The Dawn of the New World

He tried to remember where he had seen it before but his thoughts were soon interrupted because the moment its upper body stabilized and took shape completely the Synapse attacked.

It was fast, almost as fast as Hao Xuan's earlier punch but what made it so dangerous was that it came from a complete blindspot without any warning whatsoever.

The main body did not move even a single inch so there was no way to read its movements when one of the scythe-like appendages on its lower left side abruptly opened up and swiped from left to right.

Hao Xuan didn't see it at first but he did hear the extremely faint noise it made while cutting across the raindrops. It swung 300 meters in an arc covering almost the entire length of the pit.

Feet implanted into the ground Hao Xuan's upper body twisted to the right at breakneck speed avoiding the attack by the skin of his teeth.

It was so close that several locks of hair from the side of his head were cut from the pressurized air as it passed by. The limb was pulled back almost as quickly as it came leaving an entire section of the pit in abject silence.

It was only a couple of seconds later that the hundreds of grunts that were caught in the attack separated into two and their deformed bodies fell and became one with the bog. They not only hid the attack perfectly behind their own bodies but made no noise to signal its arrival either, silently accepting their fate.

Or rather it would be more accurate to say that they couldn't do anything since the synapse was still controlling them perfectly. Still, he found it a little comical that the scythe made more noise cutting through the droplets of water than hundreds of grunts.

Upon feeling the tingling sensation coming from his head and face Hao Xuan realized how close he came to being decapitated and if not for his superhuman senses it might have actually come to pass.

'And here I thought we would be having a fair fight.'

Chaos Qi began to once again build up within his meridians in full force before being circulated to the rest of the body. It spilled out in thick streams covering every inch of his insides.

Quantity wise it wasn't anywhere close to what a True Profound Realm cultivator could muster but for a Spirit Realm cultivator like him it was leagues above.

Hao Xuan's eyes quickly swiveled to the right this time as another one of the scythes effectively disappeared from his vision but this time he was ready and waiting.

More and more chaos Qi gathered around his feet destabilizing the space around him and when the barely audible slashing noises got closer he used it.

"Chaos Steps: Blink!"

Hao Xuan disappeared from the spot before reappearing more than 180 meters away in the blink of an eye just as the name suggested. He had moved diagonally to what should have been its blindspot but the second he reappeared another scythe shot straight towards him.

With gritted teeth Hao Xuan muttered again, "BLINK!" and this time he appeared 60 meters into the air. The synapse was technically still 'looking' to the front but another one of its limbs swiped in his direction.

And this time it was quick that he couldn't even execute the move anymore. The third scythe cut through the air in front of him aiming directly for his chest.

Hao Xuan's pupils constricted as he punched the empty space to the left side pushing him slightly out of the way by the added force. Using that momentum he punched once again and spun out of the way like a spinning top.

His fists looked like matchsticks because the faster he spun the brighter they got, eventually catching fire. It was like spraying gasoline on a candle and after the first spark his entire body lit up.

"BLINK!"

While still spinning he appeared less than 20 meters away from the synapse's main body and using all the momentum he had built up, a punch landed on one of the extended scythes.

The fire that had covered his entire body was suddenly pulled towards his left fist just before it landed.

*BOOOOOM*

"BLINK!"

Hao Xuan reappeared back on the ground and after spinning a couple of times he stopped himself to look at his handiwork. There was a 15-meter-wide hole where the limbs were attached to the main body.

One of the scythes was completely severed while the one below it was hanging by some white flesh and skin.

Hao Xuan quickly took inventory of his own energy because that was one of the moves from the '64 Palms of the Infernal Flame' and it consumed a lot of Qi by igniting his internal energy.

'Every time I use Blink it uses up around 1.2% of my total Qi. That counter used up almost 4% by itself making it a total of 8.8% including all the blinks.'