Chapter 975: Chapter 975

Under the chilling gaze, dense twisted bone columns descended from the heavens, like giant clubs swinging in the night sky, aiming from all directions at the elderly man below.

He Ao watched the swinging giant clubs, stood up and retreated. Then, as the club began to bend in an attempt to intercept his retreat from behind, he leapt directly onto a bone column.

Using that bone column as a base, he jumped again toward another column on the opposite side.

Although his jumping height and distance were limited, he was able to approach the ruby suspended in the air by skeletal arms quickly by utilizing the ’ladder’ built by the densely packed bone columns, running and jumping simultaneously.

"Array Command: Prohibit Running"

The red brilliance flowed again from within the ruby, accompanied by the cold voices of the skulls, as if an invisible force was dragging He Ao’s body, significantly slowing his running speed toward the ruby.

Meanwhile, the bone columns that He Ao had stepped on fell behind him and quickly turned back, blocking his retreat.

The bone columns under his feet, already slightly tilted, quickly straightened and then started to shake, trying to throw his entire body off.

Divine Sense engraved the Strengthening Magic Array on the Hawk Claw Knife, and He Ao fiercely stabbed the blade into the bone column, anchoring himself on it.

He looked up, seeing only thin, long bone columns that pierced out from the somewhat broken ground beneath and others that penetrated the surrounding low-rise buildings like piercing tofu.

They swayed under the sky glowing with the light of gunfire, one after another, densely packed, almost covering everything around, and only through the narrow gaps could one see the old and abandoned buildings behind the columns.

It seemed he had penetrated deep into these bone columns, which now surrounded He Ao’s entire body like dense thorns enveloping a moth.

The bone column pierced by the Hawk Claw Knife kept shaking violently, swaying his body in the air.

The skull hanging at the top of He Ao’s bone column drooped down, with green flames burning fiercely in its eyes as if casting its gaze downward, its cold, quiet voice echoing in the darkness,

"Linen, I believe when you came here, you had a clear understanding of my strength."

A nearby skull continued, "You defeated Virrus, and you clearly understand his strength. I believe you won’t be arrogant and think you can easily defeat me."

As soon as this skull finished speaking, a cold voice came from behind He Ao, "You are well aware that coming here spells your death. Yet you still chose to come."

"Based on your courage, I can give you one more choice,"

A skull to He Ao’s left began to speak slowly, "As long as you are willing to cooperate with the hidden entity behind me, I will let you leave today, I won’t kill you again, of course, nor will I have any more respect for you, but you can live because of this."

"If I wanted to survive,"

He Ao looked at the skulls and chuckled hoarsely, "I had many opportunities to choose before."

In the field of view of Divine Sense, every huge bone column in this densely packed forest had intricate energy circuits flowing within them, seemingly not connected to other bone columns, yet each one had an energy convergence point.

He Ao had encountered these seemingly different individuals with their own complete energy circuits, but invariably, each had an overall hidden energy circuit underneath the surface—which was their real core energy circuit.

It seemed Virrus, who was parasitized by Abyssal Creatures and whom he had killed, followed a similar pattern.

The life of the Abyss and that existent in the Copy World might not differ significantly in energy form.

"From a life survival perspective, your choice seems foolish,"

The hanging skulls spoke almost simultaneously, their cold voices echoing under the quiet darkness, "This isn’t consistent with your wisdom, yet it seems right."

Arms made of bones extended from the bone column He Ao leaned on, and the quiet voice echoed again in the night, "You are a respectable person, but unfortunately, perhaps it’s because you have such charm and wisdom that you must meet your end here—this might be the predetermined fate in history."

He Ao chuckled hoarsely, pulled out the Hawk Claw Knife embedded in the bone column, suddenly kicked his legs, and jumped away,

"But until all is settled, no one can say fate is fixed."

His figure retreated backward under the gaze of the green skull, the sharp Hawk Claw Knife whirling in his hand, "You don’t need to put a high hat on me here, I’m not as great as you imagine—I’m just an old man who finally dared to fight for his youthful ideals at the end of his life."

Layers and layers of bone columns rushed toward the elderly man in the air with arms densely packed, the crystal green brilliance permeating the entire space, even covering the darkness itself.

He Ao suddenly flipped in midair and dodged the closest skeletal columns. However, his body stiffened, and he had to turn again to dodge another attack.

A large bone column had silently approached his back. A bony claw stretched out from the column, tearing his clothes and leaving a fresh red scar on his back.

Accompanying the red radiance spilling from the blood, a ghostly green glow also seeped through the torn wound into He Ao’s body.

The Elder slowed down in the air for a moment, his face slightly pale and his movements slowed. As his body slowed, another column struck him from behind, sending him flying and crashing to the ground beneath a nearby skeletal pillar.

