79: Chapter 79 Lao Tzu's Crushing Blows: Specializes in Dealing with Tough Guys

As Chen Fan carried Su Shuang into the snowfield, the accumulated snow beneath his feet let out faint crackling sounds.

The freezing wind of the far north swept past his ears with ice shards, but upon touching the crimson-gold pattern on the back of his neck, it automatically dispersed—that was the mark left from his direct clash with the System projection at the altar just now, and it was faintly warm with every heartbeat.

"Cold?" he asked, turning his head.

Su Shuang's fox tail wrapped around their overlapping legs, emanating a faint warmth from its pale gold fur. "You're hotter than a brazier." Her fingertips poked below his collarbone, where she could feel the tremor of the System core. "But... it's hotter up ahead."

Before her words faded, the snow beneath their feet suddenly collapsed.

Chen Fan instinctively bent his knees into a half-squat, using his core strength to steadily support Su Shuang. He saw that they were standing right on the edge of a crimson-gold fissure.

Dark red magma churned in the depths of the crack, and the patterns on the rock walls writhed like living things, emitting a synchronized faint glow with the qingqiu jade hanging around Su Shuang's neck.

"It's the entrance to the Earth Fire Corridor." Su Shuang pressed her face against his back, her silver hair brushing his earlobe. "Our clan's ancient texts mention it—a secret path forged by the ancient rebels using Starfall Fire."

She reached out and lightly touched the rock wall. The moment her fingertips brushed against those twisted runes, her whole body suddenly trembled. "This isn't a seal..." Her voice trembled, "It's a tombstone inscription."

Chen Fan looked down and saw moisture gathering in her eyes.

The patterns carved into the stone wall were now showing a faint cyan aura as she touched them, strongly resembling the steles in the clan cemetery that recorded the lives of the deceased.

"Snap."

A faint sound of flapping wings emerged from the rock crevice.

Chen Fan looked up and saw a moth, engulfed in ethereal blue flames, fluttering down onto Su Shuang's shoulder.

Its wings were translucent, allowing one to see the fragments of circulating runes inside. When it opened its mouth, a hoarse, aged male voice emerged: "...Star Speakers cannot be summoned... The covenant has been burned..."

Chen Fan's pupils constricted.

He recognized this voice—it was the same hoarse quality, eroded by time, that the Tombstone Guardian Xuan Yan had when they met at the altar three days ago.

"It's a Fire Moth," Su Shuang gently cradled it with her fingertips. "A spirit insect that parasitizes ancient runes, capable of repeating fragmented conversations from a thousand years ago."

Her thumb stroked the tip of the moth's wing. "It seems a secret older than we imagined is hidden here."

"They went in once, and never returned."

A deep voice echoed from the depths of the tunnel.

Chen Fan immediately tensed the muscles in his back. As he turned, he had already shielded Su Shuang beside him—the Smoke Slave, wrapped in gray cloth, was standing five meters away. His breathing sounded like a bellows being pulled, and every word he spoke let sparks leak from the seams of his cloth. "Stone footprints."

Only then did Chen Fan notice the ground.

Stone footprints, perhaps years old, extended from the depths of the tunnel. Each step was deeply embedded three inches into the rock surface. The toes of all the footprints pointed in the same direction—at the end, a giant stele, two people tall, loomed faintly in the reflection of the magma.

"The Silent Ones live, the Vocal Ones burn." Su Shuang read the sunken characters on the stele. "Is this a warning?"

"I haven't shut my mouth once since I started walking this path," Chen Fan grinned, but he didn't rush forward.

He could feel the earth veins vibrating beneath his feet, like some sleeping entity was awakening.

"Boom!"

The response was a roar rising from the base of the stele.

Ten Rock Spirits shot up from the ground. Their bodies were composed of crimson magma mixed with black rock. Every time the lava hammer they held smashed the ground, a wave of heat washed over them.

The leader of the Rock Spirits had the same sunken pattern carved on its forehead as the giant stele, clearly the core of this guard group.

Chen Fan threw out his left fist.

The notification 【Critical Hit Charging × 3】 exploded across his retina. The punch wind, wrapped in crimson-gold flames, slammed into the Rock Spirit's chest—but it was like hitting flowing magma. The Rock Spirit didn't even wobble, and its lava hammer was already swinging toward his face with a whoosh!

"Be careful!" Su Shuang's fox tail suddenly wrapped around his waist and yanked him to the left.

