Chapter 83: Kill!

Shatter! Explode! Quake!

The plasma superfluid locked onto its target, blasting forth through the narrow corridor with a speed rivaling that of a laboratory pulse cannon. The dazzling flash of the palm thunder instantly consumed everything. What followed was the rending of steel and concrete, a violent tremor that sent dust swirling—a single blast piercing straight through the corridor!

The aftershock shattered bricks! It melted metal and stone! The remaining plasma burrowed deep into the earth before finally extinguishing its energy at last.

Whoosh!

The sword energy of Geng Metal spun in a sweeping arc, clearing the lingering smoke in an instant. Even if the haze remained, Lan Yi’s colorless eyes could see everything with perfect clarity. In a reaction time of a mere hundredth of a second, the enemy before him—who dared to face him alone—still stood intact, poised in the act of drawing his blade.

It was as if the palm thunder had been a hallucination, passing right through him.

Interesting.

But it was no illusion.

The colorless gaze had already activated its power to pierce deception. There were no traces of illusory arts here, no pre-set traps, and no other fluctuations of psychic cultivators nearby. Then how had he managed to pass through the lethal high heat and lightning of the palm thunder in an instant?

Finding this amusing, still pondering and analyzing, Lan Yi did not rush to blast his foe with spellcraft.

For these enemies who dared to come seeking death, breaking them was more important than simply killing them.

Delvis let out a breath of relief.

His back was already drenched in sweat, but he forced himself to stay calm, swinging his blade with a flourish and falling into a combative stance amid the ruined corridor, half-lit and chaotic.

“Lan Yi, the Golden Lion and his men are far too cautious with you,” he said. “You are nowhere near as terrifying now as you were at world’s end. Alone, I can cut you down right here. Your spellcraft is useless against me!”

A sudden look of revelation crossed Lan Yi’s features. With a flick of his fingers, the [Azure Silk] responded—a web of silver hair, lurking in the crevices and corners, now woven in layered nets throughout the corridor.

The smoking white strands, crackling with deadly electric edge, crept slowly toward Delvis, slicing through dangling wires, fallen bricks, and twisted rebar with ease.

“It’s not a Life Cluster, nor a Mindscape. It’s spellcraft modification. Your eyes use the Zero-Point Module—you see psychic frequencies, and with your custom blade, you can indeed cleave through spellcraft.”

“Then try cleaving this.”

“Let’s see how many threads of [Azure Silk] your blade can withstand.”

Delvis was already shaken.

He never imagined that in just a few seconds, Lan Yi would have precisely deduced the source of his power and, with casual ease, produced a countermeasure…

No! Lan Yi had set this targeted trap from the very start of the battle!

“No matter how many, I’ll cut through them all!” Delvis bellowed, striking his chest.

Boom!

In the next instant, bombs hidden on the fallen bodies detonated at once. The explosions themselves were not powerful, but a black, fibrous, cotton-like substance erupted, filling the air. Sensing danger, Lan Yi instantly severed the connections of his [Azure Silk] web.

Graphene bombs.

A special device developed by the Amalican Science Officer in a laboratory, designed to incapacitate power facilities.

Graphene’s conductivity was superb; its lightness and stickiness made it nearly impossible to evade—an absolute nightmare for most psychic cultivators specializing in electromagnetism. Should you be covered in it and attempt electrical spellcraft, it was tantamount to suicide. Not even Lan Yi possessed a Life Cluster to immunize himself from his own electric attacks.

Electromagnetic arts, forbidden here!

Lan Yi reacted swiftly. The advancing web of [Azure Silk] halted instantly; the sharp blade seized the chance to hack through layer upon layer of net. Delvis’s battle-modified body, rebuilt with the Zero-Point Module, sent out a white shockwave, tearing up the air in the narrow corridor. His weapon was aimed straight at Lan Yi’s heart.

There—his psychic furnace!

In a flash, offense and defense reversed.

