Silence, deathly silence, oppression.
Chen Kong looked at the crimson figure continuously walking toward him and Vivian. The hand gripping Vivian's wrist was drenched in a sudden cold sweat.
His heart, pounding furiously in his chest, and the terror of Chen Xing, etched deep into his soul, were both warning him that he had to escape this fiery monster walking on earth—and fast.
Even if this person was his own sister.
"Run!"
Chen Kong shouted, pulling the stunned Vivian, and bolted toward the steam train station.
Faster, even faster!
The cool flagstones of the Upper City blurred beneath their feet. The wind howled into a sharp whistle in their ears, whipping through Vivian's loose hair.
But the silent gaze and palpable pressure from behind did not lessen as they put more distance between themselves and Chen Xing.
Instead, it grew heavier.
"Red Lotus... Karma Fire."
Just as Chen Kong and Vivian had run a certain distance, an indifferent voice suddenly sounded from behind them.
The next second, a scorching wave of fire, hot enough to distort vision, rushed toward them!
A wall of fire cut off their escape route.
The wall was made of a very strange, dark red flame.
Not only was its light as deep as congealed blood, but a faint scent of blood and something burnt and charred filled the air.
It was as if all the karma fire of hell had been unleashed here. Every wisp of flame exuded a terrifying aura of death.
Being in this hell of scorching flames.
Every breath Chen Kong took, he could feel a distinct burning sensation.
Without a moment's hesitation, he raised his right hand toward the sudden sea of fire in front of him.
In an instant, a silver pattern lit up on the back of his hand—the Emptiness Rune: Dustfall.
Wherever Chen Kong's palm touched, the Red Lotus Karma Fire began to dim and vanish like melting snow, revealing a narrow path behind it.
There was hope!
The moment the opening appeared, Chen Kong's heart leapt, and his expression became exhilarated.
But this excitement didn't last long, as it was doused with a bucket of cold water by a cruel reality.
Because more, and more torrential, dark red flames instantly rushed into the gap like a tide.
They filled the opening in a flash and even emitted a fire that was more intense than before.
Chen Kong, unwilling to give up, once again fully activated his Emptiness Rune, trying to forcefully pry open the continuously closing "path of survival."
However, while his "Dustfall" was still assimilating the sea of fire, the regeneration speed of the Red Lotus Karma Fire was noticeably faster than the assimilation speed of his Emptiness Rune: Dustfall!
"How is that possible?"
Looking at the slowly closing "path of survival," Chen Kong muttered in dismay, the color draining from his face as if it had been sucked away.
His Starlight Energy was being rapidly consumed, but Chen Xing's Red Lotus Karma Fire seemed endless.
"Kong, do you still think this is when we were kids?"
A cold voice suddenly came from Chen Kong's side. He turned his head sharply. Chen Xing was standing in the middle of the road, ten steps away, at some point.
The red glow of the surrounding karma fire flickered across her face. Her crimson eyes were now filled with a deep indifference, yet they held a strange, bewitching beauty.
"Your Emptiness Rune is indeed remarkable and can counter most Star-Wielders in this world."
"But that's only for ordinary people."
As she spoke, Chen Xing slowly drew the cursed blade from her lower back.
With a slight metallic scrape, a simple-looking, dark red blade with a knotted hilt was slowly pulled from its sheath by Chen Xing.
"The principle of Dustfall is to assimilate and dissolve the Starlight Energy techniques you touch, turning them back into their most primitive, attribute-less form."
Chen Xing's gaze fell on the silver rune on Chen Kong's right hand. She said expressionlessly, "But this assimilation has a clear limit—a limit called the basic Starlight Energy."
Clang!
The moment the cursed blade was unsheathed, a dazzling cold light flashed across Chen Xing's delicate face.
She held the blade in one hand, angling it so that its tip lightly touched the ground. The dark red Starlight Energy flowed along the blade, slowly trickling down to the ground.
