Chapter 46: Martial Paragon

"What is this?!" Yue Xingzhou's expression shifted, a chill crawling across his scalp. He felt as though he had just recognized something terrifying.

"We also want to know." Xia Wuyuan stepped up to the daemon corpse and brought his micro-device close to record it at point-blank range.

Yaoguang watched the scene unfold. Incidents like this, unless exposed with overwhelming uproar, would only be dismissed by the public as staged pranks or fabricated horror clips. The paradox was obvious.

Daemons hidden among the upper ranks of human society would never allow such events to cause public uproar. Not unless one was ready to purge the entire daemon network alone.

What happened next depended on whether Xia Wuyuan's recording, paired with his status as a senior prosecutor, would serve any purpose once uploaded. If it failed again, Yaoguang would stop trying to rely on outside help. He would accumulate strength and overturn the table himself.

"You guys..." Yue Xingzhou looked at Xia Wuyuan, then at Yaoguang, who had crouched down with a bead in hand. It took him quite a while before he calmed himself. Staring at the corpse that already looked almost no different from a human body, he spoke in a deep voice. "This perso— No! This monster's strength wasn't normal."

"These monsters have two forms. They normally look human, with strength roughly equivalent to a martial master or grandmaster. Judging by body size, anything under two meters usually corresponds to a grandmaster's strength. Above two meters, they may be martial masters. But they can transform. Once they complete their transformation, their power increases drastically." As Yaoguang explained, he activated the bead he carried.

He had begun nurturing the psyche, though he had only just started using the Great Solar Psyche-Suppressing Diagram. When a portion of his mind seeped into the bead, he faintly sensed something being extracted from the daemon corpse and drawn into it.

"Transformation? Power increasing drastically?" Yue Xingzhou stared at the corpse. "Earlier... Was that what you'd consider a complete transformation?"

"No." Xia Wuyuan answered.

"It wasn't?" Remembering the terror of being seconds from death, Yue Xingzhou felt his entire body go cold. "Then what counts as a complete transformation? And... how drastic of an increase are we talking about?"

"I don't know. This is only my second encounter with this type of monster." Xia Wuyuan looked at Yaoguang. "He has killed far more of them than I have."

"It's exactly what it sounds like," Yaoguang said. "To avoid letting a daemon finish transforming into his complete form and gaining overwhelming strength, the best option is to kill it before that happens. From the moment they begin transforming to the moment they finish, it's about ten seconds. Ten seconds is enough to decide an entire fight."

Because the commotion had already drawn attention, Yaoguang did not immediately examine the information within the bead that resembled a soul fragment; he simply put the bead away.

Noise erupted from the nearby buildings. Many figures were rushing toward them at high speed. Yue Xingzhou fell silent for a moment before glancing at Yaoguang.

"No matter what... You saved my life," he said in a low voice. "Next—"

"Careful!" Yaoguang gave the others an abrupt warning and shot toward a wall at tremendous speed.

Gunfire erupted, the bangs echoing through the night. Sparks burst as bullets tore into the spot where the three had just stood, scattering stone fragments in the air.

𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

All three grandmasters instantly displayed a reaction far beyond that of ordinary people. Yaoguang, guided by his Perception, had shifted away the moment he sensed he was being targeted. Xia Wuyuan, trained extensively in firearm warfare and evasion, dove for cover. Yue Xingzhou reacted a fraction late, but his speed compensated; with a surge of grandmaster-tier jin, he lunged eight or nine meters in an instant.

A full discharge of bullets hit nothing but empty air. While Yaoguang's body shot forward, the large-caliber handgun he had chosen earlier appeared in his grasp. With grandmaster-tier reflexes and vision sharp enough to rival a fighter pilot's, he locked onto the shooters the instant he saw them.

Before his feet even touched the ground, he fired three bullets.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

As he landed and rolled behind a wall, two gunmen positioned at higher ground collapsed, killed instantly. Once Yaoguang fired, Xia Wuyuan unleashed the full force of his automatic rifle. With sparks flashing from the muzzle, several charging security officers immediately fell to the ground, dead.

Others dodged and sought cover, but it made no difference. Thanks to a grandmaster's astonishing reaction speed and extraordinary vision, Xia Wuyuan's marksmanship had reached a level of near-perfection. Alone, he suppressed more than twenty members of the armed squads, forcing their heads down.

They could not even raise their heads for a single second, or they would lose their lives. While maintaining fire, Xia Wuyuan moved rapidly, looking like a leopard on the hunt as he charged toward the squads. The moment the armed personnel took cover from the suppressive fire, gasping for air, Xia Wuyuan crossed dozens of meters and appeared before them.

Those hiding in blind corners looked up in horror, only to see the muzzle of a gun pointed directly at their faces.

"No!"

Gunfire roared again, and blood sprayed everywhere. The gunmen hiding for cover were riddled with bullets.

