Then a group of men in suits closed in on Li Muhan from the front and back.
Li Muhan violently shoved the bicycle in his hands to momentarily block the four men in black ahead of him, then turned and charged at the several men behind him.
He had decided to fight to the death. Against so many people, no matter how proficient he was in fighting techniques, it was impossible for him to escape unscathed.
Despite resisting with all his might, these men in suits were clearly trained fighters.
In no time at all, Li Muhan was kicked down to the ground.
Fasts as raindrops, fists rained down on Li Muhan's body. He quickly gave up resisting; in situations like this, resistance would only result in a more severe beating.
So Li Muhan did his best to protect his head and abdomen, shielding himself from any potentially fatal injuries.
"Enough, drag him over to me."
The young scion was sitting in the front passenger seat of the car, with the door wide open, watching the scene unfold.
Li Muhan was grabbed like a rag and dragged over to the car.
By this time, he was covered in injuries and couldn't even stand steadily.
"Do you think I'm coming after you just because you slapped her?"
He slowly squatted down in front of Li Muhan, lit a cigarette, and looked at Li Muhan collapsed on the ground as if looking at garbage."You've got it all wrong, kid. Did you seriously think I cared that much about a woman like that? I just thought she was pretty and wanted to have some fun with her. Of course, she's also free to use my resources to climb higher. Kid, your ex-girlfriend is a lot smarter than you are."
The young master grabbed Li Mohan by the hair, forcing him to look up and stare right at him.
"What the hell did I ever do to you..."
Li Mohan said weakly.
"She told me you two knew each other back in high school, and that you pestered her shamelessly until she finally agreed to date you. Whether that's true or not, I don't want to see you two in contact ever again."
Zhao Qiankun patted Li Mohan's face mockingly.
"The best part is, she was actually still a virgin, and she even had the nerve to ask me to take responsibility. Hilarious! You two were together for all that time, and she never even let you touch her? You know, it took only a week—just one week after we added each other on messaging apps, a single dinner, and a new phone was all it took for her to check into a hotel room with me."
At this, Zhao Qiankun took a deep drag of his cigarette and blew the smoke directly into Li Mohan's face.
"Your girlfriend is incredible."
Zhao Qiankun snapped his fingers, and the man in the suit beside him immediately brought over a video camera.Li Muhhan now had zero strength left and could only let the men in suits hoist him up.
"Let me show you something good."
Zhao Qiankun flicked away his cigarette butt and shoved the camera right in front of Li Muhhan's face.
Li Muhhan slowly shifted his eyes toward the screen and saw a naked man and woman in bed, engaged in unspeakable acts.
And that woman was none other than his ex-girlfriend, Gu Ruoxi.
Chapter 7: The Bizarre Opera House
"What's wrong, take off her clothes and you don't recognize her anymore? This is your ex-girlfriend, look at how wild she is in bed. This must be a side of her you've never seen in your entire life, right?"
Zhao Qiankun threw an arm around Li Muhhan's shoulder, acting as if they were friends admiring something interesting.
"I know you're furious right now, but you need to accept reality. I might as well tell you, your girlfriend is just one of many toys I have. You know, women like this who have never seen the world are amazing in bed."
Furious?
Was Li Muhhan furious? He should have been.
Yet his heart was exceptionally calm right now. As he watched Gu Ruoxi gasping under Zhao Qiankun on the bed, he felt only sorrow.
Sorrow for Gu Ruoxi, without a single trace of anger.
Click—
Zhao Qiankun snapped the camera shut and grabbed Li Muhhan by the hair.
"Kid, no matter how much I talk about the gap between us, you probably still won't grasp it, so I'm not going to waste my breath. I'm a clean freak, so before I get tired of playing with that little slut, you aren't allowed to say another word to her. Understand?"
Instead of getting angry, Li Muhhan actually smiled, then turned his head.
Ptui—
A mouthful of bloody spit landed squarely on Zhao Qiankun's face.
A flash of murderous intent crossed the young master's eyes. He wiped away the filth with a handkerchief, then stood up, retrieved a baseball bat from the trunk of the car, and walked back to Li Muhhan's side with a sneer.
"You're really fucking asking for death."
Bang—
The baseball bat smashed viciously against Li Muhhan's head.
