Chapter 344: Lingering Hatred's Wildfire (35k)

"Ah!"

Fresh blood sprayed out. Ye Huo let out a miserable cry, and while his body was tilting backward, he suddenly rolled in a very abrupt motion, instantly opening up a distance of four or five meters.

Bai Cangshu looked at his own hand. Under the effects of 【Transparent World】 and 【First of the First】, he was certain that the opponent had not mastered any sophisticated "Force-dissipating" techniques.

Yet, the strike that should have driven the scope directly into the opponent's brain had only pierced the right eye before the Force was pressed into empty space.

That abrupt rolling motion was clearly not a technique, but a rather special ability, and the ability was likely a guaranteed dodge effect with a certain priority, similar to 【Dodge Current Attack】.

It was similar to the "invincibility frames" setting in certain games.

In the Infinite Dimensional Space, there were indeed a considerable number of mechanism-type abilities, such as 【Parry】, 【Block】, 【Dodge】, and so on. Such abilities had average upper limits but quite high lower limits, making them "divine skills" in a sense.

"Ho, not bad."

Bai Cangshu praised the opponent, his hands hanging naturally at his sides. In truth, he had not noticed the existence of this Reincarnator at first; he had only sensed that there was a dead person among them when he was instinctively marking everyone using the effect of 【Evil God's Omen: Arrogant Gaze】.

Under the effect of Arrogant Gaze, living organisms would be marked, but a creature that was not marked was walking forward; this sign was too obvious, allowing him to notice it in an instant.

Subsequently, during the screening of 【Heart Net】, he realized that this controlled dead person was likely used to carry out a suicide attack. Combined with the fact that the opponent had been following Fubuki's team the whole time without launching an attack on the way, the purpose was very clear.

The opponent wanted to kill 【Fubuki】 in front of him, and then draw 【Tatsumaki】 to kill him.

This was a simple, crude, but effective tactic. As one of the ceiling-level creatures of this world, although Tatsumaki's strength was certainly not as powerful as Saitama's, for a Reincarnator of Bai Cangshu's level, there was no difference.

Being smashed to pieces by Saitama's punch was death; being twisted into a twist by Tatsumaki and then turning into dust was also death.

Moreover, what was important was that Tatsumaki was not a reasonable hero; she had a perverted protective desire for her sister Fubuki. Once Fubuki was killed, perhaps this world would trigger another round of the Great Catastrophe.

An Ability User who could casually pull an entire city out from 1500 meters underground, easily summon meteorites, and effortlessly deflect all the shells of an alien giant warship capable of destroying the entire city in one blow—once she turned dark, the trauma caused to the world would likely be even greater than that of Kageyama Shigeo.

Because of this, Bai Cangshu reacted instantly to block the explosive attack for Fubuki, and because he was preparing to launch an attack, 【Heart Net】 immediately detected the location of the person who fired the shot.

In 【Ye Huo】's earpiece, his teammates had already realized that his mission had failed and began a calm report.

"Ye Huo encountered combat, no energy reaction above 【Fierce】 detected. Now judging Ye Huo's mission as failed, proceeding with plan B."

Step, step.

Bai Cangshu's footsteps moved forward. He stood on the side of the sun, his shadow dragged out very long, completely covering Ye Huo's figure.

"Ha, they abandoned you so quickly? Truly a group of cold-blooded teammates."

Bai Cangshu spoke provocative words. Between his hands, purple Killing Intent Wave flowed continuously. Ye Huo kept trying to retreat; regardless of Tao Baibai's expression, that chilling killing intent was like a bone-piercing cold wind.

Light shone on his hands, and two sniper rifles appeared simultaneously.

He did not do any aiming, firing almost the instant the two guns appeared.

Bang!

Bai Cangshu's body shook, sliding back several meters. He lowered his head to look at his chest, which was already dripping with blood. His 【Iron Block】 had been instantly shattered by the high-powered anti-tank sniper rifle, and the bullet fragments took the opportunity to shatter the 【Flame Dragon Scale】 and enter his body.

