Adam remained perplexed by the window for a while, glaring at the eldritch silhouette in his windowsill.
He knew that he must act immediately otherwise there would be severe consequences, Adam bit his own lip open to force some consciousness back into himself, and then jumped backwards from the window to place some distance between himself and the entity.
But just as he leapt back, the creature had also moved, exceptionally quickly. It had darted out of the window's view in the blink of an eye, and was nowhere to be seen.
Adam knew this was not likely going to be the end of the confrontation, and his suspicions were confirmed when he turned around and stared at the full body of the mimic that was now right in front of him.
The ghastly entity had the facial silhouette of a human, but the body was completely alien.
They were an array of dark, sludgy looking tentacles that seemed to float in the air freely by command of the creature.
All the tentacles were connected to a central "mass," if you could call it that.
The core body of the creature was a semi-gaseous cloudlike object, while simultaneously hinting tangible properties by its connections to the tentacles and the creature's head, along with an ever-dripping dark gray substance leaking from the cloud onto the hard acoustic wood, whose dampened impact sounds with the liquid served as an everlasting mockery towards Adam.
The creature was terrifying before, but when its full body was apparent, and those hollow, abysses replacing facial features appeared right in front of Adam without the generosity of a glass barrier in between, only then did Adam fully realize the severity of the situation.
If he did not do something quick, he was going to die, in a horrible manner.
Adam bit another part of his lip open to regain control and ducked just as a tentacle came down at the previous position of his head.
Just from the sound alone that the high velocity tentacle made as it dissipated its surrounding air, Adam could guess that the power behind the blow wasn't any less terrifying than a sledgehammer being swung by a bodybuilder. Even with his current cultivation Adam did not believe he could take the hit without suffering serious injuries.
Adam promptly jumped backwards again and put some distance between himself and the entity.
After buying himself some time, Adam scanned his surroundings swiftly to check if there was anything he could use in the environment to his advantage.
At the same time, the creature also tactically adjusted itself, it repositioned to the center of the wall facing Adam and extended its presence so that its tentacles could reach the entire width of the room with minimal movement.
The creature had strategically cornered Adam away from both the windows and the door of his room.
This was going to be a fight for his life.
Adam reached out for the closest large object, his bed.
It was still heavy, but with his increased physical abilities, Adam was able to lift the structure on one side fairly quickly. After getting the bed into a vertical position with its face towards the creature, he pushed with all his strength.
The bed slid across the wooden floor smoothly. Adam was hoping to use the attack as a diversion to buy himself some more time to tackle this precarious situation.
What happened next made Adam's blood run cold.
The 50kg bed, lunging forward with enough kinetic energy to knock out an adult man, might as well have been a ball of cotton.
As the bed neared the entity, Adam could clearly see black worming cords penetrate the solid object with such ease as if there was a demonic curse that already infested the wood.
The tentacles then stretched outwards in all directions, and ripped through the large wooden bed like butter.
Within seconds, the furniture piece was reduced into piles of rubble and scattered across the entire room.
Even with all the adrenaline inside of him, Adam's panic was starting to exceed his suppression limit.
Looking around, he only saw one last thing on his side of the room that he hadn't checked yet.
A small brown drawer, beside the previous position of his now disassembled bed. He had completely ignored it after coming into the room as he was originally planning to cultivate for the entire night.
Adam did not hope for much, but just maybe there could be something helpful in there, it was better than waiting for his death.
Maybe they put a kitchen knife in there? I don't know, what if someone wanted to peel an apple at night?!
Adam reached over as fast as he could and ripped open the drawer.
Disappointment instantly hit him. Inside the storage was a simple hairbrush, an old, dampened mirror, a small pile of paperclip-like objects, and a small shaving blade.
Well, better than nothing, Adam grabbed the small razor and held it firmly in his hand.
He was out of options, cornered, and heavily outmatched. But Adam was not spineless. If it ultimately came down to it, he was not going to die without a fight. And a blade is a blade no matter how small, Adam gripped the 6cm little razor tightly as he became determined to leave a mark on the beast if it wanted his life.
However, the entity was not the least bit intimidated, in fact, it seemed to suggest that it found Adam's determination to fight amusing, as it inched closer at a mockingly slow rate, teasing the futility of the situation.
As the mimic closed its proximity, Adam's short-lived courage towards death was also drowned as his rationality took over.
Adam's current physical capabilities could be described as near the peak of a what a martial artist could achieve, he could punch about as hard as Earnie Shavers and had ridiculously quick reflexes. However, with his current level of cultivation, Adam's characteristics could not truly be considered superhuman yet.
But this entity was different, this thing had obliterated a high velocity bed in a second. It had somehow moved into Adam's room and behind him while previously parked by his window, in the timespan of a blink. This creature most certainly had superhuman capabilities.
Adam was somewhat confident that he could land a hit if he was completely committed to the objective, but after that he would most certainly be smashed into a sh*tty elementary school hot lunch.
Perhaps if he had reached the late foundation establishment stage, or reached the middle stage while having a healthy arsenal of skills under his belt, he would be able to realistically put up a fight. But at the moment, Adam understood his chances of winning a conventional battle against this thing was zero.
The creature was halfway across the room now. As if expecting Adam to realize his impending doom, it began speaking again to rub more salt into his fear.
Its mouth contorted in a non-Euclidean fashion as words were mustered, "It's getting quite late Adam, I'm scared as well, maybe we should just go to sleep! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha."
The sentence began with a voice identical to Seren's, but then pulled increasingly deeper into a more monotonous and inhuman pitch, almost a mechanical sound. By the time the laughter came in Adam confirmed that this was a spawn of hell in front of him.
He couldn't win in a fight, he couldn't run, he couldn't call for help, and the aggressor was impossible to negotiate with.
