Chapter 66: The Attack (4)

Volume 1 “Year of Calamity”

An Sheng knew that his Hell Transformation was on a time limit. The only thing he could do now was slaughter the Purifiers before him in the shortest time possible. Whether he could achieve this goal was another question. However, that was no longer a problem he could afford to consider. He would do his best and leave the rest to fate.

The sudden outburst from one of the Mutants suppressed by Baldy had indeed caught the three Purifiers completely off guard. When they saw their companion sent flying in an instant, his fate unknown, the faces of the remaining two Purifiers changed. They instantly activated their abilities and attacked An Sheng simultaneously.

An Sheng paid no mind to the other two’s attacks. His only target now was Baldy. As for whether he himself would be injured, to hell with it. He would kill one first and worry about the rest later.

In his Rapid State at several times the speed of sound, An Sheng’s physical reaction time was basically useless. He just aimed for the spot where the bald Purifier was falling and his body instantly accelerated, charging toward that position. Even if he had to smash him, he would flatten that bastard into a meat patty!

An Sheng crashed down like a meteor directly onto the Bald Brute’s body. The massive impact caused the already loosened mountain rock, which had been disturbed by the brute’s fall, to instantly shatter. Dust, gravel, and dirt shot out in all directions. The bald Purifier was truly unlucky. He had been hit by An Sheng’s uppercut to the chin, which nearly knocked him unconscious. Then, his body was struck by bone spurs as hard as diamond, leaving two more horrifying bloody holes in his neck and abdomen. After being knocked down, before he could even use his Deification Factor to heal his wounds, he was struck again by the meteor-like An Sheng.

An Sheng’s previous attack was no simple matter. He had used the Muay Thai killing move, the flying knee strike. Combined with the sharp bone spurs on his knees, he had brutally torn the bald Purifier’s body in two. Although the man was still barely breathing, his death was only a matter of time. The gravity suppressing Nie Chong and the others also vanished as Baldy neared death.

How could Nie Chong let go of the opportunity to attack that An Sheng had bought for them with his life on the line?

“Engage Overload Combat Mode!” The auxiliary computer received Nie Chong’s voice command, and the Exoskeleton Armor instantly entered its extreme combat state.

The Laser Rapid-Fire Cannon unleashed a barrage on the two Purifiers rushing toward An Sheng as if the energy was free, and the thrusters behind him fired at full power, sending him flying in their direction. Xun Lili wasn’t idle either. With a single leap, she jumped onto Nie Chong, half-crouching and grabbing a protrusion on the armor with one hand while brandishing an Electromagnetic Oscillation Battle Blade with the other, soaring forward with Nie Chong.

An Sheng had no time to notice what was happening over there, because the moment after he finished off the bald Purifier, a bolt of lightning as thick as a bowl struck his body. With a loud “Bang!”, the force of the lightning sent him flying backward, green smoke rising from his entire body.

With the black flames absorbed into his body as fuel to boost his combat power, An Sheng’s only remaining defense was the sharpening he had obtained from the Purifier Chen Mu. But in this extreme state, he used almost all his energy to maintain his Hell Transformation, leaving very little for defense. Therefore, An Sheng took the full brunt of this blow. The powerful electric current fried his skin, muscle tissue, and even his internal organs to a half-cooked state.

Fortunately, however, in this extreme state, the operation of his Talent Ability was also five times more powerful. So, although his body was severely injured, his formidable cell regeneration ability immediately kicked in. Before An Sheng even hit the ground, the wounds from the lightning strike were already seventy to eighty percent healed.

Judging purely by the destructive power of their abilities, Fang Yi, who could control lightning, was definitely stronger than Gu Qingshui, who could control hurricanes. Therefore, this woman was An Sheng’s next target for slaughter. Perhaps by a fluke, or perhaps due to some tacit understanding with An Sheng, Nie Chong and Xun Lili’s target was Gu Qingshui, who had attacked An Sheng alongside Fang Yi.

The Laser Rapid-Fire Cannon quickly locked onto Gu Qingshui. At the same time, the two Particle Cannons on his back were charging. In just two more seconds, they would be ready to fire again.

Gu Qingshui once again used that elusive and bizarre movement technique to dodge the Laser Beams. However, his intention to attack An Sheng was now temporarily impossible. Especially when he saw Xun Lili, who was regarded as a traitor among the Purifiers, also charging at him, a flash of anger made Gu Qingshui once again unleash his powerful move—Storm Tornado.

The powerful hurricane almost blew the slender Xun Lili away, but she reacted with lightning speed, gripping Nie Chong’s armor tightly with one hand, managing to hold on against the gale. As for Nie Chong, he pushed his thrusters to maximum power, forcibly holding his position in the storm. They were waiting, waiting for the moment the storm ended. That would be their best opportunity to attack.

“Lili, get ready!” Nie Chong shouted. The tornado was about to end, and their chance to strike was imminent.

As the tornado dissipated, Gu Qingshui stared in disbelief at the two still hovering in the air, wondering how they had withstood his attack. But before he could figure it out, the people before him had already launched another assault.

