Chapter 284 - 275: Kneel Down, Evolve

Chapter 284: Chapter 275: Kneel Down, Evolve

Before the figure within the layers of inky blackness could fully emerge, a pure black ripple had already silently spread across the scene.

In that instant, time seemed to be stretched into threads, extending infinitely.

The entire scene became crystal clear, slowing to an absolute crawl.

The giant lizard monster spread its fleshy wings, swooping toward the figure at incredible speed. Within this viscous, slow-moving current of time, its massive head began to warp without warning.

It started at the lower jaw, as if smashed by an invisible sledgehammer. CRUNCH! CRUNCH! Bone shattered and warped, the damage creeping upward inch by inch... until its entire body was thrown off course, shooting skyward with a BOOM!

A figure over four meters tall materialized high in the sky, its body seemingly wrapped in layers of black satin. Its face was obscured; all that could be seen was a pair of hauntingly strange and inscrutable eyes.

The figure had appeared without warning, hovering coldly in mid-air. It was as if it had already anticipated the lizard monster’s trajectory, waiting for it at the apex of its ascent.

Only then did the large, viscous, ink-black shadow at Fu Juemin’s previous location finally dissipate...

The entire sequence, though it seemed to last an eternity, had in fact happened in the blink of an eye.

BOOM!—

As time returned to its normal flow, the winged lizard monster plummeted from the sky and crashed violently to the ground.

Its impact gouged a massive crater in the ground, sending a shockwave of earth and debris howling in all directions.

ROAR—!

The lizard monster shot up from the crater in an instant, its enormous dark-red eyes filled with savagery and fury.

It growled, whipping its head around, searching for the "bug" that had just hurt it.

But after turning halfway around, it found it could no longer move.

Jerking its head back, it discovered a mass of what looked like ever-flowing ink had appeared behind it. The ink had crept onto its body, and from within it, a pair of long, powerful hands had emerged. The ten fingers were like cold steel spikes, dug deep into its flesh, gripping its tail in an iron vice.

"Commander Luo... you really should lose some weight."

A low, raspy voice spoke, tinged with a faint chuckle.

The lizard monster’s pupils contracted. A sense of unease welled up inside it.

Just as it was about to struggle, an incomprehensible, bizarre power shot up from its tailbone like a frigid current, paralyzing it instantly.

Immediately after, a terrifying power erupted from its tail!

SNAP!—

A bolt of lightning split the sky, illuminating a shocking sight: a fifteen-meter-long lizard behemoth being held by its tail, swung around, and brutally slammed into the ground!

KABOOM!

A massive shockwave erupted!

Huge chunks of earth and masonry were blasted into the air as the ground itself churned!

The Commander’s Mansion, which had previously only suffered a collapsed inner hall and was otherwise mostly intact, lost at least another third of its structure to that single slam.

However, this was merely the beginning.

BOOM!

BOOM! BOOM!

BOOM!

The figure, shrouded in thick ink, stood its ground, gripping the lizard behemoth and repeatedly smashing it left, right, and center.

One thunderous crash followed another!

At first, the lizard behemoth tried to struggle, but after a few more slams...

One of the disproportionately small fleshy wings on its back snapped, countless bones in its body were broken, and even its gaze... was beaten into a state of stark, agonizing clarity!

"Impossible! This is impossible!!!"

A roar of shocked disbelief echoed through the heavy rain, and within it, one could finally hear the traces of Luo Zhengxiong’s original voice.

The figure, who had been about to strike again, paused.

He remained where he was, standing silently for a moment.

Then, slowly, he lowered the bloody tail, which had been torn and shredded down to the bone.

With a subtle shift of light and shadow, the figure appeared silently atop the lizard behemoth’s stiff, ridged back.

Treading on cracked and shattered purple scales, he walked step by step toward its head.

Luo Zhengxiong struggled to turn his head, his bloodshot eyes stretched to their absolute limit. He stared fixedly at the figure, a low roar of incredulous protest tearing from his throat.

