Return from the Other Shore: Good Luck

Blood is the currency of the soul.

Blood is the vessel of life.

The ritual of exchanging blood is a ritual for establishing Soul Contract.

The act of plundering blood is the act of plundering life.

Where did the lives that were taken go?

Inside the plunderer's body.

What become of the lives that were taken?

It's not just nutrients.

That's what the white-haired, one-eyed man said.

"You've always been taking unconventional paths. While absorbing external objects can certainly boost your strength, you've overlooked the most reliable and stable way to become stronger."

"... I have absorbed human Blood Energy many times, but the effect was only to 'restore strength and heal the body,' without increasing my own strength."

"Because you didn't understand what 'life and death' really meant in the past."

Yusuo Zai a wave of his hand, Yu Suo's surroundings changed.

The world, which had been in chaos, returned to normal, and I was back in the Starfall Mountain Range.

But things are completely different here now.

I had previously confirmed that the entire interior of this mountain was filled with a scarlet substance that resembled flesh and blood, but because it was covered by a layer of rock, it was not visible from the outside.

But things are different now.

"What... did you do...?"

"It's just a small favor," he said with a slight smile.

Before anyone knew it, countless barbed wires, stained with rust and blood, had covered the entire mountainside, like spider webs clinging to a corner or mold spores crawling on expired food. They displayed a power completely opposite to their delicate appearance. Although the rock layers were only a few tens of centimeters thick, their strength was not to be underestimated, and these countless barbed wires twisted them into pieces in an instant!

Now all the crimson substance is exposed, emitting a horrifying stench of blood. The only relatively intact rock layer is the small patch of ground where Yu and Yusuo Zai standing, like a small raft floating on an endless Blood Sea, ready to be swallowed up by the monsters in the sea at any moment.

But compared to those, something else caught my attention.

I finally understand where those barbed wires came from.

Upon closer inspection, the barbed wire was bundled into ten bundles, and then into a hundred bundles. With just a few additions, it would multiply to the point of covering the entire mountainside. And its source... lay within Yusuo Zai.

To be precise, it was his eyes.

The roots of all the barbed wire extended from the hollow socket of his left eye.

At some point, the Triangle Head, hyena, and strange insect he had released earlier gathered around him and began to twist and deform, as if they were being forcibly squeezed into a small piece by an invisible hand. The compressed, bloody chunk of flesh made a squelching sound as it burrowed into the empty eye socket.

So that's it. His empty eye sockets were the breeding ground for those monsters.

"Even if it's just remnants, even if it contains almost no power besides 'possibility,' even if it's just a sorrowful remnant left behind by the Demon King, it's still an existence that the Fragmented Human Realm must look up to! The Fragmented Human Realm is like a dog wagging its tail and begging for mercy, offering 'sacrifices,' building a 'throne,' and welcoming the arrival of the superior! And the result is—"

Yusuo Zai stretched his hand towards the sky, and darkness fell. The setting sun was shrouded in shadow like a solar eclipse, its shape resembling a palm! With his movement, countless crimson mixtures of flesh and blood began to ripple violently, extending from a shape similar to a mountain into a flat surface, like a sea of blood hanging upside down in mid-air! And the only intact ground we stood on was an isolated island in the sea!

"--During those years, all the humans who perished on this West Saint Continent for various reasons should have ended their lives completely and scattered into nothingness after their physical deaths. However, the world, in their dying moments, plundered their lives, gathered them up, piled them up, and presented them as gifts to the remnants of the Blood King!"

As the words fell, blurry human figures rose from the churning Blood Sea. They were aggregates of viscous blood, devoid of will, soul, or even proper flesh; they were merely condensed "life" of that person, each exuding a suffocatingly strong stench of blood!

Countless human figures slowly twisted their blood-soaked bodies, their blurred faces turning toward us—or rather, toward me.

Then, with legs connected to the Blood Sea, it slowly walked towards me.

I stared blankly at the scene, speechless for a moment.

Yusuo Zai's voice echoed softly in my ears.

"These are gifts the world has offered to the dregs, but the dregs are no longer worthy of them... Thus, two hundred years ago, nearly half of these life aggregates ended up benefiting Al Warrensding..."

His dry lips came close to my ear.

"So, what about you? What are you going to do?"

"I have no idea..."

"Don't say that... Si Nan Xiao will be sad."

"... Eh?"

The words of the former demon are like an all-pervasive virus, infecting hearts that cannot resist.

"'If the deceased cannot determine whether their death has value, then it is up to the living to make it valuable'... You said that, didn't you?"

"..."

"The tragedy of the Si Nan family's extermination, the tragedy of the Sena sisters in the Northern Rally, the countless deaths of people in the Central Alliance Academy, Xiao and tens of thousands of soldiers who died in Sardinia on the Western Saint battlefield... Think about it, what did their deaths change?"

I could feel his lifeless breath brushing against my ear.

"And... what did it make you understand?"

I couldn't resist it, I was completely unable to resist it.