Whoosh!

Ye Huo's whole body ignited with flames. He let out another painful cry and rolled backward. As the flames extinguished, his outer coat had fallen off, revealing the clothing with magical radiance underneath.

At the same time, Ye Huo spoke calmly.

"Record: Tao Baibai possesses body surface defense that ignores general thermal weapons, and simultaneously possesses a certain type of counter-damage ability. Attacking Tao Baibai will cause one to suffer from flames called Brilliant Flame."

His Spirit was not as high as Tao Baibai's, so the information he obtained was not complete, but he still reported the Intelligence while retreating.

Ye Huo did not reload, directly letting go of his hands. The two anti-tank sniper rifles were stored into his Backpack, and then two Heavy Machine Guns appeared in his hands.

He still did not aim; as soon as the firearms appeared, he pulled the triggers.

This time, the trajectories of the bullets roaring out from the two Heavy Machine Guns were seen clearly by Bai Cangshu. Two fire-tongue-like bullet trajectories turned and continuously shot at his chest and abdomen.

Pfft, pfft, pfft...

Bai Cangshu was initially knocked back two steps, but soon, he merely raised his left hand to block his chest and abdomen. That torrent of steel-like ammunition was all shot into his palm, turning into shriveled metal particles and falling to the ground.

Seeing this scene, Ye Huo put away the Heavy Machine Guns, and while continuing to retreat, he summarized his report.

"Tao Baibai's left hand possesses abnormal defensive power. After Tao Baibai suffers high-frequency attacks, red flames ignite on his body, and his aura rises. He is suspected of possessing the Tese of increasing power when receiving damage."

"Tao Baibai possesses high combat intelligence..."

Step.

A light sound of footsteps landed in front of him. Ye Huo looked at Tao Baibai, who seemed to have appeared out of thin air. That extreme speed, which surpassed visual capture, made him completely abandon any wishful thinking.

"Tao Baibai possesses physical speed that exceeds the limits of ordinary human visual capture."

"That is all the Intelligence I have been able to collect. Friends, good luck."

Afterward, Ye Huo crushed his earpiece, stood up calmly, and stood in front of Bai Cangshu.

Bai Cangshu clapped his hands, applauding the opponent's series of decisions.

"What was that attack ability that could lock onto bullet trajectories? Magic, or Superpower?"

Bai Cangshu asked. When the opponent fired without aiming for the second time and the attack location remained consistent, he realized that the opponent had likely used some ability that allowed him to lock onto his chest and abdomen to attack. For a Reincarnator with Shooting Mastery, it could be considered a decent type of ability.

"It is Nen."

"The Nen Ability I developed, I call it 【Lingering Hatred】. How is it? Not bad, right?"

Ye Huo looked at Tao Baibai calmly. The rumors in the space were not wrong; the opponent was indeed a Breaking the Rules-level powerful Reincarnator. Speed, strength, and defensive power were all terrifying. His actual combat power was likely above the middle rank of 【Strong】.

"【Lingering Hatred】... an interesting ability." Bai Cangshu rarely praised an enemy again.

After realizing he had appeared, the opponent chose to report his name first to try to avoid the battle, and after discovering it had no effect, he decisively gave up, not allowing himself to be killed without being able to unleash his abilities due to ineffective begging.

While rolling to dodge attacks, he attached his Nen Ability to himself, then kept retreating, and collected Intelligence through attacks to pass to his teammates.

He had only seen this kind of posture in that woman from 【Fifth Element】 and the female swordsman in the 【Critical Snipe】 team he encountered in the Pirate World.

Bai Cangshu came before the opponent and pointed his index finger, pressing it against the center of the opponent's brow.

"Finally, are you interested in telling me the name of your leader?"

Bai Cangshu did not hide his killing intent at all, and Ye Huo's facial muscles twitched slightly. Just with Tao Baibai's finger pointing at his brow, that killing intent almost made his whole body tremble.

But he gritted his teeth, suppressing the feelings of frustration, despair, and oppression that kept surging from the bottom of his heart.

