His breathing hitched. Zou Zhengze subconsciously grabbed his neck with his left hand, swinging a desperate right hook toward Li Ang's head.
Li Ang twisted his body to the left to dodge the punch. Kicking off the wall, his right downward fist hammered into the demon's lower abdomen.
Ripple Energy spread wantonly, permeating inward from the external obliques, through the rectus abdominis, the transverse abdominis, the greater omentum, the ileum, and the jejunum, until it reached the lumbar vertebrae at the back!
Zou Zhengze only felt numbness in his lower abdomen and no sensation in his back. He barely mustered the strength to kick with his left leg toward Li Ang's chest, but Li Ang moved backward and blocked the incoming leg with his left arm. At the same time, he stepped forward with his left foot and continued to pound the demon's chest and abdomen with his right fist, caving them in.
THUD, THUD, THUD—
Punch after punch, Li Ang hammered the demon's head emotionlessly like a pile driver, forcing its entire head into its sunken chest cavity.
"It hurts so bad...," Zou Zhengze mumbled unclearly, his head tucked inside his chest cavity. "It really hurts so much..."
Visible black Demonic Qi spread over his body.
Li Ang felt the hair on his body stand on end. He whipped up the Ripple to destroy his opponent's limbs and joints while simultaneously activating Cat's Eye to release an Illusion Technique, then rapidly retreated.
"...It hurts."
A heap of mangled flesh, completely unaffected by the Illusion Technique, contorted and "stood up" in a posture that defied human biomechanics.
Where its head should have been was now a grotesque, writhing mass of blood plasma, muscle, and bone.
————
Above the slum, Chai Cuiqiao, who was guiding souls back to their rightful places, suddenly realized that the black cloud vortex binding the surrounding souls had silently dissipated. Her actions were no longer hindered.
This was not a good sign. All the baleful Demonic Qi in the sky converged into a torrent resembling a dragon, rushing straight down through the huge gap in the rooftop and pouring entirely into Zou Zhengze's "head."
This action signified that Zou Zhengze had completely abandoned his plan to devour the souls of the slum residents. It also meant that Li Ang was now facing a demon in its complete form, holding nothing back.
Unobstructed by the black cloud vortex, Chai Cuiqiao bit her lip. One by one, as swiftly as kicking soccer balls, she kicked all the souls back into their own bodies. Then, with a flick of her long skirt, she flew straight toward the building where Li Ang was.
"I'm asking you, why the hell are you running...?"
The demon, with a grotesque mass for a head, staggered down the hallway, its gait as unsteady as that of an infant learning to walk.
The red and black runes on its skin flickered uncontrollably, twitching, morphing, shaking, and trembling, like glitched code on a frozen computer.
Bone spurs covering its body grew and retracted erratically. Sometimes they dissolved into hollow cavities gushing red and white marrow; other times, they sprouted squid-tentacle-like pink, slender, fleshy protrusions that drooped naturally.
This thing could no longer be called human, but on the System interface, it was still marked as a player who practiced the Heavenly Devil Skill.
Prince Legend is an undeniable world of high martial arts, and the Heavenly Devil Skill ranks among the top techniques even within Prince Legend. Although Zou Zhengze was a seasoned player, his martial will and cultivation level were still insufficient to fully control this technique.
He usually maintained an independent and complete personal will entirely due to the counteracting effects of another skill, the Ice Heart Mantra, against the negative impact of the Heavenly Devil Skill's Yin and Yang Polar Demonic Path.
[Skill Name: Ice Heart Mantra]
[Type: Universal]
[Special Effect: Passively calms the heart, keeps the mind as still as an ancient well, negates illusions and Illusion Techniques.]
[Consumption: None]
[Learning Requirement: Intelligence Attribute equal to or higher than 10]
[Note: With a heart clear as ice, the falling sky does not alarm; despite myriad changes, remain calm, with a tranquil spirit and serene energy.]
The Ice Heart Mantra was inherently less formidable than the Heavenly Devil Skill. Now, with the overwhelming Demonic Qi surging into his body and the Ice Heart Mantra's influence waning, the mantra was completely overwhelmed. This allowed the pure malice brought by the Yin and Yang Polar Demonic Path to invade Zou Zhengze's mind.
It could even be said that Zou Zhengze was no longer himself but had become a demon driven by savage instinct and a cunning nature.
Li Ang silently shifted backward step by step. Copious blood from Zou Zhengze slid down his gloves, drawing a long red line on the dusty corridor floor.