Very well, it was time for dire measures.
Adam knew that his cultivation textbook had mentioned the possible horrible consequences and injuries associated that came with using skills that he had not practiced yet or were beyond what his current cultivation level could handle, but at the moment, the alternative was to die.
Adam was going to take a gamble.
He practically screamed into his mind. The razor is a blade no matter how small, therefore Adam loosely hypothesized that he could use a knife skill with it, this was very weak induction but Adam did not have the time or luxury to be rigorous.
He called for the most destructive skill possible that would work with a blade.
A fine purple book swiftly flew over and landed gracefully into Adam's consciousness.
He didn't bother translating it, in fact he didn't even bother observing it for a second longer.
Adam chose to trust in Chen Fan's library.
He held his arm back while holding the tiny little razor blade, and swung down as he frantically opened the neat purple package and allowed its knowledge to flow into his muscles and mind.
An eerie silence, like a tide retreating before the climax of a Tsunami, ensued. All sound seemed to pause for a second.
But what followed was a terrifying crashing boom that instantly popped both of Adam's eardrums, which instantly started bleeding.
< 雷 >
< 狱 >
< 神 >
< 刀 > !
Following the massive sound of explosion, a terrifying purple arc flew along the path that Adam drew into the air with his razor.
It did not look like an energy ripple comparable to anything present in Adam and Seren's previous fight.
It was a solid purple crescent, as if someone had plucked the moon out of sky and placed it in Adam's room, there was nothing remotely translucent about it.
Surrounding it were cracks of lightning that soared wildly and erratically around Adam's room. The lightning was only big enough to cover the width of Adam's room, but it was far more violent and authoritative than the streaks present in the storm outside. There was something about the dark black and purple specks that seemed to constantly declare that they were a higher form of existence, an energy significantly more noble and advanced than anything on this planet. As if the lightning itself were a tyrant overlord in the universe observing the puny mundane world with contempt.
The central, concentrated crescent dashed forward at the mimic, no, it was more as if it was dashing in the mimic's direction, the crescent's overwhelming aura seemed to take continuously moving forward far more seriously and did not even bother with the inferior existences along its path. It was as if it did not even acknowledge the mimic's presence, like an Olympics runner would not care if he stepped on an ant while training.
The terrifying black entity that could rip apart a bed in seconds seemed to sense the insane power of the energy coming towards it, it tried to move away with its superhuman speed, but the lightning crescent was far faster.
It happened in the blink of an eye, as the dark purple blade made contact with the mimic, it could only promptly cry out an inhumane ululation before disintegrating into a clump of black mist and mutilated tentacles, that were blasted in all directions with terrific force into, and through, the walls and windows of Adam's room.
But the crescent did not stop, its power did not seem even slightly fatigued after cutting through the demonic creature, the arc continued through the air and slammed into the far side of Adam's room.
Adam was lucky that he choose a corner room of an inn situated at the edge of the town.
As the arc touched the room's perpendicular far side, the entire wall, glass, wood, and limestone, all evaporated, leaving nothing except a fresh, clear few of the stormy night sky. The walls that ran parallel to the rim also suffered horrible fates, glass exploded into fine particles, and the wood was heavily ripped and charred into a black mess that could just barely hold the structure and stop the roof from crashing down.
Adam's lightning crescent still did not bother to stop however, it continued dashing forward at a terrifying speed and ate into the fresh earth outside.
10 meters.
20 meters.
No signs of stopping.
30 meters.
The arc was finally starting to dampen a little bit.
40 meters.
The crescent was fading now, it no longer carried the same terrifying power and speed as before.
45 meters.
The rim was noticeably slower now, it was comparable to Seren's cleansing rift now.
After 50 meters, the terrifying lightning tyrant was finally satisfied and dissipated gracefully into the night.
But not before leaving a horrifying 50-meter-long black crevice in the ground.
The mark looked like the aftermath of an earthquake, which made the contrast with its unscathed and lustrous neighboring patches of grassland even more terrifying.
The ambient sounds of the stormy night continued after the strike as if nothing had happened. As if there was no demonic creature trying to kill Adam just a moment ago. As if the entire opposing side of Adam's room did not just get eviscerated.
A moment passed, Adam took a moment to just process everything that happened, and make sense of the horrifying aftermath of destruction in front of him, filled with the debris of broken construction materials and the splattered remains of a creature.
Adam was just beginning to feel relieved, perhaps even ready to celebrate, when he suddenly started feeling increasingly dizzy, his vision also had a growing pink blur within.
Adam looked down and almost forgot to breathe as he admired a huge puddle of blood, still expanding from the drizzling source that was coming directly from Adam's central field of vision.
Adam shakily felt his face with his left hand, it was wet.
He then slowly pulled the hand back down and observed it. It was covered with a patch of fresh crimson.
Adam was currently bleeding from all his orifices.
And as the adrenaline wore off, the overwhelming pain that seemed to stab him from within confirmed to Adam that he had broken multiple bones.
Serious consequences may occur when using skills beyond one's current cultivation huh?
Adam only laughed faintly, but quickly followed by coughing up a large mouthful of scarlet liquid.
His vision was a diffracted mess now, he was also beginning to lose his balance.
The young man eventually just fell sideways onto the charred acoustic wood as his consciousness ran black.
The last thing he believed he witnessed was Seren and a group of townspeople rushing towards him with scared expressions, they were yelling something, but it was unintelligible to Adam at this point.
Adam once again found himself lying unconscious in a puddle of blood.
As everyone was concerned with the young man bleeding out, and frantically trying to make sense of what could possibly have occurred to result in this scenery in front of them, not many noticed the thin mist of powdered iron that flew from the boy's open hand, graciously into the violent storm, like a flock of dandelion seeds faithfully returning to their rightful home after a long and yearning journey…