Scarlet District Mistress stood upright once more, her peak strength restored almost instantaneously. In fact, the aura radiating from her now was even more terrifying than before.
Lu Sheng, unlike earlier, was fighting with his entire body. Arms, legs, even the spikes jutting from his elbows and knees were brought into play.
His sabers had already exploded apart in the collision moments ago.
“BAM!”
Struck head-on by the scarlet saber, Lu Sheng was hurled back into the cliff yet again. Though he crossed both arms to block the blow, the power contained within it was far too overwhelming to fully disperse.
A massive boulder, nearly ten meters across, broke free from above and crashed down toward him.
Lu Sheng drew in a deep breath, ignoring the web of cracks spreading across his armor. With a sudden burst of strength, he tore himself free from the cliff face and scuttled upward like a lizard, planting his limbs against the sheer rock wall as he climbed toward a large recess higher up.
SLASH!
A scarlet-glowing saber swept through the space he had just vacated.
Scarlet District Mistress glared upward, tongues of crimson flame surging from her body. She kicked off the ground and leapt into the air, chasing after Lu Sheng.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!!
Boulders and jagged rocks rained down from the cliffs surrounding them. The entire cliff face began to tremble violently.
“Phantom Spirit Five Slashes!!” Scarlet District Mistress unleashed her killing move once more.
At this moment, she seemed inexhaustible. The scarlet radiance surrounding her body compressed rapidly, then detonated outward in a violent eruption.
“KABOOM!!”
The saber narrowly missed Lu Sheng, skimming past his skin and carving a massive gouge straight through the waist of the cliff.
Deafening rumbles echoed through the valley.
Having endured too much damage, the left half of the cliff finally gave way. Entire sections collapsed into the river below, splitting the current apart as debris thundered into the water.
Mist and dust billowed upward, thickening until visibility was nearly wiped out.
“Are you dead?” Scarlet District Mistress called out, her senses disrupted by the collapsing terrain. Scarlet flames still raged around her body.
This power had not come freely. She was burning everything she had, exchanging her very existence for this final surge drawn from the Scarlet Dragon Tribulation shard.
“Like I said… I’M THE STRONGEST!!”
Two streaks of pale light, one crimson and one azure, flared within the storm of collapsing rocks. A low, unhinged voice echoed from behind her.
The red and blue lights intertwined, merging into a single blazing streak. Bearing an indomitable aura, it tore forward, pulverizing every boulder and shard of rock in its path.
“Yin Yang—DIVINE MIGHT!!”
“Phantom Spirit FIVE SLASHES!” Scarlet District Mistress hastily raised her saber, pouring every last ounce of strength into the strike.
“BOOM!!!”
She was still a fraction too slow.
The overwhelming force crashed into her, punching more than a dozen fist-sized cavities clean through her body in an instant.
Both figures were flung across the river’s surface before slamming heavily onto the shore.
Petals of the Nine Beauty Flower drifted down everywhere, scattered by the violent currents.
They resumed trading blows in a frenzy. Empowered by the Scarlet Dragon Tribulation, Scarlet District Mistress’ grievous injuries no longer hindered her combat strength.
This was the power she had exchanged everything for. How could she possibly fall here?
“I’M NOT DYING HERE! ABSOLUTELY NOT!!” Her expression twisted further into savagery as the flames around her raged.
“DIE!!!”
Unable to withstand the terrifying heat any longer, her long saber shattered. Instantly, the Scarlet Dragon Tribulation shard manifested a broader, longer blade of flames out of nothingness.
The fiery saber, stretching seven to eight meters in length, came crashing down toward Lu Sheng.
“Phantom Spirit—INFINITE SLASH!!!”
“HAHAHAHA!!! THAT’S RIGHT, JUST LIKE THIS!!” Lu Sheng laughed wildly.
One of his arms burned crimson, the other shimmered azure. He detonated the liquefied Qi of both the Ultimate Crimson Nine Furies Skill and the Yin Yang Jade Crane Aquarius Qi.
Red and blue fused together, condensing into a small, colorless orb hovering before him.
“Yin and Yang become one: PRIME RAGE!!”
“KABOOM!!”
Before the flaming saber and the orb could even meet, they detonated simultaneously.
Flames twisted and warped as chaotic shockwaves exploded outward, tearing rifts across the ground and shattering the land in every direction.
Power at the Black Snake realm was already terrifyingly dense and destructive. The collateral damage unleashed by this clash was nothing short of catastrophic.
