Starting with a beautiful woman's private doctor

This time it wasn't a short spear, but a humanoid shape formed from condensed gray mist.

They emerged from the wall of mist, one after another, each wielding a gray longsword, their steps synchronized, exuding a chilling aura of menace.

Chu Nan roughly counted at least twenty.

These mist puppets were more solid than Li Guanqi's clones, with gray mist flowing over their blades, their sharpness visible to the naked eye.

The next second, they pounced at the same time.

Chu Nan did not back down, stepping out with his left foot and gathering power in his right fist.

There was no use of lotus blossoms, nor a large-scale burst of true energy.

He charged into the group of mist puppets, exchanging blows with fists and feet.

Shattering Fist!

Golden true energy spiraled around the surface of his fist, forming seven layers from the back of his hand to his knuckles.

As the fist passed, the spiraling energy spun like a drill, piercing directly through the chest of the foremost mist puppet.

The mist puppet's body stiffened for a moment, then began to collapse from the point of impact, scattering gray mist in all directions.

Chu Nan didn't even look, and turned around to throw another punch.

This time it's the left fist, and the spiraling energy is in the opposite direction to the right fist, rotating counterclockwise.

He punched the heads of the two mist puppets, and the two gray figures exploded at the same time.

He was like a golden top spinning in a gray wave.

Every punch carries a spiraling energy, and every step unleashes the explosive power of the Lotus Step.

When the gray mist longsword came slashing down, he used the Lotus Shield to withstand it.

As the mist puppet approached, he blasted it through with his Shattering Fist.

Between punches and kicks, golden lotuses bloomed and disappeared repeatedly at a dazzling speed.

The gray-robed disciples at the edge of the platform grew increasingly alarmed.

Some people began to instinctively back away, only stopping when their backs were pressed against the stone wall.

They were well aware of the combat power of these mist puppets; each one was equivalent to the full power of a second-level illusion disciple.

With more than twenty mist puppets attacking simultaneously, even the host himself might not be able to fight them head-on like Chu Nan.

But there are too many fog puppets.

Chu Nan smashed one, and two more emerged from the fog.

The mist formations created by the owner of the Mirage Tower are endless, and the moisture from the back mountain is inexhaustible.

No matter how good Chu Nan is at fighting, he can't keep fighting like this forever.

His breathing became heavier and heavier, and his internal energy was being consumed far faster than it was being replenished.

"Did you see that?"

The voice of the Mirage Lord came from the mist, carrying a condescending chill: "No matter how strong you are in close combat, you can't defeat the power of heaven and earth."

"As long as the fog formation on the back mountain continues, my fog puppets will never perish. If you can kill a hundred, I'll send out a thousand; if you can kill a thousand, I'll send out ten thousand. There will always be a time when you can't defeat them anymore."

Chu Nan ignored him and continued fighting while observing his surroundings.

Although there are many of these fog puppets, they all follow a pattern: they all emerge from the gray fog that rises from the ground.

In other words, their condensation requires the absorption of water vapor from the ground runes.

If the moisture supply to the ground is cut off, the number of fog puppets will decrease sharply.

Chu Nan glanced at the side of the platform out of the corner of his eye.

There were several stone slabs with particularly dense gray runes in their crevices, like underground blood vessels.

He hadn't noticed before because the runes were covered by the mist.

Now that a battle has broken out, waves of mist puppets are pouring out from that direction, which only highlights the importance of that area.

"Little Black".

Chu Nan called out in his mind.

Little Black emerged from his sleeve, swimming along the ground like a black line, passing through the gaps in the mist puppets, and heading straight for those stone slabs.

"Hmph! Just a little beast."

The Mirage Lord snorted coldly, and a giant gray mist palm materialized in the air, slapping down towards Xiao Hei.

Chu Nan was prepared. While withstanding the blades of the two mist puppets, he sidestepped and delivered an elbow strike, deflecting the giant gray mist palm.