"How could my True Dragon Body be inferior to you?!

Do you have any idea how many people I’ve captured over the years to get to this point? How much money I’ve spent? How much I’ve suffered?!

I’m the one who should be the most powerful!

Why?

Why?!!"

"Because I represent a true metamorphosis, an ascension of Life itself. You... are nothing more than a crude patchwork of putrid, rotting flesh."

A voice replied slowly, laced with an innate, lofty arrogance and cold indifference. "There is a fundamental difference between you and me."

As the figure spoke, it stopped between his shoulder blades. The flowing black silk of its upper body parted slightly, finally revealing the form hidden within the shadows.

Luo Zhengxiong was already stunned by Fu Juemin’s answer, but when he got a clear look at Fu Juemin’s current state, his expression became one of utter disbelief.

The man beneath the inky silk revealed his chest, shoulders, and neck, all of which were covered in fine, black scales—like a perfectly fitting, exquisite, and beautiful suit of full-body armor.

The orange-red light glowing faintly from beneath the black scales formed the armor’s natural patterns; the ivory-colored bone spurs growing between the scales were its clasps...

The black scales extended all the way to his jaw, but beneath his casually strewn black hair was a perfectly normal human face.

Still young, and still handsome.

Although his forehead was now adorned with strange embellishments like chips of black diamond, it only added to his air of mystery and nobility...

Luo Zhengxiong stared fixedly at him, falling into a long silence.

He couldn’t understand it. How could someone with such incredible power still maintain such a perfect human form?!

’Isn’t it a fundamental law of this world that to gain something, you must lose something else?’

Luo Zhengxiong couldn’t accept it.

"Are you envious?"

Fu Juemin looked down at Luo Zhengxiong and asked faintly.

A flicker of movement went through Luo Zhengxiong’s eyes.

It would have been a lie to say he wasn’t.

Just as the other man said, compared to what he possessed, his own so-called "True Dragon Body" was just like a crude patchwork of putrid, rotting flesh.

"Kneel and beg me."

Fu Juemin continued, his tone arrogant and cold, yet laced with an irresistible temptation. "I will bring you... into this perfect and noble evolution."

GULP—

Luo Zhengxiong’s thick Adam’s apple bobbed, his eyes flickering wildly.

He hesitated, weighing his options for a moment.

Finally...

He lowered his body further, his ugly, crocodile-like head drooping little by little.

Faced with the one thing he had dreamed of, Luo Zhengxiong finally decided to cast aside his dignity.

But before his head could touch the wet, muddy ground, a soft chuckle sounded from above—

"You actually believed me..."

"Heh..."

Hearing this, Luo Zhengxiong froze. An unprecedented wave of shame and humiliation erupted from the depths of his heart!

"You dare to mock me!!"

Luo Zhengxiong let out a roar of unbearable shame and fury, and violently raised his head.

He looked up just in time to see Fu Juemin, still on his back, a savage grin spreading across his face as he raised an arm and slammed his fist down!

BAM!

The instant he struck, the ink that flowed like the finest silk over Fu Juemin’s body erupted.

His true form was completely revealed.

—While everything from the chest up was symmetrical and handsome, what lay beneath was a savage body overgrown with bone spurs, shot through with chaotic black light, and rippling with strangely swollen muscles... a body filled with uncontrolled, aberrant power.

But now that the noble and exquisite disguise was torn away, with no intention of hiding it, the power that erupted from this body... filled Luo Zhengxiong with even greater horror and despair!

"So what if I mocked you?"

As Fu Juemin’s fist fell, his Demon Qi erupted like a thousand volcanoes at once, billowing and soaring straight into the sky!

He laughed uproariously, wild and unrestrained.

"Playtime is over. It’s time for you to die... Commander Luo!"

[Sumeru Incline]!

BOOM!!!!

An immense shockwave erupted from the center of the Commander’s Mansion.

Wherever the shockwave passed, the last remaining roofs and walls of the Commander’s Mansion collapsed and burst apart in succession... CRASH! RUMBLE...