53: Chapter 53 Appearance Attack

Wang Kun's aura changed.

If before it was a violent sea of corpses and blood, then now, it was a storm of destruction surging from the deepest depths of hell, condensing billions of resentful poisons! The dark purple corpse qi steaming around his body no longer dissipated; instead, it retracted and condensed inward like a living thing. Before the eerie seals formed by his eight arms, it compressed into a fist-sized dark purple energy ball that emitted a bone-chilling cold, causing the entire battlefield's temperature to plummet and even the rampaging vengeful spirits to instinctively avoid it!

On the surface of that energy ball, countless tiny faces of resentful souls shrieked and struggled silently, as if condensing all the pain and curses in the world. The air around the energy ball distorted and cracked, emitting a sizzling corrosive sound.

“Lin Chen!!!” Wang Kun's voice no longer sounded human; it was more like the collective roar of countless wronged souls. “Taste this—the [Ten Thousand Souls Annihilation Wave] I exchanged half my soul for! I want you... to be utterly annihilated, body and soul!!”

The muscles on his eight arms bulged, and his greenish-black veins popped out. He used all his strength to push that terrifying energy ball, capable of annihilating all life, toward the Fortress!

On the city wall, everyone felt that deathly aura that could freeze one's soul. Su Qingyu's face turned pale, and she instinctively took a step forward, almost shielding Lin Chen. Qin Weiwei was so terrified that she squeezed her eyes shut, her body shaking like a sieve, as if she could already foresee the city wall collapsing and everything being annihilated in the next second.

A critical moment!

Just a moment before the dark purple energy ball was about to be released, Lin Chen finally moved.

He didn't defend, didn't dodge, and didn't even look at the energy ball that could threaten his life.

He just tilted his head slightly toward the empty air beside him and spoke indifferently, with a hint of impatience, as if casually telling his own employee to get to work:

“Bai Qi.”

“Come out and get to work.”

There was no world-shaking phenomenon, nor any gorgeous or dazzling light effects.

At the moment his voice fell, a figure appeared silently half a step in front of his side.

It was the phantom of a tall man dressed in ancient, battered bronze armor. His figure was solid yet possessed a non-human sense of unreality. His face was as cold and hard as rock, etched with the weathering of ages and endless slaughter. His eyes were pure blood-red, with no pupils, only a sea of corpses and blood floating within them.

He didn't emit any aura, nor did he release any pressure.

But the moment he appeared—

“Buzz—!”

An invisible, formless, yet icy, viscous, and incredibly heavy “domain” erupted with him as the center. It instantly enveloped a large area in front of the city wall, including Wang Kun, who was frantically gathering power!

[God of Slaughter Domain]!

This wasn't an impact of energy, but the descent of rules!

Within the domain, the temperature didn't change and the light didn't distort, but every living being within it—whether the remaining Thousand-Faced Cultists, Mutated Soldiers, or those mindless vengeful spirits who only knew how to kill—all felt as if an invisible giant hand had gripped their throats!

Their movements stiffened, their thoughts froze, and even the circulation of energy within their bodies became extremely difficult! A primal fear, rooted in biological instinct, flooded their souls like an icy tide! It was the absolute suppression of facing a higher-level predator!

Wang Kun, who bore the brunt of it, felt his about-to-be-launched [Ten Thousand Souls Annihilation Wave] suddenly stall! The shrieking faces of the resentful souls on the surface of the dark purple energy ball seemed to have their necks throttled, instantly becoming dull and terrified. Even the light of the energy ball itself dimmed and became unstable!

He felt as if he had been thrown into an ancient battlefield of corpses and blood in an instant. Beneath his feet were piles of bones, his breath was thick with the scent of blood that wouldn't dissipate, and the wails of billions of lost souls echoed in his ears! A chill rushed from his tailbone straight to the top of his head, nearly freezing him solid!

His blood-red eyes stared fixedly at the suddenly appearing phantom in bronze armor. His massive Eight-Armed Corpse Demon body actually began to tremble uncontrollably. A sense of being crushed, originating from the level of life and the essence of slaughter—even greater than what he felt when facing Lin Chen—made him almost want to kneel!