A muffled thud echoed through the silent winter night, and blood instantly streamed down from the top of Li Muhhan's head.
"Useless trash, you'll always be nothing more than a bottom-feeder."With that, he tossed the baseball bat aside. Several men in black also released Li Muhang and prepared to get into the car.
At this moment, Li Muhang felt dizzy with blood blinding his vision; he could barely hear any sounds from the outside world.
He desperately tried to raise his head, and through the blur, he saw the rich heir and the men in black get into the car. Li Muhang struggled to breathe, but every breath sent an agonizing, chest-splitting pain through his body.
Perhaps he was going to die here.
Li Muhang felt his body gradually growing cold, and the pain slowly began to recede. His vision was gradually engulfed by a ball of black mist, and his body kept sinking downward, as if countless pairs of hands were dragging him into the endless Abyss.
......
............
An ancient and mysterious language awakened Li Muhang, and he slowly recovered clarity from his state of Hundun.
"Where is this?"
He touched his head—there was no blood, and his body felt completely free of the pain from the beating, as if the assault by Zhao Qiankun and the others had all been a dream.
He pushed himself up from the ground with his hands and looked around. Everything here was pitch black, save for a huge and magnificent giant stone gate standing right before him.
This iron gate stood dozens of meters tall, and apart from it, nothing else existed in the surrounding void.
"Could this be hell?"
Li Muhang smiled with self-deprecation.
He hadn't done anything particularly bad in his life; how could he end up in hell after dying?
He carefully examined the iron gate. Countless runes were engraved upon its surface, exuding a mysterious and ancient aura.
Surrounded by these runes were numerous relief sculptures, each depicting a strangely and grotesquely twisted monster.
Li Muhang cautiously placed his hands on the door and gave it a push.
Unsurprisingly, the giant gate didn't budge at all.
Just as he was feeling puzzled, a series of indescribable whispers traveled through his hands into his mind, straight from the point of contact with the door.
[............Key.............]
A flood of meaningless language poured in.
It was a language Li Muhang had never heard before, but it felt as though it had been branded onto his very soul; he could remember and recite every bit of it completely.
Following the voice in his head, Li Muhang chanted the ancient incantation.
As the chant finished, the heavy iron gate emitted a deafening roar and slowly began to swing inward.
Li Muhang had originally expected to see a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, or at the very least, a terrifying scene resembling a Demon's lair.
Yet, it was the exact opposite.
Inside the door lay a massive Opera House.
Li Muhang had seen such opera houses on television before, with the audience seating arranged in a circle surrounding the stage.
And somehow, Li Muhang was already standing right in the center of the stage.
Snap—
A spotlight illuminated the top of Li Muhang's head. Blinded by the glare, he squinted and took a long while to finally see clearly.
The dark figures in the audience seats were not humans at all.
Instead, they were statues of various shapes and forms.
"Is this the afterlife? That's a bit too abstract."
Li Muhang couldn't help muttering a complaint.
Right at that moment, the eyes of a statue in the front row of the audience lit up with a red glow.
Li Muhang's gaze met its line of sight.
In an instant, he was pulled into another space.
This was a dilapidated temple with dim lighting and broken walls all around, leaving only a single throne completely intact.
Sitting upon that throne was a young man.
He was handsome, with golden runes carved across his dark skin and a mess of unkempt white hair. His attire was unfamiliar to Li Muhang, though it looked somewhat akin to the ancient Babylonian style.
Yet at this moment, the young man's eyes, gleaming with a faint golden light, stared blankly ahead, looking right past Li Muhang and into the endless void behind him.
"Excuse me, is this heaven or hell?"
Li Muhang asked as he walked toward the throne.
The youth, however, did not answer, merely resting his chin in his hand and murmuring to himself.
"Why did we lose? Why on earth did we lose?"
At that moment, a mechanical voice rang out in Li Muhang's mind.
[Demon: Baal]
[Level: World-Ending-grade]
[Soul Status: Damaged]
[Quest: Help Baal repair his soul. With each stage repaired, a portion of Baal's power will be acquired.]
[Current Recovery Progress: 0%.]
Baal?Li Muhhan stared at the young man before him, who looked as though he had been beaten senseless. This person was actually the one who had signed a contract with King Solomon, the foremost of the Seventy-Two Pillar Demons:
The Monarch, Baal.
