141: Chapter 141 Divine Body Declines, General Slayed!

Black Snake stood where he was, his vertical pupils narrowing into slits.

"What a monster..."

Black Snake's voice leaked from beneath his hood, raspy and carrying a hint of unease he hadn't even noticed himself.

However... even if that were the case, so what?

He was in the War General Realm... The chasm between the War General Realm and the Meridian Opening Realm could not be bridged just by dying a few more times.

Black Snake held his thin blade horizontally before him, the blade shimmering once again with that layer of black Pollution Source Power.

He pushed off with his feet, turning into a black shadow, his thin blade dragging a silver line through the air as it thrust straight at Lu Cheng's throat.

Before the sharp whistle of the blade piercing the air could reach his ears, the edge was already three inches from Lu Cheng's throat.

Then, Lu Cheng raised his hand.

His right hand swept up from below, the dragon scales of his Holy Dragon Armament tracing a golden-white arc with his fingertips.

His palm directly grabbed the blade of the thin sword.

The crisp sound of metal clashing exploded.

Black Snake's pupils constricted.

His blade was caught?

Sparks flew where the dragon scales met the blade, and as Lu Cheng's fingers gripped the edge, Black Snake could feel the resistance coming from the blade...

He immediately pulled back his blade and retreated. The thin sword slid out from Lu Cheng's palm, and what stained the blade wasn't blood, but a layer of scraped-off black Pollution Source Power.

He retreated five steps, readjusted his stance, and stared intensely at Lu Cheng with his vertical pupils.

Lu Cheng stood where he was, looking down at his palm.

There was a faint white mark on the dragon scales on his palm, but as Holy Radiance Regeneration flowed over it, the mark vanished within two seconds.

He raised his head and looked at Black Snake.

"Your strength isn't enough."

Black Snake's eyelid twitched.

He charged again, his thin blade turning into a silver web of blades in his hand, delivering three horizontal slashes, two vertical chops, and one diagonal thrust aimed straight at Lu Cheng's right eye.

Each strike was wrapped in the martial intent of the War General Realm, with the Pollution Source Power on the blade condensing into a black, physical substance, slicing through the air and making a sound like tearing fabric.

Lu Cheng moved within the web of blades.

Thunder Step Boots burst with lightning, Gale Step made his body feel almost weightless, and the golden-red afterimages of Drifting Dragon Rending Shadow wove through the gaps in the blade web.

This time, he didn't block every strike head-on; his body shifted direction at high frequency within a small range, and Seeking Good Fortune and Avoiding Bad Luck allowed him to graze past the blades with every turn.

Black Snake's blade momentum grew faster and faster.

His martial intent spread from the blade, like a black net covering Lu Cheng.

The martial intent of the War General Realm could directly erode an opponent's blood circulation and Source Power flow; when fighting within the same realm, the collision of martial intent was often the key to victory.

But now, Black Snake found that the damage he could inflict on him had become extremely low; even his martial intent could not cause effective damage.

The dual purification of the Holy Light and Demonic Flames within Lu Cheng directly neutralized the erosive effects of the martial intent.

The innate Holy Purification of the Holy Dragon Armament possessed strong resistance to sinister, cursed, toxic, corrosive, and death-qi effects, and Black Snake's corrupted martial intent was perfectly countered by it.

What was even more fatal was that the passive effect of Eternal Calamity had stacked three layers of physical defense, and coupled with the endless support of Source Power after activating the Nine Luminaries Holy Meridian, Lu Cheng's current defense had reached an unimaginable level.

Black Snake could occasionally land a strike, but by the time his blade cut the dragon scales and he pulled back, Holy Radiance Regeneration had already begun to heal the wound.

Instead, he was the one being beaten into a steady retreat.

When Lu Cheng's fists struck, Black Snake could feel the Holy Light and Demonic Flames wrapped around them.

Holy Dragon Shock Blast exploded with a golden-white shockwave at the point of impact, and the black-red demonic flames of Saint Flame Scorching Extinction burned the moment they touched him, making his snake scales sizzle and causing the Pollution Source Power beneath his skin to boil.

Black Snake retreated. With every step back, his heel would crush a pit into the asphalt road.

Fragments flew, and cracks spread outward like a spiderweb.

He had already retreated over a dozen steps, but Lu Cheng's fists were still chasing him.

Golden-red afterimages surged from all angles, and the fist shadows were so dense he could barely see which one was real.

A sense of absurdity surged in Black Snake's heart.

