86: It seems like I'm not quite sure what to do.

In the sky, Hundred Skeletons was fleeing rapidly; his skeletal body cut through the air, emitting a sharp whistle.

He dared not look back; the ghostly blue flames in his skull's eye sockets flickered violently, as if reflecting the urgency in his heart.

Behind him, Xiang Yan's presence clung to him like maggots on bone, following closely and gradually drawing nearer as time passed.

The flames in Hundred Skeletons' eyes jumped. Suddenly, his aura dropped a notch, blue patterns appeared on his bones, and his speed surged dramatically.

Xiang Yan pursued relentlessly from behind, his massive Mental Energy firmly locking onto Hundred Skeletons.

Suddenly, in his perception, Hundred Skeletons' speed increased significantly, and in an extremely short amount of time, he forcibly broke free from the range of his Mental Energy lock.

Xiang Yan felt a wave of confusion; if he wasn't mistaken, Hundred Skeletons seemed to have traded the strength of his power for speed.

This was highly illogical.

Based on his current understanding of Hundred Skeletons, even if weakened to this extent, he shouldn't be this panicked.

Honestly speaking, if he were in Hundred Skeletons' position, even without putting up any resistance and allowing himself to be devoured, he would still have a ten percent chance of turning the tables at the last moment due to the special connection between them—let alone Hundred Skeletons, who was a specialist in this field; his chances would only be greater.

Furthermore, Hundred Skeletons' personality was consistently tough; he would choose to meet any enemy head-on. His current actions were truly abnormal.

This scene made Xiang Yan recall the time he hunted Kaladar on the Exile Star; the two situations were strikingly similar.

Although he sensed something amiss, Xiang Yan did not choose to intervene. He wanted to see what other surprises Hundred Skeletons could conjure up.

Hundred Skeletons sped all the way and stopped only after arriving above a city; his skeletal body hung like an omen of death.

With Hundred Skeletons' arrival, initially, only a few scattered citizens looking up at the sky noticed him, their exclamations breaking the city's tranquility.

Soon, this exclamation spread like ripples, and more and more citizens gathered, looking up at the majestic figure in the sky.

"It's the God King! The God King has returned! A new era for humanity has begun!" Someone shouted, and the crowd instantly erupted.

Cheers, screams, and whistles intertwined, deafening in their intensity.

In their eyes, Hundred Skeletons' hideous and terrifying skeletal body appeared at this moment like the descent of a deity, symbolizing hope and victory.

They firmly believed that Sato Shinsui had already defeated the Monster Emperor and that a new era for humanity was about to begin.

In the crowd, a young mother held her child, tears of excitement gleaming in her eyes. She pointed at Hundred Skeletons in the sky and said to her child: "Look, sweetie, our hero is back. We don't have to live in fear anymore!"

An elderly man with white hair, leaning on a cane, tremblingly raised his right hand, tears streaming down his face: "I... I, I have lived to see this day! Humanity... humanity... humanity finally has a bright future!"

The cheers grew louder and louder; people danced and hugged one another, celebrating this hard-won victory.

They seemed to have already seen a beautiful future, the fall of the Monster Emperor, and the glorious scene of humanity standing once again at the pinnacle of the world.

However, this joy was so fleeting.

Listening to the deafening cheers below, the pale blue flames in Hundred Skeletons' skull sockets flickered, as if mocking the stupidity of humanity.

He slowly raised his right hand, and raging flames ignited on his stark white bone palm, as if they were the karmic fire from Hell.

Under their clear and foolish gaze, he tossed it gently; the flames fell like a meteorite cutting through the sky.

"Boom!"

The flames touched the ground and instantly exploded, spreading wildly in all directions.

Buildings were swallowed, streets were incinerated, and the cheers ceased abruptly, replaced by shrill screams and desperate cries.

Heaven instantly turned into Hell.

Listening to this beautiful wailing and watching the terrified, twisted faces of the people, Hundred Skeletons nodded in satisfaction.

Immediately after, a black spherical shockwave surged from within him, sweeping through the entire city like a rampant plague.

Everyone touched by the shockwave began to undergo terrifying skeletal mutations.

Some people's bones twisted and deformed, turning them into grotesque deformities; others' bones grew wildly, piercing their internal organs and causing them to die in endless agony; still others had bones that pierced through their skin, forming hideous, beast-like exoskeletons...

