Chapter 223 - 145: Crushing the Masked Man

Chapter 223: Chapter 145: Crushing the Masked Man

"SKREEEEE—!"

A series of short, sharp squeals came from underground.

The next second.

The earth around the Rat King churned violently.

Countless rats burst from the soil.

As soon as they appeared, they crashed into one another, coalescing into a human figure.

He wore a Rat Head Mask.

He was dressed in a researcher’s white lab coat.

Behind him floated nine long, sharp Bone Blade tails.

The newcomer was none other than the man in the Rat Head Mask who had attacked Gu Qing that night!

The only difference was...

This time, the man in the Rat Head Mask appeared in his complete Ratman form from the very beginning.

The nine Bone Blade tails behind him danced nimbly in the air like vipers, emitting a chilling glint that was incredibly oppressive.

"It’s only been a short while, yet you’ve gotten so much stronger."

The masked man squinted at Gu Qing, his eyes filled with undisguised excitement and greed. "It seems you really are hiding some extremely valuable Extraordinary secrets. You, my little lab rat, are mine now."

As he finished speaking, the nine Bone Blade tails behind him shot out, speeding toward Gu Qing.

Each Bone Blade was coated with an extremely virulent rat poison.

Anything below the High-Level would die on contact.

Even those above the High-Level would suffer greatly.

Facing the masked man’s attack, Gu Qing felt no fear, only an eagerness to fight.

’Back when my Biological Level was only Tier Seven, I could still escape from him and survive for a long time.’

’But now, my Biological Level has evolved to High-Tier Two, four full Levels higher than the ordinary Tier Seven I was back then.’

With such a massive increase in strength, he refused to believe he couldn’t put up a fight against the masked man.

At this thought, he instantly activated his Muscle Knots mode.

As the Bone Blades flew toward him, Gu Qing’s muscles swelled rapidly, his frame expanding by a full size as the aura he projected surged dramatically.

Seeing his prized "lab rat" not only refuse to dodge his all-out attack but instead frantically channel his internal Qi Blood to fight back, the masked man couldn’t help but laugh.

’No matter how high an Extraordinary Being’s Level is, they’re ultimately just a piece of trash with nothing but brute force.’

’And he dares to dream of fighting me?’

’He’s simply courting death!’

"WHOOSH!"

"WHOOSH!"

"WHOOSH!"

Several Bone Blades, sharp enough to slice through iron as if it were mud, shot toward Gu Qing’s vitals at a speed almost invisible to the naked eye.

With the enhancement of Lightning Reflexes, Gu Qing clearly perceived the trajectory of each speeding Bone Blade.

He moved in advance to dodge.

He easily avoided all the incoming Bone Blades.

But before he could readjust his stance, the Bone Blades that had just brushed past him immediately reversed direction and shot toward his vitals again.

This second wave of attacks came mostly from behind, outside Gu Qing’s field of vision.

Without a line of sight, he couldn’t trigger his Lightning Reflexes.

And without the aid of his Lightning Reflexes, before Gu Qing could even react, the sharp Bone Blades had already struck him.

"CLANG! CLANG! CLANG..."

The blades, sharp enough to cut iron like mud, struck Gu Qing repeatedly, producing a series of crisp ringing sounds.

With his Muscle Knots mode active, Gu Qing’s Physical Strength had reached an absolutely terrifying level.

It had far surpassed High-Tier Two, broken through to High-Tier Three, and was even approaching High-Tier Four.

Mere Bone Blades, sharp as they were, couldn’t possibly breach the defense of this body.

"How is this possible?!"

The masked man recalled all his Bone Blades. He first glanced at the chipped edges on each blade, then looked at the unscathed Gu Qing. An expression of utter disbelief crossed his face.

His Bone Blades, which could slice through iron like mud, had only managed to leave a faint white mark on Gu Qing’s body, scraping off a bit of dead skin from the surface.

Meanwhile, the blades themselves had chipped and were severely damaged.

He couldn’t accept this reality!

"WHOOSH—!"

A sonic boom suddenly erupted.

Gu Qing moved.

His figure became a blur, and in an instant, he was in front of the masked man.

He then raised his right fist like a bolt of lightning.

Wielding a torrential amount of Qi Blood Power, he smashed a punch toward the masked man’s face.

He wanted to shatter the Rat Head Mask on the man’s face with a single punch and see what this powerful Rat God Cultist truly looked like.

’So fast!’

’I can’t dodge this at all!’

Staring at the fist that had suddenly appeared before him, the masked man’s expression changed drastically, a long-absent flicker of fear appearing in his eyes.

