Chapter 40: Battle with the Ancestor

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Just as Ma Tian finished his desperate plea to the family ancestor, a barrage of gunfire erupted outside the door. His expression grew tense, fists clenched tightly, nerves taut as strings.

He immediately called the head of security, nearly roaring into the phone, “You must hold the line for me! Don’t let Chen Xian get anywhere near me! Hold out, and you’ll all be richly rewarded. But if you fail, you’d better be ready to pay with your heads!”

Outside the CEO’s office.

Chen Xian, cradling his enchanting black cat, advanced step by measured step toward the office. Each stride was identical, as if he were meticulously measuring the distance with his feet. Bullets crawled over his entire body, but none could pierce his flesh.

Chen Xian regarded the armed guards as if they were mere phantoms and continued forward—the CEO’s office was now close at hand. The young receptionist, having been freed from her trance in the elevator, fled downstairs in terror.

When he reached the office door, Chen Xian paused, making no move to enter. He stood motionless at the threshold, eyes closed, sensing the mysterious tree in his mind becoming more substantial.

“It seems that absorbing more bullet energy might allow me to condense the sixth fruit. Let your bullets serve as nourishment for me!” he mused with a faint, mocking smile.

Chen Xian decided to wait until the guards exhausted their ammunition before entering the office to settle accounts with the mastermind behind the attack on his family.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Gunmen lined both sides of the corridor, unleashing a relentless hail of bullets in his direction, just as he wished.

The black cat nestled safely in his arms, its sapphire eyes peering curiously through his fingers at the flying bullets.

Ten minutes later—

Click! Click!

“We’re out of bullets!”

“So am I!”

“Captain, what do we do now?”

All the security guards turned to their captain.

“Brothers, draw your blades and cut that bastard down! Don’t let him into the CEO’s office—there’s a big reward from Mr. Ma!” the captain shouted, brandishing a long knife and charging at Chen Xian.

With the CEO’s strict orders weighing on him, fear was no longer an option.

The others, seeing their captain take the lead, drew their own blades and attacked the crew-cut youth.

The bullets that had once enveloped Chen Xian were now all absorbed by the crimson vortex and fell away, revealing his form once more. In his mind, the mysterious tree had grown solid, transformed into a flaming red entity, though the sixth fruit had not yet fully formed, lacking just a bit more energy.

Chen Xian watched the advancing guards and noted their steady steps, clearly men trained in the martial arts. Still, he made no move to force open the office door, standing calmly at the threshold—he needed the guards’ attacks to help condense the sixth fruit.

The captain closed in, his blade flashing with cold light as he slashed savagely at Chen Xian’s head.

Just as the blade was about to strike, a vortex materialized, blocking the attack.

The captain felt as though he were chopping into a sponge. Unconvinced, he drew back and struck again.

The other guards arrived, surrounding Chen Xian and hacking at him relentlessly. The flashing blades would have reduced any ordinary man to pulp. Yet Chen Xian stood unmoving, a cold, arrogant smile curling his lips.

Ten more minutes passed.

Chen Xian realized that the energy absorbed from the blades was far less than from bullets; at this rate, even if they hacked for days, the sixth fruit would never fully form.

Losing patience, he swept his hand in a wide arc. The dozens of guards around him flew back like severed kites, crashing into the walls and falling unconscious.

With the obstacles cleared, Chen Xian raised his foot and kicked the office door.

Boom!

The door, made of solid nanmu wood, exploded into splinters and crashed into the office, showering the room with debris.

Vases and ornaments shattered in the chaos.

Ma Tian, dressed in an expensive suit, watched in shock and fury as the crew-cut youth stood in the doorway, cradling a small black cat.

“So, you’re Ma Tian,” Chen Xian said.

“I am.”

“Was it you who sent people to kill me and kidnap my family?” Chen Xian’s voice was icy.

Ma Tian hesitated briefly, then nodded.

“Then you deserve to die,” Chen Xian’s eyes blazed with killing intent.

With that, he advanced step by step toward Ma Tian.

“I’d like to see who dares lay a hand on a descendant of the Ma family today!” Suddenly, a hoarse, ancient voice rang out behind Chen Xian, grating and unpleasant as metal scraping metal.

Ma Tian’s face, once clouded with fear, now brightened with hope. “Ancestor, save me!” he cried.

He knew he was no match for Chen Xian and would almost certainly die if he fought him. But with the arrival of the family elder, his confidence was restored.

Chen Xian stopped and looked back.

There, a withered old woman stood, her hair white as snow, her skin wrinkled, her face pale as death—a living corpse. Stranger still, she clutched a shrine in her bony hands, within which sat a fierce, fanged idol—a demon, to be exact.

“You destroyed my Guangnan casino, caused my kin to be captured, and now you wreak havoc in my family’s tower. You… must die!” the old woman said coldly, her words ringing with the finality of a god pronouncing judgment on mortals.

As soon as she finished, she vanished from her spot, materializing like a specter behind Chen Xian. Her withered hand shot out, nails lengthening into black, blade-like claws, aiming to stab through Chen Xian’s back and crush his heart.

When her claws struck his back, a crimson vortex flared, blocking the attack.

Chen Xian felt streams of red energy surge into his mind, nourishing the nearly formed sixth fruit. Yet it was still not quite enough.

With a smirk, he taunted, “Is that all you’ve got, old hag?”

He spun around sharply.

The old woman, seeing her attack thwarted, withdrew her hand and aimed for his head.

At that moment, Chen Xian unleashed the first move of the “Dragon Elephant Divine Fist”—Azure Dragon’s Onslaught—colliding with her claws.

Crunch! Crunch!

A bloodcurdling scream ripped through the air.

The old woman flew backward like a sandbag, smashing through the wall and leaving a human-sized hole before finally coming to a stop in the next room.

Her hand, once tipped with black talons, now ended in bloody stumps, crimson blood gushing forth.

Her wrinkled face twisted in agony, her eyes cloudy with age and malice, glaring at Chen Xian standing in the office.

“Today, you will become nourishment for my god!” she hissed.

With that, she placed the idol on a nearby desk, eyes gleaming with cruelty, and with a savage wrench, tore off her own wounded arm, leaving a mangled, bleeding stump.

She howled in agony.

“Almighty god, your faithful servant offers her limb as a sacrifice—descend and destroy this villain for me!” she cried out, voice trembling with both pain and fanatic devotion.