280: Daytime Crisis

Xiao Shi observed these Townsfolk calmly.

He discovered that besides being in a normal state during the day, the Moon Marks on their foreheads were also under a Seal during the daytime.

"In other words..."

"During the day, they have absolutely no combat capability!"

"Only at night, when they turn into corpses, do their Moon Marks erupt with powerful strength."

Xiao Shi suddenly understood.

This situation felt very strange to him.

Presumably, even in the former Youyue Dynasty, this was not a common occurrence.

"Except for the mayor, everyone in this town seems to be like this..."

Xiao Shi pondered this.

Once these Townsfolk lost their ability to protect themselves during the day,

he would have to be even more cautious about protecting them.

Although Xiao Shi had not yet confirmed whether the deaths of these Townsfolk would bring punishment upon himself,

he didn't dare to gamble.

He could only follow the safest route and ensure zero casualties.

"At least for now, it's certain that during the day, these Townsfolk won't turn into corpses and backstab me..."

"Then the crisis during the day might not originate from within the town."

Just as this thought occurred to Xiao Shi,

he suddenly felt something and looked up.

Swoosh!

His figure blurred.

He rushed directly out of the courtyard like a howling bolt of lightning.

He arrived at the town entrance,

staring into the distance with a serious expression.

Thump!

Thump!

The ground vibrated rhythmically,

growing increasingly intense.

Soon,

a behemoth appeared within Xiao Shi's line of sight.

This was a massive creature, six or seven meters tall, its entire body covered in black scales.

In form, it somewhat resembled a snapping turtle.

It had a black shell covered in spikes on its back,

but its face had only one giant pupil.

The entire pupil was shaped like a crescent moon, exuding a sense of cruelty and bloodthirstiness.

At the same time, atop the head of this giant beast,

stood a figure.

This was a man wearing light yellow martial attire and a wide bamboo hat that concealed his face.

He was slender and carried a long sword on his back.

Thump!

The giant beast stopped its advance after reaching a point a hundred meters in front of Xiao Shi.

Xiao Shi stared at the man on the beast's head.

The eyes beneath the man's bamboo hat were also fixed on Xiao Shi.

"I didn't expect that in this day and age, someone would actually dare to stop my Gen Mountain Sect from exorcising evil. Since you're bent on seeking death, I will fulfill your wish."

The man's cold voice rang out.

"Cut the nonsense."

"I take money to eliminate trouble."

"I don't care what sect you're from; if you want to enter the town, you'll have to step over my corpse."

Xiao Shi said in an involuntarily cold voice.

Through the conversation between the two sides,

he gradually realized

that the role he was playing this time seemed to be someone who specialized in solving problems for others, similar to a mercenary.

And this town was a place where an evil anomaly existed.

This was easy to see from the changes in the Townsfolk at night.

The man who had just arrived seemed to represent a powerful 'righteous sect' that had come specifically to purge this evil town.

Xiao Shi, on the other hand, had been hired by the town

to protect it.

"Does this mean I've become the villain?"

Xiao Shi didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

There was nothing he could do about it.

In this illusory world, he not only had no choice in his identity, but he couldn't even control his own dialogue.

The only thing he seemed to have control over was combat... "Heh, interesting. It's been many years since I've met someone who dares to challenge our Gen Mountain Sect..."

The man gave a cold laugh.

He suddenly crouched down.

His right hand pressed directly onto the head of the giant beast beneath him.

Buzz!

Immediately,

the giant beast's crescent moon pupil glowed with a purple-green light.

The moment this light lit up,

Xiao Shi felt his heartbeat suddenly accelerate, and his vision became blurred.

He actually felt a sense of suffocation as if from lack of oxygen,

to the point that his brain felt dizzy.

Double images began to appear in his field of vision.

This was a powerful technique he had never encountered before.

Whoosh!

Almost the instant the beast's pupil glowed,

the man from the Gen Mountain Sect had already charged from the beast's head, attacking Xiao Shi.

Xiao Shi's eyes were full of the opponent's afterimages, making it impossible to see where the real body was.

In an instant,

the man from the Gen Mountain Sect arrived before Xiao Shi.

He merged two fingers, which turned black, and struck directly at Xiao Shi's throat.

Chirp!

However, what he hit was only a lingering phantom left by Xiao Shi's high-speed movement.

"Hmm?"

The man from the Gen Mountain Sect frowned slightly.

He hadn't expected the opponent to be so fast!