Nie Chong grabbed one of Xun Lili’s arms and spun in mid-air. The thruster beneath his arm suddenly flared, and the immense force flung Xun Lili’s body directly at Gu Qingshui. Nie Chong himself also drew his Electromagnetic Oscillation Battle Blade, his thrusters flaring all over his body as he flew toward Gu Qingshui.

They were already very close to Gu Qingshui, and he had just used Storm Tornado, making it impossible for him to use his Superpower to attack them again in such a short time. With Nie Chong and Xun Lili attacking one after the other with two high-tech sabers from tricky angles, Gu Qingshui might be able to dodge one attack, but the second one would be a different story.

In that split second, this Purifier also erupted with a powerful will to survive. A green light flashed around him, and a tangible Wind Blade materialized around his folding fan. He twisted his body to dodge Xun Lili’s attack from the front, then raised the Wind Blade with both hands and collided directly with the Electromagnetic Oscillation Battle Blade in the hands of Nie Chong, who was behind him.

The collision between the Wind Blade and the Electromagnetic Oscillation Battle Blade produced a grating “Zzzzzraaa” sound that set one’s teeth on edge. However, Nie Chong’s attack wasn’t over. During the lull while the tornado had been raging, both Particle Cannons had finished charging. Instantly, two thick, blue-white beams of light struck the unprepared Gu Qingshui at close range.

Because a barrier of flowing wind had formed around him when he activated the Wind Blade, the energy beams only pushed his body back a dozen meters before colliding with the barrier and causing a violent explosion. The shockwave from the blast slammed Nie Chong’s body heavily onto the ground, and the light and heat radiation from the explosion temporarily short-circuited his armor.

Fortunately, the armor’s emergency life-support system activated automatically, and the hydraulic shock absorbers operated at full capacity, which saved Nie Chong’s life. However, he was now severely injured. The shockwave from the explosion had nearly ruptured his internal organs. He coughed up mouthful after mouthful of blood, which surged up his throat, into his mouth, and then sprayed out. He was in a miserable state, having lost all ability to fight.

Luckily, Xun Lili couldn’t fly. After her attack missed, she fell straight to the ground and was not caught in the explosion. She hadn’t been flying high to begin with, and her physique, having been strengthened by her mutation, was far superior to that of an ordinary person, so she was completely unharmed.

This time, Gu Qingshui wasn’t so lucky. The power of particle energy weapons was on a completely different level from old-fashioned gunpowder weapons. The immense destructive force, under the ravages of scorching high temperatures and a terrifying shockwave, made his body look like a rock thrown into lava. Not only was he charred black all over, but cracks even appeared on his body, glowing with faint embers.

Gu Qingshui’s body could no longer remain afloat in the air and plummeted, crashing heavily onto the ground. His lower body and one arm, as if they were charred carbon deposits, couldn’t withstand the impact and turned into black dust. But the vitality of a body enhanced by the Deification Factor was astonishing. The man was still alive, though his death was only a matter of time. Once the Deification Factor that was keeping him alive was depleted, his lamp would run out of oil, and he would be reduced to ashes.

In just a few dozen seconds, two of the three Purifiers had been eliminated. What a glorious battle record! But the price paid was also enormous. Nie Chong had completely lost his ability to fight. And An Sheng, at this moment, was also facing a huge crisis, because his next enemy was not an ordinary Purifier, but an Advanced Purifier who could transform her body into energy.

“To think I’d capsize in a calm sea. An Advanced Mutant was hiding such formidable power. I was originally planning to capture you alive and present you to the Emissary, but now it seems I can only take your corpse back.” The female Purifier named Fang Yi didn’t seem to care much about the life or death of her companions. Perhaps after undergoing Sublimation, they had lost their original human emotions; or perhaps they were just extremely cold-blooded by nature.

An Sheng had no time to waste on pleasantries with the woman before him. The time for his Hell Transformation was ticking away, second by second. He had to kill this Purifier before the backlash consumed him.

He activated his rapid dash again. The ground shattered under the immense force as An Sheng turned into a meteor and charged at the woman. But as fast as he was, the woman before him was even faster. An Sheng only saw a flash of lightning before him, and in the next moment, he was sent flying by a massive bolt of lightning from above. In that flash of lightning and spark of flint, An Sheng saw that the Purifier who should have been in front of him had, in the blink of an eye, appeared in the air above his head.

At this moment, Fang Yi had transformed into a humanoid energy form made of blue and white lightning. Her once long, flowing blue hair now looked like a bolt of lightning, occasionally erupting with terrifying electric sparks.

“You lowly vermin, do you know what this is? This is the power bestowed upon us by the Emissary. We are Heavenly Gods! What right do you have to fight against a Heavenly God! Die, vermin!”

In her lightning form, Fang Yi was like a thunder god descended from the Divine Realm. She quickly condensed a spear formed from lightning in her hand and hurled it toward An Sheng. An Sheng had no way to dodge. Just think, even if Burning Pheromones granted him a several-fold boost, how could he be faster than a lightning bolt from the sky? Instantly, the lightning spear pierced straight through An Sheng’s body. And that wasn’t all. The lightning caused a massive explosion that directly engulfed An Sheng’s body.