CRACK—
As if a nuclear reaction had reached critical mass, the demon's form expanded again. Bone Armor swiftly, yet seemingly slowly, covered its thick right arm, forming a Bone Knife as large as a door panel.
The demon slashed diagonally with the knife. The raging Demonic Qi spreading along the Bone Knife materialized, extending forward.
The entire corridor, indeed the whole second floor, was split in two by this slash. The supposedly indestructible steel-reinforced concrete crumbled and collapsed like tofu.
The building tilted to one side, dust and smoke obscuring the sky. But Li Ang advanced instead of retreating, bursting from the shadows of the slanted corridor!
His index and middle fingers joined together like a sword. A special energy known as the Silver Wave Sprint gathered at his fingertips, emitting a blinding, shining silver light.
Silver Wave Sprint!
The demon, devoid of any discernible consciousness, did not dodge or retreat. Standing on the slanting corridor, facing Li Ang charging from below, it relied purely on instinct, placing the door-panel-sized Bone Knife in front of its body.
BOOM!!
His fingertips effortlessly pierced through the Bone Knife. Sharp bone fragments shattered and scattered in all directions.
Still not enough. Li Ang pressed closer, grasping the demon's short, thick neck. Slowly but firmly, he pushed with his finger sword, inch by inch destroying the Bone Knife, stabbing toward the demon's skull. The demon, meanwhile, exerted all its strength to push forward the right arm holding the Bone Knife.
The two figures seemed frozen, locked in this pure and simple contest of strength.
Finally, unable to endure the sense of crisis, the demon's left arm swung upward from below in an uppercut aimed at Li Ang's waist.
SMACK—
Dense and long black hairs surged from the floor, barely catching the demon's left arm as it shot toward Li Ang. Every moment, strands of hair were burned away by the thick, bloody Qi, but in the next second, even denser hair took their place.
Pale-faced as snow, Chai Cuiqiao crouched like a cat on a solitary wall behind the demon. She utterly drained the Yin energy from her body, summoning endless black hairs that hooked onto the demon's arms and torso, yanking them backward.
The deadlock in the contest of strength was finally broken. The finger sword, flickering with the light of the Silver Wave Sprint, plunged into the fleshy mass of the demon's head.
From Li Ang's right fingertips, Ripple Energy—gentle as jade and magnificent in grandeur—was released. For demons, the Ripple it contained was like deadly arsenic, wantonly corroding flesh and blood, melting out a hollow cavity in the demon's head.
Li Ang's right palm burrowed into the cavity, reached what seemed to be the mouth, and continued downward, prying open the throat with his palm.
"Big guy, time for your medicine."
Li Ang tenderly cradled the demon's head. With his left hand, he pulled a White Phosphorus Incendiary from his backpack and, from top to bottom, slowly pushed it down through the head cavity into the demon's throat.
The motion was much like frantically jamming a toilet with a plunger...
The incredibly tenacious demon wasn't dead yet and struggled violently. However, heavily bound by Chai Cuiqiao's strands of hair, it was completely unable to prevent Li Ang's actions.
The incendiary slid down the esophagus and lodged directly in the stomach.
He disengaged the safety and pulled the pin. Li Ang slowly withdrew his blood-soaked arm and, along with Chai Cuiqiao, firmly held down the ceaselessly struggling demon.
The White Phosphorus Incendiary began to self-ignite. Thick smoke billowed from the cavity in the demon's head, reminiscent of an early steam engine, looking comically absurd.
Without a mouth structure, the demon couldn't utter a sound. But from its frantic, floundering movements, like a fish out of water, one could vaguely sense the agony of its innards being burned to a crisp.
The primary characteristic of White Phosphorus is its ability to burn thoroughly in confined spaces or areas with low oxygen density. Its combustion temperature can exceed 1,000 degrees Celsius. A mere touch can penetrate flesh and burn down to the bone marrow. Dousing with water or burying in soil cannot stop the flames from spreading; they only extinguish when the White Phosphorus is exhausted—especially since this incendiary was a special version modified by Li Ang, containing a substantial charge.
The demon's struggles grew weaker. As the yellow, searing flames broke through its skin and burst forth from its body, this inhuman form finally stopped moving completely.
[You have exterminated the murderer of Zeng Weiming and Wang Fangni 1/1]
[Regular Mission "The Madman" has been completed]
[Reward settlement in progress]
The yellow flames continued to burn, still emitting thick smoke. Li Ang released his grip on the demon's arms and stood up. He waved his hand in front of his nose to disperse the irritating White Phosphorus fumes and the faint, lingering smell of roasted meat.
In the coming days, Li Ang might not want to eat barbecue...