"Roar—roar—roar—!"
Like a meat-mountain monster, the Khan—transformed—bellowed as he charged at Adam, each step cracking the ground underfoot, his body weight and force grotesquely exaggerated.
Adam hadn't expected the Khan's body to withstand fifty times gravity. Surprised, he nonetheless remained composed.
Although he had consumed a large amount of Mind Power manipulating the field over a wide area, he still had half of it left. In Adam's calculations, that was more than enough to deal with the Khan, who had already exhausted himself.
"Boom!!!"
The Khan suddenly accelerated while running, rushing at Adam at several times his normal speed and bringing down a crushing hammer blow!
Adam frowned slightly, thinking that although the Khan had turned beastly, it was unexpected he knew how to vary his offense, trying to catch him off guard.
But if the Khan thought he would succeed, he was gravely mistaken.
In an instant—
Adam merely flicked his palm, and an invisible tilted defensive field unfolded above his head. The stone hammer struck it and was instantly held aloft, unable to continue its descent.
..........
Accompanied by faint sounds of cracking in Adam's mind, the tilted field shield was about to give way.
In that case...
Adam activated his ability again, but this time he targeted beneath the Khan's feet.
Swish—thud!
The Khan, who had been giving his all, suddenly slid forward, his massive body toppling backward, slamming into the ground and creating a huge pit.
Adam had, via rapid precise calculations in his mind, altered the force field under the Khan's feet. The small area beneath him had its friction drastically reduced to near zero, so the Khan's heavy frame couldn't keep balance at all.
Once the Khan fell, his vital points were instantly exposed before Adam. His weight made it difficult to get up quickly.
"Even if your physical strength is extreme, vital points are still vital points."
Adam waved his hand. Several invisible force-field strands obeyed his manipulation, their edges compressed and sharpened into razor-like lines.
Swish swish swish swish swish!
As Adam turned his fingers, the cutting lines coiled around the Khan's neck, chest, abdomen, and other key spots. Then Adam clenched his fist and all the cutting lines abruptly contracted!
Pfft pfft pfft—boom.
Several vital spots were severed by the force-field cutting lines. The Khan's muscle-laden body, as if finding release points, ruptured outward from the damaged areas like explosion points.
No blood or flesh splattered on Adam; it was all contained by the force field he had deployed in front of him.
This time the Khan was truly dead beyond revival. Adam glanced once, then retracted his gaze and turned to look toward the outskirts.
Within his sight, a large black sphere shrouded that small chapel.
"Shadow" used a domain... it seems they were already taking action over there. Ye Dang, after making the Shadow Domain, immediately hurried over to assist.
......
Scarface was vague; right now he might be a match for "Shadow." Pretending and posturing was one thing, but when it came to doing the real thing, he had no illusions about what to do.
He figured he had no feud with "Shadow," no direct conflict. Given Shadow's usual methods, if he showed humility he probably wouldn't be harmed.
If Scarface hadn't learned the survival philosophy of bending when necessary, he wouldn't have survived until the end of the Tulip Alliance melee. He'd seen many hard cases. Regardless of strength, the end result was often death without burial.
Scarface stepped aside to clear the way into the chapel and forced a smile, saying, "Boss 'Shadow,' you do your thing. I won't disturb you. I'm leaving."
"Don't rush off yet." Guan Tong's single sentence halted Scarface, who had already taken a few steps away. "I'll have some questions for you later."
"This..."
Scarface hadn't finished speaking when he felt boundless darkness spreading from all directions, about to envelop him and the entire chapel.
His pupils constricted: this was the legendary Shadow's Domain!
"Stay still and you won't get hurt for now."
Guan Tong's voice came from within the dark. Scarface's heart went sour; he suppressed the urge to transform using his ability and obediently froze in place, letting the darkness swallow him.
Inwardly he cursed Han Qiu: "Damn Han Qiu, sent me here to deliver a message and I run into this damn Shadow!"
Scarface wasn't entirely wrong. He and Guan Tong had no real grudge; Guan Tong was unlikely to immediately execute him.
But Guan Tong wasn't a fool. Scarface coming to see the Pope at this time, plus his familiarity entering the Underground Parish and knowing the hidden barrier gate's password... that clearly indicated some relationship between them.
With that in mind, whether to kill him or not could wait; some questioning was inevitable.
Now that Scarface was trapped within the Shadow Domain, any use of abilities or items would be detected by Guan Tong at once. Scarface recognized the situation and did nothing, standing quietly.
Guan Tong therefore ignored Scarface for the moment and focused his attention entirely on the chapel interior.
He didn't need to enter; he only had to make the chapel disappear.
It was a perfect chance to test the title's new ability...
Guan Tong activated the newly added Title Ability: Nano Decomposition. With a large output of Mind Power, the Shadow enveloping the chapel's outer walls started to writhe, as if a Nano Swarm was devouring whatever it touched, directly decomposing the contacted matter.
