It takes a few seconds for human eyes to adapt from light to darkness.

Dark One's heart tightened, and within less than half a second of being engulfed in darkness, a gust of foul wind struck sideways. His nose felt a sharp pain as if it had been slit by a knife, and wet blood smeared across his lips.

Dark One swiftly retreated, punching forward with one arm, as if hitting a person, yet it felt as if striking an iron wall—cold and hard.

Feng Mu, who had been waiting in the darkness for a long time, took the hastily thrown punch from Dark One. The blow to his ribs was painful, momentarily halting his charging steps.

He let out a grim laugh, continued to charge without hesitation, and with a flick of his fingertip, a piece of rotten flesh smacked onto Dark One's face.

"Here's your nose back to you." The voice from under the mask was indescribably grim and cold.

Dark One's heart skipped a beat. Freeing his hand, he wiped his face to find a piece of rotten flesh on his cheek, while his nose was just a hollow with two holes.

"Who are you, and where is the short guy?"

Dark One was also ruthless. While retreating to regain his vision, he opened his mouth to chew and swallow his severed nose.

Feng Mu felt a chill run through him, his killing intent growing stronger. He sneered, "Guess who's standing behind you?"

In panic, Dark One clawed into the ground with his big toe, his cloth shoes shredding into pieces from the strain. He leaned entirely on one leg, twisting his waist, and his other foot sliced the air, a kick with five toes blackened to purple breaking through the shoe.

Yet there was nothing in the air. The toes slammed into the corridor wall, scraping grooves and dislodging bits of cement.

"No one?" Dark One's vision finally cleared. He was astonished, seeing no one in the dim hallway.

"You're wrong. Now there really is someone behind you."

Dark One quickly recoiled, stood on one foot, kicked against the wall, and, like a one-legged frog, lunged forward awkwardly.

"Ha, you've been fooled!" The mocking laughter revealed undisguised malice.

Feng Mu moved quickly, not relying on any stepping technique, as there was no room in the narrow corridor—only raw speed mattered.

With a single step, he left a clear indent in the ground. Feng Mu darted forward like a venomous snake, his fingers gleaming darkly, morphing into fangs aiming for Dark One's spinal column.

Dark One's back tingled, finding it hard to escape. He somersaulted forward, his heel striking like a scorpion's tail.

In a fleeting glimpse, he finally saw that ghostly face—a face without features, a bone mask seamlessly adhering to human skin.

As a devoted believer of the Calamity Corpse Sect, Dark One did not mistake the bone mask for a regular mask; his first instinctual thought was...

A bone growing out from the flesh, a Calamity Corpses?!!

"Could it be someone from the sect? But why kill me?" Dark One was horrified and unknowingly cried out.

Feng Mu's pupils contracted. He moved in closer, not evading, ramming chest-first into him.

Crack.

In disbelief, Dark One watched as Feng Mu's chest burst open, a ring of bones radiating outward, forming a serrated, white bone.

Unable to pull back in time, his heel crashed into it, brutally breaking a bone, but halted by lacking strength. Blood split his ankle, as if bitten by a Cannibal Flower.

"Has the research on Calamity Corpse Transformation succeeded?"

Dark One stared with wide eyes, his immense shock and confusion dazing him momentarily.

Feng Mu seemed to pick up on something from Dark One's stunned words, but he cared not, nor did he intend to clarify for him.

Isn't it elegant for a villain to leave a beautiful misunderstanding for the dead?

Taking advantage of his daze, Feng Mu grabbed him, his five fingers clasping the man's ankle like iron pincers; the texture felt like gripping tough cowhide.

Dark One's soles went cold. He snapped back to his senses, his calf muscles swelling, increasing his pulling strength several times over.

Even with the firm bones and brute force reinforced by [Tier Two: Iron Eater], Feng Mu nearly failed to maintain his hold, dragged forward two steps, a testament to Dark One's fierce power.

Feng Mu squatted deeply, rooting himself like a tree. The pads of his fingers suddenly split open, and the cold claws of his bones boldly pierced through flesh.

The flesh was firm, not tofu-like, more like interlocked rubber strands—ordinary [Crane Claw Skill] might not have penetrated.

But under the enhanced power of [Mutated Crane Claw Skill], Dark One's ankle was pierced with five bloody holes, tendons and fascia shredded by claw bones.

As for the bone within, Feng Mu's claws scraped it, finding it hard as iron, matching his own bones in toughness.

Feng Mu didn't bother wasting effort. With a flick of his wrist, he applied [Crane Claw Skill Sixth Form: Bone-Carving].

Dark One, caught off guard, had his ankle seized, unable to extract it, forced to watch helplessly as the muscles of his right leg were carved into strands, exposing cold white bone beneath.

Dark One was in agony but remained silent; his eyes gleamed with ferocity, finally ceasing to wonder who exactly the mask-wearer was.

Unable to pull his leg back, Dark One simply let Feng Mu hold it and, despite being upside down, swept his hands on the ground, crunched his waist, and sprung upright as if doing a sit-up, nearly colliding chest-first into Feng Mu's circle of exposed ribs.

Dark One, using the foothold of the captured leg, sat in Feng Mu's lap, arms encircling, fists darting like spikes at Feng Mu's temples.

It was truly a no-holds-barred strategy, any misstep, and Dark One would find himself dead—a move so bold it startled even Feng Mu, who grudgingly admired, "More fierce than any foe I've met before, on a different level entirely."

It was a sudden, fierce, and swift battle.

By the time Feng Mu reacted, his brain didn't have time to issue commands.

Even through the mask, Feng Mu could hear the muffled air being compressed sound; he could almost feel a dull pain from the temples.

Dark One intended to bash open his skull in one blow, shattering the mask, determined to see if that face beneath was human or a Calamity Corpses.

"Mainly, his adaptability in battle is incredibly fast and ruthless."

Feng Mu silently marveled, having relied on terrain, surprise, and deceit to gain the advantage, yet still felt cornered.

"[Crane Claw Skill] is too monotonous; my technical shortcomings are evident. Fortunately, I've just gained 20,000 skill proficiency points; I must find a way to remedy this soon."

Feng Mu's gaze was equally fierce, seemingly unwilling to change tactics. His head remained still, only coldly squeezing two words through his teeth that Dark One failed to understand.

"Add points!"

Dark One: "???

He did not comprehend what this bizarre "Calamity Corpses" meant, even when facing death—was this some kind of code, or just another attempt to deceive him?

But, Dark One was no fool; he wouldn't fall for the same linguistic trickery twice. In his vision, he nearly saw the other's skull burst apart, red and white splattering beautifully....

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