Skinwalker Belle – Chapter 528 – You Are Just Like I Once Was

“Since you want to play guessing games with me…”

Lin Fan wiped the last trace of blood from the corner of his mouth.

A smile that had nothing to do with innocence spread across Yui’s pure-looking face.

“Then I’ll strip you naked and beat you into the ground, and see how you keep guessing.”

She suddenly spread her arms wide.

It wasn’t the Life Domain.

A ring of dark crimson ripples exploded from the center of her body, spreading outward from her as the epicenter across all of Azurewood City.

The Cultivation-Absorption Domain.

The Pureblood Giant Dragons still clinging to life in the city were the first to feel this power.

An earth dragon that had just been surrounded by the city guard looked up in confusion—the next second, its scales began to fade.

Life force was visibly being drawn out through its pores, converging into thin strands of green light that streaked through the broken walls and rubble, flying toward the girl in the sailor uniform at the city’s center.

The second one, the third one, the tenth…

Over a hundred seventh-tier Pureblood Giant Dragons still remaining in Azurewood City let out simultaneous wails of agony.

They struggled to flee, but their bodies collapsed limply to the ground like balloons that had all their air sucked out.

Scales peeled off one by one. Muscles atrophied. Bones caved in.

Three seconds.

Green streams of light converged into Lin Fan’s body from every direction. Her breathing steadied, and color returned to her face.

The dragons in the city were all dead. Clean.

Long Yan lay on the ground, having witnessed everything. His mouth opened and closed, but not a single word came out.

Lei Jie’s Domain could actually drain every dragon in an entire city at once?

The Dragon Emperor still hovered high above, his golden vertical pupils fixed on Lin Fan’s movements. His expression hadn’t changed at all, as if he’d known she would do this all along.

“That’s a decent amount of replenishment,” the Dragon Emperor remarked.

Lin Fan ignored him.

She pulled three wristbands out of the System Space—Qi Energy Storage Devices developed by Copperbeard, filled to the brim with the life energy she’d charged into them earlier.

With a flick of her wrist, the three wristbands flew precisely toward Long Yi, Long Teng, and Long Yan on the ground below.

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“Put them on.”

Long Yi barely raised one hand to catch the wristband.

The moment it touched his skin, warm life energy poured directly into his meridians from the point of contact.

It wasn’t as instantaneous as the Life Domain—more like an IV drip. Slow, but steady.

“What is this?” Long Teng gritted his teeth as he strapped the wristband on.

“A wireless power bank.”

After saying that, Lin Fan pushed off the ground with her toes and shot skyward, charging straight at the Dragon Emperor.

Her fighting style had changed.

If the Life Domain would just be shattered by the Death Rule, then she wouldn’t activate a Domain at all.

Use the wristbands to sustain the rear, and she’d focus entirely on dealing damage.

All the physical force of her 120,000-point body attributes was compressed into her right fist as she drove a punch straight at the Dragon Emperor’s face.

The Dragon Emperor raised his left hand and casually blocked.

Boom.

A shockwave of air exploded outward.

The Dragon Emperor’s body didn’t budge an inch. Even the hem of his clothes didn’t stir.

Lin Fan’s fist slammed into his palm, feeling less like she was hitting a person and more like she was punching an infinitely thick wall.

Without a word, she threw punch after punch.

Left hook, right straight, knee strike, elbow strike.

Every single blow carried the full explosive force of her 120,000-point body attributes.

The Dragon Emperor handled it all with one hand.

His blocking movements were so minimal it was almost absurd, as if he’d calculated the trajectory and force of every single strike in advance.

“Your physical body is indeed far beyond normal limits,” the Dragon Emperor said calmly after effortlessly deflecting all her attacks. “But with that Skin separating you, your physical attributes can only exert half their full power. Not enough to hurt me.”

Lin Fan narrowed her eyes.

He knew about this rule too?

Time Stop.

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The energy in her Mental Sea surged wildly, drawing upon the Space-Time Law she had inherited from Long Xi.

The world froze.

The wind stopped, dust hung suspended in the air, and the Dragon Emperor’s raised left hand halted mid-motion.

One second.

Lin Fan flashed behind the Dragon Emperor, her right hand forming a blade, striking with full force at the back of his neck.

The hand blade passed through the Dragon Emperor’s body.

No sensation. No resistance.

Her hand went straight through the middle of his neck, as if his body were nothing but a projection.

Two seconds.

Lin Fan gritted her teeth and changed angles, kicking toward the Dragon Emperor’s waist.

