The End of the Battle

Long Ao was even more direct. With a low roar, the crimson aura around his body surged. Without dodging or evading, he charged toward the two stone giants on the left like a humanoid beast.

Scorching, berserk crimson energy gathered on his fists like two heavy war hammers. He viciously smashed them toward the stone giants' chests, intending to crush them head-on with absolute power.

Su Yuehe played a sluggish melody on her piccolo, accurately casting it on the two stone giants on the right that were trying to surround Chen Guan and herself. The movements of those two stone giants instantly stiffened, as if they were bogged down in a mire, and the speed at which they swung their weapons visibly dropped.

The pressure fell onto Chen Guan's shoulders. He needed to coordinate with Su Yuehe's support to quickly dispatch these two slowed stone giants, and then go assist An Changqing or Long Ao.

Chen Guan stepped forward. Instead of using his scythe for a ranged attack, he charged directly at one of the stone giants.

Although the stone giant was slowed, its reaction was still not sluggish. A massive stone hammer swept over with a muffled rush of wind. Chen Guan's eyes narrowed. The Gale Boots on his feet flashed faintly, and his speed abruptly spiked, allowing him to narrowly dodge the horizontal sweep by turning sideways.

At the same time, he gripped the long handle of his scythe tightly with both hands, using the heavy black iron coffin as a fulcrum. His body spun violently, using the momentum to swing the scythe in a full circle. Imbued with all his strength and the trace of grey energy coating it, the blade viciously chopped toward the stone giant's knee joint.

Clang!

An ear-piercing sound of clashing metal erupted, sending sparks flying. This stone giant looked like a large chunk of rock, but its insides were the color of steel and iron, incomparably sturdy.

Following the strike, sparks scattered from the stone giant's knee joint, leaving behind a deep gash that even revealed the dim metallic structure within. However, it did not sever. The stone giant's defense was far more formidable than anticipated.

The tremendous recoil left Chen Guan's arms numb, and the scythe nearly flew out of his grasp. Enraged by the attack, the stone giant let out a deep roar, clenched its other hand into a stone fist, and ruthlessly smashed it toward Chen Guan.

Unable to dodge in time, Chen Guan could only violently thrust the black iron coffin in front of him to block.

Bang!

The heavy impact sounded like a beating drum. Chen Guan, along with the coffin, was smashed back several meters, his feet plowing two shallow trenches into the ground. The blood and qi in his chest churned wildly. Fortunately, the coffin had dispersed some of the force, preventing him from being smashed into the wall.

Su Yuehe drew the aggro. Several pale white chains formed from spiritual energy materialized out of thin air, wrapping around the stone giant that had attacked Chen Guan in an attempt to further restrict its movements.

The other slowed stone giant took the opportunity to swing its stone axe, chopping toward Su Yuehe.

Your opponent is me.

Chen Guan forcefully suppressed his churning blood and qi, a fierce glint flashing in his eyes. Holding nothing back, he poured nearly all the grey energy in his body, along with an explosive burst of physical strength, into his next attack.

He didn't target the hard joints again. Instead, he aimed for the two clusters of ghostly green flames in the stone giant's eye sockets. In his view, compared to a lump of iron, that was obviously much more likely to be a weak point.

Exerting force with his feet, the Gale Boots flickered faintly once more. Chen Guan closed in like a phantom. The stone giant's stone axe cleaved through empty air and smashed into the ground, sending crushed stone flying.

Now was the time.

Chen Guan kept his body low, practically sliding across the ground right up to the stone giant's feet. The scythe in his hand swept upward from below, carving out a cold, grey arc of light that pierced straight into the eye sockets of the stone giant's lowered head.

This time, even the pale grey radiance of the grey energy coating the scythe's edge solidified a fraction, carrying a lethal threat.

Pfft!

This time, it was not the hard clash of ringing metal.

The scythe's sharp tip, coated in grey energy, pierced into the ghostly green flames of the stone giant's eye sockets with abnormal smoothness, like a red-hot iron rod plunging into ice and snow.

The stone giant let out an unprecedented roar. The ghostly green flames in its eye sockets flickered violently, as if rapidly corrupted by the grey energy. Its massive body began to tremble intensely, its movements completely freezing, and the grey-black air currents swirling around its body fell into absolute chaos.

This massive commotion startled An Changqing and Long Ao, who had both just finished off a stone giant of their own, prompting them to look over.

Having landed his strike, Chen Guan didn't linger in the fight. He immediately withdrew his blade and retreated.

Almost the instant he pulled back, the ghostly green flames in the stone giant's eye sockets completely extinguished. Its massive body, as if losing all support, collapsed with a loud crash, turning into a pile of rubble and rusted metal parts, devoid of any further movement.

One strike, an instant kill on a stone giant.

This sudden battle result not only left Su Yuehe dumbfounded, but even An Changqing and Long Ao, who were in the midst of fierce combat, cast over astonished gazes. Although they could also defeat the stone giants, they absolutely did not possess such an efficient method.

Even the initiator, Chen Guan himself, was shocked inwardly. He hadn't expected the grey energy to have such an astonishing suppressing effect against these kinds of bizarre monsters.

There was no time to dwell on it. The other stone giant bound by Su Yuehe had already broken free of some of the chains, its stone hammer raising once again.

Chen Guan took a deep breath, suppressing the mental fatigue brought on by the full-power burst of grey energy, and charged forward once more, swinging his scythe. With his previous experience, his confidence had greatly swelled. Coordinating with Su Yuehe's support, he quickly found an opening, once again injecting a trace of grey energy into the scythe and piercing it into this stone giant's eyes.

The same roar, the same disintegration.

The second stone giant fell.

Having resolved the threat on his side, Chen Guan immediately looked toward the other two battlefields.

On An Changqing's side, one stone giant had long since fallen, and he had successfully severed the stone arm of the second one, appearing to handle the situation with ease.

Long Ao's side was even more berserk. Fighting bare-handed, he fiercely clashed with two stone giants. His fists collided with their stone bodies, emitting muffled, thunderous booms. He had already smashed the chest of one stone giant until it caved in, sending stone fragments flying and rendering it completely scrapped.

The other one was also being suppressed by him, retreating step by step. The crimson aura burned the grey-black air currents on the stone giant's surface until they sizzled, drastically reducing its defense.

Neither of them looked like they needed any help...

Go help Long Ao! An Changqing shouted.

Since An Changqing had spoken, Chen Guan did not hesitate and immediately rushed toward Long Ao's battle. He didn't attack the stone giant directly; instead, he waited for the exact moment when Long Ao's punch sent a stone giant stumbling backward. The scythe in his hand traced a tricky trajectory, wrapped in an imperceptible grey halo, and accurately pierced into an inconspicuous crevice at the back of the stone giant's neck.

Grey energy injected.

The stone giant's body stiffened, its movements halting instantly, as if it had been unplugged.

Long Ao seized the opportunity. With a furious roar, the crimson aura gathered on his right fist. Like a miniature meteor, it viciously smashed into the stone giant's already caved-in chest.

Boom!

Crushed stone exploded outward. That stone giant's chest was completely pierced through. The ghostly green flames in its eyes extinguished, and it crashed to the ground.

Seeing their companions completely wiped out, the last two stone giants entangled with An Changqing let out unwilling roars. They actually turned and retreated deeper into the ancient tower, quickly disappearing into the darkness.

With that, the battle ended.