Materialistic
Yang Chen stood there on his own, seemingly zoned out in his thoughts. He appeared to be intrigued by the show of flames before him.
Just when the crowd was filled with immense anticipation, Motakuto gave a screeching cry!
“Woah!”
That cry left the audience in chills.
The skirts of flame miraculously transformed into a swarm of hornets as they hovered past Yang Chen and flanked Motakuto’s body.
Skirts of blinding flames and immense heat dashed straight towards Motakuto before she was swallowed whole.
The elegant red kimono along with its owner was burnt to a crisp in the demon fire. The very skill created to murder Yang Chen came back to become the conclusion to Motakuto’s life .
Before everyone could wrap their heads around what was happening, Rokurokubi, who was encircling the air above them, cried out in agony. The moment the last cry escaped his mouth, blood started to pour from every orifice of his body.
It forced its way out of his skull. His brain seemed to have collapsed in on itself from the immense pressure. His bones started to bend and break, eventually clenching up like a fist before giving way.
The scenes were as gory if not more than the scenes of horror films in the eyes of the spectators.
While all that was happening, Yang Chen remained standing on the same spot from the beginning. He had not moved an inch while the events unfolded before him.
As the skull-crushing moment took place, Rokurokubi, like an age-old skeleton, perished into green dust and scattered into the air. Not even his clothes were spared.
Right at this moment, the surge of flames warped itself to form a humanoid being. It was none other than Nurarihyon, who had tried to unleash himself upon his opponent, but in turn, burned his men alive.
Nurarihyon held himself up with his word, trying his best not to fall over. His gaze was fixated upon Yang Chen. “You… How did you do it? Why couldn’t I control my own movements at all?!”
Yang Chen was seen with a glimpse of genuine amazement. “The technique you used earlier was derived from the burning of your own demon essence, wasn’t it? Oh, so that’s why it was so powerful. Bad luck though, having met an opponent like me. A trick like that will have no effect on me. Not before, not now, not ever. But to your credit, at least it was a decent show.”
“I might be defeated today, and I’ll gladly meet Snow Girl in hell if I die. But there’s still one thing I must know before that. How is it that you’re able to throw me around like a rag doll despite not having a single ounce of energy in you?” Nurarihyon unyieldingly questioned.
Yang Chen was slightly agitated. “It’s not that I’m unwilling to tell you, but even I can’t fully explain it myself. If you know, you know. If you don’t… well, there isn’t really anything I can do to explain.”
“Cut the crap. Shoot him if you want to live!”
Seidel and Stark who were watching from the sidelines were absolutely horrified at what they had just witnessed. With desperation clouding their minds, they resorted to the last and oldest trick in the book—obtaining victory with guns.
The SEALs elites instantly came back into conscience. Despite their genuine fear of the enemy, they were trained to bear the scars of war and had instantly come back from the shock. They immediately arranged themselves into formation and aimed to target Yang Chen’s weak spots.
“Fire!”
Ratatat!
The sounds of huge American made weaponry laying waste to the harbor filled the air. The sheer number of high-caliber bullets concentrated into one spot would easily be far deadlier than a bomb attack.
Seidel and Stark were not hoping for much, but they were well aware that the news received by Blue Storm was falsified by Yang Chen.
If this man had never been affected by bullets in the past, what would these enhanced bullets do to him now?
All they witnessed, however, were the bullets being turned into dust mere inches away from Yang Chen.
BANG BANG BANG!
Light explosions could be heard all around the vicinity from the friction between the bullets and the air. But their efforts were all in vain.
“How’s that possible…”
Witnessing this was far more devastating than anyone who could catch bullets with bare hands. After all, it was not possible for a single person to deflect thousands of bullets a second, much less turn them into dust!
But Yang Chen nonetheless did it without lifting a finger.
Seidel and Stark knew that retreating was not an option. So in their last-ditch attempt at victory, they decided to face him head-on.
They knew it would hardly dent him, but sitting around and waiting for backup was an even less promising idea.
It was their last hurrah.
