Chapter 14: Defeated by You, No Regrets!
Are you underestimating me?
Jiutun Tongzi’s voice was low and deep, his gaze locked fixedly on Zhou Yan standing leisurely opposite him. His face gradually twisted into something grotesque, terrifying ghost power erupting from his body in waves. Invisible pressure rolled outward, scattering the volcanic ash on the ground into visible layered ripples.
“Then let you see the fury of gods and ghosts!!!”
Time passed in an instant.
The surging ghost power shifted from blue-purple flames into deep-purple explosive infernos.
“Tsk, just like a Saiyan.”
Zhou Yan watched his opponent and silently assessed him.
“As ghost power grows stronger, the external coloration deepens further?”
From the strongest ghost king’s distinctive power signature, he could roughly judge how his own future growth would manifest, giving him a clear sense of the directions he would need to master.
On the other side, Jiutun Tongzi’s sea-like ghost power held firm in its deep-purple explosive state.
Within that inferno he could no longer maintain a human form. Just as Zhou Yan had once seen with Chimu Tongzi, long curved black horns sprouted from his forehead, his canines elongated into razor points, and eerie, terrifying inscriptions crawled across his skin. His body further mutated, stretching past three meters in height.
He lifted one hand; a magnificent gourd materialized behind him and rose into the air. The stopper at its apex popped free, unleashing torrents of purple mist that swallowed both fighters whole.
Distant onlookers were instantly blinded by the vast cloud of purple, unable to see the duel that followed.
Haze lunged forward to intervene, only to be halted by Seimei, whose face was beaded with cold sweat as he formed a talisman seal. “Haze, don’t be reckless. This is beyond our reach. If you charge in, you’ll only distract Yan.”
“But—”
The girl bit her lip, words dying on her tongue. She stared at the swirling purple mist and made her decision. If Yan falls, I will fall with him.
* Within the purple-mist domain.
The fully awakened giant ghost god loomed wrapped in violet flame, looking down coldly at the “small” Zhou Yan. His voice was like ten-thousand-year ice: “I should mention that the ancestor record Qingming found contains an error.”
Zhou Yan tilted his head, eyes bright with excitement. “Oh? Do tell.”
“The so-called prison-gate great ghost is far stronger than I am—it refers to something superior to ‘ghost king’ me. And now I am—”
Jiutun Tongzi’s face split into a wild, savage grin.
“Ghost god!”
A cataclysmic explosion detonated.
The ghost-god Jiutun Tongzi crushed the earth beneath him, lunging forward at an exaggerated speed to stand before Zhou Yan. Both hands rose like axes and smashed downward.
Boom!
Volcanic ash billowed like a whirlwind.
Zhou Yan raised his blade to block. The instant their contact, the sheer force drove his shins through the rock.
A flicker of genuine surprise crossed his features.
Jiutun Tongzi’s current strength had already surpassed his own.
Even at his peak, the strongest ghost was only rank five, yet the power rivaled Zhou Yan’s hundred-plus physique.
Excitement burned in Zhou Yan’s eyes. The stronger, the better. The more interest he would feel in fusion.
The next second he erupted from the rubble and leaped aside.
Simultaneously, the ghost-god Jiutun Tongzi planted his foot exactly where Zhou Yan had stood. Sand exploded outward; he whipped his head around. “Boy, if you keep dodging, your power will vanish!”
Zhou Yan’s eyes narrowed. His ghost power was draining rapidly.
“You’re siphoning it through that gourd?”
“Correct.”
Jiutun Tongzi crossed his arms, arrogant and towering. “Inside my ghost gourd’s domain, every being weaker than me is barred except the one I designate. Your power will be continuously absorbed and converted into mine.”
He did not seem to care that the rule had been exposed. “To escape, the only way is to kill me.”
“Kill me one on one!”
As he spoke, his body flashed forward. A sweeping leg caught Zhou Yan’s raised arm and sent him flying. Laughing wildly, he charged again. “Size, strength, speed, endurance—none of it matches mine. What do you think you can do?”
