Suddenly, Hao Cang realized that there was a giant hole right beneath his feet.
After Zhao Yao retreated to his extradimensional belly, he came out with his torchlight, compa.s.s and charged back out.
While Hao Cang was busy settling the paprika and lime powder all over his body, Zhao Yao had activated Dust Ball"s ability and had absorbed the cement underneath Hao Cang.
With Dust Ball"s power, Zhao Yao had created an underground tunnel which led directly to where Hao Cang was.
The effect of Dust Ball"s power was almost instantaneous. Hence the construction of the tunnel took less than a second. The cement was quickly absorbed into Zhao Yao"s belly.
"Hao Cang"s s.h.i.+eld seemed to have created a 360° barrier with no blind spot. However, the barrier did not encompa.s.s his feet."
"If the barrier had s.h.i.+elded his feet, there should be cracks underneath where he sat, or there might even be a depression. Even if there were no cracks, there was a possibility that there was a gap between Hao Cang"s feet and the floor."
"However, there was no such gap between his feet and the floor."
"By constructing a tunnel which leads to his feet, Zhao Yao would be able to enter the inside of his s.h.i.+eld."
When Hao Cang noticed the enormous hole beneath him, a hand came flying out towards him and grabbed onto his ankle.
"Ares!" Just when Hao Cang wanted to alert Ares to redirect its ability, Hao Cang had already activated Elizabeth"s illusion, and it had affected Hao Cang and his five cats.
"The 5 Senses!"
The next moment, Ho Hao Cang"s vision had turned dark, and he fell to the floor, unconscious. Zhao Yao finally heaved a sigh of relief when he saw Hao Cang and his cats all unconscious on the floor. Zhao Yao whispered, "What a troublesome power. But, it"s finally over!"
Bam!
A gunshot was heard. Zhao Yao turned around to see butler Xia.
Butler Xia was under the influence of Elizabeth"s illusion. Hence he should not be able to see the fight between Zhao Yao and Hao Cang previously. He should only see Hao Cang speaking to the air like a lunatic. Zhao Yao did not bother about butler Xia for this reason until now.
"Why did he fire a shot? He should not be able to see me. He was not aiming for me. He was aiming at Ho Hao Cang!" Zhao Yao finally reacted to the situation.
Zhao Yao turned and saw a large gunshot wound on Hao Cang"s head. He was bleeding profusely from it. His brain had stopped working and hence no longer influenced by Elizabeth"s illusion.
Suddenly, he got to his feet and grinned from ear to ear. He took out the hand grenade from his pocket.
Seeing this, Zhao Yao immediately cast his perfect illusion on Hao Cang, to rid him of his five senses.
However, his perfect illusion only managed to remove his ability to perceive his surroundings. Hao Cang could still control his body.
Without his sense of smell, sight, touch, hearing, and taste, Hao Cang removed the pin from the hand grenade.
"F*ck!" Zhao Yao"s jaw dropped as he immediately switched to Matcha"s power and activated time freeze.
When the world was at a standstill, Zhao Yao dashed over to Hao Cang and tried to s.n.a.t.c.h the grenade from his hand.
"This guy! Why is his grip so tight?"
A vein popped out in Zhao Yao"s forehead as he was not sure if he could remove the grenade from his hand and throw it away in 6 seconds.
"If I absorb the grenade into my belly, it might injure ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬earthquake cat which was still inside."
Zhao Yao had no time to think through his choices. He grabbed the five supercats lying on the floor and bolted out of the door.
When time resumed, he was grabbing two cats by the neck in each hand and held the last one using his mouth. He managed to run 20 meters away from the building along with Matcha and Elizabeth.
Bam!
The grenade exploded, and the impact of the explosion swept across the entire area. Zhao Yao crouch on the floor but could still hear the buzzing in his ear.
He got to his feet and immediately dashed back into the mansion.
He thought, "He was just trying to escape from my illusion by chasing me away with the explosion!"
When he returned to the hall, all he saw were the blood and minced meat scattered all over the floor. Both butler Xia and Ho Hao Cang were gone.
Zhao Yao"s ears started twitching as he used his pa.s.sive power of "Two is better than one" to detect even the faintest sound in the surrounding. Suddenly, he swept his head in a direction and shouted, "There!"
Meanwhile, Matcha noticed the five unconscious cats lying on the floor and immediately pounced on them. He started to slap the Persian cat, Ares, on its cheeks.
Matcha noticed Elizabeth standing there dumbfounded and immediately shouted at her, "Why are you still standing there doing nothing? Attack!"
Elizabeth was stunned by Matcha"s words, "Attack?"
"Didn"t Zhao Yao return to the mansion? Isn"t he still fighting against the bad guys? Just use your power to control them!"
Even though both Matcha and Elizabeth had no idea what was going on in the fight just now, she agreed with Matcha that the best thing for her to do was to control them and take their power back from the apostles. Suddenly, a red glimmer flashed across Elizabeth"s eyes, and she had started working on Ares.
"Take back their power!"
"Next one!"
Zhao Yao ran out of the mansion and into the garden. Before long, he heard screaming coming from the eastern side of the garden.
Both Ho Hang Cang and butler Xia lay on the fields. Hao Cang wanted to use his power of regeneration before he self-detonated to force Zhao Yao to retreat.
Butler Xia"s entire body was a mess. His head had been impaled by a ball bearing from the grenade explosion. Initially, he still had the power of self-regeneration and was recovering from the injuries. However, the ability was suddenly taken away from him, and it seemed like he had stopped breathing as well.
All of Ho Hao Cangs" limbs were broken. There was a giant open wound across his body, and you could even see his organs. He was also on the verge of death. He stared at Zhao Yao with his vengeful eyes. His expression emanated an intense anger and hopelessness.
Zhao Yao then understood what had happened. He thought, "Elizabeth must have taken control of the supercats and taken power back from their apostles."
Zhao Yao stared at Hao Cang and said, "You are truly a ruthless man."
"Some people would rather choose to die than to lose." Hao Cang did not answer Zhao Yao"s question but stared straight into his eyes and asked, "What exactly is your power? Tell me! I cannot die without knowing it!"
Hao Cang"s eyes had started losing focus, and his breathing grew weaker and weaker. He was about to die.
Zhao Yao let out a long sigh and cast his perfect illusion. He whispered two words which could only be heard by Hao Cang.
"Time freeze."
Hao Cang"s lips curled into a smile when he heard those two words.
"It explains everything." Hao Cang finally understood all the anomalies in the battle, all the sudden disappearance and reappearance. He seemed somewhat relieved with a tinge of regret, anger, and despair. He said, "Zhao Yao, use your power …"
Hao Cang reached out his hand. It seemed like he wanted to grab something or say something.
However, he had lost his last ounce of strength before he could say anything. His hand just fell to the floor.
Zhao Yao sighed as he returned to Matcha.
"We have to go."
Zhao Yao looked at the five unconscious cats and kept all of them with him. He destroyed all the security footages in the mansion before casting an illusion and leaving the place.
Just when Zhao Yao had left the mansion, spirit cat had appeared out of thin air and floated in front of Ho Hao Cang.
He had witnessed the entire fight just now. He was taken aback by both parties" wit, intelligence and their adaptability.
Ho Hao Cang which he thought was invincible had fallen to Zhao Yao.
His eyes flickered with sadness as he looked at Hao Cang lying lifelessly on the floor.