Li Muhhan did not know much about the myths and legends of King Solomon; he only knew that he was an ancient king of Israel who had signed a contract with demons to gain supreme wisdom.
No wonder this Baal looked like an idiot—his soul was incomplete.
A sudden thought occurred to Li Muhhan.
Could it be that he wasn't dead yet? As long as he could obtain Baal's power, could he still make a desperate counterattack?
With this thought, he pulled himself together and began to communicate with Baal. After all, one had to find the root of the illness before being able to cure it.
"Hello there, my name is Li Muhhan."
"Are you really Baal? The first of the Seventy-Two Pillar Demons?"
"Hey, hey, did you know? There are a lot of depictions of you in games. In the games, you're a general who commands thunder and lightning. Pretty awesome, right?"
"At least say something back!"
In the end, Li Muhhan was helpless. No matter what he said, the youth ignored him completely.
So he decided to resort to his ultimate measure: he raised his hand and slapped Baal right across the face.
*Slap—*
The crisp sound echoed through the desolate ruins of the temple.
Baal seemed to suddenly wake up. He raised his head slightly, looking at Li Muhhan with a gaze filled with confusion.
"Who... are you?"
Before Li Muhhan could speak, a voice suddenly echoed in his mind, prompting him:
[Baal's soul has been awakened. Current restoration level: 1%. You have gained Baal's gaze and are drawing power from Baal.]
Holy shit.
Li Muhhan cursed inwardly.
Wasn't this just a matter of a slap? Could it be that as long as he gave him a few more slaps, this progress could be accelerated even further?
Before he had time to react, his body was suddenly seized by a mysterious power, a force that felt as though it were rewriting every single cell in his body.
This gave Li Muhhan a sensation of being reborn.
When this power subsided, that voice surfaced in Li Muhhan's mind once more:
[Domain skill acquired: Myriad Thunder Guiding Slaughter]
[Domain ability: Within the Domain, your strength, stamina, speed, and mental power are increased to ten times their usual levels.]
[Within the Domain, you gain Baal's power to command thunder and lightning.]
[Within the Domain, you can absorb electricity from all electrical appliances within the area to strengthen yourself.]
[Within the Domain, as long as the lightning does not extinguish, you will be immortal.]
[Domain range: 1 km radius]
[Domain level: Level 2]
Li Muhhan was dumbfounded.
Just by slapping this Demon once, he had traded it for such incredible goodies.
He quickly rolled up his sleeves, intending to continue beating the youth.
However, the youth had already broken free from his previous daze. He gazed intently at Li Muhhan, as if he could tell that Li Muhhan had extracted something from his body.
"Power is not so easily controlled. If you don't believe it, feel free to try."
With that, the youth raised his hand and gave a light flick.
Li Muhhan's consciousness was instantly ripped from his body as if being pulled out, flying away into the darkness deep within the temple.
***
Meanwhile, Zhao Qiankun spat at Li Muhhan's motionless body on the ground, muttering curses as he walked back to his car.
"Damn it, why did Gu Ruoxi ever like an idiot like this? I offered him money and he didn't want it, insisting on courting death."
Zhao Qiankun sat in the front passenger seat and lit a cigarette.
"Young Master, he's not dead yet. Should we..."
"Just handle it yourselves. It's not the first time we've done this kind of thing, so make it clean. I checked; he's an orphan with no relatives. Even if someone like this sinks to the bottom of the sea, no one will ask questions. Wait, is it going to rain?"
Zhao Qiankun took a drag of his cigarette and looked up at the night sky outside the car window.
The previously serene sky had begun to churn with a bank of thunderclouds, flashes of lightning flickering within them.
"What ghost weather, but at least it makes it easier for you lot to work. While it's about to rain, take his body... Huh?"
He cast a mocking look at Li Muhhan outside the car.
Right at that moment, however, he froze.
Li Muhhan's body, which should have been lying unconscious on the ground, was gone.
At that exact instant, a loud bang echoed from the roof of the car.
"What the fuck! What kind of noise is that?!"
The young master looked up at the dented car roof in astonishment.
Several men in black hurriedly got out of the car to check the situation.
One of them had just stepped out and turned to look at the roof when he dropped straight onto his backside in sheer terror.