“Who... who are you?!” Wang Kun's voice carried an unbelievable terror and trembling.

That blood-colored figure was naturally the God of Slaughter, Bai Qi, summoned by Lin Chen.

Faced with Wang Kun's fear-laden questioning, Bai Qi didn't even lift an eyelid.

His blood-colored gaze calmly swept over the frozen, massive Eight-Armed Corpse Demon below, like a butcher sizing up livestock for slaughter. Then, he slightly raised his hand and casually made a swipe through the air in Wang Kun's direction.

There were no words, no gathering of power, and certainly no world-shaking momentum like Wang Kun's.

Only a blood-red line, refined to the extreme and as thin as a hair, shot out silently from his fingertip, completely severing and annihilating the air and even the light along its path.

That blood-red line was so fast it exceeded the limits of visual capture, as if it had traversed space itself.

Wang Kun's pupils suddenly shrank to the size of pinpoints! The ultimate shadow of death completely enveloped him! He let out a mad roar, desperately pushing the not-yet-fully-formed [Ten Thousand Souls Annihilation Wave] in front of him. His eight arms crossed in a block, and the thick, dark purple corpse qi formed a heavy barrier! He wanted to resist, he wanted to struggle!

However, it was useless.

That blood-red line was like a hot knife through butter, easily and without the slightest pause—

*Slash—*

It pierced through that seemingly solid dark purple energy ball.

The energy ball couldn't even explode; it was silently annihilated like a popped bubble.

It pierced through the thick barrier of corpse qi.

The barrier was like paper, instantly collapsing.

Then, it passed precisely through the very center of Wang Kun's massive Eight-Armed Corpse Demon true form.

Time seemed to stand still at this moment.

All of Wang Kun's struggling movements and the expression on his face—a mixture of fear, anger, and disbelief—were frozen.

He looked down at his own chest.

A fine blood line spread straight down from the center of his forehead, passing through the bridge of his nose, his lips, his neck, his chest, and his abdomen...

In the next moment.

*Pfft—!*

As if split down the middle by an invisible giant force, Wang Kun's massive five-meter-tall body split neatly and symmetrically into two halves along that blood line!

There were no internal organs flying everywhere, nor was there any blood spraying wildly.

The moment the blood-red line passed through, his two split body halves, including those eight hideous arms, began to rapidly disintegrate and annihilate from the cut, like a sand sculpture weathered for ten million years, turning into the finest black dust and fluttering down.

He couldn't even leave a complete last word.

Only his head, which had been split down the middle and still carried an expression of extreme shock, let out half a broken, utterly unwilling hiss before being completely annihilated:

“How... cou...”

The sound stopped abruptly.

Wang Kun—who had once been insufferably arrogant, a vessel of jealousy and resentment, transformed into an Eight-Armed Corpse Demon, and sworn to tear Lin Chen into ten thousand pieces—was utterly annihilated, body and soul, completely vanishing from the world under that silent swipe.

From the moment Bai Qi appeared to the moment Wang Kun was instantly killed and annihilated, the entire process took no more than three breaths.

Fast!

Too fast!

So fast that people couldn't even react!

A dead silence fell over both sides of the city wall.

Whether it was the remaining enemies or the Fortress defenders, everyone stared dumbfounded at the place where Wang Kun had disappeared. Only some drifting black dust remained there, proving that a powerful enemy had indeed existed just moments ago.

Absolute military suppression! A double shock to both sight and soul!

Lin Chen looked at the drifting dust as if he had only done something insignificant. He raised his hand and lightly brushed off non-existent dust from his shoulder, then turned his head to look at Qin Weiwei, who was too shocked to even tremble and stood there with her mouth agape. He gave her a cold, slightly playful smile.

“Did you see that, dear sister?”

His voice wasn't loud, yet it clearly reached the ears of everyone who was too stunned to speak.

“This is the consequence of opposing me.”

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the remaining enemy troops who were shivering because of Bai Qi's presence and didn't even dare to flee. Finally, his eyes fell back on Qin Weiwei's deathly pale face, his tone carrying a matter-of-fact arrogance.

“I don't care if you're some corpse demon or a cult leader.”

“In the face of the money I've topped up, you're all trash.”