Taoist priest goes to America

Ise Kibo's reaction was much faster than Ang Lee had anticipated.

This man, who was as slow as a novice when it came to counter-surveillance, unexpectedly sharpened his combat instincts in life-or-death situations.

He hadn't yet recovered from the grief of being betrayed by his childhood sweetheart, but his body and the black mist had already reacted. The right hand, which was raised in mid-air, ready to smash down, suddenly flung the heavy industrial machine behind him.

The heavy machine, freed from the support of the black mist, slammed down on Yuzu with its four or five hundred kilograms of inertia.

"Oh?" Yuzu was standing behind Ise Kibo, her katana still stuck in his back. She felt the shadow pressing down on her head and heard the wind, a hint of surprise flashing in her eyes.

Just before the machine crashed down, she swiftly pulled her katana from Ise Kibo's back, sparks flew from beneath her feet, and her body sprang backward, narrowly avoiding the crushing force of the heavy machine.

The compressor crashed onto the concrete floor where she had just been standing, creating a huge dent in the platform. Broken steel beams and concrete fragments flew in all directions, and the sound of the impact echoed continuously in the empty factory.

At the same moment, Li An's four tentacles had already pierced in front of Ise Kibo. Ise Kibo did not turn around. The black mist beneath his feet suddenly pushed upwards, and a giant hand of black mist rose from the ground, lifting him straight up.

The tentacles grazed the soles of his shoes, only piercing the swirling black mist beneath his feet.

As soon as the tentacles entered the area of ​​the black mist, Li An sensed something was wrong.

The texture of that black mist was completely different from ordinary smoke. It felt more like something between a solid and a liquid state, with countless tiny black particles tightly packed together. The moment your hand sank into it, you felt tremendous resistance.

It felt like swimming in a sticky mud pit, where every forward movement required several times the normal amount of effort.

What's more troublesome is that the black mist has started to spread upwards along the surface of the tentacles, as if it has a mind of its own, searching for gaps where it can penetrate.

Ang Lee tried to pull the tentacles back, but the sticky effect of the black mist made his movements extremely slow.

"Boom!!" A thunderous roar erupted as a bolt of blue-white lightning struck the black mist.

The black mist was torn apart by the electric arc, like a black curtain being ripped into pieces. The black mist collapsed outwards from the crack, revealing the tentacles wrapped inside.

Ang Lee immediately withdrew the tentacles, and the four tentacles shook off the remaining black particles in the air before opening up again beside him.

After the black mist dissipated, Ise Kibo's figure was once again exposed to the moonlight.

He was suspended in mid-air by the remaining black mist, one hand clutching the still-healing piercing wound on his chest, the other hand supporting his knee, panting heavily.

Yuzu stood on a broken load-bearing column on the second floor, casually flicking her katana twice to shake off the remaining blood droplets and black mist on the blade, restoring its original silvery shine.

She clasped her hands together in front of her chest, gave Ang Lee an apologetic look, and had an embarrassed expression on her face.

"Sorry, I underestimated him. This guy does have the reaction speed and professionalism of a professional assassin."

Ang Lee withdrew his tentacles, not looking at her. His gaze remained fixed on the figure in the white suit in mid-air.

"There's no need to dwell on this now. The priority is to resolve this quickly."

Ise Kibo was crying. He was no longer clutching his chest wound, nor did he try to control the black mist to fight back, as he was being held aloft by the black mist.

He cried so hard that he completely disregarded his appearance, his face contorted in a grimace as he wailed, large tears rolling down his red-rimmed eyes.

Blood was still flowing from his mouth, and snot and blood from his chin mingled on his face, but he didn't care at all.

"Yuzu... Yuzu..." Ise Kibo called her name, his voice broken into several fragments by sobs and coughing up blood, his body convulsing in pain. Each convulsion aggravated the wound in his chest, causing him to cough up more blood.

"You plotted against me! Why? Why?"

"I love you so much! I've loved you since I was little! Why are you doing this to me—"

He was crying so hard he was almost breathless when he said the last few words. He was pounding his thigh with his hand, which was still covered in the remnants of black mist, like a child whose toy had been taken away.

He pounded his fist and cried, coughing up blood as he cried. His face was covered in tears, snot, and blood, making it impossible to recognize his original handsome appearance.

"No reason," Yuzu replied cheerfully, her face still bearing that bright smile. Dense blue-white arcs of electricity began to flicker around her, converging into a blazing electric dragon on the blade of her katana.

Ang Lee stood silently behind her. His right arm was undergoing a transformation. Flesh and blood began to grow rapidly from his shoulder, and layer upon layer of flesh fibers emerged from under his skin, intertwining to form a hideous and terrifying giant muscle.

In just a few seconds, the arm swelled to three times its original size, with the entire arm from the shoulder to the wrist covered by dark red external muscles, making the whole arm look like a giant battering ram forged from flesh and blood.

Ang Lee slammed the gigantic right arm to the ground, palm up, and dragged it behind Yuzuo.

"But—" Yuzu took a step back, placing her feet on the palm of Li An's giant hand, bending her knees, and pressing her body weight firmly onto his palm.

She glanced back at Li An, her smile carrying a hint of unspoken understanding, before turning back to face Ise Akibō.

Arcs of electricity exploded around her, blowing her mullet-like jellyfish head so that each hair stood on end, and her round eyes shone like two burning blue-white fireballs.

Li An's right arm was fully charged, his huge, fleshy fist clenched tightly, his shoulder and wrist exerted force simultaneously, his waist and hips twisted violently, and he used all his strength to throw Yuzuo towards Ise Akibō.

"I don't like you, but you keep bothering me, which makes me very annoyed." Yuzuo's voice was still clearly audible amidst the roar of thunder.

Her body transformed into a blue-white lightning bolt in mid-air, her katana held horizontally at her side, the arcs of electricity on the blade drawing out a several-meter-long electric dragon as she slashed straight towards Ise Akibō.

"It's your fault for making me unhappy."

The black mist in front of Ise Kibo surged and condensed into a thick, solid black wall, blocking Yuzu's way.

Yuzu twisted her waist in mid-air, gripped the sword with both hands, and slashed down with a single blow.

The electric dragon on the katana smashed the black wall blocking Ise Kibo's path to pieces. The black smoke particles were vaporized by the high temperature of the lightning, and the entire black wall dissipated like the night sky at dawn, revealing the distorted face behind it, filled with pain.

The Electric Dragon Slash fell amidst cries, and streaks of electricity exploded on the blade.

The blade, coated with a blue-white lightning bolt, struck Ise Kibo squarely on the head. His cries were swallowed by the thunder, and he plummeted straight down from mid-air like a baseball that had been hit.

Ise Kibo crashed into the thick concrete slab of the second floor. Amidst the deafening impact and the ear-piercing sound of steel bars breaking, his body pierced through the second-floor floor and slammed into the first floor.

Large amounts of cement fragments and dust gushed out from the large hole, swirling and spreading in the moonlight, turning the entire factory into a hazy, gray sea of ​​fog.