Whoosh!
A whooshing sound rang in his ears, and Nohara Momonosuke felt as if something had wrapped around his ankle, a great force pulling at him, as if to drag him down.
Swish!
Nohara Momonosuke, without hesitation, swung his blade downwards.
A momentary blindness prevented Nohara Momonosuke from seeing anything; he only felt as if this strike had severed something like a rope.
However, at the same time, a chilling aura was rapidly descending towards his head.
Nohara Momonosuke didn't even think; his body reacted with extreme speed, and his other short blade thrust upwards.
With a 'chi' sound, like water instantly evaporating on hot coals, accompanied by faint screams, the chilling aura vanished instantly.
'Those two blades are not simple either; can they harm the Soul?' Zhou Ming silently observed Nohara Momonosuke, his own movements not pausing in the slightest.
He took out two more grenades, pulled the pins, and held them in his hand until the moment they were about to explode, then suddenly threw them towards Nohara Momonosuke.
Nohara Momonosuke's expression changed, and he quickly retreated, instead of cutting the grenades away like he had just severed the poisonous vines and killed the ghost.
Boom! Boom!
Two grenades exploded in mid-air, and Nohara Momonosuke wielded his twin blades like a screen, blocking all the metal shrapnel flying towards him.
'Very strong danger perception, even able to influence his actions to a certain extent, making him react differently to different crises, even if he doesn't know what a grenade is, or even hasn't seen what it looks like.'
These thoughts flashed quickly through Zhou Ming's mind as he crouched and charged forward again, another flashbang flying from his hand, while he simultaneously closed his eyes and swung his blade at Nohara Momonosuke.
Clang! Clang!
The long blades clashed, and Nohara Momonosuke's powerful recovery ability allowed his eyes, which were in a state of temporary blindness, to regain sight in a very short time, even after looking directly at the flashbang's light from such close range.
To counter Zhou Ming's attack, Nohara Momonosuke had to widen his eyes, hoping to catch a glimpse of Zhou Ming's movements with his continuously tearing eyes.
However, just as his blurry vision began to improve, the flashbang's light erupted again before his eyes.
"Ah!" Nohara Momonosuke let out a mournful scream, swinging his right hand's long blade to force Zhou Ming back, while covering his eyes with his left hand, his expression filled with unbearable pain.
"Hmph!" Zhou Ming sneered, pulling a barrel of gasoline from the Flower Bud Gu, opening the lid, and charging forward. He fought Nohara Momonosuke with the blade in his right arm, and with his left hand, he lifted the oil barrel and poured it over Nohara Momonosuke.
This move was truly insidious; Nohara Momonosuke's strong danger instinct was useless. He was directly doused with gasoline, and his entire body froze for a moment.
The pungent smell passed through his mask into his nasal cavity. Nohara Momonosuke didn't know what Zhou Ming had splashed on him, but he knew it was definitely nothing good, and immediately tried to retreat.
"Retreat? Too late!" Zhou Ming grinned sinisterly, striking Nohara Momonosuke's long blade with his own, causing sparks to fly, which lightly fell onto Nohara Momonosuke's body.
Whoosh!
The gasoline ignited instantly, and raging flames engulfed Nohara Momonosuke in a single breath, turning him into a human torch, with rolling heat waves emitting dazzling light in the night sky.
"Ah! Ah! Ah!"
Nohara Momonosuke screamed, wailed, stumbled and fell to the ground, rolling around, trying to extinguish the flames on his body.
Even with a non-human Physique and powerful armor, under life's instinctive fear of fire, Nohara Momonosuke's reaction was still no different from that of a beast.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty!"
Hirakawa Masamasa, who had also been attacked by the flashbang and hadn't fully recovered yet, heard Nohara Momonosuke's inhuman wails. He fumbled his way towards Nohara Momonosuke's direction, stumbling as he went.
"Get lost!"
Zhou Ming kicked Hirakawa Masamasa away as he ran over, and casually threw the entire oil barrel at Nohara Momonosuke.
"Ah ah ah!"
Even now, Nohara Momonosuke maintained a terrifying intuition. The moment the oil barrel fell towards him, he still swung his long blade, exploding the barrel with a single strike.
Then, a large amount of gasoline poured over him, and the flames suddenly shot up more than three meters high, with heat waves rushing towards Zhou Ming, forcing him to retreat a few steps.
The fire burned more and more fiercely, and Nohara Momonosuke's reactions became smaller and smaller, until he finally lay motionless in the fire, letting the flames consume him.
That miraculous armor, even in such high temperatures, showed no change; it remained a vibrant red, its patterns gleaming in the firelight.
"Is he dead?" Zhou Ming looked at the motionless Nohara Momonosuke, suspicion rising in his heart.
Suddenly—
"Click!"
A soft sound.
Zhou Ming's eyes narrowed, and he activated the Ghost Eye Gu, immediately discovering that one of the clasps on the bright red armor had opened by itself.
It was as if a switch had been pressed; as Zhou Ming noticed that clasp open, clasps clicked open one after another, forming a dense chain of sounds.
The entire full-body armor disintegrated by itself right before Zhou Ming's eyes!
Swish!
A black shadow suddenly rushed out from the disintegrating full-body armor, heading straight in a certain direction.
"That is... no good!"
Zhou Ming reacted instantly, immediately using the Ghost Shadow Gu to try and block the black shadow, but it was already too late.
The eerie black shadow's target was none other than Hirakawa Masamasa!
A moment before Zhou Ming arrived, the black shadow first grabbed Hirakawa Masamasa, pulling his body back several meters.
At this point, with the help of the Ghost Eye Gu, Zhou Ming finally saw what the black shadow truly was.
It was a shriveled, infant-like, charred corpse! Nohara Momonosuke's dried corpse!
However, at this moment, this dried corpse was gradually expanding, the blackness slowly fading, muscles and skin growing layer by layer, the charred body regenerating at an incredible speed!
In just a few breaths, Nohara Momonosuke, appearing to be around thirty years old, reappeared before Zhou Ming!
"You..." Zhou Ming stared fixedly at him, a fierce, predatory glint in his eyes.
"Hirakawa Masamasa, you truly are my most loyal guard. Rest in peace; you fulfilled your promise, guarding me until the last moment of your life."
Nohara Momonosuke caressed the bright red armor in his hand, murmuring, then suddenly let go, allowing it to fall to the ground.
Clatter...
The bright red armor that fell to the ground also automatically disintegrated, and countless small fragments, like coal slag and charcoal, spilled out from within.
That was Hirakawa Masamasa's final remains.
Zhou Ming stared at the fragments scattered across the ground, and suddenly said, "I know why you wanted to hold the Martial Artist Grand Tournament."
"Is that so? And what of it?"
Nohara Momonosuke wore a strange smile on his face. Though naked, he moved his body with complete composure, as if this was a rare and novel experience.