Fallen Demon Hunter VS Esper 7

Right now, I am truly terrified of Zhuang Cheng, terrified of that incomprehensible "flame wielder."

I had never witnessed such a flame wielder before. Being able to ignite an opponent simply by locking eyes with them was already flagrant enough, but what kind of absurd skill was it to summon flames directly inside an opponent's body? What logic allowed him to completely ignore my physical and spiritual attacks? I never wanted to face him ever again.

At this moment, parts of the flesh and blood all over my body had been charred into coke, still radiating a scalding heat that was driving me to the brink of madness. Psychologically, I had been reduced to a startled bird at the mere sound of the bowstring, with the tiniest rustle enough to send terror surging through my heart.

When that ripple of mana appeared nearby, I was genuinely scared out of my wits. Yet, upon looking closely, the newcomer was not Zhuang Cheng.

It was a man wearing a grungy orange construction jacket, his head missing one half, his torso horribly twisted, and his entire body dripping with blood. He stood in the distance, his form translucent so that the scenery behind him was faintly visible. His expression was numb and vacant, devoid of any gleam of rational intelligence, slowly approaching me like an animal lured by the scent of fresh meat and blood.

This was a ghost... No, to be precise, an evil spirit.

It seemed this was the legendary evil spirit rumored to haunt this abandoned construction site, drawn here by the scent of my soul-enticing talisman card. Although I had put the talisman away, I hadn't reapplied the sealing paper, so it was only natural that a mindless evil spirit driven purely by instinct would track me down.

Last time, I had almost thought it didn't exist at all. Why hadn't it appeared when I came here with Zhuang Cheng before?

Pushing those thoughts aside for now, it would be best to deal with this annoying evil spirit.

As I walked over, I raised my blade. Startled by my movement, it suddenly froze in its tracks, a look of sheer terror washing over its features. What use was terror at this late stage? If it had to blame anything, it should blame its own foolishness for wandering close.

Just as I was about to strike it down, I saw its lips quiver, muttering in panic like a madman: "It's coming... It's coming..."

Hearing this, my footsteps halted, and a chilling shadow of foreboding rose in my heart: "What is coming? Speak clearly, what is coming?"

Just like certain mindless insects and beasts that could sometimes keenly predict changes in the weather or even capture the precursor signs of earthquakes, tsunamis, and raging storms, an instinct-driven evil spirit like this, precisely because of its weakness, was far more sensitive to spiritual fluctuations than many demon hunters.

Right now, it was trembling all over, hugging its head and crouching on the ground, its blood-stained face gripped by absolute despair.

"He... He is coming..." it shrieked in overwhelming dread. "He is already looking this way... He sees us! He sees! Ahhh!!!"

The moment its voice trailed off, the scene before my eyes shifted abruptly.

Flames erupted from all directions, instantly transforming this floor into a sea of fire.

Caught in the majestic, roaring ocean of flames, I hastily threw my shadowy power around my body as a shield. Yet, an illusionary shadow shield of this magnitude was pulverized in a split second by the surging heat, while the evil spirit in the distance evaporated on the spot like a droplet of water falling into a boiling wok.

At the center of the sea of fire, massive amounts of flames converged and condensed, finally forming a giant ocular sphere of fire suspended in mid-air, resembling the eye of a god.

Yet, although the flames had incinerated my protective shadows and the evil spirit, they did not inflict any damage upon me.

My mind was completely seized by panic. The giant fiery eye twitched slightly in the air and then locked onto me.

I immediately spun around and bolted, while simultaneously manipulating the nearby shadows in an attempt to trigger spatial teleportation once more. But the moment I lifted my legs, the shadows forming my prosthetic limbs exploded into nothingness right out of thin air, sending me crashing to the ground. The shadows creeping toward me from the front were similarly licked by the flames skimming the floor, evaporating without a trace.

The giant fiery eyeball contracted inward, transforming into a human-shaped figure made entirely of fire. This airborne humanoid figure then shifted into a human wearing casual clothes, its feet landing solidly on the ground.

That person was none other than Zhuang Cheng.

"I didn't expect you to come back here. Is there something here that made you deliberately return?" He glanced around with curiosity, seemingly completely unaware that an evil spirit had just been caught in his collateral damage and burned to ashes.

With roaring flames blazing all around, I barely managed to prop up my body, staring at him with an indescribable, bone-chilling terror, unsure even whether my dry, rasping voice could reach his ears.

"You... Why... did you know I was here?"

At the same time, witnessing the spectacle of his formation out of the sea of fire, I finally understood the principle behind his immortality.

While a wielder manipulating natural elements naturally excelled in a single extreme domain, once such mastery reached a degree that transcended ordinary human reason, a mere demon hunter's common sense could no longer bind them.

