Blood Crystal

Shen Ye's consciousness stood before the shelf, staring at the blood-red crystal.

This was the first time he had been so close to it.

Gray mist surged up, blocking his scrutiny. Some kind of rule seemed to be preventing him from viewing the item's information in advance.

His subconscious told him that if he wanted to know what it was, he had to take it first.

Five thousand points.

That was everything he had earned by risking his life.

Yet now, he could only choose a single item-the cheapest one.

But if even this item's actual effect failed to meet his needs, he would be screwed.

Still, did he have any other choice?

I'll take the gamble!

His will touched the Blood Crystal.

The next second, the entire mental space shook violently.

Dazzling red light erupted through the gap in the open red doors, and countless threads of blood gushed out of the darkness beyond.

Bloody light poured relentlessly onto the ancient shelf.

The red doorway now resembled a punctured artery, flooding his entire field of vision with blood-red light.

The shelf shook.

The gray mist churned.

The entire mental space thundered.

That bloody light flooded into the shelf and into the depths of his consciousness. His soul felt as though it were burning.

Shen Ye felt himself trapped in a blood-colored world, where countless spectral figures appeared, seemingly fighting against something.

Then a strange sound rang in his ears, a language he could not understand, accompanied by the most primal of battle cries.

All the strange phenomena abruptly collapsed inward.

The bloody light swept back through the doorway, and the shelf vanished into the gray mist once more.

The red doors slowly closed with a muffled rumble.

Shen Ye's vision went black.

When he opened his eyes again, his consciousness had returned to his body.

The RV's curtains were still drawn, and the half-finished pack of cigarettes still lay on the coffee table. Nothing had changed.

Except his right hand.

Clutched tightly in it was a blood-red crystal the size of his thumb.

The crystal was translucent throughout, with a mass of dark red liquid slowly swirling inside, exactly as he had seen it in the Asura Treasury.

Where the crystal rested against his palm, his skin could feel its warmth.

Soon, the blood-red crystal's information appeared automatically in his mind.

Name: Blood Crystal

Type: Special consumable

Effect: Upon ingestion, grants a chance to awaken a sequence. If awakening fails, the energy within the body will fall into chaos, ultimately causing the body to explode and resulting in death.

If the user possesses the asura sequence, the chance of awakening increases significantly.

If the user does not possess the asura sequence, a successful awakening will inevitably turn them into a servant of the Asura Sequence Awakened. The servant will be wholeheartedly loyal to the holder of the asura sequence. If the holder dies, the servant will die as well. (Note: This information is visible only to holders of the asura sequence.)

Description: A treasure forged through a secret art by a powerful race that perished long ago, used to awaken the dormant potential within living beings.

The creation of each Blood Crystal consumed the lives of thousands of members of that race.

Shen Ye read the information three times before setting the Blood Crystal down.

This thing was actually connected to sequence awakening.

He Ziping had just been talking about sequence potions, and Shen Ye had been thinking he ought to get one to try if he ever had the chance.

He had never expected something like this to be sitting in his own Asura Treasury, available for just five thousand points.

And it was practically tailor-made for him.

An Asura Sequence Awakened had a significantly higher chance of awakening after using it, and giving it to someone else would turn them into an absolutely loyal servant.

Whether he swallowed it himself or gave it to someone else, it was worth far more than five thousand points.

But.

What if it failed?

Not disability. Not regression. His body would explode, killing him outright.

There was no margin for error, no second chance.

Shen Ye held the Blood Crystal in his hand, staring fixedly at it. His brows drew tighter and tighter, all his earlier excitement gone.

He had no idea how long he stared.

He remembered being surrounded by the Man-Eating Tree Spirits last night.

He remembered the moment Zhao Biao had transformed into a giant.

He remembered the man who had stood in the shadows on the villa's second floor, smiling at him.

He remembered Song Lei, whose combat prowess had seemed unmatched to him, dying helplessly in Song Shiya's arms.

He remembered what He Ziping had just said: someone had reached tier eight on the fourth day.

He needed to grow stronger, but everyone else was growing stronger too.

The Eldritch were growing stronger as well.

If he did not take this gamble, even if he survived today, he would sooner or later die at the hands of a higher-tier Eldritch or a Sequence Awakened stronger than him.

That would only mean dying a little later.

If he wanted to survive, his current strength was not enough.

Shen Ye stopped hesitating.

He steeled himself.

With a flick of his thumb, the Blood Crystal dropped into his palm, and he brought it to his mouth without hesitation.

He did not even have time to swallow.

As though it possessed a will of its own, the crystal abruptly disintegrated the instant it touched his tongue, becoming a scalding torrent that rushed down his throat into his stomach.

The energy was anything but gentle. At first, it felt like swallowing a mouthful of fiery liquor, burning all the way down his esophagus and into his stomach.

But just two seconds later, that warmth exploded inside his stomach.

Absolute, searing heat.

Absolute, explosive force.

The raging energy was like a savage beast breaking free of its cage, charging from his stomach into every part of his body.

Every blood vessel was stretched to its limit in an instant. Dense, dark red patterns appeared across his skin, as though countless invisible hands had clenched around the vessels beneath it, trying to crush him from within.

His body temperature soared.

Shen Ye felt as though he had been thrown into an alchemical furnace. All his internal organs were boiling.

He clenched his teeth, veins bulging at his temples. Sweat poured off him like a waterfall, soaking his back in the blink of an eye.

The excruciating pain began to blacken the edges of his vision, but he stubbornly refused to make a sound.

His consciousness began to blur.

Through the haze, he saw an enormous figure.

It towered atop a mountain of corpses that stretched beyond sight. Countless bones lay piled beneath its feet-human bones, the bones of colossal beasts, and twisted remains of things he could not even name.

The figure held a bone cleaver taller than Shen Ye himself, its blade coated in layers of dried, blackish-brown blood.

Then the figure slowly turned its head.

Its face had no features.

Only a bottomless black hole.

The black hole pointed at Shen Ye.

The next second, a deep roar erupted from it, piercing his entire consciousness.

"Kill!"

A murderous will followed close behind, pouring into his mind along with that roar, attempting to tear his reason out by the roots.

His facial muscles twitched uncontrollably. His expression grew ever more savage, the corners of his mouth stretching almost to his ears.

Yet at the same time, he kept his teeth tightly clenched, while the look deep within his eyes trembled violently.

It was an almost instinctive restraint and wariness.

Shen Ye's own will was locked in a desperate struggle against the intruder.

After an unknown length of time, his eyes snapped open.

The crimson images swiftly receded like an ebbing tide, and his mind gradually cleared.

His body's intense heat faded within seconds. The red patterns on his skin retreated like the tide, and his distended blood vessels returned to normal.

He gasped for breath, his clothes soaked through with sweat and the impurities expelled from his body, reeking of a sour stench.

Fortunately, he had survived.

Awakening a second sequence truly was extraordinarily dangerous. Not only did his body have to endure the pain of accepting a new power, but his mind also had to fight the risk of aberration brought on by having two sequences.

Had his will not been strong enough, he would probably have already become a monster that knew nothing but slaughter.