The man pulled off a finger. Blood immediately splattered onto the ground, then, as if alive, it slowly floated up toward his severed wound.

Before the wound could heal, however, he suddenly shoved the finger into his mouth.

CRUNCH, CRUNCH—

The sound of chewing raw flesh echoed from his mouth. It was as if he was grinding his own finger to bits before swallowing it whole.

At the same time, the man's missing finger grew back on his hand. In an instant, it had completely regenerated, good as new.

But then, his stomach began to swell rapidly, visible to the naked eye. Like a balloon, it just kept inflating.

Bigger… and bigger…

In the span of a single breath, his stomach had ballooned into a massive sphere. Purplish-blue veins bulged on the surface of his belly, the skin flushed red. In some places, you could even see something bulging and shifting beneath it.

The enormous stomach looked like it was about to explode, its weight pulling down the skin on his torso, threatening to rip his flesh right off at any moment.

A pained expression appeared on the man's face, his once-handsome features twisting into a savage, distorted mask.

His clothes were stretched taut over his body. He raised his hands to his mouth, stuck his fingers inside, and suddenly wrenched his mouth open, stretching it wider than his entire face.

RIP!

A tear was brutally ripped open on the man's face, and a torrent of blood gushed out.

"HUUH—HUUH—"

As a scorching blast of hot air exhaled from the man's widened mouth, the sphere in his stomach was also moving rapidly upward, apparently trying to get out through his mouth.

First his chest, then his neck, began to swell rapidly.

「Across from him.」

Yang An knelt on the ground, his body covered in countless fissures from which light was escaping. He looked to be in agony, as if truly suffering from the backlash of a Technique.

But as his gaze fell upon the man, a flicker of bewilderment crossed his eyes, as if he were looking at a complete moron.

'I don't know what kind of Technique this is,' he thought, 'but by any normal logic, shouldn't he just cut open his stomach and let the thing out?'

'Why is he trying to force it out of his mouth?'

'It's like trying to squeeze something huge through a tiny opening. Has he got it completely backward?'

'But… this seems like an opportunity!'

Yang An's eyes lit up!

'While this guy is still trying to cough up whatever's in his stomach—this is the perfect time to strike!'

'And I can't just stand by and watch this chance slip away!'

The instant the thought formed, a Buddha's Radiant Wheel suddenly materialized behind Yang An.

The man was struggling with all his might to vomit up the contents of his stomach, but just then, a black shadow fell over him. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

In a flash, Yang An appeared before him as if by Instant Teleportation.

The man saw that Yang An was still in a state of torn flesh and seeping light, blood streaming from his wounds, yet there was a strange smile on his face.

A look of astonishment flashed in the eyes on the man's ruptured head.

'This guy…'

The thought had barely formed in his mind when a hand, sharp as a blade, plunged into his throat.

By now, the man's throat had swelled to the size of a basketball, as if something was about to burst out of his mouth.

But Yang An's hand had already sunk into his flesh without resistance and fiercely gripped his cervical spine.

CRACKING sounds came from his hand, followed by a sharp pain, as if something inside the man's flesh were rapidly gnawing on it.

In that same instant, a flood of fingers surged madly from the man's mouth, wrapping themselves violently around Yang An's arm.

Foul-smelling black sludge was caked under their sharp nails. The fingers seemed to be connected to, or perhaps growing from, a tendril-like mass of flesh, and they were coated in a thick, transparent slime that reeked of stomach acid.

The moment these fingers touched him, countless wisps of black energy stabbed like fine threads into the flesh of Yang An's arm. In a mere instant, his arm turned black and began to rot rapidly.

But Yang An's expression didn't change. Despite being in mortal danger, he was unconcerned.

He had achieved his goal. He had successfully gotten close to this guy. What came next… was a blinding flash of radiance!

Several rays of Golden Radiance manifested, plunging into his own chest and abdomen, violently churning his internal organs.

Yang An's face contorted with pain and madness, and even his vision began to blur.

It felt as if an infinite power was about to erupt from every part of his body, from every inch of his flesh. Then, in an instant, that critical point was breached. A dazzling radiance exploded from his body, engulfing him and simultaneously submerging the man's form.

The flesh and fingers that had been surging toward him, about to touch his head, came to an abrupt halt the moment the light erupted, unable to advance another inch.

Like a fierce flame touching solidified lard, they were annihilated in the blink of an eye.

The man's stunned expression was the last image to register in Yang An's eyes. His flesh rapidly dissolved in the light. The massive stomach, no longer contained by flesh, burst open.

Inside was a large, black, sludge-like mass of flesh, covered densely with fingers. It tumbled out of his stomach, twisting and trembling violently before being reduced to ash in the brilliant light.