Chapter 44: General Zeng
Under the warm dark red glow like flames, Li Jiahong felt as if he had found an oasis in a lost desert, discovered the spark of life in the pitch-black night; feelings of reassurance, excitement, and other emotions that make the heart active naturally arose, gradually dispelling fear and confusion.
In front stood a burly man painted with a red evil spirit mask, towering imposingly, clad in golden-patterned red flame armor like a war god general in the flesh; with him blocking in front, it seemed all the world’s filth and dangers would be eliminated by him, and that ferocious, terrifying, huge, and majestic dimensional harmful beast seemed to be included among them.
“General Zeng, is this General Zeng?” Li Jiahong finally seemed to feel the weight of this title; at least in terms of power and might, he was worthy of the name general.
Only to hear General Zeng let out a muffled grunt, pushing hard with one hand; that winged abnormal god called Kuthuen by Huo Gu stumbled backward, pushed several steps away.
On that tumorous head sprouting eyes, an emotion of disbelief seemed to emerge; every eye was filled with shock and anger, seemingly unable to understand what this suddenly appearing thing that was neither human nor inhuman was, or why it possessed such immense power.
Li Jiahong picked up the girl, staggering to Yu Lianyun’s side, checked Yu Lianyun’s injuries and breathing, then let out a long sigh of relief in reassurance; she was still alive.
The next moment, General Zeng removed the shackles from his waist, gripped the two ends of the shackles and pulled them apart; instantly the two holes of the shackles separated, revealing a red chain in the middle. He released one hand, spun the shackles with the other, then flung them out like a flying sickle hook claw; the other end of the shackles split into two, heading straight toward two spots in the ruins.
Only a loud noise like splitting mountains and cracking stones was heard; the shackles pierced into the ruins full of hard stones. With General Zeng yanking hard, two figures covered in wounds flew into the air, and under General Zeng’s control, landed lightly beside Li Jiahong.
“Captain He, Detective Li!” After seeing He Jia’an and Li Yingqi again, Li Jiahong felt a surge of excitement in his heart; seeing their chests rising and falling slightly, he couldn’t help but weep with joy, “That’s great, you’re both okay!”
At this sight, Kuthuen let out an angry roar, its body shaking the ground as it charged, intending to crush that arrogant and conspicuous mysterious figure between its palms.
However, General Zeng faced the towering giant beast like a mountain without any fear from start to finish; instead, anger intensified on his face. Golden and red lights blazed from his entire body, like a walking sun; he stepped in astral steps, gathering the momentum of heaven and earth. Suddenly, the taiji duality appeared on his back, his feet treading the nine palaces and eight trigrams. With a explosive sound like shattering spacetime, General Zeng’s figure vanished from the spot, turning into a dazzling golden-red stream of light weaving through the ruins, actively charging toward the oncoming dimensional monster.
No one could clearly see General Zeng’s movements; suddenly, the shackles with the high-temperature scorching hot chains were flung out repeatedly, and in an instant the chains extended hundreds of meters, locking Kuthuen’s two front limbs covered in tentacles under General Zeng’s control.
The two front limbs were suddenly trapped by the giant shackles and the contracting chains suddenly merged, causing Kuthuen to abruptly lose control of its running body and crash headfirst into the ground with a boom.
Kuthuen’s several eyes only saw a blur; even its pupils that could cross dimensions and pierce spacetime failed to clearly see how General Zeng, clad in red flame golden armor, had flashed behind It.
General Zeng suddenly flung the shackles in his hand toward the sky; the merged shackles separated again, the other end shooting straight into the sky, then drilling into a suddenly opened red light curtain. Immediately, booming sounds came from all around the space; circles of dark red light curtains tore open the space, a total of eighty-one chains and eighty-one shackles flying out simultaneously.
Facing those encircling chains, Kuthuen tried to resist fiercely, but when it accidentally touched the scalding red chains, it felt a soul-tearing pain; it involuntarily shrank back, but carelessly touched the chains that had circled behind it with its back, experiencing the tormenting pain again.
Gradually, Kuthuen discovered it was trapped in the puzzle constructed by these chains; amid anger, it finally felt a trace of unease from losing control of its freedom—that was an emotion called fear growing deep in its soul.
Only several sharp breaking-air sounds were heard; the shackles encircling its body locked onto various parts of Kuthuen’s body, the red scalding chains wrapping around it. The soul-burning scorching high temperature surged like waves, one after another, continuously impacting it from every extending chain.
Kuthuen let out a miserable howl; the shackles and chains bound its body.
“Endure the pain of karma fire, evil beast!” General Zeng declared loudly. He yanked hard on the end of the shackles in his hand, and that heavenly giant beast whose weight could not be accurately estimated was hoisted up alive; then he flung the other end of the shackles into the light curtain again. The next instant, another circle of light curtain appeared beneath Kuthuen, another ring of shackles piercing into Kuthuen’s body, tightly gripping its heart.
Thus, Kuthuen’s chains throughout its body formed a perfect closed loop under the effect of spacetime control; its strong heart suspended its entire body, but at the same time its weight dragged on its heart, continuously tightening the chains around it. As long as it moved slightly, the soul-scorching heat on the chains would intensify, while also increasing the tightening force.
Therefore, Kuthuen could only endure the intense pain stiffly, not daring to move, because even the slightest movement would bring even more unbearable torment from the chains repeatedly.
Kuthuen was terrified; it feared that General Zeng, who was clearly tiny in body and human-like. The opponent was so clearly visible, with a form not hard to understand, yet possessed power even greater than its own.
This abnormal god, which since birth had never experienced vulnerability, received blind adoration, and acted on instincts from inherited memories, now encountering a being that could subdue it effortlessly, finally knew what fear was, and what humility was…
“Born of heaven and earth, uniquely blessed, possessing such great power yet utterly unenlightened, instead creating countless killings, karma binding the body… This power is simply wasted on you.” General Zeng shook his head with a sigh, somewhat angry at its failure to strive; with a casual wave, a fire token plaque appeared in his right hand. He tossed the fire token out, and it landed on top of Kuthuen’s head; immediately, large swathes of flowing fire emerged from the fire token, injecting into every chain.
The continuously rising chain temperature plunged Kuthuen into even more intense pain; the meaningless strange sounds gradually turned into concise wails and screams.
“Atone here; under the baptism of karma fire, you will gradually lose your original power until you completely become a harmless, simple-minded creature. This is your retribution.” General Zeng said, ignoring the evil beast begging him for mercy. At this time, the burning incense on the golden crown on his head was nearly burned to the end; he glanced sideways at Li Jiahong, who was tending to the mystic investigators and the girl, gave her a slight nod, then turned and vanished into the void…
