Abyss Layer 7 — "Polar Thunder Prison."
The environment here defied all biological comprehension. The ground was a single, massive sheet of ten-thousand-year-old Black Ice, radiating bone-chilling cold. The sky was choked with purple thunderclouds, bombarding the ice with lightning bolts as thick as pillars.
Cold and Thunder. These two extreme energies maintained a bizarre equilibrium here.
The Slayer walked across the ice sheet.
His "Hell Thorn" armor could deflect physical attacks, but in this extreme elemental environment, the flames on his armor flickered uncertainly. Lightning bolts struck him, dealing no damage but causing slight paralysis in his movements.
Worse were the enemies.
Ahead, a swarm of semi-transparent entities drifted toward him. Their bodies flickered with internal lightning—"Lightning Specters."
They had no physical form and were completely immune to physical attacks.
The Slayer raised his Abyssal Steel Shotgun and fired.
*BANG!*
The Demon Steel slugs, capable of piercing tanks, passed harmlessly through the specter's body, blasting a crater in the ice mountain behind it.
The specter remained unharmed, emitting a mocking sound like a short-circuit, and lashed the Slayer with a lightning whip.
The Slayer side-stepped and countered with a "True Fire Dragon's Breath."
*WHOOSH—!*
Samadhi True Fire erupted.
The specters feared fire, screaming as they burned. But this was the Polar region. The terrifying ambient cold instantly suppressed the flames. The fire burned for barely two seconds before freezing out.
The Slayer’s shoulders slumped heavily.
Frustration.
Extreme frustration.
He hated this feeling of punching cotton. He needed the feedback of a shot connecting and the enemy shattering instantly.
He stood there, letting the specters harass him. His hand gripped the shotgun barrel so hard that fingerprints were pressed into the hard Demon Steel.
Just then, a glowing teleportation circle opened before him.
Stolen novel; please report.
Singularity's voice came through, urgent and excited:
"Slayer! Toss the gun in! NOW!"
"The environment is too special. Pure physical or fire gets countered. We need to break the balance!"
The Slayer didn't hesitate.
He tossed the shotgun into the circle like he was throwing away trash.
Netherworld, Refining Chamber.
Singularity caught the scorching gun and immediately placed it in the center of the prepped "Tai Chi Eight Trigrams Furnace."
On his left floated a "Nine Heavens Thunder Core" obtained from the Thunder Department of Heaven—pure Yang, violent and unyielding.
On his right floated a "Ten-Thousand-Year Black Ice Soul" from the Dragon Palace of the North Sea—pure Yin, freezing all creation.
"A single element gets neutralized. But what about... unity of opposites?"
Singularity took a deep breath and clapped his hands together.
"Yin and Yang Reversal, Borrowing Law from the Cosmos! FUSE!"
Under the guidance of his magic, the Thunder Core and Ice Soul drilled into the left and right barrels of the shotgun respectively.
*ZZZZZT—CRACKLE!*
The left barrel turned blinding gold, wrapped in fine arcs of electricity—Pure Yang Thunder.
The right barrel turned deep ice-blue, freezing the air around it into frost—Black Yin Ice.
At the junction of the gun, these two opposing forces didn't explode. Instead, they were perfectly balanced by a core Tai Chi diagram.
[WEAPON UPGRADE COMPLETE.]
[Name: Super Shotgun - Yin Yang Verdict.]
[Left Barrel: Pure Yang Demon-Breaking Thunder.]
[Right Barrel: Black Yin Freezing Ice.]
[Special Mechanism: Elemental Reaction.]
The portal opened again.
A brand-new shotgun, radiating terrifying dual-colored light, flew out.
The Slayer caught it.
The moment it touched his hand, his left hand felt a scorching numbness, and his right felt a biting chill.
This extreme contrast didn't discomfort him. Instead, it gave the suppressed rage in his body a vent.
Seeing the strange weapon in the Slayer's hand, the Lightning Specters instinctively felt a threat and shrieked, trying to scatter.
Too late.
The Slayer jerked the muzzle up.
He didn't pull just one trigger.
He pulled both.
The left barrel roared, spewing a golden beam of thunder capable of shattering souls.
The right barrel howled, unleashing a blue wave of absolute zero cold capable of freezing time.
When these two forces met in front of the muzzle.
They didn't cancel out.
They triggered a reaction that defied common sense but aligned with the Dao.
The Tai Chi spun.
The formless Lightning Specter was first instantly frozen into a solid ice sculpture by the Black Yin Ice. Immediately after, the Pure Yang Thunder struck the sculpture without resistance.
Thermal expansion and contraction? No. "Yin-Yang Annihilation."
*SCREEEEEEECH—!!!*
Before the specter could even explode, it was erased from the material plane by the dual forces. Not even ash remained.
The Slayer looked at the empty space ahead.
He rested the gun on his shoulder.
The muzzle smoked with intertwined gold and blue vapors.
He turned his head to look at the massive ice mountain in the distance. It seemed to hide larger, harder targets.
He made a simple motion.
He racked the slide.
*CH-CHICK!*
The sound was crisp and melodious, like a bell signaling war.
In the Netherworld control room, Singularity watched the damage numbers on the screen and shivered.
"Holy mother of... that power..."
Singularity watched the Slayer walk toward the depths of the ice mountain, then glanced at the energy monitor screaming alarms in his hand.
"A single element is a counter. But smashing two extremes together... that is a catastrophe."
"The Slayer doesn't seem to realize the scariest part of this gun isn't the single-shot damage."
"It's when Ice and Thunder pile up in a confined space..."
Singularity swallowed.
*Next Chapter: Elemental Explosion. The Slayer is having too much fun; he decides to spring-clean that ice cave. But... the yield seems a bit overkill?*
