Chapter 691 - 184: Wholeheartedly Seeking Defeat, Demonic Transformation

Chapter 691: Chapter 184: Wholeheartedly Seeking Defeat, Demonic Transformation

"Lord Chu, with an expression like that, are you so sure you have this won?"

A fierce wind erupted on the stage.

Zhang Tianhao gazed at the placid Chu Fan across from him and gave a slight smile. It seemed almost resigned, but it concealed a razor-sharp edge.

"To be perfectly honest, I have always been a cautious man. I never underestimate any opponent."

He spoke slowly. "I’ve just been wondering... where does this confidence of yours come from, Lord Chu? The kind of confidence that completely disregards the gap between our Realms?"

Before his voice had faded...

He slowly raised his left hand, his long, slender index finger pointing casually toward the sky.

RUMBLE—!

That one finger seemed to trigger some cosmic mechanism.

In an instant, the wind and clouds churned violently, and the very color of the sky and earth changed!

The sun had been shining brightly over the Martial Arts Arena, but now, solely above the small confines of the Bright Heart Realm stage, a vast patch of ink-black clouds abruptly materialized.

The black clouds churned and compressed, with silvery serpents of lightning slithering madly within.

The muffled peals of thunder seemed to detonate right above the crowd, creating a pressure so heavy it was difficult to breathe.

"This... this is the Bright Heart Realm!" someone in the crowd exclaimed, their eyes filled with awe as they stared at the apocalyptic scene. "Where the mind points, the world follows. With a single thought, they can command the Power of Heaven and Earth!"

"That’s right," another person added. "Don’t let the grand name of the second Realm, the Divine Power Realm, fool you. In truth, those cultivators have barely crossed the threshold. The Primordial Qi in their bodies can only circulate through their own Hundred Acupoints. To conjure celestial phenomena and unleash Great Divine Techniques, one must enter the Bright Heart Realm and make their own inner cosmos resonate with the greater cosmos of the world."

An elderly man stroked his beard, a sharp glint in his eyes as he sighed. "Zhang Tianhao is already an expert at the late stage of the Bright Heart Realm. With a mere flip of his palm, he can shake the heavens and move the earth!"

"It’s a shame," someone nearby said, shaking their head. "Chu Fan’s previous performance was shocking, and his physical strength is absurd, but in the end, he’s only in the Divine Power Realm. Even if he learned powerful Divine Techniques at the Demon Suppression Bureau, his Primordial Qi reserves are too small to sustain them. Faced with such overwhelming natural power, how can he possibly contend with Zhang Tianhao?"

The crowd was abuzz with discussion, and the vast majority did not favor Chu Fan’s chances.

Just then, the "sky" above the Bright Heart Realm stage broke open.

SPLASH!

The rain came down in sheets. Dense lines of rain, like countless beaded curtains, instantly enveloped the stage in a hazy mist.

Strangely, outside the stage’s barrier, the sun continued to shine brightly in a vast, cloudless sky.

But within the barrier, there was only bleak wind and bitter, bone-chilling rain.

The stark contrast sent an unbidden chill through the hearts of all who watched.

Chu Fan stood in the torrential rain, not moving immediately.

He slowly raised his head, allowing the cold rain to lash against his body.

Though his Protective Primordial Qi was not strong, it still kept the rain at bay.

He swept his Divine Sense through the downpour. There was nothing unusual about the rain, no hidden toxins; it seemed to be nothing more than an ordinary storm.

However, the instant the first raindrop fell, the smile on Zhang Tianhao’s face deepened. With a light tap of his foot, he seemed to melt into the curtain of rain, vanishing without a trace before everyone’s eyes like ink bleeding into water.

It wasn’t just a matter of incredible speed; his aura and his very form had been completely erased.

Seeing this, Chu Fan raised an eyebrow.

With a mere thought, his Primordial Qi flowed along a specific path, activating the Light and Shadow Escape Technique.

VMM!

Chu Fan’s form also blurred, beginning to fade from view.

But before he could vanish completely, his fading form was forced back into view, as if splashed with photographic developing fluid!

It turned out that the dense raindrops landing on Chu Fan didn’t slide off. Instead, they clung to him like some sort of marker, outlining the contours of his body.

In this downpour, any technique of light and shadow concealment was forcefully nullified by the all-pervasive rain!

"It’s useless."

Zhang Tianhao’s voice suddenly rang out from the void, seeming to drift from every direction at once—now from the left, now from the right.

It was as if every single raindrop was vibrating to produce the sound, making it impossible to pinpoint the location of his True Body.

"This Water Cloud Illusion Realm is a Secret Skill of my Zhang Family. Under my Rain Skill, I merge with the rain, allowing me to conceal my body at will."

His tone was laced with mockery. "But you can’t. This entire storm is my network of spies. You have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide."

The moment he finished speaking, the atmosphere on the stage changed abruptly.

VMMMM—

The surrounding raindrops, which had been falling vertically, suddenly defied the law of gravity as if given a command, and began to spin rapidly!

Countless raindrops converged around Chu Fan, forming a massive vortex of wind and rain!

The vortex spun faster and faster, generating a Gangfeng so sharp it was painful against the skin. The once-gentle, harmless raindrops now became frenzied and savage in their high-speed rotation.

The next moment...

A blast of extreme Cold Qi, potent enough to freeze the blood in one’s veins, erupted without warning.

CRACKLE! CRACKLE! CRACKLE! CRACKLE!

The raindrops spinning around Chu Fan instantly froze solid, transforming into countless crystal-clear, razor-sharp shards of ice!

In an instant, the rainstorm had become a blizzard of ice, its killing intent fully exposed!

Faced with this overwhelming assault, Chu Fan, at the center of the vortex, remained completely unfazed.

He showed not the slightest hint of surprise; there wasn’t even a flicker of astonishment in his eyes.

After completing the Refinement of the Zhang Family Ancestor’s Soul Division, he already understood the Zhang Family’s prized Secret Skills far more thoroughly than Zhang Tianhao himself.

Although Zhang Tianhao was from a branch family of the Zhang clan, his talent was nothing short of supreme. With little support from the main family’s resources, he had relied solely on his own Comprehension, advancing his cultivation with unstoppable momentum to the Fourth Heaven of the Bright Heart Realm. He was now just one step away from the Fifth Heaven.

Zhang Ling’Er had once demonstrated a Cold Ice Skill in front of Chu Fan, but compared to the Zhang Tianhao before him now, it was like comparing a firefly to the bright moon—the difference was night and day.

Zhang Ling’Er merely controlled ice. Zhang Tianhao, on the other hand, had perfectly fused the "softness" and "illusion" of a Water Element Technique with the "hardness" and "lethality" of an ice-based Secret Skill.

Water gives life to all things; ice brings the Thousand-Mile Ice Seal.

Hardness and softness complemented each other, creating infinite illusions.

According to the memories Chu Fan had gained from the Refinement of the Zhang Family Ancestor’s soul, Zhang Tianhao had once used this very Ice Rain Killing Array to defeat a Zhang Family Elder who was at the Fifth Heaven of the Bright Heart Realm—a full level above him!