[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-solflare-the-painter-s-secret":3,"chapter-solflare-the-painter-s-secret-solflare-the-painter-s-secret-chapter-121":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Solflare: The Painter's Secret",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1323049,1757,"Chapter 121: They Didn’t Multiply When He Killed Them","solflare-the-painter-s-secret-chapter-121",121,"\u003Cp>A large demonic goat-like beast erupted from the crowded building, shattering the remaining wall in an explosion of brick and mortar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Acidic saliva streaked from its mouth in sparkly lines. Clenched between its yellowish teeth was the splattered half of a human body, limbs dangling bizarrely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Don’t move!\" Bao Xiong commanded in a sharp tone, his hands shooting toward Leon the moment he saw the boy take a half-step forward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He exchanged a grim look with Wu Ze. Then, together, they dashed forward at the speed of light, their boots skidding on the debris.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The creature’s red eyes blazed with fire as its head snapped toward their direction. It raised its front right leg and slammed it down onto the already fractured asphalt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>THOOOM.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The impact sent a shockwave through the ground, causing it to buckle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before Bao Xiong and Wu Ze could close half the distance, the ground in front of the beast heaved like an earthquake.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, with a sound like tearing flesh, the asphalt split open. Molten lava erupted, flooding the street in a steaming tide.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Evaporated air gushed out as the lava streaked across the ground, spreading at an unnatural speed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From within the bubbling and popping lava, shapes began to emerge. Dozens of smaller goat-like creatures, whose skin was blackened and cracked like cooling slag, crawled out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They steamed, forming a living wall between the squad and the devilish creature.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This is bad,\" Wu Ze said, her voice devoured of her earlier bravery. She halted abruptly, moved a step back, and locked her gaze on the multiplying horde.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"We can’t fight them, Bao Xiong.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Stay there! I’ll take them all down!\" Bao Xiong roared, his eyes blazing with a reckless fury. He plowed into the front rank of the creatures, his fist glowing with a black aura.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He crushed his fist into the blazing creatures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>CRUNCH-SIZZLE\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The impact sent half of the creatures flying backward, their forms rolling and crumpling in the air. They hit the ground and twitched without dying.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Leon watched, his eyes opened wide. Each fallen creature split in two, their forms duplicating.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Instantly, the space Bao Xiong managed to clear became choked with doubled figures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"WTF!\" Bao Xiong cursed under his breath, his eyes full of shock. He swung again with a willpower that scattered even more than before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The creatures multiplied again. Bao Xiong’s powerful blow, which could make an entire building tremble, was now like a broomstick and a boosting mechanism for the creatures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Within five minutes, the fifty mini-creatures doubled countless times, becoming a seething mass of five hundred, and began to encircle him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their roaring sound and the acidic gas from their mouths sent heat waves that suffocated Bao Xiong, but he didn’t bend a knee.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From Wu Ze’s position beside Leon, she kept a desperate gaze on Bao Xiong’s struggling form. Her knuckles whitened around the katana sword she had made them transform into, now pencil-sized in her palms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Hey, Storm,\" she said in a tight voice the moment her eyes flicked and landed on Leon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leon turned his head slowly toward her, his brown eyes meeting hers. A faint smile remained on Leon’s lips, as if watching Bao Xiong struggle was a fun game.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You seem unfazed by the creatures that are resisting death by Bao Xiong’s iron fists,\" she said, her thumb nervously pressing the green button on her pencil.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A gust of dust blasted toward them as Leon opened his mouth, trying to speak. His body moved forward before his mind could catch up, and he shoved past Wu Ze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Swhoooosh!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black dagger in his hand sliced through the air like darkness tearing a bright sky.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The tip punched into the temple of one mini-goat creature that had impossibly surfaced silently from a crack in the ground behind Wu Ze, its sharp horns aimed toward her back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leon wrenched the dagger free in a fluid motion and struck it twice on the frozen creature.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Swhooosh!! Swhooosh!!!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The creature convulsed as the stabs landed at its neck and chest. A wet roar gurgled from its throat before it collapsed, steam rising from the open wounds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Strangely, the one that convulsed under Leon’s attack lay still, without multiplying, dead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"How did you—?\" Wu Ze’s shocked voice echoed but stopped, seeing the boy already moving toward the direction where Bao Xiong stood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Hey, Storm, didn’t I tell you to—!\" Bao Xiong’s rebuke choked off when he saw Leon wade into the horde like a nuclear blast.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>PUFFF!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leon’s first downward chop sliced through the neck of one creature, ripping it into perfect halves. His second strike, a reverse upward slice, chopped off the head of another, cracking its bone in perfect halves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Both creatures scrambled a few steps back, fell, and lay still, not multiplying.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’How is that possible?’ Bao Xiong’s mind reeled with shock. He glanced at the two dead creatures at Leon’s feet, then to the one Leon was rushing toward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A spike of confusion lanced through Bao Xiong’s bones. \"That’s impossible,\" he screamed, but his voice collapsed with the fourth creature under Leon’s strike.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’I can’t just stand there without doing anything.’ Thoughts propelled through Leon’s skull, pushing him forward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He glided through the creatures as if they were mere discarded rugs. Each step, each pivot of his wrist, sent another creature back into its own grave.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Evaporating air gushed out as Leon began walking through the lava, his boots sizzling. As his dagger flashed, bunches of creatures fell like wheat before a sickle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Within a few minutes, a hundred fell, then another hundred, piling around him in flaming heaps.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leon closed the distance to the huge B-ranked beast, now only twenty meters away. The creature’s giant head watched the tiny human, malice filling its blazing eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leon’s chest hammered heavily as he stopped abruptly, panting. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath that burned through his lungs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the darkness behind his eyelids, Lieutenant Prince’s final smile and bloody hand touched his soul.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With a roar, Leon cracked his eyes open. Strangely, when he fixed his gaze on the creature once again, a faint gold light seeped from the pores of his right hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The gold light traced thin lines along the blade’s edge. And in a blink, the black diamond metal began to glow with a gentle flame.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At his front, the two D-rank mini-creatures his inner panel had shown him earlier hesitated, their red eyes flickering with fear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as Leon shifted his stance, ready to take a leap forward, a deep, mechanical hum vibrated in his chest before reaching his ears.\u003C\u002Fp>",1107,"2026-06-05T19:15:29.583Z",1,"novelbin.me","69e8315b59cdf75cb5701a231cd10832f34ee372005701408d5dbf52270b1079","solflare-the-painter-s-secret-chapter-122","solflare-the-painter-s-secret-chapter-120",272,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsolflare-the-painter-s-secret-cover.jpg"]