Chapter 49: Summoning a Thousand Thunderbolts!

Facing Wu Chang, Liu Shan, and the Mist Demon in a three-way encirclement, Chiyuan showed no panic or desire to flee; instead, he stared in surprise at the two halves of the Reflection Mask.

"Young Master Wu, do you understand the art of artifact forging?"

Wu Chang replied offhandedly, "A little."

Chiyuan shook his head solemnly. "This isn't just a little. You bypassed the flaws in the Transformation Demon Art, brought this unfinished product nearly to completion, even discerned parts of my intent and caused those abilities to manifest prematurely."

"And you did all this casually, out in the wilderness. In terms of artifact forging, I am not your equal. But then again, it makes sense—Young Master Wu hails from the Tang Sect, which crafts exquisitely intricate mechanical traps and weapons; excelling in artifact forging is no surprise."

Wu Chang shrugged. "Even if you flatter me now, I won't stop or let you go."

Chiyuan laughed. "No need for flattery. I simply saw something worthy of admiration and wondered—if we had met years earlier, we would have become close friends."

Wu Chang: "Five years ago?"

Five years ago was the day the Heishan bandits slaughtered Huai Valley Village.

A faint haze crossed Chiyuan's face, as if recalling something; after a moment, he came back to himself and said:

"Yes. If I had known you then, perhaps everything would have been different. But alas, once certain things begin, there's no turning back."

"Though I have devoted myself to the art of transforming demons through artifact forging, I still come from orthodox Daoist lineage—I am not helpless without my artifacts, Young Master Wu, be cautious."

As Chiyuan spoke, he formed a hand seal; lightning flickered in his palm, and a palm-thunder bolt shot forth.

Wu Chang felt a blur before his eyes; when he looked again, the Mist Demon had already vaporized and vanished.

The Reflection Mask displayed a new prompt.

"Reflection: Mist Demon dispersed. Reassembly required: 23 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds."

Thunder arts are inherently the most effective against demons; Chiyuan's numerical dominance over the Mist Demon meant that the moment he struck, Wu Chang hadn't even registered what happened before the Mist Demon was "one-shot" by the palm-thunder.

"Young Master Wu, how do you find my thunder arts?"

Chiyuan shook his Daoist robe, releasing countless threads of lightning; electric filaments spiraled from beneath his robe, encircling his body before converging atop his Daoist crown.

Wu Chang squinted at Chiyuan and clicked his tongue. Whether he could find it impressive or not—he was already blinded by the glare.

The pressure emanating from Chiyuan was no less than that of Dr. Charles from the Moonlight Sanatorium.

Remember, Dr. Charles was a mini-elite monster in a B-rank instance, with at least 17 to 19 levels of stats.

And this was merely Chiyuan's true body's pressure—when combined with his three artifacts capable of transforming into demons, he was absurdly overpowered even as a hidden boss in a C-rank instance.

He stepped back two paces, creating distance from Chiyuan, then ordered Liu Shan to attack.

Liu Shan moved with agility and lethal precision; he was better at killing humans than pruning tree demons, perfect for testing Chiyuan's mettle.

As he sent Liu Shan forward, Wu Chang fired a shot at Chiyuan to prevent another palm-thunder one-shot, using gunfire to cover Liu Shan's advance.

Chiyuan dared not intercept Wu Chang's "weapon" directly and ducked behind a large rock, abandoning his attack on Liu Shan.

Liu Shan seized the chance, using his movement technique to dash behind the boulder, preparing to engage Chiyuan in close combat.

Suddenly, a thunderclap exploded from behind the rock—deafening, nearly piercing the eardrums.

When the ringing in Wu Chang's ears subsided, he saw Liu Shan had returned to the Mask, joining the Mist Demon.

"Reflection: Liu Shan dispersed. Reassembly required: 23 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds."

Damn it!