In front of He Ao, another column from the opposite side reacted, whipping toward He Ao as he fell downward.

A surge of power instantly gathered in the Elder’s hand, accompanied by the cold light of a blade thrusting forward.

The sharp sword light collided with the pristine crystalline bone pillar, piercing its surface. Accompanied by a crisp impact sound, the bone column facing He Ao suddenly shattered, and ghostly green blood spattered out.

With blood on his body, the Elder passed through the sparkling fragments and worried blood, landing on the ground between the columns, smashing the already punctured concrete ground into a large hole.

Amid the flying dust, the Elder pressed his hand on the crater, withdrew his Divine Sense from the ground, and slowly stood up from the crater; he raised his head to look at the densely packed skeletal columns around him.

At that moment, the skulls above the columns also drooped down, staring down at the Elder. The column he had just shattered still had half remaining on the ground, but it had stopped shaking, seemingly completely lifeless.

Under Divine Sense’s field of view, there was still a faint flow of energy in the half column, but it seemed insufficient to sustain the column’s normal function.

The column had been penetrated by He Ao directly at the energy convergence point and then exploded into fragments.

"Your strength is a bit stronger than I estimated,"

the clusters of skeletal heads slowly said, "but still far from enough."

Wills’ power could not be entirely quantified, but from the recent battle, the strength of a single bone column was already close to Virrus’ full strength.

Although these columns did not seem to possess Virrus’ regenerative properties, the density of these stacked columns was already much higher.

He Ao could handle one column, but facing such densely packed columns was nearly impossible.

He coughed out a mouthful of fresh blood and glanced at the ghostly green glow pulsating in his palm.

In the recent battle, more ghostly green glow spread through his wounds into his body, rapidly devouring his life force and weakening his strength.

Wills not only possessed overwhelming strength but also had this kind of curse-like transcendent skill that weakened the vitality.

As the battle continued, more injuries were inflicted on him, allowing more of the ghostly green glow to enter He Ao’s body.

His body, already struggling to support Super Memory and Fist Technique, was likely to be further weakened as the fight dragged on.

Clearly, the longer time dragged on, turning into a war of attrition, the more advantageous it would be for Wills.

Both strength and time were on Wills’ side.

As time passed, the possibility of He Ao’s death increased.

He Ao looked up at the Ruby held aloft.

He must change the situation quickly.

Spotting that He Ao’s gaze was directed upward at the Ruby overhead, the skeletal columns in the sky started to swirl again, sending bony arms stretching out, swinging at He Ao as they approached.

This time, He Ao leaped up once more, stepped directly on an approaching skeletal hand, used it to propel himself into the air, and rushed again towards the Ruby glowing with an eerie light.

But after the restrictions from his previous movements, his speed was much slower than before. This time, he only made it halfway before he was surrounded by densely packed skeletal columns.

This time, He Ao did not dodge or retreat, but charged toward the ruby in the sky, clenching his teeth as the swinging bone claws approached.

His body weaved through the bone claws, which slashed his clothes and cut his flesh.

Bright red blood and eerie green light danced together in the night sky.

Wills had not expected He Ao to be so reckless this time; in an instant, He Ao had already reached a position about ten meters from the ruby.

Accompanied by a chilling voice, densely packed bone pillars, like aligned skeletal planks, slammed towards the scar-covered Elderly.

He Ao reached out his hand, and just as he was about to touch the floating ruby in the air, the massive bone pillar struck him, smashing him downward.

He watched the ruby in the sky getting further away, gritted his teeth, raised his hand, and the sharp dagger flew out of his grasp directly towards the bone column extending from the skeletal palm holding the ruby.

Seeing that flying blade, this time Wills did not intercept it directly but controlled the bone column to fly backward, trying to avoid the dagger.

As the bone column moved backward, the dagger suddenly changed direction in mid-air, shooting vertically upward and striking the ruby in the sky with force.

With a crisp sound, the flying dagger suddenly shattered, and the glowing ruby was knocked higher into the sky again.

"Foolish attempt; you have already failed once."

A cold voice echoed from the skull in the sky as more skeletal arms extended from the surrounding bone pillars, reaching for the ruby already flying in the air.

He held the ruby so high, so prominently, specifically to attract "Linen" to try and snatch it, then to continuously strike with the nearby bone pillars, gradually draining "Linen’s" lifeforce.

The energy consumption for him was minimal this way.

The ruby was at the very center of all his bone pillars, making it impossible to escape his grasp.

Obviously, this Elderly Mayor, although very clever in politics and strategy, was evidently a bit slow and inexperienced in combat.

However, he could understand; one should not expect a civil servant to have extensive combat experience, and if he excelled in all areas, then the Elderly Mayor would seem not quite like a mere mortal, possibly capable of disrupting his secretly laid plans.

