A nimble figure clad in black darted through the cold, rugged landscape of the Plane Battlefield like a wisp of smoke.
"Hmm?"
The dark phantom halted abruptly, its gaze fixed intently into the distance. Its eyes were sharp, like a hawk's, but the most peculiar feature was its bald head, the scalp of which had a dark, metallic sheen, as if coated in a thin layer of black iron. There was also a ring-like mark etched onto this dark scalp.
"Someone's here?" The bald youth stared into the distance. "An enemy!"
Upon confirming the identity, the bald youth wasted no time. "Whoosh!" With startling speed, he exploded forward, rocketing like a meteor toward a black-robed figure in the distance.
The black-robed figure whipped its head around, clearly having spotted him. Without a moment's hesitation, it turned and fled instantly.
"You can't escape!" The bald youth's form flickered eerily.
The surrounding space rippled with an arc-shaped, earthy-yellow aura, directly trapping the fleeing black-robed figure within it. Caught in this yellowish glow, the figure's speed plummeted. Seizing the moment, the bald youth closed the distance in an instant, his right hand striking out mercilessly.
He wore a black glove on his right hand.
His hand shot out like a claw, resembling a divine dragon's talon. As it slashed through the air, it caused the space itself to tremble, landing squarely on the black-robed figure's shoulder. "Scram!" The black-robed figure snarled, retaliating with a vicious swing of its right leg aimed at its opponent.
*Crack!* A clear sound rang out as the black-robed figure's shoulder shattered under the grip.
"Quite tough," the bald youth thought with a hint of surprise, but his hand showed no mercy.
While crushing the shoulder, his claw-like hand immediately surged forward toward the figure's head. As it struck, another strange, ring-shaped aura formed around the claw, further binding the surrounding space and preventing the black-robed figure's head from dodging significantly.
*Splurt!* His five fingers pierced diagonally into the skull, and the black-robed figure's head exploded instantly. The bald youth was confident: "You won't have time to kick me now." In his view, once the enemy was dead, any counterattack was impossible.
*Boom!* However, the power in the black-robed figure's right leg did not diminish, crashing directly into the bald youth's abdomen.
The bald youth tumbled backward before hitting the ground.
"No, it's a puppet!" The bald youth realized with a jolt. "It's a trap!"
*Whoosh!* He stomped fiercely on the ground. A similar ring-shaped aura appeared around his foot as he stomped, launching himself forward at terrifying speed. As he sprinted, he occasionally stomped the ground, each impact generating the aura and propelling him faster.
In a flash, two or three stomps carried him out of sight.
"That guy runs too fast!"
When Lin Lei and Bei Bei surfaced, they only caught a glimpse of the bald youth's retreating back. Defeated, they leaned against a nearby boulder. "My Death God Puppet just detected him, and in the blink of an eye, he realized it was a puppet and a trap! Once he knew, he didn't even pause before fleeing. Truly..." Lin Lei shook his head.
"Nothing gained," Bei Bei pouted, glancing toward the headless Death God Puppet in the distance. "And we lost a puppet. Boss, who was that?"
"Kloyd! A formidable commander from the Earth Divine Plane, known for operating alone," Lin Lei explained with a smile. Through the puppet, he had observed Kloyd's moves, and that signature technique had made his identity unmistakable. "However, this Kloyd doesn't possess a single Divine Artifact. We could have killed him."
Lin Lei felt a pang of regret.
A golden opportunity, lost because Kloyd was too vigilant, fleeing immediately upon detecting the trap without any hesitation.
"Strong without a Divine Artifact?" Bei Bei frowned.
"Your Grandpa Belute's intelligence report said so. Kloyd simply dislikes being constrained and refused to become a Highgod's emissary, which is why he has no Divine Artifact. But even so... killing him would still be extremely difficult." Lin Lei sighed. "A powerhouse of the Laws of the Earth! Judging by his comprehension, he's fused at least five profound mysteries."
That single claw that shattered the puppet had contained five mysteries.
In his grasp, the Death God Puppet was like soft mud.
Just as Lin Lei and Bei Bei were conversing via soul transmission, Lin Lei's peripheral vision suddenly caught a figure in the distance. He quickly turned his head—about two to three hundred meters away, a black-clad figure was stealthily lurking, seemingly observing the fallen Death God Puppet on the ground.
Lin Lei's eyes lit up with excitement. "Bei Bei, a target! About three hundred meters to the right!"
"A target?" Bei Bei also turned to look.
At that exact moment—
The black-clad figure in the distance also警觉地, alertly, spotted the two figures nestled against the rocky outcropping not far away. In that instant—the black-clad figure and Lin Lei's duo locked eyes.
Lin Lei was startled and immediately sent a soul transmission to Bei Bei: "Bei Bei, this black-clad figure... I can't sense any badge aura on him. He's from the enemy side. Attack!" Badge auras became clearer the closer one got. Lin Lei was only about three hundred meters away. Normally, even if unclear, some aura should be perceptible.
But there was nothing...
"Hehe, one got away, but another took the bait! Great!" Bei Bei was thrilled.
Indeed, the black-clad figure had been drawn by the noise made by the bald youth stomping the ground earlier and had crept over. He was now hiding nearby, watching. But Lin Lei and Bei Bei's position was also well-concealed, and from there, they had a clear view of the black-clad figure.
"Hmph." The black-clad figure calmly turned, intending to dash away.
"Escape?"
Lin Lei's first instinct was to unleash the 'Black Stone Space.' A vast, earthy-yellow dome instantly expanded outward from him, enveloping everything within a five-hundred-meter radius. The Black Stone Space's expansion was incomparably faster than the black-clad figure's movement. Before he could even start moving, he was already trapped within it.
Maximum gravity, pulling toward Lin Lei!
"A Gravity Space? Such powerful pull, and it's dragging me backward!"
The black-clad figure was shocked and turned to look. Lin Lei, now partially dragon-transformed, and Bei Bei had already become a green and a black streak of light, shooting toward him at extreme speed.