Song Zhiyang’s Fate

“You’re quite the bluffer. You call this a Tier 4 ability?”

Although this body lacked her former strength, it was significantly lighter and more agile.

Faced with Song Zhiyang’s explosive slash, Ren Anhua dodged with extreme speed.

Ren Anhua didn’t dare to take Song Zhiyang’s blade head-on, but taunting him for a couple of rounds was still easy.

Especially since this guy had the audacity to mention a Tier 4 Awakened—had he gotten a bit too full of himself recently?

If any level of combat power could be considered Tier 4, it would be that red-haired man from before.

After dodging, she saw a crimson blade-light lingering in the air, as if the slash was still continuously cutting through space.

Looking at this blade-light, Ren Anhua finally felt a sense of gravity.

This Song Zhiyang was indeed a little different from before.

“I certainly wouldn’t dare to call myself Tier 4, but even by glimpsing its edge, a fundamental difference has emerged between you and me.”

Song Zhiyang, brimming with confidence, continued to advance with his blade, his expression then twisting with rage.

“Someone like you, content to be a local tyrant in your own little corner, who never knows how to strive and struggle—every time you surpassed me, it was an insult to me, Song Zhiyang!”

“Your day would come sooner or later. People like you exist only as stepping stones on my path to success! The strongest fire-type Awakened in the base can only be me! You will die by my blade; you are not worthy of the military’s expectations!”

Song Zhiyang’s greatsword swung with increasing ferocity, forcing Ren Anhua into a continuous retreat.

The blade-lights lingering in the air were especially troublesome, further shrinking her space to evade.

Before the apocalypse, Song Zhiyang was just an obscure butcher.

He wasn’t glamorous or bright; in fact, due to social development, his little shop was on the verge of being shut down for hygiene issues.

He had fallen to the bottom of society, but he was never willing to accept it.

He was resentful but had no choice but to accept it, because he had no other skill besides butchering meat, a skill that was about to be replaced by machines.

When the apocalypse arrived, Song Zhiyang’s resentful heart ignited like a flame.

Everything in the world had changed.

The old order was shattered and reshuffled, and he was the one destined to stand above it.

His rapid development in these two months had surpassed the sum of his entire past life.

But even so, there was still an inescapable shadow hanging over his head.

“Ren Anhua! I am the one who defied fate!”

A mad fervor burned in Song Zhiyang’s eyes like a fire.

Ren Anhua clearly remembered that in the past, he wouldn’t have even dared to fight her at such a close range.

The human body could not withstand temperatures that could melt rock, not even a fellow fire-type Awakened like Song Zhiyang.

But now, it was as if he was wrapped in an invisible shield, which greatly weakened the effect of the high heat on him, allowing him to brandish his blade so arrogantly in front of her.

‘This is probably what he meant by the “edge of Tier 4,”’ she thought.

Ren Anhua recalled Zhao Sanyan telling her that the military had even cultivated a true Tier 4 Awakened.

She wondered what level that kind of person had reached.

The high-temperature blade-lights lingered in the space, continuously shrinking Ren Anhua’s evasion room.

Her current petite body, however, displayed an advantage it never had in the past.

If she had been in her old body, she probably would have suffered quite a few injuries by now.

But constantly retreating was not a solution.

Ren Anhua wanted a quick battle; she was still thinking about getting her original body back.

Unfortunately, the RV team was preoccupied at the moment.

The moment Song Zhiyang and Ren Anhua started fighting, the team had engaged in a firefight with the Red Blade Team.

Ashe Wen was tied up by a plainly dressed monk next to the RV, unable to yield.

Lu Shanshui was fighting evenly with the Red Blade Team’s second-in-command, Cui Jian, not looking at all like a post-apocalyptic Long Aotian, which was quite embarrassing.

The remaining members, who lacked sufficient frontal combat capabilities, were defending the RV, with Ke Xiaoshan at the center providing support to their teammates.

“You still have the mood to look elsewhere!”

Song Zhiyang’s blade came slashing, grazing past the tips of Ren Anhua’s hair.

It seemed she had to rely on herself.

Ren Anhua quickly retreated, creating a safe distance.

When it came to ability evolution, Ren Anhua was no rookie.

On the contrary, she had studied her ability in depth.

In the early days of the apocalypse, Ren Anhua had spent a lot of effort to make her high temperature directly cause effective damage.

However, the more she grew, the more powerful this high-temperature ability became.

Now, most problems could be solved simply by a burst of high temperature.

Of course, if she encountered something that couldn’t be solved, she still had to use the necessary means, such as the current inflated Song Zhiyang.

“You dare to talk about defying fate?”

A mocking sneer appeared on Ren Anhua’s lips.

A high-temperature burst instantly burned a layer of magma on the concrete ground.

Powerful force gathered in her right arm, and she struck the ground.

The orange-red magma was all blasted into the air.

A second burst, an even more intense temperature flashed out in an instant, and a dazzling new star exploded with Ren Anhua at the center.

The magma in the air was pushed by the violently expanding air, radiating outwards like bullets with extremely high temperatures.

Faced with such a grand attack, Song Zhiyang had no choice but to swing his blade to parry.

These dense and irregular magma projectiles also posed a considerable threat to him.

Ren Anhua’s counterattack, of course, was not just this magma rain; it was just the beginning.

The control of high temperature and energy flow was Ren Anhua’s most proud ability, and the corresponding derivative product was that kind of nova-like explosion.

Either as a directional blast to simply knock back the opponent, or as an explosive bomb to scatter surrounding debris, or… simply acting on herself to bring about powerful mobility.

