They clearly still thought that the Zifeng Building was under Tao Bingjun's leadership. Hearing that Qi Mengyu was from Zifeng Building, they assumed she and her group were Tao Bingjun's subordinates.
Zhang Zhiyang licked his lips, a hint of envy in his voice. "That Tao Bingjun sure is lucky with women. So Zifeng Building has this many beauties?"
Gao Shuxue nodded slightly. "Looks like we really should have visited Zifeng Building sooner. The quality of their women is way better than ours."
Zhang Zhiyang suddenly stared at Qi Mengyu. "Hey, beauty, tell me the truth—has Tao Bingjun touched you? Not that I'd mind if he did, haha..."
Before he could finish, Gong Xiao moved. In one swift motion, she unleashed "Barbed Projection" combined with "Venom Armor Fire."
Over a dozen sharp spikes wreathed in green flames shot out, whistling through the air, and in an instant, they were right in front of Zhang Zhiyang.
Though Zhang Zhiyang was a Level 6 Source User, he never expected these people to actually dare to attack. Besides, he was mainly on guard against Su Li and Ding Longyun, paying little attention to Gong Xiao and Qi Mengyu's group.
He took the full brunt of the attack. With a scream of agony, he managed to dodge two spikes aimed at his face, but the rest pierced his chest and abdomen.
As the spikes entered his body, the venom fire ignited inside him. The pain was unimaginable. Zhang Zhiyang let out a bloodcurdling shriek, instinctively clawing at his chest and stomach. With one grab, he tore off large strips of skin and flesh, revealing a bloody mess. Onlookers could see bottle-cap-sized, smoking holes burned into his chest and abdomen, growing larger by the second—a horrifying sight.
Gong Xiao struck decisively, crippling Zhang Zhiyang in one blow. She then tilted her head slightly, glanced at Qi Mengyu, and said flatly, "No need to waste words on scum like him."
Qi Mengyu's face flushed crimson.
"You bitch, you're asking for it!" The men on the raft were both shocked and enraged. One caught Zhang Zhiyang, while the other four immediately leaped toward Su Li's massive raft.
The tall, skinny man wielding a machete said nothing. With a flicker of movement, he landed in front of Ding Longyun, swinging his blade in a horizontal slash aimed at his waist.
Aside from Gao Shuxue and Zhang Zhiyang on the thirty-first-floor balcony, he was also a Level 6 Source User.
His attack was fast and vicious—clearly a formidable opponent.
He decided to kill Ding Longyun first, then deal with Su Li. As for the three women, capturing them alive would be more valuable.
As the tall, skinny man attacked Ding Longyun, two other men—both Level 5 Source Users—jumped onto the raft and charged at Su Li, intending to take him down together.
Su Li let out an almost inaudible sigh. He didn't want to kill.
But...
The hilt of the Dragon Rhinoceros Sword emerged from his chest. He gripped it, and a rainbow-colored light flashed, as fast as lightning. The two men rushing at him only saw a blur before their world tilted sideways, their upper bodies sliding off at an angle.
With a single slash, Su Li cut through both men from left to right at a forty-five-degree angle, starting from the left man's shoulder and ending at the right man's thigh.
"Ah—"
By the time they realized what happened, their screams of agony tore through the air. But it was too late. Their severed upper bodies crashed backward into the water before the raft, while their lower halves collapsed onto the deck, blood instantly staining the area.
Two Source Crystals appeared, and a message flashed in Su Li's mind.
"Level 6 Source User: Source 14/90"
He was a bit surprised—killing Source Users one level below him still yielded one Source Crystal each.
With just one strike, he had killed two Level 5 Source Users. On the thirty-first-floor balcony, Gao Shuxue's playful expression froze, and the short man beside him instinctively shuddered.
Ding Longyun let out a roar, swinging his steel rod to block the tall, skinny man's machete.
Gong Xiao leaped onto the raft piled high with supplies.
Zhang Zhiyang, hit by her Barbed Projection, was being supported by another man. This man extended his hand, a faint green glow emanating from his palm as it hovered over Zhang Zhiyang's chest wound. Under the green light, the injury was visibly healing at an alarming rate.
Clearly, this man possessed an ability with a special healing effect.
Gong Xiao clasped her hands together and fired another volley of barbed spikes coated in Venom Armor Fire.
Zhang Zhiyang let out a furious roar, his eyes bulging. From his arms, two bone blades emerged. Filled with hatred for Gong Xiao, he lunged at her.
Su Li took a step forward, phantom images flickering around his legs. Using "Spider Walk," he blurred into motion and appeared before Zhang Zhiyang.