He had killed many people—Reincarnators, Plot Characters, and ordinary people. He was once a mercenary wandering through multiple countries; he took lives, and he was also prepared to have his own taken.

Hearing Tao Baibai's question, he thought for a moment, and finally revealed a smile, saying

"You have violated the 'Iron Law' of the Title-level Reincarnators. It is not just one person who wants to kill you; it is those few Title-level Reincarnators... all of them want you dead."

Bai Cangshu lowered his eyelids, feeling no fear.

Hum~

Intense Qi condensed suddenly, and the next moment, with a 'pfft' sound, it pierced through the center of Ye Huo's brow; warm brains and blood flowed from the back of the skull, and then he collapsed to the ground lifelessly.

【You have killed a Reincarnator in a Team Survival Mode world; this kill cannot generate a Scarlet Drop Card】

【Based on the effect of Omen of the Evil God: Cocoon of Greed, this kill grants 1 Sin Point, forces the generation of a Scarlet Drop Card, and increases rewards by 50%】

A scarlet luster appeared on Bai Cangshu's right hand, and then a Drop Card appeared, spinning in front of Bai Cangshu.

Swoosh!

At this moment, Fubuki finally flew in from low altitude, her whole body flickering with blue light; she was far from being able to perform high-speed flight at will like Tatsumaki, and having covered only a distance of three kilometers, Fubuki already showed signs of fatigue upon landing.

"You killed him?"

"Why didn't you interrogate him for Intelligence? Who exactly are these people, and why did they attack us?"

Fubuki still had lingering fears; she had just asked Jiemao and Shanyuan, and that newly joined member had been completely normal before—both his mental state and personality were quite likable—and no one had expected such a scene to occur.

"Us?"

Bai Cangshu sneered, which further infuriated Fubuki, her chest heaving violently.

Bai Cangshu casually crushed the invisible Scarlet Drop Card, then said

"He knew he couldn't kill me; the only one he wanted to kill was you."

Although Fubuki had sensed the man's terrifying physique and speed during the moment of the explosion, she still felt dissatisfied in her heart upon hearing the other party so directly express the meaning of "I am stronger than you."

Fubuki was now on the ground, and Bai Cangshu lowered his head, naturally looking down at her; as their eyes met, Fubuki suddenly felt a chill on her body—there was no ardent heat in the other party's gaze like other men looking at her, only a coldness as if he were peeling her skin and stripping her bones to see through her.

"Their goal is to kill you, and then have your sister eliminate me..."

As Bai Cangshu spoke word by word, he bent down, his face moving closer to Fubuki; the powerful aggression made Fubuki's face turn pale, and she stumbled back two steps, her arrogant aura completely gone.

Fubuki's expression was somewhat panicked; she felt a malice from this "hero" before her, but it vanished in a flash, and she was somewhat unsure if she had felt it wrong.

Just then, Jiemao, Shanyuan, and the others caught up, and as she moved closer to the members of her group, she said

"I will investigate the people behind this; if you have any news about those guys, you can also notify me."

A business card glowing with blue light fell in front of Bai Cangshu under the control of the woman's Superpower, and Fubuki then left in a near-panicked state along with the others.

Bai Cangshu rubbed the business card, watching Fubuki walk away; in the end, he did not activate the 【Omen of the Evil God】. He could attempt to control Fubuki through 【Omen of the Evil God: Heart of Slaanesh】, and even if he encountered resistance due to the other party's strong Spirit, he could easily break the woman's psychological defenses through some unconventional means.

But he was not sure if the mental control of 【Heart of Slaanesh】 would be detected by Tatsumaki. The purpose of controlling Fubuki was to use her to gain Tatsumaki's combat power, but if this control were detected, he would be killed instantly.

Ultimately, he did not choose such a crude method. Since that group had already made a move against Fubuki once, the initiative was already in his hands; when the opportunity was right, he would naturally be able to make Tatsumaki take action...

【You have opened the Scarlet Drop Card】

……

(End of chapter)