No one had anticipated that Jing City would face such a catastrophe.
Frog-men rampaged through the streets, slaughtering every human in sight—sometimes even other animals weren’t spared.
Corpses were treated as rations, and any leftovers were packed into their spatial artifacts.
That’s right—each of them had a spatial artifact!
Jingjiang Academy, where Su Mo was stationed, lay just a few kilometers from the Ancient City’s east gate. He sprinted the distance in under ten minutes.
The once-tidy streets and gardens were now stained with blood. Shop windows lay shattered, and the moat’s waters had turned murky, reeking of rot.
“Bastards!” Su Mo shot forward like an arrow, leaving decapitated frog-men in his wake.
His Tetanus Blade wasn’t particularly sharp, but its sheer weight crushed bones with every swing.
Sun Yuchen, arriving moments later, watched Su Mo carve through enemies like melons and muttered, “She’s gotten stronger again.”
Most frog-men were D-rank, with a handful at C-rank. The weaker E-rank ones were practically nonexistent here.
In other words, Su Mo was effortlessly killing above his weight class.
Of course, this was partly because the frog-men weren’t using spells—otherwise, things would’ve been trickier.
“Yi E Ye, cover me! Let’s take out their leader!” Clock roared, charging toward the fray.
Su Mo wanted to warn him about the stronger foes, but Clock was already surging ahead. Adjusting his stance, Su Mo followed, fighting his way toward the frog commander.
Suddenly, a noticeably larger frog-man lunged from the side, blocking their path.
“Careful—that might be a C-rank!” Su Mo’s bronze armor materialized in a defensive stance.
Clock glanced at the armor, puzzled, but had no time to dwell on it. Together, they engaged.
As a physical-enhancement Awakener, Clock was nearly unbeatable in close combat at his level. He’d assumed he could hold his own even against C-ranks.
BOOM—
A single strike sent both of them flying back over a dozen meters, completely overpowered.
So strong!
In Su Mo’s memory, the C-rank Japanese commander they’d fought before seemed weaker than this frog-man.
Realizing they were outmatched, they retreated—but the C-rank frog-man wasn’t about to let them escape. Its tongue lashed out, slamming into Clock’s forehead and yanking him forward.
Su Mo grabbed Clock’s arm, trying to pull him back, but the frog-man’s strength was overwhelming. Both were dragged toward its gaping maw.
This was the true power of a C-rank!
Nearby, Week Eight saw the crisis and acted.
Unlike Clock and the others, she wasn’t an Awakener but a Qi Sea realm cultivator—no flashy abilities, just well-rounded combat prowess.
SHINK—
A shadowy claw streaked down, slicing the frog-man’s tongue just before it could swallow Clock.
The creature recoiled in pain, its blood-red eyes locking onto Week Eight with venom.
“@$u0026#￥…” It gurgled unintelligibly.
“Interrupt it—it’s charging an attack!”
Too late.
The frog-man’s eyes flashed, releasing crimson lasers that grazed Week Eight’s face, leaving a glowing mark.
She staggered back, expecting pain—but only felt a slight warmth.
Shrugging it off, she summoned spirit-energy claws, shredding through incoming frog-men with ease.
Then, the mark on her face pulsed.
In an instant, half her face morphed—smooth skin replaced by grotesque, wart-covered green flesh.
She touched her cheek and snapped.
“You dare ruin my face?! I’ll flay you alive!”
Like a whirlwind, she tore through three frog-men in seconds.
But the mark wasn’t just cosmetic—it attracted more enemies. No matter how strong she was, numbers overwhelmed her.
As Week Eight faltered, Su Mo scanned the battlefield. Everyone else was pinned down.
“Eighth Sis, I’m coming!” He swung his blade and charged—
SLURP—
A mucus-coated tongue coiled around his wrist. The C-rank frog-man leered at him, mocking.
“Qingyi!” Sun Yuchen arrived, hauling an unconscious Clock. A ring of fire surrounded him—non-lethal to frog-men, but the searing heat kept the water-loving creatures at bay.
“Forget me—help Eighth Sis! I’ll handle this toad.”
Now that Clock was safe, Su Mo had no reservations. He yanked the tongue hard. “Think I’m easy prey?”
To his surprise, he held firm—the frog-man couldn’t reel him in.
“Yin Fire, get your ass out here, or I’ll drain your core dry!” Su Mo accelerated his energy vortex, forcibly extracting the dormant flames inside his dantian. “All you do is eat—useless when it counts!”
As his fury spiked, the Yin Fire obeyed like a chastened servant, slithering out to coat his left hand—the one gripping the tongue.
The corrosive flames burned and decayed simultaneously, pain searing into the frog-man’s soul.
It convulsed, then severed its own tongue to escape. The severed flesh dissolved into nothingness.
The Yin Fire flickered eagerly on Su Mo’s fingertips, almost… fawning.
Was it afraid of him?
That would explain why it only emerged when he was enraged.
A realization dawned. If it fears me…
Good.
Channeling the Yin Fire into his Tetanus Blade, the weapon hummed with dark energy.
“Shattered Army Blade Technique—Sixth Form: Battle Against Heaven and Earth!”
The technique had six forms—three foundational, two advanced, all building toward this final strike. Su Mo had spent over half his training time on it, yet barely grasped its essence.
But now, with Yin Fire fueling the blade and the Jade Seed Art as its core, he unleashed it.
Any one of these—the art, the technique, the flames, the blade—was a treasure in itself. Combined?
“DIE!”
A gale erupted as Su Mo descended, the blade cleaving into the frog-man’s skull.
Foul blood sprayed—but C-ranks weren’t so easily killed. It escaped, though not unscathed.
Only a fifth of its head remained.
From that moment, terror filled the frog-men’s eyes—especially when they saw the eerie glow of his blade.
They couldn’t comprehend how this seemingly weak human wielded such power.
Yet someone else was even more terrified.
Sun Yuchen, watching from a distance, felt his heart lurch at the sight of that dark-flamed sword.
For a split second, it had felt like his soul was being crushed.