On the other side, Yaoguang wasn't moving any slower. The large-caliber pistol he wielded was clearly a superior weapon with extremely stable ballistics. Combined with his reaction speed and precise control, every shot hit exactly where he intended.

With him covering the gaps, even the armed personnel who attempted blind counterfire would have their arms shattered instantly by a bullet. Anyone bold enough to show their head was shot between the eyes and died on the spot.

Just then, Yaoguang seemed to perceive something. His gaze snapped toward a certain direction. "The target is trying to escape."

"Grandmaster Yue, this area is yours." Xia Wuyuan understood the priorities clearly. "We're going after him."

"Alright." Yue Xingzhou did not refuse.

Moments later, Xia Wuyuan and Yaoguang sped off in pursuit of the second daemon. Once the two left, the lack of suppressive fire allowed the surviving armed personnel to rise again. Scattered gunshots rang out as though signaling the beginning of a counterattack.

Yue Xingzhou sighed at the sight. "Most competent grandmasters have gone through professional firearms training. The security staff should really know better than to take on one of us..."

He slid his saber into the slot at his waist, lunged toward the corpse of an armed officer, and rolled across the ground. By the time he rose, an automatic rifle and two magazines were already in his hands.

Gunfire erupted again.

***

On the other side, Yaoguang and Xia Wuyuan chased after their target at tremendous speed, almost tearing through the air.

Baisheng Chemical Plant sat on the outskirts of a small town, and a modest mountain covered in dense trees rose not far from it.

As the distance between them shrank, Xia Wuyuan raised his gun and fired. The daemon dodged rapidly, yet Xia Wuyuan's precision still caused his sprinting frame to stagger. He had clearly been hit.

Even wounded, the daemon did not slow down. Instead, his body expanded rapidly. From under two meters tall, he swelled into a monstrous form nearly three meters in height. Xia Wuyuan felt a shock run through him, and immediately intensified the rate of fire.

Yaoguang also fired as they closed the gap. But at that instant, the three-meter daemon spun around. He grabbed several fallen tree branches and hurled them with explosive force.

Enhanced by violent jin, the branches shot through the air like arrows loosed from a bow.

Yaoguang thrust the Chengying Sword forward. With a sweep of the blade, the three incoming branches were all split apart and knocked aside while Xia Wuyuan dodged away.

Ahead of them, the daemon seemed to realize escape was impossible. He abruptly turned and charged. In his three-meter fully transformed state, his entire body radiated overwhelming pressure. His combat suit could no longer cover his swollen frame, exposing areas of torn flesh that bled from gunshot wounds. The sight only made him look more savage. Even Xia Wuyuan, a veteran of countless battles and a participant in the National Martial Dao Tournament, felt his breath freezing in his lungs.

What truly horrified him was that although the daemon's arms and legs were riddled with bullet wounds, not a single bullet had pierced through! This meant...

"Martial paragon?!" Xia Wuyuan cried out in disbelief.

More gunfire burst beside him as Yaoguang unloaded his handgun on the daemon.

The noise snapped Xia Wuyuan awake. Yaoguang's expression had not shifted in the slightest. He simply remained calm and continued firing.

Yet even a large-caliber handgun could not immediately incapacitate a daemon that had fully revealed his true form and entered a berserk state.

"Keep him occupied!" Yaoguang said.

"Got it!" Xia Wuyuan did not know what Yaoguang planned, but he did not hesitate. He tossed his gun aside and pulled out a triangular bayonet.

He charged head-on. Although the daemon's fully manifested physique was already as powerful as a martial paragon, the gunshots he had taken in his arms and thighs did somewhat limit his movements. As a grandmaster, Xia Wuyuan was confident that under these conditions, he absolutely could—

Boom!

A thunderous boom tore through the air just as the two were about to clash.

Xia Wuyuan's eyes widened. The daemon's punch had detonated the air itself. The exploding air currents rolled off his fist in a white ripple.

Is it the legendary innate augmented qi?! But whether it is augmented qi or not is not the point. The point is the power required to blast the air and generate augmented qi. How terrifying would such a punch be if I were to receive it?!

Xia Wuyuan was utterly shocked.

A tremor surged uncontrollably through Xia Wuyuan's mind, spreading across his entire body like an electric shock. His thoughts and senses leapt to their absolute limit. This was the kind of terror that one would only feel on the brink of death!

Together with it came the overwhelming surge of adrenaline released when faced with a life-threatening situation. In this heightened state, Xia Wuyuan's mind became sharper than ever. Every detail of the daemon's punch became visible before him.

Yet, when he truly understood what he saw, helplessness struck him. The daemon's punch was perfect! The explosion of jin sealed every possible route of evasion, locking down every angle of movement. It was as though, except for taking the blow head-on, he had no way out.

And taking it head-on meant only one thing: death!