Lord of Prayer

Following a deafening explosion, Zhou Chen was overcome by a powerful sense of weightlessness. A fierce wind howled past his ears, and his vision spun wildly.

He was flying freely through the night sky.

Or rather, he’d been sent flying.

The speed was too fast for the naked eye to follow. In the instant Satan broke free, he sent Zhou Chen flying.

High in the sky, Zhou Chen finally managed to stabilize himself, only to immediately spit out a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of his shredded organs.

His shirt had been blasted to shreds, revealing a firm, well-defined physique. But on this body that would make countless girls blush and scream, his skin and flesh were covered in ghastly, web-like cracks, like shattered porcelain. Blood gushed from the wounds and scattered in the wind, falling like a fine, crimson rain. The single blow had nearly made his body explode!

In terms of sheer Power, Satan was now several times stronger than when he had fought Yao Hu. Even if Yao Hu himself were here, he would be in for a world of hurt after taking a few of those hits.

Zhou Chen coughed violently, spitting out a piece of his lung. Suddenly, a vast, oppressive shadow fell over him.

Satan, born from the evil of humanity, appeared high in the sky. His six eyes glowed with a malevolent light as his four pairs of pitch-black dragon wings unfurled, nearly blotting out the heavens. The light of the Red Moon pierced through a gap in the clouds, bathing him in an ominous, scarlet glow.

Countless citizens of Akita Town looked up to behold the utterly terrifying sight.

The Demon from Hell bathed in the crimson moonlight, its wings blanketing the entire World. It spread heinous sins, setting the city ablaze with war, making rivers of blood flow across the land, bringing chaos and death…

In that instant, Zhou Chen saw Satan assume a charging stance uncannily similar to Yao Hu’s. He was stunned. ’Is this a fragmented technique he learned after devouring Yao Hu’s flesh with his Maw of Gluttony?’

Satan clenched his fist and swung it in a gesture identical to Yao Hu’s, causing the air to let out a high-pitched shriek.

’No time! I can’t dodge!’

The thought flashed through his mind in an instant. Facing the descending fatal blow, Zhou Chen roared as the Essence in his body churned like molten lava, burning furiously. Within a thousandth of a second, he compressed it to a single point and then unleashed it in a volcanic eruption.

An incandescent light of terrifying intensity burst forth, transforming into an arrow that pierced the night, screaming through the air with incredible heat.

It was like compressing a spring to its absolute limit; in a single moment, he had frantically compressed nearly half of his Essence, then detonated it with a Flame Burst. He unleashed this immense destructive power like a flood bursting through a dam, creating a spectacular scene reminiscent of a Light Energy Cannon.

BOOM!

Amid the explosion, the brilliant light shattered, and the Demon’s fist, though scorched beyond recognition, continued its unstoppable descent.

CRUMP—

The muffled impact unleashed a shockwave that swept out in all directions. Zhou Chen plummeted from the sky like a falling star. He crashed through a tall clock tower like a cannonball, then tore through several buildings and storefronts before finally slamming into the street, shattering the asphalt in a spiderweb of cracks.

The sound of collapsing buildings echoed as thick clouds of dust and smoke billowed into the air.

On the ground, Zhou Chen felt he was on the verge of death. Nearly two-thirds of his bones were shattered, and his internal organs had been churned into a pulp along with his ribs. Only a ruptured heart still struggled to beat, faintly keeping him alive.

’This guy is on a whole other level. No wonder the Tier Three Ascender the Forging Association sent before got wiped out… If this keeps up, I’m a goner, too… Dammit, I haven’t stalled for enough time…’ Zhou Chen’s thoughts became fragmented.

Had he not countered that last blow, he wouldn’t even be lying here now—he’d be dead. The attack was impossible to defend against, and he had no time to reposition with Flame Jump. His only choice was to meet it head-on. The slightest hesitation, the slightest retreat, would have meant utter annihilation.

The good news: he had survived it. He wasn’t dead. Yet.

The bad news: he was about to die any second now.

WHOOSH— A gust of wind scattered the dust and smoke as Satan slowly descended, his wings beating the air.

“Who on earth are you people?”

Satan’s voice was no longer that of Father Natas. It was terrifyingly demonic, with a deep resonance that made every word seem to swirl and echo in one’s very soul. “Just now, I was about to kill your two companions, but they suddenly vanished. The one before them did, as well…

Is it Spatial Magic, from the school of Mysticism? Or some other, more fantastic form of Supernatural Power?

And then there was that arena, and all of your peculiar Supernatural Powers, and your Artifacts that hold such Power…

Who… are you people, really?”

“Keh… Who are we?” Zhou Chen managed a weak laugh. “You want to know?”

Satan’s six eyes stared at him intently. He neither spoke nor moved.

“The origin of Supernatural Power, the truth of the World, the organization behind us… I can tell you all of it,” Zhou Chen rasped, looking as if he could die at any second.

“You’re stalling for time. Do you have another trump card you haven’t played? Or are you waiting for reinforcements?”

Satan saw through his ploy in an instant. “Judging by your companions,” he said coldly, “if you were truly about to die, you would have vanished from before my eyes. You have not vanished, which means your injuries are not yet life-threatening.

That part, I admit, is quite an eye-opener. I was a doctor for a very long time, and I’ve also killed a great many people with my own hands. I’ve shattered seventy percent of the bones in your body and pulverized nearly all of your internal organs. A normal person would have died long ago, yet you can still speak to me… How, exactly, are you still alive?”