"Clap clap clap…"
The Ghastly Clown clapped and a wry smile was plastered on its face.
"Hehehehe… well done. You did not disappoint me. I'll give you this little brat back."
As soon as the Ghastly Clown finished speaking, Liang Song's mask automatically disappeared, revealing the Ghastly Clown’s face.
Liang Song became limp and fainted.
Zhu Nian rushed to him, held his arms and gave him a tube of medicine. He then left him at the entrance of the city.
He gradually floated into the sky as he looking at the Ghastly Clown.
"Why do you look so serious? Are you worried that I'll use my control skill to take over your body?" The Ghastly Clown laughed, his big red mouth widening when Zhu Nian did not fight back.
It had a white mask on with red lips and black eyes. It looked like an overly exaggerated creature. Especially its red lips that occupied half of its face, terrorizing everyone when it smiled.
"Don't worry. I won't use that skill on you." The Ghastly Clown waved its hand.
"For some reason, I don’t think you can anyway!" Zhu Nian was slightly relieved as he heard this. "Have you ever played Shogi? Once the general is caught, the entire game ends regardless of what pieces you have remaining. You're now the general. If you are controlled, the game would be too boring."
"Moreover, you have proven yourself to bring me more joy. That was why I gave you a chance to challenge me."
The Ghastly Clown had absolute confidence in itself and everyone seemed like pieces on a chessboard to it.
"Are you sure? Aren't you afraid that the joy that I'm bringing you can cause you death?" Zhu Nian's aura grew stronger.
"Let's see if you're capable of doing so! Hehehehe…"
"Our leader seems to be getting serious…" Liang Song had regained his consciousness. He turned his head and looked at Zhou Qian.
Zhou Qian nodded her head and smiled a little, "When he gets serious, something bad is going to happen to someone."
"Yes, his combat ability is about to achieve immortal-level. No ordinary commander-level monster can handle that." Liang Song agreed with Zhou Qian.
Lin Huang was hiding underground and even he could feel Zhu Nian's aura. The powerful aura he gave off was beyond what all the transcendent monsters Lin Huang had ever met could ever give off. It seemed like he had taken it to another level.
"How could a transcendent be so powerful? He can trigger astronomical change solely with his aura…" Lin Huang noticed that under Zhu Nian's aura, the haze that the Virtual Eye caused had disappeared. Even the sun appeared.
Zhu Nian was hanging mid-air with a golden spear in his hand. Soon, his aura had reached its peak and at that moment, he disappeared abruptly from the ground.
Many of the transcendent-level and gold-level hunters witnessed that amazing scene. Even Liang Song and Zhou Qian who were holy fire-level could not get a hold of Zhu Nian's movement.
"It seems like we have to train harder and be stronger. It doesn't feel good to be a hindrance." Liang Song sighed and nodded his head.
After Zhu Nian's disappearance from mid-air, a beam of golden light suddenly came towards the Ghastly Clown. The golden light appeared suddenly at a terribly fast speed.
Nevertheless, the Ghastly Clown was not showing any signs of nervousness and in fact, it was smiling. It moved its body slightly to dodge the oncoming golden light.
Zhu Nian did not stop attacking. As soon as the first beam of golden light disappeared, the second beam of golden light attacked it from another direction. Similarly, it appeared without notice and reaching its maximum speed… Close behind the second beam was the third beam of golden light, the fourth beam, the fifth beam…
About 3000 beams of golden light shot towards the Ghastly Clown but missed. It was unbelievable. Not a single beam of light hit him. Lin Huang and the rest of them had no idea what skill Zhu Nian used.
"How it could be…" Zhou Qian had an unbelievable expression on her face.
"Did he just dodge our leader's 3000 Strands of Worry?!" Liang Song was frightened.
Zhu Nian was hanging in mid-air but disappeared for quite a while. He then suddenly appeared, his face red as he looked at the Ghastly Clown, "You have been fooling us all the while. You are actually a chief-level monster and yet you pretend to be a commander-level monster."
"I never said that I'm commander-level, you assumed I was." The Ghastly Clown spread his hands.
The combat ability of a commander-level monster was comparable to that of a human holy fire transcendent. The Lava Giant and the Four-Winged Swordfiend that Zhu Nian killed earlier were both commander-level.
