Chapter 167: The Trials of Xyl (Part-32)

The moment hung brittle as glass. Lin Fang exhaled with a tired resignation, the kind that comes when the world keeps pushing, and a man stops retreating. His voice barely left his throat, yet the air itself seemed to lean in to catch the words. “Looks like I have no choice… Activate. Rise of the Undead.”

A pulse of cold burst from him.

The ground fissured under him, a quiet groan turning into a thunderous rumble.

The ground cracked as a colossal skeletal shadow erupted upward. The 300-foot Undead Anaconda Queen materialized with a groan of ancient bones, rotted scales hanging off like war-tattered banners. Its monstrous form skyrocketed behind Lin Fang, blotting out the pale morning light.

Before anyone could gasp, four elephantine undead monsters lumbered out after it, their tusks cracked, their steps leaving dents like meteor impacts. For a heartbeat, the battlefield forgot how to breathe.

Screams tore through the crowd in panic.

Robots instantly redirected, firing blaster beams in rapid sequence. Bolts punched holes into dead flesh but did little to stop giants who no longer possessed life to lose.

They simply endured, silent, grim, answering nothing.

As Gravity still pressed upon him, putting intense pressure on his body, Lin Fang muttered. “Guardian’s Mantle, Activate.”

*Ding!

[Guardian’s mantle has been activated. Your defenses rose by 300%]

As a layer of guardian’s aura appeared over him, the pressure on his body thinned ot the point that Lin Fang could bend his knees and leap, landing on the Undead Anaconda’s massive head.

*hisss*

The serpent reeled with a rattling hiss, towering taller as if answering its master’s fury.

Around him, hunters gasped.

“That… that’s the beast that went berserk in Sector 77—!”

“He was the one controlling it?”

“No wonder the reports—!”

Anne and Wang Jie were surprised. “So, he was the one, after all…”

Even Myra, always poised, stiffened and took a step back.

Her eyes widened at the sight of five undead titans glaring straight at her.

Lin Fang looked down at her from atop the monster. “You forced my hand,” he said quietly.

The Undead Anaconda coiled behind him, rising like a mountain ready to collapse onto its prey.

“So now…”

Lin Fang’s voice dropped into something colder, sharpened by exhaustion, anger, and the remnants of Tiamat’s pride. “You must pay for it.”

Myra’s expression snapped from taunting delight to raw fury.

“Gravity Dome—thirty-two times!”

The air convulsed.

Once again, this time with far more intensity, the invisible weight crashed downward, thick and merciless. Everyone felt as if their bones felt ready to snap. Some even felt the fractures, and a couple fainted, unable to face the pressure.

The undead elephants buckled, legs trembling like pillars hit by quakes.

The enormous anaconda hit the ground with a seismic thud, dragging Lin Fang with it. He gritted his teeth as his knees slammed against the beast’s skull. Every muscle felt pinned beneath a mountain.

His breathing thinned. His vision blurred.

His ribs groaned under the brutal pressure.

Thirty-two times gravity wasn’t something he could bear…

It crushed everything without apology.

“Host…”

Tiamat’s voice then spiraled through his mind like coiled thunder.

“Let me take over.”

“Tiamat…” The word slipped out as his vision blurred. He surrendered control, sliding into the backseat of his own consciousness. Yet even while drifting, he whispered one final command to the spirit within him. “Don’t kill her. The robots are a fair game… but not her. I don’t want the blood of humans in my hands, whether they are good or evil… That was my bottom line.”

A low hum thrummed in his skull as consciousness slid backward, giving way.

*Ding!

[Guardian’s Possession was activated.]

[You were possessed by Tiamat.]

Tiamat unfurled inside him like a dragon stretching between stars.

Lin Fang’s slumped posture straightened just slightly, even while kneeling under the unholy weight.

His arm lifted, fingers curling toward the sky with a slow inevitability, as if calling down judgment that had waited too long.

The clouds above stirred.

A rumble was heard above and in the next moment…

“Stormforge clash…” He spoke, shooting a beam of energy into the clouds.

