Chapter Ninety-One: With a single sweep of Du Fang’s blade, light was born [Monday request for recommendation votes]
The rain was easing at last, leaving only a fine, dense mist of droplets suspended in the air, like endless threads of pale silk falling from the vault of heaven and laying themselves across the mortal world.
Zhang Changlin leaned against the wall and looked on with the weathered air of a man who had seen too much. His trembling hand fumbled in his pocket for a shriveled cigarette case. He shook out one cigarette, clamped it between his lips, and flicked his lighter again and again before finally coaxing a flame to life.
He drew in a mouthful of smoke, and his thoughts drifted back to the special training he had undergone with Du Fang.
At this moment, Zhang Changlin had only one thought left.
Thank goodness Du Fang spared his life.
This time, he had not probed Du Fang, yet he had seen the pig emerge from nothingness, and the little girl as well.
A girl who laughed with a giggling, chilling delight as she crushed a bull-headed monster’s bones with bare hands, appearing at once ferocious and terrifying.
That was the supposedly adorable, fair and tender, princess-like daughter Du Fang had spoken of.
Adorable my foot.
Zhang Changlin had the feeling he would never want children in this lifetime.
Being alone was fine.
Still, he quickly calmed himself. After all, he had a big heart; what storm had he not weathered?
Once settled, he even had the leisure to analyze the situation in the field.
After all, he did not need to take action in this battle. He only had to watch.
He was practically a lofty command post officer basking in the fountain of victory.
“That pig... it’s somewhat like a taboo artifact, but more sentient than an ordinary one.”
“Du Fang’s daughter seems to be a telekinetic dream walker? But isn’t that telekinesis a bit too strong?”
Zhang Changlin felt his worldview being torn open and remade.
Tonight, his understanding of Du Fang was utterly overturned.
The strongest newcomer in thirty years?
Zhang Changlin thought that if Du Fang could effortlessly control that pig and that little girl, then he probably possessed the power to stand up to national-level dream walkers.
“He may even have the qualification to challenge those few human peaks who control domains.”
Zhang Changlin murmured.
Suddenly, he sensed a searing heat.
He withdrew his gaze from Luo Luo and Qi Qi and looked toward Du Fang.
At that sight, his heart tightened at once. Cigarette still in his mouth, his face grew grave.
For at that very moment, Azure Dragon’s aura had become unimaginably powerful. Even from dozens of meters away, one could clearly see the brilliant blue radiance blazing atop the hospital roof.
That winding colossal dragon brimmed with the power of destruction.
“The small divine core of the Divine Core Organization!”
Zhang Changlin’s expression changed.
Du Fang had not sent the pink bodybuilder pig or the little girl to intercept him.
Was he planning to face Azure Dragon alone?
This... could Du Fang really do it?
...
Azure Dragon did not turn back to look at the bull-headed and horse-faced pair.
At present, he had only one thought left: kill Du Fang. Only by killing Du Fang could this deadlock be broken.
A pink pig dream god, a little girl dream god...
These were dream gods Azure Dragon had never seen before, dream gods not recorded in the Divine Core Organization’s bestiary of dream gods.
They were absurdly powerful, grotesquely terrifying, capable of stirring the most primal fear buried deep in the human heart. They were like the very source of fear itself.
And they could even manifest in reality.
These were dream gods of a power Azure Dragon had never encountered before.
He knew very well that this time he had fallen. Such dream gods were not something he could capture at all.
Now he only wanted to survive.
And the only chance for survival was to seize, or even kill, Du Fang!
He drove the small divine core with all his might.
It was burning through his life, but Azure Dragon no longer cared.
He was like a blazing sun, suddenly closing in on Du Fang.
Du Fang had not used those two dream gods that had materialized in reality to stop him, and that had indeed given Azure Dragon an opening.
He felt Du Fang had become overconfident.
Du Fang’s true strength lay in the power of the dream gods, not in Du Fang himself!
However, Azure Dragon did not let down his guard, because he knew that within Du Fang’s body, there was still one dream god concealed there.
