After being knocked out by Ricky's palm attack, Sham fell on the shabby competition platform. He shook his head hard and yelled in rage. His usual calmness as an assassin faded away as his eyes filled up with fear.
The most powerful ultimate skill in his art of slaughtering was the Shadowy Fatal Attack—a fusion of the Shadowy Replication and his strongest slaughtering cultivation methods. He had to exert his full power just to activate this skill.
More than that, once this lethal attack had been made, there was no turning back. Theoretically, even if Sham didn't managed to kill Ricky, both of them were still likely to get injured by Sham's attack.
Surprisingly, however, Ricky remained unharmed after the attack. On the other hand, Sham was seriously wounded, and his power was completely plundered by the mysterious power of Ricky's palm attack.
Such mysterious power was so terrifyingly mighty that the moment it began to take effect, Sham was forced to exert all his power in vain. In that moment, he was helpless—just like a lamb to the slaughter.
What frightened Sham even more was how, right from the beginning, Ricky paid no attention to the shadowy replications of Sham's sword at all. It was obvious that Ricky could distinguish the original sword from the shadowy duplicate ones created in Sham's Shadowy Fatal Attack.
What formidable power!
Sham saw himself as a genius and star in the Realm of Wildness with years of slaughter experiences. If he fought against someone mighty like Hoffman, the fight would just end in a draw.
But his genius was rendered useless by Ricky—a warrior a grade lower than him. He was so easily defeated by Ricky that his conceitedness and invincible arrogance were devastated
Now, he felt frightened and perplexed about what to do.
"You must be wondering why you were defeated. Well, let me tell you the reason. This martial skill is called Vitality Plundering Palm. If an opponent, less powerful than me, goes all out with no defense in a fight, his power will be entirely plundered once this skill is practiced," Ricky explained in a slightly condescending tone as he glared at his frightened opponent.
The Vitality Plundering Palm was a pivotal destructive marital skill developed from Ricky's comprehension of the Chaotic Fire Skill and the legacies of the Ruin Demi-spiritual Emperor, including the Ruin Fire and the martial arts inheritance.
The Ruin Fire was already originally at the demi-spiritual emperor level sinc
to even imagine what would happen next. They were completely helpless—there was nothing they could do to help Ricky. They couldn't enter other competition platforms of the Fortune Pond like the one where Ricky and Sham fought.
...
"Ricky, you are indeed extremely powerful. It's astonishing that you were able to identify the original sword of my Shadowy Fatal Attack and its attack direction," said Sham, as he stabbed deeper into Ricky's body with the soft-iron sword.
"But you will never know my actual ability to exert the Shadowy Replication. I can not only create eight shadowy replications but also swiftly transpose myself and one of them, in order to trick you into mistaking one of my duplicate counterfeits for the real me.
Well, that's why I deserve to be the invincible genius assassin of the Endless Shadow.
You may rest in peace now, Ricky."
"Indeed, I didn't spot your final trick, but you seem to be overlooking the most important reason why I, a warrior at the ninth grade of Bone Reinforcement, can challenge you, a demi-immortal assassin," Ricky responded coldly after hearing what Sham said. A murderous expression flashed in Ricky's eyes.
Then, golden light started shining brightly on Ricky's body, and his momentum started building up. In an instant, his top was torn to shreds, and his strong, flawless golden body was exposed.
It immediately became apparent that the soft-iron sword stabbed Ricky's abdomen in vain. Instead, it merely became a lump under the power of Ricky's Nine-degree Body Refining Formula.
"No! It can't be! It's impossible!" Sham exclaimed in sheer panic as he witnessed the unexpected scene.