112: Chapter 113 Using Your Skills to Bully You

The sudden turn of events not only shocked Kim Tae-Hwa and his female partner in the field, but even the two Class Transferees hiding behind a snow slope dozens of meters away, who had intended to watch the spectacle, were startled to the point of almost jumping out of their hiding spot.

That "Space Barrier" was a powerful containment field created by high-level Class Transferees or precious scrolls, possessing an extremely stable energy structure and typically having a "durability value" equivalent to hundreds of millions or even over a billion! Even powerhouses of the same level would need to expend significant effort and time to break it head-on.

Yet now, it had shattered in an instant? Like a glass cover being smashed?

Moreover, the entrance to the secret realm vortex, which had been emitting an ominous blood-red light, had also vanished along with it? This usually only had two possibilities: the secret realm had naturally dissipated because its closing time had arrived, or... someone had cleared it!

How long had it even been? A dozen minutes? A single person clearing a Level 97 epic-grade secret realm?

How was this possible?! The brains of the two hiding Class Transferees were in chaos, almost suspecting they were hallucinating.

However, before anyone in the field could recover from this shocking fact, the true attack had already descended.

Sshhh-crack! The piercing sound of electricity tearing through the air rang out.

Two lightning arrows, wreathed in blinding thunderous light and emitting a destructive Aura, appeared without warning—as if condensing directly from the void. With terrifying speed that exceeded visual tracking, they tore through the scattered barrier fragments and the cold air like two spears of thunder, aiming straight for Kim Tae-Hwa and his companion, who had just set up a defensive posture below!

No, it wasn't just "as if"; this attack had appeared out of thin air, and the caster was completely invisible!

"This is... the Heaven-Piercing Thunder Arrow?!?"

The moment the rigid-faced middle-aged female enforcer saw the form of the lightning arrows, her pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks, and she screamed in disbelief, her voice filled with incredible horror.

Because the "Heaven-Piercing Thunder Arrow" skill was one of her signature trump cards! An epic-grade single-target attack skill with immense power and rapid firing speed! She was more familiar with the energy fluctuations, arrow form, and unique thunderous Aura of this skill than anyone else.

Yet, it was precisely because of this familiarity that she felt incomparably absurd and terrified!

epic-grade skills, especially attack-type ones, usually possessed strong "uniqueness" or "inheritance restrictions." There might be very few people in the whole world who mastered the same epic-grade attack skill, perhaps even only one! The "Heaven-Piercing Thunder Arrow" she had learned was the reward she received after completing an extremely difficult unique quest chain in her early years; she had never heard of a second person who knew this skill!

But now, the skill she was most familiar with and most proud of was hurtling towards her and her partner in the form of an enemy attack! And, two of them at once?!?

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" she roared in her heart. "Even if it really is the 'Heaven-Piercing Thunder Arrow,' this skill has a base cooldown of sixty seconds. Even with top-tier cooldown reduction equipment, it is absolutely impossible to fire two shots instantly..."

Shock was shock, but combat instinct made her react in a flash.

"Electric Armor!"

She shouted sharply, and a strong purple electric light instantly erupted around her body. Countless dense arcs of electricity intertwined and leaped, rapidly forming a solid, flowing lightning energy armor on her skin that emitted a sizzling sound. This was one of her strongest instant-cast defensive skills.

At the same time, she reached back and drew the epic-grade longbow "Thunder's Fury" that she treasured, which was covered in flowing purple thunder patterns. She pulled the bowstring to full draw in an instant, her gaze sweeping like a hawk toward the direction from which the arrows came, trying to lock onto the invisible attacker and launch a fierce counterattack.

However, as far as her eyes could see, apart from the falling snow, the barrier light particles that hadn't yet fully settled, and the empty sky, where could she see even a shadow of an enemy?

"No one?!?" This thought made a chill rise from the bottom of her heart.

Just in that moment of hesitation and searching, those two deadly "Heaven-Piercing Thunder Arrows" were already imminent!

Puff! A sound of penetration rang out—not loud, but one that made the heart go cold.

The lightning arrow aimed at her collided with the "Electric Armor" she had erected. The intense energy cancellation she had anticipated did not occur; the destructive power contained within the lightning arrow far exceeded her cognition. Her prideful lightning armor was like meeting its natural enemy, or perhaps like a fragile eggshell; it only held for less than 0.1 seconds before being easily pierced and torn apart amidst a wailing "crack" sound!

The lightning arrow's momentum slowed slightly, but it remained violent, hitting her abdomen with precision.

