"The Black Light Hand… The Silver Hand… Augustus…" Hols was ghastly pale. The composure he had before this was long gone. He was completely aware of the kind of forces he had provoked.
The God's Eye… The Devil Tooth…
If what the young man said was true, then he was in deep trouble right now…
Lu Sheng's expression was calm. He was even smiling faintly with admiration. He stared at Augustus who was slowly making his way toward himself.
The Black Light's troops were swiftly dwindling. The high-ranked painters of the blood spirit guards were completely freed of the poison in their bodies.
"To think that you're able to perfectly detoxify my poison cocktail." Lu Sheng's voice was filled with dense admiration.
He could sense that his blood spirit guards were not the only ones freed of the poison.
The controlling toxins which he used on the Painting Saints of the Silver Hand were also removed. In other words, from this moment on, he had completely lost his extremely vast dark painters empire. He was now alone.
This was the result of Augustus undoing his controlling toxins in the bodies of his subordinates.
"I didn't expect that the mastermind behind everything was a…" Augustus did not complete his sentence. He continued walking until he was on top of a roof level with Lu Sheng. The two of them locked eyes. His gaze was filled with dense fury and respect. These two conflicting emotions had surfaced in his eyes at the same time.
Lu Sheng's eyes were filled with pure calmness with a hint of admiration.
"Surrender yourself," Augustus said drily. "The four grand halls of the Silver Hand have already formed an alliance with me. The elites who mastered the painting soul and the painting heart have had all their toxins removed by me. You have nothing now."
His voice barely faded when figures covered in peculiar veins appeared in the surroundings of the Zhuo Family's mansion.
The God's Eye's elites were not the only ones here. Even the four great Painting Saints of the Silver Hand are here.
Everyone surrounded the mansion in tacit agreement.
The painters who still had poison within their bodies were captured and killed. The situation was quickly settled.
Lu Sheng was indifferent. "So you don't understand as well?"
"What more do you have to say?" Augustus raised his arm. When he lowered it, it would be the signal for everyone to move in.
'The Silver Master, Silver Hand's greatest mastermind, the greatest malignant tumor in the world. I must remove him today.'
"Do you think I was relying on the Silver Hand's power? You're wrong. It's not me who's relying on the Silver Hand, it's the Silver hand… that's relying on me!"
As Lu Sheng spoke, his muscle quickly bulged. Peculiar dark golden veins surfaced on his body. His clothes were immediately torn from inside, revealing his strong and twisted steel-like muscle contours.
"An attack!?" Augustus's pupils narrowed. He brought his arm down with force. He was the first to leap into action. He charged toward Lu Sheng.
Countless layers of white feathered wings appeared in the air behind him before crumbling and scattering. The crumbling of every pair of wings brought him an unparalleled boost in speed.
In the blink of an eye, dozens of pairs of wings had crumbled. His body was now charging forward at an unbelievable speed.
"Divine Gust!" A strong wind suddenly blew before Augustus. The high velocity of the wind ionized the air, and formed a bluish-black plasma ball.
"Silver Master, your era has come to an end!"
He wielded the plasma ball and fixed his eyes on Lu Sheng, whom he was closing in on with lightning speed. He felt strangely calm in his heart.
"Boom!"
The plasma ball hit its target. With its terrifyingly high temperature of more than 100,000 degrees Celsius, it was enough to instantly melt anything it touched.
Augustus leapt backward and landed softly on a roof. He was just about to exhale with relief.
"He… He's not dead!?" He suddenly heard the surprised exclamation of the people nearby. He hastily looked in the direction where the plasma ball exploded.
A huge cluster of blue flames burned violently. However, a big and tall figure stood silently within it.
It was the Silver Master!
Within the flames, Lu Sheng's lips parted. He seemed to be smiling.
"How… Impossible!" Everyone else who saw this was shocked.
It was just unbelievable for someone to survive the huge explosion and raging flames.
A silence hung over the entire battlefield.
Hols and the others were rescued out of the mansion. When they witnessed this scene, they were starting to feel numb from being awed.
However, they instantly understood why Lu Sheng was able to remain completely calm through it all.
With this level of strength, he truly had the right to look down on everything with scorn.
"Bam!"
The flames instantly erupted. A ring of white gas spread from Lu Sheng's spot.
Augustus did not even have time to react when he felt an immense and terrifying power crashing into his chest.
He hastily raised an arm to protect his chest.
"Boom!"
A huge pit with a diameter of a dozen meters suddenly appeared in the ground. Augustus lay there with his face facing upward. His body was filled with bloodied scars, and his face was ghastly pale.
Lu Sheng landed softly on the ground. His size was only twice the size of an ordinary person. It did not look too outrageous, but his nimbleness was far greater than before.
This was how he benefited from this world's painting path.
The combination of the Devil Shadow Fist Emperors power and the painting path of this world allowed him to reach his own peak. It was also the peak allowed by this world.
"Tattattattattat!"
Suddenly, all of the helicopters started firing volleys at Lu Sheng. The large-caliber rounds blasted holes of various sizes all around him.
"Instant Destruction!"
Lu Sheng turned around, and his right fist instantly disappeared.
"Boom!"
The two helicopters 200 meters away directly in front of him suddenly found two gaping holes in their fuselage in the blink of an eye. The inner surfaces of the holes were extremely smooth and had a slight arc. It was as if they had been penetrated by two huge fists.
