Crack! Crack! Traces of obliteration spread everywhere. Without the boost from the fourth Dragon Force, the Obliteration Fist wasn’t quite as devastating—it couldn’t blanket the Mountain Giant’s entire forehead like last time. But under Jill Young’s control, the damage was laser-focused, pouring every ounce of force into one single spot.
In the next instant, a roar of pain shook the heavens—the Mountain Giant’s right eyeball exploded, spraying fragments everywhere. Even the stone skin around the eyelid and socket got shredded to bits. The eye socket itself turned into a deep hollow, the eyeball gone for good.
Black liquid splattered in all directions, flying like raindrops. Standing inside the crater she’d just punched out, Jill Young braced herself as the Mountain Giant whipped its head in agony, whipping up a freezing gale and swirling debris. Her long hair flying, Jill’s right hand curled into a claw, clutching a burning mass of Blackfire—the very fragment of Miasma she snatched the instant the Mountain Giant’s eye burst.
A thousand-petal wheel appeared above Jill’s head, her spiritual halo morphing into a prison that clamped down on the Blackfire. The Blackfire crackled and snapped, clashing hard with her psychic energy. It danced and shrank, visibly getting smaller by the second—it was proving a real pain to lock down.
"Oh come on, seriously?! This thing’s a nightmare to handle!" Jill gritted her teeth, going all out as her eyes flashed bright gold. A blazing sun tattoo shimmered on her forehead, phantom Sacred Flame flickering around her fingers, hemming in the Blackfire from every angle. Her faith-powered secret arts burned fast, but at least the Blackfire’s rate of dissipation slowed down.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry—get over here and help already!"
Jack Young, busy commanding the Earth Devourer to harass the Mountain Giant, suddenly sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and put on a serious face. His left hand formed a sword-finger and touched his brow. The twins could lend each other more than just physical strength. Ever since Jack’s Prajna Technique leveled up and unlocked his second spiritual halo, he could send psychic power over long distances. The two-petal flower on his brow blossomed quietly, his spiritual consciousness using a side-profile as a medium to jump straight into Jill’s right hand.
In that moment, her sight became his, his feelings became hers.
Jack’s brow-wheel blazed with strange light, his mind instantly linked to a bizarre, powerful collective will. The psychic force was so weird and dangerous, it defied description. It felt like a single entity—and at the same time, an infinite crowd. The instant he touched it, a deep, twisted evil wrapped around him. It was pure and complex at once, like a million ingredients stirred into one. Impossible to untangle, yet somehow unified.
As he dove deeper, the layers grew clearer—darkness, slaughter, destruction, cruelty, violence. All these negative emotions formed a boundless sea of black, wrapping Jack’s consciousness in wave after wave. The sensation was different from the Miasma he’d felt in Shanghai, but just as deadly. Touching Miasma with raw psychic power? That’s like inviting a burglar in, begging for a beating, or letting a demon possess you—dangerous as hell. If your soul got tainted, your only way out would be to chop it off and run.
Jack Young's face was cold and resolute—he didn't flinch for a second. His mind was like a sharpened blade, slicing through layer after layer of chaos, plunging deep into a swirling sea of madness.
At the very bottom of this sea of consciousness, there had to be a massive vortex—like pulling the plug in a bathtub. The dark ocean spun into a huge whirlpool, constantly draining away, creating a surging miasma. Because of this vortex, even the twins together couldn't completely stop the Blackfire from escaping.
Jack Young was determined to dive into that vortex, searching for treasure beneath the relentless tides. Like a tiny boat swept into a raging whirlpool, the danger defied description—no outsider could understand. Yet Jack's consciousness became a lone beam of light, descending further and further, until—zip—he shot straight into the heart of the vortex.
He found a passage.
Through that passage, he glimpsed something.
"Awooo—!" Whether it was because the twins were probing the Blackfire, the Mountain Giant suddenly flew into a berserk rage, as if someone had touched its last nerve. In its fury, it could do anything. It raised its right hand—one giant finger stabbed straight into its own eye socket. The savage, decisive blow landed like a giant pestle smashing into a mortar, whipping up a storm and filling its eye socket to the brim.
The force of that strike was so immense, so ruthless, it triggered a blast wave five hundred meters above the ground. The shockwave rippled out, distorting the air behind the Mountain Giant's head for several seconds.
"That was close—damn, that was way too close!" The wind howled, and in the gusts, Jill Young was dangling upside down from the Mountain Giant's right palm. Looking at the mangled eye socket nearby, she thought, if she hadn't bailed in time, if she'd taken that hit head-on, she'd be in real trouble now.
Then she looked at the right hand. Thanks to the Mountain Giant's interference, they couldn't fully contain the Blackfire, which had shrunk down to a tiny flame. It bounced twice, as if mocking the twins' incompetence, then vanished with a pop—who knows where it went.
Feeling the sting of that very real taunt, Jill Young's mouth twisted in frustration. "Damn it, I refuse to let you get away! Changjiang, Changjiang—any good news on your end?"