Chapter 135: Clash of the Powerful

A dark red fiery glow filled the ruined hall.

Gunie's mithril boots crunched on the broken debris.

He glanced lightly toward the entrance of the hall.

Moran and Dika stood guard at the doorway.

That flame demon was not of the Shadow lineage, but the Combat lineage.

It did not have the ability to slip away silently; it must be hiding within some flame, recovering.

By borrowing flames, a flame demon could heal its wounds.

Gunie looked around casually.

At the same time, he used the blood pool to sniff lightly.

After tasting the opponent's blood, Gunie would have a terrifyingly acute olfactory sensitivity to the residual taste of that blood.

Much like a deep-sea shark's sensitivity to blood.

And following the Soul-Fixing Spirit Ring Curse, Gunie also sensed with meticulous care.

After a moment, Gunie stood still, expressionless.

"What a fool, thinking I couldn't find you just because you hid in the flames?"

"True, this flame demon isn't a transcendent profession known for perception."

"Melting into flames is just its innate ability, like my ability to devour blood."

"After being hit by my Soul-Fixing Spirit Ring Curse, this guy probably didn't notice; otherwise, he wouldn't be hiding like an idiot in this flame."

"Although the flame demon's stealth ability is mediocre, its ability to freely travel through flames is very troublesome."

"Using this ability, it can easily dodge my magic blades."

"After all, at this stage, the third-order Soul-Fixing Spirit Ring Curse only provides guidance, far from a strong lock-on."

"But... this flame demon's perception isn't strong."

"Using my recent insights into the runic essence of the world framework runes, I can greatly enhance the stealth of the puppet secret threads."

"Silently, I might be able to lock onto this guy with the puppet secret threads and pull him out."

"Worth a try."

Then, Gunie silently began releasing puppet secret threads, attuned to the mysterious rhythm of the world rune essence.

At this moment, the advantage of the wrist-staff form of the highly stealthy "Netherdark Staff" became apparent.

If he were holding a staff and its energy fluctuated even slightly, any fool would know he was casting a spell.

Standing still, the energy fluctuations of the Netherdark Staff in its wristband form completely masked Gunie's release of puppet secret threads.

Just as Gunie had expected.

That injured flame demon, recovering by borrowing flames, truly did not sense the puppet secret threads at all.

When Gunie had infiltrated fifty or sixty puppet secret threads into the flame form within the fire,

the flame demon was still nonchalantly recovering.

Clearly, it was very confident in its flame form.

"Almost there," Gunie said softly.

Suddenly, Gunie manipulated the puppet secret threads and gave a tug.

Betler, still in the midst of flame healing, stumbled a step.

He was directly pulled out of the flames by Gunie, his massive body appearing in the hall.

Still somewhat dazed, Betler immediately felt the fear of death.

A dozen sharp magic blades pierced toward his head.

The head—this was his most core area; the flame demon's "source core" was inside.

Caught off guard and pulled out, Betler's eyes bulged as he just reacted.

He tried to re-enter the flames, even transform into fire, but a strange force held him, preventing escape.

"No..."

A desperate roar burst from his throat.

Chi chi chi... Peng!

The sharp blades directly sliced open Betler's head, shattering his life source core.

Six-star third-order flame demon, Betler, fell.

Moran and Dika at the entrance watched in shock.

A six-star third-order flame demon was a very troublesome existence.

Even if the two of them joined forces, their chances against this flame demon were slim.

Yet before Gunie, such a powerful flame demon was killed so easily?

"Master Gunie was hiding such formidable strength."

Looking at Gunie again, both felt a tremor in their hearts.

"Huh..."

Looking at the dead third-order flame demon, Gunie breathed a slight sigh of relief.

This third-order flame demon died without injustice; his spells were overwhelmingly dominant in every aspect.

Moreover, he was no ordinary second-order spellcaster; he was a "Swift Caster" with pseudo-fourth-order ability to cast high-order spells instantly.

Just as Gunie was about to examine the flame demon's remains and see if it carried any storage-type transcendent rings or bracelets,

just as he was about to take a step,

suddenly, his entire body froze.

For a moment, Gunie couldn't mobilize his source power or even his transcendent blood's power.

Every hair on his body stood on end, and his body trembled slightly.

Gunie felt as if the heavens and earth were collapsing, an endless dark vortex about to devour him.

"Die!"

A low, indescribable roar, as if from the depths of the abyss, exploded directly in Gunie's ear.

Buzz...

In an instant, Gunie could no longer hear any sound.

He even felt his ears bleeding, his eyes bleeding, his nostrils and mouth filled with thick fluid.

"Uh, uh..." Gunie struggled even to make a sound.

"Has a hidden powerhouse made a move?" Gunie's thoughts became sluggish and stiff.

When this flame demon exploded, Gunie had anticipated that an alien powerhouse might be hiding in the shadows.

Gunie had already been on guard.

But the enemy's strength far exceeded Gunie's imagination.

Gunie was confident against third-order or even fourth-order transcendents.

But when facing fifth-order or even sixth-order high-level transcendents, reality taught Gunie a harsh lesson: he still had a long way to go.

A hand with sharp claws rose leisurely from a flame on one side, striking directly at Gunie's back.

Before it even touched Gunie, the purple scale soft armor on his back showed clear indentations.

Clang!

A flash of white light suddenly flared.

It was the cold gleam of a blade.

This blade's cold gleam came from outside inward.

One slash tore through the endless darkness enveloping Gunie, and at the same time, another slash struck the sharp red claw aiming for Gunie's back.

The red claw did not retreat but met the white blade directly.

Clang!

Gunie couldn't hear how loud the impact was, but he could clearly feel it.

Caught in the shockwave, Gunie was flung more than ten meters.

With a dull "thud," he slammed into the wall, shattering an already crooked wall lamp.

Then Gunie fell heavily from a height of over three meters.

"Cough, cough... pfft..."

After falling, Gunie coughed twice, then a thick, bloody taste rose in his throat, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

Opening his eyes faintly, Gunie saw the room as if covered in a thick, dark blood veil; his vision was greatly reduced.

With eyes closed, Gunie took a high-grade refined healing potion from his system space and downed it in one gulp, then took a small vial of life spring water and drank it.

Though he couldn't see, his mind could still distinguish various items in the system space.

At the same time, the recovery ability of his transcendent blood was pushed to the extreme.

Under the triple recovery of the high-grade refined healing potion, life spring water, and transcendent blood,

Gunie's injuries healed at an extremely fast rate.

At the same time, Gunie assessed his injuries.

"Fortunately, I had the Purple Scale Chainmail, which absorbed most of the force, and the membrane scales under my skin had initially formed, plus my physical defense is very strong—that's how I survived."

"Otherwise, I'd be dead."

"The physical impact from the shockwave is severe, but more importantly, my soul just suffered a strange fear attack—that's the root cause of my inability to fight back."

"In the end, the level and quality of my soul are still too low. If I had an elite-level soul, or even a leader-level soul, I wouldn't have been suppressed and unable to move."

Calming his mind, Gunie slowly opened his eyes to see who had saved him.