Chapter Eighty-Four: Formidable Enemy

A person's energy and resources are finite. Except for someone like Lan Yi—an extraordinary, rare anomaly. For psychics in the early stages, if one specializes in the arts, their martial skills inevitably lag behind; if obsessed with martial arts, then their psychic abilities become mere tricks. This is the result of the two orthodox systems of psychic cultivation—clashing philosophies and paths in the early stages.

Because martial arts depend on innate talent.

Most psychics, in their early days, prefer to invest their resources and effort into psychic arts, enjoying the immediate and powerful enhancements, rather than martial arts, which are quickly suppressed by the brute force of the main world.

Aladia was a typical example.

She fantasized about becoming Magneto, but once Lan Yi reached her side, she was met with the heavy blow of a tangible iron fist!

Today, Lan Yi showed her the true meaning of gender equality: under the fist, it matters not if you claim twenty-one genders or seventy-eight races—my fist spares none!

Aladia's death was gruesome.

Her head exploded entirely!

White and crimson matter instantly splattered across the wall beside her, painting a raw, abstract scene of a psychic being crushed!

Cultivated flesh, martial arts truth from South Saint Gate and Divine Peak—tearing the atmosphere, whipping up gales, shocking the mind—was meant to slaughter the rest as well.

Shock! Terror!

How can one contend?

Within a tenth of a second after Aladia's violent demise, those psychics who realized the old demon Lan had drawn near and their doom was at hand launched a desperate counterattack.

First came a volley of over a dozen missiles, each the thickness of a pencil.

"Hm?"

Lan Yi couldn't help but sneer, pressing his hands in the air toward the incoming missiles trailing smoke.

To play with metal technology in front of a top-tier electromagnetic psychic is to court death. The subsonic missiles were instantly locked in midair, then forcibly twisted and shot toward several muscle-bound zombies with enhanced defenses!

Boom!!!

The robust bodies, tyrannical as they were, were blown apart by the high-tech pencil bombs, the stench of scorched protein spreading instantly.

Naya's eyes widened in shock; controlling viruses and cannon fodder, he froze for a second, immediately becoming the most conspicuous target.

"Not good, he's completely immune to my abilities!" he exclaimed, and his body was instantly torn to pieces!

Only then did the weakened version of the Steel Thunder Rail appear on everyone's retinas!

An adult male.

Instantly dismembered, organs and blood splattered everywhere—the brutality was overwhelming. The psychics in the rear, meant to provide support and distraction, faced Lan Yi's unleashed firepower; non-reincarnators' resolve collapsed outright. They never expected combat between cultivators to be so savage... and so swift.

Non-reincarnators imagined early-stage fights as setting traps, posturing, dragging it out like trench warfare, then using abilities to take down enemies from afar.

That is indeed the early-stage style.

But not Lan Yi's.

A slow, turtle-like tactic, when faced with someone who calculates their hand and blitzes in with raptor-like speed, only leads to one outcome: death!

Wellington tried to stem Lan Yi's savage assault by activating pre-set anti-electromagnetic battlefield robots.

A dozen or so small robots, half the height of a person, equipped with battlefield scanning, psychic recognition, and armed with Vulcan cannons, unleashed a storm of firepower at Lan Yi from behind walls and through ventilation ducts in the labyrinthine arena!

Six thousand rounds per minute, electromagnetically driven machine guns!

In an instant, Lan Yi was engulfed.

He was swallowed by a cocoon woven from Azurehua and Geng Metal Sword Qi.

"Retreat! Retreat!" Wellington roared. Only three of them remained on the field now; they had to regroup with Golden Lion.

The next second, Delvis struck.

A precise slash seemed to appear from nowhere, cutting into the sudden extension of the Demon-Binding Cord. Delvis grunted, hands bleeding from the force, his weapon chewed and pitted by the plasma cord. Wellington screamed as his ear was burnt off entirely.

Brushed by the blazing Demon-Binding Cord.

Not even needing to staunch the blood.

Wellington's face twisted as he dragged Stephen Chen, retreating as they fought.

The pre-set graphene bombs and various traps could temporarily slow Lan Yi's savage assault. Even though other psychics had died horribly, their traps remained effective.

