Chapter 256: Initial Stage Realm

Chapter 256 -254: Initial Stage Realm

But to her surprise—

Shen Yue was faster. Her figure vanished in an instant, reappearing at her side.

Xiao Ya’s hand hit nothing but air. Her eyes narrowed, and she threw a punch.

Shen Yue blinked out of sight again, materializing behind her.

Again, Xiao Ya’s fist met nothing but air…

Furious, she whirled around.

SLAP!

A crisp, sharp slap landed squarely on her face.

Before Xiao Ya could even react, the Brute Force of the slap sent her flying…

She flew in an arc before crashing heavily to the ground.

Seeing this, Bai Chaosi and Huang Ziyue’s expressions relaxed…

Neither of them made a move, heeding Shen Yue’s warning on their way here.

She had said that she had to personally beat Xiao Ya into submission, and no one else was allowed to interfere!

Their primary target was the black-robed man!

Xiao Ya lay on the ground, clutching her face in disbelief. ‘I clearly siphoned away all her power, so how can she still be this fast? How can she react like that?’

‘Could it be… I didn’t take her power at all?’

‘And that slap… It was like an adult scolding a child. It wasn’t a killing blow, just pure humiliation and mockery.’

She staggered to her feet…

The fiery sting on her cheek told her one thing with brutal clarity: even with Shen Yue’s power, she was no match for this woman!

Her eyes burned with the resentful, indignant fury of her humiliation…

But before she could lash out, Shen Yue blurred, appearing right in front of her.

“Feeling good?”

Xiao Ya had no time to react.

SLAP!

Another resounding slap, like one would give a naughty child, struck her across the face again.

Once again, she was sent flying.

Hu Tu cried out, “A zhi!”

Seeing this, the black-robed man’s eyes narrowed.

“What are you gawking at? Get in there!”

‘He hadn’t expected Xiao Ya to be so useless against Shen Yue!’

At the command, the aura around Hu Tu solidified.

His muscles bulged as a beastly roar erupted from deep within his chest.

In that instant, the wind began to churn around them.

Huang Ziyue and Bai Chaosi’s eyes narrowed. They focused their spiritual power, their gazes fixed on Hu Tu…

Tonight, they were determined to see what this so-called Nine-tailed Cat truly was!

With that roar, Hu Tu’s body instantly split into nine identical figures.

The nine figures crouched low to the ground, then sprang up like wild beasts, charging toward Shen Yue!

At this moment, everything written in the book was finally confirmed!

Hu Tu really was a Nine-tailed Cat!

Not only did he have nine lives, but he could also split into nine distinct versions of himself.

Each one was a separate entity. Though they shared the same blood as the original, their spiritual power was unique.

It was like having nine different people who all looked identical to the original.

It was as if he had created eight duplicates of himself!

How bizarre, and how shocking!

Wu Huo, the Dragon Guard from the Mystic Mechanism Building, and the others had been waiting for this moment.

They all revealed themselves, instantly giving chase to the nine figures to surround and destroy them.

Seeing his chance, the black-robed man prepared to slip away into the shadows.

But in a flash, Huang Ziyue and Bai Chaosi appeared, blocking his path.

The spiritual power radiating from them pressed down like a mountain, blanketing the hillside.

The black-robed man squinted at them.

“What? You think the two of you can stop me?”

Bai Chaosi’s silver hair stirred. Though he looked like an Immortal, his eyes now glinted with killing intent.

“How will we know if we don’t try?”

Huang Ziyue’s dark red cloak billowed though there was no wind, and his dark red eyes narrowed dangerously.

Without another word, he struck, launching himself at the black-robed man.

The black mist around the robed man coalesced abruptly.

“You’re courting death!”

In an instant, the two figures were locked in combat.

Huang Ziyue’s attacks were always vicious. Leaping into the air, he aimed a palm strike directly at the crown of the black-robed man’s head.

This strike was also a test, meant to see if this was the same man who had tried to assassinate Shen Yue on Wilderness Mountain.

The black-robed man met the world-shaking blow with a palm of his own.

BOOM!

A tremendous roar exploded outward.

The collision of the two forces made the very ground shake and the mountains tremble.

The shockwave rippled outward, instantly turning everything nearby to dust.

After the blow, Huang Ziyue flashed back to the ground. Without pausing, he shot forward again like the shadow of a sword, striking once more.

