Ye Zhongming was surrounded by pitch-black darkness, unable to see anything, but his body distinctly felt a rising heat.
The temperature climbed rapidly, and in the brief moment it took him to adjust to his surroundings, he was already in pain.
Ye Zhongming possessed two superior physiques and had consumed vast quantities of various potions, making his physical resilience and defensive capabilities almost inhuman.
For someone like him to feel pain, one could only imagine the intensity of the scorching heat he was enduring.
There were no visible flames—only an invisible, searing heat. In the darkness, Ye Zhongming faced an assault of terror.
He didn’t know what this thing was that could suppress him so thoroughly.
Ye Zhongming didn’t know the correct way to counter it. In this situation, the only thing he could do was use his strongest attack to break free.
Wind and Thunder, lit up in his hands.
……………………
“What’s your problem? Don’t trust me?”
Just as the God Hall’s director had assessed, Tong Lu was a man who loved the spotlight—overconfident, boastful, and utterly convinced of the power of the weapon he had unleashed. He had forgotten entirely that if Vice Chairman Yang had not arrived on time, he might not have even had the chance to use this equipment.
If one understood this equipment, they might somewhat comprehend Tong Lu’s attitude at this moment.
The Human Refining Furnace was a gold-grade item—and a one-time-use gold-grade item at that. Following the basic principles of equipment, one-time-use items generally possessed power comparable to non-consumable items of the next grade, sometimes even surpassing them.
The one-time-use gold-grade Human Refining Furnace had power on par with purple-grade equipment, if not stronger.
No wonder Tong Lu was brimming with confidence. He had volunteered to be the first to confront Ye Zhongming due to his possession of this item.
If he couldn’t win, he’d unleash the Human Refining Furnace—problems that couldn’t be solved otherwise would be solved this way.
But he had underestimated Ye Zhongming’s strength and nearly didn’t even get the chance to use it.
However, just because he believed it would work didn’t mean others shared his confidence. Vice Chairman Yang had just experienced the might of the Cloud Peak King firsthand and didn’t think a single piece of equipment could subdue, much less kill, him.
So, he unleashed his ultimate move, intending to strike Ye Zhongming hard the moment he broke free.
Vice Chairman Yang also hoped to kill Ye Zhongming, but he was far more pragmatic than Tong Lu. He would use everything at his disposal—if it worked, great; if not, it would at least buy time to hold Ye Zhongming off until reinforcements arrived.
Hearing Tong Lu’s rebuke, Vice Chairman Yang steadied his breathing before replying, “You’re right. I don’t trust you. In fact, I wouldn’t trust your director either if he thought a single piece of equipment could kill the Cloud Peak King, who has dominated the apocalypse for over five years.”
Tong Lu’s eyebrows shot up in anger. Ignoring his own injuries, he was about to lecture Vice Chairman Yang on the might of his equipment.
But at that moment, his pride and joy—the gold-grade Human Refining Furnace, which he believed no one could break—exploded with a deafening crash, shattering into pieces and revealing a scorching-hot Ye Zhongming inside.
A trickle of blood seeped from the gaps in the armor on Ye Zhongming’s arm.
Tong Lu’s mouth hung open in shock before he let out a heart-wrenching roar.
His trump card—his only means of dealing a fatal blow to Ye Zhongming—had just been destroyed.
The Cloud Peak King looked somewhat disheveled, but it didn’t even seem like a minor injury—at most, it was superficial.
However, the sudden splash of venom from the destroyed Human Refining Furnace caught Ye Zhongming off guard, forcing him to gulp down two antidote potions hastily.
Seizing the opportunity, the small zombies launched their attack, rushing at Ye Zhongming with startling speed as he reeled from the successive assaults.
Vice Chairman Yang ignored Tong Lu’s howls and began retreating, moving at a steady, measured pace away from the battlefield.
Ye Zhongming was furious.
He had used Wind and Thunder to unleash a skill, channeling his full strength to cleave through the gold-grade Human Refining Furnace. Though it might have looked effortless, it was anything but.
The furnace’s durability was impressive. Even though he shattered it in one strike, the recoil was tremendous. The confined space amplified the shockwaves of his own power, which he had to endure.
Coupled with the furnace’s extreme heat—though brief, it was intensely damaging. Ye Zhongming was left severely uncomfortable, his body suffering significant harm.
Then, he hadn’t expected venom to attack him the moment the furnace broke.
For Ye Zhongming, this venom wasn’t lethal—it couldn’t even sustain a lasting impact on his combat ability. The antidote potions he carried could neutralize the toxicity completely.
But all of that took time. For a brief moment, the venom affected him, leaving him unprepared to dodge the small zombies.
When they collided with him, the small zombies exploded.
The combined force of the blast and the venom sent Ye Zhongming flying several meters before he crashed to the ground.
It had been too long since anyone had knocked Ye Zhongming down. These two eight-star evolved working together had managed it.
But… that was all they could do.
Ye Zhongming sprang up instantly, his fury driving him to activate a teleportation skill. Before Tong Lu could react, he was right beside him.
The Nether Tiger, unlike its master, wasn’t mourning the loss of the equipment. Its reaction was faster than Tong Lu’s—it opened its maw and lunged at the enemy. This was the best counter it could muster in such a short time frame.
Ye Zhongming didn’t even dodge. His weapon swung toward Tong Lu, whose hands were just beginning to rise—half a beat slower than his battle beast.
Thud!
A head flew into the air.
One of the God Hall director’s personal guards had been slain by Ye Zhongming.
After the sword strike, Ye Zhongming’s other hand came down on the Nether Tiger’s head. The
Battle beast had clamped its jaws onto Ye Zhongming’s body and was exerting force when this seemingly light punch—actually carrying the weight of a thousand pounds—landed.
The Nether Tiger let out a pained cry as its body crumpled to the ground.
Meanwhile, the Wind and Thunder blade in Ye Zhongming’s other hand traced an arc through the air before plunging straight down, impaling the Nether Tiger.
In its death throes, the level-eight warbeast, along with its lifeless master, crashed into Ye Zhongming. As Wind and Thunder claimed its life, its head slammed into Ye Zhongming’s body, sending the Cloud Peak King stumbling back several steps.
The corpses of man and beast collapsed onto the wasteland. The first of the three major factions’ elites sent to intercept Ye Zhongming had fallen.
At this moment, there were still a full two minutes left before the time limit set by the three leaders for stalling him…