Xiao Shi retreated rapidly.

It had to be said,

he was at quite a disadvantage when facing enemies in this illusory world.

Due to the difference in power systems,

his Soul Consciousness and Soul Power could not affect the people in this illusory world.

However, the people in this illusory world could use this world's power system to deal with him.

In this state,

he couldn't fight back at all.

He could only continuously dodge using his speed.

When another attack from the Gen Mountain Sect man was dodged by Xiao Shi,

irritation appeared in his eyes.

He raised a finger and tapped the center of his forehead under the bamboo hat, causing the Moon Mark there to burst with a pitch-black light that wreathed his entire body.

Swoosh!

The Gen Mountain Sect man's speed suddenly surged.

Like a bolt of black light,

he shot towards Xiao Shi.

"Let's see how you dodge this!"

With incredible speed, he arrived before Xiao Shi in an instant. Without giving Xiao Shi time to react, his sword fingers whistled out, aiming straight for Xiao Shi's throat.

Chirp!

The fingers wreathed in black light easily pierced through Xiao Shi's throat, coming out the other side.

But there was no joy on the Gen Mountain Sect man's face; instead, he became even more exasperated.

"Another afterimage!!"

He hadn't expected that after his own speed had surged, the opponent's speed would also surge.

It had reached an inconceivable level.

A pair of war boots had appeared on Xiao Shi's feet.

It was... the Martial Emperor War Boots!

In this illusory world, he could likewise use the Martial God Emperors Armor.

Now, with the enhancement of the Martial Emperor War Boots, his overall speed skyrocketed.

At the same time, the influence he had suffered earlier began to weaken with time.

The double images in his vision were no longer so numerous.

Swoosh!

Xiao Shi's figure flickered.

He took the initiative to attack.

This was exactly what the Gen Mountain Sect man wanted.

He wasn't afraid of the opponent attacking; he was afraid of Xiao Shi constantly dodging with speed.

Facing the charging Xiao Shi,

the Gen Mountain Sect man struck out directly with his sword fingers, colliding fiercely with the fist Xiao Shi threw during his charge.

"Hmm?"

The collision between sword fingers and fist

did not produce any violent explosion.

In fact, the Gen Mountain Sect man felt no impact at all.

His sword fingers passed directly through Xiao Shi's fist and through Xiao Shi's body.

This... was still an afterimage!

The attack Xiao Shi had made was just an illusion!

"Not good!"

The Gen Mountain Sect man suddenly realized something.

He whipped his head around.

At a glance, he saw Xiao Shi charging towards the giant beast behind him at an amazing speed!

Xiao Shi knew

that to deal with this Gen Mountain Sect man, he had to first take out his giant beast.

If this giant beast used that light from before again to affect him, it would leave him only able to dodge and unable to attack.

To this end... he had deliberately feigned an attack on the Gen Mountain Sect man.

In reality, the moment he drew close,

he had erupted with all his speed to form that afterimage,

while his actual self bypassed the Gen Mountain Sect man to strike at the giant beast behind him.

By the time the Gen Mountain Sect man reacted, it was already too late.

Xiao Shi's speed was simply too fast.

With a flash,

he had already reached the giant beast.

As he approached,

Xiao Shi's pupils turned silver-white, his body was covered in a layer of silver-white, and a silver-white cross mark appeared on the Moon Mark on his forehead, overlapping with it.

Both fists struck out simultaneously,

creating a vibrating explosion that tore through the air.

Boom!!

His fists slammed into the giant beast's head at the same time.

He smashed two huge bloody holes right into the beast's head, and a large amount of blood and brain tissue sprayed and flowed out.

Almost the instant Xiao Shi finished this,

the silver-white on his body turned into gold, and his entire frame expanded.

Boom!

His back was struck by a powerful long-range attack,

and he was sent flying.

"Damn it!!"

The Gen Mountain Sect man gnashed his teeth, absolutely furious.

Although he had found an opportunity to attack Xiao Shi in the gap when Xiao Shi attacked the giant beast, his beast had been killed by the opponent.

At the same time, his attack hadn't caused any damage to Xiao Shi.

At the critical moment, the Jingang Form Xiao Shi had transformed into

had blocked the Gen Mountain Sect man's attack.

The Gen Mountain Sect man never expected this person to be so difficult to deal with.

Despite having no powerful Moon Mark strength, he had played him like a fool just by relying on his speed.

"It seems... I still have to use my ultimate move!"

The Gen Mountain Sect man took a deep breath.

