Mo Tong chuckled softly, almost tenderly.
"Such bold words from such a sweet little boy."
The third Spirit Ring flashed with a milky-gray light.
"Third Spirit Skill: Starry Scales!"
Dark scales began spreading from his fingertips, crawling up his arms, neck, and cheekbones. They were densely speckled with sparks of starlight, as though a piece of the night sky had been draped over his skin.
Hui Mi did not wait for the scales to reach his face. He vanished.
All that remained where he had stood was a white-blue silhouette fading into the air. His spear struck Mo Tong in the side.
A harsh scraping sound rang out, like steel driven into stone. The spearhead pierced the scales, then stopped dead. The stars embedded in them flared brighter, greedily absorbing part of the impact's force. The black lightning that should have surged through Mo Tong's body fizzled out right at the surface.
Mo Tong caught the spear with his bare hand.
Lightning crawled across his fingers, burning and poisoning him, yet he merely grinned. He followed up by striking Hui Mi in the chest with his free hand.
The Lightning Cloak activated before Hui Mi could even think. The lightning beneath his skin jerked his muscles, and his hand involuntarily opened, releasing the spear. With its wielder gone, it disintegrated into black sparks in Mo Tong's palm.
Mo Tong's fist merely grazed Hui Mi's chest without landing a direct hit.
Mo Tong shook the remaining black sparks from his palm and examined his burned fingers. His smile grew colder. He raised his hand, and the first Spirit Ring flashed with a milky-gray light.
"First Spirit Skill: Devouring Fang!"
Ten serpentine fangs materialized out of thin air. Half of them surged toward the retreating Hui Mi. The other half shot toward Sheng Min and Hao Min.
The fangs were already chasing Hui Mi, whistling through the air and skimming over the grass. He retreated in sudden bursts, one step at a time, but they rapidly closed the distance.
He slammed his palm against the ground, pushed off, and rolled over his shoulder. Then he rolled again, keeping his body as close to the earth as possible.
The bone tips pierced the grass where his chest had been a second earlier, then where his stomach had been. Black veins spread from the impact points, and the grass crumbled into dust.
He abruptly darted sideways, drew his leg in, and, still gasping, pushed himself up onto one knee.
Four fangs remained embedded in the ground. A fifth twisted in midair, and Hui Mi barely managed to jerk backward.
The fang grazed his shoulder.
The contact was light, but the pain felt as though a shard of ice had been driven into his bone. The skin around the wound turned white, then gray, like dead wood.
Hui Mi gritted his teeth and did not make a sound.
Zhou Shenyang rushed to intercept the remaining projectiles. His feet struck the ground with sharp thuds as he darted between Sheng Min and the incoming fangs, stopping when they were no more than ten paces away from her.
"Fifth Spirit Skill: Dawn!"
The black Spirit Ring flashed, and golden-yellow light enveloped his body like the sunrise over a desert. His hair burst into flame. The tiger markings across his face and arms glowed gold, while fiery veins spread throughout his body.
He grew.
His shoulders broadened, his muscles swelled, and his clothes strained with a series of tearing sounds. Soon, a towering figure two and a half meters tall stood on the clearing.
He resembled a tiger made of solar fire that had taken on human form.
The fangs rushed toward him, whistling and twisting through the air. He stood motionless, waiting.
When they came within three meters, he spread his arms and clapped his hands together with tremendous force.
The air exploded.
A shock wave swept across the clearing, flattening the grass and tearing clumps of turf from the earth. The bone fangs were knocked out of the air, spun helplessly through the clearing, and crashed to the ground.
Mo Tong looked directly into Zhou Shenyang's eyes. His pupils flashed with a milky-gray light, and he clenched his fist.
"Fourth Spirit Skill: Soul Poison!"
A wave of mental power struck Zhou Shenyang's mind.
Zhou merely snorted and bared his teeth in a grin.
"Won't work."
Dawn had strengthened more than just Zhou Shenyang's body. Golden armor had closed around his consciousness, and the soul poison smashed into it like a wave against an impregnable wall.
Cracks spread across the protective armor, growing wider with every passing moment, until the golden shell finally shattered into glittering fragments.
By then, however, the poison had already expended almost all its strength. It failed to break through the remaining barrier, leaving Zhou Shenyang's Spiritual Sea untouched. Only a brief flash of pain pierced his consciousness, and he quickly overcame it.
Jin Luo watched everything from behind a fallen tree trunk, his head tilted to one side.
He wasn't hiding. He was observing.
Watching every movement Mo Tong made, every action he took.
"Hui Mi!" he called out, his voice stripped of its usual laziness. "Show me scissors!"
"What?!"
"Scissors! With your fingers! Hurry!"
Hui Mi clearly had no idea what he was talking about, but he didn't argue. He raised his hand and formed the scissors sign with his fingers.
Jin Luo immediately closed his own hand into a fist, and the third black Spirit Ring beneath his feet flared to life.
"Third Spirit Skill: Rock-Paper-Scissors!"