That blood-red hand!
Du Fang stood quietly. In his crimson mode, he watched Azure Dragon draw near.
He kept pace with Azure Dragon’s movements.
Boom!
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!
The power of the small divine core collided with the energy of the crimson state.
Blue and red intertwined in ceaseless conflict.
A muffled blast rang out, and the stone tiles on the hospital rooftop cracked in spiderweb patterns.
Du Fang stared at Azure Dragon, murder in his eyes.
Not only because Sun Yaohai had died because of Azure Dragon, but also because this Azure Dragon had tried to harm his family.
That had touched the scales in Du Fang’s heart.
The wife’s hand embedded in Du Fang’s spine seemed to sense his fury. It did not seize control of his body. Instead, it poured wave after wave of formidable power into his veins.
Du Fang moved in an instant, his red coat flaring as he shot toward Azure Dragon like lightning.
The combat techniques he had learned from the wife’s hand burst forth.
Azure Dragon drew upon the power of rainwater to form all manner of defenses against Du Fang’s attacks. Every strike Du Fang unleashed left cracks spreading across Azure Dragon’s ice crystal shields.
Meanwhile, the power of the small divine core continuously flooded into Azure Dragon’s body, allowing him to capture Du Fang’s movements and attacks with ease.
“Is that all?”
Azure Dragon was somewhat surprised, and faintly disdainful.
Though Du Fang gave him a tremendous sense of pressure, he was not as terrifying as imagined.
With the help of the Fear Suppression Potion, he had lost the emotion of fear.
With the power of the dream gods rendered ineffective against him, Du Fang could only attack normally, and such attacks posed far less threat to him.
A heat rose in Azure Dragon’s heart.
Perhaps he still had a chance.
Boom!
On the hospital rooftop, all the rain gathered together and transformed into a furious dragon of ice crystal, surging at Du Fang.
Du Fang raised a hand, and playing cards appeared in it.
Two auntie-shaped shadows emerged, staring at Azure Dragon with eerie stillness.
The taboo artifact was fully unsealed.
The cards instantly became razor sharp.
With a shriek of air, they sliced and shot forth.
Before the ice dragon could even descend, it was shredded into pieces by the cards.
Beneath the shattered, collapsing ice dragon, Du Fang’s red coat billowed in the wind.
His expression was cold, stern, and utterly focused.
This was his most desperate battle yet.
It was not only for the dead dream walkers.
It was for his family.
He would personally butcher this Azure Dragon.
That was the duty of a dream walker.
With the aid of the small divine core, Azure Dragon kept condensing ice crystal shields around his body to block Du Fang’s attacks.
No matter from which direction Du Fang struck, a shield would appear.
Bang, bang, bang!
One shield after another shattered, sending icy fragments flying.
Yet Azure Dragon emerged unharmed.
Beneath the savage dragon-mask, his eyes rolled ceaselessly, tracking the red streak weaving through the air around him, that was the high-speed Du Fang.
“I never expected this. I only thought I was dealing with a low-tier dream walker, but instead he has erupted with power comparable to that of a Dream City-level dream walker...”
Azure Dragon’s dream spirit roared in release, while the small divine core above his head grew ever more brilliant.
His vitality was continuously being siphoned away and vaporized by the divine core’s power.
Although Du Fang’s attacks could not break through his defenses or threaten him, Azure Dragon was still growing anxious.
He had to be anxious.
Because while the small divine core granted absolute defense, every use consumed his life.
If this dragged on too long, the power of the small divine core might completely erode his will and reduce him to a puppet of the divine core, plunging him into madness.
Bang!
Another punch crashed into the ice crystal shield at Azure Dragon’s upper left. Cracks spread across the shield like a spiderweb, dense and multiplying.
In the next instant, the ice shield at his upper right exploded with a thunderous boom and filled with cracks.
A streak of red was weaving at high speed around him.
Du Fang was getting faster and faster, and that speed... was still rising.
