Chapter 730: Mutual Distrust (4/5, Autumn Subscription)

Although the "Still World" had been detected by Niu Zuo, Fang Yue still had confidence in killing Niu Zuo!

Because just now, if Niu Zuo hadn't possessed such profound internal energy to repel him with it, his Ice Blade would already have severed Niu Zuo's right hand.

If he could sever the right hand, the next step would naturally be to cut off Niu Zuo's head!

But before Fang Yue could rush to Niu Zuo's side, Niu Zuo suddenly roared again!

Violent internal energy erupted once more from Niu Zuo, surging outward in a churning airwave that forced Fang Yue back again, freezing his body in place.

In that instant, a phantom afterimage of an Ox Phantom Giant Statue seemed to materialize on Niu Zuo's body as he charged toward him at extreme speed!

"Still World!"

"Ox Shadow One Sword!"

Two roars erupted almost simultaneously!

The next instant…

Niu Zuo's figure suddenly slowed down, while…

Moo!!

The air seemed to vibrate with the fierce bellow of an old ox.

This sound was extraordinary—it was forged from internal energy!

It wasn't merely mimicking sound; it was internal energy attacking the ears directly!

Although Fang Yue reacted quickly and immediately channeled internal energy to his ears for defense,

since he had never specifically trained to defend against sonic attacks, his defense was extremely crude.

When the sound waves struck his ears, Fang Yue suddenly felt as if he had entered a silent world—everything in the world vanished into silence.

In this utterly silent environment, the giant afterimage forged by Niu Zuo drew ever closer to him.

Fang Yue gathered his Ice Blade and raised it to block—but Niu Zuo's speed suddenly surged, exploding forward and passing him in an instant.

461!

4682!

Two damage values popped up almost simultaneously.

In shock, Fang Yue's right hand was severed and flew upward, blood spraying—he immediately reacted.

Channeling internal energy, ice pillars erupted from the ground, freezing his severed right hand midair; as Fang Yue pressed his left hand against the ice surface, the severed hand slid down swiftly and landed in his left palm.

Only then did Fang Yue turn to face Niu Zuo, who had stopped some distance away.

Just now, Niu Zuo had been slowed by the Still World's time effect.

But this guy… he had experienced it once and immediately grasped the timing, deliberately slowing his speed then.

Only when he was close enough did he fully unleash, detonating the full speed of that technique!

"That sword… without the Still World slowing me, I couldn't have blocked it!"

Caution flashed in Fang Yue's eyes—Niu Zuo's strength was far more complex than he'd thought.

The 【Weird Membrane】's defense had its limits.

Niu Zuo's sword had pierced through the 【Weird Membrane】's defense and directly injured his body.

In the rapid recovery of Night's Breath, his HP surged back, and the 【Weird Membrane】 had already rewrapped his entire body.

But regrowing the severed arm was a bit troublesome.

"I thought you were stronger—you gave me a little scare, but in the end, you're just this much."

Niu Zuo smiled and turned, blood dripping from the tip of his sword onto the ground.

But this emotion had barely begun to bloom when it suddenly froze.

Because before Niu Zuo, Fang Yue was using his left hand to crudely and simply jam his bloody severed right hand back into the stump.

As the fleshy tumor writhed, the severed hand and wound healed at a visibly rapid pace, reconnecting!

This… what the hell kind of recovery ability is this?!

Niu Zuo was stunned!

Even the Weirdest didn't dare have such strong recovery—yet this guy…

Could this be the true power of the Weird Spirit Root? Had the earlier reduction in perception merely been a trivial trick?

Niu Zuo stared at Fang Yue with uncertainty, rapidly evaluating his abilities—and made an immediate decision.

Generally speaking, recovery abilities fall into several categories.

The most common is one with a limit—either in recovery intensity or number of uses.

As long as I strike fast and hard enough, his recovery can't keep up with the damage, and it'll collapse entirely—then I can cut him apart at will.

Although he'd found a countermeasure, Niu Zuo felt strangely off.

Because at this moment, he felt he was facing not a human martial artist, but… a Weird.

This shift in thinking—needing to adapt strategy—is exactly what you do when encountering a Weird.

And the need to test various methods to uncover the true nature of a special ability—that too is the mindset for facing a Weird.

At this moment, Fang Yue was like a humanoid Weird: clearly human, yet requiring Weird-like thinking to confront and resolve.

Combined, this made Niu Zuo feel genuinely troublesome.

But only so much.

A phantom afterimage of the Ox Phantom Giant Statue appeared behind him as Niu Zuo charged toward Fang Yue again.

Fang Yue's right hand was still recovering, not yet fully reattached—so striking now was best, and ideally with one decisive blow, no hesitation.

Moo!!

The ox bellowed; Fang Yue's expression shifted slightly as he muttered: "Still World!"

Niu Zuo's speed immediately slowed—but still remained fast, reaching the same peak velocity as before when he'd passed him—clearly, this time, Niu Zuo wasn't playing games; he truly meant to end this with speed alone.

His right hand had not yet fully recovered; as Fang Yue's expression darkened, spikes of ice erupted from the ground—but the charging Niu Zuo unleashed a burst of internal force, shattering the ice spikes before they could even make contact, reducing them to a pile of ice shards.

The Ice Blade had been the same—shattered outright by internal force, utterly incapable of delivering effective damage.

Fang Yue's expression grew grim; this was the drawback of the Mimicry Ring.

It relied entirely on internal force, so when an enemy's control over internal force was more refined, the power of the Condensed Ring was drastically diminished!

Fang Yue's mastery of the Condensed Ring was merely passable, far below the level of Lord Han.

Therefore, to Niu Zuo—a man who had lingered for years at the high end of the Human Realm, accumulating vast internal force and possessing exceptional command over it—Fang Yue's ice spikes and Ice Blade were mere trivial tricks, easily shattered by a burst of internal force!

The situation had turned unfavorable for Fang Yue.

Yet Niu Zuo pressed forward like a breaking dam; ice shards littered his path, and in the blink of an eye, he had reached Fang Yue's front.

Fortunately, at this moment, Fang Yue's right hand had fully recovered with the aid of Night's Breath.

"Ox Shadow One Sword!"

"Dark Moon Blade Technique!"

The Ice Blade vanished into the darkness.

The sword's radiant blade stabbed toward Fang Yue's chest!

As layers of frost condensed over his chest, the hidden Ice Blade suddenly emerged, slashing at the sword!

Seeing the Ice Blade hurtling toward him, Niu Zuo sneered.

With a burst of internal force, synchronized resonance surged directly against the Ice Blade.

Within the resonance, cracks spread across the Ice Blade's surface, layer by layer shattering.

At the moment the Ice Blade met the sword's edge, it shattered like an egg hitting a stone—bursting into a storm of ice fragments.

The sword's tip stabbed straight toward Fang Yue's chest!

"Die!"

"Ice Feather!"

In that instant, two voices rang out nearly simultaneously!

(End of Chapter)