Tian Guannan's eyes widened. Xu Mo's voice, whispering in his ear, sounded utterly surreal.
Intense pain flooded his brain, taking him a long moment to even realize what had happened.
“You...” His voice squeezed out of his throat, a muffled sound that barely resembled anything human as he stared at the “Bai Feifei” before him.
The onlookers stared at “Bai Feifei” in shock, their minds failing to process the scene.
Just a moment ago, everyone had been forced back by that incomprehensible pressure, staring blankly at an event that defied all logic.
Even powerhouses like Hong Jiu and Xiao Xinghan had been driven back by that bizarre pressure.
Yet the strangest part was, how was she able to get close to Tian Guannan while remaining completely unaffected?
Just getting that close should have been excruciatingly painful.
Furthermore, under such circumstances, she could actually maintain absolute focus, with her immediate and sole reaction being to kill?!
What a terrifying woman...
Tian Guannan naturally shared this shock, but he had no time to dwell on it.
The agonizing pain blurred his consciousness, but bodily instinct drove him to retaliate.
He swung his already beast-hybrid right arm, smashing it backward. Enhanced as it was, the sheer force of the swing triggered a sonic boom.
But at this moment, his movements were far too clumsy, like those of a trapped beast.
Xu Mo sidestepped the moment the arm was raised. The thick limb grazed his shoulder and slammed into the earth, blasting a deep crater into the ground.
Yet his blade remained embedded in the back of Tian Guannan's heart. Leveraging the momentum of his sidestep, he dragged the blade sideways, slicing open the entire back muscle.
Blood sprayed out under intense blood pressure, geysering into the air like a fountain.
Tian Guannan roared and spun around, sweeping his other hand outward, but his movements were still too slow.
From start to finish, the blade was never pulled out, continuously weaving through his flesh.
The weaknesses highlighted by Killing Machine were different from the usual markers.
Instead of pinpointed dots on the target's body, they resembled a chaotic web of thin red lines crawling all over him.
Pushing the blade along these lines met with almost zero resistance, like a master butcher effortlessly carving an ox.
After his counterattack failed, Tian Guannan began to tremble violently.
He could clearly feel the blade sliding inside him, tracing along something specific.
He was being dismantled like a slab of meat on a butcher's block.
Dismantled. The moment this word flashed through Tian Guannan's mind, terror gripped him.
No, this was no longer the time to relish his growing power. Driven by biological instinct, he wanted to escape as quickly as possible—to flee from this being who was about to kill him.
His very first thought was to use his Escape Art to flee.
But in the next second, he discovered to his absolute horror that he couldn't run at all!
His feet could not leave the ground, and he could not dissolve into a breeze. It felt as if his legs had taken root, pinning him firmly to the earth.
The power that had surged into his body from deep underground now acted like a tether, keeping him bound and unable to break free.
Xu Mo, clearly, had realized this from the very beginning.
“What's wrong? Did you finally realize something is off?”
“See? I warned you that you might die this time, but you wouldn't listen. Now look what happened.”
Even as he taunted him, his hands never stopped, continuing to slice along the red lines.
Every stroke carved through the gaps between blood vessels, tendons, and muscles, slicing through with almost no resistance.
“Don't... Don't, wait a second!”
Tian Guannan roared in panic. The excitement in his eyes had vanished, replaced by a sudden, desperate clarity, his tone bordering on begging.
He couldn't speak properly now, but if “Bai Feifei” were willing to spare his life, he wouldn't mind groveling on his knees right then and there!
“Don't wait a second? Okay, no problem, I'll make it quick.” Xu Mo grinned, accelerating his movements.
The onlookers were utterly dumbfounded.
An Edgerunner, completely defenseless, watching himself get dismantled?
What kind of scene was this?
It was both bloody and incredibly bizarre.
Bai Feifei's slender figure darted up and down like an artist meticulously carving a masterpiece.
The usually calm expression on Zhulong's face was now filled with astonishment; he had clearly not expected “Bai Feifei's” reaction.
After a brief hesitation, he clenched his fingers in the empty air, preparing to make a move.
Suddenly, he felt a gaze fixed on him.
Turning his head, he saw He Jinfan standing not far away, staring right at him.
He Jinfan had his hands in his pockets, his posture completely full of openings and radiating a deliberate arrogance. With his yellow mask on, his expression was impossible to read.
Zhulong's fingers froze.
What exactly was he trying to do?
Both of these people were members of the Masked Hermit Society. Earlier, that woman had even told him to proceed according to plan...
In the few seconds he hesitated while looking at He Jinfan, Tian Guannan had completely fallen apart.
Splat—
The screams had ceased. Like meat on a butcher's block, Tian Guannan's remains lay scattered across the ground.
There was barely any blood on the ground, only chunks of flesh so mangled that one couldn't tell which part was which.
Only his head remained, eyes wide in deathly refusal, staring with mutating pupils that froze the terror of his final moments.
Even in death, he couldn't comprehend why he had died in such a bewildering, senseless manner.
Without unleashing a single ability, without undergoing any fierce struggle, was this really how it ended...?
On Xu Mo's game panel, his level began to climb.
Experience surged into his body.
【Current Level: Level 49 → Level 51.】
Although Tian Guannan couldn't strictly be considered an aberration when he died, he was halfway there, so Xu Mo surprisingly still received a portion of valuable experience points.
The cold Tian Guannan had now been converted into warm game experience, refined by the Old-Timer in an instant!
A warm current flooded his body, and the sensation of crossing a major threshold made him feel incredibly comfortable all over.
But at this moment, he had no time to savor it.
For the instant Tian Guannan's body completely fell apart, the Heart of the Real World began to throb, and something remained behind.
They were dark red threads, tracing the exact same path Xu Mo had used to dismantle Tian Guannan.
Like coral growing from the earth, they swayed and trembled slightly, radiating a powerful anomalous aura.
At this moment, they were rapidly retracting downward!
Having lost their host, they were retreating with incredible speed. Within seconds, half of them had already sunk back into the red soil.
Xu Mo's eyelids twitched wildly. Without a single thought, he lunged forward.
Without any protective measures whatsoever, he grabbed the red meridian lines with his bare hands!
Rate on N.U.