A fist against two extended fingers.
Rock beats scissors.
At that very instant, lightning raced through Jin Luo's body, making him twitch slightly. The third black Spirit Ring rippled for a moment, as though its surface had turned to water, before returning to its original shape.
"Much obliged," Jin Luo said with a satisfied smile.
He opened his hand as though shaking invisible dust from his fingers, then turned his gaze toward his opponents.
"Against an opponent like this, you have to play big."
Mo Tong realized something was happening. He swung his hand, and gray serpents began slithering out of the ground toward Jin Luo.
Jin Luo didn't even turn his head.
Zhou Shenyang lunged forward and drove his fist into Mo Tong's side. The impact sent Mo Tong staggering several steps backward, and the serpents dissolved into smoke before they could reach their target.
A lever with a handle appeared in front of Jin Luo. A moment later, a small drum with three slots unfolded beside it. The contraption resembled a slot machine that had somehow been transported straight onto the battlefield.
The lever jerked on its own, and the reels began spinning.
"Fourth Spirit Skill: One Hundred Percent Slot Machine!"
Jin Luo clasped his hands together.
"Three sevens, please. Three sevens…"
Click. Click. Click.
Cherry. Cherry. Cherry.
Jin Luo slowly exhaled.
"At least it wasn't skulls," he muttered.
The air before him rippled. Space seemed to part, allowing a tall, unnaturally thin figure to emerge.
The figure wore a flamboyant suit of black-and-gold diamonds decorated with the symbols of the four card suits: spades, hearts, clubs, and diamonds. Silver bells swayed from three points of his hat, yet not a single one made a sound.
A sinister mask concealed his face. He held a deck of cards in his right hand, while his left remained empty.
The figure floated above the ground without touching it with his feet. Even beneath the bright sunlight, he cast no shadow.
The Jester surveyed the battlefield. His smile widened further when he spotted Mo Tong.
Then he turned toward Jin Luo.
For a moment, the two remained motionless, staring at each other as though having a conversation that required not a single word.
The Jester seemed to smile knowingly. He could see how tense Jin Luo was.
Yet he gave a slight nod.
Barely perceptible, just a small movement of his head.
The silver bells remained silent.
The figure dissolved into scraps of dark fabric and flowed into Jin Luo's chest like smoke drifting through an open window.
Jin Luo opened his eyes.
They were turquoise, cold, and inhumanly clear.
The clearing disappeared.
All that remained were thin, glowing threads extending from every person. Golden threads led to fortune, while black threads led to misfortune.
In that instant, every move made by everyone present lay in the palm of his hand.
He turned toward Xiao Yu.
"When I give the signal, attack with everything you've got."
Xiao Yu stood some distance away, but he understood from the movement of Jin Luo's lips and nodded.
Meanwhile, Sheng Min had already reached Hao Min. She dropped to her knees and, without hesitation, seized the fang with her bare hands.
The bone burned her palms with its icy chill.
She gritted her teeth and yanked.
The fang came free from Hao Min's leg with a wet sound. Her hands immediately turned gray, and cracks appeared across her skin like fissures in parched earth.
"Second Spirit Skill: Purification!"
A purple Spirit Ring flared beneath her.
She pressed her palms against the wound, and a strange, icy energy began flowing from Hao Min's body into her hands.
The gray discoloration crept up her skin toward her wrists, but Sheng Min did not pull away. She continued drawing the foreign darkness out of both him and herself until the wound stopped turning black.
Hao Min remained unconscious, but his breathing steadied.
Meanwhile, Zhou Shenyang and Mo Tong clashed in close combat.
They darted across the clearing, allowing each other not a second's respite. Every time their fists collided, a dull impact rang out, and cracks raced across the ground.
Shenyang's fist slammed into Mo Tong's forearm. The brief shock wave kicked up dust and dry leaves.
This was far from their first exchange.
Zhou Shenyang held his ground stubbornly and had no intention of backing down.
The second purple Spirit Ring beneath his feet flashed, and the world around him came into sharper focus.
"Second Spirit Skill: Predator's Eye!"
Zhou's pupils narrowed, and a tiger-like gleam emerged from the depths of his golden-amber eyes.
Every movement Mo Tong made became crystal clear: the tension in his muscles, the rhythm of his breathing, the slightest shift of his eyes. Nothing escaped the Predator's Eye.
He's weaker than me in close combat, Zhou Shenyang realized, increasing the pressure.
The difference was small, but it was enough.
Zhou Shenyang judged distances more accurately and adjusted between attacks more quickly. His blows followed one after another, leaving Mo Tong unable to seize the initiative.
Mo Tong noticed the shift immediately.
He was not accustomed to close combat and rarely allowed an opponent to dictate the pace of a fight. Yet this brat gave him no chance to increase the distance or even catch his breath.
Shenyang's hand-to-hand technique was polished to an almost irritating degree of precision. For the first time in a long while, Mo Tong found himself being pushed onto the defensive.
