It's You Who Lost

Liu Chengjun's gaze swept past Liu Feiyu and landed coldly on Thousand Faces.

Truly, trouble comes knocking even when you're sitting at home minding your own business.

"What are you looking at me for? Since the secret can't be kept anymore, I'll just turn all of you into corpses."

The terrifying pressure of a Ninth Order descended. Thousand Faces sneered, and his figure vanished from the spot in an instant.

"Now!"

An Changqing shouted, his long sword leaping from its sheath. A flash of blade-light shot straight toward Liu Chengjun.

Liu Feiyu also reignited her ability, joining forces with An Changqing to attack the one who had killed her brother.

On the other side, Long Ao roared as he charged at Thousand Faces.

"Take this punch!"

Every muscle in his body bulged, and his fist, wreathed in red energy, tore through the air toward Thousand Faces.

Yet against a Ninth Order enemy, the punch seemed utterly feeble.

Thousand Faces didn't even bother to dodge. He simply raised a hand and caught Long Ao's fist with ease.

"Sixth Order? Pathetic."

He bared his teeth in a grin, then his fingers clenched.

A sickening crack. Long Ao's finger bones snapped, and his entire body was hurled away by the sheer force, slamming hard into the wall.

"Long Ao!"

Hong Yuan's massive battle-axe carved a gale through the air, sweeping toward Thousand Faces' midsection.

Thousand Faces didn't flinch. If anything, he looked amused as he watched her.

"Another one offering herself up for death."

In Chen Guan's mind, Baal's voice drifted up languidly.

"Heh heh heh. Good show."

"This one's all show on the outside, but inside he stopped being human a long time ago. Heh heh heh. His power source is the third one — Astaroth."

"I've already suppressed that power. This fake is nothing but a sturdy punching bag with a high rank now. Otherwise, those two kids would already be dead."

There are gaps between demons.

Not just in strength, but in temperament.

Baal, for instance, didn't like directly handing power to his contractors. He preferred deals. His relationship with his contractor was more equal — the contractor's strength was earned, and he was mostly a guide.

Astaroth, on the other hand, loved to hand out power directly, luring people into corruption. His contractors — call them contractors if you're being polite, but honestly, they were just puppets.

Even so, the absolute suppression of rank remained.

Hong Yuan's axe was caught between two of Thousand Faces' fingers, locked in place.

"Bam!"

Thousand Faces drove a kick into Hong Yuan's stomach, sending her flying as well.

"How boring. You lot can't even warm me up."

He walked slowly toward the downed Long Ao, murder glinting in his eyes.

He didn't know why Astaroth had stopped answering him, but it didn't matter. A few kids — he'd clean them up soon enough.

Long Ao coughed up blood and struggled to push himself upright from the crater in the wall. His vision fixed on Hong Yuan's wretched form, sent flying by Thousand Faces' kick.

"Hong Yuan!"

His eyes split with fury, and a beastlike roar tore from his throat.

Even now that he'd gotten stronger… he still couldn't do anything?

Thousand Faces wore a cruel, mocking smile as he strolled lazily toward the fallen Hong Yuan, savoring her final desperate struggle.

"Foolish little girl. Time to send you on your way."

He raised his palm, a sphere of pure black gathering and spinning at high speed, aimed directly at her head.

"You dare!"

Long Ao roared, his red aura flaring violently, but his injuries kept him from reaching her in time.

Thousand Faces' palm descended with killing force, about to crush Hong Yuan's skull.

Then, a massive, solid shadow appeared silently in front of her.

A heavy thud.

The palm strike that could split stone met the shadow, but instead of power behind it, the sound was a dull, muffled impact. All its force was eerily absorbed.

The shadow didn't budge an inch.

For the first time, the smile on Thousand Faces' face vanished. He squinted at it.

It was a turtle.

A small turtle no bigger than a human face, its shell covered in deep, ancient patterns. Small as it was, it radiated a heaviness like a mountain.

Eighth Order spirit beast — the Tongxuan Turtle.

"Your opponent is me!"

Long Ao's roar detonated behind him.

Thousand Faces whipped around.

Long Ao's muscles were bunched and knotted now, veins writhing beneath his skin. That red aura had condensed into something almost physical, wrapping his entire body.

"Endless Combat Arts — Hundredfold Strike!"

He drove forward with a punch, and the fist drew a long chain of dense, blurred afterimages in the air.

Thousand Faces' eyes flickered with disdain. Habitually, he raised his arm to block.

"Cheap tricks."

The instant fist met palm, his expression changed violently.

The first strike — true Sixth Order power.

But then came the second strike. The third. The fourth. Over a hundred fist shadows landed in less than a second, all hitting the exact same point on his blocking arm.

Each punch stacked its power onto the last, climbing higher and higher.

A brittle crack echoed through the silent hall.

Thousand Faces' blocking arm snapped backward at a grotesque angle.

The arrogance and contempt on his face collapsed into sheer shock. His whole body was blasted away by the terrifying penetrating force, smashing clean through the far wall and leaving a massive human-shaped hole behind.

The hall fell into an eerie, deathly stillness.

Even the fight between Liu Chengjun and An Changqing paused mid-strike. Everyone stared at the impossible scene in disbelief.

A Sixth Order had just broken the arm of a Ninth Order, head-on.

Absurd.

"Cough… cough…"

Long Ao dropped to one knee, gasping for air. The Hundredfold Strike had drained every ounce of his strength.

Not everyone was like Chen Guan, a perpetual-motion machine.

Oh, right. Where was Chen Guan? It only dawned on Long Ao then that someone had gone missing from the field.

"Nice work."

Chen Guan's voice suddenly appeared right beside him.

He walked past Long Ao, heading straight for Thousand Faces, who was struggling to climb out of the rubble.

Thousand Faces' expression was ugly beyond words. He glared at his broken arm, then turned to Chen Guan with murder in his eyes, undisguised.

"You're asking to die."

"No."

Chen Guan shook his head, meeting his gaze: "You've lost."

"Nonsense!"

Thousand Faces refused to back down, though his pupils contracted to pinpricks and every alarm bell in his mind screamed.

In Chen Guan's eyes, a dark gleam flickered and vanished.

That's it — I was waiting for eye contact.

In Thousand Faces' perception, the world around him vanished. The Liu family hall, the shouting crowd — all swallowed by endless darkness.

He had fallen into a mental world built of pure malice and chaotic memories.

Chen Guan's figure walked through this spiritual ruin, coldly sifting through everything that belonged to Thousand Faces.

Sure enough, just as Baal said — this man's powers were held up entirely by Astaroth. His mind had lost its footing after Long Ao's strike, and that gave Chen Guan his opening.

He didn't take long to find what he needed.

A phone call. A figure shrouded entirely in a black robe, speaking through a distorted voice, delivering orders to Thousand Faces.

"Replace Liu Xiao. Frame Liu Feiyu. When it's done, half of the Liu family's wealth belongs to you."

The robed figure revealed nothing — no distinguishing features, no traces left behind that could be tracked.

Chen Guan withdrew from Thousand Faces' mental world.

In reality, only an instant had passed.