Ch 29: The Unknown Figure -2

With that, he activated the Heavenly Devouring Technique. At once, a surge of energy shot through him as the technique began to devour the Qi trapped within Lie Zhang's bones.

It was an overwhelming sensation, like drinking from a river that never stopped flowing. His entire body buzzed with power, the Qi coursing through his veins like lightning, filling him to the brim.

But something was wrong.

The more Qi he absorbed, the more unstable it became. His body began to tremble uncontrollably, and his chest tightened with an unbearable pressure. It felt like he was trying to contain a storm inside his own skin, and the storm was about to tear him apart from the inside out.

His vision blurred, and his head pounded as if it were being squeezed by an invisible vice. Blood began to trickle from his eyes, running down his cheeks as his body convulsed.

"What… what's happening?" Feng Chen gasped, desperately trying to circulate his Qi to stabilize himself, but no matter how hard he tried, his Qi refused to move. It was as if his body was rejecting him, every instinct screaming for him to stop.

The cave grew cold, an icy chill creeping down his spine as the air around him began to warp and twist. Shadows danced on the walls, growing darker and darker until they swallowed him completely.

And then the world changed.

Suddenly, Feng Chen found himself standing in a vast, desolate field. It resembled the forest he had been in moments ago, but something was horribly wrong. The sky was dark and blood-red, and the ground was littered with corpses... thousands of them, strewn across the land like discarded dolls. The air was thick with the stench of death and decay, and Feng Chen could barely breathe.

He staggered backward, his heart racing in his chest.

"What… what is this?" he whispered, fear creeping into his voice.

"Where am I?"

The eerie silence was broken by the sound of distant, echoing footsteps. Feng Chen's eyes darted around, trying to locate the source, but all he could see were the endless fields of the dead.

Then, from the far horizon, he saw it... an overwhelming figure, floating in the sky, wrapped in tattered robes. His presence alone was suffocating, the very air bending and trembling beneath the weight of his power.

Feng Chen's body trembled uncontrollably as the oppressive aura washed over him, like a thousand tons pressing down on his soul. He struggled to remain upright, his knees buckling under the force.

One cultivator... just one... was single-handedly suppressing the entire field of dead and dying. Even the Mahayana realm cultivators among the corpses seemed like ants before this supreme figure.

His face was shrouded in shadow, his form flickering as if not entirely real, yet his presence was more terrifying than anything Feng Chen had ever encountered.

And then, the figure's gaze turned toward him. Feng Chen's breath hitched in his throat as the pressure intensified tenfold, forcing him to his knees. It felt as though his bones were being crushed under the weight of that gaze.

The figure's voice boomed through the heavens, each word crashing down like thunder and sending tremors through the earth. It was as though the sky itself was speaking, and its words carried the weight of an entire universe.

"LIE ZHANG!"

The name echoed across the battlefield, the sheer force of it causing the very air to crackle with energy. The pressure grew so intense that even the Mahayana realm cultivators lying among the corpses began to cough up blood, their bodies shuddering under the immense power.

Feng Chen, too, felt the crushing weight of the name, his chest tightening as though an invisible hand was squeezing the life out of him. Blood trickled from his lips, and his vision blurred, but he fought to stay conscious.

Amidst the dead and dying, Feng Chen's gaze fell upon a familiar figure... a muscular man clad in black robes, his body covered in scars. His broad shoulders and fierce aura stood out even among the chaos. Despite the overwhelming pressure, he remained standing, his gaze fixed on the supreme cultivator in the sky.

It was unmistakable... this was Lie Zhang, the Fist God, the same man whose bones Feng Chen had just absorbed.

"Lie Zhang…" Feng Chen whispered, his voice barely audible as he struggled to stay upright. His heart pounded as his vision swam, and every instinct in his body screamed at him to flee, to get as far away from this place as possible. But he couldn't move. His body refused to obey him.

The supreme cultivator's eyes glowed with a cerulean light, the intensity of his gaze enough to make even the most powerful of beings tremble in fear. Feng Chen felt it too... a bone-deep fear that made his very soul quiver. He couldn't see the supreme cultivator's face clearly, but that gaze… those glowing, blue eyes were enough to send waves of terror through him.

Then, with a final, soul-shaking shout, the supreme cultivator raised his hand. An immense aura surged from his body, so powerful that it warped reality itself. The sky seemed to darken even further, the ground quaking beneath the force of his power.

Feng Chen's knees gave out, and he collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. The pressure was too much... far too much for him to handle. It felt as though his lungs were collapsing, his entire being buckling under the force of a god-like power he couldn't comprehend. His vision began to fade, the edges of his world going dark.

The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was the supreme cultivator's glowing eyes, blazing like twin suns in the endless darkness.

Feng Chen's body convulsed as he fought to stay awake, but it was no use. The overwhelming power crushed him like a tidal wave, and his world went black. His consciousness slipped away, consumed by the immense pressure of the supreme being's gaze, and for a moment, it felt like his soul had been shattered.

And then, there was nothing but silence.