It was no longer a battle fought solely with fully mastered strength, but with power that neither of them could yet completely control.
Red flames engulfed the surrounding woods and sea of flowers. The inferno roared outward, devouring everything in its path as thick black smoke billowed skyward.
“Crack.”
Amid the raging fire, Lu Sheng stepped on a broken twig and came to a halt before Scarlet District Mistress.
“Looks like I won in the end.” His gaze lingered on the Scarlet Dragon Tribulation shard embedded in the saber hilt, now completely dim. Slowly, he raised his arm.
Scarlet District Mistress sat on the ground, utterly drained of strength, the shattered saber clutched loosely in her hand. Wisps of black smoke seeped from her body, escaping through her eyes, nose, and mouth.
“Is there a feud between us?” She lifted her eyes toward Lu Sheng’s raised arm and asked suddenly.
Lu Sheng paused, caught off guard.
“No.”
“Then it’s just for the shard?” Scarlet District Mistress seemed to arrive at her own conclusion.
Lu Sheng fell silent. Then he laughed softly. “Yeah… it’s just for the shard.”
Without warning, his palm came crashing down.
“NO!!!”
A crimson blur shot forward, ramming toward him in desperation.
“BAM!!”
With a slight twist of his wrist, Lu Sheng struck the flying umbrella girl squarely.
In his current state, with liquefied Qi detonating and Yin–Yang fusion sustaining his body, even a casual palm strike carried power far beyond what umbrella girl could endure.
At that instant, Scarlet District Mistress lunged forward and threw herself in front of her.
The two embraced tightly, shielding each other as they faced Lu Sheng.
“BOOM!!”
Yin and Yang inner Qi pierced through their bodies, tearing and ravaging everything in its path.
“BAM!!!”
They were blasted away and tumbled heavily across the ground.
“SIS!” Yingying scrambled forward, crawling to Scarlet District Mistress’ side as tears poured down her face.
Scarlet District Mistress spat out a mouthful of thick black blood. She grimaced, then turned her gaze toward umbrella girl, a faint, fragile smile tugging at her lips.
“…This isn’t your fault… Yingying…”
The black smoke pouring from her body thickened further.
The fused Yin–Yang inner Qi carried terrifying penetrative force. It was not only Scarlet District Mistress who had been pierced. Yingying’s body was riddled with fist-sized holes as well, the result of that horrifying explosive power.
“That year… I shouldn’t have turned you into… a Prey Ghost…”
Scarlet District Mistress’ pupils dilated as thick black smoke poured from her body. Patches of her arms and legs began reverting to their original form. Astonishingly, they transformed into tiger paws covered in white fur.
At the sight of this, the frenzy and exhilaration within Lu Sheng gradually ebbed away. Though the bond between Yingying and Scarlet District Mistress stirred something faint within him, it was never enough to warrant mercy.
Yingying had slaughtered countless Crimson Whale Sect disciples. Scarlet District Mistress had even been prepared to harm Chen Yunxi. Their conflict had long since crossed the point of reconciliation.
Yet Lu Sheng no longer needed to act.
Although Scarlet District Mistress had taken the final blow in Yingying’s place, the penetrative force had still struck umbrella girl. Against Lu Sheng’s power, a mere Three-Vein expert had no chance of surviving.
The raging fire crept closer, flames licking across the ground. Lu Sheng watched silently as the two clung to each other. Umbrella girl sobbed uncontrollably, holding Scarlet District Mistress’ lifeless body as she dragged her away, inch by inch.
She did not realize that she herself was already dying.
Even so, she still tried to pull Scarlet District Mistress away from Lu Sheng.
Lu Sheng paid her no further attention. He bent down and picked up the shattered saber containing the Scarlet Dragon Tribulation shard, then swept his gaze across the other battle sites.
From the very beginning, his purpose in joining this conflict had been simple. Anyone who had witnessed his power had to be erased. Now that was done, it was time to claim the rewards.
Let’s see what I can harvest from the lone-eyed titan of Wandering Heart Society, Ye Moling’s corpse, and Scarlet District Mistress. All of them are Snake realm beings.
Lu Sheng loosened his body and smoothly reverted to his default Yin Extreme Mode, his form shrinking to under two meters.
This state possessed the strongest recuperative and regenerative capabilities, making it ideal for recovery. After all, he himself had not escaped the battle unscathed.
