"Aaaaah!!!"
Rotten, stinking flesh smashed onto his face. The skin and flesh corroded by gastric acid gave off a hissing sound and emitted a pungent, thick smoke.
"Monster! You deserve to die!" Xu Hanlin's spirit completely collapsed.
"You can't refuse what I give you," Su Heng said, his brows tightly furrowed.
Rip!
He reached forward and pulled hard.
Xu Hanlin's entire tongue was savagely yanked out; his pupils dilated, unable to bear or even imagine such torture.
"Do you remember now?" Seeing his eyes rolling back, Su Heng smiled contentedly.
Su Heng whispered in his ear, mouth close to it.
Unfortunately...
With his tongue pulled out, Xu Hanlin could only make gasping, hoarse sounds, unable to answer Su Heng's question anymore.
His tense body gradually relaxed, and Su Heng shook his head with a hint of regret.
"It's broken already?"
Crack!
He squeezed hard with his palm, breaking the neck vertebrae.
Xu Hanlin's body fell limply to the ground, and Su Heng was about to crush his head underfoot.
Whoosh!
A flash of red light.
The sheep-headed, human-faced Taotie appeared once again in front of Su Heng.
Its two huge, coiled horns lunged forward suddenly, causing Su Heng's foot to land elsewhere and the ground to shatter thunderously. Meanwhile, large cracks emerged on the Taotie's horns, and its head bent at an odd angle, blood oozing from between its eyes and nose.
"Long time no see, Taotie," Su Heng said with a smile. "Now that you've recovered your full strength, you seem to be quite average."
"Damn it, even I, a cold-hearted and ruthless demon, can't stand to watch you do this," Taotie cursed angrily.
"Then I'm sorry, I've never had any empathy for my enemies," Su Heng said with a cold laugh.
"How so, do you think you have the power to stop me!?"
"Damn it, I really didn't want to see you, you freak," Taotie panted heavily, trembling with fear all over.
It suddenly turned around, its tongue lashing out fiercely, and Xu Hanlin's body vanished from the ground.
"I can't stop you, but there is someone who can," Taotie said with a cold laugh.
"Who?" Su Heng raised an eyebrow.
Rip!
In the next instant, a streak of white light flashed, and a huge snake's body wound around Su Heng.
The pure white snake's body shimmered with mysterious golden runes, swaying and condensing, slowly tightening and exerting pressure from within.
Su Heng seemed to be engulfed in a vortex.
He looked down, a rare expression of shock on his face.
It wasn't because of the force coiled around him, but because of the person who stopped him.
"Liu Qingqing! How is this possible?"
His heart had been crushed by himself, and his throat torn apart.
Even the most tenacious of demons would surely be dead beyond resurrection after such devastating injuries, let alone continue to battle.
Hiss!
Liu Qingqing's pure white and smooth scales rubbed against Su Heng's pitch black, ferocious Scale Armor.
The sound was sharp and grating, like a train screeching to a halt, sparking a shower of sparks.
The gluttonous beast's gaze was heavy as it gave him a deep look.
Boom!
It turned and butted forward.
Following the path where Su Heng had previously caused damage, it burst through the wall and leapt forward, turning into a streak of bloody light, escaping rapidly from the Demon Suppression Tower.
Su Heng's eyebrows were tightly furrowed as he looked down carefully and finally spotted something amiss on the White Snake.
The position where its heart should have been was thoroughly pierced through.
But it wasn't completely empty.
A multitude of golden runes formed an energy heart, allowing blood to continue supplying the body. Liu Qingqing's talent lay in transforming all things; she could not only manipulate all things with runes but also strengthen herself.
Su Heng didn't think the creature would appear before him anytime soon.
As for the next time they meet... with the speed at which Su Heng's strength was improving, the gap would only widen until the creature fell into utter despair.
"By the way!" Su Heng suddenly said, "Where is Li Daoxuan?"
"There was such an intense fight here, several streets have been worn away, yet I haven't seen a trace of that old fellow."