The Ghastly Clown was a chief-level monster. Its combat ability was on par with that of a human immortal-level transcendent.
The monster world had a strict hierarchy.
A chief-level monster could cause severe damage. If it had sufficient time, it could gather at least 10 commander-level monsters and ten of millions of monster in a horde, triggering a destruction-grade monster horde. The effect by such a monster horde was beyond what a disaster-grade monster horde could do. Destroying the Grade-B big-sized foothold would be a breeze.
The combat ability of the chief-level monster alone would be powerful enough. In the Hunter Association, only the immortal-level transcendent hunters are able to fight against such monsters.
Zhu Nian had never expected to meet such a powerful opponent.
"Just because I am chief-level you’re going to retreat?" The Ghastly Clown laughed at Zhu Nian's expression. "If you're going to escape, I won't stop you. However, your subordinates and everyone in this city will become my food. I think it'll take me less than five minutes to devour everyone here."
Everyone who was watching the battle heard this.
Although many of them could not understand the true extent of a chief-level monster's power, they knew that Zhu Nian was incapable of defeating the Ghastly Clown.
"A chief-level monster…" Liang Song's and Zhou Qian's facial expression had changed.
Of course, they fully understood what a chief-level monster could do.
"A chief-level monster? It seems like its stronger than the uncle…" Lin Huang was not sure how the combat ability of a chief-level monster would be like. However, he knew that Zhu Nian was very powerful. He was stronger than most of the transcendents that he had met. "I wonder if I can use the Seal Card on him…"
When Lin Huang was still hesitating, Zhu Nian had already made up his mind.
"I am a member of the Hunter Association. Regardless of the type of monster and number of monsters that I encounter, protecting the residents is my responsibility. If you want to wipe out the city behind me, you'll have to do it over my dead body."
"About 60 years ago, the first thing that my teacher taught me was that a foothold will never die if hunters were present! 60 years have passed and I have forgotten many of the things he had taught me. However, I won't ever forget this one fact until the day I die!" Zhu Nian explained his decision.
While he was talking, his body gradually gave off a gold aura that resembled a layer of fading golden flames. As time passed, the flames burned more vigorously and the gold color turned brighter. He looked like a burning sun in the form of a human.
"You should know that even if you overdraw your Life Fire, you won't be able to defeat me. The difference between a holy fire and an immortal-level transcendent could not be compensated by overdrawing one's Life Fire. If you were a genius, I might be afraid of you. However, you aren't. Otherwise, it wouldn't have taken you 60 years and you're still not at immortal-level yet." The Ghastly Clown no longer smile. Although his opponent was a lot weaker than him, The Ghastly Clown respected him.
"Yes, I'm not a genius. I can barely be called talented. I know that I won't be able to defeat you even by overdrawing my Life Fire. However, I'll never change my mind. I live by these four words – Fight to the death!"
After uttering the last word, he had completely transformed into a human-like flame that looked like a comet, rushing towards the Ghastly Clown.
The beam of golden light streaked across the sky in an instant and appeared in front of the Ghastly Clown.
"Hehehehe…" The Ghastly Clown smiled again. He gradually extended his hand that was wearing a white glove.
The beam of golden flame was blocked by his palm at a distance of fewer than three centimeters away. He could not move any further.
Zhu Nian attempted to release himself and retrieve his spear. However, he realized that the spear seemed to be attracted by a strong force, like gravity causing it to remain stationary.
"I've told you before. There is a huge difference between our combat abilities. Now I'll teach you the meaning of the difference in our power." As he finished saying those words, the Ghastly Clown squeezed its fingers. Cracks began to appear on the spear relic tool that was floating in mid-air.
"How can this be?!" Zhu Nian was stunned when he saw this.
He was holding a 3-star relic. The relic was unbreakable but the Ghastly Clown broke it with a snap of his finger.
Before Zhu Nian could respond to this, the parts of the spear closest to the cracks began to disintegrate…
The Ghastly Clown smiled, with another palm pressing against Zhu Nian's chest through the flames.
The next moment, Zhu Nian's body was smashed onto the ground.
He was defeated by just one skill…
"Shit, he's too powerful!" Lin Huang stared at the Ghastly Clown floating in the air, "Xiao Hei, use the Seal Card on this clown!"