An airwave suddenly rose behind her, and Ren Anhua instantly disappeared from the spot.

Using the cover of the magma rain, while Song Zhiyang was busy parrying, she flashed behind Song Zhiyang at an extremely high speed and threw a swift punch.

Faced with this strike, Song Zhiyang dared not let his guard down.

Ren Anhua’s speed was even faster than the magma projectiles, and combined with the flying magma, it even formed a pincer attack on him.

But faced with Ren Anhua’s fist, Song Zhiyang would rather take the magma head-on.

The surrounding walls were riddled with pits as if they had been washed over by a rain of bullets.

Needless to say, ordinary zombies would have a large piece of flesh torn off by the powerful impact even if they were just grazed.

Ren Anhua didn’t have to worry about accidentally injuring her teammates.

The advantage of having a team of elite soldiers was that she completely believed that the RV team had the ability to protect themselves in this magma scatter.

“Waah! So hot!”

Lu Shanshui’s scream came from a distance.

Ren Anhua couldn’t help but cover her face.

This guy was so damn embarrassing.

Cursing Lu Shanshui as a loser in her heart, Ren Anhua dodged and retreated.

The blow was blocked, but that wasn’t important.

What was important was the faster combo that followed.

By using a high-temperature burst to instantly expand the air and propel herself, Ren Anhua could even achieve three-dimensional mobility in three-dimensional space.

Combined with high-speed movement, she could often launch attacks on the enemy from extremely strange angles.

In an instant, the situation seemed to have reversed.

Song Zhiyang could no longer suppress Ren Anhua.

Even if Ren Anhua couldn’t match him in terms of raw power, his high-speed mobility in three-dimensional space had caused him to lose the initiative to attack.

Not only that, Ren Anhua’s extremely fast speed brought a continuous stream of attacks, leaving him with only the ability to parry.

But strength was strength, after all.

Even with just parrying, Ren Anhua couldn’t break the defense of that greatsword.

She was hesitating in her heart, whether or not to use her ultimate move.

Song Zhiyang didn’t seem to be in a hurry at all while parrying, as if he was waiting for some opportunity, which made Ren Anhua very nervous.

‘What is he waiting for?’

If she didn’t solve this problem, Ren Anhua dared not act rashly.

Ren Anhua’s question didn’t last long, and she soon got the answer.

As she was speeding through the air, she suddenly lost all her power, and the red light on her body suddenly dimmed.

Ability sealed!

Although she didn’t know what had happened, the black handprint on her left hand was clearly problematic.

This was probably Song Zhiyang’s real trump card!

Ren Anhua was furious in her heart, but she was already powerless to change the situation as she fell from the air.

Even if Song Zhiyang didn’t care about her, if she fell to the ground with this body, she would probably be seriously injured.

What’s more, Song Zhiyang didn’t even plan to let her go like this.

Seeing Ren Anhua, who had suddenly lost her ability, Song Zhiyang rushed forward with his blade without a word, and slashed vertically with a red light.

His posture looked like he was going to cut Ren Anhua in half directly.

‘F*ck! So damn despicable!’

It was no longer a matter of whether or not to use it.

At this moment, there was no other choice but to take a gamble.

Ren Anhua stretched out her left hand and deliberately sent it under Song Zhiyang’s blade.

The slender arm was cut off cleanly like butter under the greatsword that had been blessed with high temperature and sharpness.

At the same time, the black handprint was no longer effective, and her ability returned instantly.

But it was too late to say anything now.

Even if she activated her high-temperature body protection, Ren Anhua couldn’t block that ferocious slash.

To Song Zhiyang’s surprise, Ren Anhua’s body didn’t even light up with red patterns.

‘Has she given up?’ Song Zhiyang thought in his heart.

However, in the next second, he saw the corner of Ren Anhua’s mouth curl up slightly.

“Parry this, you idiot.”

Song Zhiyang heard these words, and then he felt his strength quickly fade, and the greatsword he was swinging down also became powerless.

It just smashed into the annoying fellow in front of him with gravity, cutting off one of her ears and embedding itself in her slender shoulder.

And on his chest, an abnormally neat round hole appeared.

Derivative Skill—Point Fusion Severance.

This was the ultimate move that Ren Anhua had never used.

By relying on her powerful energy flow control, she gathered all her energy flow in her hand and burst it out in the form of a spear in an instant.

The high temperature could turn anything it touched into steam.

But doing so meant that her body would completely lose its high-temperature protection and energy flow enhancement, and she would be no different from an ordinary person.

It could be said to be an absolute self-sacrificing blow.

She wouldn’t play like this if it wasn’t an emergency.

Song Zhiyang fell to the ground as if exhausted.

Ren Anhua pulled out the long sword embedded in her shoulder, patted Song Zhiyang’s face, and said softly.

“You said you defied fate? No, from a butcher to an Awakened is not called defying fate.
You just changed your identity and struggled in fate.
And your real fate is to die at my hands.”

Song Zhiyang’s eyes gradually lost their luster, but they were still wide open, with unwillingness, but also helplessness.

“There is only one fire-type Awakened in Pingding County, and that is me, Ren Anhua.”

Leaving these words behind, Ren Anhua left the place that had been riddled with holes by the battle.

She had to find Ke Xiaoshan for treatment quickly, otherwise she might die from excessive blood loss.

And… the aquarium was right in front of them.

The Red Blade Team really knew how to pick a time.

Ren Anhua couldn’t wait to change back into a man.