Delvis’s eyes blazed with iridescent light. In the artificial divine realm he’d experienced, these eyes were called Demon Eyes—capable of killing, whether the foe was a spellcaster or psychic cultivator.

“Naive.”

Lan Yi raised his hand, and a tide of iron sand surged behind him!

Even with electromagnetic spellcraft disabled, the sword energy of Geng Metal remained at his disposal. The roaring iron sand, like living tendrils, lashed out from all directions, seeking to ensnare and devour the bold Delvis who dared approach.

Delvis was instantly swallowed.

Then the iron sand burst apart.

Sword energy of Geng Metal was still spellcraft; relying on psychic energy alone, it too would be severed. The sword energy only delayed Delvis for a moment—as he tore through it, he was already almost upon Lan Yi! Close enough for them to see their reflections in each other’s pupils!

At this range, spellcraft was useless!

One slash!

Decapitation!!

The blade flashed accurately across Lan Yi’s neck.

But Delvis’s expression showed not joy, but intense terror.

Swish!

Without hesitation, Delvis leapt back—the spot where he’d just stood was swallowed by a surge of iron filings.

Only then did Lan Yi touch his neck.

No wound.

How could it be? Spellcraft? Martial skill? By rights, his neck should have been cut a third of the way through… Was it some modification? No, if it were spellcraft, the feedback shouldn’t have felt like slicing flesh. How had he pulled it off?

For the first time, Delvis swallowed hard.

Now he understood why the Golden Lion had called the Madman Lan a top-level psychic cultivator—even if he wasn’t at world-ending strength, he was still formidable. Electromagnetic spellcraft was sealed, no issues with psychic frequencies, and his attack had landed—but it had no effect. The sensation was terrifying.

Both were psychic cultivators, both reincarnators. When you couldn’t see through your opponent’s methods, death was likely drawing near.

Was Lan Yi even human anymore?

“Have you forsaken your humanity?” Delvis couldn’t help but ask.

He suspected the Madman Lan had abandoned his humanity, undergoing some full-body transformation in the ruins.

Lan Yi ignored him, directing the sword energy to clear away the graphene.

Zero-Point Module, custom weapon, battle-body upgrade—Delvis must have more tricks, perhaps a Life Cluster ability, or a martial mindscape.

But none of that mattered anymore.

If this was all he had—

Next, Lan Yi was ready to unleash overwhelming firepower, to blast his foe into oblivion.

Delvis hesitated only a moment before turning and fleeing without a second thought!

The corridor was still filled with graphene; Lan Yi couldn’t set up more powerful spellcraft immediately. Rather than continue a hopeless struggle, retreating to warn the others about Lan the Madman’s abnormal body was more important.

He was afraid.

Delvis’s decisive retreat was unexpected. Lan Yi did not pursue, but instead touched his neck once more.

A circle of impossibly fine [Azure Silk] emerged from his pores, rapidly weaving itself before retracting.

Flicking his fingers, Lan Yi nodded in satisfaction at the fine [Azure Silk].

“Run, little mouse. Lead me back to your den.”

……

……

‘Something’s wrong, very wrong with Lan Yi!’

‘There’s something off about his body—how many Life Clusters did he obtain in that first artificial divine realm?’

‘Even if his electromagnetic clone was perfect, it still couldn’t reach the Life Cluster refinement level…’

Retreating at hurricane speed, Delvis’s thoughts churned ceaselessly.

The unsolved riddles gnawed at his rationality and calm like a silent raptor’s maw in the dark, one bite after another. Unknowingly, his mind was clouded by psychic influence, and he missed certain details.

He only regained clarity when someone blocked his path.

“Delvis, stop. You’ve brought trouble with you.”

The woman who blocked him looked like a vagrant: obese, filthy, her clothes stained with grease, some parts so fat that oil literally dripped from her. Her oozing body fluids mingled with pale yellow dust motes in the air, forming nearly invisible threads.

