My crazy Cultivation Path

CHAPTER 136

Grimacing, Darlius stared at Lusus in disbelief.

“Holy shit, just drop already! You’ve got dozens of gashes all over your body!”

Yet even like that, Lusus still stood facing him.

A smile on his lips, Lusus declared:

“Your weapon is interesting. Intangible at will, solid at will… If you actually knew how to wield Æther, you might have stood a chance against me, even with your pathetic rank eight.”

Glaring daggers at him, Darlius shot back:

“What the hell are you talking about? You’re bleeding like a stuck pig and you’re the one saying I could’ve been a threat?”

Lusus burst into roaring laughter.

“I’m not gonna play teacher with someone I’m about to kill. But let me give you this one lesson: Æther isn’t just for making swords. Want proof? Look at my wounds.”

Darlius lowered his eyes to Lusus’s body.

His face froze.

Not a single drop of blood was flowing anymore. The wounds were still wide open, but they had completely stopped bleeding.

“And I just realized… you don’t even know how to use Æther. Pathetic,” Lusus sneered.

Then he lunged at Darlius.

“Get ready. You’re about to take Æther-enhanced close-quarters combat.”

His fist tore through the air, aiming straight for Darlius’s face.

…

Darlius’s thoughts: Everything happened too fast. That fist, looking like it could shatter my skull into dust, closed in at terrifying speed.

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But right in front of my face, another figure suddenly burst in from my right.

Massive claws raked Lusus from lower abdomen all the way up to his chest.

Lusus looked genuinely surprised. I turned my head and instantly recognized the attacker: Dirios.

Except his arms… they were no longer human. They had turned bestial.

…

Dirios didn’t stop there. He followed through with a monstrous punch that sent Lusus flying.

Beside him, Degis finally decided to join the fight.

Looking at Dirios’s arms, he said:

“Well… to be honest, I had zero intention of jumping in, considering how outmatched we are and especially the rank gap. But damn, you look more than capable right now.”

Dirios gave him a blank stare.

“How exactly do you plan to help?”

Degis stretched his arms with a sly grin.

“Simple. I immobilize him, you hit him. Fair warning: it’ll only last a maximum of three seconds each time.”

“How are you going to do that?” Dirios asked.

Degis hid his smile behind his wrist.

“Don’t forget my affinity card is ‘Soul Refiner.’ My strikes don’t hit flesh… they hit the soul.”

He clapped his hands together.

“Enough talking. I doubt you can stay in that form for much longer anyway.”

“You’re right about that,” Dirios admitted. “I’m cycling Æther between my legs and arms, plus the physical transformation… I can feel my stamina collapsing any second now.”

Degis’s eyes widened in shock.

“You can use Æther?!”

“Let’s just say the transformation opened a few doors for me,” Dirios replied, then suddenly raised both arms to block Lusus’s lightning-fast counterattack.

“Interesting, interesting, INTERESTING! Let me show you my power when it’s combined with Æther!” Lusus roared.

BOOM.

The impact was so violent it echoed throughout the entire underground network.

Dirios felt his body skid backward several meters just from the sheer force of Lusus’s punch.

If his arms had still been human, every bone would have been pulverized instantly.

“Fuck… even like this, the pain is unreal,” Dirios thought.

This time Degis didn’t stay idle. Slipping quickly to Lusus’s left, he drove a clean punch straight into the man’s abdomen.

Lusus looked down at him like he was staring at a bug.

“You’re so weak your punch doesn’t even have any weight at all…”

He suddenly froze. A strange discomfort washed over him; his head spun, vision blurring.

And in that exact moment, a colossal fist smashed his head backward.

When the dizziness cleared, Degis was smirking mockingly at him.

“So? Did the little insect manage to do anything? Just so you know, I’m not the one who hits hard.”

Lusus whipped his head forward just in time to see Dirios unleash another lightning-fast haymaker that blasted him straight into the wall with a thunderous crash.