At that moment, Xuan Ye moved.
Bloodline Ability—Demon God's Shadow!
His body suddenly blurred. He didn't turn into smoke; instead, he melted into his own shadow on the ground like a pool of ink.
The next instant, a flat shadow skimmed across the ground at a speed almost impossible to follow with the naked eye. It ignored the rubble and crevices in its path and shot straight toward the charging Rock Demon.
Confusion filled the Rock Demon's molten eyes.
The target... had disappeared?
Before it could react, the shadow had already passed beneath it and emerged behind it.
From the shadows behind the Rock Demon, Xuan Ye burst forth!
The [Revenge] in his hand, wrapped around that pitch-black "Nether Sun," thrust straight into the Rock Demon's back!
The dark damage added as he emerged from the shadows and the power of Nether Sun Strike combined perfectly in that instant!
BOOM—!
The black energy sphere exploded inside the Rock Demon.
Its enormous body stiffened, its forward momentum coming to an abrupt halt.
Its Earth Element Core was on the verge of shattering, corroded by Nether Sun Strike.
But it wasn't enough.
The Rock Demon's massive body still stood. Though the molten eyes had dimmed, they had not gone out.
It wasn't dead yet!
Xuan Ye's form solidified completely outside the shadows. Pain surged through his left shoulder, and the feeling of his Spiritual Power running dry swept over him like a tide.
But the mad fire in his eyes burned even more fiercely.
The last trace of dark energy left by Demon God's Shadow poured into the [Revenge] sword in his hand like fuel.
He stepped forward with Instantaneous Movement Steps again!
This time, his target was the Rock Demon's head, formed from solid stone!
Kill!
The humiliation of being hunted like a stray dog by Long Xingyu for days.
The anguish of being forced apart from Cai'er.
All the negative emotions pent up in his chest had found an outlet.
CRACK—!
The sound of something hard snapping rang out!
A wave of air swept through!
A flash of white light formed!
The surrounding ground trembled and shook!
The Rock Demon's enormous head flew into the sky.
Molten lava gushed from its severed neck like a fountain!
Watching the head soar through the air, Xuan Ye's eyes brimmed with undisguised delight. A nearly sickening sense of satisfaction swept over him.
The one he wanted to behead...
Wasn't the Rock Demon.
But before he could catch his breath—
THUD—!
A muffled boom erupted from the Rock Demon's headless body.
It was its final counterattack: the complete detonation of its Earth Element Core!
A devastating shockwave, mixed with countless rocks hurtling at high speed, swallowed Xuan Ye, who was standing right beside it.
He was like a fly struck by a giant's palm.
His body flew backward like a scrap of cloth, tumbling and bouncing across the ground, carving a long trench before finally slamming into a massive boulder.
PFFT!
He spat out a mouthful of blood.
His chest was a bloody mess.
Unprecedented pain instantly numbed his entire body.
And yet—
There was no trace of pain on Xuan Ye's face.
He struggled to raise his head and looked at the pile of rubble that had once been the Rock Demon.
"Heh..."
"Doesn't hurt."
The pain in his body blunted the constant ache in his mind.
It left him feeling sickeningly clearheaded.
"Heh..."
"Hehehe..."
He laughed.
At first it was a quiet chuckle, but it grew louder and louder, tugging at his chest wound until he couldn't stop coughing up blood.
[Notice: Fifth Tier Rock Demon slain. Objective complete.]
[Reward: [Revenge] weapon evolution progress +15%, Innate Dark Inner Spiritual Power +1.]
As soon as the voice faded—
The black [Revenge] sword in Xuan Ye's hand gave a faint hum.
The silver threads running along its blade like veins began to race and spread.
At the end of the hilt, a white speck of light, tiny as a grain of rice, took shape.
The next tier of Spirit Demon Equipment was Brilliant Equipment!
He had already taken the first step.
Xuan Ye's laughter gradually died away, and his gaze slowly grew calm.
Bracing himself against the boulder behind him, he struggled to sit up and used the most basic healing skill of the Knight Temple.
Holy Light Healing.
A faint white glow, almost extinguished, appeared in his palm.
He pressed it against his bloodied chest.
"Sss..."
The pain eased slightly, but the broken bones were beyond the reach of such a feeble Healing Spell. They would still need time to mend.
Afterward, Xuan Ye leaned against the boulder, breathing heavily.
With a thought, he summoned his system panel.
A pale-blue screen silently hovered before Xuan Ye.
[Name: Xuan Ye] [Tier: Third Tier Knight] [Innate Inner Spiritual Power: Light 100, Darkness 17] [Inner Spiritual Power: 207] [External Spirit Power: 214] [Spiritual Furnace: Chaos Spirit Furnace] [Equipment: Revenge (Spirit Demon Grade, evolving...)] [Techniques (Knight): Thrust (Mastery Level), Pure White Blade (Mastery Level), Light Slash, Cross Slash (Mastery Level), Lightning Stab (Mastery Level), Accumulate Power (Proficient), Sacrifice (Proficient), Redemption (Proficient)...] [Secret Technique: Instantaneous Movement Steps]
Xuan Ye's brow furrowed tightly.
More than two hundred points of Inner Spiritual Power.
He wasn't far from the five-hundred-point threshold for a Fourth Tier Knight.
He knew very well that his rapid growth in strength came from two things.
First, the initial awakening of the Demon God Emperor Bloodline had greatly strengthened his body and affinity for Spiritual Power.
Second, the ten points of Innate Dark Inner Spiritual Power awarded by the system when he entered Devil Race Territory.
They had caused a surge in his Inner Spiritual Power.
Even his External Spirit Power, which should have stagnated before the Fourth Tier and relied on equipment to increase, had grown slightly thanks to the advantages of his devil bloodline.
This strength was already astonishing.
With the Chaos Spirit Furnace's ability to transform power, the potential of the Demon God Emperor Bloodline, the [Revenge] sword in his hand that was about to advance, and his long-practiced Knight Techniques...
Slaying a Fifth Tier Devil Race opponent above his own tier had been no fluke.
Across the history of the entire human Temple Alliance, few could likely have done the same at the Third Tier.
And yet—
There was not a trace of pride on Xuan Ye's face.
He understood better than anyone that this ability to fight above his tier was only an illusion at the lower levels.
The higher the tier, the more despairing the gulf between them became.
Between the Third and Fourth Tiers, the difference between two hundred and five hundred points of Inner Spiritual Power was more than twofold.
Between the Fourth and Fifth Tiers, the difference between five hundred and two thousand points was fourfold.
And that man... Long Xingyu.
A Ninth Tier Seal Knight.
His minimum Inner Spiritual Power requirement was one hundred thousand points.
One hundred thousand.
Xuan Ye's current strength didn't even amount to a fraction of that.
"Not enough..."
"I'm still too weak."
He muttered under his breath, his voice hoarse, rasping as the words stirred his injuries.
His right hand unconsciously tightened around the [Revenge] sword beside him.
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