Chapter 523: Palm

In an instant, rolling blood filled the church floor. Claudius stood atop the blood river like Jesus, her hands scooping and grasping—suddenly, arms erupted from beneath the surface, gripping the priest's limbs.

Though the Blood River Technique is a forbidden art primarily targeting souls, it could not exert full power against the priest, who was clearly not alive and whose soul state was dubious.

Yet the sinister force within it still rapidly corroded the metal surface, raising wisps of smoke.

"Move!"

Without waiting for Claudius's shrill warning, the Fungus King kicked up a gale beneath his feet, his massive body shooting forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, both cleavers slashing horizontally toward the priest.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The priest's mechanical joints autonomously detached, dodging the cleaver swings; the metal python packed inside his torso then lashed out, biting the Fungus King's wrists, transmitting high-voltage current through the fangs.

The Fungus King's arm fibers rapidly carbonized; moreover, each detached joint of the priest simultaneously unleashed torrents of lightning, briefly repelling the blood river's vengeful spirits.

In the instant he broke free, all limbs recombined, palms facing Claudius, palms glowing with the signature plasma stream's pre-ignition light.

At the critical moment, Li Cheng used his familiar's teleportation to flash forward, seizing the priest's wrist and wrenching it upward.

Hum!

The plasma stream angled upward, slicing through the church roof like a hot knife through butter, piercing the entire sky and striking the metal dome, scorching it red-hot.

Excess heat transferred along the contact surface to Li Cheng's hands. Even his Insect Form's ultra-high defense could not withstand it—his hand armor melted and refined away.

But this posed no major issue; with a thought, he recalled the melted armor and retrieved a pair of cleaned, disinfected Stone Giant arms from his 3D storage.

He slipped them on like gloves, continuing to clamp the priest's wrist.

Theoretically, after receiving a vast library of gene sequences gifted by friends, Li Cheng could fully control the direction of neural growth, causing nerves to pierce through skin.

Combined with 【Assemble Puppet · Modified】, he could install limbs from countless fantasy creatures onto his body, linking them directly to his brain for seamless control.

He could use and discard them mid-battle without fear of injury.

He hadn't done so because most fantasy creatures were weaker than his Insect Form.

And turning himself into a limb-hybrid monster would drastically reduce his Charm stat, impairing his interactions with NPCs.

Snap!

Li Cheng firmly clamped the priest's wrist with his stone arms, preventing rotation, then attached goblin hands to the stone limbs, waving a round, glossy photo of a nuclear bomb.

Mian Yue, undeterred, kept drawing and firing arrows, encasing each metal-hydrogen micro-missile in gel to prevent detonation, yet couldn't help exclaiming: "What is he doing?!"

"Probably trying to lure the priest with a photo of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb, 'Little Boy.'"

Wanli Fengdao had already adapted to Li Cheng's bizarre style (privately suspecting the man had awakened some kind of prank system), and with unflinching calm, unleashed his Dragon-Slaying Sword, driving it straight into the priest's right leg.

Shhh—

Xiao Dao Ge teleported in close, right hand gripping the sword hilt, left hand seizing the priest's ankle, shoving him toward the surging blood river. The Fungus King also shed the carbonized layer from his arms, clasping the priest's left leg and pushing forward with all his might.

Li Cheng instantly understood: he controlled the direction of the priest's plasma stream while lowering his head to exhale a Dragon's Breath, coating the priest's mechanical joints with white dragon ice to prevent further disassembly.

The three players resembled a group of burly men.

The priest, pinned and immobile, accelerated his chest engine, emitting increasingly intense light.

"Huff. Inhale."

At the eleventh hour, Mian Yue's mind remained calm. She knelt on one knee, left hand gripping the bow, right hand drawing back, pulling a transparent arrow from thin air; it skimmed across the ground, sparking sparks, and settled steadily on the bowstring.

Sand, stones, and blood droplets around her were lifted, shattered, and crushed into powder by invisible force.

【Skill Name: Broken Arrow · Invisible Kinetic Hand】

【Type: Shooting】

【Effect: Invisible giant hand. Can only be used on targets maintaining constant relative distance. Requires 3 seconds to charge. Upon impact, delivers massive kinetic pressure.】

【Cost: 300 Spirit Points, 300 Stamina Points】

【Cooldown: 30 seconds】

【Requirement: Archery Mastery at Grandmaster or higher】

【Note: I have one arrow that can move mountains, sever rivers, reverse seas, subdue demons, suppress evils, command gods, pluck stars, level cities, split heaven.】

In the blink of an eye, charging completed. Mian Yue released her fingers passively; the bowstring snapped back, launching the invisible arrow straight at the mechanical priest's chest.

Li Cheng, the Fungus King, and Wanli Fengdao, hearing only the charging sound, knew this strike was extraordinary—they released their grips almost simultaneously as the arrow struck.

An invisible, violent force crushed the priest's limbs and bones. Through the deformed blood river, the shape of the force was visible: a five-fingered giant palm.

Li Cheng stole a glance—the palm lines were clear. The life line and heart line were far longer than the wisdom line.

Under the overwhelming pressure, mechanical joints shattered and burst, spraying golden powder that was ground into the church's brick floor. The devastation rivaled an Ideal i8 colliding with a main battle tank.

As the immense force slowly faded, Claudius timely intervened, commanding the blood river to drown the remaining metal fragments, corroding and dissolving them.

The entire battle lasted just over a minute, yet the exhaustion felt like a century.

All players collapsed, gasping for breath. Wanli Fengdao twisted open a bottle of iced black tea-flavored stamina supplement, drinking as he dragged his weary body through the receding blood river, searching for his Dragon-Slaying Sword.

He suddenly noticed bubbles surging from cracks in the floor tiles, his face turning pale as he roared: "It's going to explode—run!"

Li Cheng reacted first, releasing 【Ride the Tide, Whip the Wind, Flip the Clouds】, summoning a gale that hurled the other players out of the church, then leaping out himself.

The next second, the church floor exploded violently, hurling hundreds of tons of brick and timber into the sky.

Dust swirled. Wanli Fengdao, clutching the Dragon-Slaying Sword, coughed his way out of the dust cloud, his entire body coated like a fried shrimp dusted in flour.

Claudius could hardly believe it: "After being melted like that, could the mechanical priest still self-destruct?"

Li Cheng stood up, gripping his knee. "Not his self-destruction. Beneath the church lies a naturally formed high-pressure gas chamber. The church uses gas wells to filter and pump the pressurized gas into metal tanks, creating the 'lungs' supplied to town residents."

"That just now? That was the last belch of the high-pressure chamber, nearly empty."

Wanli Fengdao ignored Pi Fu's odd analogy. From Li Cheng's tone, he precisely sensed a subtle emotion, and asked seriously: "Did you discover something?"

Li Cheng shook his head. "A guess about the relationship between astronaut Wil and the Alpha Giant Python—not yet complete."

Claudius sighed. "If you've guessed something, say it. Three cobblers can still make a Zhuge Liang."

"Revealing half-baked ideas early only interferes with teammates' judgment. A few years ago, as a reserve officer, I reported a crime scene with thirty-some corpses. My superior told me it was the hospital morgue."

Li Cheng casually brushed it off, waving his hand. "Let's go. Time to report back to the shop."