He tried to move his face to dodge.

But he had barely started to move when Gu Qing’s fist had already slammed viciously into his face.

"BANG!"

"CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—!"

The masked man was sent flying, and the Rat Head Mask he wore exploded on the spot, its fragments scattering through the air.

Without the mask to hide it, the man’s true face was finally revealed.

But not entirely.

Because beneath the Rat Head Mask... was another ugly rat’s head.

The man was currently in his Ratman form; his human face had long been hidden away.

"WHOOSH—!"

The sharp sound of air being torn apart rang out again.

Before the masked man could even hit the ground, Gu Qing had already dashed to his side.

He then raised a powerful leg, infused with Qi Blood Power so dense it was almost liquid, and stomped violently on the masked man’s chest.

"BOOM!"

There was a massive thud.

The masked man had no time to react and was stomped straight down by Gu Qing. His entire body slammed into the ground, creating a huge, man-shaped crater and sending shocking spiderweb cracks across the earth.

"PUFF!"

The masked man immediately spat out a large mouthful of blood. His chest was caved in, and the heart beneath had been pulverized into a mass of mangled flesh.

The next second, the masked man, on the verge of death, suddenly disintegrated into countless small, gray-black rats that scattered frantically in all directions.

Gu Qing’s brows furrowed slightly. ’This trick again.’

’The reason He Haikun couldn’t capture this guy last time was because he could break apart into a swarm of rats and flee in different directions, making it impossible for an opponent to corner him.’

’However...’

’I’m not He Haikun.’

’You’re not getting away!’

With a thought, Gu Qing instantly used his Qi Blood External Release, condensing a massive Blood-colored Crossbow Arrow in his hands.

He drew the Blood Arrow and fired it diagonally up into the air.

When the Blood Arrow reached a height of several dozen meters, it exploded into hundreds of sharp, miniature arrows that rained down, densely targeting every rat on the ground.

"SWISH! SWISH! SWISH..."

The sky-full of miniature arrows rained down at high speed.

With every arrow that fell, a small gray-black rat was pierced through and killed on the spot.

In just a few moments, hundreds of gray-black rats had been shot dead.

Their bodies nearly covered the ground.

The remaining hundred or so rats quickly re-formed into a human shape, turning back into a sturdy Ratman who then erupted with Qi Blood and began to dig, trying to escape.

Gu Qing’s skill, which was like a volley of ten thousand arrows, was the perfect counter to his rat-swarm technique.

He had to reform into a Ratman and use his stronger form to dig his way to freedom.

Otherwise, if he kept this up, he would eventually be shot to death by Gu Qing, completely annihilated.

"WHOOSH—!"

That familiar whoosh sounded yet again.

Having learned his lesson from his encounter with Huang Xiaoqing, Gu Qing gave the masked man no chance to dig away. He instantly rushed to his side and kicked him into the air.

The moment the masked man was sent flying, Gu Qing swiftly brought his foot down, stomping the man out of the air and slamming him hard into the ground with a loud BOOM, sending dust flying everywhere.

"PUFF!"

Struck by another devastating stomp, the masked man, just like before, spat out another large mouthful of blood.

Having been stomped twice in such a short time, he was critically injured, his face deathly pale. He was on the verge of dying.

The damage forced him out of his Ratman form, revealing his true human face.

It was a middle-aged man who looked to be in his early forties.

His hair was thinning.

His features were plain.

Overall, he looked like a researcher who spent all day cooped up in a lab.

"You... why are you so strong...?"

The masked man accepted his defeat and gave up all resistance.

Right now, he only wanted to know how Gu Qing, an Extraordinary Contactor, could possess such terrifying strength at such a young age.

In response to his question, Gu Qing chose to remain silent, not indulging his curiosity.

He just silently lifted his right foot.

With several CRACKS, he stomped on and broke the masked man’s limbs.

Gu Qing didn’t know if an Extraordinary Powerhouse of the masked man’s caliber would completely lose the ability to fight back after having his limbs broken.

He was simply acting out of habit, crippling his enemies to minimize the risk of a disastrous upset.

"CRACK! CRACK! CRACK..."

Suddenly, the faint sound of hard objects clinking together came from behind him.

Gu Qing turned to look at the source of the sound.

The next moment, the scene that met his eyes was...

The Rat Head Mask he had shattered with a punch was now reassembling itself. Without any outside intervention, the fragments were rapidly piecing themselves back together into a complete mask.

Then, before Gu Qing could react, the Rat Head Mask seemed to teleport, instantly crossing over a hundred meters to land precisely on the masked man’s face.

...