Curse Reply: After choosing Nawa, the cursed spirit cursed me for being cruel.

"Nue, lightning!"

Duanmu Yan raised his hand and unleashed a magical shield in front of him. The lightning bolts from the Ye struck the shield, sending arcs of electricity flying and crackling through the surrounding rocks, but they didn't even touch the hem of his clothes.

He looked at the familiar shikigami across from him through the leaping lightning, and suddenly smiled.

"Your technique is actually the Ten Shadows Technique."

A hint of smugness flashed in Chanyuan Ying's eyes; he clearly took Duanmu Yan's words as a sign of some kind of apprehension.

He maintained the hand seal with one hand, while slowly raising the other hand and pointing at Duanmu Yan.

"This is the strongest technique that can rival the Six-Eyed One, with ten shadow spells. Whoever possesses it will become the strongest of the era."

"And you, the so-called strongest in modern times, were just born in an era without the ten types of shadow magic. When the tiger is away, the monkey becomes king."

Upon hearing this, Duanmu Yan was stunned for a moment, and then he made a reaction that Zen Temple Shadow could not understand at all.

He burst out laughing, as if he had heard something particularly funny and couldn't help but laugh.

He waved his hand while laughing, his tone even carrying a hint of apology: "Sorry, sorry, I couldn't help it. Hahaha..."

Chapter 248 Chimera Beast

Zen-in-Ying's face turned extremely ugly, and he tightened his grip on the knife even more.

He didn't understand what this person was laughing at. Shouldn't he feel fear? Shouldn't he be grateful that he was born in an era without the Ten Shadows Technique?

After laughing enough, Duanmu Yan wiped his eyes and looked at Chanyuan Ying again. "You may not understand this era. This era not only has the Ten Shadows Technique, but also a combination that possesses both the Six Eyes Technique and the Limitless Technique."

"Ten Shadow Techniques, Six Eyes, No Limits... all crammed into the same era. What did you just say, 'When the cat's away, the mice will play'?"

His magical power suddenly surged forth.

The power of the curse was so immense that the surrounding air trembled violently at that moment.

The already dim sky turned completely dark, and the ground began to crack around him. The rubble slowly floated into the air under the support of the incantation. Even the Nue behind the Zen Temple shadow let out an uneasy low groan in the face of this oppressive feeling.

Duanmu Yan stood in the center of the storm of magical power, looking at the face opposite him that was finally beginning to change color, and slowly said, "I became the strongest not because of anyone's charity, nor because of any powerful, yet-to-be-revealed, magic formula. What is the strongest... you will soon see."

Under the pressure of Duanmu Yan's curse, Chan Yuanying involuntarily took half a step back.

The cursed power pressed down on his shoulders like an invisible mountain, making his breathing heavy and his hand holding the knife tremble slightly.

He hadn't felt this way in a long time; the last time he felt this pressure was many years ago when he faced a life-or-death situation.

Long-forgotten memories involuntarily surfaced in his mind.

He was the family's genius from a young age.

As the clan chief's only grandson, he enjoyed wealth and luxury, received the best education, was never short of sycophantic clansmen, and never had to ask for anything a second time.

When he was five years old, he awakened ten kinds of shadow magic, which shocked the entire Zen family. The elders knelt in front of him and said that he was the Zen family's once-in-a-century hope.

At the age of sixteen, he single-handedly subdued all the shikigami except for the demon Xu Luo. In the same year, he inherited the position of head of the Zenin family, becoming the youngest head of the Zenin family in history.

While other sorcerers were still learning how to manipulate magical power, he was already one of the strongest in the world at that time.

But even someone as perfect as him has an indelible stain.

He has a father who has no magical powers.

He is a genius that comes along only once in a century, so why is his father so weak, so weak that even the lowest servant in the courtyard dares to gossip about him behind his back?

Every time his father sat in the corner at a family banquet, he felt an indescribable humiliation.

To erase this stain, he personally concocted a colorless and odorless poison, watching the man slowly stop breathing in his room.

Although that person had no magical power, his physique was indeed terrifyingly strong. The amount of poison that would be used by an ordinary person had no effect on him. This physique only strengthened the Zen Temple Shadow's determination to kill him.

Without magical power, one is useless and not worth living.

This was the first thing he left for posterity as the head of the family.

Afterwards, in order to make the family stronger, he established countless rules.

The weak deserve to die.

Weak people deserve to die.

……

He spent fifty years establishing hundreds of ironclad rules for the Zen family, transforming it into a sophisticated killing machine.

Before he died, he met that woman, and...

In order to continue manipulating the Zen family even after his death, he conspired with various powerful figures to create a powerful and influential empire. He then manipulated the Zen family's resources and power, employing various methods to control them.

Now, the Zen family has become less bloodthirsty, no longer taking pride in killing; its members have even begun to coexist peacefully with weaker families. This is absolutely not what he wanted to see.

Only those who learn to kill can become powerful.

"Don't look down on me! I was once the strongest in my era!"

Zen Temple Shadow roared, pouring all his resentment and anger into his hands.

His ten fingers moved rapidly, forming hand seals. The shadow beneath his feet expanded wildly in an unprecedented way, with the phantoms of several shikigami surging within it. Even the Nue that had just been beside him was directly put into it.

They are intertwined and merged with each other.

"Come forth, Chimera Beast! Dark Surge!"

An enormous creature slowly rose from the shadow behind him.

Duanmu Yan stood still, carefully examining this shikigami he had never seen before.

