Inside the secret study, Father sat calmly in a wooden chair, his expression as kind as ever. Anyone who did not know him would surely think he was a kind and benevolent old priest.
The crimson passage behind him closed. Su Xiao paid it no mind. The moment he saw Father, his hand was already on the hilt of his blade.
Clang!
A graceful wind-mark slashed across the room. Su Xiao greeted him with a single move—Blade Dao Saber, Flow. After cutting through Father's head, the wind-mark cleaved the portrait of the Crimson Lord behind him in two.
Father's head was sliced diagonally. The upper half slowly began to slide aside, but what surged from the wound was not blood. It was a black liquid.
The black liquid transformed into extremely fine black tentacles that knotted together. This stopped the severed upper half of Father's head from falling and pulled it back into place. The wound then healed.
Father's face still wore a kindly smile, as though nothing had happened.
Su Xiao sheathed his long blade. He had already confirmed that this was not Father's true body. He did not know whether this was a new ability Father had gained after becoming an Absolute Powerhouse, but this clone ability was extraordinarily powerful. It was not only impossible to distinguish the real from the false—it also possessed a certain degree of immortality.
The farther things progressed, the harder it became to kill Violators. Father was one example, as was the former No. 1 member of the Brigade, Platinum Apostle. Then again, that was only natural. Violators who survived into the late stages had no idea how many times they had been hunted by Hunters and Death Rangers.
To survive those repeated hunts, and even counterkill their pursuers time and again, their