In the ancient world of demon hunters, there was a legendary realm known as "Spirit Manifestation."

Since ancient times, those who embarked on the path of cultivation mostly pursued the integration of themselves with the Dao of Heaven and nature—the so-called "unity of heaven and man." Those who manipulated the spiritual energy of water emulated water's nature of benefiting all things without contending; those who manipulated the spiritual energy of earth emulated the earth's vast virtue of supporting all things. And the ultimate destination of emulation was to become the very object of emulation, or to merge into one with it.

Practitioners who reached the legendary realm of "Spirit Manifestation" could shed their physical flesh, freely transform their souls, and integrate with all things in nature, manifesting in the human world like gods when necessary.

That was no longer the domain of mortals, but the realm of terrestrial immortals.

I could not believe Zhuang Cheng was a terrestrial immortal, but this seemingly effortless feat of turning oneself into a natural element clearly possessed several hallmark characteristics of the Spirit Manifestation realm.

Without a doubt, the technique he displayed was something that only existed in myths and legends. Even the Grand Ushas who reigned at the pinnacle of Luoshan—descending like gods and capable of single-handedly destroying this nation—might not be able to accomplish the exact same feat.

I did not expect my question to be answered, but Zhuang Cheng actually replied.

"Why? I should have told you before, right? There is a spiritual connection between myself and the flames I release, so of course I can lock onto your location."

"But the flames on my body had already disappeared..."

"It seems I didn't explain it clearly to you. The flames I release, as well as the light and heat generated by those flames, are essentially my spirit." For some reason, he answered every question with infinite patience. "Even though the flames went out, the heat was still there, so of course that wouldn't cut it."

"What... No, that's wrong!" I said, finding this unacceptable. "The Shadow World is a different dimension distinct from the real world; even the connection through heat should have been severed!"

"You mean that place..." He nodded. "Although the connection became unstable for a while, it wasn't completely cut off; I simply couldn't clearly see the scenery on your end for a moment. Whether I need to reignite the flames or move into your Shadow World, both are entirely possible.

"Originally, I had already made up my mind to head over there, but you ended up leaving that place first... No matter, you can just help me open the passage again afterward."

This made no sense. The Shadow World was an alien space just like the cave in the fifteenth-floor room. Since the latter could sever Zhuang Cheng's connection, there was no reason the former could not.

Could it be that the cave in the fifteenth-floor room was truly that special?

Or perhaps...

Suddenly, a much more logical possibility dawned upon me.

"You mean... you lied?"

"Lied?" Zhuang Cheng blinked in surprise.

That was it. He must have lied.

No wonder he could speak so calmly to Zhurui and me about his experiences beneath the cave. He inherently possessed the power to travel freely across different times and spaces through flames, so naturally, he had nothing to fear.

I had seen it clearly just now: he could summon flames using the heat on my body, and he could traverse from elsewhere to this location through those flames. Since his spiritual connection with the flames was strong enough to pierce through the barrier between the real world and the alien space, there was no logical reason why he would have been trapped beneath the cave, let alone forced to find the missing symbol of the ritual array in order to leave.

Come to think of it, he shouldn't have been able to open the cave using the so-called "missing symbol of the ritual array" in the first place. I had tried the exact same approach myself, only to end in failure. This proved that the method had been a lie from the very beginning.

After a moment of bewilderment, Zhuang Cheng shook his head.

"Though I have no idea what you're talking about, this isn't really the place for a chat. I still have more questions for you, so let's change location first. Once I've asked everything I want to know, I'll hand you over to Zhurui to deal with."

"Really? I'm sorry... then you're going to be disappointed!"

I was not going to sit here and wait for death. Even if he didn't plan to kill me right away, I had no intention of handing my life over to someone else to dispose of at will. At the very least, I would put up a desperate fight.

I was no longer the same person I was twenty years ago. The present me possessed power, and with it, true courage.

—Courage without power is merely a fool's self-satisfaction; true courage is inevitably born from power.

At this thought, I directly unleashed my doppelganger-puppet ability toward Zhuang Cheng.

Given the mana he had displayed, my ability could hardly hope to turn him into a puppet. But as long as it delayed him for a single second—no, even if it bought me a mere blink of an eye—I would find a chance to break away.

After that, just as he said, I would wait out the dissipation of heat within the Shadow world, making it impossible for him to track me ever again. And even if he chose to pursue me into the Shadow World, lacking the relevant abilities, he would not be able to survive there, let alone inflict any fatal damage upon me.

I would definitely escape from this place!

Without any physical movement or flashes of light, simply with a thought in my mind, my ability instantly exerted its power, gnawing its way toward Zhuang Cheng standing right in front of me.

However, the moment my psychic power touched his spirit, a sun brimming with destructive fluctuations abruptly appeared within my own consciousness.