Chapter 181: 174 Street Battle

The moment the black shadow blocked the open space, the two young girls became alert and subconsciously activated their Art Tools.

However, it was too slow!

Countless bones rose from the ground, emerging simultaneously from the front, back, left, and right of the girls, rapidly tightening like chains to seal them within, forming two bone standing cages.

The speed was too fast!

Within a single day, the two girls had been captured twice for much the same reason: the opponent struck suddenly, fast as lightning, giving them no time to react at all!

Both girls were Talisman Sword Masters with several powerful Charm Tools on them; in a head-on clash, they might not have feared anyone, but activation takes time, and once the initiative is lost in battle, everything is easily lost.

This Bone Lock was extremely compact, locking all the girls' joints perfectly without harming their skin; this was a highly sophisticated technique, and without an extreme understanding of the human body and even every single bone, one could not grasp it with such finesse.

Suddenly, the blue-clad girl's figure flashed, and she escaped from the Bone Lock cage. The Bone Lock cage remained in place, hollowly gripping a human-shaped space, but she had passed through it; in that instant, she seemed to turn ethereal, then solidified again in the Waijie.

Shuttle!

She indeed still had a hidden card. Even without her primary Art Tool, she could still use this move.

The moment she escaped, she raised her hand, drew a sword, and guarded it in front of her.

Immediately after, the girl turned her head and saw the enemy in the Shadow.

Her eyes widened, filled with a look of fear. The purple-clad girl was right opposite her and could not turn around, thinking: Just what kind of fierce monster is it that has scared Chengyu like this?

As she thought this, she herself became even more afraid.

Suddenly, a black shadow flashed, and a cloaked skeleton emerged from behind her, its five finger bones elongating, reaching out to grab the girl's face!

Although the blue-clad girl Chengyu's fear did not diminish, she still swung her sword desperately. The moment the bones arrived, her figure flickered, and doing the opposite of what was expected, she actually shuttled through the skeleton's body again and flickered behind it.

Crack!

A near-sneak attack sword strike slashed toward the skeleton's back, but suddenly, countless Vertebra Bones grew out from behind the skeleton, stacking into a shield in a crisscross pattern, blocking the girl's slash.

The girl's hand moved slightly, and the slash ignored the Bone Shield in front, as if passing through a phantom, solidifying behind the shield, and slashed down again—

Sword Art—Armor Piercing Slash!

Clang!

This strike finally landed, but it hit bone as if it had struck a steel plate. A sharp, peerless refined steel sword was completely blocked by the bones. Chengyu was greatly shocked; having used too much force, the recoil caused her arm to tremble involuntarily.

At the same time, bones rose rapidly from behind her, locking her up once again.

Shuttle again—

The purple-clad girl watched the battle between Chengyu and the skeleton, anxious to the point of desperation. Chengyu's unique Sword Art, Shuttle, was an incredibly cheat-like ability; one moment ethereal, one moment solid, treating obstacles as nothing, making it impossible for anyone to react, which could extremely secure a speed advantage. However, apart from this move, her sword move transitions and footwork were only mediocre, insufficient for her to turn the advantage gained by her Sword Art into a winning momentum. If she could not kill the enemy in one move, she would only know how to keep skirmishing to seek opportunities; if she could not win, this one trick would eventually be suppressed by someone.

Yet she could only worry in vain; not to mention that she was unable to move, even if she could, her martial arts were on par with the blue-clad girl, and she lacked a trump card, making it even harder to win. If she could move, however, she could flee separately from Chengyu, which would be better than risking their lives here.

In her desperation, she shouted loudly, "A-Yu, run! Don't worry about me!"

The skeleton chuckled coldly and said, "I originally wanted to bring two gifts, but since you are unappreciative, I will just take one—"

Countless bones emerged from the ground again, locking Chengyu. Chengyu hurriedly used Shuttle to break free again.

Just as she escaped, the skeleton waved its hand, and countless bone joints flew toward Chengyu!

Previously, the skeleton wanted to capture them alive, so the flying Vertebra Bones were not aimed at Chengyu's body, merely binding her and giving her time to escape. Once it decided to kill, these bone joints flew extremely fast, reaching Chengyu's face in the blink of an eye.

Chengyu had just escaped from the binding and was solidifying, already unable to react in time, with only her large, dark eyes reflecting the white, ghastly bone joints!

"Puff!"

Suddenly, all the bone needles exploded in mid-air!

It was because countless white-gold needles flew out from behind Chengyu, shooting the bone joints one-on-one, and every piece of bone joint burned violently in the air!

"Mianliu Prison!"

Outside the bones, countless flame tails rose into the air, rapidly entangling the bones; the move was similar to the Bone Lock, only the chains had turned into white-gold flames!

The bones and the flame chains entangled with each other, stalemating in the air. The power of the bones did not lose to the Mianliu chains, but they were being scorched by high heat every moment. The skeleton was expressionless, but its body under the cloak gradually twisted, clearly unable to withstand the high-temperature burning.

Its bones were glowing slightly, and clusters of bones emerged from the surrounding soil, as if brewing some move.

"Sword Control Art!"

A white Sword Light descended from the sky, pinning the skeleton to the ground, while another cluster of gold needles shot over, piercing the skeleton's cloak and pinning its entire body down.

The blue-clad girl Chengyu, still shaken, said in astonishment, "It's you?"

