Chapter 20: Suddenly, the Expert Strikes

In just a few breaths, Wan Bieling’s mangled flesh swelled to the size of a small mountain. Puppet Curse Worms emerged from nowhere, crawling over the mountain of blood and gore. At the center of this mass, a human face began to take shape—it was Wan Bieling’s face. She opened her eyes, but instead of pupils, the tentacles of the puppet worms writhed within her empty sockets.

On her forehead, the crown-of-thorns curse-breaking sigil had morphed into a black vortex, its jagged spikes interlocking like the maw of a giant worm.

"A Curse-Devouring Sigil! She’s actually insane."

Wan Bieling was truly a madwoman, stopping at nothing for the sake of power. The Curse-Devouring Sigil was a variant of the curse-breaking sigil, but far more treacherous and vicious. While it neutralized curses by consuming them, it used the absorbed energy to directly empower the user's soul. The price, however, was severe distortion; the soul would be twisted, the personality irrevocably altered, and in extreme cases, the victim would be reduced to a mindless, walking corpse.

Perhaps due to the Soul Casket, Wan Bieling’s soul had already been crumbling. Upon her death, the backlash of the curses she had consumed transformed her into this terrifying, grotesque entity of pure malediction. Could one truly discard their humanity for the sake of power?

Mi Chen had no time to ponder. As a curse entity, Wan Bieling’s strength now far exceeded that of a Level 3 monster, and he had less than a third of his mana remaining.

*Escape!*

Without looking back, Mi Chen bolted toward the Slave Graveyard. Qi Xiaoyun was still there. Returning to the graveyard and using the Escape Stone was their only chance.

A terrifying pressure bore down from behind. "Such a powerful curse; one hit and it’s either death or dismemberment!"

Mi Chen moved with frantic speed, yet the bleeding mass of silver-tinged flesh was faster. Driven by either the lingering hatred of Wan Bieling or the instinctual hunger of the puppet worms, the entity had only one goal: to devour every living thing in sight.

"What a nuisance!" Mi Chen dodged the entity’s pursuit. He didn't want to engage in a protracted fight, but the entity clearly wouldn't let him go. Flesh morphed into tentacles, lashing out from every direction.

"It’s too late."

Speed alone would not allow him to break through. Mi Chen made a split-second decision. If he couldn't run, he would have to destroy the threat first.

Mi Chen’s stance shifted. Holding nothing back, he ignited the last of his mana. A surge of potent energy erupted toward the sky.

*Blood Frenzy! Steel-Force Armguard! Sacred Blood-Slaying Blade!*

He triggered all three skills simultaneously. Violent mana flooded his blade. The Blood-Thirsty Blade trembled, its soaring killing intent rivaling the aura of the curse itself.

This was a strike pushed to the absolute limit. Mi Chen focused his energy, shedding all wasted motion. He simply swung forward.

*Slash!*

In an instant, a silver blade-light, like lightning tearing through the night sky, exploded outward. Coincidentally, this was his third strike—a guaranteed critical hit!

The blade fell, and in an instant, flesh flew everywhere. The tentacles lashing out from all sides, along with Wan Bieling’s mutated torso, were shattered in an instant. Fragments of flesh and the corpses of puppet worms rained down. Because Wan Bieling had become a curse entity and absorbed all the power of the puppet worms, Mi Chen did not suffer any backlash from killing them.

The mountain-sized curse entity had been blasted open by Mi Chen’s blow, but he knew this wasn't enough to kill it completely. It would only buy him time.

"I hope it’s enough!"

The side effects of mana exhaustion blurred his vision. Mi Chen forced his heavy body to move, seizing every moment to flee toward the Slave Graveyard.

Just then, Wan Bieling’s voice echoed from above. "My... soul... casket... my... soul casket..."

Her head, connected to intestines that stretched from the shattered flesh, hung in mid-air like a long, coiling snake. Her hollow eyes were fixed solely on Mi Chen below.

"Damn it, how can her obsession be so deep?" Mi Chen gasped.

"MY SOUL CASKET!!!" Wan Bieling let out an inhuman shriek, opening her fang-filled maw and lunging at Mi Chen. The speed was so great that, in his current state, there was no way to dodge.

*Is this really where I die?*

Suddenly, a beam of white light descended from the heavens. It seemed as if space itself had been sliced open—no, it *had* been sliced open. The massive curse entity was instantly severed in two. The fluctuation of the curse vanished, and with it, the twisted soul of Wan Bieling perished instantly.

Mi Chen’s eyes widened, staring ahead in disbelief. A figure slowly descended, hands in his pockets, standing in the void, draped in white robes.

"A little late. I thought I’d gotten lost again..." the man said casually.

The curse entity, a match for a Level 3 monster, had been eradicated in a heartbeat. The mana fluctuation was at least that of a 4-Star Hunter. Who exactly was he?

The man strolled over to Mi Chen. He looked to be in his thirties, with slicked-back hair, a deathly pale complexion, and dark circles under his eyes. He spoke with a lethargic air: "Hmm... tell me, friend, have you seen a small black ball?"

...

Several hours later, at the largest central hospital in Junyang City.

Qi Xiaoyun lay in a hospital bed. "Nothing serious," the doctor said. "Just too much mana exhaustion. She’ll be fine after some rest."

"Thank you, Doctor," Mi Chen replied.

The doctor glanced at Mi Chen and gave a stern warning: "As for you, you’ve pushed your body to the brink with excessive mana usage. If you don't recover properly, your body will eventually tear itself apart from the strain!"

"I'll be careful."

Since the patient had said so, the doctor could only leave it at that. Mi Chen had gone from a mana level of 100 to 500 in just a few days. The speed was so absurd that no one would believe it. A 1-Star Hunter usually takes three to five years to reach 2-Star, and at least another five to reach 3-Star. As for the leap from 3-Star to 4-Star, it wasn't even a matter of time; for most, it was a lifelong, unreachable peak. 4-Star was the watershed between genius and the ordinary. There was a saying that if a Hunter didn't reach 4-Star before the age of thirty, they never would. Once a Hunter reached 4-Star, the whole world changed.

"So, did you remember anything?"

As Mi Chen sank into thought, a voice interrupted him. He turned to find the white-robed 4-Star Hunter standing there. When had he arrived? Mi Chen hadn't sensed him at all. If a 4-Star was this powerful, what of 5-Star or 6-Star hunters? Mi Chen felt an immense sense of pressure.

"No need to be so nervous. We're practically acquaintances now," the man said, patting Mi Chen on the shoulder.

At that moment, the door opened. It was Meng Shi.

"Captain Mu, you’re too fast! I couldn't keep up," Meng Shi panted. He saw Mi Chen and waved. Mi Chen found it strange; Meng Shi seemed quite familiar with this Captain Mu.

Meng Shi walked over to the man and introduced him to Mi Chen. "I forgot to mention this earlier. This is Captain Mu Heng of the Hunter Enforcement Team, under the Secret Realm Administration."

"Captain Mu, this is my classmate, Mi Chen. I’ve already told you about him. His record is clean."

Mu Heng’s pitch-black eyes were deep as an abyss. He stared at Mi Chen, examining him as coolly and emotionlessly as a precision machine. After a moment, he spoke: "Whether his record is clean or not doesn't matter."

"I am merely curious how, in just a few days, your mana grew from that of a 1-Star Hunter to a 2-Star."

The words struck Mi Chen like a bolt of lightning. Even Meng Shi was startled; he had thought Mi Chen’s mana was quite ordinary, no different from before. Mi Chen never imagined that Mu Heng could see through his disguise so easily.

"Captain Mu, I’m not sure I understand what you mean."