Su Chen was faster than the Heart Sword.
SHHIIING!
A terrifying gash ripped open across the Heart Sword Warlock’s torso. Wreathed in Plasma Holy Flame, a holy Blade Radiance sliced diagonally from his left shoulder to his right hip, instantly shattering the inner armor he wore underneath.
Meanwhile, the Warlock’s incomparably cunning and formless Heart Sword was now only about twelve centimeters from Su Chen’s face.
It was so close that the cold light in Su Chen’s eyes faintly reflected off its surface, yet it could advance no further.
A surge of immense Telekinesis clamped down on the Heart Sword’s source like an iron vise. As a form of invisible Spiritual Energy, Telekinesis could naturally suppress the Heart Sword, which was itself a Spiritual Ability.
The next moment.
CRUSH!
The Heart Sword shattered into countless motes of Spiritual Light, its glow extinguished like a dying firefly.
Unfortunately for him.
This was Lv8 Telekinesis, after all. Combined with Su Chen’s own impressive Intelligence and Perception Attributes, it was only natural that he could control the situation.
"You..."
The Heart Sword Warlock’s expression changed. He had never expected this turn of events. He also realized that the man before him possessed unbelievably high-level Rune Construction and physical strength.
Of course...
...another terrifying realization also stunned him: he hadn’t ’died.’
Indeed. From the start, he had been fighting to trade his life for his opponent’s. He had a substitute doll, after all. And since Dongfu City lacked a Trial Tower, his enemies had no second lives.
They couldn’t be revived.
"I changed my attack at the last second. I decided to let you live."
Su Chen’s cold gaze shattered the man’s last sliver of hope, his words like a final judgment.
As soon as the words left his mouth, Dark Shackles instantly bound the man’s limbs. His movements were restricted, and his ability to activate Runes was sealed.
It turned out Su Chen hadn’t used his full strength in that last strike.
He had deliberately held back because he had seen through his opponent’s determination to trade his life for Su Chen’s.
So, Su Chen decided he would keep him alive instead.
And then... a certain discovery made things much more interesting.
A near-mocking smile touched Su Chen’s lips. "You can’t retract a substitute doll into your Sea of Consciousness? How convenient."
With a mere thought, he dispatched several fine tendrils of Telekinesis. Like hooks, they precisely plucked a small, palm-sized doll from the man’s pouch.
It was sewn from gray cloth, its eyes inlaid with Nether Sand Ore Crystals that shimmered with a faint luster. A complex Rune Technique was embroidered on its chest, under which a heart seemed to beat, causing the doll’s chest to rise and fall rhythmically.
"Goodbye."
As he stared at the doll, its eyes seemed to glance back at him.
But a flare of fire extinguished the little doll’s Spiritual Light, reducing it to charred remains that scattered in the wind.
When the inscribed traces of the Soul Binding were erased, the Heart Sword Warlock began to tremble, his expression growing more and more frantic.
"No..."
"We’re both East Asians... we’re on the same side..."
THWACK!
A head flew into the air as a geyser of blood shot toward the sky.
This time, the kill was final.
Once it was clear that the life-saving doll was an external item, ensuring a true kill became simple.
After the small tree of Spiritual Energy in the man’s head withered and shattered, Spiritual Materials and Runes emerged from the remains.
"Got Thunderwake Lv7, one Spirit Marrow Crystal, two portions of Dust Sand, and six High-Level Spirit Element Runes."
Although Su Chen wasn’t sure of the class’s official name, its Rune Construction and characteristics led him to believe it was a hidden class linked to the Sword and Spirit Elements.
It was quite similar to a Spirit String Artisan, just with a different weapon proficiency.
At that moment, in the lingering smoke and dust, a figure attempting a sneak attack suddenly collapsed. The back of his head had been pierced and obliterated by a silent Wind Split Arrow.
The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.
Just as an enemy was staring at Su Chen’s back, Yan Ruoruo had already taken him out in complete silence.
BANG!
BANG!
Simultaneously, from the high ground outside the valley, two snipers with beyond-visual-range rifles were firing relentlessly at the enemies inside Eagle’s Beak Valley.