“Firework”—not a reincarnator.

Her real name was unknown; in earlier days she specialized in fire-oil spellcraft. Because of her appearance and ways, she was mockingly called “Demon Bogang” in the River Civilization. Her catchphrase: “Mind your own business when it comes to women.”

In the original timeline, she would have died during the third artificial divine realm trial—boldly seeking romance amid chaos, only to be immolated by the Madman Lan after he was driven mad by Cement-Heart. Now, she was determined to kill Lan Yi herself.

“Firework, don’t block me. I have intel for the Golden Lion,” Delvis said, holding his breath in disgust as he tried to skirt around her.

Hiss!

Suddenly, a flare of fire danced at his feet.

Startled and angry, Delvis shouted, “What are you doing?!”

“Stupid man. Weakling. Look down,” Firework interrupted, forcing him to inspect himself.

Delvis glanced down, shifted his legs—and his pupils narrowed.

At some point, a strand of [Azure Silk], finer than spider silk by a dozen times, had pierced his battle suit and silently embedded itself in his right leg, clinging like a stray hair. Alarmed, Delvis quickly severed the white strand with his blade, eyes darting about in suspicion.

When had this happened?

No—why hadn’t his psychic vision detected it?

The place looked like a cafeteria. Spacious, with rows of metal benches. Firework motioned for Delvis to follow her cautiously toward an exit.

“Current psychic vision is still crude. For an electromagnetic master to briefly deceive it—masking the frequency of a single hair or disguising it as a target—is entirely possible.”

“Lan Yi, come out.”

“Bose-Einstein condensed electromagnetic clones may fool psychic vision, but not air molecules—their superfluidity is obvious amid chaotic thermal motion.”

Despite her unkempt appearance, Firework’s discourse was sophisticated. Were it not for poverty, she ought to have attended an Ivy League school.

With the Golden Lion’s support, Firework had grown even stronger than Delvis—one of the rare psychic cultivators who used their brains. Delvis, by contrast, was all brawn and little wit—his codename: the Jester.

A ghostly blue figure materialized in the center of the cafeteria.

Lan Yi’s electromagnetic clone flickered faintly.

This environment was ill-suited for a Magnetbane Stalker; too much ceramic and metal, and without gaps, the clone’s abilities were little different from the original.

This was no accident.

Firework had chosen this battleground precisely to limit Lan Yi’s power, studying his unprecedented strength from all the data she could gather.

No words.

No hesitation.

The moment the electromagnetic clone appeared, all three acted at once.

Crackle!!

Arcs of electricity surged, steel-plated thunder tore up floor tiles, sent iron chairs flying, ripped steel bars asunder, and violently compacted tons of mixed debris into a ball.

The armored thunder made no attempt to fire shells—instead it wielded the shell itself as a massive millstone, rolling it forward with an unstoppable force to crush incoming spellcraft!

Whether it was Firework’s airborne TNT powder, her whip-like detonations, Delvis’s desperate throwing knives and graphene grenades—all were violently ground to dust beneath the overwhelming mass of stone and iron! The wild stone ball rolled forth, and both were aghast.

How could they fight this?

Lan Yi’s psychic reserves seemed bottomless.

To directly hurl a ball of ten tons around an underground space—

Their home-field traps, the carefully planned restrictions on the electromagnetic clone—all upended in an instant by brute force!

“Hurry, in here!” Firework’s obese form dodged the stone ball with surprising agility, darting into a side corridor. Delvis followed.

Moments later, the stone ball slammed into the entrance, wedging itself tight.

Too large to fit through.

Pale and shaken under the emergency lights, Firework and Delvis looked like corpses. Lan Yi’s methods were harsher and subtler than they’d anticipated. Even among cultivators refining Life Clusters, with greater psychic reserves and battle experience, Lan Yi was still beyond their means.

Turing’s projected odds for a successful decapitation were nonsense.