There were sparks of blinding green rays in Seidel’s pupils as he gathered his strength and went for a thunderous clap.
All around Yang Chen were translucent air blades flying towards him. They were formed by forcing immense pressure through the vacuum of space. This attack could render even the thickest of iron slabs useless.
Yang Chen glanced at the caucasian brute, and before Seidel could react, all his summoned blades fractured into thin air.
At this moment, Stark came up to Yang Chen with his fist charged scorching red. The heat was so extreme that it vaporized the moisture from the air around it. Without the slightest bit of hesitation, he hurled it towards Yang Chen.
Yang Chen lifted his hand to block the attack before it was even able to reach within a meter of himself.
“Interesting, so that explains why you could bear the heat that would even melt steel. Who knew your arm turned out to have been made from metal alloy.” Yang Chen chuckled in slight mesmerization with his gaze fixed upon Stark’s hand.
Stark was dumbfounded. Not a word could come out from that mouth of his.
His blazing fist was cooled within a split second, returning to its original color.
“I’m on a hurry to pay my greetings to that commissioner of yours. Looks like I’ll have to put our little game on hold.”
Yang Chen let out a friendly smile as he walked back into the direction he came from.
A few steps later, Yang Chen vanished into the night, becoming nothing more than a bad dream.
A gush of sea breeze hurled across the harbor, on the eerily quiet venue. Everyone stood, frozen like statues. One by one, they started to fade like the demons before. All that was left of them was dust in the wind.
Everything came and left like a nightmare.
Yang Chen was hardly emotional about their deaths. He knew that Robert Mueller had sent them as sacrificial lambs.
Yang Chen knew there was something Mueller had in mind when he told him to stay for the next three days.
Unfortunately, from the moment Mueller had that thought, he was already fighting a losing battle.
As for the magnitude of his cultivation, Yang Chen was still keeping it in the dark.
Having been struck by Tai Qing Heavenly Lightning, Yang Chen felt that all the True Yuan was drained from within his body. The Endless Resolve Restoration Scripture in him had evolved into a form unfamiliar to him, shapeless and unprecedented.
Yang Chen heard from Abbess Yun Miao that this technique was invented by an incredibly talented cultivator back then from Shushan corrupted by bloodlust. Since then, less than five individuals had been able to practise it, and the best of them was undoubtedly Yang Chen himself. He, however, was still a little skeptical about it.
It was because the benefits Endless Resolve Restoration Scripture brought far surpassed other techniques of internal energy, which Yang Chen believed was created by someone before the ancestor of Shushan. That ancestor could’ve learned it from somewhere but announced himself as the inventor.
Naturally, these were all just Yang Chen’s assumptions.
All he knew was that if he somehow still could not find a worthy opponent, there was no way he could comprehend his current situation.
When Poseidon came to bid him farewell after his recovery, Yang Chen had the urge to have a duel with him again, hoping that it would answer some questions he had. But he kept quiet because he believed that Poseidon was already not an equal match for himself…
He knew if he were to boast about it, everyone else would jeer at this arrogance. But he was so sure that a fight with Poseidon was just going to end up one-sided with him as the victor. So what was the point of fighting?
But ever since the incident, Yang Chen felt that not only did he lose the understanding of his cultivation, he gained a personality change. He got light-hearted than before.
Nevertheless, his passions had been amplified since then. Women, cars, and liquor had meant more to him now than before. Which could only explain why he teased Sally so much or had his intense sexual encounter with Xiao Zhiqing.
As opposed to the usual peace in mind one would be enlightened with on their descent to divinity, Yang Chen was sure he was going the opposite way. His materialistic desires seemed to have taken the front seat in his brain.
Yang Chen wondered if he was considered to be in Tribulation Passing stage, but one thing was for sure—he was already experiencing tribulation. Not the lighting tribulation, but the tribulations of life.
When Yang Chen’s silhouette reappeared, it was on Christen’s estate balcony on the second floor.
He glanced over at the looming sunset before turning around and going straight into the house. He currently only had dinner in his mind, ignoring Mueller for now.