The Highest Bounty

Chapter 239: Battle Of The Monsters

At night, under a clear starry sky, Ross Childe’s rites of passage started as scheduled.

The Childes reserved the largest Squire Square on the planet. The lights around the square lit up the whole area, making it seem as if it were day.

Although one needed an invitation to enter the party, Gu Ding’s crew did not receive an invitation and were not prevented from entering. The guards simply glared at them and moved aside.

Looking at the huge square and all its elaborate decorations, Lilliath could not help praising, “It’s really quite impressive, but the more powerful the family is, the less extravagant the rites of passage will be.”

Indeed, compared with the Harris family, the Childe family was at best a countryside nouveau riche with no history.

“Gu Ding, when are we going to attack?” Elsa seemed eager to start fighting. Since learning Stack Force from Neptune, she never got a chance to show off her newly learned skills.

“At the height of the party, of course.” Gu Ding did not see Ross Childe, who was the star of the party, but there were plenty of powerful guys.

“There are sixteen demigods, twenty-eight Rank-13 Gene Bodies, and more than a hundred that are Rank-12 and above.” Neptune quickly gave them the statistics. “However, with the Deity Position in hand, it is unlikely that any but the demigod of the Childe family will attack us. Don’t look down on your opponent though, no one knows what Ross Childe has up his sleeves. He’s an expert in strategy, I’m sure there’s something we don’t know about.”

“Unless he can get the deities to come, he is doomed to fail.” Gu Ding admitted that Ross was a smart guy, but the sheer difference in strength between them was not something that could be solved with brains alone.

About half an hour later, almost everyone had reached. James, the patriarch, stepped onto the makeshift stage in the middle of the square.

“Today, I am very happy that all of you can attend my son’s rites of passage, I hereby toast you...”

After some pleasantries, James began to tell funny stories about Ross’s childhood on stage, while Ross stood under the stage, smiling faintly without a word.

Most of James’s stories were not about the famous genius’s achievements on any given day, but about the little details in life–some embarrassing things that ordinary kids do. There was a lot of laughter, and now and then he looked at Ross as if hoping he would come around and stop pursuing his ambitions. However, Ross did not respond at all. It was as if the person in the stories was not him at all.

It was more than half an hour later when James finally brought Ross on stage. He sighed and walked off the stage, knowing that it was all too late.

Ross strode onto the stage, his black suit as sleek as ever, without a wrinkle in sight. A brown striped tie with a white shirt made him look energetic.

After taking the stage, he went straight to the point. “In Ancient Times, the primal rites of passage was not really a feast, it was a hunt. Only young men who hunt prey strong enough can be truly recognized by the other members and become a real adult. Therefore, today, I’m going to use that ritual to prove to the world that I’m an adult. My hunting target is here today. He is–4-star monster Gu Ding!”

The crowd was shocked, and most did not expect things to turn out this way. This was because Gu Ding had just proved two days ago that he was strong enough to defeat Peak Rank-13 Gene Body martial art practitioners while Ross Childe, who had never shown his strength dared to challenge Gu Ding.

The scene was immediately captured on video.

Gu Ding walked slowly onto the stage and looked Ross in the eye. He did not seem surprised that Ross would challenge him. “One last chance for you, apologize! Otherwise, I won’t have any reservations about killing you.”

“Didn’t I give you my answer at noon?” Ross smirked. “If you didn’t understand, I’ll repeat it–I’m not apologizing.”

“In that case, go to hell to reflect on it!” As Gu Ding spoke, Bronze Grade Combat Armor was summoned. Ultimate Arts Level 12, Rage Attack, Advanced Iron Block, and martial arts field were all opened at the same time, and his combat effectiveness was instantly driven to its peak.

Gu Ding immediately appeared in front of Ross, the five fingers on his right hand clenched into a fist. Strong Steel Fist carried the golden Righteous Force and punched out crazily, like a comet across the night sky, toward Ross’s face.

“Gu Ding, actually I’m a Rank-7 just like you. Do you know why I challenged you?” Ross showed no signs of nervousness. Instead, he smirked and continued, “I’m a monster just like you, but I’m a stronger 5-star monster than you! You can go toe to toe with a Rank-13 Gene Body, right? However, a Rank-13 Gene Body is nothing to me! I’ve challenged you as my first battle. Once I suppress you, countless people will know my name...”

