Chapter 128
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 128
Chapter Title: What Kind of Monster Are You?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"......Did you just say you're going to kill me?"
"Yes."
Li Chingwei nodded readily at Bellos, who wore a look of utter disbelief.
Then she put on an apologetic expression.
"I'm grateful for all your hard work up until now, but your value has already run out. There's no reason to keep you alive anymore."
Like a master boiling the hunting dog after the hunt.
Truly regretful, yet without a shred of hesitation, Li Chingwei spoke of the "Cunning Rabbit Dies, Good Dog Cooks."
Bellos stared at her coldly for a moment.
Then he spoke in a low voice.
"I guess I've been greatly underestimated."
"It's not exactly underestimating you. I'm just saying it objectively—I think I can kill you."
Hey, Princess Sis? Isn't that exactly underestimating him?
"Is that so?"
That's usually how it is......
"Hmm, this is tricky. I didn't mean to insult you."
Crackle.
Was it because he'd been used and now treated like a candy in someone's pocket when it came to his own life? Would the thread of his patience finally snap?
Bellos's forehead vein bulged.
"Fine."
He opened his tome of law.
And flipped through the pages with a rustle.
"If you think you can do it, then try. Bitch of the Seven Dragon Society."
"Gladly, if that's what you want."
And so, the moment Bellos paused on a page and Li Chingwei smiled faintly at him.
"Assault crime established. 'Crushing Death Penalty, Prosecution'."
Princess Sis, danger!
Rumble!
A colossal pressure like a massive boulder crashed down on Li Chingwei.
It was "Judgment of Law."
A derivative skill of "Rule of Law" that instantly turned into pure pressure, crushing foes and sending countless warriors to their deaths in a single blow.
......Huh?
But right after seeing Li Chingwei's response to that cheat skill impossible to dodge or block.
Yuna Kyung's face went slack.
Crunch!
"About thirty tons of pressure? Not as heavy as I thought."
Some thirty tons.
A weight that could flatten a person or even collapse a decent house in an instant—and Li Chingwei's response was simple.
Do nothing.
Not a single hair out of place on her. It was astonishing, almost unreal.
If not for the cracks spiderwebbing from her feet, one might suspect she hadn't felt the pressure at all.
That must have been why.
Bellos unwittingly asked.
"......What trick did you just pull?"
"I haven't done anything yet."
"You expect me to believe that? That you took my skill barehanded?"
"It's the truth."
As if wondering why he was asking something so obvious.
Li Chingwei smiled faintly at Bellos, all innocent charm.
"If you're done playing around, shall we get serious?"
She raised one hand, flicking her fingertips lightly like a butterfly's wingbeat.
The instant Bellos reflexively dodged.
Boom!
A section of the reverse-pyramid corridor shaping the underground palace shattered as if struck by an invisible giant's fist.
Had he dodged even a fraction slower, Bellos would have been buried in the debris.
But that was merely the beginning.
Bang! Boom! Rumble rumble boom!
Like brushstrokes drawing a wild pattern, elegant gestures shook heaven and earth.
Like a bird skimming the ground, afterimages pierced through the explosions.
Whoa......
With every gesture from Li Chingwei, the building exploded, shattered, and crumbled.
Yuna Kyung gaped as she watched Bellos zigzag through the corridor like lightning to evade the unseen psionic dark energy blasts.
Li Chingwei unleashing attacks from dozens of meters away that could pulverize rock.
Bellos dodging every single one by leaping wall-to-wall and ceiling in a frenzy.
Even for Yuna Kyung, a former high-level player, it was a sight too astonishing to behold.
"Ha, this is ridiculous......"
Of course, despite the flashy display, Bellos—who'd been dodging nonstop—could only click his tongue.
Any average high-level player would be exhausted after a few of those skills.
Yet Li Chingwei showed no signs of tiring, even after unleashing dozens of psionic bursts—not skills, but raw power.
"Fine. I'll get serious, just as you wanted."
Bellos scrapped his plan to counterattack once her assaults paused.
Instead, while darting about, he held his tome open in one hand and murmured.
"Property damage established. 'Aggravated Punishment, Prosecution'."
Whoosh!
Too focused on reading the tome, perhaps.
His dodge came a beat late; he couldn't fully evade Li Chingwei's dark energy and was sent skidding backward from the impact.
But his skill activated too.
The pressure bearing down on Li Chingwei surged several times over in an instant.
No longer mere pressure—it was explosive force.
Beyond crushing a human, enough concentrated weight to rip a truck apart like a bursting balloon.
"Impressive. Now it's properly heavy."
......Princess Sis, be honest. You're using some skill nullification, right? Right? Yeah?
Yet even amid that insane pressure, Li Chingwei didn't lose her smile.
She merely murmured in admiration.
However, "Rule of Law" wasn't entirely useless.
