Now that he was back in the valley, Shale was his opponent once again. But things were different this time. Han Sen had changed a lot since their first fight; he had become deified.
Shale wasn’t the same person Han Sen had fought the first time, either. He had learned many more geno arts in the interim. Although there were still flaws in his execution of certain skills, he was stronger than he had been.
Li Chun Qiu stood outside the valley, but his eyes never left Han Sen.
He knew it was even more unlikely that Shale would win this time. He hadn’t thought that Han Sen would become deified so soon, so Li Chun Qiu wasn’t expecting Shale to take part in a fight already.
He hadn’t completed his instruction of Shale. The geno arts Shale needed to learn took a long time to practice, especially when it came to fixing the issues arising from the simplicity of his previous skills.
But this didn’t matter, at the end of the day. Real fights were how true fighters grew. Fighting an opponent like Han Sen would be beneficial for Shale’s development.
Li Chun Qiu also wanted to know what Han Sen was like now that he was deified.
In the valley, Shale looked at Han Sen and said, “I’ve found a way to break your Under the Sky knife skill. You won’t defeat me the same way this time.”
“I wasn’t planning on using Under the Sky, anyway.” Han Sen smiled and summoned Spell’s dual pistols.
The dual pistols of Spell had become deified class now. There was even more detail in the engraving that covered the weapons, and the texture of the grips was even comfier. The two pistols were carved with mysterious flower symbols.
“Let me try how strong Spell has become now that she’s deified.” Han Sen raised one of his hands and pulled the trigger. With a roar, a bullet went flying out the barrel and shot directly toward Shale.
Shale remained still. Instead of attempting to dodge the bullet, one of his substance chains rose. He threw a punch to meet the bullet.
Pang!
The fist and the bullet hit each other, creating a scary impact. Shale’s body was strong like a lion, but he was hit badly. His legs cleaved two long trenches through the earth as he flew back a few hundred meters.
Shale’s face changed. He turned his hand over to look at it, and he saw the bullet lodged inside one of his fingers. Blood oozed out from the bullet wound.
Li Chun Qiu frowned. Shale’s power was the best out of all primitive deifieds. Yet with pure power, the lion-headed warrior was at a disadvantage. It appeared that he was much weaker than Han Sen, who had just leveled up.
“How can Han Sen be so strong?” Li Chun Qiu wondered to himself, turning his gaze back to Han Sen.
Crystallizers were notorious for their poor fitness, but Han Sen’s body was better than a born-deified at the same level. This was so weird.
Li Keer and Exquisite, on the other hand, were very happy. Han Sen had leveled up to deified, and he was so strong. He was stronger than any Very High of the same level. This was very scary.
“What impressive power.” Shale’s eyes were on fire while he watched Han Sen. His resolve for battle hadn’t been lessened. Seeing Han Sen’s strength had actually stoked a greater fire in his heart.
Substance chains danced madly around him. The atmosphere sizzled like an unstoppable volcano that was about to erupt.
Clearly, Han Sen’s gun had triggered Shale’s desire for victory even more. This explosion of power wasn’t just pure force. It was a special skill.
“Shale has learned quite a lot of stuff recently. This will be a perfect way for me to gauge the extent of my deified power.” Han Sen didn’t attack. He was waiting for Shale to build up his strength first.
Last time, Shale had lost to Han Sen because he didn’t have a decisive power to beat him. That was why Han Sen had a chance to trigger a hidden ability of Under the Sky. After his failure, Shale had spent a lot of time thinking about how he might defeat Han Sen. He considered many different potential tactics. With Li Chun Qiu’s help, Shale settled on two different methods.
One method employed a punching skill that was similar to Under the Sky. It was called Return to Origin. It could generate a lot of punching power, and it formed a scary punching light that flowed through the sky like a river. Using this, he could go against Under the Sky and trace its movements.
The other method was known as Star Explode. For a short amount of time, this geno art could greatly increase the fitness of Shale’s body. His power and speed would receive a major boost. He could use the skill to defeat Han Sen through absolute, sheer power. It would limit Han Sen’s ability to use powerful knife skills.
But Star Explode’s weakness was its short duration. Because it was an exploding power, it would give Shale less than ten minutes to beat Han Sen.
If he couldn’t beat Han Sen within ten minutes, his body would become weak because he exploded too much.
When Star Explode’s power erupted, Shale’s whole body shone with silver light. It was like a star exhausting all of its power in one burst. Everything outside of his body darkened against the background of his radiance.
“Han Sen, try out my punching skills!” Shale roared and threw a punch toward Han Sen.
He was still using his old punching skill, but it was so powerful that it seemed almost invincible. It was simpler than the last time it was used, but its power and speed had grown as well.
He unleashed his punch, and his substance chains spread like the dust from a supernova. It was like that punch could destroy everything. No power could rival that almighty strike.
That punching power carried the condensed light of a thousand suns. Han Sen didn’t choose to dodge it, though. He straightened his arm in front of him, lifting one of his pistols into line with the incoming attack. That star-like power surged toward him. His finger calmly squeezed the trigger.
Pang!
The bullet streaked out of the barrel, shooting straight toward the massive incoming strike.
Boom!
A bright light exploded within the valley, blinding everyone who was watching the fight. For several long moments, no one could see anything. When the light finally dimmed a bit, they could see what had happened. Their faces went blank.
Han Sen’s bullet hadn’t been stopped by Shale’s punching power. It slid straight through the stardust to strike Shale’s fist again.
But after passing through the star explosion, the bullet had become weak. It hit Shale’s fist, but it hadn’t hurt him as the first bullet had. It simply bounced off and dropped to the ground.
Although the bullet hadn’t hurt Shale, its performance still left Li Chun Qiu, Exquisite, and Li Keer speechless. After Shale used Star Explode, his power had grown by an order of magnitude. One punch should have been able to destroy a deified at the same level.
And the bullet that Han Sen used had been built from the power of a substance chain. It wasn’t even solid. The fact that it could go against Shale’s Star Explode without being destroyed was beyond shocking.
“My solidifying powers have become stronger. It generated a bullet that wasn’t damaged by such a powerful explosion. I think it has reached an eternal level now,” Han Sen complimented in his heart.
