Ma Chenkai's eyes were filled with terror as a grotesque ghostly bony hand choked him, carrying his chubby body as high as three feet up in the air against the wall, the ghostly right arm, along with its bizarrely long and curved nails was exuding some shadowy form of dark smoky aura, in short, the scene looked freakish.
Ma Chenkai held the ghostly hands with his hands, struggling to free himself from this relentless grip, but it seemed his strength was nowhere near the powerful grip.
Along with him in the room were two boys, both chubby and around the same age, while one looked scared and was cowering, the other seemed to stretch out his right hand in the direction of the ghostly arm that was choking Ma Chenkai.
"Useless!! So useless!!"
Guo Zhenyu was furious, and with each movement of his right hand, the ghostly arm mirrored it, tightening its grip on Ma Chenkai as he was held against the wall.
After a while, the hand of the ghostly arm released Ma Chenkai, and a thud was heard as he fell to the floor.
Granting Ma Chenkai reprieve, Guo Zhenyu released his hand from the air, and the ghostly arm, along with the shadowy form of smoky aura it was exuding drifted seamlessly into his being. After summoning Ghost Arm—his Soul Avatar—back, he gazed at Ma Chenkai with a look of contempt, his plump face contorted in fury.
Meanwhile, Ma Chenkai was coughing violently on the floor, his back pressed against the wall as he breathed heavily, struggling to steady himself.
Guo Zhenyu, in his furiousness, turned to Li Renjie, while the latter shivered in fear at his mere sight
"I plan to use the perfect scheme to grow my name as the man who battled and won against a hundred martial artists in a single day, but he ruined the scheme!"
Guo Zhenyu clenched his right hand into a fist.
"That Scum!!"
Using his right fist to punch the room wall in anger, the whole room shook with a violent tremor, the impact reverberating through the walls as if they would collapse any moment.
Guo Zhenyu gave Li Renjie a piercing gaze. "I don't expect both of you to lose him with the level of your body enhancement"
"But don't you worry"
He walked closer to Li Renjie and placed his right hand on his left shoulder. "I will teach him a lesson"
His voice was determined.
____________
"I thought I was dead back then"
Xue Fang, resting against a wall in some alleyway was breathing so heavily that it seemed his heart would jump out of his body through his mouth, which didn't after his body started calming down.
"It was hell outrunning someone with an enhancement level, I ran like my life depended on it"
Truth be told, Xue Fang found it hard to outrun someone with an enhancement level, after all, it was like an average human trying to outrun a speeding vehicle, however, he managed to accomplish it after all, a cornered rat will bite.
Although Xue Fang was cornered earlier, he wasn't capable of fighting someone with an enhancement level not talking of two people.
Even though Xue Fang looked more muscular and taller than the boys who appeared obese compared to him, he was lucky to escape their powerful grips.
The obese body was just a superficial appearance, while the very fists could crush certain boulders.
The less Xue Fang could do was outrun them, surpassing his speed limit for a moment because his life depended on it.
His cornered rat couldn't bite but it could speed up.
Several decades ago, unknown extradimensional creatures known as supernaturals suddenly filled the world, with the collective aura that these creatures exude—a destructive field of energy, human weapons were completely useless, and even much technology was ruined, this creatures dominated the world and humans almost lose their ground in their own world.
However, through sheer determination and a desperate will to survive, humans discovered the ability to awaken their Soul Will—an inner power that allowed them to earn Soul Coins from the slain supernaturals, a spiritual energy currency that fuels the soul and enhances the body.
However, not every human could awaken and even if one could, they might not be able to harness its power—the ability to earn Soul Coins.
But those who could became greatly enhanced, and humans limit was greatly surpassed.
Humans who went to level up in the world of these extradimensional creatures called HighRealms became known as Hunters, slaying Supernaturals and claiming Soul Coins.
The strength of the enhancement depended on the type of Soul Coin one gained, however, in some cases, Soul Coins may not be claimed when there is tremendous emotion in the soul of the slain Supernatural, in this case, the Soul Coin formed a Soul Avatar which can be summoned anytime and could be a copy of the slain Supernatural, part or weapon with its attributes.
"Tsk! Those bastard nobles"
Although Xue Fang had awakened his Soul Will, he was still unable to harness its power for body enhancement, which left his body enhancement stuck at level one.
Without the ability to channel his Soul Will, there was little reason to risk his life in the HighRealms.
Despite the countless treasures found within—mystical items and precious minerals—one had to first obtain a World's License to enter the realms as a hunter, which involved passing a special exam that only those who could harness their Soul Will were allowed to take.
After a moment, a smile started curling up Xue Fang's lips.
"Serves them right."
Guo Zhenyu and his friends had proposed a match in the contest section of Courageous Souls community website, any Hunter could challenge a match in the Courageous Souls Martial arena on this website.
While there was a stake, and Guo Zhenyu had actually staked an enormous amount of money, after all, he came from a noble family.
His father, a renowned Earl, had claimed an Earl-level realm in the HighRealms and achieved the rank of Earl-level Hunter at an impressively young age, earning the same noble status in the human world, so this naturally drew the attention of many high-level Hunters.
But Guo Zhenyu was confident of winning, even if these people greatly surpassed him in strength.
However, on Guo Zhenyu's 75th victory, Xue Fang foiled his plan by alerting the next contestant about the energy-sucking leech, a common-grade Soul Avatar that would wiggle its way into contestants' bodies to drain their energy, unlike other Soul Avatars, this one didn't exude any aura, making it nearly impossible for any of the contestants to noticed even with heightened senses of their enhancement level. To notice such a being, a Hunter would have awakened a sixth sense that none of the contestants had.
Even before the match started, some contestants would forfeit by default, having already registered and staked their entry fees. Guo Zhenyu continued to win up to the 75th contestant when Xue Fang noticed and alerted the next contestant.
"Tsk!! And they called it Courageous Souls, courageous my butt!! Just a bunch of weaklings" Xue Fang spat angrily.
Xue Fang then brought out a canned drink from his pocket, his eyes shining brightly as if it were a drink of life. The can was indeed strange; although it was a canned drink, the container was transparent with some noticeable motion inside, like a swirling whitish ethereal fluid.
"An energetic soul fluid, I'm so lucky!"
Xue Fang had received the canned drink from the contestant he alerted as a token of appreciation, a mystical drink found in some civilized realms of Supernaturals. Xue Fang considered himself lucky since energetic soul fluid was hard to come by; it was a rare item, and with many abilities, only found in civilized realms of high-level supernaturals, costing as high as a hundred thousand Jade spirit notes in the human world, and limited quantities were released to the rich masses. Only noble families have unlimited access to them.
"The hunter who gave me must have been so lucky to get it, getting this type of mystical item in the HighRealms is no small feat, especially in civilized and technologically advanced Realms"
Xue Fang gave the drink a puzzled look.
Energetic Soul fluid as its name implied was an advanced technology drink in civilized realms of Supernaturals, but since the science and technology behind most of these items couldn't be decoded even till the transparent can in the human world, at least not yet, humans classified them as mystical items.
Xue Fang opened the canned drink, and placing the canned drink in his mouth, some white, smoky ethereal fluid drifted into his mouth.
After a moment, Xue Fang's body seemed to shine with a bright holy light, illuminating the dim alleyway for a moment, it was as if he became an angelic incarnation for a second.
After that, he could feel all his lost strength returning, and his body was brimming with energy once again, the mystical fluid saturated his entire being such that all his cells became energetic.
"I feel like I can run for eternity"
Xue Fang licked his lips and walked over to the nearest teleportation portal.