Chapter 1187: Killing Begins

Zhuque felt that the few people in front of him were incredibly audacious; as "Canyu Zhe," they actually dared to fight him.

"If Xuanwu doesn't show up soon, I'll handle her business for her," Zhuque said, looking up. "There are plenty of rule-breaking 'Canyu Zhe.'"

"Unfortunately, she can't appear anymore," Liu Ershiyi replied.

"Oh...?" Zhuque withdrew his gaze and looked at the tall, thin man in front of him. "From the way you're talking, it sounds like Xuanwu is already dead."

"That's right, we sent her away," Liu Ershiyi said, slowly pulling Zhoumo behind him. "Next, we're preparing to send you away too."

"What a bold claim..." Zhuque furrowed his brow slightly, though the smile on his face remained. "If I couldn't send Xuanwu away, how could you?"

"If you don't believe it, feel free to try."

Liu Ershiyi's forehead began to bead with sweat. At that moment, they could only stall for time as much as possible, since all of "Mao"'s attacks required high coordination. Theoretically, the more people who arrived, the greater their chances of winning.

The members of "Ji Dao" felt that the situation in front of them was difficult to handle. The numerous auxiliary-type "Hui Xiang" couldn't injure Zhuque at that point, so during the standoff, they continued to edge closer to the "Men." After all, their mission had never been to "kill the divine beast," but to "board the vehicle."

"Tsk, we need to find a way to free Di Zhu..." Zhoumo whispered to Cui Shisi from behind. "He knows weaknesses about Zhuque that we don't, and he can't die right now."

"With just the three of us... it's probably impossible..." Cui Shisi said, looking troubled.

"Tsk, it's fine," Zhoumo shook his head. "We'll drag this out as long as we can."

As she spoke, Zhoumo noticed that both Cui Shisi and Liu Ershiyi had quite a few wounds on them. Clearly, their fight with Xuanwu hadn't gone in their favor.

Zhuque watched the three with a playful expression, then stepped forward step by step. "Whether you're lying to me or not, I've taken over Xuanwu's role. Off you go."

No sooner had he spoken than Zhuque vanished on the spot, and Di Zhu was flung against the wall due to the high-speed movement, leaving shocking bloodstains on the surface.

With Zhuque out of sight, Zhoumo and the other two quickly scanned their surroundings, but they couldn't spot him right away. Listening carefully, they realized he had appeared not far behind them.

They turned around and saw that in mere moments, Zhuque was holding several severed heads in his hands—these belonged to the earlier "Ji Dao" members.

He held the heads by their hair, as if carrying plastic bags full of groceries from the supermarket.

The heads still bore expressions of shock from the moment of death, their mouths even slightly agape. The seven headless bodies stood at the entrance of the "Men," not yet having fallen.

"Some kids just don't listen," Zhuque said. "One slip, and they're gone."

Liu Ershiyi's brows knitted tightly. He knew Zhuque wasn't killing them because he didn't want to, but simply because he was toying with their lives. If they didn't strike first, they might not even know when death would come.

With a slight stir of his mind, tender sprouts began to grow quietly from the seven orifices of the heads.

Since "Feng Zhang" Ning Shiba wasn't there, the sprouts grew a bit slowly, but they still climbed upward in an eerily strange manner.

Zhuque seemed to sense something and stared at Liu Ershiyi with a smile. "Playing tricks... are you?"

With that, he gathered all the heads in his left hand, then grabbed one by the hair with his right, swinging it around like a meteor before hurling it toward Liu Ershiyi.

As the head flew at him like a missile, Liu Ershiyi widened his eyes and crossed his arms in front of his chest. In the next instant, it felt like a bowling ball had smashed into his arms.

A clear sound of bones cracking echoed in his ears. The incredibly hard head burst open on his hands like a watermelon, sending up a mist of blood that made him fly backward.

Liu Ershiyi skidded across the ground for a distance after flying out, his entire body wracked with intense pain. He couldn't tell if the cracking sound was from the head shattering or his own arm breaking—all he knew was that his mind had gone blank, unable to think.

"Ershiyi..." Cui Shisi rushed over to check on him as soon as she saw what happened, but after just three steps, she heard the whistle of something breaking through the air.

She turned her head and saw another head flying toward her, its speed so great that the expression on it was distorting.

Cui Shisi grabbed two rings and, in the nick of time, held one in front of her while throwing the other.

The head flew into the ring in front of Cui Shisi and shot out rapidly from the other ring, changing direction and heading straight for Zhuque.

Zhuque simply puffed out his chest, letting the head smash to pieces against it.

Cui Shisi let out a relieved breath and hurried over to help Ershiyi up.

"Are you okay...?" she asked.

"Sishi... it seems he can only fight in close combat..." Liu Ershiyi didn't mention that his hands had gone numb; instead, he quickly shared his observation.

"What?" Cui Shisi asked, puzzled.

Liu Ershiyi coughed lightly. "Sishi, he's different from Xuanwu and Baihu... He can't release 'Bao Ran' or perform 'Tan Nang'... His way of causing harm is like the ordinary 'Sheng Xiao'—through physical combat."

"Even if it's physical combat, we're no match..." Cui Shisi said gravely. "Besides, he has 'Yue Qian,' 'Zhi Kong,' and 'Duo Xin Po,' which make his lethality far surpass that of other 'Sheng Xiao.'"

Zhoumo paused slightly at this. "'Yue Qian,' 'Zhi Kong,' and 'Duo Xin Po'...?"

A strange idea formed in her mind—

In that case, how was Zhuque, who was almost indistinguishable from "Tian Ji," able to punish all the 'Sheng Xiao'?

Was the deterrent of 'Duo Xin Po' really that powerful?

"Mmmph..." Di Zhu was frantically making sounds from his throat at that moment. Though he couldn't say a word, his eyes told Zhoumo that things weren't as simple as they seemed.

Even with 'Duo Xin Po' as a trump card, Zhuque couldn't punish all the 'Sheng Xiao.' After all, unlike Xuanwu, he only dealt with 'Sheng Xiao.' If even one "Di Ji" knew that plugging their ears could counter 'Duo Xin Po,' Zhuque would be in danger.

"But what should we do now..." Zhoumo had no idea how to get Di Zhu to reveal Zhuque's weakness.

Just then, the crisp sound of a lighter clicked in the distance.

A short-statured dwarf lit a cigarette and then said softly, "Don't worry, we'll figure it out together."