The one who saved them was naturally Tang Zhao; he lived nearby and came out to help when he heard the commotion. This was also thanks to Chengyu having some trump cards, tangling with the skeleton for so long, which dragged the time until Tang Zhao arrived; otherwise, both would have been dealt with silently, and even gods could not have saved them.

Over there, the purple-clad girl was still trapped by the bones. Tang Zhao used his sword to hack at the bones, but he couldn't cut through; even adding his internal energy only chipped them, requiring more time to grind them down. Tang Zhao was surprised and also admired the power of these bones. In the end, Chengyu handed the sword with the Shuttle Sword Art to the purple-clad girl, letting her shuttle out.

The purple-clad girl came out, her body still trembling slightly, feeling very fearful, and said, "This... this must be that murderous maniac! No wonder he likes to gouge out people's bones; it turns out he only has bones left himself, so he compensates for what he lacks."

Tang Zhao said, "He shouldn't only have bones left—"

He took out his Artifice Lamp and turned it on; the light immediately illuminated several zhang around. He saw that the person pinned to the ground was entirely hidden in a cloak. At first glance, the top of the head looked like a skull, but upon closer inspection, it was indeed wearing a skull mask, or rather, a Skull Helmet. In the dark night, didn't it look just like a skeleton? Under the helmet, there was a living human face hidden, and under the black cloak, it was also wrapped in flesh and blood.

That was why Tang Zhao had just been able to pin him to the ground with his Sword Control Art; if it had been a skeleton under the cloak with no soft parts, given the quality of the bones he used to bind the purple-clad girl, Tang Zhao's sword really wouldn't have been able to pin him down.

Seeing that he was just wearing a mask, the purple-clad girl grew bolder and said, "So it's just a guy playing god and acting like a ghost!"

Tang Zhao touched the bones on the ground and said, "His bones are real. The skull he is wearing on his head is also a real human skull."

The two girls' expressions froze simultaneously, and they both jumped up and ran far away.

Tang Zhao's expression was calm as he said, "These bones might be partially his own, but the skull is definitely someone else's. You guessed right, he should be a murderous maniac. Let me take a look at his true face..." As he spoke, he used his sword to lift the Skull Helmet.

Suddenly, all the hair on his body stood on end—

Shuttle!

The Art Tool activated, his body turned ethereal for an instant, and he leaped backward.

Puff!

Countless bones grew from the ground, sprouting a large patch of bone chrysanthemums where he had just landed. If he had been even a little slower to react, his body would have already been skewered on the chrysanthemum thorns.

He flicked his hand, and a Thunder Light flew out from the Time Jar, wrapping around the person. The person twitched for a moment and was already stunned unconscious by the electricity.

This was the lightning he had plucked from Jiang Shenyi's wings; it lacked lethality, but was perfect for control and paralysis.

Although he had just escaped, Tang Zhao still had lingering fears and said, "That was close. I clearly sealed his acupoints, and his body couldn't move, but that didn't hinder the growth of the bones, and he could still launch attacks from outside his body. There is something strange about this."

Chengyu said, "Could it be a Sword Art? Is he a Sword Guest? A White Bone Sword?"

The reason I didn't say it was an Art Tool is because the limitations of an Art Tool are greater than those of a Sword Art; they generally require being held by hand, and after one's acupoints are sealed, it is very difficult to manipulate an Art Tool solely by thought, whereas it is more like a Sword Guest's "Sword Heart" controlling a sword.

Tang Zhao shook his head and said, "No, even a Sword Guest who is terminally ill and on the verge of collapse is a hundred times stronger than him. It is very likely the bones on his body..."

He reached out, grabbed a bone from the ground, pulled it upward, lifted the root of the bone out of the soil, and then followed the trail, tracing it all the way to the source of the bone.

The source was indeed on that person.

Tang Zhao flipped open the person's cloak and saw that a section of his Vertebra Bone had pierced through his skin, grown outside his body, and then branched into countless fine prongs, connecting in every direction.

These bones all over the ground were like a forest formed by a single tree, and the root source was on his Vertebra Bone.

Both young girls were a bit unnerved by this sight; one touched her own bones and felt a sharp pain, while the other whispered, "A monster... no, a Heavenly Demon, he is a Heavenly Demon Transformation human."

Tang Zhao pondered and said, "No, he is still human, it is just that his bones have been specially treated. He was likely made into an Art Tool while still alive. If that is the case, he might not be the murderous demon behind the scenes."

The purple-clad girl was startled, then said, "That's right, even if he were ruthless enough to lay hands on his own bones, at most he would refine a finger bone or an arm bone; there is absolutely no way he could turn his own Vertebra Bone into an Art Tool. Someone must have helped him do this. Hmm, a very dangerous experiment; perhaps it wasn't even voluntary."

No joke, the importance of the Vertebra Bone is second only to the skull; a little external injury could mean lifelong paralysis. Who would be willing to let others play with such an important part? Not to mention failure—even if it succeeded, if the other person did something to the Vertebra Bone, wouldn't he be at their mercy? Therefore, not only did he have help, he was likely a person under someone else's control.

Tang Zhao said, "Since we are already face-to-face, it means the murderous demon's tentacles have already reached our street, so we naturally must investigate to the end. We must Ask him and make him confess the mastermind. However, it is very troublesome; as long as he regains consciousness, he can manipulate the bones, which is very dangerous."

The purple-clad girl straightened her expression and said, "If it is an interrogation, I could actually give it a try."