The whole process was silent. Within seconds, the shadow attached to the chapel had completely decomposed the entire outer wall, exposing the interior completely.
The small chapel's interior space was compact. The main area was the hall with the words "Fire Worship Hall" carved above the door, and several small rooms near the back door.
Each small room appeared to have a tunnel; the Pope had likely chosen this location to build the small chapel so entry and exit would be convenient, and if there was no time to use a teleportation-type item in a crisis, escape would still be possible.
But Guan Tong found the Pope had not fled.
In a room near the back door, the Pope, wearing a crimson robe and crown, was chanting.
By the light of the flames, the Pope raised his head and looked toward the figure above, standing on a Shadow Pillar that had shot up from the ground—Guan Tong.
Their eyes met. The cold indifference in the Pope's pupils collided with the hatred blazing in Guan Tong's eyes.
Guan Tong knew the Pope had directly and indirectly caused countless deaths, but seeing the man command worshippers to spontaneously combust merely to illuminate the darkness of the Shadow Domain ignited a deep, heavy fury inside him.
To prevent his Shadow from losing control due to emotion, he forcibly suppressed his anger and spoke solemnly, "If I don't kill you today, I'll have failed all those countless victims whom you controlled and killed."
The Pope did not respond. His lips moved as he chanted, and then robed worshippers began streaming out continuously from tunnel mouths in the surrounding rooms.
These worshippers charged at the supporting Shadow Pillar like lunatics. Some used abilities or items with ranged attacks, some formed human towers to climb the pillar and try to reach Guan Tong high above, others shoved and pushed to try to topple the pillar.
Self-immolating worshippers and rabid followers—within the Shadow Domain, they formed a scene of utter madness.
Guan Tong ignored the other cultists. Those low-level attacks could not penetrate his Shadow Battle Suit defense; his gaze remained fixed on the Pope.
As their eyes met, Guan Tong felt his Mental Stability Anchor totem warm slightly in his palm. Clearly the Pope was attempting to use his ability to form mind control.
That ability might work on others, but it was nearly useless against Guan Tong. The Anchor's totem only gave a faint warmth, showing this level of mental assault posed no threat to him.
But the reverse was different.
"Since you love controlling people with psionic ability so much, let's see how you like being psionically attacked."
Guan Tong activated his title ability through his pupils, and in an instant a blood-red space cloaked the Pope's vision.
The Pope felt himself placed inside a red space where countless horrific scenes played out. Under intense, extreme fear stimulation, his eyes rolled back, white foam forming at his mouth, and he collapsed.
Guan Tong above slightly twitched, not believing the Pope would fall so easily.
Even ordinary Ascendants could hold out a while against Scarlet Fear; the Pope, who controlled so many followers, surely had significant Mind Power. His ability was related to the mind—his resistance to mental attack should be stronger than peers. How could he...
Sure enough, in the next moment Guan Tong's hunch was confirmed. The Pope, who had seemed to die of shock, rose again as if nothing had happened.
What was going on? Was Scarlet Fear's mental attack ineffective against him?
No—that couldn't be. If it were completely ineffective, he wouldn't have had his eyes roll and foam at the mouth as an extreme fear reaction.
Guan Tong felt puzzled, but did not stop his assault.
When the mental attack failed, he immediately made the Shadow Blades hovering around the Pope's perimeter dance.
Swish swish swish swish swish!
Several Shadow Blades rose and fell, slashing multiple parts of the Pope's body.
Guan Tong deliberately avoided the fatal points; he didn't want to kill the Pope outright—he planned to keep him alive to interrogate.
But another startling scene unfolded.
The Pope, whose hands and feet had been severed by the Shadow Blades and lay on the ground, suddenly regrew them and stood up again!
This...
Guan Tong frowned. Could the Pope have such utterly supernatural regeneration, instantly recovering from both mental and physical devastation? It couldn't be.
Unconvinced, he again sent the Shadow Blades to attack. The freshly risen Pope was torn to pieces once more, yet within seconds his body restored.
Guan Tong glanced at the surrounding cultists and realized something was wrong.
This wasn't a regeneration ability... Regeneration would consume a lot of Mind Power, and the Pope's current "not fighting back" posture felt like deliberate stalling.
Was he trying to drag things out until my Mind Power is exhausted?
Guan Tong then linked more Shadow's vision and launched another lethal Shadow Blade strike at the Pope.
This time he showed no mercy, cutting through vital points.
Still, the Pope regenerated; even his destroyed head grew back.
At the same time, one of Guan Tong's Shadow visions transmitted to him a scene: a worshipper at the base of the Shadow Pillar trying to climb suddenly split into pieces and died.
Seeing that, Guan Tong's understanding snapped into place.
It was a substitution! The Pope could transfer damage he received onto cultists he controlled!