Old Ma

The boy rode on Old Ma's back, leaping and darting through the weightless space tunnel.

It was a realm of profound mystery. The stardust around them shifted nearer and farther, grew larger and smaller, and took on countless forms and colors. It seemed to drift and ripple through the void of its own accord, yet also to stare fixedly at the boy and Old Ma, circling and swirling around them all the while.

Under normal circumstances, Ye Chen would have been utterly captivated by such a wondrous sight. But now, he had no mind to pay it any attention. Memories of all the moments he had shared with Lyle kept flashing through his mind, and the sadness and sorrow on his face spoke for themselves.

He looked back. The tunnel entrance that had connected to the Prayer Hall was gone, along with the man's retreating figure, vanished forever beyond the stars.

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Ye Chen bit down hard on his lip, trying to wrench his attention away from his swirling thoughts and back to reality. Then, amid the ever-shifting constellations behind them, he caught sight of something terribly out of place.

Against the colorful starlight, three patches of conspicuous black light appeared out of nowhere. As Ye Chen stared in shock, they transformed in an instant into three pitch-black portals.

Right after, three strangely shaped shadows shot out from within. They drifted through the stars like ghosts, swift and uncanny as they sped straight toward Ye Chen and Heiqi.

The boy went pale, immediately understanding what was happening. He shouted a warning to the old horse beneath him. "Heiqi, the Abyss's pursuers are coming this way!"

Heiqi's eyes narrowed. His galloping hooves struck with even greater force, using bursts of Auling Power to propel them forward as he charged at full speed deeper into the tunnel with Ye Chen on his back.

Ye Chen fought down the weightless sensation churning in his stomach and looked back again. He immediately made out the true forms of the three shadows.

Their upper bodies looked human, but their heads were covered in countless eyeballs. Their two long, thin arms dangled with an array of black blades, while their lower bodies resembled octopuses, with countless thick tentacles that waved and whipped about in the void.

The moment Ye Chen met the creatures' gaze from afar, he felt his mind grow unsettled, and nausea began to well up in his chest.

His instincts told him that the three monsters from the Abyss were likely Abyss Elites. They were on a completely different level from the Abyssal foes he had faced in the three trials of the small world, and posed a tremendous threat to him as he was now.

But even with Heiqi sprinting at full speed to shake off the three pursuers, this weightless space, much like the deep sea, was hardly his home turf. His opponents, on the other hand, moved through it as if they were fish in water. After just a few moments, the distance between them had shrunk dramatically.

It looked like a fight was unavoidable.

At that thought, Ye Chen decisively drew his long blade and cut a gash into his arm. Then he spun out the revolver's cylinder, fashioned a bright red Blood Bullet, and tentatively fired five ordinary copper-colored bullets at the pursuers.

Bang.

The boy's gunshot was swallowed up by the ever-changing space tunnel. The three humanoid octopuses didn't even try to dodge, taking the bullets head-on.

The bullets struck the Abyss Elites in the abdomen like stones hitting water, raising only a ripple before going still. They didn't come out through the creatures' backs, either. The bullets had actually been digested into scraps inside their bodies.

Good.

Seeing how arrogantly his opponents behaved, Ye Chen immediately loaded the Blood Bullet into the barrel and fired straight at the nearest humanoid octopus.

Bang!

The bright red Blood Bullet streaked through the stars and hit the Abyss Elite, which had once again made no attempt to dodge.

But this time, the bullet wasn't swallowed and broken down like ordinary ammunition. Instead, it blasted countless chunks of black flesh from the Elite's chest, sending the creature instantly off balance. It tumbled and thrashed through the narrow space tunnel, falling far behind.

At least it had done something.

Ye Chen came to that conclusion, then looked around and saw that the two remaining humanoid octopuses had already closed in on either side of him. The black fangs dangling from their arms spun and glinted in the air. A moment later, they lunged straight at Heiqi, who carried Ye Chen.

Ye Chen reacted quickly, swinging his straight blade at the tentacle of one of the Abyss pursuers. But then an unmistakable resistance traveled through both his hands from the blade.

Huh!?

Ye Chen stared at the tip in shock. After its edge struck the enemy's first tentacle, it had become firmly lodged in the black flesh, unable to continue its swing!

How could this be!?

Ye Chen cried out in disbelief. This was the first time he had hit a setback since awakening his blood-forged Spirit Art.

Until now, whenever Ye Chen swung a bloodstained blade at something, he had cut through it without fail, cleaving it in two. Yet this time, even his hardest swing had been stopped dead by a single tentacle—and not even one of the opponent's stronger ones, but the thinnest tentacle on its lower body.

This sudden turn of events made Ye Chen realize just how vast the gulf was between him and these Abyss Elites, with their human upper bodies and octopus-like lower halves. They were completely beyond his ability to handle at his current level!

Ye Chen wasn't even qualified to fight them.

In a one-on-one duel, he could only be at their mercy. There was no need to mention facing two at once!

Just as Ye Chen failed to land his strike and couldn't even pull his blade free, leaving himself wide open, the Abyss Elite holding his blade and the other monster on the opposite side both turned their attention toward him.

The next instant, four arms lined with fangs lunged viciously for Ye Chen's body.

But just as the boy was about to be seized by the two black beasts, the old horse beneath him suddenly sprang into action.

At that moment, dazzling light burst from Heiqi's open mouth. Countless threads of light appeared out of nowhere and gathered, swiftly forming a long Pitch-Black Scythe. Heiqi clamped the end of its shaft firmly between his teeth.

With the scythe in his mouth, the old horse twisted around and unleashed a vicious, sweeping spin at the two Abyss Elites behind them.

The scythe blade, charged with tremendous energy, blazed with black light as it swept through the air. In one clean stroke, it severed all four arms of the Abyss Elites, and also chopped the tentacle that had trapped Ye Chen's blade into pieces.

With their arms severed, the two Abyss Elites slowed down, and the old horse quickly left them behind.

"Heiqi... You were this strong all along?"

Still reeling with shock, the boy shook the flesh from his blade, then couldn't help staring at the long scythe in Heiqi's mouth.

He had always thought Heiqi was merely a fast-running, highly intelligent horse. He had never imagined the old horse was hiding such terrifying power, or that he could wield such a strange scythe with such ease.

Ye Chen had been utterly helpless against those two monsters, yet one swing of Heiqi's scythe had sent them both packing. He truly was Lyle's mount. Like Lyle himself, he was full of mysteries.

No wonder Lyle trusted Heiqi so much, entrusting him with the task of protecting Ye Chen.