Hunter: I became stronger even after I died.

Chapter 418 One loses, one wins. (Bonus chapter for monthly votes)

Niterlo's chest cavity was pierced through the center.

Even if you immediately slap the ant king away with your palm, thus preventing the damage from escalating further.

But such severe injuries were enough to start the countdown to his death.

"Cough cough."

Netero steadied himself, his gaze fixed on the Ant King who had been swatted away.

The ant king flipped in mid-air and skillfully stepped onto the stone pillar.

However, no attack was launched this time.

In his view, the blow that had just pierced through Netero's chest was worthy of being called a general's strike.

"As a human, you are very strong."

The Ant King leaped lightly from the stone pillar, looked at the dying Netero, and said, "I approve."

"..."

Faced with the Ant King's condescending tone, Netero had no way to refute it, nor did he have the extra energy to speak.

Under the watchful eye of the Ant King, he slowly brought his palms together.

This was his last prayer with hands clasped together.

Regardless of the outcome of this attack, he and the Ant King are destined to die here.

"One Hundred Forms of Guanyin - Form Zero"

A golden Guanyin, radiating golden light, appeared out of thin air behind the Ant King, extending her broad palm.

The ant king suddenly turned around, his eyes reflecting the golden palms of Guanyin reaching out.

Clearly, the appearance of the golden Guanyin behind them was a surprise and astonishment.

Immediately afterwards, those golden hands gently enveloped the Ant King in their palms.

At this moment, Netero's clasped hands gesture changed; except for the middle fingers of both hands which were raised high, the other fingers were crossed together.

Using this hand gesture change as a pivot, Netero concentrated all his energy into the next strike of the Hundred Style Kannon.

Against the backdrop of the gentle palm-shaped robe, the face of the golden Guanyin gradually lost its solemnity, and in the deathly silence, it slowly opened its mouth, twisting it into an exaggerated arc.

next moment,
A blinding wave of energy, as bright as a star, erupted from the mouth stretched to its limit, engulfing the ant king along with its clasped hands in an instant.

This is the merciless roar of the Hundred Forms of Guanyin.
It is also the ultimate strike exclusive to Type-0.

The pure energy light waves, formed by the condensation of a large amount of spiritual energy, bombarded the target continuously, just like the flames continuously sprayed from a spray gun.

Under the devastation of this violent energy, the palm covering the Ant King instantly turned to ashes.

Without the protection of the palm-shaped garment, the Ant King was completely exposed to the energy impact.

After a while,

After the golden Guanyin released its last breath, its wide-open mouth slowly closed.

Before they could even come together, they shattered inch by inch before Netero's eyes, turning into countless specks of light drifting across the sky.

The smoke and dust kicked up by the Zero Gun lingered in the surrounding area.

Netero exhausted all his energy, as if his life force had been drained away, and his whole body instantly withered, resembling a dead tree.

He collapsed to the ground, exhausted, his aged and withered face gazing at the center of the smoke-filled haze.

"A brilliant strike."

From the depths of the smoke and dust, the voice of the ant king suddenly rang out.

His tone now carried an even greater sense of admiration than before.

But to Netero at that moment, it sounded particularly jarring.

As his life was drawing to a close, he stared blankly into his sunken eyes at the ant king who strode out of the smoke and dust.

The other person had a lot of scratches, but that was all.

Seeing this result, Netero, whether out of despair or exhaustion, ultimately lowered his head in silence, powerless.

"Don't be discouraged. As the king of ants, I was born to stand at the pinnacle of life, while you are not the king of humans, but just an ordinary person, yet you have managed to fight to such an extent."

The ant king stood before him, offering heartfelt affirmation in the manner of a victor:
"At the end of your life, you should be proud of yourself."

"..."

Netero lowered his head, remained silent for a second or two, then suddenly let out a low laugh: "Heh...heh heh heh..."

The Ant King couldn't discern the meaning behind the laughter, and simply watched as Netero's life force slipped away like sand through an hourglass.

This moment did not keep him waiting long.

Within seconds, Netero's laughter gradually subsided, and along with it, his damaged heart also came to a standstill.

Netero is dead.

Before his death, he did not respond to the King Ant's praise, but simply walked towards the end as quietly as possible.

And the poor man's rose, which had been surgically implanted in his body beforehand, was triggered at this moment as his heart stopped beating.

Without warning, the Ant King sensed an extremely strong premonition of danger.

Before he could react, a dazzling white light burst forth from Netero's body.