Ross said and held out his left hand, which turned into a huge blood-red palm and intercepted Gu Ding’s deadly punch. His other hand turned blood-red as he pressed it onto Gu Ding’s chest. Gu Ding was hit by a force that sent him flying upside down.

Then Ross’s whole body began to change dramatically. He transformed from a handsome young man into a tall red giant. The giant was even taller than Biggie and Robert. His forearms alone were much bigger than Biggie’s thighs. Ross’s clothes burst apart to expose his naked body. Everyone could see that he was entirely red, giving the impression that he had been stripped of his skin, exposing his crimson muscle fibers. His eyes were dark, no one could see the whites of his eyes nor his pupils. Some even noticed that Ross, who was in this state, had lost his gender identity. All the organs that determined a person’s sex had completely disappeared from his body.

“Gu Ding, do you see this? This is my real strength...” Ross’s voice sounded like three or four voices coming together, and there was something eerie and uncanny about the sound as it came out.

Lilliath looked in the direction where Gu Ding was falling, a little worried. Based on her current pupillary power, she was able to pick up their fighting movements, but she was not really sure how hurt Gu Ding was.

There was little change in Biggie’s expression, which relieved Lilliath a little. Tagore stared at Ross with a strange look in his eyes. Robert, too, saw how the battle was going, yet he did not move.

“He got a lot stronger after he transformed!” Elsa was more interested in Ross’s transformation. “However, why do I feel like there’s something sinister about this power?”

“You’re right. It’s a purgatorial brute beast.” Tagore hopped on Elsa’s shoulder and whispered in her ear, “He probably took a brute beast’s genes and modified it into his own. In a base plane like this, it can only be recognized by those who have dealt with purgatorial creatures.”

“Is a brute beast that horrifying?” Elsa could not help asking.

“A real brute beast may only be cannon fodder in Purgatory, but it is almost impossible to rival it in the Base Plane. Since brute beasts are born with demigod combat effectiveness, when they reach adulthood, they immediately have the equivalent combat effectiveness of a Lower Ranking deity.” Tagore explained.

“I’ve heard Dad mention Purgatorial Plane before. It’s scarier than Abyss Plane and is extremely dangerous. He once went to the third level and was attacked by a very powerful insect before he escaped.” Elsa longed for a place like this, and it was hard for her to imagine that her Dad would lose a battle.

“Your Dad is already so strong that Lower Ranking deities have little chance of surviving that guy,” Tagore said and remained silent, turning his eyes to the battlefield.

Gu Ding rose from underneath the debris, and with the blow, he had just barely managed to exert the repulsive effect upon himself. It increased his defense by tenfold.

Under the twenty-fold aid of the Advanced Iron Block, his defense had already reached 128 billion points. With a tenfold increase, his defense went directly over one trillion, easily stopping Ross’s attack.

Although Ross was only a Peak Rank-7 Gene Body, a Peak Rank-7 usually had the basic attack effectiveness of ten thousand points. However, Ross was a 5-stars ranking monster, his basic combat effectiveness was ten thousand times more than an ordinary person, bringing it to a total of one hundred million points. Add in an eight thousand-fold increase in combat effectiveness after the transformation, and he had eight hundred billion. This level of combat effectiveness was extremely scary, as new demigod martial arts practitioners usually only had one hundred billion points.

Gu Ding heard Neptune’s voice in his ear.

“Gu Ding, this guy implanted himself with the brute beast’s gene and acquired their ability to transform. Not only does the brute beast’s attack effectiveness increase significantly after transformation, but so does its defense. Even if you exert a repulsive effect on yourself, with your current attack effectiveness, it’s almost impossible to defeat him by force. The only way is to attack his weakness.”

“Brute beasts’ weakness is usually at the nape of their neck, but I’ve just scanned his body and found that it has been moved up to the back of his head. This vulnerable position is harder to spot because of hair covering it. The weakness of brute force is very obvious, and the nape’s defense is less than one percent as strong as the skin. Even if this guy modified it, it’s not going to help much, because the gene template he’s using is from a brute beast. He can only alter some of its details. There’s no way he could eliminate the flaw.”

“Thanks, Neptune. I’ll get rid of him in no time.” Gu Ding slowly stood up as he emerged from the ruins.

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