Blood and Qi Exhausted! Bell Shatter!

Earthhead Village, eastern abandoned housing district.

Sha Qi swept past in rolling waves. Several houses collapsed with a thunderous crash, erupting with black mist that shot into the sky. Yin energy rose straight into the clouds, while shrill howls rang without end.

"Whew—"

Hong Shou bent forward as he retreated, thick blood mist pouring from his nose and mouth. His lantern-like eyes remained fixed on the ruined house from which the yin energy emanated.

At this moment, his condition was terrible.

His black saber had snapped. The flesh on both of his iron fists had split apart, a savage five-inch wound ran across his back, and three claw marks leaking black qi scarred his left shoulder.

More importantly... his blood and qi were exhausted!

Hong Shou lowered his head. The skin on his arms was wrinkled and devoid of moisture. His burly, powerful body had withered into skin and bones, age spots appearing across his cheeks. The blood and qi within him now flowed in a thin, unbroken thread, no longer like the surging rivers it had once been.

Nearing eighty, his blood and qi had long since declined.

Now, he was no more than a powerful crossbow at the end of its flight.

Bang!!

With an explosive roar, the ground within several meters of the ruins suddenly caved in. Dirt and shattered stones rose and fell like waves on the sea.

Li Fang charged fiercely out of the ruins, suspended in midair amid flying rubble and tiles before slowly descending. He landed atop a broken beam, facing Hong Shou.

Both his hands had been broken, wounds covered his entire body, and black blood streamed endlessly from them. His terrifying regenerative power was now healing his injuries with the sluggishness of a turtle.

His head had split down the middle into two halves. The gap originally sewn shut with synthesized Immaculate Soul Thread had now been violently torn halfway open.

His cloudy eyeballs turned toward Hong Shou, who stood quietly amidst the ruins. Shock hid in the depths of his gaze, and his freshly healed wounds unconsciously split open again.

How was this possible!

Hong Shou was already so old—why was he still this strong!

The strange creature I painstakingly stitched together, the perfect creation forged from the pinnacle of my skill, had nearly been beaten to death by him alive and kicking.

Why? Why! Why was this happening!!

Jealousy burned like fire, scorching Li Fang's nerves.

"Li Fang, it seems the self-healing you relied on has disappeared."

Hong Shou spat out a mouthful of bloody foam and bared his chilling white teeth.

"Rather than talk about me, why don't you take a look at yourself first?" Li Fang sneered, refusing to reveal even a fraction of the turmoil in his heart.

"You expended so much vital essence. Whether you live or die this time, with your lamp running out of oil, you probably won't have long to live, will you?"

"I know perfectly well what my fate will be. I don't need your reminder. In any case, before I die, you'll definitely die before me!"

Hong Shou's expression was cold as he raised his head and declared.

His entire presence was like an unyielding steel spear, piercing straight into the clouds.

"You make it sound so nice. Then come on!" Li Fang spread his arms, his smile crazed as countless wounds across his body split open once more. "I'm standing right here. Do you still have the strength to kill me now?!"

Hearing Li Fang's clamor, Hong Shou frowned slightly.

"Haha, I was right after all!" Seeing that Hong Shou had not moved an inch, Li Fang let out a great sigh of relief inwardly. "You're already on the verge of collapse, aren't you? If we keep fighting, you'll inevitably burn through all your blood and qi and die!"

"But I'm different. As long as I'm given time, I can return to my peak. With endless life ahead of me, I can even go a step further." Twisted madness appeared on Li Fang's deformed face as he stared at Hong Shou. "Do you still think everything I've done was meaningless?"

"Heh, utterly laughable!"

Moving his feet, Hong Shou sneered. Stepping over shattered tiles and bricks, he approached Li Fang one step at a time. "Li Fang, to be honest, I don't oppose you becoming an aberration. But you should never have used the lives of the entire village to achieve your goal. All that does is prove that you've lost your conscience!"

As he walked forward step by step, it was as though he had returned to the light before death. His shriveled body became full and powerful once more, and blazing killing intent burst from his eyes.