He had activated his Divine Body... This was a Divine Body, a Divine Body bestowed by the Lord Divine Envoy, how could it...

How was it possible? How could he be suppressed and beaten by a kid who had just broken through to the Meridian Opening Realm?

He looked down at the snake scales on his body. The dark green scales were covered in cracks, spreading from his chest to his shoulders.

Pollution Source Power seeped out from the cracks, viscous like black blood, burning smoking pits into the ground where it dripped.

The Divine Body was decaying... Why? This was the first time such a thing had happened to him...

Lu Cheng also noticed that Black Snake's combat strength was constantly weakening... "However... it doesn't matter."

If he had maintained his previous combat strength, he might not have necessarily won... Strike while it's sick and finish it off!

Lu Cheng did not intend to give Black Snake a chance to breathe.

He took a deep breath, the dragon emblem on the chest of the Holy Dragon Armament lit up, and golden-white Holy Light gathered from the surface of the scales toward his throat.

A low dragon roar echoed in the air, shaking the surrounding gravel until it all jumped.

The phantom of the dragon soul spread its wings behind him, its head lowered, its mouth aimed in Black Snake's direction.

Black Snake's vertical pupils constricted to the size of a needle point. He recognized this move; just a moment ago, Lu Cheng had used it to leave a scar on his face.

But this strike was countless times more intense than the previous one.

The golden-white light compressed, swirled, and boiled in Lu Cheng's throat, and the dragon roar transformed from a low growl into a deafening roar.

Black Snake wanted to dodge. He pushed off with his legs, his body flashing to the left. It was too late.

"Go to hell!" Lu Cheng opened his mouth, Holy Dragon Roar.

A stream of golden-white dragon breath erupted from his mouth, its diameter several times thicker than before.

The beam of light slammed into Black Snake, the dragon roar exploded, the glass windows on both sides of the street shattered, and shards of glass rained down with a clatter.

The asphalt road where the dragon breath had grazed was burned into a charred pit, the asphalt at the edge of the pit still bubbling.

Black Snake's body was engulfed by the dragon breath.

The snake scales of his activated Divine Body melted layer by layer in the dragon breath, his skin was scorched by the Holy Light, and his bones were cracked by the high heat.

He wanted to shout something, but when he opened his mouth, the Holy Light poured in, burning his vocal cords to ash, and he couldn't scream a single word.

The dragon breath lasted for five whole seconds. Five seconds later, the Holy Light dissipated.

Lu Cheng closed his mouth, and a wisp of golden-white smoke emerged from his throat.

Black Snake fell to the ground.

The body that had activated the Divine Body was burned down to only half; above the chest, it barely maintained a human shape, while the part below the chest had been burned to ash by the dragon breath.

He was thoroughly dead...

Lu Cheng didn't spare Black Snake another glance. He turned around, pushed off with his feet, Thunder Step Boots burst with lightning, and he rushed toward Chu Xiuxiu's direction.

Chu Xiuxiu was still fighting Saliva Shadow.

The strength of Saliva Shadow, this War General Realm cultist, was a notch weaker than Black Snake's, but no matter how weak, he was still in the War General Realm.

When Lu Cheng arrived, he discovered that Chu Xiuxiu was actually gaining the upper hand.

The black runes on Saliva Shadow's body were constantly twisting, the runes wrapping around him like chains, from his wrists to his arms, from his ankles to his thighs.

He couldn't move, and the expression on his face changed from that twisted excitement to terror.

Then Chu Xiuxiu moved.

The six tentacles on her back shot out simultaneously, the chitinous layer on the surface of the tentacles shimmering with a dark purple fluorescence in the sunlight, the tips opening to reveal barbs stained with Saliva Shadow's blood.

The tentacles were so fast they left afterimages, whipping through the air and making the crisp sound of a whip cracking the air.

Saliva Shadow's right hand managed to lift, and Pollution Source Power condensed in his palm.

The tentacle pierced directly through his palm.

The gray-white tentacle pierced in through the palm and out through the back of the hand, bringing out a pool of black blood.

The second tentacle pierced his left shoulder. The third pierced his abdomen. The fourth, fifth, and sixth simultaneously pierced his chest.

Saliva Shadow's body was rapidly withering.

It was as if something inside the tentacles was draining his life force, the Pollution Source Power in his body being sucked away bit by bit by the tentacles, the runes beneath his skin going dark, his skin shriveling up and sticking to his bones.

His face collapsed, his cheekbones protruded, his eye sockets sank deep, and his lips cracked and curled back, revealing teeth that had turned gray-white.

