45: Chapter 45 The Abyss Descends

Li Feng's pupils constricted slightly.

He didn't feel slighted; instead, he felt a sense of respect like never before.

And... danger.

"Watch out!"

Li Feng gave a low shout, his body lunging forward explosively.

The reason Fast Sword was called Fast Sword was because of its extreme speed.

The sword's light was as clear as a wash.

It drew a silver streak through the air, aiming straight for Lin Fan's throat.

This strike was so incredibly fast that it even caused a faint sonic boom in the air.

But in Lin Fan's eyes.

Slow.

Still too slow.

Under the [Eye of True Sight], every one of Li Feng's movements was clearly visible.

Lin Fan moved.

No fancy footwork, no complex techniques.

Just a simple step forward.

Crushing Punch.

Like a bow snapping, like a clap of thunder.

It was a combination of pure, extreme speed and power.

Striking second, yet arriving first.

Li Feng's vision blurred.

Lin Fan, who was originally five meters away, appeared before him in an instant.

Before that silver sword light could even touch the corner of Lin Fan's clothes, it was forcibly dispersed by a violent wind pressure.

A fist.

An ordinary-looking fist.

It magnified infinitely in his vision, finally stopping right in front of the tip of his nose.

The distance.

One inch.

"Bang!"

The moment the fist stopped, a terrifying gale from the punch erupted with a roar.

Li Feng's long hair was pulled straight back by the gale, and the muscles on his face rippled like waves under the wind pressure.

"Crack!"

A crisp sound.

Ten meters behind Li Feng, the row of specialized alloy barriers meant to keep the contestants in actually snapped and twisted out of shape under the force of this remote punch gale.

Silence.

The entire venue once again fell into that eerie, deathly silence.

All the cheers were forcibly shoved back down everyone's throats by this single punch.

Li Feng maintained his sword-striking posture, as if he had been hit by an immobilization spell.

A drop of cold sweat slid down his nose and dripped onto the fist that was inches away.

He felt death.

If this punch had gone one inch further...

His head would have exploded like a watermelon.

*Gulp.*

Li Feng swallowed hard, his legs gave way, and he knelt directly on the ground.

The longsword in his hand hit the ground with a clang.

"I... I lose."

His voice trembled, carrying a hint of relief from having survived a disaster.

Is this the gap?

Is this the power that even Wang Teng is wary of?

Lin Fan withdrew his fist.

He didn't even look at the kneeling Li Feng, nor did he pay attention to the mountain-shaking, sea-tsunami-like exclamations around him.

He turned around.

His gaze pierced through the boiling crowd and countless camera flashes, accurately locking onto a corner of the preparation area.

There, Wang Teng was gripping the handrail tightly, his face ashen.

Lin Fan slowly raised his right hand.

He extended his thumb.

Under the gaze of fifty thousand people.

Slowly, he turned it over.

Thumb down.

This was a provocation.

And a sentence.

"See you in the finals."

Lin Fan's lips moved, silently mouthing those four words.

On the big screen, the finals list refreshed instantly, the red font looking like a blood-dripping challenge letter.

[The Final Battle]

[Lin Fan vs. Wang Teng]

The betting pool reached its limit.

The odds finally settled at 1:1.5.

Although Lin Fan had displayed overwhelming strength in the semi-finals, the Wang family seemed to have used some means to forcibly inject 200 million into the betting pool, evening out Wang Teng's odds.

This defied common sense.

Capital seeks profit, not charity. Unless the Wang family was certain that the one standing on the ring tonight would be the winner.

"Will both contestants please enter the stage!"

The spotlight hit the center of the ring.

Lin Fan walked onto the stage with his hands in his pockets, stepping on the specialized alloy floor. Opposite him, a figure completely shrouded in a large black robe had already been standing there for a long time.

A foul stench.

The smell was faint, mixed with the gym's enclosed air conditioning, like a dead rat that had been left out for half a month.

[Warning: Target's vital signs are abnormal; gene sequence is reorganizing.]

Red system pop-ups frantically flooded his vision, dense exclamation marks obscuring half his retina.

Lin Fan stopped in his tracks.

This was not the aura a martial artist should have.

"Wang Teng."

Lin Fan didn't joke around as usual. He slowly pulled his right hand out of his pocket, fingers splayed, as dark golden light surged beneath his skin. "Take off that skin. It's not too late to put on a body bag later."

A heavy, ragged breathing came from beneath the black robe.

The sound was like a broken bellows being pulled, or the low growl from the throat of some beast.

"Heh... heh..."

A hand reached out.

That hand no longer looked human; the nails had grown to three inches and were black as ink. The skin appeared as a deathly gray keratinization, covered in dense black blood vessels that looked like twisting centipedes.