Her foot passed through his body once again.

Not an illusion, not an afterimage, and certainly not some kind of evasion technique.

His body was like a mist—physical attacks simply couldn’t affect it.

Three seconds.

Time resumed its flow.

Lin Fan landed ten meters behind the Dragon Emperor, her wrist slightly numb.

Yui’s Skin imposed too many restrictions on her true body—Time Stop had a hard cap of three seconds per use, and the Mental Strength consumption was absurdly high.

“Long Xi’s Time Stop?” The Dragon Emperor slowly turned around.

Lin Fan didn’t answer.

Her mind had already begun abandoning the idea of resolving this through physical means.

This man possessed a phasing ability similar to her Spirit-Flesh Unity.

Spatial Ability? How could this man have Spatial Ability?

Since when did Spatial Ability become so cheap?

If she couldn’t hit him, then she couldn’t hit him.

Fine—she wouldn’t attack him directly.

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“Let the Death Domain beneath your feet turn to quicksand.”

Word-to-Law.

This time, she didn’t direct the Power of Rules at the Dragon Emperor himself, but at the space covered by the Death Rule beneath his feet.

The effect manifested.

The ground under the Dragon Emperor’s feet was indeed transforming—the hard rock layers began to loosen and granulate, attempting to shift into quicksand.

But it lasted less than 0.3 seconds.

The power of the Death Rule surged back, and the ground that had just loosened resolidified, becoming even harder than before, its surface coated in a layer of gray-black Death Qi.

Lin Fan’s Mental Sea violently shook.

That mere 0.3 seconds of rule confrontation had directly burned away a fifth of her Mental Strength.

Too costly.

This wasn’t a contest on the same scale at all.

Her rule was the Time Control she had only recently comprehended, while the Dragon Emperor’s rule had already achieved Perfect Fusion with his Domain.

An established ninth-rank against a newly ascended ninth-rank—the difference in mastery was like heaven and earth.

And on top of that, she was still wearing the Skin, meaning her true body’s Mental Strength could only output half.

“It seems you haven’t yet reached my expectations.”

After his assessment, the Dragon Emperor raised his right hand and gave a light wave toward Long Yi, Long Teng, and Long Yan on the ground.

It wasn’t an attack.

Just a wave of his hand.

But the power of the Death Rule poured down like a tidal wave.

Long Yi, Long Teng, and Long Yan had barely recovered some strength through their wristbands when they were slammed face-first into the ground again by that force.

Life energy from the wristbands continued to flood into their bodies, but whatever was poured in was drained away by the Death Rule just as quickly, barely maintaining the critical line between life and death.

“Lei Jie…” Long Yan lay amidst the rubble, forcing words through clenched teeth, “this guy… is too strong.”

Long Zhan laughed in the distance, blood and foam spraying from his mouth with every burst.

“Hahahaha! Before His Majesty the Dragon Emperor, you mongrels and rebels have only one fate! Kneel and—”

“Shut up,” said the Dragon Emperor.

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Long Zhan’s laughter cut off instantly.

The Dragon Emperor turned his gaze back to Lin Fan.

The complex emotion surfaced again in those golden vertical pupils—scrutiny, patience, and something else that was hard to define… urging?

“What are you still hesitating about?”

The Dragon Emperor’s voice wasn’t loud, yet it reached everyone present with perfect clarity.

“Afraid they’ll find out what you really are?”

Lin Fan’s expression froze.

That sentence struck more precisely than any attack.

She had indeed been hesitating.

From start to finish, she had never peeled off Yui’s Skin.

Not just because Yui’s Skin granted the convenient “Reality Rewrite” talent, but because… if she were to tear off the Skin right now, in front of Long Yan, Long Teng, and Long Yi…

What would they see?

A woman who could swap faces and bodies as easily as changing clothes.

Su Xiaoxiao and Su Yue could accept this because they had been branded with Lin Fan’s Soul Imprint.

But what about Long Yan?

What about Long Teng?

What about the friends in the city who had trusted her from the very beginning?

What about those who had followed Lei Li since Fragrant Hills International?

They trusted the Lei Li who had led them through battles since the start of the Post-apocalypse.

Not a monster who wore another’s Skin and grew stronger by devouring her own kind.

The Dragon Emperor seemed to see through all her inner turmoil, and a subtle smile flickered through those golden vertical pupils.

It was the kind of smile a person wears when looking into a mirror.

“You’re just like I used to be,” the Dragon Emperor said.

“Indecisive.”