efore my eyes.

The headless body, visually becoming more ethereal and flame-like by the second, actually began to rise slowly as if nothing had happened, right in front of me—the very murderer who had killed him.

He clumsily reached up to touch his non-existent head. After finding nothing there, he paused for a moment, bent down, located his severed head on the ground, and picked it up, cradling it in his arms.

He—he was still able to move?

The unexpected turn of events left me utterly dumbfounded. "You... you..."

Had he revived? No, was he never dead to begin with?

Surviving after being decapitated—what kind of superpower was this? Immortality? But wasn't he supposed to be a flame manipulator? How could this ability possibly connect to immortality?

He adjusted the position of the head in his arms slightly, turning its face toward me. The horrifying, mutilated visage, with its eyes destroyed from the earlier strike, seemed to be staring straight at me.

And yet, the unharmed mouth began to move, speaking in a thoughtful tone: "While I was lying there just now, I took some time to think things through. Turns out you've been acting this whole time. You're the one behind all of this, aren't you?"

How could he speak when his head was separated from his body? His vocal cords shouldn’t even be functioning properly!

No, calm down, Kong Da. Stay calm.

This is the first time I've encountered someone who could keep moving after being decapitated, but in this world, such a level of immortality isn’t entirely unheard of. It seems his powers aren't merely about controlling fire but something far more enigmatic. But so what?

There are countless mysterious powers out there. Most agents and demon hunters, no matter how reluctant, have to face forces they can't fully comprehend. In real combat, this isn’t some battle of wits from a manga where you must unravel the enemy's power to win.

On unpredictable battlefields, there's only ever been one sure way to gain the upper hand—a method I’ve relied on time and again:

Strike first!

Without hesitation, I transformed into my monstrous form, my arm morphing into a deadly blade as I launched a full-force charge. No unnecessary words, no wasted movements. In an instant—a fleeting moment too quick for an ordinary person to even blink—my relentless strikes landed on Zhuang Cheng's body one after another with absolute precision and unrestrained power.

Earlier, my partial transformation slashes prioritized stealth over strength, but now, in full transformation, my strikes pursued nothing less than maximum destructive force.

If Zhuang Cheng thought I was limited to physical attacks, he couldn't be more wrong. The slashes of my monstrous form weren’t just capable of annihilating physical bodies—they could also target and destroy spiritual entities.

In other words, I had the power to directly attack the soul.

Especially now, with my mind filled with killing intent and wholly focused on assaulting his soul, the magic channeled into my blade became devastatingly lethal. Ordinary humans without magical protection would have their souls obliterated just by grazing it, and most superpowered beings without soul-related abilities would meet the same fate.

Every slash connected, and Zhuang Cheng was instantly torn to shreds. Completing my charge, I skidded to a halt behind him, ending my attack sequence.

It was over. I had won...

Just as this thought reflexively crossed my mind, Zhuang Cheng's voice rang out behind me:

"Physical attacks don't work on me."

As his voice echoed, my right hand and both legs suddenly burst into flames. The searing agony forced an uncontrollable scream from my throat.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I could understand why my right hand was burning—it still had Zhuang Cheng's blood and brain matter on it. Since his biological remnants ignited elsewhere, it was natural that my hand would burn too. But why were my legs spontaneously combusting? He wasn’t even looking at me!

Before this—why hadn’t he died?

Amid my anguished cries, I twisted and collapsed onto the ground. His figure came into view.

He stood there, completely unscathed, holding his severed head in his arms. The head continued speaking to me, its voice calm and thoughtful:

"This form… I was planning to reveal it earlier, if not for your sudden gunshot... Ah, I see. That demon that attacked me from behind—was it to test if I could sense a strike from my back?"

He seemed to drift into contemplation, muttering to himself as he pieced things together.

Impossible. My blade had clearly sliced through his body—how was there no new wound on him? More importantly… why hadn’t my soul attack worked? Not only that, but he didn’t even seem aware that his soul had been targeted!

No, this fire—this unbearable pain—I had to deal with it first!