Magnetic interference, specialized zombies, heavy firepower, viscous poison oil.

For a moment, Lan Yi's area was abuzz!

Like a splash of cold water thrown into boiling oil!

Under the protection of Azurehua and Geng Metal Sword Qi, Lan Yi stood unmoved. From the slight cracks, the brilliant light of the lotus circuit in his colorless eyes locked fiercely onto the three fleeing figures, like a vengeful specter.

He silently crept up, instantly killing two, wounding two.

He crippled those of his own kind.

Aside from energy depletion, he remained unscathed.

Such results were acceptable to Lan Yi.

But not enough for information.

These were merely appetizers; the real main course, the one he needed to take seriously, had yet to die.

After being buried under tens of thousands of tons of material for over a minute, spurred by urgent calls and the news of his companions' deaths and injuries, Golden Lion finally broke free! This beast, now able to move at four times the speed of sound, with astonishing physical prowess and extreme, fanatical combat will, shredded all obstacles before him!

Shockwaves from his fists tore through steel and concrete, even punching through the ceiling, revealing cracks letting in sunlight.

Wherever he passed, with ample space to exert force, he smashed stones to powder, ground earth to dust!

The enraged Golden Lion burned as he stomped forward.

"Lan Yi!!!!"

The thought that his companions hadn't even had a chance to act before being slaughtered by the old demon Lan filled Golden Lion with primal fury!

How dare he? He actually dared?!

To run to the rear just like that.

He was trapped, unable to use his electromagnetic arts—was he treating this battle as a joke?!

Roar!!!

Unstoppable, unmatched, Golden Lion hurtled forward supersonically, hair and beard bristling like a ball of golden flames. The moment he appeared, while Lan Yi was still delayed by the traps, he unleashed a punch at Lan Yi's head, backed by over five hundred tons of force!

Even the air was evacuated in that instant.

All sounds, missiles, and rabble faded away.

A deathly vacuum formed between Lan Yi and Golden Lion.

In this world, slowed dozens of times, only the burning fist shot rapidly toward Lan Yi's head.

Lan Yi's eyes twitched rapidly.

The next moment...

He chose to meet the blow head-on! A large fist and small fist collided instantly!

A punch at four times the speed of sound, with five hundred tons of force.

Mere flesh and blood.

To be struck by such a violent blow—surely a bloody firework, exploding from the point of impact, then the arm, then half the body, and if lucky, the head might remain somewhat spherical as the spine shatters.

Golden Lion was very familiar with this.

Because his own strength.

After his return, he personally crushed countless defiant rebels, a few less-than-friendly reincarnators, and even the ultra-high-strength mixed steel doors of the White House bunker. He knew well how terrifying his specialized power was, having abandoned the future.

And before such power.

Lan Yi!

He dared to meet him head-on?

Yes.

No psychic arts, no illusions, no bluff—Lan Yi faced a punch that could turn a man into bloody fireworks, and, as if ignorant of the terror of a supersonic explosive punch, raised his arm to meet it. To Golden Lion, this wasn't suicide, but rather, Lan Yi had something to rely on.

Lan Yi...

He started his path with martial slaughter!

Boom!!!

Fists collided.

The anticipated scene of Lan Yi being turned into a mural of meat did not happen; Lan Yi stood unmoved, absorbing the blow. Both their legs braced downward, instantly sinking the ground three meters, cracks extending dozens of meters!

Not over yet!

Just one punch—how could it reveal depths?

Both Lan Yi and Golden Lion unleashed uninterrupted waves of punches!

Boom boom boom boom!!

Air, just drawn back by negative pressure, was again blasted apart by pure violence. Under their god-like combat, the atmosphere became sharp blades, utterly shredding and grinding this underground region! Ignoring the collapsing structure, they fought recklessly on the fifth underground level, each trying to overpower the other!

Even robots made of steel and iron, stepping within ten meters of their battle, were crushed outright by the overflow of power, reduced to scrap.

In the blink of an eye.

Lan Yi, now supersonic as well, had exchanged over a hundred blows with Golden Lion, each punch like the firing of a cannon, each like the blast of a machine gun.