He shook his head, forcing down dizziness caused by tinnitus—Chiyuan had made such a racket for no reason other than to deal with Liu Shan.

If he were Chiyuan, he'd strike while the opponent was stunned by the thunder.

He hurried to the altar, pressing his back against the wooden platform, cautiously scanning his surroundings.

Facing a hidden Chiyuan, only the insulating wooden altar allowed him to safely expose his back.

After roughly three or four breaths, a sudden intuition struck him—he whipped his head sideways. Chiyuan had already closed to within fifteen meters, palm-thunder flickering in his hand, poised to ambush.

Wu Chang instantly shifted position, moving to the other side of the wooden altar, blocking direct line of sight for the palm-thunder.

Now, he became Qin Wang, circling the altar like a pillar.

Chiyuan's ambush exposed, he abandoned pretense—switching from stealth to outright charge.

Chiyuan, wreathed in Lei Guang, sprinted with afterimages flickering behind him, his speed equal to Liu Shan's.

As he ran, the lightning trails trailing behind him accelerated, aligning beside him to form two additional Chiyuans.

Three Chiyuans charged in unison, movements perfectly synchronized—impossible to distinguish the real one at a glance.

Chiyuan's intent was clear: pick one of three—see if you can hit the real body.

Against a Tang Sect disciple wielding traditional hidden weapons—powerful, but firing only once every five breaths—this tactic would be highly threatening.

After all, if you missed, Chiyuan would close in and eliminate you before your weapon reloaded.

But Wu Chang was no Tang Sect disciple, and he did not use traditional hidden weapons.

When Chiyuan closed within seven steps, Wu Chang became a Western gunslinger, firing ten times in rapid succession, emptying his remaining six silver bullets and all four energy points.

The charging Chiyuan had barely reached two meters away when he was struck by three bullets, collapsing in disbelief.

Chiyuan clutched his chest wound, smiling bitterly. "So your hidden weapons can fire like a repeating crossbow…"

"Of course," Wu Chang said matter-of-factly. "Who reveals their true hand to a stranger?"

Laying this hidden trap was pure coincidence.

When they first met at the Lanshan Ghost Inn, before triggering the hidden side quest, Wu Chang noticed the resentment clinging to Chiyuan's artifacts and thought the Daoist Priest wasn't a good man—he decided to keep a card up his sleeve.

He deliberately hinted that his weapon had a long reload time, lulling the other into complacency, hoping to catch him off guard when the time came.

But after triggering the side quest, Chiyuan explained the origin of the resentment on his artifacts, and Wu Chang temporarily believed him to be a good man—no battle ensued.

Yet belief didn't erase the lie; instead, the incident gave him a revelation.

During dungeon clearances, he'd always sensed faint, watching eyes.

At first, he thought it was malevolent spirits observing him; to protect his hidden cards, he continued the lie.

Since then—whether fighting the Mist Demon in Chen Village, ambushing the Liu Wei and Liu Wu brothers, or battling Liu Shan—regardless of whether anyone watched, he subtly revealed his weapon's slow rate of fire and sluggish reload.

Clearly, his months of performance had worked—Chiyuan, who had observed him for a long time, had confirmed the characteristics of his hidden weapons, leading to today's clone charge.

And the subsequent emptying of Wu Chang's magazine.

Seeing Chiyuan coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood. He panted heavily and said weakly, "Looks like I'm the one who lost."

Wu Chang politely replied, "What a pity."

Seeing Chiyuan: "But I still want to try once more."

Wu Chang: "?"

A sense of foreboding rose in his heart. He hurriedly swung open the cylinder, began loading bullets inside, and was about to fire a finishing shot to take Seeing Chiyuan out.

But this time, Wu Chang really did load too slowly.

Seeing Chiyuan spat out four words, "A Thousand Thunders, Come!"

The next instant, a bolt of lightning came crashing down from above their heads.

The dazzling lightning turned the world a blinding white.

Boom! (End of chapter)