"One who has lost his conscience can no longer be called human!"

Seeing Hong Shou reveal the bearing of someone ready to stake everything on a single throw, Li Fang subtly shifted one foot back. In that instant, the thought of fleeing arose in his mind.

Yet it was precisely this moment of hesitation that allowed a golden bell to howl down from the sky, dragging a violent gale in its wake as it completely enveloped Li Fang.

Li Fang's expression changed drastically. Turning his head, he saw Chu He suddenly appear outside the golden bell, his arms as red-hot as forged steel cables. Through the surface of the bell, he wrapped both arms around Li Fang's waist from behind and locked him in a bear hug.

"Now!"

An enraged roar exploded beside their ears.

A sharp gleam flashed in Hong Shou's eyes. How could he possibly let such a once-in-a-millennium opportunity slip away? The muscles of his left arm bulged, blazing crimson fist-lines winding over his arm. His fist was like lava, radiating astonishingly fierce Sha Qi.

The momentum of this punch vastly surpassed every strike before it, as though it had gathered all of Hong Shou's blood essence into one blow. He smashed it down upon Li Fang's head with all his strength!

"You damned little brat!!"

Violent yin energy surged from Li Fang's body. Like sulfuric acid corroding steel, it caused the Golden Bell Shield around him to flicker brightly and dimly, on the verge of shattering at any moment.

Chu He, standing beyond the golden bell, was no better off. It felt as though countless steel nails were piercing his chest and arms. The blood and qi he had only just replenished was being consumed at an alarming rate, draining completely in the blink of an eye.

Just as Hong Shou's fist was about to strike him dead, the Golden Bell Shield finally shattered into pieces. Li Fang was just about to shake Chu He's arms free—

But Chu He released him first and stepped back.

At the same time, he silently called upon his final trump card.

Bell Shatter!!

The fragments of the shattered golden bell suddenly froze in midair. Every single shard turned into a tiny bomb and exploded with a thunderous blast, engulfing Li Fang within.

Li Fang's retreat was cut short, terror spreading across his face.

Crack—

Hong Shou's all-out punch arrived as promised. Like a hammer smashing a watermelon, Li Fang's already stitched-together head exploded into four pieces in an instant. The threads holding it together were burned completely away by the flames generated from blood and qi.

The ground beneath him suddenly caved in. Li Fang was driven into the earth like a nail, his chest and spine exploding in an instant, crushed into bone fragments and mangled flesh.

His five-foot-seven body was smashed down to barely three feet.

In the end, only half a head remained hanging from Li Fang's neck. Sensing that his body was already on the verge of collapse, that every thread in his previously stitched wounds was being torn apart bit by bit, his eyes filled with unwillingness and despair.

This body was crumbling apart...

Li Fang swept his gaze toward the indifferent Hong Shou and let out a miserable laugh.

"Hehe... you... you were right. You truly do have some good disciples." Just as that half-head was about to fall apart, his gaze suddenly turned incomparably venomous. "But don't think you can be happy so soon. If I die, none of you will have an easy time..."

Pop!

The corpse's head finally shattered, turning into dust.

Seeing this, Chu He finally let out a great sigh of relief.

Then, all of a sudden, a series of notification chimes rang in his mind.

"Ding-dong! Strange qi absorbed. Energy +3!"

"Ding-dong! Strange qi absorbed. Energy +2!"

"Ding-dong! Strange qi absorbed. Energy +3!"

The continuous notifications rang in Chu He's mind, and the corners of his mouth could not help but rise wildly. He had not expected such an unexpected windfall.

That energy had surely come from those strange beings fused together. When the strange female corpse shattered, it had instead benefited him.

After throwing that punch, Hong Shou's face suddenly aged considerably. His throat moved as he was about to speak, but his feet gave way and he nearly fell.

Chu He hurried forward to support him. As he passed Li Fang's shattered corpse, the wrinkled, withered human skin that had broken into several pieces suddenly turned to ash.

A red light abruptly shot out from the ashes. Under Chu He's shocked gaze, it burrowed into his skin with lightning speed, before he could so much as cover his ears...