They tore apart most of the underground area.

But both Lan Yi and Golden Lion

Deliberately avoided the life signs at the very bottom level.

That was where Lan Yi's "friends" resided.

If they were killed by collateral damage, with the old demon Lan's temperament, he would immediately break off from the melee, unleash his power crystals skyward, and bombard the region mercilessly. Golden Lion's greatest weakness now was his inability to remain airborne for long.

In an instant, a thousand solid exchanges.

Lan Yi's body erupted with electric light, the fierce arc of the Demon-Binding Cord scraping across Golden Lion's burning golden body, making the foreigner grimace, then Lan Yi withdrew a hundred meters from him.

Golden Lion rubbed his granite-like pectoral muscles in pain.

Demon-Binding Cord.

Failed to inflict effective damage.

How absurd...

Even Lan Yi had to marvel silently—this was only the first artificial divine realm trial, and someone had already reached such heights in martial arts.

Four times the speed of sound, superhuman physique, unknown heartscape, possibly other hidden cards.

Aside from the five major powers,

With enough time, he could destroy any nation single-handedly!

No wonder Golden Lion was confident enough to ambush Lan Yi; even alone, Turing the super AI calculated he could kill Lan Yi, who had completed the first node of the destiny map.

And so it proved.

'Demon-Binding Cord cannot inflict effective damage.'

'Of my powerful arts, only Thunder Pool might instantly hit him.'

'But he's too fast—even the Steel Thunder God, not at full power, might not catch him...'

Since rebirth, Lan Yi finally felt what it was to truly fight, not simply crush and slaughter. If it was a fight, it meant he had to take it seriously; otherwise, being killed was entirely possible.

"Your body is clearly just an ordinary cultivated flesh—how can you withstand so many of my punches?" Golden Lion asked in confusion; his fists felt odd when striking Lan Yi.

"Take a guess. If you get it right, I'll tell you." Lan Yi exhaled a hint of metallic breath.

"Psychic modification... and it has something to do with your hair, right?" Golden Lion, as experienced as the old demon Lan, analyzed the clues and roughly figured out how Lan Yi did it.

Only such a method could strengthen the body to the point of trading blows with supersonic punches.

No leaks! Truly seamless!

Though Lan Yi hid it well, clues emerged during their exchange.

Beneath his skin, apart from innate energy, most muscles had likely been replaced with carefully woven Azurehua, overlaid with a dense three-dimensional network formed by Azurehua.

Only this explained

Lan Yi's supersonic electrical reflexes, perfect force absorption in exchanges, and the stiffness in moves—the white hair weaving and electrical web interacting, presetting automatic responses.

Lan Yi nodded.

He had indeed done this.

Such silent weaving was time-consuming, with little reward.

He did it

Precisely to prepare for irrationally fast and powerful enemies like Golden Lion. Having bullied others with innate energy in his previous life, he expected to face similar situations.

He just hadn't expected

Golden Lion to be so strong.

Purely in terms of combat power, this guy was already nearing the fourth, approaching the fifth, with no flaws except lacking instant, large-area killing techniques.

Lan Yi had not used psychic arts during their exchange.

But now!

The Thunder Soldier Domain unfolded, further enhancing his reaction and speed; every gesture screeched with the piercing chirp of a thousand birds, the electromagnetic avatar instantly manifesting, perfectly synchronized with Lan Yi's moves. Martial arts combined with psychic arts—this was Lan Yi's true full power at this stage.

"Golden Lion, I can't subdue you without injury."

"So, be grateful."

"If this is all you can do, I'll kill you in a single blow!"

As soon as the words left his mouth,

Lan Yi abruptly appeared right before Golden Lion, the two nearly face-to-face—pectorals against pectorals!

Golden eyes burning, lotus colorless eyes locked in passionate gaze.

Divine Peak Arts—Palm Thunder x4!

The martial artist's roar thundered through the depths!

Golden fists and thunder fists clashed again in a wild barrage, this time tearing apart the earth, breaking through the surface, soaring dozens of meters into the air!

Thanks to Calamity and the two readers who supported the timeline closure.