Defeated in a Single Move

"Clap, clap, clap..."
The mask-wearing clown clapped his hands with a full smile on his face.
"Hee-hee-hee-hee... Excellent, you truly didn't disappoint me. I'll return this little ghost to you."
As the clown's words faded, the mask of Liang Song on his face shattered automatically, revealing his original ghostly visage underneath.
Liang Song's body instantly went limp and weakened, plunging downward toward the ground.
Zhu Nian flashed forward to catch him, fed him a vial of potion, and then returned to the vicinity of the city gate to settle him safely.
Only then did he slowly levitate back into the air and gaze at the clown.
"Looking at me with such caution, are you perhaps worried that I'll use that control skill on you from just now?" The clown chuckled, pulling back a wide red-lipped mouth when he saw Zhu Nian did not strike immediately.
On his mask, the white face, red lips, and black eye sockets formed a bizarrely exaggerated contrast. Especially those red lips, which took up nearly half his face; when he smiled, it gave off an eerie and spine-chilling sensation.
"Rest assured, I won't use that skill on you," the clown waved his hands repeatedly.
"Is it because for some reason, you're unable to use that skill on me?" Zhu Nian felt slightly relieved upon hearing this.
"So that's what you think..." The clown smiled and shook his head.
"Have you ever played Shogi? There is a piece called the General in Shogi. If that piece is captured by the opponent, the entire game ends immediately, no matter what other pieces you have left. And you are the General piece among my opponent's pieces. If I were to control you right away, this game would become far too dull."
"Besides, based on the verification of those two pieces just now, you can indeed bring me more fun. That is why I am giving you a chance to challenge me head-on."
The clown evidently possessed absolute confidence in his own strength, comparing everyone to pieces on a chessboard.
"Is that so? Aren't you afraid that the fun I bring you will ultimately lead to your demise?" Zhu Nian's aura began to surge wildly.
"That will depend on whether you have the ability to do so! Hee-hee-hee-hee..." The clown still grinned broadly.
"The captain is about to get serious..." Liang Song, leaning against the city gate, woke up at some point and turned his head to glance at Zhou Qian beside him.
Zhou Qian also nodded with a smile, "Whenever the boss gets serious, someone is bound to have bad luck."
"Indeed, combat power that is just a step away from entering the Immortal Realm is not something ordinary commander-level monsters can afford to provoke." Liang Song rarely agreed with Zhou Qian's opinion.
Hidden deep beneath the earth, Lin Huang also felt the immense power of Zhu Nian's aura. This strength far exceeded even all the transcendent monsters Lin Huang had ever witnessed before, reaching almost a completely different tier of existence.
"Can transcendents really be this powerful? Just by virtue of his aura alone, he can manipulate celestial phenomena..." Lin Huang also noticed that under the influence of Zhu Nian's aura, the gloomy sky—darkened previously by the appearance of the Void Pupil—had its haze completely dispersed, and even the sun broke through the clouds.
Mid-air, Zhu Nian gripped his golden spear, his aura rapidly climbing to its peak.
The very instant his aura reached its zenith, he suddenly vanished from his spot.

Not only did Lin Huang see him vanish abruptly, but the numerous silver and gold rank powerhouses below also stared in utter astonishment at the scene.
Even the Holy Fire rank duo, Liang Song and Zhou Qian, failed to capture Zhu Nian's movements with their eyes.
"The boss is even stronger than before. This time, I can't even catch his afterimage..." Zhou Qian couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.
"Same here. It seems we really need to work hard to grow stronger. Constantly being the one who drags others down feels truly awful," Liang Song nodded and sighed.
In mid-air, after Zhu Nian's figure had vanished for a long moment, a streak of golden light abruptly flashed in front of the clown. That streak of golden light appeared far too suddenly, and its speed was terrifyingly fast.
Yet the clown's face still bore no trace of panic; he still half-grinned as if smiling. With just a slight shift of his body, he dodged the incoming golden light.
Zhu Nian's attack did not cease because the first strike missed. The very next instant after the first streak of golden light faded, another golden light flared up, attacking from a different direction. It appeared just as unpredictably and moved with ultimate speed... followed by a third, a fourth, a fifth...
More than three thousand streaks of golden light flashed like electric arcs, assaulting the clown time and time again, only to be evaded every single time by movements resembling gymnastics.
Not a single one of the thousands of attacks managed to hit him.
Lin Huang and the onlookers below had no idea what special technique Zhu Nian was executing, but Liang Song and Zhou Qian were dumbfounded.
"How could this be..." Zhou Qian wore an expression of sheer disbelief.
"The captain's Three Thousand Worries, was actually cracked by him just like that?!" Liang Song was likewise engulfed in shock.
High in the air, Zhu Nian, who had vanished for a long time, suddenly reappeared, gazing at the clown with a grave expression. "So from the very beginning, you've been toying with us all along. Clearly a chieftain-level monster, yet you disguised yourself as a commander-level to fight."
"You're a bit too slow on the uptake, only realizing my combat power now. However, I never once claimed to be commander-level; you lot simply assumed I was, and there was nothing I could do about it." The clown spread his hands.
The so-called commander-level monsters corresponded to the human Holy Fire rank combat power. The lava giant and the four-winged blade demon previously slain by Zhu Nian were both commander-level.
However, it was only at this moment that Zhu Nian realized the clown before him was a chieftain-level monster comparable to human powerhouses of the Immortal Realm.
In the world of monsters, hierarchy was strictly enforced.
A chieftain-level monster could inflict a terrifying degree of devastation. Given enough time, it could assemble at least dozens of commander-level monsters and tens of millions of monster armies, triggering a disaster-surpassing extinction-level beast tide, easily wiping out a large B-grade safe zone.
A monster of this caliber possessed formidable might even as an individual. Within the Hunters Association, only Immortal Realm powerhouses at the level of Grand Deacons were sufficient to counter them.
Zhu Nian never expected to encounter such an opponent.
"What? Knowing that I'm chieftain-level, are you planning to back down?" The clown smiled upon seeing the expression on Zhu Nian's face. "If you wish to flee, I won't stop you. However, your subordinates and the people in the city below will all become my food. I calculated that devouring all the humans here will take me at most less than five minutes. You are welcome to call for help, but by the time they arrive, I will have long since eaten my fill and left."
The clown's words were transmitted without the slightest concealment into the ears of everyone below.
Although many did not understand what chieftain-level truly meant, they could still gather that Zhu Nian was no match for this clown.
"A chieftain-level monster..." Liang Song and Zhou Qian's expressions changed drastically upon hearing this.