Yet, as this thorough thought flashed through his mind, his movements suddenly paused.

All the skulls that were initially looking up at the sky at the ruby immediately looked downward, at the Elderly falling rapidly toward the ground.

In that instant, he suddenly realized something; all the bone pillars surrounding the sky instantly reversed direction. The thick bone pillars instantly bent downward, like arms with joints, retracting the skeletal hands on the pillars to grab towards the falling He Ao.

At the same time, the bone pillars near He Ao also sprouted slender skeletal arms, reaching for him.

He noticed it after all.

He Ao glanced at the rotating bone pillars and the hands continuously reaching out around him, then turned back and looked downward.

He gathered his soul power together and released it suddenly.

The target of this burst of soul power was not the surrounding bone pillars or the skulls in the sky but the ground beneath his feet.

Even though he saw no soul shadows on the ground, he still released his attack.

With a thunderous roar, as the mental shock penetrated the ground, the whole earth trembled, and the bone pillars attacking He Ao paused in that instant.

In such a level of battle, even a momentary gap could determine the outcome.

When Wills focused his attention on the ruby being knocked in the sky, it already indicated his current disadvantage.

Wills was using the ruby as a lure to attract him, but he was also using the ruby to keep Wills in check.

The sharp Hawk Claw Knife flipped in He Ao’s palm, and after looking at the knife, now covered with cracks from repeated impacts, he gripped the handle. With the force from just being struck by the bone pillars, he charged towards the seemingly solid cement ground.

His blood-covered body slashed through the dark night, like a spear thrown through the air.

Long Weapon Martial Technique, tip amplification 25%.

With a light sound, the sharp blade pierced through the cement, cutting open the twisted steel bars beneath and revealing the white bones below.

A continuous flow of power converged from all directions, focusing at the very center of the white bones—the convergence point of the energy circuit of all the bone pillars.

Then, the sharp blade instantly plunged into the expanse of bones.

With another light sound, the cracked Hawk Claw Knife finally shattered completely, and the ground around it trembled violently in that instant.

Countless bone pillars dancing in the sky seemed to lose control, rapidly bending and twisting.

Using the recoil, He Ao flipped his body, leaped up suddenly, and dashed out, crossing through the densely disturbed bone pillars and bursting out of the "Bone Thorns," rolling onto the street beside.

From the very beginning, when he saw those bone pillars rising from the ground, he suspected that they were connected beneath the surface.

So he deliberately penetrated deeper into the bone pillars, got slammed to the ground, then sunk his Divine Sense beneath the bone pillars, indeed sensing the energy network underground.

And the core of this energy network, an energy convergence point, was right under the Ruby, so he first pretended to go after the Ruby to attract Wills’ attention and then took the opportunity to strike the energy convergence point below.

He Ao staggered to his feet and looked towards the trembling ground still covered by a massive shadow.

However, it was clear that Wills was not so easy to kill; the energy surging from the just-broken convergence point couldn’t support such a massive body.

With the violent trembling of the earth, a giant skeletal hand burst from the ground, reaching for the Ruby already falling through the sky.

At that moment, the sparkling Ruby suddenly changed direction in the sky, transforming into a red streak of light that crossed the night sky and landed in He Ao’s palm.

He coughed out blood and withdrew the Divine Sense from the Ruby.

After reaching B-level in Martial Arts, Divine Sense could leave the body and even manipulate objects.

Of course, if he had directly sent his Divine Sense into the Ruby from a great distance, the Divine Sense inside He Ao wouldn’t have been enough, so he cunningly tried using a flying dagger to strike the Ruby, transmitting the Divine Sense in the dagger into the Ruby.

That was the reason for the first strike.

The second strike not only diverted Wills’ attention but also made Wills lose control over the Ruby and sent more Divine Sense into it, allowing He Ao to remotely manipulate this B-level item.

"Dispel the Commands!"

Feeling the information coming from the Ruby, He Ao coughed lightly.

An invisible force fluctuated through the night.

With a sense of relief deep inside, he raised his head and looked forward.

The huge skeletal hand that had emerged from the ground was now supporting the surface, with a massive, cracked skeletal head emerging from the ground, which He Ao’s blade had seemingly pierced at its top.

The enormous body of the Skeletal Giant kept emerging from the ground, its eyes flickering with green flames, exuding a terrifying pressure, coldly watching He Ao, "For many centuries, you are the first being to push me to this extent."

But He Ao’s gaze only fell on the slowly exposed chest of the Skeletal Giant and the beating heart of flesh within.

Countless streams of energy surged from the surrounding bones, gathering in that giant heart.

The health bar and kill line flashed.