# Chapter 1225: Jealousy
After hearing his words, Xue Lang, who had been staring straight ahead, suddenly turned around. He hooked his index and middle fingers and pulled them through the air, causing two gossamer-thin threads to appear in the air, sweeping from one maze wall across to the other!
"Did you think hiding would make me helpless against you?" Xue Lang sneered. His left hand hooked similarly, but this time from top to bottom — four rays intersected, starting from him and extending to the end of this maze corridor, even including the opposite maze wall, all cut into several pieces!
The slight fluctuations caused by the thin threads cutting through the air were completely invisible to the naked eye. But even for someone like Xu Huo, who had undergone super evolution, these fluctuations were extremely subtle — so subtle that they could almost be ignored. Yet in truth, at such close range, let alone active spatial power, even a space ray simply placed there should have been perceptible to him...
The reality was, even face to face, Xu Huo had to carefully distinguish before he could detect the existence of the rays.
Shifting position to avoid the rays, he used "Holder's Demise" when he once again moved behind Xue Lang. When the black metal bead struck Xue Lang, his body flickered like a video error. For an instant, it seemed as if two figures appeared — half overlapping, half misaligned — making it impossible to distinguish reality from illusion. The metal bead passed through as if through air.
However, the moment he reached out to catch the metal bead, Xu Huo's blade had already swept toward Xue Lang's neck!
"Ding!" Xue Lang, who had turned back around, used a metal shard propped against his shoulder to block "Cake Slice." When the two objects collided, the metal shard effortlessly rebounded the force Xu Huo had applied!
"Cake Slice" was deflected. Xu Huo took advantage of the momentum to spin, the blade disappearing from his right hand as "Eye of the Dead" appeared in his left, attacking Xue Lang from the other side.
Xue Lang unhurriedly produced a sword scabbard. "Eye of the Dead" curved on its own and inserted itself into the scabbard, even pulling Xu Huo two steps off balance in the process.
"Life and Death Line." Xue Lang smiled contemptuously. His lowered left hand drew a circle, and a red line immediately appeared on the ground, rapidly encircling the two of them. When the circle formed, a light red barrier also materialized in the air.
"Eye of the Dead" disappeared from his hand. Switching hands, "Cake Slice" appeared again, striking vertically at Xue Lang!
As long as one was fast enough, avoiding the frontal attack of "Cake Slice" wasn't difficult. Xue Lang dodged it effortlessly and quickly circled to Xu Huo's side. His right hand struck his left palm, shooting a hair-thin needle from his palm straight toward Xu Huo's eye!
Avoiding this needle wasn't particularly difficult either. But just then, Xu Huo suddenly felt his feet sink. A pulling force from an unknown source grabbed hold of him, forcing him to stay in place. By the time he looked up again, the flying needle had pierced through his right eye!
The anticipated beautiful scene of an eyeball bursting didn't appear. The smile on Xue Lang's face vanished instantly. He abruptly turned his head to look to the right — outside the "Life and Death Circle," Xu Huo was standing less than ten meters away.
"When did you get out?"
"That's not important." Xu Huo spoke as he gripped "All Things Want to Cut Everything" with both hands and pulled downward with force!
The tangents arranged outside the "Life and Death Circle" instantly converged. This circular barrier, dozens of meters high, was sliced into pieces, though it didn't harm Xue Lang.
When the tangents converged, Xue Lang used a metal ring to clear a path, forcibly pushing through the tangents and calmly exiting the encirclement. He then raised four more rays.
These few rays couldn't cover the entire space, so dodging wasn't difficult. Xue Lang clearly understood this as well, and beyond that, he frequently used high-level items.
Both sides were wielding quite a few A-grade items, alternating between offense and defense, immediately turning this into a prolonged battle.
However, in terms of item reserves, Xue Lang clearly had more than Xu Huo. Thus, Xu Huo more often used his spiritual power to compensate for his shortcomings. This was obviously not Xue Lang's strength. Although he could sense Xu Huo's position, he couldn't effectively interfere with Xu Huo's spiritual world.
Of course, Xue Lang wasn't completely without means to counter spiritual power. During their exchange, he placed a spinning top item outside. That thing would suddenly pop up unexpectedly, and always when Xu Huo was changing positions.
In just five minutes, the two had clashed no less than a hundred times. After another spinning top attack was impatiently knocked away by Xu Huo, the two temporarily distanced themselves.
"You're quite cautious," Xue Lang said sarcastically. "Using spiritual power but unwilling to reveal your spiritual world, constantly changing the range of your spiritual power coverage. What are you afraid of?"
"Afraid?" Xu Huo shook his head slightly. "Maybe you can't tell, but running into you here, I'm both surprised and delighted."
Xue Lang stared at him. "Look at that deadpan face of yours. Surprised and delighted? I bet you're itching to kill me right now. Dr. Zhang took me away but left you behind."
"I always thought that while you weren't too smart, you weren't too stupid either. I checked your records. Before you disappeared, over twenty of your direct and collateral relatives died. You showed considerable decisiveness in that regard. But there's one thing I really don't understand — why would someone who considers themselves clever be so easily brainwashed?"
Xue Lang smiled strangely. "You're jealous."
Xu Huo's expression darkened. "Is your head filled with water?"
Xue Lang wasn't angry. His smile grew even brighter. "Aren't you trying to find Dr. Zhang?"
"Back then, we both received Dr. Zhang's teachings. Only those who qualified were allowed to leave with Dr. Zhang. Only you were left behind."
He tapped his own head with his finger, speaking meaningfully. "Forgot a lot of things, haven't you?"
"When Zone 014 appeared, I knew we would meet again. I just didn't expect it to come so soon."
"Back when I left, I originally wanted to kill you too. But then I thought, there would be another time to meet. By then, you'd be nothing but a worthless ordinary person, like an ant I could crush under my foot. That would surely be another kind of satisfaction. So I held back for ten years."
"Seeing you today makes me so happy that I couldn't even help but take the initiative to meet you..."
Xu Huo raised his hand to interrupt him. "Stop talking. Any more and I'll throw up."
"I have no interest whatsoever in your psychological journey. Just one thing — I didn't realize I left such a deep childhood shadow on you that you'd hold back for ten years just to save face..."
"No, that's not right either. Can you even save face?"
The two faced each other. Xu Huo looked at the man not far away. "So you think you can crush me now?"
Xue Lang's gaze turned cold. He swept his palm through the air from a distance, and four rays shot fiercely through the area covered by the cube space, completely severing the space rays within it!