Chapter 151: The Return of the Ring of Brute

This burial chamber was originally quite spacious, with gold, silver, and bronze artifacts scattered everywhere. Although my battle form was massive, it did not hinder the full release of my combat power here.

A pair of four-meter-long bat wings fluttered behind me in mid-air. My hair was a cascade of silvery white, my cold eyes were crimson, and a string of dark purple runes traversed my cold, pale face. I gazed coldly down at Menkaure on the floor, while a pale golden rune shield once again encircled my entire body.

"I can tell that you are stronger than Xu Fu, but even so, you cannot do anything to me!" With those words, Menkaure arched its body and lunged toward me with a swoosh, its speed as swift as a rocket.

To be honest, Menkaure's speed was indeed terrifying. The foundation laid over thousands of years had truly made it much stronger than it was during its previous battle with Xu Fu. Judging by its current momentum, I wasn't even certain I had the confidence to defeat it.

"Left hook, right hook!"

"I dodge, I weave!"

"Bang!"

Damn it! Even with all my dodging and weaving, I still failed to evade one of the blows. Menkaure's palm slammed fiercely right into my chest!

My entire body flew backward like a severed kite, crashing heavily into the sandstone wall a dozen meters away and shattering several chunks of hard stone in the process.

"What the hell, this bastard actually possesses the power of the netherworld! No wonder it's so powerful!"

Struggling to climb back to my feet, I supported myself against the stone wall with one hand while clutching my chest with the other, muttering through gritted teeth.

"Indeed. Five hundred years ago, I descended into the netherworld, where His Highness the Death God Anubis bestowed upon me the power of the reaper before releasing me, decreeing my resurrection today, five hundred years later. It seems all of this is heaven's will!"

"Hhahaha, go and die!"

Menkaure laughed wildly, throwing its head back. It then snatched a pitch-black curved blade from the hands of a nearby mummy behind it and used phantom shifting to rapidly close the distance toward me, clearly intent on sending me to my grave.

Damn it all! I was, after all, a First-Generation Corpse King, putting me at the very least on the same tier as it. Back in the day, Xu Fu had fought it to a standstill, yet I never expected that upon acquiring the power of the reaper, it would become even more formidable than a First-Generation Corpse King. We hadn't even exchanged ten blows before I was beaten back.

"Sacred Artifact of the Corpse, unsheathe your blade!"

This was the name I had given to my supernatural ability weapon. After all, one couldn't make an entrance without a domineering catchphrase; doing otherwise would be far too boring.

The moment the words left my mouth, I slashed my hand through the void, pulling out a pale golden blade tailored to my grip from the spatial rift, and charged straight toward the oncoming Menkaure!

"Rumble!"

Our two weapons, infused with supernatural power, collided and sent a massive shockwave rippling through the burial chamber. It was virtually equivalent to a missile exploding inside a half-sized football field, shaking loose a shower of debris from the sturdy sandstone ceiling above and nearly burying our entire group alive.

Fortunately, living people aren't as foolish as the dead. Aside from Menkaure, all the mummies were buried beneath the collapsed earth without a sound.

Following the fall of the rock and sand, the ground level rose by more than two meters, leaving us only about twenty meters away from the cavern ceiling.

Even so, Menkaure's burial offerings of gold, silver, and bronze were still exposed, their peaks jutting over a meter high—a testament to just how massive Menkaure's funerary hoard truly was.

Our forces continued to climb steadily, the intense radiance of our supernatural energies illuminating the entire burial chamber as bright as day. Yet despite the escalating power, the mortal weapon in Menkaure's grasp was long past its endurance limit, already showing signs of fracturing.

I finally understood something someone had once told me: battles between combatants of the same tier do not rely on sheer strength alone, but on equipment.

My weapon was superior to Menkaure's, leaving it at a disadvantage in weaponry. Upon closer reflection, this rule seemed to be an inevitable feature built into every video game!

"Yeehaw, go to hell, you bastard!"

No sooner had I spoken than I added another five hundred pounds of force, slashing fiercely down at Menkaure's skeletal frame. This single strike cleanly snapped Menkaure's weapon into two pieces and bit deep into its chest, hurling it backward for five or six meters.

As soon as Menkaure managed to steady its footing, it dropped to one knee on the ground, pressing one hand against its chest while using the broken blade in its other hand to prop itself up. Its hollow eye sockets stared straight at me.

"Kill it! Quick, kill it!" The people behind me shouted at the top of their lungs. Only Ah Le, Ismail, and Uncle Ma stood silently by, watching the scene unfold without a change in expression.

"Your Excellency Pharaoh Menkaure, actually, there is no need for us to fight to the death. We only want to obtain the journal!"

After saying this, I tossed my supernatural weapon back into the void, walked toward the half-kneeling Menkaure, and extended a hand toward it.

This gesture was meant to show goodwill, signaling that I intended to pull it up, and I made sure not to display any hostility. After all, I had no desire to keep fighting it here; I never wanted to experience shockwaves like those missile-like blasts again. If it happened one more time, I truly feared we would all be buried alive here and left to achieve "immortality."

"Journal? What journal? There has never been any journal here. It's all fake! It must be that bastard Xu Fu playing tricks. But first, I will kill you, and then I'll go hunt down that scoundrel Xu Fu!"

I truly hadn't expected Menkaure to be this arrogant. Even after being injured, it still refused to yield—a classic case of dying with its mouth still hard.

Before Menkaure's voice had even faded, it somehow groped around and produced another dark, sinister weapon, springing back to its feet to attack me once more!

Just as I prepared to meet Menkaure's onslaught, something strange happened yet again.

The skull ring that I had retrieved from Brute's body suddenly emitted a beam resembling black lightning, shooting straight toward the rapidly advancing Menkaure.