"Damn it..." Saliva Shadow's voice no longer sounded human. His voice was dry and cracked, every word sounding like it was being squeezed from his throat.

"How do you... this..."

He didn't finish. The six tentacles withdrew from his body simultaneously, taking his last bit of life force.

Saliva Shadow's body collapsed to the ground like a dried corpse, slamming onto the asphalt road and breaking into several pieces.

After Chu Xiuxiu finished all this, the tentacles slowly retracted into her body.

The chitinous layer slowly receded from the surface of her skin, leaving only a few faint gray-white patterns behind her shoulders.

Chu Xiuxiu slumped to the ground, her fingers supporting her on the ground, her fingertips trembling slightly.

Her tattered clothes were covered in the blood of Pollution Beasts, and her cracked lips opened as if to say something, but they only moved without making a sound.

Her energy was nearly depleted; she barely had the strength to sit up.

Lu Cheng walked quickly to Chu Xiuxiu's side, knelt down, and supported her.

He dimmed the Holy Dragon Armament a little to avoid burning her with the Holy Light.

"Are you okay?"

Chu Xiuxiu raised her head, and that face, thin to the point where her cheekbones protruded, forced a very weak smile.

"Brother Lu Cheng..." Her voice was very small, so small that Lu Cheng almost didn't hear it.

"I need... to rest for a while..."

Then she slumped limply into Lu Cheng's arms, her eyes closed, and her breathing became very light and shallow.

Lu Cheng reached out to check her pulse; it was still beating.

The energy in her body was nearly bottomed out, but her foundation wasn't damaged; she should be able to recover after a rest.

Lu Cheng gave Chu Xiuxiu some energy potions, then leaned her against a wall that hadn't collapsed, and only after confirming that no Pollution Beasts were approaching did he straighten his body.

There were still two War General monsters on the front line that hadn't been dealt with.

Theoretically, fourteen Hua Hai Realm practitioners shouldn't be a match for two War Generals; no matter how you calculate it, a War General crushing a Sea Transformation is a given.

But when Lu Cheng rushed over, the scene he saw was not quite what he had imagined.

Those two cultist War Generals were already being suppressed and beaten.

The fourteen Hua Hai Realm practitioners had joined forces to set up a combined attack formation, their Source Power circulating and cycling within the same formation, and every strike was the combined power of all fourteen people.

The black robes on the upper bodies of those two War Generals had been shredded, revealing bodies covered in wounds: knife wounds, sword wounds, bruises from fists, and several charred marks from fire.

Lu Cheng didn't hesitate; he cut in from the flank, the golden-red afterimages of Drifting Dragon Rending Shadow crashing directly into the battlefield, and he smashed a fist into the ribs of one of the War Generals.

Holy Dragon Shock Blast sent that War General flying sideways, crashing into the wall of a building by the street, and the concrete wall was smashed into a pit.

The fourteen Hua Hai Realm practitioners coordinated tacitly, and within seconds, they had driven the other War General into a dead end.

Amidst the flashing blades and swords, the War General's chest was pierced by a tactical long blade, pinning him to the ground, where he twitched a few times and then stopped moving.

Lu Cheng followed up with a punch, and Saint Flame Scorching Extinction burned the War General who had been sent flying into ash.

The battle ended faster than Lu Cheng had expected.

The whole street fell silent, with only the crackling of several burning vehicle wrecks in the distance remaining.

Then a muffled sound came from the air. It was like thunder in the clouds, or perhaps the shockwave of something larger colliding.

Everyone looked up at the same time. Above the Wasteland Zone to the north, that was the battlefield of the War Kings.

That black-robed man of the War King Realm was falling from the sky.

A golden beam of light was still burning on the horizon, and the figure of Xia Yunchi emerged from the beam, draped in the afterglow of the Great Sun Divine Furnace.

He turned back directly from the point of fall and flew toward the urban area of Rong City.

Those in the War King Realm could hover in the air for a short time, and their speed was countless times faster than ordinary people.

A few seconds later, Xia Yunchi landed on the main road in the center of Rong City.

His uniform had several tears, there was a bloody scratch on the left side of his face caused by sharp claws, the fingertips of his right glove were scorched by something, and he was covered in that dark purple moss from the northern Wasteland Zone.

But standing there, his aura was as steady as a mountain, with the golden light of the Great Sun Divine Furnace swirling in his eyes.

He swept his gaze over the corpses, ruins, and burning wrecks on the street, and then his eyes landed on Lu Cheng, who was standing in the middle of the street.