"Uh..."
Zhou Guiyu hurriedly said, "The Bureau Chief led a team to the Hong Family fortress."
He spilled everything about Li Daoxuan's plan, and after a moment of thought, the two sensed something wrong with the situation.
"Half the night has passed, and under normal circumstances, that guy should have come back by now, but there's no sign of him," Zhou Guiyu's face went pale, his fingertips trembling slightly as he became more horrified, "Could it be that the old man encountered some trouble at the fortress?"
"Very likely!" Su Heng realized the urgency of the situation and immediately ordered, "Leave some people to guard here, the rest follow me to provide support."
Whoosh!
Before his words ended, Su Heng's figure blurred, suddenly vanishing into the moonlight.
Zhou Guiyu didn't even have time to be surprised by this when he looked up to see a gust of wind coming straight at him, which was Su Heng doubling back.
A large hand reached out, grabbing Zhou Guiyu's shoulder.
"What do you mean by this, Tower Master?" Zhou Guiyu was puzzled, the gust filling his ears and mouth, making his spoken words somewhat muffled.
"I don't know the way, I need someone to guide me," Su Heng explained with a slight sense of apology.
"..." Zhou Guiyu was speechless.
*
*
*
Bang!
At the Hong Family fortress, Li Daoxuan looked up and threw a punch, colliding with Hong Dingtian and sending him flying.
Hong Jiuxiang seized the opportunity, his robust figure turned into a wisp of green smoke, instantly closing in and landing a heavy slap in front of Li Daoxuan.
Spurt!
The protective Spirit Scale Armor trembled violently, finally shattering after successive hits.
Li Daoxuan grunted, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.
He used the momentum to leap forward, fists flying in the air, and within moments, several elders of a noble family were knocked down to the ground.
At this point, Li Daoxuan was bathed in blood, exhausted, and it was clear to anyone that he was nearing his limit. Yet even so, in his Ape Demon form, with faint red light in his eyes, the terrifying aura of evil radiated from his body, deterring anyone from approaching easily.
But...
The Demon Suppression Bureau experts who had come with him were now less than half.
And the situation in Baihua County's inner city was still unknown.
Being cautious for a hundred years.
Yet in the end, he was backed into such a corner, beset on all sides with enemies.
Li Daoxuan lifted his head to look at the bright moon in the sky, his heart filled with indescribable regret and anger, perhaps even more a sense of powerlessness.
"Children, I will lead you to break free from this place," Li Daoxuan let out a long howl.
Two family elders tried to stop him upon seeing this, but just as they moved, the fearsome Ape Demon was already in front of them.
Rip!
With a forward grab, both men's heads exploded.
Li Daoxuan tapped the ground with his toes, advancing further, only to find another shadow in black clothing below a dirt wall.
Bang!
The Ape Demon punched through the air.
"Uncle Master!" The man's face showed horror as his flesh writhed.
Li Daoxuan's murderous intent was boiling over, but for some reason, his punch softened slightly. The punch that should have hit the forehead landed squarely in the chest. Murong Hanshuang's cry stopped abruptly as the impact sent him flying backward, crashing into the dirt wall, buried beneath a pile of rubble.
Such a sudden outburst, truly like a crazed Ape Demon, unstoppable by anyone, instantly cleared a path.
The remaining members of the Demon Suppression Bureau followed suit, swiftly breaking out of the fortress and escaping.
"Father, why didn't you stop him?" Hong Dingtian appeared beside Hong Jiuxiang, his face full of confusion.
"This old man, though his vitality is almost spent, is at his most dangerous. It's not worth gambling our lives against him," Hong Jiuxiang's face was shadowed by the firelight, and feeling something, he looked up to see a flock of bats flapping their wings across the treetops in the night.
"Moreover, even if we don't make a move, there will be others who will take care of these threats for us," Hong Jiuxiang said coldly, with a sneer in his voice.
"Demons?" Hong Dingtian's face showed realization, "I see."