575: Chapter 575 The Hermit of Lingxi, the Fall of the Dao

When Ma Hao was still at a great distance from Zhou Yan, Zhou Yan had already recovered his color within the black-and-white world ahead of time.

Ma Hao did not understand what the other party was trying to do.

At this distance, he hadn't even had the chance to attack yet; even if the other party used their most powerful Divine Ability, it shouldn't have been of any use.

Then why would he do that? Perhaps he released it too early?

Soon, Zhou Yan gave Ma Hao the answer.

Zhou Yan curled the corners of his mouth, a flash of cunning flickering in his eyes.

The next moment, a wooden hammer and a wooden nail appeared in his hands. A severed hand was tied to the wooden hammer with rattan.

When Ma Hao saw that severed hand, his pupils constricted.

"Is that the hand of mine that was severed back then?"

Recalling his memories, Ma Hao quickly remembered; this was the hand that had been cut off when he used his teacher's Magic Treasure, Wind Cutter, to strike the wind field formed by Zhou Yan's Qi.

But before Ma Hao could even consider what use this had, he felt the effect of this item firsthand.

"Urgh!"

Zhou Yan did not activate a Divine Ability, but instead used the energy that would have activated it to buy a chance to strike the hammer during Time Stop.

Watching the wooden hammer tied with the severed hand descend, it struck the wooden nail held in his other hand.

Ma Hao instantly clutched his heart and collapsed to the ground, and the black-and-white colors between heaven and earth completely dissipated.

Zheng Dafu had also successfully opened a spatial gate, appearing beside Ma Hao. He used the Law of Space to pass through the wind field, preparing to deal Ma Hao a heavy blow.

Ma Hao reacted quickly, forcing himself to use a deflection technique against this blow while consuming some Power of Law; he was only knocked away, but not seriously injured.

"Hehehe, you think you understand me? I understand you too!"

"I have plenty of trump cards; what kind of progress could you possibly have made, you old geezer?"

Zhou Yan, holding the nail and hammer, let out a cold, sinister laugh.

Ma Hao clutched his chest and spat out another mouthful of blood.

"That sharp pain in my chest just now… was that when we were fighting for Sui?"

Ma Hao recalled the previous struggle for Sui. He had discovered Sui had disappeared, and in his momentary daze, he had been punched by that guy named Kong Xuan. The feeling in his chest at the time wasn't a blunt impact, but a sharp, stinging pain.

But he had been annoyed at the time and hadn't looked into it further.

"Hehehe…"

Zhou Yan couldn't be bothered to care if Ma Hao had regained his senses; it was the perfect time to beat a drowning dog.

"Catch."

The long sword captured from Ma Hao was thrown by Zhou Yan to Zheng Dafu.

Previously, to pull this trick on him, he hadn't given the long sword to Zheng Dafu, fearing that Ma Hao might associate it with something and become vigilant.

Now that the trap had succeeded, there was no need to hide it.

Zheng Dafu's Law of Space already countered Unstained Dust; after obtaining the Wind Cutter sword, Unstained Dust lost all meaning.

Ma Hao no longer possessed the ability to fight head-on against a Body Integration Stage cultivator.

Ma Hao clutched his chest, just about to activate Time Acceleration to dodge. As soon as heaven and earth turned black and white, Zhou Yan followed up by unfolding his Divine Ability and striking with the hammer, interrupting him.

Zheng Dafu seized the opening, leaped in front of him, cut through Unstained Dust, and left a gruesome wound on Ma Hao's chest.

"Hehehe, so what if my mastery of time isn't as strong as yours? I'm one frame faster than you, and that's enough to crush you, you old thing!"

Hearing Zhou Yan's loud laughter, Shi Suiyan shuddered for no reason.

"Senior Brother, could you please stop laughing? I'm a little scared."

Zhou Yan had been too busy enjoying the hammer strikes and, upon being reminded by Shi Suiyan, realized he had been laughing a bit too brazenly. He turned his head and apologized.

"Sorry, the plan was too perfect; I was just a bit too happy."

While turning back to apologize, Zhou Yan didn't forget to strike with the hammer once more, causing Ma Hao to let out a terrifying roar.

