Meanwhile, outside the wrecked room, amidst the rubble where the Su family elder had crashed—
The elder’s hands were horribly burned, black charred flesh smoking faintly as the residual flames stubbornly refused to extinguish.
He tried to push himself up, but a wave of agonizing pain shot through his body. Most of his ribs had been shattered by the terrifying blast pressure.
He reached deeper into his inner pocket and pulled out a small, circular object wrapped tightly in crimson paper. With a grimace of pure agony, he tore the paper open, revealing a glowing blue medicinal pill.
Gritting his teeth against the excruciating pain, his eyes flashed with a mad, desperate resolve.
"For the future of the Su family..." he growled hoarsely, popping the pill into his mouth and swallowing it whole.
Outside the inn, four black-robed figures stood at different positions around the building.
Their faces were completely covered, leaving only their eyes visible beneath their dark hoods. Each of them held a strange bamboo-like staff in one hand.
At the top of every staff was a small human skull.
They remained completely still, continuously channeling their Inner Energy into the staffs.
A short distance away, directly in front of the inn’s entrance, stood another figure.
Unlike the other four, he had not covered his face.
He was a middle-aged man wearing a long black robe. A wide-brimmed hood rested on his head, and a small skull was attached to its top.
In his hand was an unusual black staff.
Three human skulls were attached to the top of it, with the skull of some unknown beast positioned between them.
A strange scorpion-shaped mark sat above his left eye.
The man struck the bottom of his staff against the ground.
Bang!
His expression was filled with suppressed irritation.
"We’ve been maintaining this formation for so long that not even a single sound from inside can escape."
"Why is it taking them so long to kill a few ordinary mortals and bring out that girl with the Myriad Food Physique?"
His expression darkened.
Then—
BOOM!
A tremendous crashing sound came from inside the building.
The middle-aged man’s eyes widened.
"What was that?"
He immediately looked toward the inn.
"Are they fighting someone?"
His expression became ugly.
"Don’t tell me our plan has gone wrong."
He turned toward the four black-robed figures.
"Keep the formation active."
"Plant your staffs into the ground and continue supplying them with Inner Energy."
"We must not let a single sound escape."
The four figures nodded silently.
The middle-aged man tightened his grip around his staff.
"We absolutely must take that girl back to the Shadow Bone Sect today."
Inside, Chen Feng had just lifted Suyan to her feet. She was still weeping softly, her heart shattered.
Suddenly, Chen Feng’s body went rigid. A prickling sensation of danger spiked down his spine. His head whipped around toward the pile of rubble where the Su family elder had crashed.
Thump... Thump...
Strange, inhuman sounds echoed from beneath the debris, like a wild beast awakening in a cave.
Suddenly, the earth and rubble erupted!
From beneath the collapsed wall, a nightmarish figure clawed its way out. It stood over seven feet tall, possessing four muscular arms and a strange, brownish-gray skin. Its facial features bore a terrifying, distorted resemblance to Su Wang.
Chen Feng’s pupils dilated. A powerful aura radiated from the creature—it was exuding the terrifying might of the Martial Master Realm!
Damn it! He used some bizarre forbidden technique! Chen Feng realized instantly.
Before he could react, another oppressive presence slammed into the room from the doorway, belonging to yet another powerful expert at the Martial Master stage.
The four-armed monstrous beast roared and lunged straight at Chen Feng with blinding speed.
Chen Feng’s hand instantly flared with a brilliant crimson glow, blazing with yellow-hot inner energy flames.
Flame Palm Strike!
With a fierce shout, Chen Feng thrust his palm forward. A blazing hand of pure fire—roughly three feet in size—shot through the air like a meteor.
BOOM!
The fiery hand slammed directly into the charging mutant beast, triggering a massive explosion that sent the creature flying backward through the air.
However, the middle-aged man who had just entered didn’t pause. Sensing the devastating shockwave of the explosion, he immediately recognized that his opponent was far more dangerous than anticipated.
Stepping to a halt, the middle-aged man tapped his heavy skull-topped staff twice against the floor.
Buzz... buzz... buzz...!
A swarm of bizarre insects erupted from his body.
They looked like giant, mutated mosquitoes, each roughly the size of a fist, equipped with four buzzing wings and a razor-sharp, blade-like proboscis capable of piercing steel.
Over a hundred of these lethal, black-scaled bloodsuckers emerged in a dark cloud, swarming ferociously toward Chen Feng!
Chen Feng sensed the incoming danger instantly.
Knowing his body was not yet fully stabilized—having just broken through to the Martial Master realm, burning through massive amounts of inner energy without time to consolidate his foundation—he knew fighting a protracted battle here was unwise.
"Hold on to me," Chen Feng muttered, wrapping one arm tightly around Suyan.
With a swift movement, he shattered the side window and vaulted out of the house into the night air.
The swarm of giant mosquitoes instantly redirected, chasing relentlessly at his heels.
Pulling three copper coins from his System Inventory, Chen Feng activated the Flame Touch Claw technique—a move designed to consume minimal inner energy. With a flick of his wrist, he shattered the coins and hurled them backward into the path of the swarm.
The moment the coins touched the air, they ignited into yellow fire.
As they collided with the incoming insects, a chain reaction of violent explosions tore through the swarm, incinerating dozens of mosquitoes in mid-air.
Chen Feng landed smoothly outside, preparing to clear the wooden fence and escape the courtyard.
But his path was blocked.
Standing right in front of him, leaning casually on his skull-topped staff, was the middle-aged man who had just stepped out of the shadow-formation.
A wicked, sadistic grin spread across his face.
He raised his strange staff, the animal skull mounted at its top suddenly began to tremble.
A faint purple aura seeped from its empty eye sockets.
Then the purple glow became stronger.
Chen Feng’s expression changed.
What is this?
He didn’t know what the Shaman was trying to do, but he had no intention of waiting to find out.
His right hand instantly turned crimson.
He circulated his Inner Energy through his arm, and flames erupted across his palm.
Flame Palm Strike!
Chen Feng thrust his palm forward.
A fiery palm shot toward the Shaman.
BOOM!
The attack struck the Shaman head-on.
His body was blasted backward, crashing through the wooden fence behind him before disappearing into the darkness.
Chen Feng didn’t waste a second.
He grabbed Su Yun and immediately ran.
He had no idea where they were going.
He simply knew that staying there was too dangerous.
But suddenly, a thought crossed his mind.
Wait.
Wasn’t that too easy?
His opponent was a Martial Master.
And from the aura he had sensed earlier, the Shaman clearly possessed the ability to sense the elemental energy around him.
Yet Chen Feng had defeated him with a single attack.
Everything was going far too smoothly—almost like a perfect dream where he was destined to win.
Chen Feng immediately activated his Secret-Seeking Eyes.
Blue light filled his vision.
He looked around.
Then—The entire reality shattered, like a pane of glass suddenly breaking into countless pieces.
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