"Urgh!" She let out a short, painful grunt, her entire body sent flying backward by the immense kinetic energy contained in the lightning arrow. The lightning arrow pierced through her body, its momentum undiminished, and with a spray of dazzling blood, it buried itself deep into the snow a dozen meters behind her. It blasted out a small pit, the snow instantly vaporized by the high temperature, mixing with blood and rising in a plume of pungent white smoke.

She fell heavily onto the cold snowy ground, a bowl-sized charred hole in her abdomen, the flesh at the edges appearing terrifyingly carbonized. Purple electric arcs were still "cracking" and jumping at the wound, crazily destroying her vitality. She widened her eyes, her bloodshot pupils filled with extreme pain, confusion, and horror that she couldn't understand even in death.

"This attack power... how could it..." She tried in vain to raise her hand, wanting to take a life-saving potion from her storage space, but all the strength in her body seemed to have flowed away with that blood hole. Her internal organs were almost completely destroyed, and the thunderous power was still raging within her. She only lasted two seconds before her eyes rapidly lost focus, her head tilted to the side, and she completely stopped breathing.

As for the other "Heaven-Piercing Thunder Arrow" shot at Kim Tae-Hwa, it encountered a completely different defense.

"Forest Barrier!"

The moment the lightning arrow appeared, Kim Tae-Hwa's hair also stood on end. He reacted extremely quickly, slamming his hands fiercely onto the snow, and the massive wood-attribute energy in his body poured out crazily. The snow in front of him churned violently as thick, resilient vines wrapped in green energy broke through the snow as if they had life. Layer upon layer, they intertwined, instantly constructing ten immensely thick vine barriers in front of him!

Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff!...

The Heaven-Piercing Thunder Arrow was unstoppable, piercing through one layer of vine barrier after another. Every time a layer was pierced, it would explode into a sky full of wood chips and broken vines, emitting dull, explosive sounds. The violent thunderous power attached to the lightning arrow charred the vines, causing them to smoke.

Finally, after unstoppably piercing through nine barriers in a row, the power of the lightning arrow was exhausted. It was stuck fast by the last tattered vine barrier, the thunderous light on the arrow flickering a few times before slowly extinguishing.

"Hiss—" Kim Tae-Hwa gasped, cold sweat streaming down his forehead. He knew the defensive power of his "Forest Barrier" all too well; each barrier was enough to withstand a full-force blow from a powerhouse of the same level. The opponent's arrow had actually almost pierced through all ten of his defenses! This power was several times stronger than the "Heaven-Piercing Thunder Arrow" his dead partner had used at full strength!

"Who exactly are you?!?" Kim Tae-Hwa was both shocked and furious, roaring loudly at the empty surroundings. His voice was slightly distorted due to anger and a hint of imperceptible fear: "Daring to attack and kill an official law enforcement officer of Kimchi Country! You are dead! No one in heaven or on earth can save you!!"

While shouting, he raised his perception to the limit, his eyes acting like a scanner, staring fixedly at the general direction from which the arrow had come, as well as every slight energy fluctuation in the surrounding space. The instant killing of his partner, combined with the opponent's bizarre and unpredictable stealth ability and terrifying attack power, made him dare not be the slightest bit careless. He had already quietly crushed the emergency distress rune hidden in his sleeve, hoping only to hold out until reinforcements arrived.

High in the sky, Lin Muyang, in a state of Divine Concealment, calmly looked down at the Forest Monk below who was facing a formidable enemy but was like a headless fly unable to find his target.

Beside him, Elabess maintained her "Disguise" state. Her current image was exactly the same as the body of the female enforcer that was gradually growing cold in the snow below! What she held in her hand was the legendary-grade longbow "Molten Arbiter" (fire attribute, but temporarily covered by Elabess's dark power to simulate a thunder effect) just harvested from the secret realm, with faint electric arcs still remaining on the bowstring.

"The bonus from this legendary-grade weapon, combined with Master's Aura, the power is just too exaggerated..." Elabess looked at the longbow in her hand with some surprise herself. She had simulated the target's skill, but her own attributes had not changed, yet she could temporarily obtain corresponding vocational equipment mastery through the disguise. Compared to epic-grade weapons, legendary-grade weapons had a qualitative leap in base attack power, attribute bonuses, and special effect intensity, and after being amplified by Lin Muyang's attack power Aura of over thirty times...

Killing a Level 130+ A-rank archer with one arrow—although the opponent had weak defense and no psychological preparation, this result still gave her a new understanding of their current destructive power.

"Shall we try his other skills?" Elabess's lips curled into a bewitching smile, completely different from the corpse below, as she asked Lin Muyang for instructions.

Lin Muyang nodded slightly.