The giant hand grazed Xiao Hei's body and slammed into the ground, creating a deep crater.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Xiao Hei crawled to the stone slabs and took a bite.

Its teeth can not only bite through flesh, but also crush stone slabs.

With a "crack," a stone slab densely covered with runes was bitten in half, sending fragments flying.

The runes hidden below snapped in response, and the surging gray mist around them seemed to be choked, suddenly coming to a halt.

Two mist puppets, which were about to emerge from the ground, with their upper bodies already formed but their lower bodies still in the ground, suddenly froze and then turned back into scattered mist.

Little Black didn't stop; with a flick of its tail, it shattered two more stone slabs.

It was extremely intelligent. Without Chu Nan saying anything, it knew on its own which place had the densest runes and which stone slab should be smashed first.

The snake's tail rose and crashed down one piece after another, scattering rubble. The runes hidden underground went out one after another like fireworks with their fuses removed.

The Mirage Lord panicked and unleashed two palm strikes, giant palms of gray mist slamming down from the sky.

Chu Nan fought back with all his might, alternating between the Lotus Shield and the Shattering Fist, and managed to block it.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Xiao Hei smashed five more stone slabs.

The expressions of the surrounding Mirage disciples all changed.

They knew better than anyone what those ground runes meant.

That was the foundation of the mist formation in the back mountain. With each piece destroyed, the power of the formation weakened.

That black snake was like a small knife that knew how to find its target, always cutting into their most painful spots.

"That's enough!"

The owner of the Mirage Tower roared.

He stopped paying attention to Xiao Hei and stopped maintaining the mist puppets that filled the sky.

He clasped his hands together abruptly, forming a very strange seal.

The black light from the jade bracelet surged out like splashed ink, enveloping his entire body.

"Mist Devouring"

All the gray fog on the back mountain began to shrink towards him.

The lingering mist puppets, the floating gray fog, and the moisture seeping from between the stone slabs were all pulled toward the Mirage Lord by an invisible force.

He was like a giant human vortex, sucking in all the remaining fog from the back mountain.

Chu Nan's expression changed slightly.

He could sense that the aura of the Mirage Lord was rising at an abnormal rate.

This isn't recovery; it's overdrawing.

This was the first time he had seen the secret technique of Mist Devouring, but the principle was not hard to guess: it forcibly infuses the power of the formation and the environment into one's body, and in a short period of time, one gains combat power far exceeding one's own level.

"What makes you think my Mirage can stand tall across the world?"

The voice of the Mirage Lord echoed from the gray mist, carrying a suppressed arrogance: "Because this entire back mountain is my body, as long as the mist exists, I exist; when the mist gathers, I become stronger!"

"You can break a few slabs of rock, but can you break an entire mountain?"

The owner of the Mirage Tower looked much younger than before; the wrinkles on his skin were shallower, his back was straighter, and even his hair had turned from gray to pure black.

But his eyes had changed; his pupils were now a chaotic blur, indistinguishable in black and white, like two gray vortexes.

Once the Mist Devouring technique was activated, the old man's power completely overwhelmed his own.

The stone slab beneath Chu Nan's feet trembled, and the air around him seemed to contract with the heartbeat of the Mirage Lord.

"retreat!"

A gray-robed disciple suddenly shouted.

The rest of the people retreated in unison.

They weren't trying to escape; it was just that the Mirage Lord's oppressive aura was too strong, forcing them to keep their distance.

Several people knelt on the ground, clutching their chests, their faces deathly pale.

The Mirage Lord's Mist Devouring technique indiscriminately extracts the surrounding mist, causing the Mirage True Qi within these disciples to surge and churn.

The owner of the Mirage Tower struck with his palm.

This palm strike was incredibly fast. Chu Nan didn't even have time to fully activate the Lotus Shield. He only had time to turn to the side and use the protective true energy of his arms and shoulders to take the blow head-on.

He flew through the air and crashed into the stone wall beside the platform.

The stone wall cracked, and Chu Nan slid down from it, kneeling on one knee, a metallic taste rising in his throat...