The rose exploded.

The entire underground ruins, along with the surrounding land, were engulfed in flames in an instant.

A large amount of thick smoke billowed up and quickly coalesced into a blooming death rose above the rocky ground.

The high temperature generated by the explosion directly dissolved a large amount of rock into a reddish-black fluid.

This place seemed to have become the epicenter of a volcanic eruption, where everything was distorted by the intense heat, and toxic black smoke constantly billowed out, like a boundary line across a forbidden zone of life, refusing any living thing from approaching.

No human could survive such an explosion.

But the Ant King is not human.

The explosion at close range failed to completely destroy his body, but the intense heat almost burned half of his body away.

Even so, he did not die on the spot.

The charred and mangled torso lay supine in the center of the crater formed by the explosion, and on the face that was no longer recognizable, the lips parted slightly.

A faint breath was slowly exhaled from his mouth.

The fact that the Ant King could survive such a devastating explosion is enough to prove its terrifying vitality.

But in such a desperate situation, even this last breath is about to dissipate.

The ant king, who prides himself on standing at the pinnacle of life, seems to be about to meet his end here.

However, just before his life was about to end, a lump of flesh encased in a hard membrane inside his body slowly melted away, like an ice cube falling into a flame.

The melted liquid quickly flowed to every part of the ant king's body.

This fleshy ball is actually his unborn sibling.

In order to cultivate the most powerful king, the queen ant regarded nutritious humans as her main food source.

If supplied under normal circumstances, with the nutritional value provided by humans, even if the queen ant is born prematurely, it can still develop fully.

However, the emergence of Nen users disrupted this process.

Because the nutritional value of one person with superpowers is comparable to that of thousands of ordinary people.

This excess of nutrients led to the unexpected development of two embryos within the queen ant's abdomen.

If they continue to consume ordinary humans in this manner, only one embryo may eventually develop successfully.

However, due to Melena's intervention, the Queen Ant absorbed many ability users.

The high concentration of nutrients and life energy is absorbed by both fetuses.

Because the queen ant forms an embryo earlier, it takes the lead in occupying most of the nutrients, thus developing rapidly and continuously encroaching on the share of another embryo.

It wasn't until Melina continued to provide more ability users that the second embryo received enough nutrition to begin developing rapidly.

As the second embryo grows rapidly, its nutritional needs also increase significantly.

The queen ant, already in its early stages of development, was unwilling to have too much nutrition and energy taken away from her fellow ants, so she ruthlessly "ate" another embryo. However, this embryo, which had already absorbed a large amount of nutrients, did not truly disappear, but instead merged into the queen ant's body in a chimeric form.

This result also subtly influenced some of the King Ant's physical characteristics.

now--

The second embryo, which had existed in the Ant King's body like a deformed tumor, became the Ant King's last lifeline by "repaying evil with kindness".

The abundant energy stored within was quickly absorbed by the ant king, who had only one breath left.

With his innate power of devouring and evolution, his broken body began to regenerate at a visible speed.

Netero, who went ahead, probably never imagined that the rose explosion at such close range would fail to take the life of the Ant King on the spot.

They would never have imagined that the Ant King was actually a dual-life entity.

With the continuous nourishment of energy, the ant king quickly regained consciousness, and his body was restored to its original state.

The only difference is that his eyes have returned to normal.

The intensity of the life energy surrounding him was even stronger than before.

"Humans... Hmph."

The reborn ant king coldly swept his gaze across the scorched earth before him, now unrecognizable.

It turns out that humanity painstakingly created a battlefield where he could fight him alone, just to showcase this despicable and malicious nature that is unique to them.

This made the Ant King feel contempt and disdain from the bottom of his heart.

However, after this battle, although the Ant King gained a deeper understanding of humans, the first thing that came to mind was still wheat.

He was eager to immediately begin a new game of chess with Wheat, in order to test the chess ideas that had taken root in the palace.

With this thought in mind, the Ant King ignored the still surging heat beneath his feet and suddenly pushed off the ground to stand up.

In an instant, the Ant King moved like lightning, piercing through the thick smoke and speeding towards the palace.

………………

Palace courtyard.

Neferpitou, who possessed five sparks, ultimately gave up the opportunity to corner Morrow after weighing his options.

She knew very well that if she maintained this high-intensity offensive for just half a minute, or even less, she could break down Moreo's ability to resist without bloodshed.

However, compared to the time pressure brought by Porter, the unknown risks lurking in the dark blue flames made her more wary.