They, of course, knew what chieftain-level implied.
"A chieftain-level monster? It seems even stronger than that uncle..." Lin Huang also had no clear idea what kind of combat tier chieftain-level was, but he knew Zhu Nian was extremely strong, far surpassing all the transcendents he had ever encountered before. "I wonder if using a sealing card on it would be considered a waste..."
Just as Lin Huang hesitated, Zhu Nian in the void made his choice.
"I am a member of the Hunters Association. No matter what kind of monsters I encounter, or how many there are, protecting the residents is my duty. If you want to trample over the city behind me, you must step over my corpse first."
Zhu Nian's voice rang clear and resonant in the ears of everyone present. Even some members of the Violet Crow felt their hearts surge upon hearing it, and their gazes toward Zhu Nian grew complex.
"The first thing my teacher taught me over sixty years ago was: As long as hunters do not die, safe zones do not fall! Now, sixty years later, I have forgotten many things he taught me. But I know that this one sentence alone is something I cannot forget until the day I die! Otherwise, I am unworthy of calling myself his disciple." Zhu Nian slowly articulated the reasoning behind his choice.
As he spoke, golden energy began to slowly overflow from his body, resembling a thin layer of golden flames. As time passed, the flames burned fiercer and the gold grew brighter; his entire figure burned like a humanoid sun.
"You should be well aware that even if you overdraw your life fire, you are still no match for me. The gap between the Holy Fire rank and the Immortal Realm cannot be bridged by overdrawing your life fire. If you were a heaven-defying prodigy of the human race, I might still fear you by a point or two, but unfortunately, you are not, otherwise you wouldn't have failed to step into the Immortal Realm for sixty years." The clown no longer uttered mocking laughter. Although this opponent was much weaker than himself, he remained an adversary worthy of respect.
"I am indeed no heaven-defying prodigy, nor can I even be counted as a genius. I also know full well that overdrawing my life fire will not make me your match, but my choice will never change—four words: Fight to the bitter end!"
The final word fell, and Zhu Nian, now completely transformed into a humanoid flame, hurtled toward the clown like a comet.
That streak of golden light cleaved the void in an instant and arrived right before the clown.
"Hee-hee-hee-hee..." The clown grinned once more, slowly extending his white-gloved hand toward the void.
That golden flame abruptly ground to a halt a mere three centimeters from his palm, unable to advance even a fraction of an inch further.
Zhu Nian tried to retract his spear, only to find that the long spear in his grip seemed anchored by a colossal force, refusing to budge in the slightest.
"I told you long ago, between you and me, our combat power is worlds apart. Now I will let you know just how vast that gap is." As his words ended, the clown clenched his five fingers tightly. Cracks began to trace across the surface of the golden transcendent weapon spear held in his invisible grip.
"How is this possible?!" Seeing this, Zhu Nian could not help but freeze in shock.
The transcendent weapon in his hand was a three-star artifact, virtually indestructible in terms of hardness; he never expected it to be shattered remotely by the opponent right here.
Before Zhu Nian could react, the fractured areas on the spear rapidly disintegrated...
The clown grinned, and his other palm pressed directly against Zhu Nian's chest through the golden flames.
The next instant, Zhu Nian's body shot backward, crashing heavily into the ground.
From start to finish, he was completely defeated in a single move...
"Holy crap, so strong!" Seeing this scene, Lin Huang's eyes lit up as he stared at the clown in mid-air. "Xiao Hei, use a sealing card on this clown!"