Chapter 145: Using a Minefield Combat Style Is Also a Beidou Tradition

A blue beast, resembling a fusion of bear and wolf, opened its massive jaws to reveal fearsome fangs, leaping forward with its fur wreathed in sapphire flame like a second skin, lunging to devour the figure before it—whether human or something else, it did not matter.

Yet Jia Ji, who had crouched on the ground the entire time, shrinking his body into a tight ball with arms shielded before him, exhaled in relief, sweat beading on his palms.

For one who excelled in close-quarters melee and favored instant annihilation, the opponent's move was perfectly to his liking.

Just moments ago, he had been hammered relentlessly—her attacks, like those of a Saiyan prince, had drowned him in a deluge of flame bullets and fireballs, each impact exploding on contact and rapidly raising the surrounding temperature.

At first, caught off guard, one had nearly struck his forehead; his already thin hair had nearly been entirely burned away.

Though qi energy could absorb the impact and damage of the fireballs, the extreme heat was unstoppable; crouching to minimize exposed surface area was the correct move.

Every breath was torture—the blue flame seemed to invade his body through the air, scorching his internal organs, his lungs feeling as if they were burning, his exposed skin instantly stripped of moisture by the heat.

Amidst the raging inferno, a pair of eyes gleaming with deep blue radiance blazed with extraordinary resolve!

"Good. Now it's my turn."

"Boom!"

A deafening explosion shook the eardrums.

Two powerful arms shot out, gripping the upper and lower jaws of the blue bear-wolf, forcibly halting the bite mid-air.

Roar—

A gale howled; at this Zhichi distance, the beast, towering several times taller than Jia Ji, let out a earth-shaking roar.

In her gaze flickered a hint of human-like shock—despite his smaller frame and inferior leverage, the reality was reversed: she, not he, was immobilized, unable to advance an inch.

This ferocious beast was none other than the "Requiem Reciter," whose contracted Red World Demon was "Tyrant's Claw" Makashias. This form was her Zai Zai Fa: "Flame Cloak—Toka," a new embodiment brimming with power and wild beauty, swift as the wind.

As Jia Ji held Toka down with hands like cast steel, he found himself distracted, muttering inwardly: "Did I break a heavenly law?"

Everything could be summed up in one phrase—meet, five seconds later, fight.

When Jia Ji arrived before Marjorie Doh, he barely had time to glance at her.

She was a mature British woman with a model's figure and beauty, chestnut hair tied in a single ponytail, emerald eyes behind frameless glasses, her curves accentuated by the midday sun.

She appeared slightly older than Jia Ji, dressed in a crisp pale purple blouse and a tight-fitting skirt, black stockings hugging the elegant lines of her long legs—but the strangest, most striking thing about her was the classical leather-bound book slung diagonally across her waist.

The next second, her fingers tapped silently on the book's cover; sapphire flame spread from the tome across the entire street, forming a sealing barrier.

"Ha! My sensitive little wine cup—you're decisive indeed!"

The divine artifact book, slung at her waist, suddenly leapt into the air, emitting an exaggerated, grating laugh.

Seeing this dictionary-like object speak, Jia Ji couldn't help but widen his eyes, thinking how perfectly it would pair with the Dictionary Emperor.

"Looks like I wasn't wrong."

Casually replying to her contracted demon, the blonde woman's expression grew serious—this man, whose appearance immediately felt off, carried an unmistakable aura of danger.

"This isn't an ordinary opponent."

One who could move within a sealing barrier couldn't be an ordinary human, nor had she ever heard of a Flame Haze Warrior who looked like this—only a Red World Apostle could fit this description… and if so, his appearance before her could not be coincidence.

Marjorie Doh, who had forged a pact with Makashias from the Red World at the brink of death, had spent centuries hunting and slaying Red World Apostles to avenge the one who had slain her loved one—the "Silver."

Known among Red World Apostles as "the synonym for terror" and "the embodiment of death," she possessed unparalleled combat experience; a single glance was enough to judge the threat Jia Ji posed—and her Yiguan policy toward enemies was simple: Red World Apostles—kill on sight.

"Wait!"

Marjorie Doh ignored him entirely, raising her hand; a Zai Zai Fa pattern materialized from thin air, and a spiraling storm of flame erupted before her, the heat and temperature making the air hiss.

Jia Ji, who had intended to communicate and seek her aid, leapt back to evade the furious firewave—he realized she had already labeled him a Red World Apostle; no matter what he said, she wouldn't listen.

He would have to demonstrate his strength to make her listen—but he hadn't expected a veteran Flame Haze Warrior to be this formidable; even her ranged Zai Zai Fa had driven him into frantic retreat.

He could have matched her with qi energy, but his two techniques either had too long a wind-up—giving her no time—or dealt too much damage, risking instant death for her.

Until now, having endured the pressure of her barrage-style assault, Jia Ji had finally seized the chance—her transformation had forced her into close combat.

Every muscle fiber in his body tightened like steel cables; Jia Ji swelled another size, torrents of power surging through each muscle bundle, generating force beyond calculation.

Toka, whose head was pinned, felt her soul stunned by the brute strength rivaling "Thousand Changes—Shunaid." But she had faced worse in her centuries of battle—her eyes still burned with ferocity.

Swish!

As Marjorie Doh prepared to swing her free claws to rip open his abdomen, she suddenly felt her vision shift—her opponent had become a giant, and her own body was helplessly flung into the sky.

Boom!

Jia Ji, gripping the beast's snout bare-handed, surged his muscles and swung in a colossal arc, smashing more than half its body into the solid ground.

The entire street trembled; those sealed within staggered and fell from the shock.

Dust surged.

The blonde woman lay unconscious in a crater large enough to swallow her whole, her frameless glasses shattered.

JIA JI, WIN!

(End of Chapter)