Whoosh!
A white, bone-spiked serpent tail burst from the ground with a sharp, piercing whistle.
Like a white bone spear, it stabbed straight at Kamo Chitsubaki's unguarded back.
Kamo Chitsubaki was swinging her fist at the Blood Bat Cursed Spirit. All her attention was focused ahead, and she had no awareness of the attack from behind.
On the upper-floor terrace, Lu Ping had already released the string.
An arrow formed from gathered black shadows shot from the bowstring. It became a pitch-black beam that tore through the mist in its path.
Boom!
The arrow struck the tip of the bone-spiked serpent tail with perfect precision.
Violent cursed energy exploded at the edge of the square, forcibly knocking the heavy tail several meters off course.
It slammed into the ground beside Kamo Chitsubaki's waist, shattering a large stretch of bluestone paving as shards of rock sprayed outward like bullets.
Lu Ping lowered his longbow, his expression still grim.
Once an ordinary sorcerer was injured in battle, the flow of cursed energy within their body would be obstructed, and their combat condition would plummet.
Although Kamo Chitsubaki was proficient in Blood Manipulation, she had not mastered the Reverse Cursed Technique.
Physical injuries could not be healed in a short time, and that would directly reduce her casting efficiency.
On a dangerous battlefield facing multiple Grade 1 Cursed Spirits, even the slightest opening was fatal.
If she were badly injured by a monster of that level, the resulting chain reaction would be difficult to handle.
Fortunately, that arrow had made it in time.
The explosion behind her was extremely violent, and the raging shockwave made Kamo Chitsubaki's clothes snap in the wind.
Kamo Chitsubaki had her right foot firmly planted on one of the monster's left arms, preparing to deliver the final blow.
Hearing the commotion, she glanced behind her from the corner of her eye.
The air still held familiar traces of shadow and cursed energy. It was Lu Ping's Shadow Arrow.
Learning that Lu Ping was not only safe but could also provide long-range support, Kamo Chitsubaki relaxed slightly.
But the dying Blood Bat Cursed Spirit seized upon that momentary distraction.
The monster had already developed rudimentary intelligence, and a flash of madness crossed its scarlet eyes.
It could sense the killing intent in Kamo Chitsubaki's fist, but it was unwilling to be exorcised and purified just like that.
Splat.
The Blood Bat Cursed Spirit's right hand transformed into a bone spike, and without warning, it stabbed backward into its own left shoulder.
Sickly green blood splattered as it forcibly severed its own left arm.
It cut off its tail to survive.
Freed from restraint, the monster let out a shrill wail. The piercing sound made the surrounding rubble tremble faintly.
It kicked hard against the mud wall below, unleashing its last strength as the wall collapsed with a crash.
Its damaged right wing flapped frantically, drawing a pale streak through the air as its body instantly pulled away.
"Damn it... power..."
The monster let out a low growl, dark red smoke billowing from its gaping mouth.
Rather than turning back to retaliate, it used the momentum to dart wildly toward the densely packed houses behind the square.
That was where it had stored the large quantities of blood it had carried over and preserved as offerings after slaughtering the villagers.
As a monster spawned from the special Snake Sacrifice Ritual, its Blood Feast: Molting technique could continuously evolve, but it possessed a fatal weakness.
Ordinary Cursed Spirits only needed to consume their own cursed energy to repair injuries, but it could not.
Every wound it suffered had to be healed by devouring fresh blood, and the pools of blood hidden in those houses were its final trump card.
As long as it could drink that blood, its severed arm would regrow within seconds. It might even complete its third molt and increase its strength once more.
Kamo Chitsubaki's expression darkened completely.
"Don't even think about running!"
She shouted coldly, instantly forming a hand seal as specks of bloody light gathered at her fingertips.
The scattered blood around her responded to the summons, forming a rapidly spinning blood-red drill. She was preparing to use Piercing Blood to kill the fleeing bat in midair.
However, the tremors underground erupted completely at that moment.
Rumble...
The earth split open with a massive crack, dirt and shattered stone soaring into the sky and completely obscuring her vision.
The human-headed, serpent-bodied monster crawled fully out from the fissure.
It stood several meters tall, its thick body covered in dark green scales that gleamed coldly in the firelight.