I swiftly swung the blade of my left hand, severing my right hand and both legs in one fluid motion. The excruciating pain was nearly unbearable, but compared to letting the flames spread to my torso, this level of suffering was acceptable. Given enough time, this monstrous body of mine could regenerate the lost limbs.

All of this happened in a flash. For now, I had no intention of continuing my attempt to kill Zhuang Cheng. Trying to deal with an opponent who couldn’t be killed no matter what I did was a pointless endeavor. If necessary, I’d find another way to assassinate him later. Right now, I had to escape—by using the power of the shadows to transfer away!

At my mental command, the surrounding shadows surged toward me like a tidal wave. I had to flee immediately; Zhuang Cheng’s attacks weren’t slow, and their power was overwhelming. If I hesitated for even a fraction of a second, I’d be burned to death on the spot.

But I was still a moment too late. Zhuang Cheng’s flames reached me in an instant.

Once again, there was no visible trajectory for the flames, and this time, they didn’t even ignite on the surface of my body. Instead, I felt an unbearable heat welling up from deep inside my chest and abdomen, as if someone had poured boiling water directly into my stomach. The searing pain radiating from within and the intense internal pressure forced my mouth open involuntarily.

My vision suddenly plunged into darkness, and all sound disappeared. Immediately after, I felt something surging violently out of my nose, mouth, eyes, and ears.

No, I understood—it was flames. Flames had appeared directly inside my body and were now erupting from the inside out!

At the same time, the muscle tissues throughout my body seemed to be completely destroyed, leaving me utterly immobilized. My mind was reduced to a single thought—

He can summon his flames directly inside my body? How is that possible!?

But... I wasn’t dead yet. With his level of firepower, I should have been incinerated instantly. Truthfully, I could already feel myself teetering on the edge of death; the excruciating pain had drained all of my strength, leaving me barely conscious. Yet, I wasn’t dead—he had held back. And that was his biggest mistake.

The surrounding shadows were still following the command I had given earlier. As flames erupted from my seven orifices, the shadows on the ground opened up a portal. Gravity pulled me down, allowing me to fall into it.

The "Shadow Shift" activated successfully, and I entered the shadow realm.

Unlike the vibrant, multicolored real world, the shadow realm is devoid of light and sound—a place akin to the depths of the ocean. This description isn't merely because my eyes and ears had been destroyed by the flames; the realm itself is inherently this barren. Even concepts like up, down, left, right, forward, or backward are imperceptible. The only thing I can barely sense is the vague notion that "I seem to be moving somewhere."

For those without the necessary abilities, merely thinking or surviving in this realm is impossible because even time and space lose their meaning here. And even for me, the user of this power, it remains perilous; one wrong move could leave me lost here forever, unable to return to the real world. The only destinations I can reach through shadow shift are places I have physically visited before in the real world.

Zhuang Cheng once mentioned that there exists a psychic connection between him and his flames. However, beneath the basement of the fifteenth-floor room, this psychic connection was temporarily severed.

The reason for this severance is clear—because the space beneath the basement is an extradimensional realm that does not exist within normal reality.

Likewise, the space entered during a shadow shift operates outside the laws of the real world. In this realm, any form of signal, including psychic links, is completely cut off. Zhuang Cheng’s connection to his flames would undoubtedly be severed as well. As proof, the flames scorching my body quickly extinguished the moment I entered the shadow realm. The torment I had been enduring eased, allowing my mind to regain a modicum of clarity.

I concentrated my magical energy on my eyes and ears. Before long, I felt as though I had regained my sight and hearing. It was as if I had surfaced from water, emerging from the shadow space and arriving at a location I had visited before.

This place was the abandoned construction site where I had previously investigated with Zhuang Cheng. I had directly shifted to the upper floors of the unfinished building. Since construction had stopped, the upper floors were only skeletal remains. Looking up from where I stood on the ground, the floors above had no ceilings or walls, only a gray framework of steel beams and concrete layers stacked in a crisscross pattern.

If I escaped here, it should be considered safe... I let out a brief sigh of relief.

The shadows had transformed into three-dimensional material to form prosthetics, providing me with temporary replacements for my right hand and legs, allowing me to stand.

Suddenly, a magical fluctuation appeared nearby.