Crunch, craaaack!
"Oh my."
Hic?!
Li Chingwei herself was unscathed.
But the floor supporting her feet couldn't withstand the immense pressure.
As a result, Li Chingwei—and Yuna Kyung perched on her shoulder—plummeted to the floor below like falling through cracking thin ice.
The aggravated pressure threatened to punch through every layer down to the basement.
Whoosh.
But just before hitting the lower floor.
Black mist rising from the ground gently caught Li Chingwei's feet.
"Hotel Leviathan's facilities crumbling under this mere weight? As owner, it's embarrassing."
Genuinely ashamed.
As Li Chingwei sighed.
Yuna Kyung screamed.
Princess Sis, to the side! The side!!!
"Too late for that."
Bellos, launched by her dark energy moments ago, had already crossed the corridor and lunged from right beside her, swinging his gripped tome at Li Chingwei.
Swoosh!
Unique Skill 『The Tome of Law Is Not a Weapon』 activated.
Striking with the tome inflicts 970% physical damage proportional to the "Judgment of Law" applied to the target.
A lethal blow.
Compressing nearly ten times the pressure on the foe into a single book—a strike that could level a mountain on a graze.
Swish.
But after swinging.
Bellos's face hardened.
He'd aimed for her blind spot at point-blank range, impossible to dodge.
Yet Li Chingwei shimmered like a mirage, scattering like black mist as the tome sliced empty air.
"Where are you looking?"
"......!"
Right then.
Bellos whipped around at the voice behind him, swinging the tome like an axe once more.
Li Chingwei deflected it fluidly with her hand's back like flowing water, then flipped her palm to grab his wrist.
Bellos reacted swiftly.
He used the inverted tome as a shield to guard his wrist while thrusting it at her like a shield bash.
And so, the brawl began.
Tat tat tat tat!
Swinging like a hammer.
Blocking like a shield.
Thrusting like a dagger.
His unique close-quarters style, based on military hand-to-hand and knife fighting, wielded the tome as a weapon—bizarre yet flashy.
Practical techniques even top-tier players couldn't handle.
Swish swish swish.
In contrast, Li Chingwei's movements weren't particularly fast or sharp.
Deflecting with a soft hand's back.
Grabbing with talon-like fingers.
Gently pushing with her palm.
Slow like flowing time.
Elegant like a dance.
Clean but monotonous.
Utterly devoid of practicality—supremely gentle and serene motions.
Yet as the brawl dragged on, Bellos's face twisted.
'What kind of fistfighting is this......!?'
Thud!
The tome swung for a neck snap glanced off a waiting hand's back.
Her fingers slipped into the gap to calmly seize his throat; as he barely blocked, her palm circled to smack his jaw.
Before he could feign a stagger and hook her ankle, her slender leg swept like a blade, lightly stomping his instep and slicing his side.
The brawl was always like that.
No matter his tricky attack.
Li Chingwei pierced his guard a step ahead, as if reading his mind.
Most shocking was the level of her fistfighting.
'This is the fistfighting of a greenhouse flower?'
He hadn't expected her to be a complete novice in martial arts.
The Seven Dragon Society had dominated the world's shadows for centuries with martial arts and psionics; she was their princess.
But still, a greenhouse flower.
He figured her level as a pampered princess without real combat experience was obvious.
Especially now, her movements dulled by "Judgment of Law"'s pressure.
That's why he'd closed for melee.
But it was a perfect miscalculation.
Separate from her freakish durability against hundreds of tons or her psionic tricks—pure martial skill alone, and Li Chingwei wasn't inferior.
No, she completely outclassed him.
In finesse, practicality, and experience.
"Kuh......!"
The moment he realized his error.
Bellos recalculated instantly.
He braced for hits and thrust his gripped tome at her.
Flesh for bone—a sacrificial trade.
Li Chingwei didn't dodge.
She merely flipped her palm eight times in succession.
With each flip, eight black palm prints lingered in the air, overlapping on her pale palm.
The moment her hand, wrapped in black radiance, met Bellos's tome head-on.
Craaaaack!
From the hand gripping the tome to radius, ulna, elbow joint, humerus, and shoulder.
Bellos's entire right arm shattered into powder as his body blasted backward, smashing through a wall.
"Tougher than expected? Usually, the arm rips clean off."
"Cough!"
The force was so immense.
Only after pulverizing five walls did Bellos finally stop, vomiting fresh blood.
He ground his teeth, glaring at Li Chingwei tilting her head beyond the gaping five-layer hole.
Only then did he realize.
Throughout the brawl.
The box she cradled.
The bluebird gaping on her shoulder.
......She'd faced him with one hand, without moving a single step from her spot.
The humiliating truth.
That's why.
He couldn't help but ask.
"What kind of monster are you?"