“Where is he? Will he bombard us from outside with an electromagnetic cannon?” Delvis sheathed his blade, scanning for abnormal psychic traces.

“He won’t,” Firework answered, repeating the Golden Lion’s analysis. “The power output of a Life Cluster-level electromagnetic cannon isn’t enough for a bunker-buster… More importantly, Lan Yi wants to personally kill his enemies. With the advantage, he won’t waste shots firing blind.”

“You go.”

“Hmm?”

“Your mental strength and Demon Eyes can threaten Lan Yi. I’ll stay and hold him here; you must rendezvous with the Golden Lion and relay everything you’ve learned. We must bury this world-ending devil here.”

Delvis paused, then nodded gratefully before vanishing with a few swift leaps.

Once her comrade was gone, Firework faced the stone barrier alone, holding her breath.

Where was Lan Yi?

What would his next move be? Would he finish her first, or hunt Delvis?

And Delvis’s intelligence—how did Lan Yi survive having his neck cut even with his psychic energies severed?

Under the crushing weight of uncertainty, Firework’s mind raced, laying traps and blockades along the passage.

Halfway through her preparations, she paused, staring at the psychic-threaded corridor as her eyes flickered with sudden realization.

‘So that’s it—a spellcraft space and [Azure Silk]…’

“It seems you’ve figured it out. But it’s too late—it’s over.” Lan Yi’s voice echoed from all directions.

A moment later, the entire passage collapsed with a thunderous roar!

In despair, Firework was cut off from all support as tens of thousands of tons of matter, pried loose by intense electromagnetism, buried her alive.

Twenty-seven minutes after the battle began.

Firework, psychic cultivator of the Oceanic Civilization, fell in battle.

Weak. Far too weak.

Like candles to be snuffed out at whim, like mountains to be leveled at will.

These somewhat gifted, yet prematurely snuffed out psychic cultivators, even if force-grown, were still far too callow—against reincarnators tempered in a thousand battles, forged in stars and neutron suns, their abilities were buried before they could fully manifest.

Had Lan Yi been facing a reincarnator, things would have been different.

They would never have wasted nearly five minutes in a corridor like Firework Bogang; anyone capable of hurling a ten-ton stone ball with [Azure Silk] could just as easily collapse an entire underground sector.

Such is the way of psychic warfare.

Even at the Life Cluster level, skilled manipulation could easily shift energy far beyond what the body could brute-force, burying foes in an instant.

The true body lurked in the shadows.

The electromagnetic doppelganger, flickering with blue light, threaded its way through the shattered underground, as long as there was any gap to squeeze through.

Now, Lan Yi had seized the initiative.

Following the faint psychic traces left by the Jester’s retreat, he plunged deeper into the lair.

“Your only real pillar is the Golden Lion,” he mused. “The rest are cannon fodder or small fry—none of them can turn the tide. My electromagnetic doppelganger can try a thousand times; you make one mistake and you die. How many more of you are left to lose?”

More than half an hour had passed since entering underground.

For Lan Yi to claim he knew nothing of his assailants would be an insult to his abilities in battlefield intelligence.

Firework Bogang. The Jester, Delvis. Stephen Chen. The Golden Lion.

Aside from these four psychic cultivators, there should also be one maintaining spacetime spellcraft, one specializing in biotech plagues, and a special military talent who likely developed the graphene bombs. Besides those, there could be other high-tech creations smuggled from the artificial divine realm.

Of these, Lan Yi watched the Golden Lion most closely.

For good reason—this psychic of the Oceanic Civilization had the potential to reach the highest echelons. If he chose not to wait and grow stronger, but came now to kill, it meant he believed he stood a chance—even alone.

What was his trump card?

In the absolute darkness, Lan Yi’s colorless eyes glimmered with grave thought.

As Lan Yi crept ever closer like a ghost, in the spacious central section of the fifth underground sewer, the Golden Lion, having just received the Jester’s report, finally made a firm assessment of Lan Yi’s strength.