Since the beginning of the battle, he had been accumulating his own powerful strength for his strongest ultimate move.

The drawback of this move was that it required some time to accumulate;

it couldn't be activated instantly.

Originally, the Gen Mountain Sect man had intended to use this move on the evil anomalies in the town, but now... he knew he had to use it to resolve the person before him.

Immediately,

the Gen Mountain Sect man looked up at the silver-white Nether Moon in the sky.

In this illusory world,

even during the day,

the Nether Moon existed in the sky.

This Nether Moon would not dissipate with time; it would always be there!

After all, this Nether Moon was not just an ordinary moon, but the symbol of the Youyue Dynasty.

When this Nether Moon dissipated, that would be the moment the Youyue Dynasty collapsed.

Buzz!

Under the Gen Mountain Sect man's gaze,

a beam of moonlight actually projected down from the Nether Moon in the sky, forming a pillar of light that hit the Gen Mountain Sect man's forehead.

The wide bamboo hat on the Gen Mountain Sect man's head shattered,

revealing the crescent Moon Mark on his forehead.

Xiao Shi could clearly feel

a violent power within the opponent's Moon Mark that was continuously surging. At the same time, the sword on the Gen Mountain Sect man's back was also vibrating incessantly, threatening to leave its scabbard!

Xiao Shi knew

that his greatest disadvantage here

was his lack of familiarity with the power of Moon Marks.

He couldn't think of going head-to-head with the opponent's Moon Mark power; it was best to resolve him before the attack erupted.

Thinking of this,

Xiao Shi switched back to the Crimson Tiger Form.

Combined with the speed boost from the Martial Emperor War Boots, he shot out at maximum speed. To push his speed to the limit,

he also condensed his Soul Consciousness and Soul Power into his legs,

bringing an even faster increase in speed.

Currently, his Soul Consciousness and Soul Power couldn't be used for attacks,

but they could provide him with a boost in speed.

Swoosh!

In an instant,

with the Crimson Tiger Form, the Martial Emperor War Boots, and the enhancement of Soul Consciousness and Soul Power, Xiao Shi's speed directly reached the limit for his current cultivation.

With a flicker,

he arrived before the Gen Mountain Sect man.

His gaze locked onto the Moon Mark on the Gen Mountain Sect man's forehead.

The Moon Sealing Dagger appeared in his hand.

At this moment, the Gen Mountain Sect man was still looking up at the Nether Moon.

The beam of light projected from the Nether Moon was like a transmission of powerful energy, causing the power in the man's Moon Mark to expand and become increasingly violent!

And the power within the Moon Mark fed back into the long sword on his back, making the entire sword vibrate even more intensely,

like a Vicious Beast about to tear its cage apart!

Only... the accumulation time needed for this ultimate move of the Gen Mountain Sect man was truly a bit too long.

Combined with Xiao Shi's incredible speed,

from a time perspective, it was already too late.

After the Moon Sealing Dagger appeared in Xiao Shi's hand, he had already raised it and stabbed it straight towards the Moon Mark on the Gen Mountain Sect man's forehead.

However, just then... Buzz!

The Nether Moon in the sky suddenly projected a strange moonlight.

This beam of moonlight was not focused on the Gen Mountain Sect man, but instead struck directly at Xiao Shi.

"Hmm?"

Xiao Shi's expression tightened.

From this projected moonlight, he felt a profound sense of malice and hatred.

Even with his speed, he couldn't dodge this beam of moonlight and was directly enveloped.

Immediately, under the shine of this moonlight, his entire body came to a halt, as if frozen in place, unable to move.

Xiao Shi's heart sank.

He suddenly thought of a negative effect of the Moon Sealing Dagger.

[While holding the Moon Sealing Dagger, one will be subject to the hostility of the Nether Moon.]

Clearly,

his current situation was a result of being targeted by the Nether Moon after incurring its hostility!

Although the pause caused by the moonlight lasted only about a second, it was enough time for the Gen Mountain Sect man to complete his ultimate move.

Boom!!

With a massive explosion,

the long sword on the Gen Mountain Sect man's back shot out from its scabbard.

Xiao Shi then saw... this long sword of the opponent was not like a normal sword.

Below the hilt was not an ordinary blade, but a greenish-black arm. The entire arm also had a pair of crimson pupils and a mouth full of sharp teeth.

It was actually an evil anomaly!

This seemed to be a method of sealing an evil anomaly and making it serve oneself!