Back on Earth, the officially confirmed world record for the longest sniper kill was 3,540 meters.
In this new world, however, even ordinary snipers could often break that record. Hitting a target from three kilometers away was becoming increasingly common.
This was undoubtedly due to the Acceleration Runes affixed to the rifle barrels. They effectively negated the effects of air resistance, minimizing bullet drop and velocity decay.
With a professional spotter, their accuracy would be even more absurd.
But even without one, it hardly mattered.
Based on the snipers’ current experience, there was almost no aiming error within 800 meters. In suitable temperatures, they could reliably score a kill.
BANG!
Another gunshot echoed through the valley.
A spiraling bullet tore through the dense smoke and dust, precisely piercing the back of a Warlock’s neck.
The man’s movements stopped abruptly as his body crumpled to the ground.
"Quick, follow the bullet trajectory and find the sniper."
This was one way to counter them. It was a small drawback of the Acceleration Skill, a specialized weapon Rune: the sniper’s position was essentially revealed.
They had to change positions after every shot.
"Find what? There’s a second sniper, and by the time we do anything, they’ll have already relocated. We should be worrying about how to deal with that monster first," a gaunt figure hiding among the rocks grumbled.
Unbeknownst to them, the scattered members of the Skull Gang had all lost contact with each other.
The rules of these underground gangs were simple and cruel.
Don’t expect your brothers to draw enemy fire.
Don’t expect them not to desert you in a fight.
And that wasn’t all.
The current leader of the Skull Gang had only taken power the day before, stepping over the corpse of his predecessor after gaining the approval and trust of a major corporation.
Honor? Loyalty?
In the apocalyptic cycle of blood and fire, such concepts had long been ground to ash.
The only reason they joined the gang was to find like-minded people—to band together to bully the weak, squeeze every last drop of value out of them, and use the fear and suffering of others to increase their own odds of survival in this apocalypse.
Now, facing a major setback under the onslaught of a single monster, many naturally took the opportunity to flee.
An Earth Envoy seized the chance to escape through the ground.
A Nature Envoy used Wood Escape, while another transformed into a small bird, both quickly vanishing into the forest.
As for the Mysterious Warlock, who was supposed to be their trump card for restricting the enemy’s teleportation, he hadn’t been seen since being forced to banish himself from reality.
He might have still been lurking in the shadows, waiting for an ambush, but it was more likely that he had seen how things were going and decided to cut his losses and run.
For a moment, it felt as though the monkeys were scattering from a fallen tree.
Furthermore, the members who had gone silent had likely been picked off one by one by the monster from Dongfu City.
"Where’s Sawyer?"
The valley, shrouded in smoke, grew unnervingly quiet.
At the mention of that name, the two men nearby felt a chill creep into their hearts.
As the new leader of the Skull Gang, Sawyer wasn’t exactly stable. Some said he was a corporate lapdog; others claimed he had sold his soul to a Demon.
For the few who knew the truth, both were correct.
"As long as he’s willing, he can definitely turn this around, right?"
Even though they had all witnessed the Demon Warlock lose in a direct confrontation—even being forced to use his bat-splitting escape ability...Breden, who had been a close friend of his before he went mad, knew exactly how terrifying the Four-Star hidden Demon Warlock truly was.
The essence of his class’s Authority was making contracts with Demons from the Netherworld. Dealing with different Great Demon Monarchs led to different paths of specialization.
Sawyer had chosen the path of the Blood Contract. After making a deal with the Demon Monarch Vesela, he gained the power of a Darkin Bloodfiend.
Moreover, his Authority also allowed him to borrow power, but the price always had to be paid.
Just yesterday, to defeat the former leader and seize control of the Skull Gang, a desperate Sawyer had been forced to sell thirty percent of his memories and emotions.
That was what had turned him into the madman he was today.
And that was just the principal. The interest demanded that he consume human flesh daily to satisfy its gluttonous appetite.
Right now... what choice would Sawyer make?
At the very least, Su Chen, having just silently assassinated another person, had already stopped in his tracks. He could feel a strange, thick, and ominous aura rising from the dense smoke in the distance.

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