Chapter 644: Sudden Change!
Shen Anyu's handsome face wore a smile as he led the two women away swaggeringly, amidst the envious and jealous gazes of the crowd, brushing past Xiao Fan.
'Damn it, this guy is so punchable. I really want to put a sack over him and beat him up!'
Xiao Fan's jaw tightened, a venomous glare tracking the trio's departure. The sight of Liu Ruyan's flushed, delicate face resting bonelessly on Shen Anyu's shoulder sent a wave of pure, undiluted acid through his gut. She was a Grandmaster, a woman of strength and resolve, yet she melted against that peacock of a man as if she had no spine. The possessiveness in Shen Anyu's casual touch, the smug curl of his lips—it all grated on Xiao Fan's last nerve. He felt an almost overwhelming urge to rush forward, to tear her away from that man's grasp, to land a solid punch right in that perfectly sculpted, infuriating face.
Only when their silhouettes finally vanished from the corridor did Xiao Fan manage to retract his resentful gaze, the sour taste of envy still coating his tongue. He took a deep, steadying breath, forcing the image out of his mind. He had a mission to complete. With a grimace, he turned his attention back to the task at hand: checking the last few stragglers in the cinema before leaving Xihe Shopping Mall. He had to report back to An Zhiyue, to inform her that their target, the notorious curse-wielder Yao Qi, had managed to slip through their net.
Just as he was about to move, a figure shuffled past him—a cleaner, his face weathered and nondescript, carrying a dirty mop and a sloshing bucket of grey water. The man kept his head down, avoiding eye contact, just another weary worker at the end of a long shift.
The next moment, the world twisted into chaos.
Splash!
Without a shred of warning, the cleaner viciously swung his bucket. A foul-smelling arc of filthy water erupted, drenching Xiao Fan from head to toe. Before the shock could even register, the cleaner's hands blurred into a series of intricate, sinister seals. The air crackled with malevolent energy. From the cleaner's fingertips, hundreds, then thousands, then hundreds of thousands of tiny, dark pinpricks of light bloomed into existence. They swarmed the air, a dense, buzzing cloud of pure malice that blotted out the dim cinema lights, blanketing Xiao Fan in a rain of absolute black.
Curse of Black Light!
This was it. This was precisely Yao Qi's signature, soul-destroying spell. A single mote of that black light, if it found its way into a person's body, could sever their Meridians from the inside out, condemning even a mighty Martial Dao Grandmaster to a slow, agonizing death.
And this wasn't one or two. This was a torrential downpour, an inescapable storm of death numbering in the hundreds of thousands. It was an offensive so overwhelming it would make even a Heavenly Human giant's skin crawl.
Yao Qi, his face hidden beneath the guise of a humble cleaner, was trembling with a cocktail of exhilaration and murderous glee.
This was power.
This was true power!
He could feel the wisp of energy Shen Anyu had gifted him burning like a dark star in his dantian, a torrent of borrowed strength that made him feel invincible. The sensation was intoxicating, a drug more potent than any he had ever known. He was a god.
Originally, even if he pushed himself to the absolute limit, straining every meridian until it screamed, he could maybe conjure ten motes of the Curse of Black Light before collapsing in exhaustion. But now? Now, with a mere flick of his wrist, he had summoned a veritable galaxy of them. The power scaling was insane—he was easily more than ten times stronger than before!
Just a single, insignificant wisp of energy from that man had elevated him to a level comparable to a Heavenly Human. This was the might of a Land Immortal! The gap was not a river; it was a cosmic ocean.
'Just kill Xiao Fan,' the power whispered in his soul. 'Kill him, and I can become a disciple of that Young Master. My future will be limitless!'
The possibilities raced through his mind, each more glorious than the last. With this kind of backing, breaking through to the Heavenly Human realm wasn't just a dream; it was an inevitability. As for becoming a Land Immortal himself... no, he didn't dare to even entertain such a blasphemous thought. For now, killing this man was enough.
"Not good!"