The Madman Lan was as formidable as ever—born, it seemed, for nothing but power.

Fortunately…

He was not yet so fearsome as to inspire hopeless dread.

If Lan Yi’s displayed strength was all, with his electromagnetic spellcraft suppressed, they could wear him down and kill him within a minute!

“Firework is dead,” the Golden Lion’s voice thundered like a storm sweeping the Appalachians—wild and fierce. “Next, we will die as well!”

“For the future—today is a good day to die! Stick to the plan! Bury that devil in the depths of hell!”

A true leader steadied the group, quelling fear and rallying morale.

Just as Lan Yi had deduced from psychic traces, three more warriors were ready for this one-way mission—either supremely confident, brave to the point of recklessness, or resolved to save the world at any cost.

Aladia, maintaining spacetime spellcraft, was also an electromagnetic psychic; she would be a key supporter against Lan Yi.

Electromagnetic spellcraft was highly susceptible to interference from similar arts—even if it couldn’t be destroyed, its power could be greatly diminished unless there was a vast difference in skill. As a reincarnator, Aladia was not far behind Lan Yi.

The psychic Naia, not a reincarnator, hailed from Engray—a sinister-looking black man whose powers alienated others: insects, corpses, viruses were his toys, and the cannon fodder he could create was beyond Stephen Chen’s reach.

Wellington, the sole military man on this mission, had only just retired hours earlier. Not a reincarnator, not especially powerful, but he possessed a combat robot, immune to electromagnetic radiation, brought back from the nuclear-war artificial divine realm.

Truth be told—

Any force with such a line-up could storm the heart of any power on Earth, wreak unimaginable havoc, and escape unscathed—if only they weren’t targeting Lan Yi.

While tracking their traces, the electromagnetic clone was suddenly ambushed.

Boom!

It was destroyed in an instant—a golden figure crashed down like a burning meteor!

The sheer speed of the event made even Lan Yi, lurking in the shadows, raise an eyebrow.

Supersonic?

Three or four times the speed of sound—the Golden Lion was now physically capable of such feats.

Moments later, the distant rumble and trembling of the ground reached Lan Yi, who steadied himself, instantly realizing he’d been exposed.

The instant his electromagnetic clone was destroyed, the pulse feedback from the severed [Azure Silk] was slightly scrambled—another electromagnetic adept had used resonance to pinpoint his location.

The Golden Lion would be upon him in—

Three seconds!

Three, two, one…

Golden Lion’s Devil-Exterminating Fist!

The maze-like chamber walls exploded as golden power tore through, roaring torrents of energy smashed forth—the fourfold supersonic body ripping enormous fissures through the earth, unleashing wild destruction, intent on obliterating Lan Yi completely!

With a furious bellow, the Golden Lion charged in.

Then spun and dashed away—

“He’s not here! Aladia, be careful!!”

But the Golden Lion’s movement triggered a trap; from all directions, thousands of [Azure Silk] strands shot out, ensnaring him, pinning the raging lion in place.

With practiced cunning, Lan Yi brought down tens of thousands of tons of debris on the roaring lion’s head!

The law of psychic combat:

Never risk resonance with a fellow electromagnetic adept unless you’re certain of safety—otherwise, you reveal your position.

Another law:

Eliminate rival electromagnetic psychics first.

Aladia’s bloodied glasses shattered, and she herself crashed to the ground like a broken doll. From below, Lan Yi burst forth, smashing her skull with a single blow—his whole body crackling with electricity like a demon from the depths.

Life Cluster: [Electric Grid].

Simple in function—discharge and absorb electricity.

Combined with Geng Metal sword energy, it could deceive other electromagnetic users, create false targets, and slip silently into geomagnetic lines, creeping through the earth.

A simple, effective deception.

Emerging from behind, Lan Yi made one thing clear—the slaughter had only just begun!