"As long as my Starlight Energy replenishment speed exceeds your assimilation speed, your so-called 'Dustfall' is ultimately futile."
As her voice faded, Chen Xing flipped her wrist and plunged the cursed blade into the flagstones beneath her feet.
Hum…
A low hum sounded. With the cursed blade at the center, circles of strange dark red Starlight Energy runes suddenly appeared on the flagstones around Chen Xing.
Immediately after, countless twisted black shadows struggled to rise from these Starlight Energy rune patterns, gathering densely behind her.
They were various kinds of souls and remnants of souls. There were pitifully deceased Dark Star-Wielders in ragged clothes.
There were ferocious, powerful Star-Beasts.
There were even some mechanical remnants made of gears and metal, covered in the smell of oil and rust.
They each exuded a strong deathly aura and a venomous roar. Their crimson gazes were all locked on Chen Kong and Vivian, like a pack of hungry ghouls waiting to be fed.
Chen Xing stood in the center of these "demons." Her bold figure, set against the backdrop of the numerous twisted remnants of souls, looked like a rakshasa returning from hell.
At the same time, even the light of the karma fire dimmed around her, as if silently expressing its fear of this monster who toyed with "karma fire."
Chen Xing looked up at Chen Kong, a hint of expectation flickering in her crimson eyes.
"Come on, Kong, let me see how much you've changed these past few years."
"If you can't satisfy me, then you… might just become the 151st 'collection' in my blade."
The moment her words fell, the hundred demons behind Chen Xing let out a deafening roar.
In an instant, blood light soared into the sky, and ghostly energy surged.
The remnants of souls and ghouls swept toward Chen Kong and Vivian like a ferocious tide!
But faster than these remnants and demons were the bullets in Chen Kong's hand.
In the flash of a gunshot, a dense rain of Emptiness Rune Bullets accurately shot toward the demons and remnants of souls.
Hit by the Emptiness Rune Bullets with the "Dustfall" ability, a large number of remnants and demons disintegrated into attribute-less Starlight Energy particles like balloons being popped.
But the speed at which the demon remnants fell was far slower than the speed at which they were rushing toward Chen Kong and Vivian.
Even though Chen Xing was alone at this moment.
The commotion she caused was greater than that of a thousand troops, so powerful it was suffocating.
"Roar!"
After sacrificing a large number of remnants, a remnant of a Dark Star-Wielder with glowing red eyes finally rushed in front of Chen Kong.
Before Chen Kong could counter, a cold light flashed from his side, precisely piercing the head of the Dark Star-Wielder remnant.
Chen Kong turned his head and saw that Vivian had already summoned her "Second Hand Rapier."
The rapier, which looked like the hand of a clock, glowed in her hand. The gear-like patterns on the blade were gently turning, like rapidly passing "time."
It was a sign of how critical their situation was.
"Don't get distracted. We'll break out together."
Vivian's voice was very calm, and her eyes were filled with a determination to fight to the death, without a hint of fear.
Chen Kong was stunned for half a second, then nodded forcefully. "Okay!"
The moment they stood back to back, their silent understanding of each other formed an invisible barrier.
Vivian's rapier moved like a silver snake, precisely cutting through the approaching black shadows.
Chen Kong continuously fired his gun, creating bursts of silver light from a distance.
Under their cooperation, the originally ferocious wave of demons actually began to thin out at a visible speed.
But at this moment, in this sea of fire called "despair," the karma fire was still burning, and the ghost shadows were still surging.
But the two figures standing side by side, amidst the roar of gunshots and the hiss of the rapier, were temporarily suppressing the low roars of the surrounding demons.
However, they both knew that this was nothing more than an overture before hell arrived.
Because what was truly blocking them was neither the demon remnants in front of them nor the sea of fire in the distance.
It was the indifferent figure standing beside the cursed blade in the distance.
She… was the true hell they had to face.
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