"Bam!"
The big building behind the helicopters was also missing a huge chunk from its middle floors. From afar, the missing portion had the shape of a huge fist.
Lu Sheng tapped the ground lightly with his foot.
There was a rumble.
Countless rubble ricocheted in all directions. A dozen helicopters around him practically erupted into balls of flames, and crashed to the ground.
After doing all this, Lu Sheng slowly walked toward Augustus, who was still lying inside the pit.
"You have the potential of an expert, Augustus. Come, become my disciple. I'll give you unparalleled power… A power to rule the world!" Lu Sheng walked to the edge of the pit and slowly extended a hand toward Augustus.
Nearby, the damaged building gradually fell over to the side. It crashed heavily onto the ground and let out a loud sound.
Augustus was expressionless. "Are you sure?"
"Of course," Lu Sheng replied surely.
"I…" Augustus wanted to say something.
"Kaw!"
All of a sudden, a huge flock of crows flew across the skies. The countless red-eyed crows descended from the skies like arrows as they shot toward Lu Sheng.
"This is the technique I've taught you, and now you're using it against me?" Lu Sheng looked up at the black mass of crows in the skies.
"Fiery Destruction!" A big and tall man covered in black painted patterns leapt down from a distant helicopter. He landed firmly on a roof to the right.
His voice barely faded when the diving crows naturally morphed into dark red balls of flames, which fumed with blue toxic smoke as they charged toward Lu Sheng.
Lu Sheng extended an arm and clenched his fist.
"I'll show you what the true limits of the painting path look like."
He slowly loosened his fist. Dark red threads shot out from his palm. The threads circled around him, and formed similar dark red crows as well.
"Heavenly Fire Destruction!"
The threads in Lu Sheng's palm spun wildly. The crows around him cawed, and charged toward the countless flaming crows like raindrops in reverse.
"Pooh! Pooh! Pooh! Pooh!"
The crows negated each other. In no time, crows from both sides were gone. However, Lu Sheng was still creating a huge number of dark red crows.
The big and tall man was one of the most powerful Painting Saints of the world. However, when he saw this scene, his expression changed as well. He hastily scattered painting dyes. The dyes morphed into countless patterns and runes, which he attempted to use to confuse the incoming dark red crows.
"I've taught you guys everything you know. Now, it's time to take it back…" Lu Sheng made a grabbing motion.
Countless dark red crows passed through the dyes and rammed into the man, and he was instantly ignited.
"Eye of the Storm Spear!"
There was a sudden loud shout from his side. Lu Sheng turned to look. He saw Augustus wielding a spear formed by countless ions which he threw at him with lightning speed.
He raised his right leg, and it suddenly vanished in thin air.
"Boom!"
The spear shattered instantly. Augustus's sternum caved inward. He reeled backward as if he was rammed by a warship. He crashed into the middle of the big building behind him.
Amid the loud rumble, a huge crater with a diameter of several dozen meters appeared on the building in the blink of an eye.
Lu Sheng was about to follow up with another attack.
"Heaven's Gauze!"
In the blink of an eye, hundreds of densely packed white threads emanated from behind him. The threads wildly entangled him, and eventually formed a cocoon.
In an area of several hundred meters, dozens of painters carried their frames; the threads shot ceaselessly out of them, and flew toward Lu Sheng at high speed.
A figure familiar to Lu Sheng landed softly behind him.
"Jelian… so you've betrayed me as well." Lu Sheng turned around with slight surprise.
Jelian was the first peak painter he had truly subdued. After overcoming the restrictions of his terminal illness, he had successfully attained the rank of a Painting Saint. He could be considered the most powerful painter in the Silver Hand besides Lu Sheng.
"I don't want to be a puppet my whole life, that is all." There were complicated emotions in Jelian's eyes. He looked at Lu Sheng from a distance.
"Pchht!"
A metallic rod suddenly appeared in his grasp. The blackish-silver rod extended by sections, and quickly turned into a balanced weapon more than three meters in length.
"Do it!" Jelian took a sudden step forward. He broke through the sonic barrier and instantly appeared at Lu Sheng's side. He swept sideways with the rod.
At seemingly the same time, several figures appeared around Lu Sheng. They each aimed their weapons at Lu Sheng's vital points.
Augustus's body glowed with white radiance. His wounds healed quickly. He leapt to his feet, brought his palms together, and pulled them apart. A flickering arc of electricity appeared.
"Thunder Emperor…" The painting veins on his face shone with blue light. A net of electricity expanded behind him, and dropped mercilessly toward Lu Sheng.
However, in an instant, there was a flurry of movement. He felt weightless. When he finally registered the change, his surroundings had changed as well.
Augustus felt terrified. He was standing alone in a vast, spacious palace.
There was a throne in the highest and darkest point of the palace. To his surprise, the person who sat upright on the throne was Lu Sheng, whom he was supposed to be fighting right now.
"This is… an illusion!?" He could not believe that he, the most powerful Painting Saint, would fall prey to an illusion.
Augustus's gaze sharpened. The Silver Master's powers had far surpassed his expectations. However, he still had a chance of winning. There was still hope!
If only…
Augustus quickly materialized his spear. He charged at Lu Sheng through the air.
"Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!"
As he took his steps, he felt the next step more laborious than the previous one. His knees complained, and his muscles trembled furiously. His clothes were quickly drenched in sweat.