"Director, do you want us to move!" a rough voice boomed.
At the main gate, two powerful silhouettes strode in.
The speaker was 1.8 m tall and 1.8 m wide, bald and dressed in black—Martial Bear, captain of Team-4 who had been stationed downtown.
Beside him stood another burly figure, a black-armored paper man—Wang Li, captain of Team-10.
"Just hold the line here," Bai Wenliang refused.
If even he couldn't solve it, bringing two Level Fives would be pointless… Inside the Doulin Realm, Bach knelt, face unwilling, glaring at the five people before him. "If you hadn't ganged up on me, I wouldn't have lost—fight me one-on-one!"
He'd lain low for so long only to be mobbed; with top-tier strength, he'd had no chance to use it.
Rumble! A bluish-white bolt of lightning crashed down, swallowing Bach's body.
"Idiot—aren't we a whole group ganging up on you right now?" Qin Wan sneered, raising her hand to boost the lightning's power.
Boom-boom-boom!
Thunder echoed across the Doulin Realm; Jiang Ao and the others hovered nearby, ready to finish the job.
Here their strength was amplified; the combined assault had crippled Bach, who now bore five chunks of flesh, and they were delivering the final blow.
Bang! When the lightning faded, only a charred, twitching lump of flesh remained on the ground.
Qin Musheng stared in surprise. "Still not dead—bloody ridiculous!"
Qin Wan glanced at it and told everyone, "It's lost consciousness. This should be the core that lets them grow stronger by devouring humans and their own kind—I can feel massive energy inside it."
"Team Leader Qin, to play it safe, stay here with this flesh. If someone snatches it again we'll be in trouble," Jiang Ao said, turning to her gravely.
By now they all knew that if the enemy kept devouring unchecked, sooner or later they'd be the ones to fall.
"Got it. I'll send you out first to deal with the one outside," Qin Wan nodded, raising her hand to teleport them out.
Inside this space, spatial users could escape, but breaking in was at least ten times harder.
Outside, the moment Jiang Ao's group appeared their faces changed.
They saw Fang Wenyu in the distance being pummeled by a black four-armed monster, while Deng Mengcheng and Li Junya lay on the ground, lifeless—clearly dead.
"Mengcheng!" Jiang Ao roared, rushing to Deng Mengcheng's corpse.
"Let's go!" Wan Tianhong and the other two joined the mob against Liu Zhiyuan.
Jiang Ao clenched his teeth at the blood holes in Deng Mengcheng and Li Junya's foreheads, then spun and charged Liu Zhiyuan.
The two had been his friends and backers inside the Xuanjian Division; with them dead, even if he became Deputy Director he'd end up a figurehead like Long Zhengqing in key matters.
Whoosh!
"Out of my way!" Furious, Jiang Ao hurled a Wind-Lance at Liu Zhiyuan, who was tangling with the group.
Just before impact, Liu Zhiyuan melted into a puddle of black liquid and let the spear hit.
Buzz! The Wind-Lance stabbed into the liquid and expanded, forming a sphere of wind.
Shnk! Shnk!
Before Liu Zhiyuan could react, countless wind-blade exploded inside the sphere, slicing him; black liquid splattered everywhere.
Yet against his liquefied form, the dense wind-blade dealt zero damage.
So this is the power of six chunks of flesh—even all these captains can't touch me, Liu Zhiyuan thought, eyes flickering.
But he couldn't harm them either: three top-tier Level Fives plus two average ones coordinating left him barely able to keep a fifty-fifty balance.
This can't go on; if I don't merge the remaining flesh I'll lose for sure, he pondered, already unable to sense the other five chunks.
Boom! A bluish-white bolt suddenly cracked from the sky, striking at Liu Zhiyuan as the Wind Sphere dispersed.
"Is that all you've got!" he roared, the black liquid forming a fist that punched upward, scattering the lightning.
Bang! With the bolt shattered, the liquid reshaped into a 2.5-metre, six-armed white-masked figure.
"Now it's my turn!" Liu Zhiyuan bellowed; his muscles contracted, an invisible defensive field coating him, and he locked onto the weakest target—Cao Li.
This ability, gained from the flesh he'd absorbed from Motley, converted stamina into a defensive field—something he'd deliberately hidden for a surprise.
Boom! The ground exploded; incoming wind-blade, lightning and flames were all deflected by his force-field.
He shot straight at Cao Li; no one expected the previously passive Liu Zhiyuan to erupt so fiercely.
"Wenyu, stop him!" Wan Tianhong shouted as their attacks scattered.
Only Fang Wenyu could hold the line against this onslaught.
Fang Wenyu's face tightened as he sprinted to intercept.
He told me to kill those two!" Liu Zhiyuan suddenly yelled, pointing at Fang Wenyu.
No one—Jiang Ao included—listened; in the heat of battle, questions could wait until the enemy was dead.
Fang Wenyu's eyes narrowed as he appeared in Liu Zhiyuan's path, hands raised.
Liu Zhiyuan also stared at Fang Wenyu ten metres away; he'd roughly figured out the man's ability—if he got pinned, escape would be impossible.
Yet he didn't slow. Five metres from Fang Wenyu, his own shadow rose to form a black screen in front of him.
Swish! Liu Zhiyuan dived into the shadow and instantly reappeared from Cao Li's shadow.
"Got you!!!" he roared, the white mask twisting as all six arms clawed at her.
With his current strength, one clean hit would cripple or kill her.
Cao Li paled in terror—she had no time to react. "Save me!"
"Got you, too." Just as Liu Zhiyuan's six hands were about to close, a voice sounded behind him.
Hum!
A terrifying energy spike followed; white light flared at his back and Liu Zhiyuan's body vaporized in an instant of extreme heat.
The blinding white light swept the area; the fused six-chunk Liu Zhiyuan was evaporated before the mask's snarl could fade.
When the light dimmed, Cao Li stood ashen-faced, staring at a three-metre-wide crater behind her; its walls had fused into molten crystal, depth unknown.
Bai Wenliang stood nearby, expressionless in a white vest, floral shorts and flip-flops, his head bald and gleaming.
In his left hand a chunk of flesh twitched. "Interesting—it actually withstood my strike. So this is the source of the so-called Flesh-and-Blood Beings' power."
"Director, thank goodness you arrived in time or I'd be down too," Cao Li said shakily.
Fang Wenyu and the others looked over; Qin Musheng swallowed hard as Bai Wenliang one-shotted the monster that had fought them to a standstill.
"So this is Level Six… the gap is bigger than from an ant to Level Five," he muttered in shock.
He'd only heard tales of Level Six before—this was his first time witnessing it in action.