Xiao Fan's expression contorted in horror, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks. He had been so consumed by his jealousy that he'd let his guard down completely. He never imagined that Yao Qi could not only mask his presence so perfectly but also unleash an attack of this terrifying magnitude right under his nose.
Could the intelligence from the Dragon Group have been so catastrophically wrong? Was Yao Qi not a mere Half-Step Celestial Master, but a fully-fledged Celestial Master who had been hiding his true strength all along?
There was no time to think. As the storm of corrosive black light descended upon him, a primal scream of survival erupted in his mind. Without conscious thought, his body reacted, launching him backward in a desperate, explosive retreat.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
He crashed through row after row of plush cinema seats, the impacts sending splintered wood and shredded fabric flying. But the Curse of Black Light was relentless. It pursued him like a living shadow, a swarm of black vipers twisting through the air, their trajectory altering in perfect unison to match his every frantic dodge.
"Oh my god, there's a Superman!" one of the few remaining patrons shrieked.
The couples still lingering in the dark corners of the theater were utterly paralyzed, their minds struggling to process the scene unfolding before them. Jaws hung slack, eyes wide with a mixture of terror and awe. They had come to see a movie, a world of fiction and CGI. They never dreamed they would witness a real-life battle so far beyond the scope of human understanding, more visceral and terrifying than any special effect Hollywood could ever conceive.
...
"There's a sound of fighting!" Liu Ruyan, who hadn't walked far, stopped abruptly. Her expression sharpened, her gaze snapping back toward the cinema entrance. The earlier flush had vanished from her cheeks, replaced by the focused intensity of a warrior. She had mostly recovered now; after all, she was a Martial Dao Grandmaster, and Shen Anyu hadn't pushed things too far in public.
"Is it that notorious wanted criminal Yao Qi fighting someone?" Shen Anyu asked, his tone a perfect blend of surprise and curiosity, feigning complete ignorance.
"Very likely," Liu Ruyan nodded, her brow furrowed with concern. She glanced at Shen Anyu, her lips parting as if she wanted to say something but was hesitating.
Shen Anyu read her mind instantly. He offered a reassuring smile and gently patted the back of her hand, his touch both comforting and proprietary.
"Since my aunt is responsible for leading the encirclement of Yao Qi, and you're here helping her, of course I won't just stand by and watch. Let's go. I'll go take a look, too."
At this point, Shen Anyu paused, his gaze shifting to the silent woman beside him. He smiled, his voice smooth as silk.
"Anna, what do you think?"
Zhong Lingyin, currently operating under the alias Anna, naturally had no objections. She gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod.
With that, Shen Anyu turned and led Liu Ruyan and Zhong Lingyin back toward the chaos erupting in the cinema hall.
...
"Damn it!"
Xiao Fan's previously casual demeanor had been utterly annihilated. A heavy, suffocating pressure settled in his chest as the inescapable cloud of the Curse of Black Light closed in. He knew if even a fraction of that swarm touched him, the consequences would be dire.
In a split-second decision, Xiao Fan's leg shot out, kicking an entire row of cinema seats with explosive force. The heavy furniture rocketed into the air, a makeshift barrier of wood and metal. It met the curse cloud head-on, and for a moment, it worked. The seats disintegrated in a shower of corrosive explosions, buying him a precious inch of breathing room.
The few couples still in the theater were now screaming, cowering on the floor with their hands over their heads, trembling uncontrollably.
Xiao Fan had no time to worry about them. His figure flickered, a blur of motion as he weaved through the deadly pursuit. Each movement was a desperate gamble, a dance on the edge of a razor blade. While evading, he wasn't just running; he was maneuvering, his body moving with a predatory grace as he steadily closed the distance to Yao Qi.
His astonishing combat instincts, honed through countless life-or-death battles, screamed a single, obvious truth: the only way to survive this was to kill the caster.