Its featureless face held only a huge mouth split sideways to its ears, letting out a wet, viscous hiss.
Whoosh!
The enormous serpent tail, ringed with bone spikes, swept toward Kamo Chitsubaki like a meat grinder. The heavy wind pressure made her face sting.
The attack was too close, forcing Kamo Chitsubaki to abandon her charge-up. The bloody light at her fingertips dispersed.
She drew a deep breath, and the blood within her body accelerated into a frenzy once more.
[Blood Manipulation: Red Scale Surge]
Crimson cursed energy wrapped around her slender arms, dense red markings emerging across her skin. She raised her guard and took the sweeping blow head-on.
Bang!
The heavy impact echoed through the center of the square, and the blast wave scattered all the surrounding thick mist.
The monster that had just crawled out possessed extremely low intelligence. It seemed to know only instinctive grappling and destruction, yet its physical strength was astonishing.
Kamo Chitsubaki's feet plowed two deep trenches through the ground, muddy water rolling up on both sides. She was temporarily locked in a stalemate by that immense brute force.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Two pitch-black arrows shot from the distant charred building once more.
Lu Ping moved swiftly. The arrows accurately nailed themselves into the joints of the monster's tail before exploding.
Black shadows clung to the monster's wounds like a swamp, spreading continuously and slowing its movements.
Kamo Chitsubaki seized the rare opportunity and slid around to the monster's side.
Her petite body erupted with terrifying power as her cursed-energy-wrapped iron fists rained down upon the monster's abdomen.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The impacts of her fists were incomparably dull, each blow producing an explosive burst of air.
The violent force shattered large patches of the monster's dark green scales, sending fragments flying everywhere.
The human-headed, serpent-bodied monster hissed in agony, its heavy body firmly pinned in the mud.
On the high-rise terrace, Lu Ping put away the Piercing Ox Horn Bow.
He narrowed his eyes slightly as he watched the battle in the square.
Something was wrong. This monster's behavior made no sense.
Its intelligence was even lower than that of the Blood Bat Cursed Spirit, which knew enough to sever its arm and flee. Yet its physical strength and total cursed energy far surpassed the ordinary Grade 1 level.
Combining all the information from before, a startling conclusion took shape in Lu Ping's mind.
It was likely the core of the Snake Sacrifice Ritual itself.
Or rather, it was a Cursed Womb that had been ambushed by the Blood Bat Cursed Spirit and hatched prematurely before absorbing enough blood.
It was a premature child.
"If it were a complete Snake God, its danger level would definitely far surpass Grade 1."
Lu Ping calculated inwardly. Though it was premature, its foundation was simply too strong.
He stepped forward and jumped directly from the third-floor terrace, the fierce wind howling past his ears.
As he fell, his body lightly merged into the shadows on the ground and slid swiftly onward.
The shadows on the ground rippled like a black mirror, and Lu Ping became a black streak racing through the ruins.
He was rapidly closing in on the battlefield.
Through the keen cursed-energy senses granted by Three Corpses, Lu Ping could clearly feel something abnormal.
The cursed energy within the monster being brutally beaten by Kamo Chitsubaki was undergoing some bizarre qualitative change.
That cursed energy became cold and slick, carrying malice that pierced straight into the brain.
Its total cursed energy had not decreased because of its injuries. On the contrary, as it hissed in pain, that cursed energy continued to rise.
The growth was incredibly rapid, as if a slumbering giant beast were gradually awakening.
It had already touched that terrifying threshold, the boundary of Special Grade.
The fear and superstition accumulated throughout the village over hundreds of years had all gathered within its body. Even without blood as a catalyst, it was forcibly crossing that barrier.
Fifty meters from the square.
Lu Ping emerged from the shadows in a silent alleyway. His shoes stepped into the mud without making a sound.
He reached back and pressed the button on the front of his uniform, opening his collar and releasing the coat secured to his back.
Lu Ping reached out and lifted down the pale-faced little girl. She clutched the hem of his clothes tightly, her body trembling nonstop.
"Stay here."
Lu Ping spoke softly.
His shadow wriggled strangely beneath his feet, and pitch-black darkness spread like spilled ink.
Then, a Shadow Wolf as large as a bull, its entire body emitting black mist, slowly rose from the shadows.