Zhang Zhiyang thrust his bone blades forward. Su Li blocked with his left arm.
"Silver Armor Cover" activated. A layer of silvery armor formed on the skin of his left arm, and Zhang Zhiyang's bone blades struck it.
Though the armor lasted only a second before vanishing, that second was enough. Su Li's right hand swung the Dragon Rhinoceros Sword upward, cleaving Zhang Zhiyang's body in two.
The split halves of Zhang Zhiyang didn't even have time to scream before toppling sideways. Su Li took another step, moving like lightning to the thirtieth floor of the building. He kicked off the wall and leaped toward the thirty-first-floor balcony.
Since he had decided to act, he intended to leave no survivors.
From Zhang Zhiyang's fallen corpse, a Source Crystal flew out and merged into Su Li's forehead.
"Level 6 Source User: Source 16/90"
By killing this Level 6 Source User, he had gained two Source Crystals.
Su Li realized that the number of Source Crystals gained from killing Source Users wasn't fixed—unlike killing Source Beasts, which followed a pattern. When he was Level 5, killing a same-level Source User yielded three Source Crystals. Now at Level 6, killing a same-level opponent only gave two.
On the raft, Gong Xiao was locked in combat with the man who had been healing Zhang Zhiyang.
This man was a Level 5 Source User with a healing-related ability—hardly a combat type. How could he stand against Gong Xiao?
He barely dodged the dozen barbed spikes she fired, but Gong Xiao hurled her military spike, piercing through his body.
He screamed in pain. Gong Xiao clasped her hands together and fired another volley of spikes.
Almost all of them struck his face, and the venom fire ignited inside his skull.
The agony was beyond description. His mouth opened wide, but no scream came out as flaming holes appeared on his face. He collapsed, the venom fire burning into his brain—clearly beyond saving.
In a short span of time, four were dead. Only Gao Shuxue and the short man on the thirty-first-floor balcony, along with the tall, skinny man fighting Ding Longyun, remained.
The tall, skinny man sucked in a sharp breath. Suddenly, he opened his mouth, and his tongue shot out. At the tip of the tongue were three sharp bone spikes—his special ability. His tongue worked like a frog's, highly elastic, capable of extending up to a meter from his mouth. Used unexpectedly in battle, it was hard to defend against.
Ding Longyun was caught off guard. The three bone spikes pierced his chest, and he grunted in pain.
Gong Xiao had just killed her opponent and was turning to help Ding Longyun.
The bone spikes carried a muscle-paralyzing toxin. Once struck, the muscles would go numb, gradually spreading throughout the body, taking hours to recover.
Ding Longyun felt the muscles around his chest go numb, the paralysis spreading outward from the wound.
The tall, skinny man, having wounded Ding Longyun, raised his machete to finish him off. Ding Longyun knew he was in trouble and quickly retreated. Though his chest muscles were numbing, his legs could still move for now.
Seeing Gong Xiao charging toward him, the tall, skinny man knew his chance was lost. His tongue attack relied on surprise; now that his opponent knew his ability, landing another hit would be much harder.
He didn't press the attack on Ding Longyun. Instead, he stepped back, flipped over, and jumped off the raft.
He could see the tide had turned. Su Li's swift killing of three men had shaken him. Such skill filled him with fear. He dove into the water and swam furiously away, trying to escape.
A flash of white light. Swimming away, he sensed something wrong. Lifting his head from the water to look, he saw a white beam shooting from the raft straight at his face.
As a battle-hardened Level 6 Source User, he tilted his head at the last second, narrowly dodging. The white light grazed past his nose.
He was about to breathe a sigh of relief when the white light suddenly curved back and exploded right in front of him.
"Boom!" A massive explosion sent a towering spray of water several meters high. The tall, skinny man didn't even know what hit him. His body was torn apart, his upper half obliterated, leaving only his bloody legs barely recognizable.
With his promotion to Level 6, Ding Longyun's "Air Bullet" had become far more powerful.
Seeing the tall, skinny man blown to bits, Ding Longyun smiled in satisfaction. But then the paralysis spread to his face, freezing the grin in place. His legs went numb, and he collapsed.
On the thirty-first-floor balcony, Su Li moved like lightning. His feet took two steps up the wall, and with a twist, he landed on the balcony.
The entire sequence was astonishing. From Su Li's first strike to killing three men and leaping onto the balcony, less than ten seconds had passed.
Gao Shuxue had just jumped onto the balcony, intending to descend to the raft to help Zhang Zhiyang and the tall, skinny man attack Su Li's group. But he never expected Su Li to be so ruthless and swift. His heart pounded, and he hesitated for a moment.