Simultaneously, Bai Chaosi became a white blur, striking at the black-robed man’s back.

They pincered him from front and back. The force of their power whipped up sand and gravel, turning the area into the eye of a storm.

Seeing this, the black mist shrouding the robed man’s body surged violently…

It came alive, forming into phantoms that let out the ear-piercing wails of a thousand tormented souls and swarmed toward Bai Chaosi and Huang Ziyue.

The phantoms formed from the black mist looked as if they could swallow heaven and earth.

Their expressions darkened. ‘This black-robed man really is in the Realm of Qi Breaking!’

The Qi Blades around them quickly formed a Light Shield. They didn’t retreat an inch. Instead, they surged forward, flashing together to stand side-by-side…

They struck out with both palms simultaneously, their combined power cleaving at the oncoming Spiritual Body.

The strike was like an unstoppable bolt of lightning, tearing through the air with a piercing shriek.

It sliced the swarming, seemingly invincible Spiritual Body in two.

Beneath the black mist cleaved apart by the blow, the black-robed man’s form was revealed.

His face remained hidden in the mist, but his purple pupils were impossible to miss.

They both froze.

‘It really is him, the man in black from before! He’s not dead!’

‘How is that possible?’

‘Are they the same person, or do they just happen to have the same purple eyes?’

Shock rippled through them, but it only solidified their resolve. They had one goal now: this time, he would not escape!

If their battle on Wilderness Mountain over a month ago had been a crushing, absolute defeat where they were utterly powerless, then this was a true test, a real contest of strength.

The black-robed man, for his part, seemed not to have expected that they had broken through to the Initial Stage Realm of spiritual power!

And that they could even shatter his Spiritual Body!

‘In just one month, they broke through the Initial Stage with Shen Yue’s help.’

‘Truly astonishing!’

S+ spiritual power was already considered the peak for a Beastman on the Beast World Continent.

But breaking through to SSS+ meant entering another realm entirely—the Initial Stage Realm, which was the first step on the path to the Immortal Level!

But beyond the Initial Stage was the Realm of Qi Breaking. That meant the complete reshaping of the body, the absolute peak of spiritual power—an Immortal Body!

He hadn’t expected these two to have already set foot on the Immortal Level!

He squinted at Huang Ziyue and Bai Chaosi.

“Not bad. You’ve actually broken through the Initial Stage. You might be worthy of a fight after all!”

With that, the black-robed man wasted no more time.

He clapped his hands together. The black mist around him gathered once more, and a terrifyingly powerful pressure instantly descended upon the entire hillside!

It felt as if it could sunder heaven and earth!

The black mist that had been scattered by Huang Ziyue and Bai Chaosi’s combined strike answered a summons, surging back together like a monstrous wave to become whole again.

Huang Ziyue and Bai Chaosi stood side by side, their eyes narrowing as they watched the roiling black mist that seemed vast enough to swallow the world.

‘Looks like the black-robed man is finally getting serious.’

In the blink of an eye, urged on by the black-robed man, the rapidly converging mist transformed into a jet-black skeletal specter.

It towered over the black-robed man, a demon crawled up from the depths of hell, so vast it blotted out the sky.

A mad gleam shone in the black-robed man’s purple eyes. His clasped hands clenched tight.

“Kill!”

The towering skeletal specter instantly opened its massive jaw and let out a shriek.

The force within that sound exploded outward like a shockwave.

Huang Ziyue and Bai Chaosi’s expressions tensed as they shot into the air.

Their spiritual power formed a radiant dome in mid-air, which met the immense force head-on, blocking it completely!

BOOM!!

The earth cracked and quaked, the mountains swayed, and spiderweb-like fissures spread across the ground.

At the foot of the mountain, Shen Yue, Wu Huo, and the others whipped their heads around to look!

The skeletal specter, wreathed in black mist, seemed capable of swallowing the sky and destroying the earth. Its massive, upright form blotted out the heavens, a truly terrifying sight!

And before the skeletal specter, two figures hovered in mid-air as the Light Shield around them shattered!

Even against such overwhelming power, they didn’t retreat. Instead, they charged forward, their bodies transforming into streaks of light as they rushed in!

Shen Yue’s heart clenched.

‘Those two… they’re throwing their lives away!’