He leaped high, hands forming an axe as he brought them crashing down. In this posture his entire form burned in deep-purple flame. He seemed utterly unafraid of the blade in Zhou Yan’s hand, convinced the edge could never pierce his inferno.
Zhou Yan met the descending smash with his own sword, igniting blue ghost flames in a counter slash.
A muffled clang.
The blade met the double arms, stopped by the intervening flame and unable to sever them. Instead, the force sent Zhou Yan crashing halfway into the ground.
Jiutun’s face twisted into a sinister laugh. To prevent escape he pressed down harder with his right hand while lifting his left, gathering vast purple flames.
“Ghost Fist!”
The punch descended, carrying a storm of terrifying deep-purple flame.
Thud!
Jiutun’s enormous left fist collided with Zhou Yan’s smaller one.
Fist met fist.
A thunderous boom shook the earth. The ground shattered; red sand dust rose half a meter, purple mist scattered.
Jiutun’s right-hand flames faded. He stared in disbelief as Zhou Yan lifted his left fist to lock against his own.
“Your power… is truly monstrous. Even I can barely withstand it.”
He spoke like a man admitting defeat, yet only his left eye burned with sudden interest.
Before Jiutun could react, the human figure before him was swallowed by strange light.
Time slowed. The light spun madly; a phantom of black locusts fused with Zhou Yan.
Swoosh.
The flash cleared. Zhou Yan’s body had transformed without warning.
He stood now as a strange humanoid encased in gray-black exoskeleton, its surface etched with glowing purple patterns.
Super fusion—Locust Beetle Armor.
A faint smile touched his lips. The empty right hand settled at his waist; on the back of his hand the exoskeleton pulsed with a blue seal.
Then vast deep-blue ghost power surged from that seal, turning to flame and racing across his entire body.
He had once wondered why monsters could wield ghost power directly while the Yingliu style required a three-stage process—seal absorption, weapon channeling, self-reinforcement. Until he saw Jiutun Tongzi completely envelop himself in dazzling purple flame, he finally understood.
Most humans in this world remained ordinary, even the sword heroes of the Yingliu style who had pushed their bodies to 1.5–2 times adult size still could not directly bear ghost-power amplification. They had therefore invented the roundabout method: seal to absorb, weapon to channel, self to strengthen.
Ghost kings like Jiutun Tongzi, however, were born with physiques strong enough to endure direct reinforcement.
Zhou Yan’s own body, now a weapon, should be able to follow the same path.
In Jiutun’s stunned gaze, the transformed Zhou Yan’s entire frame blazed with deep-blue flame. He drove his charged right fist forward.
Bang!
The fist edge sank deep into Jiutun’s abdominal muscles.
Boom!
The explosive flames erupted, hurling the three-meter giant body into the air.
“This!?”
Jiutun floated mid-air, pupils wide. He wanted to curse with “impossible,” but the agony in his gut made the truth undeniable. The human had become an exotic new form and possessed strength not inferior—even equal—to his own ghost-god state.
An equally matched foe.
He flipped in the air, landed hard, and crushed the rocks beneath his feet, regaining his balance.
Zhou Yan maintained his fist stance. Jiutun’s face filled with wild fervor. “So strong! You really are a worthy opponent. These years, besides that foolish big ghost, you are the first I have truly matched in strength!
“Come! Let us fight to the death!
“Either you kill me,
“or I kill you!”
Purple flames boiled across Jiutun’s body. His golden eyes blazed so brightly they seemed ready to ignite.
Zhou Yan’s voice issued from beneath the exoskeleton, layered with a faint distorted echo. “Interesting. An equally matched opponent?”
“Then—come!!!”
Both roared at once. The rocks beneath them exploded outward.
In the same heartbeat their forms flashed to the center.
Punch, kick, shoulder ram, elbow strike—they abandoned every technique, every logic, every form. In the space of a moment they traded dozens of raw, brutal blows at blinding speed.
