Chapter 283: Compression Technique: Blooming Crimson Lotus.

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A massive blinding white light surged from Riven’s hands. He poured every bit of Ki he could gather into a concentrated beam that crashed head-on against the Crimson Frog King’s own attack. The two beams locked for a moment before Riven’s overpowered the frog’s completely.

BOOOMMM!!!

Another massive explosion tore through the area. Trees were wiped out in every direction. Roughly half the swamp water evaporated on contact. The blast even punched a clean hole through the stone walls behind the Crimson Frog King.

The beast itself took a heavy blow. One of its arms was gone, and a deep wound ran from its shoulder all the way down its stomach. Blood and green fluid poured freely from the injury.

Yet the frog refused to give up.

It leaped forward with surprising speed and kicked Riven square in the face, sending him crashing into the muddy ground. Riven smiled through the pain and retaliated immediately. He kicked the frog hard in the stomach and followed up with a solid punch to its face.

The frog answered with a barrage of sharp piercing strikes from its remaining arm. Each hit carried enough force to temporarily paralyze Riven’s arms. Before he could recover, the frog pummeled him back down into the dirt.

Riven forced himself back to his feet and slammed the frog into the ground with both hands. They continued trading blows without pause. Their auras kept rising higher with every exchange. Ki spilled out of both fighters in thick waves, cracking the ground and making the remaining water boil.

The Crimson Frog King gathered the last droplet of its life force into its hands. It compressed the energy until it was almost invisible, then fired it straight at Riven with everything it had left.

"That compression technique...!"

It was a clearer and stronger version of the one the frog had used earlier. Even though this Crimson Frog King was weaker than Riven overall, the power behind that attack felt immense. Riven’s own cells screamed at him to dodge and get out of the way, but he stayed put.

He compressed his own Ki into his right hand the same way and released it at the exact same moment, doing his best to copy the technique.

Compression Technique: Blooming Crimson Lotus.

The frog had never named its own version, but when the tiny compressed energy expanded and bloomed outward, it looked exactly like the bright red lotuses that grew around the small island in the middle of the swamp.

Both blooming lotuses met in the center. Their combined force compressed, vaporized, and disintegrated everything caught between them. This was pure Ki at work. It was not tied to any System skill or ability. It was simply the art of taking one’s inner energy and pushing it to the absolute limit.

The art of wielding lifeforce with nothing but your own hands.

B O O O O O O O O M M M M M M !!!

The explosion carved a titanic crater into the swamp. Almost all the remaining water vanished in an instant. The few hunter teams that had been watching from a distance panicked and scrambled for cover, unable to believe the scale of the blast.

When the light and smoke finally cleared, Riven stood in the middle of the crater and looked at the Crimson Frog King with clear surprise.

"That was amazing," Riven said, still catching his breath. "Thank you... for teaching me."

The Crimson Frog King lay motionless on the ground, already dead. The moment it unleashed that final attack, it had poured out every last drop of its lifeforce. There was nothing left.

It had been a goodbye gift. A deliberate choice to teach Riven its strongest move the only way it still could.

Something he would never have been able to inherit just by eating the body. Something he could only carry inside him by watching carefully and learning with his own eyes.

A soft golden glow rose from the frog’s corpse. An item slowly took shape in the air above it—a worn, rare-looking book.

"A Skill Book?" Riven muttered, half expecting the system to have converted the lesson into a skill. But when he looked closer, he frowned. "No... this is something else."

It was a Cultivation Method Book. The cover looked old and faded at first, the edges frayed. Then, as his Authority reacted to it, the book restored itself. The pages straightened, the binding tightened, and a faint red-and-gold shimmer ran across the surface.

The title became clear:

Ki Heart Compression Refining Art

Riven stared at it for a few seconds. Could a wild animal like this really create its own cultivation method through pure instinct? It seemed almost impossible, yet the proof was sitting right in his hands.

"Hah... now I’m really curious where you came from," he said quietly, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. He found himself looking forward to learning more about the world this Crimson Frog King had originally lived in.

"Riven! Is it done?" Daniela called as she descended from above. She landed lightly and walked over to the corpse, checking it carefully. "It’s really dead..." she exhaled, shoulders relaxing a little.

"Yeah," Riven nodded. "It’s done."

"Well, about time! Why did you even take so long? Pathetic," Vladimir muttered, crossing his arms. He stepped closer and reached for the book. "And what’s that book it dropped? Let me see—Agh!"

Before he could get too bold, a sharp zap of electricity jumped from Riven’s hand and struck Vladimir’s wrist, forcing him to pull back.

"You sometimes forget the boundary we’ve set between us, Vladimir," Riven said with a tired sigh. "Remember who’s in charge here, alright?"

"Tsk!" Vladimir clicked his tongue, clearly annoyed, and turned away without another word. He started walking toward the staircase, shoulders stiff.

"What’s the book about?" Daniela asked, leaning in with curious eyes. Noir stood right beside her, head tilted in the same way, as if the two of them shared the same quiet curiosity.

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