The might of the Scarlet Dragon Tribulation had exceeded his expectations. Scarlet District Mistress had already been gravely wounded, poisoned, ambushed, and forced into a life-and-death struggle with the lone-eyed titan Chao Hu. Even her Black Snake membrane had been shattered.
Yet even with her body already shattered, she had still managed to ignite herself under the shard’s empowerment and unleash such terrifying might.
Only now did Lu Sheng truly begin to understand why Noblemen, demons, and ghosts alike were so obsessed with Divine Weapon and Devil Blade shards.
After returning to his normal size, Lu Sheng took a step forward and drifted to the place where Chao Hu had fallen.
The massive single-eyed titan floated on the river’s surface. Blood continued to seep from his body, staining the water around him. From head to toe, especially around the lone eye set in his skull, a faint layer of golden light still lingered.
Lu Sheng examined the corpse carefully as he searched it. Before long, he pulled out a black pouch hidden at the back of Chao Hu’s waist. Unfortunately, there was no trace of Yin Qi left within the body.
He continued searching from top to bottom. Eventually, his gaze settled on the lone eye.
This thing fired those golden beams. It’s powerful. It should be the core essence of this titan’s body.
Lu Sheng’s right hand darkened as his fingers hardened. Razor-sharp black blades extended from his fingertips.
He spread his index finger and thumb, then drove them precisely into Chao Hu’s eye socket.
“Splat.”
Blood mixed with yellowish pus flowed out.
Lu Sheng plucked out the eyeball, strands of blood-red vessels still clinging to its back. Suspended within the eyeball was a diamond-shaped crystal.
I’ll call this the Eye of the Titan. It should be useful.
Ever since fully mastering his hard body skills and repeatedly inducing bodily transformations, Lu Sheng had gained an instinctive sense for things that could benefit him.
It was no different from ordinary human cravings. When it was hot, one yearned for something cold. When it was cold, one sought warmth. Salt demanded water. Hunger demanded food.
Lu Sheng carefully wrapped the eyeball in a piece of cloth, then turned his attention to the black pouch and opened it.
With a gentle shake, three desiccated light-gray fruits slipped out of the pouch. They were unfamiliar, shaped somewhat like ginkgo nuts.
Lu Sheng placed the eyeball together with the fruits back into the black pouch, then moved on to inspect the remaining corpses.
None of the three bodies contained much Yin Qi. These titans clearly did not rely on external items, leaving him with little of value to recover.
He gouged out all their eyeballs and stored them in the pouch.
Among them was a woman whose face had been concealed beneath a mask. When it tore away, it revealed a single eye as well, though her stature matched that of an ordinary human.
A complete race, Lu Sheng concluded.
Finding nothing else of worth, he turned his attention to Ye Moling.
He dragged Ye Moling’s corpse onto the shore. The charred remains had reverted to their original form, revealing a black-haired, red-faced ape.
On the body, Lu Sheng found a book bound with an unusual metallic thread. Inside was a peculiar cultivation method.
Though he could not decipher the language, Lu Sheng could tell at a glance that it was a demon cultivation technique, one designed to draw out the latent potential of a demon’s body. To a human, it was useless.
The structure of the human body differed fundamentally from that of demons. No matter how profound the technique, it could not be practiced across such a divide.
But then again, human cultivation methods existed for much the same purpose, to excavate the limits of the human body and elevate it beyond its natural state.
With that thought, and sensing no Yin Qi within the book, Lu Sheng put it away.
He then sliced off one of Ye Moling’s ears as a trophy.
With a casual motion, he tossed Ye Moling’s corpse together with the lone-eyed titan and set them ablaze, reducing them to ash.
Only then did he return to where umbrella girl and Scarlet District Mistress had fallen.
By the riverbank lay a heap of ashes. Amid the blackened remains, only fragments of scorched skin and bone could still be seen, along with a single pink love-knot resting quietly among them.
From the contours of the ashes, Lu Sheng could roughly discern Scarlet District Mistress’ true form. She had been a white tiger of ordinary size. Yingying, the umbrella girl, by contrast, belonged to a humanoid species.
As before, Lu Sheng sifted through the ashes. Before long, he uncovered another book among Scarlet District Mistress’ remains.
It was an exceedingly small and delicate black booklet, no larger than a fingernail.
‘This thing…’
Lu Sheng’s eyes narrowed. Without hesitation, he slipped it into his black pouch.
This time, he clearly sensed Yin Qi within it.
And not merely the faint, ordinary density one would normally expect.
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