Chen Guan VS Santai

The corner of Chen Guan’s eye twitched.

He knew he couldn’t stand around any longer.

Although An Changqing and Long Ao were tied up with the Ink Wolf, their peripheral vision had drifted toward him more than once.

The doubt in their eyes was growing by the second.

If he didn’t make a move now, then once the battle was over, he would have to face an An Changqing far more terrifying than Santai.

Chen Guan stomped hard against the ground. His body turned into a blur, and the scythe in his hand carved a deadly arc through the air. A faint black flame ignited along its blade.

This strike was flawless, both in momentum and angle. Carrying the resolve of someone charging forward without hesitation, it went straight for Santai’s neck.

“Chen Guan, don’t!”

An Changqing’s voice changed pitch.

In his eyes, Chen Guan had abandoned all defense with this attack, staking everything on a suicidal charge.

Against an unfathomably powerful opponent, that was no different from throwing oneself into a fire.

Yet when faced with this all-or-nothing strike, Santai merely shifted to the side. The sharp edge of the scythe skimmed past the collar of her trench coat, the resulting gust ruffling a few strands of hair beside her ear.

The two passed each other.

In that instant, lasting less than a tenth of a second, their gazes collided in midair.

From the amusement in her eyes, Chen Guan read pure mockery.

She was completely toying with them.

Chen Guan’s mind went blank for a fleeting moment.

Then Santai’s voice drifted over from behind him. It wasn’t loud, but it carried through the tunnel and reached everyone’s ears.

“Not bad, little one. You’ve got plenty of strength. Too bad you can’t hit anyone.”

Chen Guan: “…”

She had been provoking them the entire time…

“Is that all you’ve got, geniuses of Huaqing Academy?”

Santai seemed to think the scene wasn’t lively enough. She raised a finger and lightly tapped the unfurled scroll before her.

Two more blotches of ink spread across the painting.

In an instant, two enormous ink-black serpents swam out of the scroll. They slid silently across the ground, one to the left and one to the right, and wrapped themselves around Long Ao and An Changqing.

“Damn it, again?”

Long Ao had just punched the Ink Wolf apart and hadn’t even had time to catch his breath when his ankle was seized by something that moved like lightning. A cold, slippery sensation crept upward along his trouser leg.

He let out a low growl. His muscles bulged as he tried to break the ink serpent apart.

The thing looked like ink, but its resilience was terrifying. No matter how much force he used, it only stretched and distorted without the slightest sign of breaking.

An Changqing was in no better shape.

His sword qi sliced the other ink serpent into several pieces, but the chunks writhed on the ground for a few moments before merging back together. Together with the re-forming Ink Wolf, they lashed out with their tails and sealed off every possible avenue of escape.

“Don’t get bogged down fighting these things.” An Changqing’s voice was tense and urgent. “Their source is that woman. Attack her directly!”

Everyone understood the logic.

But Long Ao was trapped by two ink serpents, and with his immense strength restrained, he couldn’t exert himself at all. All he could do was watch helplessly as a vividly striped tiger strolled out of the scroll and blocked the path between him and Santai.

The ink tiger threw its head back and let out a silent roar, its pitch-black eyes locked firmly onto Long Ao.

Santai propped her chin on one hand, looking as though she were enjoying an entertaining play. She even had the leisure to wink at Chen Guan in the distance.

The look in her eyes seemed to say: See? Big Sister’s pretty impressive, huh?

The corner of Chen Guan’s eye twitched violently.

She was still provoking them…

Chen Guan inhaled slowly and stopped looking at Santai’s playful face.

He lowered the scythe in his hand, and his body gradually relaxed from its tightly coiled defensive stance.

Santai raised an eyebrow, and the smile at the corners of her lips faded slightly.

Why did she suddenly have a bad feeling about this…?

Chen Guan raised his left hand.

The faint black mark in his palm seemed to come alive.

Pitch-black lines spread outward like red-hot brands, rapidly crawling from his palm until they covered his entire arm.

The veins beneath his skin bulged one by one, glowing with an ominous dark-red light. A violent, frenzied power burst from his body.

“What is that…?”

An Changqing’s pupils shrank to pinpricks. From that aura, he sensed a trace of madness that made his heart tremble.

It was exactly the same feeling he had experienced in the Magic City.

“Hmm?”

The playfulness on Santai’s face finally vanished completely. For the first time, genuine astonishment appeared in her eyes, which were usually filled with teasing amusement.

As a ninth-tier expert, she could clearly sense that the power erupting from Chen Guan’s arm seemed, in essence, to surpass her own.

It was a higher-level power. It only appeared weaker because Chen Guan, its host, was unable to wield it fully.

“Roar!”

The Ink Tiger, which was closest to Chen Guan, seemed to sense the threat. It abandoned Long Ao and abruptly changed direction, transforming into a black shadow as it opened its huge jaws and pounced at Chen Guan.

Chen Guan spread the fingers of his left hand and aimed his palm at the oncoming Ink Tiger. A scarlet flame that seemed capable of burning away all things burst from his palm.

Boom!

The instant the flame touched the Ink Tiger, it set the creature ablaze.

Under the scorching red flames, the ink beast failed to last even a second. It let out a silent, wailing cry before turning into vapor, without leaving behind even a speck of ink.

The flames continued forward unabated, transforming into a fiery tornado that swept across the entire battlefield.

The ink serpents wrapped around Long Ao vanished into nothingness as the flames passed over them. Even the hair on his head was singed and curled by the heat.

The Ink Wolf attacking An Changqing, along with the ancient scroll itself, was reduced to ash inch by inch beneath the licking flames.

The searing waves of heat distorted the air in the tunnel. The overhead lights crackled under the strain before exploding one after another.

The tunnel fell into darkness.

The only source of light was the restless ball of scarlet flame dancing in Chen Guan’s hand.

The flames illuminated every stunned face in the tunnel.

Their flickering light stretched everyone’s shadows across the rough walls, twisting them into grotesque shapes. The air was filled with a strange smell—a mixture of burnt residue and ozone.

An Changqing and Long Ao instinctively took half a step back. It wasn’t fear; the residual heat radiating from the flames had already begun to scorch their skin.

[Holy crap, that last move was insane.]

[Is this the power of Bro Coffin? The Cheat King really lives up to his name.]

[Wait, something seems wrong with Brother Coffin in this state. Look at his face.]

The comments made Chen Guan come back to his senses.

He could feel the borrowed power in his arm rapidly draining away. Every extra second he maintained the state caused the strain on his body to increase exponentially.

Even worse, the mental impact brought on by that power made his head feel as though it were splitting apart. The boundary between reason and madness was beginning to blur.

As expected, he still couldn’t maintain this demonic state for long.

He had to end the battle quickly. Otherwise, with a human body, there was no way he could unleash the full might of Baal’s skills.

The abilities available in his normal state alone were not enough to stand against an opponent like Santai.

Chen Guan raised his head. His gaze pierced through the distorted waves of heat and shot straight toward the woman standing in the darkness.

All traces of frivolity had vanished from Santai’s face.

She stood there with the hem of her trench coat fluttering despite the lack of wind. Her beautiful eyes, which were usually filled with teasing amusement, were now fixed unblinkingly on Chen Guan’s arm.