Hundred Skeletons looked down at these tragic scenes, his stark white finger bones tapping lightly against the bones of his other hand, emitting a crisp sound.

Above the city ruins, flames still burned among the broken walls, and the smell of charred material intertwined with the scent of blood, making one nauseous.

The buildings that once symbolized order and hope now remained only as twisted outlines, like grotesque sculptures.

The chaos further away in the city stood in stark contrast to the deathly silence here.

At this moment, several figures rushed over. Their methods of arrival varied, but they all instinctively surrounded Hundred Skeletons, watching him vigilantly.

They were the Jinchuriki stationed in Jingtai City; they were the guardians of this city, the last barrier of humanity stationed in the rear.

At this moment, they were glaring with wide eyes, staring at Hundred Skeletons, who was suspended in the air.

"Sato Shinsui, what on earth are you doing?!" A tall Minotaur roared, his voice rolling over the ruins like muffled thunder. He swung his giant hammer violently, creating a sharp gust of air.

His eyeballs were almost popping out of their sockets, and the veins on his face were bulging.

"How can you justify doing this to those who trusted you?" Another short and stout Bee creature said, its voice sharp, its wings buzzing behind it.

Its tail stinger was pitch black, shimmering with a cold light, clearly containing deadly poison.

"Stop it now! Have you been controlled by the Monster Emperor?" A small Groundhog said, its face pale, its tone trembling slightly.

However, facing the stern questioning of the Jinchuriki, Hundred Skeletons only slowly turned his head, the ghostly blue flames in his skull sockets flickering with a look of disdain.

He did not respond at all, nor did he care to waste his breath.

To him, those whispers like ants were nothing more than a group of pathetic flies buzzing pointlessly.

He extended his right hand and tapped his stark white finger bones, causing a teeth-grinding friction sound to echo in the air.

The next second, the ground beneath the Jinchuriki suddenly cracked, and countless sharp bone spikes burst out of the ground, like fangs reaching out from Hell, piercing straight into their bodies.

"Squelch!" "Squelch!"

The bone spikes easily pierced through the Jinchuriki's bodies, stabbing into their flesh.

Only the Bee, which had been flying in the air, was not pierced. Just as the Bee felt lucky, its exoskeleton suddenly went berserk, proliferating countless spikes inward, causing it to follow in its colleagues' footsteps and fall to the ground.

But they were not yet dead; they let out painful wails, struggling and trying to pull out the bone spikes, but the spikes were like maggots on bone, sinking deeper and deeper.

Then, the bones inside their bodies began to mutate again, as if manipulated by some invisible magic, starting to grow wildly, piercing through their skin and forming hideous bony protrusions.

In just a few seconds, the once imposing Jinchuriki turned into a pile of bloody, mangled bone fragments scattered on the ground.

The light in their eyes quickly faded, their faces still wearing the despair and fear from before their deaths.

Hundred Skeletons looked at the corpses on the ground with satisfaction. He raised his right hand, and a pitch-black energy ball condensed at his fingertips, emitting a heart-palpitating fluctuation.

This black energy ball, like the gaze of the Grim Reaper, made one feel immense fear.

He violently threw the energy ball toward the city ruins.

Another deafening explosion sounded, and the black shockwave spread in a ring from the point where the energy ball landed, destroying everything in its path.

The remaining buildings were completely razed to the ground, and a huge crater was blasted into the earth, emitting a charred scent.

The thick smoke dissipated, and Hundred Skeletons' figure was revealed once again in the air.

He looked around; not a single complete building could be seen in the entire city, and everywhere was filled with broken rubble and severed limbs.

Although many people were still alive, the scent of death and despair that permeated the air was so wonderful, and Hundred Skeletons, like a god high above, admired this apocalyptic scene.

Suddenly, Xiang Yan's figure appeared silently in front of Hundred Skeletons.

He looked at the scene around him; although the horrific state of the place left him somewhat puzzled, he immediately recognized that this was Jingtai City.

"You really have leisure time; while being hunted by me, you still have the mood to commit atrocities."

Hearing Xiang Yan's statement, Hundred Skeletons looked at him, the pale blue flames in his skull eyes jumping. He gently moved his neck, emitting a teeth-grinding cracking sound: "I cannot agree with your statement, original self."