Neferbitt judged that ending the attack at this point would be the wiser choice.

This is true.

If the attack continues, she will likely be completely ignited by the seven sparks and annihilated in the dark blue flames before Moro exhausts her last remaining potential.

Choosing to temporarily avoid confrontation at this moment allows for a lower-risk strategy.

For example, manifesting the puppeteer, or re-controlling those ability-wielding puppets to launch an attack.

Mo Laowu and those smoke soldiers were watching from outside the battle circle, which could very likely affect her tactical arrangements.

Despite considering this possibility, it did not affect her wise decision.

Neferpitou's decision at the crucial moment, however, shifted the pressure onto Morrow.

But for Morrow, even if he chooses to retreat at this turning point, he can ultimately rely on Poteklin's abilities to defeat Neferpitou.

It's just a matter of potentially losing Neferbitt's experience points.

But should we back down in the face of pressure?

Morrow's answer was no.

Along the way, the love practice he has gained through the years has indeed brought him countless possibilities.

But this enhancement of power is never free.

He had to constantly throw himself into life-or-death battles.

Furthermore, due to the existence of the experience decay mechanism, he often had to win against stronger opponents in past battles.

He was already used to drawing nourishment from risks and pressures.

Now, facing Nefertiti, there is still a chance to successfully ignite the last two sparks.

How could he back down because of the risks?
off the field.

Mo Laowu keenly sensed the change in the battle situation and, based on his rich combat experience, realized that the best course of action was to cover Moro's retreat as soon as possible.

So he quickly took action and prepared to meet up with Moro.

However, Moreau did something completely different from his assessment.

"Don't even think about backing out like this."

Seeing Neferpitou retreat and create distance, Moro stepped forward without hesitation.

He wasn't the only one with a serious depletion of potential energy reserves.

Neferbitt, who has been using "Kuroko's Dance" at a high intensity, is also facing the situation where his potential energy is about to run out.

"Flying Star"

At this critical moment, Morrow spared no effort to use his remaining energy to keep up with Neferpitou, while simultaneously conjuring a Nen ball in his left palm.

Seeing that he was chasing after him without hesitation, Neferpitou became even more certain of his earlier judgment and continued to pull away.

As long as they don't launch an attack, they won't give Moro any chance to counter-attack.

However, in the next instant, Neferpitou suddenly saw Moro raise his right hand and slam the Nen ball hard with the back of his hand.

Snapped!
The psychic ball shattered into countless streams of light upon impact, like a dazzling yet deadly fireworks display, engulfing Nifebit.

This is--

Flying Star Iron Flower!
Neferbitt's pupils constricted sharply, completely unexpected that Morrow, who was on the verge of his limit, could still perform such a move.

Although she dodged quickly, the fireworks suddenly poured down, splashing all around her.

In an instant, my left thigh seemed to catch fire, and a cluster of dark blue sparks shot up out of thin air.

This is the sixth cluster of sparks, located on the forehead, chest, arms, and legs.

"We need to get even further away from him. Until then, we'll use the 'Puppeteer' to block him out!"

Neferpitou glanced quickly at the newly ignited spark on his leg, and as he retreated, he conjured a burly puppeteer with a wave of his hand.

At that very moment, she noticed that the aura manifested on Moro was flickering violently like a dying candle flame, and was visibly collapsing.

"He can only launch one more attack at most..."

Neferpitou was reassured, but the wariness in his eyes did not diminish in the slightest.

In order to extinguish this mysterious spark, she would need to ensure that she killed it after Moro exhausted her last bit of strength.

now.

Moro's remaining potential energy was indeed only enough to launch a final attack.

"Blitzkrieg"

The moves that had never been revealed in thousands of battles suddenly came into play at this moment.

Swish.

Moro vanished into thin air, using spatial teleportation to bypass the puppeteer's warning range and appear directly in front of Neferpitou.

All the energy he could barely maintain in the "Entanglement" technique was now concentrated in his right fist.

The force of the punch followed, striking Neferpitou heavily in the abdomen.

"Oh!"

With a muffled thud, Neferpitou was unharmed, but a seventh spark suddenly rose from the fist that was pressed against her abdomen.

A single spark can start a prairie fire; conditions met!
The seven clusters of dark blue flames instantly merged into one, completely engulfing Neferpitou in an instant.

This was a hopeless situation for Neferpitou.

For Moro, however, it was a sure win.

(End of this chapter)