"Having witnessed countless deaths, repeatedly teetering between life and death in fierce battles, carrying an ever-growing burden of lives... now, you should be able to do it, to devour 'life'..."

His thin, bony hand slipped inside my clothes and grabbed something.

"You have no way out. Either devour all the remaining 700 million lives and grow to the level of Blood Fiend, or... hurry up and write your will."

A large, rough, Triangle Head hand emerged from his eye socket.

With lightning speed, they shoved something into my mouth.

It's cool.

It's shaped like a flower bud. It's broken.

Boundary Breaking Armor

It is the deputy of the Boundary Breaking Armor

The Sub Core of A is cool and waiting.

So cold and disgusting

Don't have disgusting feelings of aggression, etc.

Many tiny

The small spikes extend very quickly

Such a fast stab to the whole body

No need to ask, just wait and see.

Sucking, infringing, possessing

Devouring, rampaging, mocking, stop, stop!

Inorganic organisms

Metallic tentacles grew rampantly, absorbing nutrients from the body, devouring everything, invading everything, tearing open internal organs, not sparing a single cell. The mouth was instantly burst open, the skull transformed into a beautiful bonsai. Beautiful metallic branches stretched out from my head, like cordyceps. Ye Jiang has become cordyceps! Oh, hahaha, how funny! The eyeballs were squeezed out, like little apricots growing on metallic branches, hanging on the branches, but immediately eaten by the metal Ye Jiang's bonsai transformation is amazing! In progress! The chest and abdominal cavities are about to be filled... Wait, wait, wait... Stop! Stop! Stop! It's too sudden! I wasn't prepared, I had no defense at all! It just started devouring, completely becoming prey, completely becoming food for inorganic organisms! Please, stop joking! No, no, no, no—

"It has both meat and minerals; I can't even dream of having such a sumptuous meal. Good luck, Mr. Ye... Go ahead."

Yusuo Zai the back.

Let me, transformed into a cordyceps plant and a potted plant, fall into the Blood Sea, fall into countless bloody human figures.

Just before I fell, I thought I heard someone shout "Stop!" in the distance...

"You bastard! Stop it!!!!"

The sound waves, filled with rage, reverberated through the space, as if a ferocious beast were charging towards Yusuo Zai. His malnourished, thin body was immediately sent flying like a kite with a broken string.

"Grab her!"

He imbued his voice with meaning, pulling the woman back from the brink of falling into the Blood Sea at the last moment. The woman's entire upper body was pierced by countless metal spikes, but not a drop of blood was shed—because it was all absorbed by the Sub Core; not a single drop of such a delicacy could be wasted.

"Area suppression!"

The air jolted violently, as if a heavy object had fallen, and the space itself became stagnant. The previously ferocious growth of the metal instantly slowed, and the already mangled body of the woman collapsed helplessly to the ground. Her condition was dire, but she was still barely alive.

The lady breathed a sigh of relief. At least he wasn't dead; as long as he had a breath left, she could find a way.

She picked up the young woman, and with a gentle sip of her lips, instead of uttering the angry shout she had just given, she began to sing softly. It was an absolutely exquisite voice, a rare beauty in the world. Although it was just a soft murmur, the clear tone and superb technique were enough to captivate anyone. As the song played, the pink-haired woman's unbearable wounds began to heal, and her scattered bones were reborn and put back in place.

"After finally finding this place by following the general directions, I was shocked to see such a tasteless scene..."

She looked at the unconscious Yusuo Zai looking at trash. Although she didn't know what they had talked about, she knew this guy was definitely not a good person.

How dare they steal my prey! They're utterly ignorant and arrogant!

"Yusuo Zai... Although we're not close, you might as well just die. I don't care if the Leader goes berserk anymore!"

However, Yusuo Zai's body trembled strangely, and he slowly stood up, as if a puppet was being lifted by strings. His thin body under his clothes began to writhe violently, and his pale skin, which was tinged with sallowness, turned an ugly ashen gray. The arrangement of his muscles and the direction of his limbs twisting were also very strange.

When it turned its face again, it was a blurry mess, without any features, only deathly gray skin and lead-gray suckers wriggling on it, completely unlike a human.

It's reminiscent of leeches.

The real Yusuo Zai's voice rang in the lady's ears.

"How impulsive, Madam Winsani."

"--!!!"

At the same time, the pink-haired girl in her arms revealed her true form. Her body, which had already healed halfway, suddenly exploded and split into countless ugly little leeches! The sticky, slippery leeches wriggled on the lady's hands, crawling over the luxurious decorations of more than one jade bracelet, but did not attempt to bite.

That pink-haired woman is fake!

She really has fallen into this disgusting Blood Sea!

"The sound--"

"While I understand your anger at having your prey stolen, I advise you not to resort to violence; this is his own business."

In her fury, the lady also realized something.

Yusuo Zai didn't take her seriously at all.

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I'm so tired today... I have things to do tomorrow, so I'll have to update late again.