"After all, I feel that rather than you hunting me, it's more like I lured you into a trap."

Upon hearing this, Xiang Yan's mouth curled into an amused smile. He crossed his arms and said dismissively: "Oh? I'd really like to know what you plan to do. If you have any tricks, bring them out quickly and let me have some fun."

"No rush, original self. You still remember where this is, right?"

"Remember, of course I remember. Jingtai City, the place where I beat you up for the first time in the true sense, the place where I vented my anger."

"How nostalgic. I was released from the cage by you here..."

"So you want to repay me?"

"Of course! I plan to lock you into a cage here as repayment."

"Oh! I'm really looking forward to it. Can we start now?"

After hearing Xiang Yan's words, Hundred Skeletons did not answer immediately. Instead, he slowly raised his hands and clapped them gently, the sound echoing in the silent city.

The crisp sound of bone clashing echoed in the dead city ruins, like a funeral bell from Hell, announcing the arrival of a new terror.

In an instant, Xiang Yan sensed something unusual.

His sharp Mental Energy extended like tentacles, capturing the strange fluctuations hidden deep in the ruins.

Fourteen manic, powerful, and twisted Mental Energies, like fourteen huge whirlpools, slowly emerged in every corner of the city.

They stirred the surrounding energy wantonly, tearing the already fragmented city into even greater chaos.

After these fourteen guys came out, it immediately triggered a chain reaction. The surviving citizens felt that violent Mental shock, as if injected with the poison of madness; their eyes instantly became bloodshot, their faces twisted, and they let out beast-like roars.

They began to kill each other, biting and devouring the flesh of their own kind; their former civilization and reason were completely lost, and this ruin completely turned into a living Hell.

What was even more terrifying was that these manic citizens' bodies were undergoing mutations at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Bones twisted and grew, skin festered and cracked, turning them into hideous monsters; their blood surged like boiling water, emitting a nauseating stench. From the outside in, their minds also gradually became manic and chaotic.

They were assimilated, assimilated by these guys, becoming a part of these monsters.

And with the citizens' mutations, those fourteen manic guys also became more violent and powerful.

They greedily devoured the surrounding negative energy, like bottomless pits, constantly expanding and growing.

In the midst of madness and devouring, they became crazier and more evil.

At this time, Xiang Yan was carefully observing these fourteen existences that were slowly emerging.

Soon, in Xiang Yan's perception, the essence of these guys gradually became clear.

Simply put, they were actually Hundred Skeletons, but not entirely Hundred Skeletons. I don't know when it started, but Hundred Skeletons, like him, had cut off a part of himself and scattered them into the human world.

The difference was that Hundred Skeletons did not place any restrictions on the severed parts, but instead let them grow wildly.

After realizing their essence, Xiang Yan immediately knew Hundred Skeletons' purpose.

If he wanted to complete himself, he also had to eat these frantic guys, because in a strict sense, they were also a part of himself.

But doing so would inevitably lead to his mind being polluted, falling back into madness, and Hundred Skeletons could take the opportunity to seize the initiative.

However, he also had a question: Was Hundred Skeletons not afraid?

Was he not afraid that these frantic fragments would backfire on him?

Soon, Xiang Yan thought of the answer.

Hundred Skeletons didn't care at all whether he would be further polluted; after all, he was already manic to a certain degree, and a little more madness didn't matter to him.

In fact, he might even be hoping that he would be polluted as well; after all, to some extent, this was also a form of enhancement for him.

"This guy is really ruthless..." Xiang Yan muttered to himself, his voice carrying a hint of imperceptible annoyance. Of course, this annoyance was not directed at anyone else, but only at himself.

After all, Xiang Yan had thought of many possibilities, but he had overlooked this brute-force approach.

Most of Xiang Yan's backup plans were based on the assumption that Hundred Skeletons would use all kinds of fancy tricks to counter what he had prepared, just like that secret technique back then. But this time, he didn't follow the usual path, and most of his backup plans were useless.

"This is troublesome!"

Fourteen manic Hundred Skeletons Clones were eyeing him like tigers, and the original Hundred Skeletons was waiting on the side to reap the benefits; the situation had suddenly become somewhat unfavorable.