The people who had just emerged from the passageway, tasked with surrounding and killing Luke, all stopped in their tracks when they saw Lu Tian get instantly killed.
The man standing before Lu Tian’s corpse with a black blade in hand wore a smile as demonic as anything they had ever seen. An invisible killing aura spread through the arena, mingling with the stench of blood in the air and making it hard to breathe.
"Idiot. To be so careless when facing someone as powerful as Luke..."
Fei Wangfang’s face darkened as he looked at Lu Tian’s corpse. Gripping a spear, he immediately activated [Divine Demon] and fixed his gaze on Luke, yet he did not attack at once.
There had been four of them assigned to surround and kill Luke, all disciples of Tiger Niko. They had originally planned to attack from four directions at once and cut Luke down. But Lu Tian had charged in alone before the others were in position.
Even with only three of them left, the advantage should still have been theirs... or at least, it should have been.
Fei Wangfang was certain he had been watching Luke from the shadows the entire time, yet he could not understand where Luke had produced that black blade from.
If the three of them had surrounded an unarmed Luke with weapons in hand, he would have been confident of victory. But now that Luke had a weapon as well, the situation was far less certain.
And there was also Kuroki Gensai, the Demon Lance, an absurdly powerful fighter. Even unarmed, Kuroki would have no trouble holding one of them off.
Bang—
The Demon Lance collided with metal. When Fei Wangfang saw his junior Ranjo get knocked back, he frowned deeply.
"You have defiled the duel between Lord Luke and me. You have prepared yourselves for the consequences, haven’t you?"
Kuroki stared directly at Ranjo, who had approached from his side. He was empty-handed, yet he looked like the one holding the advantage.
"What? Not going to attack?"
With Prison Demon in hand, Luke stepped forward, wearing a smile Fei Wangfang found chilling. "Show me your spear technique."
The next instant, as if his fighting spirit had been drawn in, Fei Wangfang attacked despite himself.
The pressure bearing down on him was like a mountain crashing into the sea. He felt that if he did not attack now, he would never get another chance to do so.
Empowered by [Divine Demon], a cold flash arrived first, and then his spear shot forth like a dragon!
It was a strike of godlike speed, containing the ultimate power of his [Divine Demon] state and the essence of his spear technique.
Under that extreme pressure, his mind suddenly became incomparably clear. The instant he thrust his spear, his nerves vanished. In their place came an exhilarating sense of freedom, and the road ahead appeared perfectly clear to him.
A point. He saw a point. For the first time in his clash with Luke, he saw an opening!
I can do this. I’m faster!
The tip of my spear can reach his throat!
In his [Divine Demon] state, even time seemed to slow. He could see everything within the cracks between seconds. He saw his spear approaching Luke’s vital point. He saw the smile disappear from Luke’s face. He saw Luke’s expression turn cold. He saw... Luke tilt his head slightly.
The spear grazed Luke’s neck, leaving behind a thin line of blood.
Before Fei Wangfang could even register his shock, a tearing pain ripped from his waist to his chest.
He had been cut!?
When had Luke drawn his blade!?
My thrust missed!?
How did Luke dodge!?
In his [Divine Demon] state, his severed heart burst like a balloon swollen to its limit and pierced by a needle, blooming into a scarlet flower.
Fei Wangfang’s body fell backward, kicking up dust as it struck the floor. Blood gushed from his mouth. His eyes remained fixed on Luke as he used his last strength to ask the doubt gnawing at his heart.
"Am I... weak?"
Luke did not look at Fei Wangfang on the ground. Instead, he turned toward another Worm operative, Long Min, who had been preparing to attack him but now stood frozen stiff. Luke touched the small wound on his neck with his left hand.
"That was a beautiful thrust."
As he spoke, Prison Demon flipped in his right hand. Its blade plunged into Fei Wangfang’s skull, ending his suffering.
His eyes met Long Min’s trembling gaze. "What? Aren’t you going to show me your swordsmanship?"
In the next instant, Luke vanished with Flash Step. When he reappeared, he was already behind Long Min, and a head rolled across the floor.
Luke flicked the blood from his blade. "Seems there was no need after all."
He was about to claim Ranjo’s head as well, only to find that Kuroki had already driven the Demon Lance into Ranjo’s heart.
Kuroki Gensai might have been a martial arts master, but he was also an assassin. This was not a tournament spar. Once Kuroki went in for the kill, Ranjo had almost no ability to resist.
"Senior Kuroki, let’s put our match on hold. We deal with the Worm first."
With that, Luke rushed out of the arena. He knew Kuroki would understand. Kuroki’s master had known Mukaku Gaoh, so Kuroki naturally knew what the Worm was.
Luke had no intention of clearing out the small fry inside the venue. For one thing, he had discovered that Prison Demon was rather picky. Of the people he had just cut down, only Fei Wangfang had provided much growth. Only killing true experts earned it more growth.
More importantly, he was worried about the Kure Clan. Erioh Kure had ignored his warning and led his people out before the incident began. If the leader of the Westward Faction was among the invaders, the two sides had likely already begun slaughtering each other.
They had history together. Luke did not want to see old Erioh die at Edward Wu’s hands again, so he needed to find him quickly.
All of this had happened in the blink of an eye. From Lu Tian’s appearance to Luke killing every Worm operative in the arena, less than a minute had passed. The spectator stands were in chaos, while the fighters struggled to maintain order and protect the people who mattered to them.
Karla had only just forced her way through the crowd and leaped into the arena to join Luke when she realized she was too late. All she could see was his back as he charged toward the passageway.
"Luke—"
Luke did not turn around. He merely shouted, "Stay in the venue. Don’t come out!"
Luke knew the Worm was not reckless enough to attack without limits. The venue held leaders from numerous nations. If they attacked the spectators and caused mass casualties among important figures, the Worm would become an international enemy and quickly be eradicated by a joint effort from every country.
The locations where they had planted their bombs made their intentions clear. The Worm only wanted to create chaos and split the battlefield apart, making it easier to kill the people they wanted dead.
At this point, Katsumasa Hayami’s plot had already fallen apart. The Worm had not attacked Kengan Island to help him become chairman. They had come to destroy the Kengan Association!
In the original story, experts like Fei Wangfang and Lu Tian had never come to the island. The invaders had all been the Worm’s low-level fodder, so Katahara Metsudo’s guards had nearly dealt with them all on their own. With the other powerful fighters there as well, Hayami’s rebellion had been swiftly put down. He had been nothing but a clown.
But this time, the Worm had clearly launched a full-scale assault. Considering that Luke had already revealed his strength during the tournament, and that the Rulebreaker had been stirring things up behind the scenes, the Worm would have brought their peak combat power unless they were complete idiots.
So then—Tiger Niko, Edward Wu, Xavier—how many of you came?
My Prison Demon is already starving.
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