Chapter 17: The Endless Sea of Blood
One minute earlier.
At this moment, the pinnacle technique had already taken effect.
“Su Weiyu, run!” Xia Shou shouted as he dashed forward.
Su Weiyu was momentarily stunned but immediately turned and ran toward the exit on the other side without hesitation.
Though she didn’t understand the reason, she knew staying here wouldn’t help. Moreover, this man already knew her name even though she hadn’t introduced herself yet! This meant he had some special way of gathering information. Given the circumstances, it was best to listen to him.
“To the one in the black cloak, cast the spell on the top later, or you’ll be pierced by the Blood Demon!” Xia Shou spoke sparingly, not wasting a shred of attention.
He followed through with a punch to the Blood Demon’s waist. Instantly, a massive dent appeared.
The Beast Tamer exclaimed in disbelief, just as before, but quickly regained composure and turned to his contracted spirit. “Maybe this guy has a chance. Little Black, let’s fight side by side one last time!”
Xia Shou sidestepped the Blood Demon’s lightning-fast claw strike. His focus was unprecedentedly sharp, and his enhanced physique not only increased his physical strength but also boosted his reflexes beyond human limits—his reaction speed now surpassed that of any feline.
The Blood Demon swung its arm wildly, and Xia Shou seized the moment to leap.
As he leapt high, a low horizontal swipe followed, with razor-sharp claws carving deep furrows into the church’s dome.
Shattered stones, defying gravity, shot upward from beneath, raining down upon the chapel like a storm of rock from earth to sky.
Xia Shou, as if foreseeing the fall, dodged the debris, even using the ascending stones as leverage midair. With exquisite control over his superhuman body, he moved swiftly while suspended, adjusting his position to strike from a more advantageous angle.
All the sharp crystals were absorbed by the Beast Tamer perched atop, relieving Xia Shou from dodging pressure.
The air parted smoothly around Xia Shou’s outer layer; he barely felt any resistance, as if his body was sheathed in a transparent film that eliminated friction. Now, he could move faster than ever.
His figure flickered repeatedly, leaving only dust trails behind as he bounced off the rocks, tracing six unbelievable angles before finally landing on the Blood Demon’s arm.
A punch landed.
Under his mountain-splitting strength, the Blood Demon’s long crimson arm shattered into a spray of blood.
It howled furiously, growing a brand-new, identical arm at its shoulder!
“Can it not heal injuries but conjure new limbs out of thin air?” Xia Shou’s eyes widened, missing no detail. “But creating new limbs seems to drain its overall blood volume.”
He noticed that after the new arm grew, the original severed limb remained, while the torso had shrunk considerably.
In an instant, Xia Shou understood the cause and effect.
The “Perpetual Wound” could completely nullify the Blood Demon’s self-healing.
The “Spirit Strike” limited the Blood Demon’s ability to alter its own body!
Now the monster was like a lump of clay; the limbs he broke off with his fists were detached parts.
Page 2 of 3
Though the clay’s shape could constantly shift, its total mass kept shrinking!
In that case—he could win!
The newly grown scarlet arm lifted high, preparing to slam down.
Xia Shou didn’t retreat because he knew the follow-up horizontal swipe would blast any suspended object away. In their last fight, this oversight had nearly cost him his waist. Without “Body Fixation,” he might not have lasted.
The dome shook violently. Massive chunks of rock rained down into the chapel. Xia Shou moved by stepping on stones midair, evading the Blood Demon’s otherwise unavoidable follow-up attack, then landed a crushing kick on its head, shattering the skull.
The blood filaments that had filled the space like hair, disconnected from the head, turned into ordinary liquid and dripped down in a crimson rain.
The blood rain was no longer absorbed...
Without looking back, Xia Shou knew the Beast Tamer who once tried to kill him was now eternally at rest with his pet.
The Beast Tamer’s last support hadn’t even lasted a minute.
But it was enough!
Xia Shou’s feet touched the ground again.
A rapid triple strike severed one leg and one arm of the Blood Demon, causing its center of gravity to tilt.
Xia Shou knew the Blood Demon would try to grow a new limb again, but he would never give it the chance!
53 seconds!
Xia Shou looked up at the faceless blood demon, memories of those corpses flashing through his mind.
Time seemed to slow. A complex wave of emotions surged within him—not his own, but those of the remnants.
The dying wishes and regrets of the dead, absorbed through the fragments he had collected, seeped into the cracks of his soul like rainwater into rock crevices.
It was a weight and bitterness beyond words, a fury dimmed within roars, and the last glimmer of hope buried in silence.
Countless warriors stronger than him had come here to challenge this monster—and all had failed.
Those who were physically mighty...
Those who were incredibly fast...
Those with unwavering will, who could slay spirits even when near death.
And the one who reached pinnacle in solitude, only to become a charred corpse among the ruins.
They might have saved many, defeated many dreadful monsters, yet all perished in this very chamber, their untold stories buried with them.
Xia Shou didn’t believe he was stronger than those predecessors, but he knew many great deeds emerged from synergy. Those fallen heroes missed victory by lacking one or two crucial elements.
Some could inflict permanent wounds on the Blood Demon but couldn’t cross the rank gap; others crossed it but found a minute still too short.
Page 3 of 3
But he came here as an empty shell... a ghoul living by devouring others’ strength.
Xia Shou was grateful to be a ghoul, an empty vessel inside, able to carry all those legacies within himself.
The final punch! Drawing out all the strength in his body!
This punch would overturn two deaths’ fate!
The punch landed.
The Blood Demon’s half-body shattered utterly!
At that moment, all pent-up emotions found release!
The incessant eerie roar finally faded from his ears.
The Blood Demon’s remaining half rolled and writhed on the ground, shifting through grotesque forms, yet it lacked the strength to sprout new limbs.
The numbers on the ruler in Xia Shou’s left eye dropped rapidly; he didn’t know how deep he’d fallen but knew that if he didn’t kill the Blood Demon utterly in the next few seconds, both would perish. Worse, the Blood Demon would regain its healing, rendering all his efforts futile.
“Ahhhhh!”
Xia Shou kept pounding the shattered Blood Demon, blood splattering wildly.
One second... two seconds...
He lost track of time and how much he had left.
Until the crimson light dissipated from the air, the liquid creature beneath him melted into a puddle of flowing blood, and Xia Shou finally stopped.
He stood drenched in blood at the center of the shattered church dome, gasping, feeling the incredible power within slowly drain away and enter cooldown, seeking its own demise.
“Still alive?”
Xia Shou looked at the ruler in his eye. The numbers stopped changing, finally reading 1301 meters!
Damn it!
Still exceeded the limit!
In that moment, the words he had failed to see clearly beneath the sea became vivid.
The scene beneath the water resurfaced in his mind, and this time, he clearly saw the words he had missed before: “Sea of Unceasing Bloodflow.”