The Shadow Wolf's eyes glowed a ghostly green. It obediently lowered itself and rubbed its enormous head against Lu Ping's palm.
Lu Ping placed the little girl on the Shadow Wolf's broad back.
"Protect her. Stay in the shadows."
Lu Ping gave the order.
Having received the command, the Shadow Wolf took the little girl's clothes in its mouth. Its body flickered before lightly sinking into the vast shadow cast by the collapsed houses.
Concealed by the shadows, the little girl's presence was completely hidden.
With his worries behind him dealt with, Lu Ping held the bow in one hand and flashed out of the alley.
He was incredibly fast, leaving several afterimages in the air. The next instant, he stepped onto the edge of the central square.
At that moment, the battle in the center of the square had reached its fiercest point, the thunderous noise unending.
Kamo Chitsubaki was already riding atop the half-human, half-serpent monster's head, her long hair whipping wildly in the gale.
Her fists carried a sky full of red light as they smashed heavily into the monster's face. Every punch erupted with deafening force, making the stones on the ground bounce continuously.
Yet although the big-mouthed monster howled in pain, it instinctively used its thick arms to protect its head.
Its dark green scales were extraordinarily hard, each one several centimeters thick.
The bone spikes on its knuckles continuously blocked her fists, producing sharp metallic clanks.
Though Kamo Chitsubaki's fists were immensely powerful, she was unable to break through its defense and kill it quickly.
"Qian Chun! Get back!"
Lu Ping's voice rang out from the edge of the square.
His voice pierced through the dense roar of battle and reached Kamo Chitsubaki's ears clearly.
As he charged forward at high speed, he drew his bow and gathered power, intending to warn Kamo Chitsubaki of his speculation about the Serpent God Curse Embryo.
They absolutely could not continue tangling with this monster that was undergoing mutation.
However, reality gave them no time to communicate.
Bzzz—
An incomparably deep vibration came from the depths underground without warning. In that instant, the ground throughout Snakebone Village stopped shaking.
It was not a sound in the physical sense. It was a resonance of cursed energy that directly struck the depths of the soul.
Lu Ping felt as though the blood in his body had frozen for an instant.
Boom!
Light and shadow shifted, and an altar more than ten meters tall abruptly appeared in the center of the square.
Without any warning.
The altar was piled from countless ghastly white bones. Its surface was carved with numerous twisted human faces, their mouths stretched wide as if silently wailing.
The air reeked of nauseating sulfur and blood.
The instant the altar appeared, a ring of dark green light spread outward at a terrifying speed.
Like an overturned giant bowl, the light curtain instantly enveloped the entire square.
Lu Ping's pupils contracted slightly.
His reaction was swift. The instant the light curtain touched his body, he gathered cursed energy beneath his feet and tried to leap backward.
But the light curtain expanded faster than the limits of flesh allowed.
Crack.
A crisp shattering sound rang out through the void as the entire surrounding environment was mercilessly stripped away.
The charred houses vanished. The dense fog filling the sky vanished. Even the wet mud beneath their feet dried up in an instant.
There was no sky above them, only an oppressive dark green light curtain.
The ground had become a carpet of flesh made from countless writhing serpents. They coiled around one another, bit one another, and emitted a pungent stench.
Lu Ping, who had originally stood at the edge of the square, and Kamo Chitsubaki, who had been at its center, were both firmly trapped within this bizarre space.
The distance between them had been stretched infinitely, yet they also seemed close enough to touch.
Deathly silence surrounded them, broken only by the teeth-grinding scrape of countless scales beneath their feet.
The concentration of cursed energy in the air had increased by more than a hundredfold, and the crushing pressure made it difficult to breathe.
Kamo Chitsubaki fell from the monster's head and steadied herself somewhat awkwardly.
She cautiously looked around, her face pale to the extreme.
"What... is this?"
She gritted her teeth and murmured, seemingly unable to believe it.
Lu Ping stood at the edge of the space, the longbow in his hand slowly lowering.
His expression remained calm, but a trace of gravity flashed in his eyes.
This supreme technique that materialized the Mindscape World and completely changed the rules of the surrounding space...
This was—
Domain Expansion.
Before you continue