Deep-purple and deep-blue flames clashed, annihilated, and reformed in endless cycles.
Then the primitive brute force proved insufficient to decide a winner. They switched to reaction and technique.
This time they danced through dodges, wrong steps, force redirection, and capture. Yet Zhou Yan, who had trained for only a month, was outmatched by Jiutun’s centuries of refinement.
He fell under a storm of rapid strikes in Jiutun’s wild laughter.
“Human, you’re still far too green!”
Jiutun felt the solid impact of each fist on Zhou Yan’s body and laughed with genuine delight.
When the rapid barrage ended, he raised his right fist, gathering deep-purple explosive flame for a finishing blow. “The strongest… is indeed I—”
Before he could finish, his right fist met mid-strike a searing pain in his chest.
He was blasted back over ten meters. Lifting his head in disbelief, he saw Zhou Yan’s form again change.
The purple patterns covering Zhou Yan had turned blood-red.
His never-used second technique of the Locust Beetle Armor—
Blood Mist Mode.
Zhou Yan stood calm and indifferent, voice carrying from beneath the exoskeleton. “I must admit, in experience and technique I am still inferior to you.”
He half-squatted into a charging stance, deep-blue flames wrapping his body and making the scarlet patterns on the exoskeleton burn even more eerily.
“Then.”
His voice turned ice-cold. “Next is life or death.”
Momentum exploded outward.
Jiutun felt a monstrous alarm ring inside his skull. Something terrifying had locked onto him. He crushed the absurd feeling down. I am the undefeated ghost god of this world—absolute superior, born noble and powerful. Fear of humans is ridiculous. I will never allow it.
He laughed wildly, planted a horse stance, and locked eyes with the blood-red Zhou Yan.
“Human, your name is Yan, yes?”
The strongest ghost god’s eyes blazed gold; his purple flames erupted without restraint, unleashing every ounce of ghost power.
“You are the strongest life I have ever met. Even the prison-gate guardian is beneath you now!”
An excited grin split his face. “Come—right here, right now—use this final strike!
“Decide life or death!!!”
The ground under his feet shattered.
Simultaneously Zhou Yan’s feet turned to powder.
Purple explosive flames enveloped the ghost god; scarlet and deep-blue light twisted around Zhou Yan.
Two figures rushed toward each other at terrifying speed.
Jiutun compressed every ounce of flame into his right fist, the destructive power stretching his body to the brink of explosion.
Ghost Fist!
Zhou Yan’s blood-red patterns channeled downward, concentrating in his feet. He leaped; crimson light flared between his soles.
Locust Fierce Legs!
Fist and foot collided in an instant.
Boom!
The sky shook with the impact. Purple and blue flames raged; sand and dust swirled.
The two figures flashed past each other.
Zhou Yan staggered to the ground, then took several involuntary steps before sinking to one knee. The exoskeleton on his striking leg lay in ruins, exposing raw flesh and bone.
He remained half-kneeling, waiting for the life-saving pill to complete its work beneath the path.
A curious voice drifted from more than ten meters away. “Hey, what was that last strike called?”
Zhou Yan did not turn. “Blood Mist Mode—Double Locust Fierce Legs.”
“Excellent strike.”
Jiutun praised, then asked, “And yours? How did you like my punch?”
Zhou Yan paused a second. “The strongest in this world stands on a different level entirely from other ghosts and monsters.”
“Haha, thank you.” The ghost-god voice faded. “Still, no need to speak of ‘strongest.’ You are the one who is truly beyond comprehension.”
A dull thud echoed.
“Yan… you defeated me. This life was worth it.”
Zhou Yan remained silent a moment, then sighed. “Actually… I am called Zhou Yan…”
The sealing purple mist slowly thinned and vanished.
[Killing Jiutun Tongzi—Spirituality obtained: 5877]
***
Although I wrote it myself, I still feel it’s incredibly satisfying. Be careful not to get too greedy—you’re really too narcissistic. (Slap yourself!)