Yao Qi's eyes widened in alarm as he saw Xiao Fan cutting through the storm. His instinct was to retreat, to put distance between them, but the next moment, the demonic power within him surged violently. It seized control of his body like a puppeteer yanking on strings. His face twisted into a sinister, distorted mask of pure evil, and a complex, dark demonic mark blazed into existence on his forehead. A voice that was not his own, deep and ancient, roared from his throat:
"Fang of the Black Dragon, Xiao Fan! You cannot comprehend the monumental power bestowed upon me by the great Lord Hidden World Demon Monarch!"
"Die!"
The demonic mark on Yao Qi's forehead pulsed, and an obsidian beam of energy erupted from it. It was a spear of pure, concentrated corruption, an utter manifestation of evil that shot toward Xiao Fan at a velocity several times the speed of sound.
Xiao Fan's expression shattered. His mind reeled in absolute horror. This single beam of black light was not just stronger than the thousands of curse motes—it was on a completely different level of existence. It was faster, denser, and radiated a malice that felt a thousand times more potent. He had no time to react, no time to even process the new name he'd been called. The beam slammed directly into his chest.
His forward momentum was instantly reversed. He was blasted off his feet, flying backward through the air before crashing through two entire rows of seats with a sickening crunch of bone and metal.
He lay broken in the wreckage, his face immediately turning a deathly shade of black. A sharp, sinister aura, cold as the grave, began to rampage through his internal organs, tearing him apart from the inside.
Yao Qi's face remained twisted in a demonic sneer, but his mind was a vortex of panic. 'What is happening? What was that? Why did I suddenly unleash that move? Why did I say those words?'
It felt as though his own body had betrayed him, possessed and manipulated by that terrifying wisp of power.
Who in the hell was the Hidden World Demon Monarch?
Could it be that handsome Young Master, that Land Immortal powerhouse? But who would announce their own villainous title with such theatrical flair? It was absurd, like a stage performer screaming their role to the audience, afraid they wouldn't be recognized.
And 'Fang of the Black Dragon, Xiao Fan'... could that be this young man in the blue delivery uniform? He vaguely recalled hearing that name years ago. It had been quite famous in certain circles, but then the man had vanished without a trace, widely presumed to be dead.
But Yao Qi couldn't afford to dwell on it. The evil power driving him gave him no choice, surging through his limbs and propelling him forward, lunging at the downed Xiao Fan to deliver the final blow.
The couples huddled in the corner of the cinema were long past the point of shock; they had entered a state of catatonic disbelief.
A janitor carrying a mop and bucket had transformed into a demon from a horror film, wielding terrifying, world-ending power. The delivery guy in the blue uniform was a superhuman warrior capable of defying gravity.
Was the world always like this? Was it teeming with hidden masters, with janitors and delivery drivers who were secretly demigods? It was enough to make them fundamentally question the nature of their reality.
However, based on the current situation, it was painfully clear that the delivery guy, for all his incredible abilities, was no match for the demon cleaner.
As Xiao Fan lay on the ground, his vision blurring, he watched Yao Qi's demonic form lunging toward him. His eyes turned bloodshot, veins bulging in his temples. In that moment of absolute despair, something deep within him, a lock that had restrained his true potential for years, suddenly shattered. A terrifying, untamed power erupted from the depths of his soul. With a roar that sounded more like a beast than a man, he threw a punch from his prone position. The motion was primal, explosive, like a caged tiger finally breaking free. The fist shot out and connected squarely with Yao Qi's chest.
BOOM!
The sound of the sonic boom lagged a fraction of a second behind the impact, a deafening crack that shook the entire building. That single, desperate punch had broken the sound barrier. It pierced through the air, tore through Yao Qi's body, and continued upward, punching a clean hole through the reinforced concrete ceiling above.
Invisible airwaves radiated out from the point of impact, a devastating shockwave that instantly pulverized the remaining seats in the cinema hall. The shockwave tore through the ceiling and floor like paper, then swept violently toward the terrified couples in the corner.
Just as these couples screamed in terror, convinced their end had come, a gentle voice suddenly rang out through the chaos:
"It's alright."
[Akarin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/AkarinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/AkarinTL
🔗 All My Links: linktr[.]ee/AkarinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]