Chapter 126: Scythe of the Grim Reaper

Manluo lost his composure, pacing back and forth anxiously, looking thoroughly unsettled. He suddenly whirled around and roared at Luo Hanhai:
"Listen to me! If you die, I won't be able to take over your body! You cannot die!"

Luo Hanhai froze, finding Manluo before him utterly inexplicable and downright unreasonable. He truly was a madman.

"Hehe, how foolish of me. Do you really think you can just die whenever you please? Impossible! In this place, you are nothing more than an ordinary mortal. What gives you the right to fight me?" Manluo slapped his forehead in annoyance, the smile at the corner of his mouth dripping with mockery. He looked at Luo Hanhai with utter disdain, not taking him seriously in the slightest.

"Do you truly believe I am left with no strength at all?" Luo Hanhai lowered his head and said in a low voice, "Little Feng is dead, but his remaining power was passed on to me. I am no mere livestock waiting to be slaughtered."

Manluo twisted into a knot, his once-handsome face turning hideously grotesque. He let out a reluctant, cold hum: "If that brat hadn't sacrificed his life to severely wound me, both his power and your body would belong to me right now!"

"Young man, don't get ahead of yourself. The current situation is that you are at a disadvantage." Macarius timely reminded Manluo, pointing out his unfavorable position, though this was hardly out of kindness.

"A disadvantage? Do you think you still stand a chance?" Manluo scoffed at Macarius's threat. "Hmph! Everything here is still under my control. You have no chance whatsoever!"

"Don't think you can do anything to me just by teaming up!"

Before his voice had even faded, Manluo was already beside the man in white. He grabbed the white lantern with an expression of ecstatic intoxication and smashed it toward the man's head, as if the next second would bring the thrilling sight of bursting brains. "Go to hell!"

"Ugh..."
"Cough, cough, cough..."

A muffled groan and coughing sounded simultaneously. Manluo's eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at the man in white, who had just been waiting for death. The man in white no longer showed any of his previous decadence or lifelessness; instead, he looked at Manluo with mockery, as if everything before had been a deliberate performance just for him.

To block Manluo's full-strength lantern blow, the right hand of the man in white had suffered a severe, unnatural twist and deformation, his bones broken into an unrecognizing shape. Correspondingly, a small dagger had plunged into Manluo's abdomen at some unknown moment. The blade had been driven home with ruthless force—not only the edge, but even the hilt had vanished completely inside Manluo's body.

"Cough, cough... Hahaha... Didn't I tell you I would drag you down with me?" Having delivered that stab, the man in white seemed to have exhausted every ounce of his strength. He tipped backward onto the floor, coughing up mouthfuls of blood. A trace of triumph flickered in his slightly unfocused pupils, as if he were saying—how do you like the taste of this?

"Ice Penalty."
"Light Punishment."

Simultaneously, Luo Hanhai and Macarius launched a tacit sneak attack from behind Manluo. In an instant, a towering ice scythe several people tall condensed rapidly. It was as understated and unadorned as the reaper's scythe, yet capable of harvesting all life in the blink of an eye.

Macarius produced a wooden staff from nowhere. Although it looked utterly ordinary, it burst into dazzling brilliance the moment he uttered the words "Light Punishment." Amidst the resplendent radiance, a brilliantly glowing chain materialized out of thin air and wrapped around Manluo.

Manluo's pupils constricted. He felt his entire body tighten, rendering him completely unable to move. He secretly exerted his strength to break free, but the chain proved exceptionally sturdy, showing no signs of loosening whatsoever. Moreover, the blade piercing his abdomen possessed a bizarre force that suppressed him, making it difficult to mobilize his full strength.

"Manluo, go to hell!" Luo Hanhai bellowed, and the gigantic scythe struck first.

"Hahaha... Keep dreaming, you can't kill me!" Manluo shifted into a different form once more. His physique became tiny, his expression cold, and a miniature tailcoat gave him a transcendent, aristocratic air, making him look precisely like a young young master. His reduced stature slipped effortlessly through the gaps in the chain.

"What? Oh no!" Macarius was startled and desperately sought to remedy the situation. "Retract!"

"You have no chance left, hahaha..." Manluo's voice echoed through the room, but he was already nowhere to be seen.

"Damn it! Pull back!" Seeing the massive ice scythe hurtling by inertia toward the spot where the man in white lay, Luo Hanhai hurriedly tried to recall the attack.

Unexpectedly, Manluo suddenly reappeared directly above the ice scythe, his cold face devoid of any expression. He said nothing, merely mouthing words toward the man in white. Though silent, the man in white read the meaning from his lips: "Farewell. Go to hell."

Manluo kicked down fiercely onto the massive ice scythe. The blade tore through the air with a piercing, ripping shriek, plunging straight toward the man in white.

"You deserve to die!" Luo Hanhai's eyes split with fury as icicles condensed out of thin air, transforming into streaks of white light that stabbed toward Manluo.

Manluo shifted using his bizarre movement technique. Not a single one of the sky-full icicles could touch his body. Swaying effortlessly, he dodged the ice needles with unhurried precision. "You cannot kill me."

"I told you, even if I die, I won't let you off easily." A dense fog suddenly descended upon the room. There was no malice, no anger—just a voice of absolute calm emerging from the mist. Yet no one felt the voice was strange; instead, they believed this was the true demeanor the man in white should possess.

"Boom!" The ice scythe seemed to strike empty space. A deafening roar shook the Misty Inn twice over, as if the entire building were about to collapse.

"The phantom flower blooms, the reaper's scythe descends."

Amidst the tremors, a faint sigh echoed across the empty space. The man in white had vanished; remaining in his place was merely a faintly glowing white shadow, flickering in and out of existence deep within the mist.

A massive black scythe slashed through the void, driving straight into Manluo's soul.

A profound terror spread from the depths of Manluo's soul. Driven by the instinct of primal life sources, it suppressed his soul to the point of immobility.

Paralyzed by fright, Manluo hung frozen in mid-air, watching in horror as the black scythe descended swiftly.

Luo Hanhai's hands danced like fluttering butterflies, directing every single ice needle to pierce toward Manluo.

The resplendent holy light ceased to form chains; instead, a sharp and sacred holy sword transformed into a golden beam, slashing toward Manluo's head.

...

The holy light dispersed the fog, revealing the true form of the white shadow. As expected, it was a flower once more...

A crystal-clear tobacco pipe was her finest ornament, drooping slightly in bashful modesty. The white radiance glowing from the gloom was her alluring smile. Glancing through the haze, that crystalline, pure white figure resembled an peerless beauty—aloof, noble, and pure, capable of being admired from afar but never profaned.