"Rip!"

The black robe was violently torn to shreds, pieces of cloth flying everywhere.

The breathing of all fifty thousand people in the venue stalled at this moment.

No cheers, no boos.

Only a deathly silence, followed by a few bursts of terrified screams.

The thing on the ring could no longer be called human.

His skin had turned completely gray and withered, his veins bulged black, and his eyes were entirely pitch-black without a hint of white.

Most terrifying was his mouth.

The corners of his mouth were split to his ears, his forest-white teeth had become sharp and jagged, and thick black liquid constantly dripped down, making a "sizzle" sound of corrosion as it hit the floor.

"This is... a mutation!"

A guest at the commentary table suddenly stood up, his chair toppling over. "Quick! Stop the match! This is an Abyss Infected!"

Too late.

"Roar!"

Wang Teng let out an inhuman roar and kicked off the ground with his hind legs.

The specialized high-strength alloy floor instantly exploded into a large crater.

Fast.

So fast the retina could only capture a black afterimage.

This speed definitely exceeded a 2-Star Martial Artist and even approached 3-Star.

Lin Fan did not retreat.

He instantly pushed the A-rank [Glazed Golden Body] to its limit, transforming into a dark golden statue.

"Boom!"

Black claws slammed heavily into Lin Fan's crossed arms.

Sparks flew everywhere.

The massive impact caused Lin Fan's feet to plow two deep furrows into the ground, sliding for a full five meters before barely coming to a stop.

Pain.

A burning sting came from his arms.

Lin Fan looked down to see that three deep claw marks had actually been left on his indestructible golden body. A layer of black mist clung to the wounds, attempting to corrode his flesh.

"Lin... Fan..."

Wang Teng was on all fours like a deformed lizard, head tilted as he stared at Lin Fan. There was no reason in those pitch-black eyes, only pure appetite. "Eat... eat you..."

This thing was hungry.

"Want to eat me?"

Lin Fan shook his numbed arms. The blood and qi in his body burned like a furnace, forcibly expelling the invading black mist. "That depends on whether you have a good set of teeth."

Bang.

The air boomed.

Lin Fan took the initiative to attack.

He took a step forward, his figure instantly appearing at Wang Teng's side, his right leg coming down like a battle-axe.

"Crack!"

Wang Teng's left shoulder instantly collapsed, the sound of breaking bones clearly audible.

But he didn't scream; he didn't even make a move to dodge.

The moment Lin Fan kicked him, Wang Teng's right hand twisted backward at an angle absolutely impossible for a human, clawing fiercely toward Lin Fan's ankle.

Trading injury for injury.

This was the instinct of a beast.

Lin Fan changed direction mid-air, narrowly avoiding those claws, and flipped to land on the ground.

Looking at Wang Teng again.

The shoulder that had just been kicked to pieces was now writhing at a speed visible to the naked eye. Black granulation tissue intertwined, broken bones reorganized, and in just a few seconds, the injury was restored as if it were new.

"Abyss Regeneration Trait."

Lin Fan's expression darkened.

This was impossible to fight.

As long as he didn't blast this monster to smithereens, it could regenerate infinitely. And this regeneration ability was bought by burning life force. Right now, Wang Teng was an unstable biochemical bomb.

Below the stage.

Su Qingxue gripped the hem of her clothes tightly, her nails almost sinking into her flesh.

She could feel the terror of that aura.

That wasn't a contest between human martial artists; it was a slaughter between two species.

"Brother Fan..."

Zhang Hao sat in his wheelchair, his bandage-wrapped hands tightly gripping the armrests, cold sweat sliding down his forehead.

On the ring.

The battle continued, but it had turned into a one-sided slaughter and resistance.

Wang Teng was tireless and fearless of pain.

His attacks grew more and more frenzied, each claw carrying corrosive toxins. The ring had been torn to pieces, with rubble flying everywhere.

Lin Fan was dodging.

He was waiting.

The [Eye of True Sight] operated at full power, and the world in his eyes turned into gray and white lines.

Within that chaotic and violent mass of black energy, he was searching for the core point.

Every creature has a weakness.

Even Abyss monsters are no exception.

"Found it."

Lin Fan's gaze locked onto the position of Wang Teng's heart.

There, a fist-sized black shadow was rhythmically pulsating. It was like a parasite, controlling this shell through countless tentacles.

All the energy came from there.

There was only one chance.

Lin Fan took a deep breath, squeezing out the last trace of blood and qi in his body.

Dark golden light condensed on his fist, compressing and compressing again until it became a dazzling point of light.

Wang Teng lunged again.

His center was wide open.

"Die!"