For Li Muhhan, who should have been lying on the ground, was standing right on top of the car roof.
His shirt was torn open, exposing a body covered in eerie runes. His hands had transformed into pitch-black claws, and those claws were even crackling with arcs of lightning.
Even more terrifying was the demonic horn that had sprouted from the top of Li Muhhan's head, and the long, pitch-black tail that had grown from his tailbone.
The monster's pair of golden pupils stared fixedly down at the crowd.
The corners of its mouth split open into an evil smile.
"Domain open. Myriad Thunder Guiding Slaughter."
***
Chapter 8: Solomon's Demon
The very instant the monster uttered those words in a raspy voice,
the thunderclouds surged toward the earth, instantly expanding from the demon as the center to a radius of one kilometer around. Yet these bolts of thunder did not dissipate; instead, they completely enveloped this one-kilometer area within them, forming a domain composed entirely of lightning.
"A mon—! A monster!"
The man in the suit shouted, drawing the attention of the demon on the car roof.
All the men in suits pulled out their pistols, pointing them at the demon standing atop the vehicle.
"Shoot! Shoot!"
*Bang, bang, bang—*
Bullets poured out like raindrops, but as they drew close to the monster's body, they were all blocked by a barrier of electrical current.
When the bullets ran out, everyone was dumbfounded.
They saw that a dense wall composed entirely of bullets had formed right in front of the demon.
"What the hell on earth is that thing?!"
The man in the suit screamed in terror.
Before his voice had even faded, however, looking down, he saw that the demon's lightning-crackling claws had already pierced straight through his chest.
Fresh blood sprayed out instantly.
His body twitched violently a few times before finally going completely still. His eyes were filled with endless fear and astonishment; clearly, he could never have imagined that his life would end so abruptly.
"Help!"
"Ahhhhhhh! Help!"
"Don't kill me! Don't kill me! Fuck! Don't kill me!"
After that came a massacre.
Wherever the flash of lightning passed, another man in black was torn to shreds by the monster.
In an instant, screams, gunshots, and the roar of thunder intertwined to compose a tragic, frantic symphony of hell.
When the very last man in black met his end beneath the monster's claws, everything fell back into deathly silence.
And what about Zhao Qiankun?
Clutching a pistol in his hand, he huddled in the back seat, burying his head as he trembled in terror.
"No... No, no..."
There was no sound left outside, but Zhao Qiankun still didn't dare to look up.
He prayed that all of this would pass quickly; he prayed that the monster hadn't noticed him.
Yet none of that was possible.
A heavy breath broke the silence.
"Who's there! Who is it?! I'm the young master of the Zhao Group, damn it, don't touch me! My old man—!"
Before he could finish, a claw abruptly reached in from outside the car, violently dragging the huddled young master right out from the back seat.
The young master was hoisted into mid-air, grabbed by the neck in the monster's claws. He frantically raised the gun in his hand and fired several shots straight at the monster's head.
Yet the bullets were still blocked by the invisible current barrier before the monster's eyes.
All of this drove Zhao Qiankun to utter despair.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'll give you your woman back! I'll give you whatever you want! You want money? I have money! I have lots of money!..."
The monster tilted its head slightly, its emotionless golden pupils staring down at Zhao Qiankun as if looking at a lamb awaiting slaughter.
Suddenly, it smiled—that terrifying smile again.
Then the monster raised its hand and snapped its fingers.
*Boom—*
A bolt of lightning struck down, with pinpoint precision blasting Zhao Qiankun's right arm entirely to ashes, leaving not even a scrap of bone or flesh behind.
"Ahhhhhh! Ah! My hand! My hand!"
Pain and terror tortured Zhao Qiankun. Since he was a child, he had hardly ever scraped a patch of skin, but now, one of his hands was gone—and it had been blasted to dust by a monster using lightning.
Snot and tears stained Zhao Qiankun's face.
He knew he was dead for sure today; it was just that this monster didn't seem ready to kill him outright, but rather intended to subject him to a long, drawn-out torment.
Just as the monster intended to extend its claws and gouge out Zhao Qiankun's eyes, the thunderclouds high above within the Domain were suddenly torn apart as if ripped open by force.
Then, a bright, flawless full moon hung in the sky.
Pristine moonlight cast down from amid the thunderclouds.