Its body simultaneously possesses the characteristics of seven shikigami: two jade dogs form its shoulders, a giant snake becomes its spine, toad limbs, elephant armor, nue wings, and countless shadows of fleeing rabbits, while the giant horn of a bull rises high from its forehead.

With each step the chimera beast took, the ground sank several inches, and the oppressive feeling pressed down on Duanmu Yan as if it were a tangible force.

A proud smile appeared on the face of the Zen Monk.

This was his trump card. He wanted to see how arrogant this so-called strongest in modern times could be in the face of a foundation spanning six hundred years.

The Chimera Beast roared to the sky; its body, formed by the fusion of seven shikigami, was enormous.

Its four legs pushed off the ground with a sudden burst, and its massive body shot out at a speed completely disproportionate to its size, closing in on Duanmu Yan in the blink of an eye.

The massive bull horn on its forehead, imbued with immense power, hurtled towards him with overwhelming force.

Duanmu Yan did not retreat. He crossed his arms to protect his chest, and his magical power condensed into a visible protective layer on his skin. He directly took the impact with his forearms.

The moment the bull's horn struck his arm, the shockwave leveled the surrounding ruins, and he withstood the bull's head-on impact.

He gripped the horns of the ox with both hands, his arm muscles bulging, and forcefully twisted the chimera's head to one side.

The Chimera lost its balance and was exposed to him from the side.

He clenched his right fist and slammed it into the gap in the armor on the side of the chimera beast. The magical power flowed into his fist, blasting a crack in the elephant's heavy armor.

The chimera beast winced in pain, and a thick tongue suddenly shot out from its chest, wrapping around the man's waist as he pulled his fist back, dragging him into its arms.

At the same time, arcs of electricity lit up its shoulders—the lightning of the Nue—conducting along the Chimera Beast's body to its tongue. The electric light enveloped the tongue, aiming to char its prey while binding it.

Duanmu Yan looked down at the electric arc wrapped around his waist without even frowning.

He's a Thunder Yatares, this little bit of battery power is nothing to him, not even a massage.

He grabbed the still-sizzling, electrifying tongue with his other hand, wrapped it around his palm twice, and suddenly exerted force from his waist and abdomen, lifting the several-dozen-meter-tall chimera beast off the ground and slamming it into an abandoned apartment building next door.

The bricks and stones collapsed with a crash, and dust rose dozens of feet high.

Chapter 249 Help me, Mr. Mo Xuluo...

The chimera beast rolled over and stood up from the ruins, shaking off the broken bricks.

Instead of charging rashly, it aimed the jade hounds on its shoulders at Duanmu Yan, opened its mouth wide, and a thick, high-pressure jet of water shot out from its throat.

This is a toad's water cannon.

As Duanmu Yan dodged to the side, he noticed that just as the water column was about to hit the building behind him, it suddenly split into countless thin streams. Each stream seemed to have a life of its own, rushing back from different directions and blocking his escape route.

The afterimages of the fleeing rabbit, these phantoms mixed with the flowing water, were both real and illusory, making it difficult for him to judge the true landing point of each attack.

He simply stopped dodging, crossed his arms to protect his face, and used pure magical power to withstand the impact of the water flow.

Water splashed all around him, each drop carrying enough force to pierce through steel plates, but it only left faint white marks on his body.

Just as the water receded, the Chimera Beast had already taken advantage of the water curtain to fly into the air.

A blinding flash of electricity erupted between the bull's horns, and the pheasant unleashed its lightning once more, this time at full power. A thick bolt of lightning descended from the sky, illuminating the entire ruins as bright as day.

Duanmu Yan looked up at the lightning bolt that was striking down and suddenly laughed.

He bent over, bent his knees, and then slammed his knees against the ground.

The force of that kick caused the ground within a ten-meter radius to collapse, and he transformed into a black shadow, breaking through the lightning pillar, piercing through the Chimera Beast's lightning net, and appearing in front of it.

He punched the Chimera Beast in the face, knocking its hideous face, which was a fusion of six shikigami, to one side, and sending several broken teeth flying out of its mouth.

He seized the jade dog protruding from the chimera beast's shoulders, exerted his strength, and swung the giant beast, which was tens of meters tall, up in mid-air again, slamming it to the ground like a chain ball.

The chimera crashed heavily into the ruins, creating a bottomless crater. It struggled to get up, but Duanmu Yan had already descended from the sky, his knee slamming into its chest, shattering the elephant's heavy armor into pieces.

He pressed down on the struggling body of the Chimera Beast with one hand, and turned his head to look at the ashen-faced Zen monk in the distance.

"You truly are the patriarch of the Zen temple; such arrogance is absolutely certain..."

"But do you have any other shikigami? With just this one, you probably won't be able to show off your power."

Zen Temple Shadow glanced at the Chimera Beast, which was standing motionless under Duanmu Yan's foot, his face ashen, and the muscles on his face twitched a few times.

He took a deep breath, a resolute glint flashing in his hawk-like eyes.

"Since you insist on courting death, then so be it."

He slowly raised his hands, one above the other, forming a hand seal that Duanmu Yan was all too familiar with.

"Burube, Yura Yura."

Four winged frogs appeared out of thin air beside him, and then something resembling a silkworm cocoon slowly emerged from the shadows.

Zen Temple Shadow gave Duanmu Yan no time to react, suddenly sinking into the rolling shadow beneath his feet and controlling the shadow to flee swiftly away from the battlefield.

"I'm leaving now, you enjoy yourself!"