Gradually, Azure Dragon felt the pressure.
His attacks could not lock onto Du Fang at all, because Du Fang was too fast.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, countless cards scattered above his head.
They drifted down lightly, like leaves shaken free from a tree.
Azure Dragon froze.
In the next moment, Du Fang appeared above him.
The hem of his red coat fluttered wildly.
In his eyes burned a faint red glow, like a tiny crimson spark.
Du Fang raised his hand and clenched it sharply.
At once, the cards shaken loose around Azure Dragon accelerated.
It was as though time itself had been manipulated.
From stillness to blinding speed.
Bang, bang, bang!
Around Azure Dragon, beads of falling rain turned into ice shields.
They tried to block the densely flying cards slashing down at high speed.
Ice chips flew everywhere, cut free by the cards. The cards of the aunties were, after all, only a third-grade taboo artifact... their power was limited.
However, Azure Dragon’s eyes soon narrowed.
For Du Fang had actually half-hovered in the air, raised a hand, and pointed toward Zhang Changlin, who was watching the spectacle from afar.
“Captain Zhang, lend me your blade.”
Du Fang said.
Cigarette in his mouth, Zhang Changlin blinked, not expecting Du Fang to still be eyeing his knife in the middle of a battle.
At first, Zhang Changlin had wanted to say that both knives and wives were not to be borrowed.
But after thinking it over, he realized he had no wife. In that case... the knife could be lent.
“This knife... is a little timid.”
Zhang Changlin warned him.
Then he tossed the broken blade in his hand toward Du Fang.
In midair, the blade was seized by an invisible force and shot forward, landing in Du Fang’s grip.
As Du Fang held the broken blade of Sequence Taboo Artifact 098, he felt as though the knife were alive.
The blade trembled, resisting him.
Du Fang glanced at it.
The knife immediately went quiet.
He raised a hand and, as Luo Luo had once taught him, tapped the blade lightly with a finger.
The blade gave a soft, resonant hum.
A black shadow slipped out from within it. Originally, that shadow had meant to latch onto Du Fang’s back.
But before it could even land, it recoiled in panic.
The back was already occupied.
It withdrew into the blade, then once more wound itself like a black snake around Du Fang’s arm.
Sequence Taboo Artifact 098... unbelievably obedient.
The rain kept falling.
It felt a little cold against Old Zhang’s face.
Zhang Changlin: “...”
This knife...
Was it just because Zhang Changlin looked easy to bully?
Watching that docile broken blade, Zhang Changlin felt as though some bizarre emotion had taken hold of him and was directing him at will.
As if...
He shouldn’t be in the car. He should be under it...
Du Fang gripped the broken blade and swept his gaze around.
Red coat, black broken blade.
He did not know how to use a knife.
Yet he slowly closed his eyes.
It seemed as though scenes were shifting before him; he felt himself vanish from this world entirely.
Before his eyes was a lake calm as a mirror.
Du Fang stood upon its surface.
Looking down, he saw himself reflected in the water.
Only unlike him, the Du Fang reflected in the lake had silver hair dazzling like a galaxy of stars.
“Don’t know how to use a knife?”
“Just hack wildly.”
“The blade will understand on its own.”
The silver-haired Du Fang reflected in the water, his golden eyes radiant, spoke with quiet indifference.
The next moment, Du Fang felt everything before him vanish.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself floating before Azure Dragon.
The black broken blade in his hand slowly lifted and pointed at Azure Dragon, who had stacked ice shield after ice shield before himself.
Du Fang then felt the knife in his hand.
Casually, almost carelessly, and yet with instinctive precision, he swung it out.
Azure Dragon, with the small divine core above his head and ten doses of Fear Suppression Potion in his system, as though he had entirely lost the sensation of fear...
At this moment, his buried dread erupted once more in an uncontrollable surge.
Like a river bursting its banks, it flooded his chest.
Facing that one blade, he had only one feeling.
As if...
There was no light anywhere beneath heaven and earth.
Du Fang swung one knife.
And light was born.
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