A strike to the torso.
A quick feint toward the head.
Then a punch aimed straight at the solar plexus.
Mo Tong managed to intercept the final blow, but the force of the collision still drove him half a step backward. Surprise flickered in his eyes, mingling with irritation.
This little mutt is actually giving me trouble.
He attempted a counterattack, but Zhou Shenyang shifted aside just in time, and Mo Tong's fist swept past its target.
Mo Tong left himself exposed for an instant.
Shenyang immediately seized the opportunity.
BAM!
A massive fist slammed into Mo Tong's chest.
Mo Tong managed to twist his body and partially evade the blow, but a wave of dull pain still coursed through him.
He gritted his teeth.
He couldn't allow this to continue.
His third Spirit Ring began glowing again, and murky light crept upward across his body.
"Third Spirit Skill: Starry Scales!"
Even more white scales spread across Mo Tong's skin, and tiny sparks of starlight appeared between them.
Zhou Shenyang's next punch struck him in the chest once more. This time, the impact rang out like a fist colliding with metal.
Pain shot through Shenyang's arm all the way to his shoulder.
Mo Tong smirked and drew back his fist for a counterblow.
Shenyang didn't try to block it.
At the last instant, he sharply stepped to the left.
For a brief moment, an open space appeared between them. Mo Tong instinctively focused on his opponent, trying to predict Shenyang's next move.
But Hui Mi was standing behind Shenyang.
Mo Tong noticed him too late.
All this time, Zhou Shenyang's broad back had blocked his view, and his attention had been entirely fixed on Shenyang.
The second black Spirit Ring beneath Hui Mi's feet flared.
"Second Spirit Skill: Divine Judgment!"
A single bolt of white-blue lightning appeared beside him. It neither branched nor crackled. It simply trembled faintly in the air.
Hui Mi opened his fingers, and the lightning shot forward.
It struck Mo Tong squarely in the chest.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion erupted, sending bolts of lightning in every direction. A blinding white flash tore through the air.
Mo Tong was hurled several steps backward.
At the point of impact, his milky-gray scales had visibly dulled, and faint cracks spread across their surface.
Even a defensive skill wielded by a Saint had failed to withstand the full power of Divine Judgment.
"What…?" Mo Tong breathed.
He couldn't understand how this attack had pierced his Starry Scales.
Shenyang gave him no time to recover.
He stepped forward and kicked the outside of Mo Tong's knee.
A dry crack rang out, and Mo Tong's leg buckled.
He would have collapsed, but at the last moment, he planted a hand against the ground and forced himself upright, pouring every ounce of strength he could muster into his injured leg.
At that moment, his heart began to pound faster.
These… these two are too strange. Their strength is comparable to that of a Soul Emperor (Rank 7)… No. They're already approaching the Saint level (Rank 8). Where did they come from?
His gaze shifted from Zhou Shenyang to Hui Mi.
One possessed exceptional hand-to-hand skills and knew how to force his opponent into an uncomfortable rhythm.
The other wielded devastating power capable of piercing even Mo Tong's defenses.
And yet they fought with such coordination that it seemed each already knew what the other would do next.
Mo Tong clenched his teeth.
He couldn't allow them to keep pressing him like this. If they continued their relentless assault, he would no longer be able to defeat them without suffering serious injuries himself.
The fifth milky-gray Spirit Ring beneath his feet flared to life.
"Fifth Spirit Skill: Twin Devouring Heads!"
A dense wave of gray energy erupted from his body. It rapidly condensed in front of him, taking the shape of two enormous skulls.
Dim starlight glimmered in their empty eye sockets, and their massive jaws opened to reveal rows of sharp, uneven teeth.
A dreadful aura radiated from the skulls, raising goosebumps on anyone who felt it.
In the next instant, both skulls shot forward.
One charged toward Hui Mi, the other toward Zhou Shenyang. They surged ahead at terrifying speed, leaving two twisting trails of gray energy in their wake. Their jaws opened wider and wider, as though they intended to swallow their opponents whole.
Hui Mi immediately gathered lightning around his body, preparing to meet the attack head-on.
Shenyang assumed a fighting stance, and spirit power surged into his arms.
Neither of them retreated.
The skulls rapidly closed the distance.
Just as they were about to reach their targets, something strange happened.
Both Devouring Heads abruptly stopped.
Their movement came to an abrupt halt, as though an invisible force had seized them by the backs of their skulls.
For a fraction of a second, silence descended over the clearing.
And then…
BOOOOOOM!
Both skulls exploded simultaneously.
The gray energy transformed into raging shock waves that crashed down upon Hui Mi and Zhou Shenyang. The flash swallowed their figures, and the deafening roar thundered across the entire clearing.
The earth shook.
Dust and debris scattered in every direction. Hui Mi and Shenyang were hurled backward as though an invisible palm had struck them with monstrous force.
Their figures vanished into a cloud of dust, while the remnants of gray energy continued twisting above the devastated ground.