While his entire mana reserves were emptied in an instant and then additional reserves filled his tank again, the heavens answered.

BOOM.

BOOM.

BOOM.

This time, More than a dozen lightning bolts plunged downward at once, hammering into the robots with impossible precision. All the robots that were attacked by torrents of electricity felt the energy overwhelming as the lightning bolts traveled through their bodies, destroying their circuits.

In the blink of an eye, the entire robotic platoon was reduced to smoking heaps.

The gravitational dome flickered as Myra trembled, shocked beyond words.

Her breath hitched.

“You…”

Her voice cracked.

“You have a Spirit King contract…”

Her eyes widened further as instinct whispered the truth she didn’t want to believe:

“You’re… an innate soul…”

His shadow stretched across the cracked earth as he pointed his arm at her with the patience of a headsman offering a choice instead of a blade. Tiamat spoke through Lin Fang’s lips, in its distorted tone but brimming with arrogance and absolute command.

“You have two choices.”

Myra froze.

Blue Lightning crackled along his left arm like a warning serpent. And Flames ignited over his right arm, like hungry wildfire that couldn’t wait to go berserk and consume everything.

“Surrender yourself or face death.”

The sky rumbled again, as if agreeing.

And for the first time, Myra’s confidence cracked.

Myra’s face twisted with something between fury and wounded pride.

“Lin Fang—YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!” Her voice cracked across the battlefield like a snapped whip.

She dug into her coat and pulled out a folded parchment, its surface marked with runes that flickered even before she touched them. The moment her mana spilled into the ink, the parchment ignited into blue fire and curled into nothing.

That aura wrapped her like a cocoon for a breath, and then she vanished. The gravitational pressure vanished with her, leaving the ground groaning in relief.

Silence crashed into the clearing.

As Tiamat withdrew from Lin Fang’s body like a tide ebbing back into the deep ocean, control flowed into him again, and with it came exhaustion that slammed into his bones.

“Ugh…”

He let out a long breath, then toppled sideways off the anaconda’s skull. He clutched his head with both hands and muttered under his breath, “Great. Fantastic. There goes my well-guarded secret. All because of this… this… stupid… unbelievable… IDIOT!”

His glare snapped immediately toward Wang Jie.

Wang Jie wasn’t even looking guilty. He stood there, eyes sparkling like a kid who’d just seen a superhero land from the sky.

Around them, hunters—shaken but alive—began cheering with a mix of relief, awe, and sheer disbelief. Some clapped. Others let out half-hysterical laughter. A few simply stared like statues, unsure whether to worship him or run away.

Lin Fang ignored all of them and instead stared at the piles of smoking robot debris scattered around the clearing.

He rubbed his chin.

After a thought, he dragged himself upright, dust clinging to him. “Well,” he said, raising his voice, “since I killed them… I should have the spoils of war, too. You guys don’t mind, right?”

Dozens of heads turned to him at once.

The collective expression was a mixture of:

He’s joking… right? And actually, no—he probably isn’t joking…

Lin Fang gave a glance at others, saying again, this time, stressing the words again. “You guys DON’T mind, right?”

The Ananconda, which was now free of gravity restraint, raised its body and casting a long shadow over them and hissed.

All the forty eight hunters and 12 soldiers shook their heads so fast their necks almost popped.

“Nope.”

“Not at all.”

“Take it! Take ALL of it!”

“Please do!”

“Thank you for saving us!”

No one dared breathe too loudly as Lin Fang dropped from the Anaconda’s skull and landed lightly on the dirt. Hunters parted instinctively, opening a path for him without a word. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath as he approached the wreckage.

He didn’t posture, didn’t gloat.

He strolled through the battlefield as if browsing a market stall, ignoring the way everyone held their breath and watched his every step. He kicked over a fallen robot, nodded at the scorched metal, and began plucking valuable parts with a casualness that made people wonder if he had always been this terrifying or if this was just the warmup.

Click.

He threw the Energy Blasters into his inventory, surprising others.

They had already submitted the dimensional bags to the authorities. Where were these energy blasters being sent to?

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