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This monster was just too disgusting and bizarre. Shawn Young felt a wave of nausea, and with the creature charging straight at him, he didn’t hesitate—he leapt backward, his hands crossing to form the 'Skyward Seal,' and chanted quickly: "Mystic Source of Heaven and Earth, beyond the Three Realms, Jade Emperor's radiance descends, Nine Heavens Divine Thunder, destroy evil, break demons, by decree—Break!"
A surge of purple light shot from his body, connecting with the heavens. Thunder rumbled overhead, and Shawn Young roared three times in succession: "Break! Break! Break!"
With hands moving rapidly in a chain of gestures, blue lightning crashed down from the sky, following the direction of Shawn’s hands and striking relentlessly at that nauseating head.
The head shrieked with a series of chilling 'screee—' sounds. Its six hard limbs curled up, wrapping around it like a bundle of ropes. The heavenly thunder hammered down, making the head bounce and writhe, until it was blasted high into the air.
"Crack!" The head shattered mid-air. Shawn finally breathed a sigh of relief—but what happened next left his mind spinning.
He watched as the shattered head rapidly reassembled itself in mid-air. Its mouth opened wide, unleashing a piercing shriek—instantly, all the poisonous insects on the ground soared up and were sucked into the head’s maw. In a flash, the head had devoured every last bug.
After swallowing all the insects, the head spun wildly in mid-air and began to swell—“Boom!” A cloud of black mist erupted, and as it cleared, an utterly monstrous creature appeared. It had a turtle-like shell, six sharp, segmented legs, and a long, barbed tail curling forward like a giant scorpion! Most bizarre of all—it had a grotesquely twisted ghost face, with pale golden fluid constantly oozing from its gaping, black mouth!
"Ah!! This—this thing... could it be—the Scourge Scorpion!!" flashed through Shawn’s mind, recalling a mythical demon beast recorded in the Codex of Ascension.
"Hehehe—That’s right, kid, this is the Scourge Scorpion! King of all insect curses! I developed it after studying the Flying Head Hex from Thailand and improving it over and over! But I’ve never had a chance to test its true power—today, with a Taoist master like you as its first target, the results should be spectacular!" Just then, the bamboo tower’s door swung open and an old Taoist with a sinister grin stepped out. He wore a bizarre yellow-black robe covered in strange red symbols, all of them weird spells.
"Wuxiang!! So it was you behind all this! What are you doing here?" Shawn Young’s eyes widened as he recognized the old Taoist—it was none other than Master Wuxiang, the renegade of the Heavenly Master Order who’d been missing for ages. Shawn’s pupils narrowed, a bad feeling creeping over him, and he called out loudly.
"Heh heh—Young Shawn, it’s been a long time! And the first thing we do is battle, huh? Looks like you and I were born to be enemies!" Master Wuxiang sneered, clapping his hands. From inside the bamboo tower, another figure stepped out.
Shawn glanced at the newcomer—a blond, blue-eyed Western man with a vicious look. Instantly, Shawn’s memory flashed and he shouted, "Frank Falk! You’re still alive!?"
The man was none other than Frank Falk, the mercenary leader who’d once tried and failed to take Shawn down in China, nearly losing his entire squad. Frank gave Shawn the finger, then said in fluent Mandarin, "Heh, kid, bet you didn’t expect this! If I hadn’t escaped that day, I wouldn’t have the chance to get my revenge here—and without Master Wuxiang’s trap, I’d never figure out how to deal with you!"
Shawn’s mood sank. He shot Wuxiang a cold look and asked, "Wuxiang, what are you trying to pull?"
"Heh heh—You and your friends have always wanted me dead, haven’t you? Well, today’s your chance! If you can handle my Scourge Scorpion, you’ll have a shot at rescuing your little police girlfriend!" Wuxiang cackled.
Shawn froze, instinctively glancing up at the hillside—Rainie Cheng was nowhere to be seen. His heart sank and he quickly asked, "Huh? What did you do to Rainie?"
"Oh—oh—looks like you really care about your little police beauty! I’m almost touched! You two are so pitiful, I’ll let you see her, just once!" Frank Falk sneered, turning to drag a woman out from inside the tower.
The woman wore a white casual suit that showed off her stunning figure, but her elegant hair was a bit messy, and her clothes were torn in places. Her beautiful face was smudged with dirt. Who else could it be but Rainie Cheng? But right now, her eyes were blank, her expression dazed—she stared ahead in confusion, her gaze empty.
"Rainie—" Shawn gasped. He hadn’t expected Rainie Cheng to fall into their hands, and her strange, vacant stare made him anxious. He called out, "Rainie, what happened to you? Why are you like this?!"
But Rainie still didn’t respond, just stood blankly on the bamboo tower, her eyes hollow as if her soul had left her body.
"Frank Falk! Wuxiang, you two bastards—what did you do to Rainie?! Why is she like this?" Shawn shouted furiously at both Wuxiang and Frank.
"Oh, oh! That’s not my fault. We just set this trap for you, and your little police beauty happened to walk right into it. Of course we couldn’t let her go, hahaha—this was all Master Wuxiang’s genius! And hey—if you can beat his big nasty bug, he’ll let you have a close, hot dance with your girlfriend! Heh, a real close dance! I love watching those steamy couple dances!" Frank Falk sneered, wiggling his hips in a way that was utterly gross.