Elabess raised her bow again. This time, she did not use the "Heaven-Piercing Thunder Arrow," which had a relatively long cooldown, but instead selected several rapid attack skills of the archer from the copied skill list.

"Chain Lightning Arrow!"

"Piercing Thunder Strike!"

"Storm Shot!"

She was like a top-tier Lightning Archer; the bowstring vibrated incessantly, and bolts of lightning—some swift, some tricky, others covering a wide area—poured down toward Kim Tae-Hwa below like a torrential rain! The individual power of these skills was not as great as the "Sun-Piercing Thunder Arrow," but they excelled in speed and low consumption, while carrying various effects like paralysis and slowing.

Kim Tae-Hwa's face turned livid. He had to mobilize his wood-element energy again, continuously generating vine shields and wooden barriers around him, and even manipulating tree roots beneath the snow to rise up and form cover, defending against this fierce assault from invisible blind spots in a pathetic state. The defensive special effects on his equipment flashed from time to time, but they quickly dimmed under the relentless barrage.

"Damn it! This attack frequency and skill chaining... it's exactly like Soomin at her peak! No, even stronger!" The more Kim Tae-Hwa fought, the more alarmed he became. The opponent not only perfectly replicated his partner's skill library, but even seemed to know her usage habits and combos like the back of her hand, and the attack power was ridiculously strong. This gave him an absurd feeling, as if he were fighting an enhanced, invisible version of his partner.

However, his rich combat experience allowed him to analyze frantically even while on the defensive. The opponent's attacks were not completely without pattern; the trajectory of every arrow pointed toward a relatively fixed area in the air!

"Found you!" A fierce glint flashed in Kim Tae-Hwa's eyes. Taking advantage of a gap while blocking a volley of arrows, he suddenly threw two emerald-green seeds toward the approximate location he had deduced, while simultaneously slamming both hands onto the ground!

"Parasitic Saplings! Explode!"

"Strangling Vines! Entangle!"

The two seeds flew into mid-air, suddenly shining with brilliant green light. They instantly expanded and twisted, transforming into two magic plants covered in sharp thorns, baring their fangs and brandishing their claws, before exploding with a boom! Countless wooden spikes containing corrosive and paralyzing toxins shot out like a torrential rain, indiscriminately covering that airspace!

Meanwhile, the snow beneath Lin Muyang and the others suddenly split open. Five deep green vines, as thick as buckets and covered with suckers and barbs, emerged like giant pythons, whistling through the air as they fiercely lashed out and tried to entangle their hidden position! This was Kim Tae-Hwa's control-and-kill move; once entangled, not only would it be difficult to escape, but the barbs and suckers on the vines would also frantically drain the prey's life force and mana.

However, facing this sudden counterattack, Elabess merely raised an eyebrow slightly, her legendary-grade longbow drawn to its full extent once again.

"Sun-Piercing Thunder Arrow."

This time, following her cold, clear voice, seven arrows wreathed in blinding lightning instantly coalesced on the bowstring!

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh—!

The seven bolts of lightning shot out simultaneously like shooting stars chasing the moon! Two of them struck the two "Parasitic Saplings" with absolute precision just as they were exploding and before they could fully release their spikes. The violent power of thunder instantly annihilated their detonating cores; the two green lights flickered in the air like a misfire before turning into charred debris that scattered and fell.

The other five lightning arrows headed toward the five ferocious Strangling Vines. Lightning overcomes wood; the elemental suppression was displayed vividly at this moment. The instant the lightning arrows struck the vines, blinding electric light spread crazily along them and exploded!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The five incredibly tough Strangling Vines, like dead wood struck by heavenly lightning, shattered, charred, and crumbled inch by inch! Wood chips filled the sky, and the smell of burning permeated the air.

"What?! Seven arrows at once?! This is impossible!" Kim Tae-Hwa was completely stunned, his eyes wide. "Sun-Piercing Thunder Arrow" was a purely single-target skill; how could she fire so many simultaneously?

Little did he know that Lin Muyang had already activated the [Super Splitting] Aura for Elabess. The effect of this Aura was to give the target's single-target attack skills a high probability of splitting into multiple attacks upon release! Although the power of each individual arrow after splitting would decrease, it was more than enough to deal with these vines and summons.

With his counterattack easily dismantled, the last glimmer of hope in Kim Tae-Hwa's heart was extinguished. He understood that he could never be a match for this invisible enemy. Run! He had to run immediately! Wait for reinforcements!

Once this thought arose, he had no will to fight left. A green light flashed on his body, and he intended to activate his life-saving displacement skill, "Wood Style: Shadow Shift," to flee far away from the snow mountain.

Unfortunately, he realized it too late.

