The underground chamber of the Hanz Clan’s Martial Arts Arena pulsed with a malevolent heartbeat, its stone walls trembling under the weight of unleashed spirit fury and the acrid stench of scorched metal mingling with the coppery tang of blood.
Emma Dawson lay crumpled on the debris-strewn floor, her once-vivid orange gauze dress reduced to tattered remnants, barely clinging to her graceful curves with the last scraps of her thin undergarments—a delicate lace bra and a whisper of a thong. Her exposed moon-white skin, smooth and luminous, gleamed under the arena chamber’s flickering torchlight. Her unconscious form, vulnerable yet alluring, drew every eye for a fleeting moment, the sight igniting a primal tension amidst the Thirst Bull Squad’s shock and fury.
Rodney Luther’s wrath blazed out, his Ninth Layer Qi Refinement aura surging with such intensity that his hair seemed to stand on end, each strand quivering with rage. His mystic black bone chain lashed out like a wrathful serpent, its links—carved from human bones—hissing with malevolent energy as they coiled around Lordi Payne’s wrist with a bone-crunching grip.
The AllFullOS System, predictably, abandoned Lordi immediately as usual.
~ Ding! *System Notification Chime*
[AllFullOS: Version 1.0.0]
> External attack detected.
> Cultivation session status: TERMINATED
> Host control: RESTORED
> Thank you for using the All-Smart Full-Host Cultivation System™ (AllFullOS v1.0.0)
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Just as Lordi mentally slapped a one-star negative rating on the AwfulOS, cursing its braindead calculation logic, a haze of pain seared through his bound wrist, the dark bone chain’s grip unrelenting. Before he could react, a powerful force yanked him, his body lifted into the air and dragged swiftly by the chain’s immense pull.
[AllFullOS: Version 1.0.0]
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Rodney’s palm charging with the weight of a collapsing mountain, struck Lordi’s chest with a sickening THUUUD that reverberated through the chamber. The impact hurled Lordi backward three yards, his body crashing onto the stone floor with a bone-rattling force, the air driven from his lungs as pain radiated through his ribs.
Instantly, dozens of surrounding Dao puppets and training dummies swarmed toward the collapsing body with fierce killing intent. Next moment, the horde’s rusty metal and heavy wood bodies buried Lordi completely!
Yet, quickly, from the center of the puppet swarm, a dazzling burst of azure light erupted, shattering the oppressive darkness with a blinding radiance. A cluster of azure blue light exploded outward, its chilling yet scorching waves sending the Dao puppets flying, their wooden limbs and iron frames disintegrating into ash within a ten-step radius. The blue fire roared skyward, its flames licking the cracked ceiling before raining down like indigo lava, reducing the incoming attackers to smoldering cinders. The puppet’s regeneration thwarted and melt by the overwhelming heat, far beyond the Hanz Martial Arts Arena array’s diminished capacity to restore them.
Unseen amidst the chaos, the melted Dao puppets’ remnants released several thumb-thick wisps of colorless, odorless smoke, their tendrils slithering across the ground like living serpents, burrowing into the stone. Next moment, they raced toward the weakest cultivators in the chamber with eerie purpose.
At the blue fire’s heart stood Lordi Payne, his figure wreathed in roaring azure flames. Gripping the Blade of Life Hater, he pressed its tip against the stone floor for support, rising to his feet with a grim determination. His left wrist, still bound by Rodney’s black bone chain, throbbed with agony, rendering his Blood Spectre Footwork Art useless for escape. Without a word, he slashed at the chain with his blade fiercely!
The Thirst Bull squad’s collective shock was palpable, their voices erupting in a chorus of disbelief as they witnessed Lordi endure Rodney’s devastating Skulll Shatter Palm Art, a strike that should have obliterated a mere Seventh Layer cultivator.
"How is this bastard still standing?!"
Ann Marlph, an Eighth Layer Qi Refinement female cultivator whose sect robe dress were stained with dust and blood from tending Emma’s wounds, ventured a trembling question, her voice uncertain amidst the chaos. "Could he be hiding his true cultivation realm?"
Jorge Blue scowled, his face darkening as his sharp senses probed Lordi’s aura. "No, that’s impossible," he declared, his voice low and grim. "This brat is indeed a Seventh Layer Qi Refiner—nothing more."
With a fierce snap, Jorge unfurled his folding fan, its runes glowing with the promise of destruction as he unleashed a storm of explosive joss paper, each sheet shimmering like countless razor blades slicing through the air toward Lordi. The attack was a masterpiece of the Crimson Tide Inferno Art, its fiery intent aimed to shred the intruder into oblivion, a punishment for his sacrilege against Emma and the squad’s honor.
Lordi, his left wrist still throbbing under the bone-crunching grip of Rodney’s bone chain, reacted with desperate instinct. He shifted his grip on the Blade of Life Hater and slashed upward with a fierce arc, the blade edge meeting Jorge’s incoming joss paper with a resounding clash. Dozen of shimmering papers cleaved in two, their fiery runes fizzling out as they fluttered uselessly to the stone floor at his feet.
At the same moment, Ann Marlph had slipped silently behind Lordi, her dagger gleaming with malicious intent as she aimed for his heart.
"DIE! Lecherous bastard!" the female cultivator spat as she lunged her Wraithheart Dagger. Lordi spun swiftly, his blade flashing to block, the Blade of Life Hater’s edge meeting the Eighth Layer cultivator’s stealth attack with a bone-jarring force that sent shockwaves rippling through the air.
Ann Marlph stumbled back, her feet leaving uneven footprints of varying depths in the stone ground, her face paling with horror as she looked down to see blood seeping from her cracked palm, the overwhelming force splitting her hand flesh. "What?! How... is he really not hiding his cultivation realm?!"
Ann Marlph’s failed sneak attack sent a jolt through the Thirst Bull Squad—and in the next breath, they struck. The dark chamber exploded with light, seared by the fury of their martial spells like a sunburst at noon. Dozens of techniques—crackling talismans, crushing assaults, and razor-edged Dao arts—converged on Lordi in a storm of annihilation, each strike honed to kill.
But before the attacks could hit Lordi, Rodney Luther’s fury erupted like a demonic volcano, his Ninth Layer Qi Refinement aura blazing with such intensity that the arena’s oppressive hum seemed to falter. Twelve vengeful ghosts, their ethereal forms radiating an overwhelming death aura, surged forward like a tempest, their spectral claws smashing the squad’s Dao Fulus aside and scattering their martial spells like leaves in a hurricane.
"ALL OF YOU! BACK THE HELL OFF!" Rodney thundered, his voice a booming roar that shook the chamber, his bloodshot eyes burning with a wrath that could shatter mountains.
Rodney’s bone chain ignited with ghostly white flames, their eerie glow casting long shadows across the chamber. "Nobody interferes!" he snarled, his words dripping with venom, each syllable enunciated with a chilling precision. "I’M GONNA FUCKING CARVE THIS BASTARD APART MYSELF!"