The lava hammer grazed his ear and smashed into the rock wall, sending shards of rock flying that stung his face.

"Normal attacks are ineffective?" Chen Fan wiped the blood beads from his face, but his right fist was already fully charged with 【Hidden Critical Hit × 4】.

This was the new fighting style he had just grasped at the altar: hiding the critical hit energy within the punch wind, letting it explode the instant it made contact with the target.

"Bang!"

His right fist solidly struck the Rock Spirit leader's sternum.

The System prompt sound was sharper than expected: 【Critical Hit Overflow Conversion: Strength Value - 5 (Target)!】

The Rock Spirit leader's lava hammer clattered to the ground. The originally smooth flow of magma suddenly stagnated, and black rock even began to flake off its arm.

The attacks of the other Rock Spirits also became chaotic—they were linked by the leader's earth vein resonance. Now that the resonance was broken, their hammers swung wildly.

"This critical hit... can steal their attributes?" Chen Fan's eyes lit up.

He recalled the System previously mentioning that an increase in critical hit rate would trigger anomalies; he never expected it to be this kind of plundering mechanism that weakened enemies!

He quickly retreated, using the narrow terrain of the tunnel to lure them into surrounding him.

The Rock Spirits were massive, and as they turned, the rock walls were struck, sendinggravel flying everywhere.

Chen Fan stared at the 【Charging Progress Bar】 on his retina. At the exact moment it hit zero, he suddenly turned, his left fist precisely smashing into the leader's knee: "【Attribute Plunder: Agility - 4】!"

The Rock Spirit leader's movements were noticeably slower by half a beat. Chen Fan took the opportunity to duck under its side and slammed his right fist into its waist: "【Strength - 6】!"

"Crack—"

The Rock Spirit leader's lava armor shattered, revealing the black rock core encased inside.

It let out a silent roar toward the sky, while the other Rock Spirits were already scattered and broken by Chen Fan's guerrilla tactics. Some smashed against the rock wall and dissolved into magma, while others had their arms broken by their own kind.

"They rely on the earth veins to regenerate, but their origin is in the stele's core," the Smoke Slave appeared behind the Rock Spirits at some unknown time. His gray cloth was smoking from the lava heat. "Smash the stele, and you cut off their roots."

Chen Fan looked up at the giant stele.

The sunken characters on the stele were now emitting a red light as the Rock Spirits collapsed, seemingly struggling to maintain something.

He took a deep breath and mobilized all his critical hit energy—this was his first attempt at a five-fold stacked critical hit. It was just like when he carried a ten-ton steel beam on the construction site back then; he compressed all his power into his fingertips.

"Hah!"

The crimson-gold flames wrapped around his punch wind and blasted toward the fissure in the stele.

The System notifications flashed wildly: 【Five-Fold Stacked Critical Hit Triggered! Current Plunder Multiplier 200%!】

The giant stele shook violently.

Gravel fell like a torrential rain, and a stone figure slowly emerged from within the stele—its eyes were two burning magma fissures. Every word it spoke caused rock to crumble from its shoulders: "You... should not have come... Awakened ones will eventually burn their bodies."

Earth vein chains suddenly burst from the ground near Chen Fan's feet, wrapping around his ankles like living pythons.

Chen Fan stumbled, but before he could fall, he braced his back against the rock wall, holding Su Shuang even tighter.

"The System's fear is not of chaos, but of awakening."

The Fire Moth suddenly flew up from Su Shuang's shoulder and darted toward the giant stele.

Its wings shattered in the firelight, but before it dissipated, it clearly recited a final message.

Chen Fan looked at the line of text that was gradually becoming clear and suddenly laughed—he finally understood why the System wanted to erase the memories of the Awakened ones, why it wanted to carve all the rebels into an "epitaph."

"So what you fear isn't us rebelling..." He lowered his head, kissed the top of Su Shuang's hair, and then looked up at Xuan Yan. "You fear us... remembering."

The earth vein chains tightened, and Chen Fan could feel the rock squeezing the blood vessels in his ankles.

He clenched his fists, and the crimson-gold patterns spread from the back of his neck to his arms, forming flowing fire totems beneath his skin.

In front of the giant stele, earth vein chains coiled like pythons.

Chen Fan's fists were tightly clenched, his knuckles white from the strain. Lava boiled around his feet, stretching his shadow long.