Gui Wanwan, who had been waiting quietly on the other side of Lin Muyang, flashed a hint of mockery in her gray eyes. She didn't even make much of a movement, simply raising her fair palm toward the figure preparing to flee below, and loosely clenched her five fingers.

"Yamas Secret Incantation."

Silently and soundlessly, a profound and cold law power spanned space and instantly descended upon Kim Tae-Hwa.

The Forest Monk, who was in the middle of activating his skill, suddenly stiffened! He discovered with horror that his consciousness... seemed to be floating? A strange, light, and weightless feeling came over him.

He subconsciously "looked down."

Then, he saw a scene that made his soul scatter in terror—his body remained in a half-crouched position, ready to exert force, frozen in place and motionless. Yet his "vision" was actually coming from a higher, semi-transparent "self"! That semi-transparent "self" was slowly floating out from the top of the physical body below...

Soul out of body!

"No—!!!" Kim Tae-Hwa's soul let out a silent, desperate scream. He struggled desperately, wanting to return to his body, but an invisible binding force originating from the underworld locked his newly departed soul firmly in mid-air, unable to move at all.

Having lost its soul's guidance, his physical body's defense dropped drastically, no different from an empty shell.

Just then, Elabess's next wave of attacks arrived.

It was still an endless stream of lightning arrows, mixed with the "Split-version Sun-Piercing Thunder Arrow," which had slightly reduced power but greater quantity. These attacks poured without obstruction onto Kim Tae-Hwa's physical body, which had lost its soul's control and whose defensive instincts had greatly diminished.

Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft...!

Blood splattered continuously, and the smell of burning flesh permeated the air. That once strong body was shot into a sieve within a mere two or three seconds, riddled with holes and charred black, eventually collapsing forward powerlessly and slamming heavily into the snow, kicking up a spray of blood-stained snow.

At the moment the physical body's life was completely severed, Kim Tae-Hwa's soul, imprisoned in mid-air, let out a silent shriek filled with endless fear and unwillingness that only Gui Wanwan could "hear." Then, like a bursting bubble, it turned into the purest nether energy, dissipated into the biting cold wind of the snow mountain, and returned to the heavens and earth.

The battle, from start to finish, lasted only a short minute or two.

Two Level 130+ A-grade Kimchi Country official law enforcers—one dead, and one annihilated in soul.

Behind a snow slope tens of meters away, the male and female Class Transferees were already pale with fright, their bodies trembling like chaff. They covered their mouths tightly, holding their breath, terrified of making even the slightest sound and attracting the attention of that terrifying existence. They huddled in the snow pile, daring only to peek through a gap, their eyes filled with extreme fear as they secretly looked toward the battlefield that seemed to have been ravaged by a thunderstorm, and at the two mutilated corpses rapidly freezing in the cold.

Only when they were certain that the invisible god of death seemed to have left did the two scramble out of their hiding place. Without even bothering to brush the snow off their bodies, they fled frantically in the direction away from the snow mountain at the fastest speed of their lives, never looking back.

After fleeing more than ten kilometers and confirming they were absolutely safe, the two collapsed under a dead tree, gasping violently, their hearts pounding so hard they felt like they were about to explode.

"Did... did you record it?" the man asked, his voice trembling.

"I, I recorded a little... it was too scary, my hands were shaking so hard..." The woman's face was pale as she shakily pulled out her phone. At the time, hiding behind the snow slope, she had been driven by some impulse to point her phone camera toward the battlefield, recording a short video. Although the footage was blurry due to the distance and her shaking, it could vaguely capture the lightning arrows streaking across the sky, the vines shattering, and the moment Kim Tae-Hwa's corpse fell; especially that completely invisible attack pattern, which added to the eeriness and terror.

The two exchanged a look, seeing lingering fear in each other's eyes, as well as an... indescribable excitement mixed with terror. They couldn't afford to provoke such an existence, but this video, perhaps...

A few minutes later, a short video titled "Tragedy at the Pyeongsan Peninsula Snow Mountain! Mysterious Invisible Entity Instantly Kills Two A-Grade Law Enforcers!" was anonymously uploaded to one of Kimchi Country's largest social media platforms. Although the video was blurry and shaky, its content was enough to cause an earthquake.

Meanwhile, Lin Muyang had already safely returned with the young ladies to the villa in Ziyun Mountain Villa, in Zhongnan City, Xia Country, thousands of miles away. He didn't take the uproar he had caused in Kimchi Country, which was destined to sweep the whole nation, to heart. Those two law enforcers had attacked him first; he was merely defending himself. As for what kind of international disputes and speculation the leaked video would cause... that was a problem for the authorities of Xia Country and Kimchi Country to worry about.