Watching Ma Hao, whose health bar was gradually bottoming out and who was nearing death, Zhou Yan breathed a sigh of relief.

This old guy certainly knew a lot of intelligence, but he had absolutely no idea that Zhou Yan knew curse arts.

He hadn't really used this stuff much since he first learned it. Later, in his spare time, he had absorbed the curse knowledge from Chen Huai's silhouette, and once it reached a third-level standard, he had tossed it aside.

It wasn't until yuanwu xielü absorbed that curse-type Magic Treasure and evolved, gaining this curse form, that Zhou Yan came up with this strategy.

When he had severed the other party's hand back then, he had already planned this, but had delayed executing it. Now that he had actively started the second playthrough, he could finally use it.

He hadn't even tested this himself, only knowing the theory. Today was his first time using it in actual combat, and he didn't believe Ma Hao could have had intelligence on this.

Sure enough, Ma Hao not only lacked intelligence on it but also suffered a hidden loss; the effect was surprisingly good.

Striking with the hammer a couple of times only cost a tiny bit of Karma. Even if Zhou Yan ran a machine tool to strike twenty-four hours a day, it wouldn't have the slightest impact, so he couldn't help but laugh a bit arrogantly in his happiness.

Before long, Ma Hao was lying on the ground, and the silhouette fell out.

Looking at Ma Hao, who was like a dead dog, Zhou Yan helplessly shrugged.

"Old people really can't handle much tossing around; there's still one-tenth of his health bar left, yet he's already like this."

"Brother Zheng, go and bring that silhouette over to me. I'll act as your Protector." Zhou Yan stood guard in front of Shi Suiyan, ready to strike the hammer at any moment.

Zheng Dafu nodded and cautiously approached, using the tip of his sword to lift the silhouette that was stuck to the other party, then grabbed it in his hand.

Confirming that the other party had no resistance and checking slightly to ensure this silhouette had no hidden traps, he finally tossed the silhouette to Zhou Yan.

Feng Xu's silhouette returned to Zhou Yan's hands once more. After using an appraisal to check it all over and confirming there were no issues, Zhou Yan could once again not suppress his smile.

"It really, really took such a long way around, but I finally got it back."

"Brother Zheng, finish him off; everything is over now."

"Alright, Brother Ao, I've been waiting for those words."

The reason he hadn't killed Ma Hao directly just a moment ago was to prevent any hidden trump cards the other party might have held.

But now it was different; since Feng Xu's silhouette had returned, even if the other party still had trump cards, they would be useless. It was better to just kill him.

This time, he had used the hammer to test it several times; this guy was the real body, no longer some silhouette or other thing meant to fool him.

In his daze, Ma Hao watched Zheng Dafu's long sword descend; he no longer felt the previous anger, only immense exhaustion.

Is it like this again...

Every time it's like this, time and time again; no matter how I move forward, in the end, it's always a dead end.

So tired... even more tired than when I died last time.

Sigh.

Teacher is gone.

Sichen is gone.

It seems everything is over.

In the end... is it still just a fleeting dream?

Not necessarily... it's just a pity that I won't be able to see it.

Ma Hao closed his eyes, completely giving up resistance. He felt the sensation of the long sword entering his flesh, and his final breath of life was severed.

Recluse of Spiritual Stream Ma Hao, Dao Fallen.

"Woohoo—"

Zhou Yan put away the hammer. Looking at the Law of Time upgrade card and a series of miscellaneous items that had dropped from killing Ma Hao in the task settlement, he confirmed that he had truly killed him.

"I didn't expect the second playthrough to be so favorable to me. To be honest, is it really this simple? After fighting for so long, I can hardly believe it."

With Ma Hao dealt with, there was no need to keep Gongsun Heng alive either.

After asking about Shi Suiyan's refinement progress, Zheng Dafu was sent to find the pile of monsters that Ma Hao had hidden.

Those guys still needed to be found; otherwise, the ordinary people who had been resurrected by Ma Hao's ill-intentioned but good-outcome actions would suffer again.

After making the arrangements, Zhou Yan sat cross-legged and began to regulate his breath. While acting as a Protector for Shi Suiyan, his field of vision switched to the Truth Cult base.