Shen Ye had been waiting for this opening.
From the moment Song Lei engaged the Snake Demon, he had silently circled around to its rear flank.
His right hand trembled slightly around the hilt of Ghost Head, its Hard Edge effect active the entire time.
Bloodlust churned through his mind, but he held it firmly in check through sheer willpower.
He held his breath and focused, waiting for a chance to kill with a single strike.
What he did not know was that the Snake Demon had noticed him from the start.
A tier-two horror's perception and intelligence far surpassed those of a tier-one horror. But his presence was so much weaker than Song Lei's that the Snake Demon had dismissed him entirely.
As its head reared high, the scales along its neck stretched apart, exposing a gap-the only spot not covered by scales.
Shen Ye struck at that very instant.
A black blade flashed with chilling sharpness, slashing diagonally down from the side.
The edge cut precisely into the gap between the scales. Shen Ye felt only a slight hitch in his arm before the blade passed through the Snake Demon's neck.
A single strike took its head.
The tier-two Snake Demon's enormous head slid off its neck a moment later, foul-smelling green blood gushing out.
The severed head hit the ground with its eyes wide open. Until its death, it had never imagined that the black blade could pose a fatal threat.
[Killing Points: +234]
The tier-two Snake Demon's massive body crashed to the ground. Its enormous tail thrashed once, then fell completely still.
The entire corpse rapidly shriveled until nothing remained on the ground but a palm-sized green snake scale.
Without hesitation, Shen Ye picked it up and tucked it into the inner pocket against his chest.
At the sight, the surrounding tier-one Snake Demons hissed furiously and surged over every living person present like a green tide.
The ordinary people who could not fight were torn to pieces immediately.
Shen Ye never paused. He kept swinging his black-bladed saber, carving a bloody path toward the entrance.
Despite his severe injuries, Song Lei remained determined to protect his sister, keeping Song Shiya firmly behind him.
As for the others, there was nothing anyone could do for them under the circumstances.
Soon, the three reached the tempered-glass doors. At full strength, Song Lei could have shattered glass like this with a single punch, but now he could barely stay on his feet.
Shen Ye did not hesitate. He swung his blade.
Clang-!!
Sparks flew in an instant.
Before Ghost Head's Hard Edge effect, the locks forged from refined steel were sliced apart as easily as vegetables, their cut surfaces smooth as jade.
The chains and padlocks fell to the ground.
Shen Ye kicked the doors open and hurried outside.
The Snake Demons pursuing them began spewing black smoke the instant sunlight touched their skin, as though they were being scorched by intense heat. They shrieked in agony and retreated deeper into the supermarket, not daring to take another step through the doors.
Liu Bing's smile slowly froze.
He watched Shen Ye emerge through the doors, green blood still dripping from the pitch-black blade. His expression shifted from smugness to shock, then to bone-deep terror.
His lips quivered, and the finger he pointed at Shen Ye trembled uncontrollably. "You... you..."
Old Mrs. Zhao and Liu Bing's wife wore equally striking expressions. Neither had ever imagined that Shen Ye could fight his way out and easily sever the chains they had so carefully arranged.
"Impossible... impossible..."
Liu Bing staggered backward, tripped over a plastic bottle on the ground, and landed on his backside.
"You should have died in there... you should have died in there!!"
"Monster! Monster!"
"You're not human. You're not human at all..."
Shen Ye said nothing.
He simply carried Ghost Head and walked toward Liu Bing, step by step.
Every footfall rang in Liu Bing's ears like a death knell.
"Please... please! Shen Ye! I was wrong! I was so wrong!"
Liu Bing scrambled backward on his hands and knees, his survival instinct driving him to beg uncontrollably, his voice thick with tears.
"I lost my mind for a moment... I wasn't thinking! Spare me. Please, spare me! I'll do anything for you..."
"Spare you?"
Shen Ye finally spoke.
His voice was calm-so calm it made the skin crawl.
"When you locked the doors from outside... did you think about sparing me? Did you think about sparing those innocent people?"
Liu Bing froze.
"I..."
The blade flashed.
Liu Bing's pleading stopped abruptly.
His body remained kneeling on the ground, but his head had already rolled aside, his eyes filled with shock and disbelief.
His expression was forever frozen in that instant of mingled terror and regret.
[Killing Points: +3]
Seeing her own son's head severed from his body, Old Mrs. Zhao immediately let out a heart-wrenching scream.
"You damned..."
But Shen Ye did not let her finish.
Another black flash swept before her eyes, and then her head rolled to the ground.
[Killing Points: +1]
Liu Bing's wife sat collapsed on the ground, shaking like a leaf.
She shook her head mechanically, a deeply disturbed smile on her face, muttering over and over, "Devil. Hehe, you're a devil."
Shen Ye looked at her without a trace of pity in his eyes.
He raised his blade and brought it down once more. The surroundings instantly fell silent.
[Killing Points: +2]
With a casual flick of his right hand, he scattered the blood clinging to his blade across the ground.
When he looked at Song Shiya again, her mask was gone, revealing her exquisitely beautiful face.
She knelt beside Song Lei, tears streaming down her face, looking utterly fragile and broken.
Song Lei's werewolf form had faded, leaving him human again.
But the sight of him was horrifying.
The snake's tail had pierced straight through his abdomen, leaving a fist-sized hole. The flesh around its edges curled outward, and blood soaked the ground beneath him.
His right arm was completely gone below the elbow. The ragged stump exposed white splinters of bone and torn muscle fibers.
The skin around the stump had turned an unnatural blue-black, which was visibly spreading upward.
It was the Green-Scaled Snake Demon's venom.
The tier-two horror's venom was creeping upward through his blood vessels, turning his skin deathly gray wherever it passed.
Song Shiya hurriedly pressed both hands against the wound in Song Lei's abdomen, a soft white light radiating from her palms.
The light seeped into the wound in fine, silken strands.
The bleeding stopped.
But the blue-black venom remained.
The moment the white light touched the blackened areas, it evaporated with a sizzle, like water splashed onto red-hot iron.
Fine beads of sweat appeared on Song Shiya's fair forehead, and her face grew paler and paler.
Gritting her teeth, she intensified the white light until both hands were enveloped in its glow.
But the blue-black venom still clung stubbornly to the wound, preventing it from healing.
Shen Ye was a little taken aback.
He had already realized that this woman was also a Sequence Awakened, but he had never expected her ability to involve healing.
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