Chen Tianhao stumbled. Not from impact. From emptiness. His stomping leg felt hollow, ki siphoned mid-strike. The crowd's jeers died. Su Qingxue's porcelain mask slipped.
"Lucky block, rat?" Chen spat, masking shock with fury. Jade light enveloped his right hand – the Chen Clan's signature Jade Serpent Palm. Ki-pressure flattened weeds in a ten-meter radius. "Let's peel that ring off your corpse!"
Lin Mo rose. Not quickly. Not gracefully. Like rusted machinery groaning to life. His eyes held no rage. Only cold, bottomless hunger.
Chen's palm strike blurred, air shrieking. Lin Mo didn't dodge. He leaned in.
The jade luminescence dimmed on contact. Not deflected. Devoured. Chen felt his ki hemorrhage into the void where Lin Mo's dantian should be. Panic flared. Too late.
Lin Mo's counter wasn't a technique. It was regurgitated violence. Stolen Chen-family ki, raw and jagged, fused with the ring's alien hunger, exploded from his fist.
THOOM.
The sound wasn't bone breaking. It was a dumpster hit by a grav-train. Chen Tianhao folded around Lin Mo's fist, ribs splintering like kindling. He rocketed backward, demolishing training dummies in a cacophony of shattering polymer.
Silence. Then chaos.
"–Chen Tianhao's DOWN–"
"–did he just EAT the Jade Palm?–"
"–LIVESTREAM HIT 500K VIEWS–"
Lin Mo loomed over Chen's wheezing form. Mic-drones hovered, capturing his whisper, amplified to a city-wide snarl: "Mistveil Canyon. The Nineleaf Spirit Herb. The ambush. This?" He nudged Chen's shattered ribs with a bloodied boot. "Appetizer."
He walked. The crowd parted like scared fish. Su Qingxue's flawless facade cracked, revealing raw terror. Lin Mo didn't spare her a glance. His bike was scrap. He vanished into the neon-soaked rain.
Alone in a derelict subway maintenance tunnel, Lin Mo studied the ring. Its interface burned in his mind:
[HOST: LIN MO | COMBAT RATING: FALSE 7-STAR WARRIOR]
[ENERGY: 7.3 UNITS (SOURCE: CHEN TIANHAO)]
[FUNCTIONS: ABSORB | REINFORCE FLESH | MEND]
He poured 1 Unit into his battered right arm. Muscle fibers hissed, knitting. Strength flooded back – alien, intoxicating. He grinned, teeth bloody in the gloom. Time to hunt.