That instant, the sound of shattering erupted, followed by a howling wind.
With the swing of a fist, his right arm suddenly swelled. The throbbing muscles inflated as if filling with air, swelling to several times their original size and revealing a grotesquely fierce shape.
As Huai Shi dodged, that punch slammed into the ground, and the entire square shook violently.
It was as if it had taken the impact of a tank cannon.
Was this a Transformation brought about by the fear once held by the Red Gloves under the supervision of the Book of Fate, or was it something else?
Huai Shi had lost interest in knowing. He had already died under the instructor in this form more than once or twice. Bullets, firearms, and explosives had no effect whatsoever. It was just like a nightmare within a nightmare. In the memories of the former Red Gloves, this cruel instructor who had forged him into a weapon was almost an unbeatable symbol, his Power artificially amplified, monstrous. If Red Gloves hadn't been absolutely certain that the instructor was just an ordinary man, Huai Shi guessed that the instructor's Transformation now would probably involve sprouting bat wings and goat horns and casually casting forbidden curses while wreaking havoc on the world. Fortunately, it was just this degree of Transformation. For Huai Shi, it wasn't too exaggerated—
He reached out, touching the blood on the ground.
Hand of Confinement!
This was his first attempt at this newly mastered skill in the records.
Following this, the Source Flame began to rise from his fingertips, and the blood stirred almost to the point of boiling, with grey wisps of steam continuously rising from it.
From the remains and blood of who knows how many people, a dense fog of Apocalypse rose, shrouding the entire square within it.
Although he didn't know why his Soul was given the strange name "Hand of Confinement" by the Sea of Silver, Huai Shi was very clear on its essence. It was a relatively rare type of transmutation among the various large categories, spanning both Spirituality and matter.
And the range was Source Substance and iron.
This meant that he could build a bridge between the Source Substance representing the foundation of the Soul within Spirituality and the most abundantly present iron within matter, achieving arbitrary conversion between the two.
It could be said to have a wide range of uses.
The invisible Axe was the weapon spawned from the transmutation of the unrest and killing intent that Huai Shi had harbored within the Source Substance over the past seven years into iron.
And now, based on the Hand of Confinement, Huai Shi once again tried to transmute the diffused Source Substance from the outside world.
Thus, countless specks of rusted Iron Sand rose from the blood, nearly imperceptible to the naked eye.
That was the essence of destruction.
The Apocalypse condensed from death.
Entwined with the dry wind and dust, they rose rapidly amidst the pungent scent of blood and gunpowder, swiftly spreading far and wide,
bestowing all the despair and pain evenly upon everything.
That instant, husky roars and bellows emerged from the dark fog. A fierce gale spread, yet it could not disperse the mist that lay between Source Substance and matter. A hideous shadow charged towards Huai Shi, fists thundering down!
Huai Shi pivoted aside, the dagger in his right hand sweeping across, leaving a ghastly gash on that huge deformed arm. Then, the dagger made a swift turn, thrusting toward the instructor's throat!
CRASH!
The dagger sank into his raised forearm, colliding with the bone, sounding like steel clashing against steel.
Sensing the instructor's breathing erupt from his chest like a ferocious beast, such violent Power caused him to inhale the Apocalypse in the air in gasping breaths. Under the stimulation of pain and despair, this made his fury grow even more wild.
Like a beast.
"How does it feel, the despair you've created with your own hands?" Huai Shi gripped the military saber tightly, staring at his face across the disfigured arm, his smile mocking.
"—I've grown accustomed to it. How about you?"
BANG!
The huge arm swept across, emitting a thunderous roar as if it had shattered the void. The ensuing whirlwind nearly blew Huai Shi back three steps. Yet immediately, Huai Shi charged again, toward the instructor who was thought unbeatable, a ferocious grin on his face.
He felt as if he were drunk.
It was as if he was deep in a daze, yet fully lucid, and then, he felt a feverish enthusiasm.
It was a kind of indescribable freedom.
Like the release that comes after extreme rage.
When he breathed, he pulled the Apocalypse into his lungs, inhaling the pain of the dead and merging with their despair.
It was as if he were bonded with countless deaths.
He went from being the recorder and the recorded to becoming one with the record.
He could feel at once the pain of those countless deaths, and also wallow in the despair of those who had died in massacres and cruelty.
It was as if those Souls stood shoulder to shoulder with him here.
Thus, those void deaths turned into flames, churning between his ribs. Mixed with his rage, his unwillingness, and his will, they turned into an inexplicable impulse, exploding from the inside out, engulfing him, urging him to confront his adversary, to deliver Punishment, and to bring true death!
And so, in the tight clasp of the Hand of Confinement, that gray flame rose from the blade. It was a color even grayer and paler than Apocalypse, purified from endless despair and pain, extracted and sublimated into a substance of purity.
Pure poison.
It was the toxic substance gleaned from the records of death, the quintessence of concentrated Apocalypse. Although non-lethal to the flesh, it would undoubtedly bring unfeigned agony of death to the spirit of whoever it touched, just as Huai Shi had experienced countless times before.
In that instant, the script on the Book of Fate subtly transformed. Not only was the level of "military boxing" rapidly soaring, but new branches also quietly surfaced under the Soul description of the "Hand of Confinement"—applications of the Soul deemed worthy of its recognition.
—Heart Poison!
"That's right, just like that. Retribution in Blood, an eye for an eye!"
Raven gazed at the youth absorbed in madness within the records and smiled with pleasure. "Go on behalf of death, take revenge on the beasts in this dark ravine!
This is your Sky's Command, Huai Shi, the last Heaven Kingdom's Guard…"