their eyes, leaving only one, a pair of eyes burning with intense hatred glaring at Guan Tong.
“Shadow, you actually pushed
this far… I heard you can use the Shadow Domain. Today I’ll show you what a true domain is… ah!”
That head howled upward. Guan Tong, startled, turned to see green lights rising from the distant sea surface and shooting toward them!
All those green beams poured into the trident-shaped formation of Yuzawa Jun’s three heads. A terrifying montum spread as massive flesh nodules erupted and grew from beneath their necks, instantly forming three thick serpentine bodies!
They rose from the sea, truly resembling ancient legendary deep-sea serpents!
“This is…”
Guan Tong was shocked at the sight.
He had traveled far and wide but had never seen such a bizarre ability.
“Myriad Serpents Domain.”
All three of Yuzawa Jun’s heads spoke in unison.
At the sa ti, Silver Fox’s voice ca through the headset Guan Tong wore.
“Guan Tong! What’s happening over there? The serpent slave army that fell into the sea from that freighter suddenly all died, bodies turned into mummies!”
Serpent slave army… mummified bodies… Myriad Serpents Domain…
Guan Tong’s pupils contracted. “Myriad Serpents Domain concentrates the power of all serpent slaves into one person?”
Only then did he understand Yuzawa Jun’s true intention in creating the serpent slave army.
Using them to form an army to conquer the world was the overt intent, but hidden behind that was the plan to use all the serpent slaves to nourish Yuzawa Jun himself.
“You’re right.”
“The blood of the serpent slaves is what I granted them, so naturally I should reclaim it.”
“Right now this body has already gathered the power of thousands of serpent slaves. Shadow, you are lucky—first to see my true form. But you are also unlucky; once you see my true form, you must die.”
All three heads spoke at once, their words overlapping.
But Guan Tong had experienced the Mind Network during the Digital Detox rule and was no longer troubled by discerning multiple voices at once.
The three heads continued together: “Having gained the ancient Yamata no Orochi bloodline, I am destined to tower above the world. Shadow, your presumption ends here.”
“…”
Guan Tong looked at Yuzawa Jun, now transford into a three-headed great serpent, and silently summoned Shadow to gather around him. An additional Shadow Blade materialized in his hand.
Yuzawa Jun was unquestionably the strongest enemy he had encountered; Guan Tong felt the danger in his bones.
But this was not the ti to give up. Yuzawa Jun’s capacity for growth was terrifying. If he escaped and covertly bred a large number of serpent slaves sowhere, he could one day beco uncontrollable.
Especially since Guan Tong had destroyed five of his heads; if all eight heads were present and he activated the domain in full, the full-form Yamata no Orochi would be utterly terrifying.
…He had to be eliminated here!
“And .”
Uenoshi had also caught up by now.
Guan Tong realized she too had aquatic stealth capability. While not as fast as Yuzawa Jun, combined with the previous conflict over serpent slave control, it showed their bloodline abilities shared so similarities.
“All right,” Guan Tong said. “Let’s take down this monster together.”
“I’m telling you!”
At this mont Silver Fox’s displeased voice sounded in both their headsets.
“Don’t just think about reckless fighting—have you forgotten we have the Flying Fire Fleet, our ultimate weapon? Look up!”
Both were startled and looked up.
Scarlet missile trails lit the sky—the glow of a volley of missiles!
“Fall back!”
Guan Tong did not want to be caught in the blast. He grabbed Uenoshi with Shadow and pulled them both back quickly.
The missile volley had already locked on its target coordinates. These precision, state-of-the-art missiles, accurate to the ter, reached altitude then roared forward, striking the three-headed serpent’s body with full force!
Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom!
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