Crimson Leech Heart

Clang.

The crash of metal rang out.

A peanut-sized chip broke off the edge of Yang Feng's Life-Bound Blade.

Ghost Head's "Hard Edge" property doubled both its sharpness and hardness. Before it, the Life-Bound Blade Yang Feng took such pride in was no different from an ordinary strip of iron.

The tremendous impact traveled along the blade into his arm. The web of his hand went numb, and his entire right arm trembled from fingertips to shoulder.

He staggered back three or four steps before regaining his balance. Looking down at the notch in his blade, he broke out in a cold sweat.

An invisible blade was simply too overpowered in close combat.

Yet the stronger Ghost Head proved to be, the fiercer the uncontrollable greed in his heart grew.

Still, Yang Feng was no pushover either.

Gritting his teeth, he forced down the numbness in his arm. Sequence power surged through his body as he immediately activated his core skill.

"Knife Credit Pact."

A gilded sheen coated the silver-white blade. The power forcibly sealed the notch, instantly doubling the weapon's sharpness and destructive force.

At the same time, a line of ancient seal-script runes invisible to the naked eye appeared in his eyes-the contract of his "blade debt."

The debt had to be repaid with an enemy's life within the allotted time. Otherwise, even he could not bear the backlash.

Yang Feng stopped defending and took the offensive.

Gilded blade light erupted beneath the blazing sun, each slash faster and more vicious than the last.

Every strike under the Knife Credit Pact carried twice the destructive force. His blade tore through the air with piercing shrieks.

Shen Ye did not retreat before the frenzied assault.

He did not even furrow his brow.

The physical prowess granted by his two stacked sequences gave him speed and reflexes that overwhelmed Sequence Awakened of the same rank.

In his gray-white vision, Yang Feng's attacks already looked like a wildcat waving its claws.

Its claws and fangs looked intimidating, but every movement was plain to see.

Only now did he understand what the Slaughter Mark's description meant by weakening his opponent's speed and strength.

It did not directly reduce the opponent's stats like an online game, as he had initially thought.

Instead, the Slaughter Mark's enhancement vastly improved his reaction speed and dynamic vision.

Shen Ye calmly dodged three of his opponent's slashes.

The moment his opponent's assault paused, it was his turn to counterattack.

Ghost Head twirled in his hand as though alive. Its invisible blade traced an unseen arc through the air, cutting in from an angle Yang Feng had never anticipated.

Yang Feng barely managed to bring his blade back to block, but Ghost Head's tip had already opened a half-foot-long gash across his chest.

Blood splattered out, quickly drying into dark red spots on the scorching ground.

Yang Feng grunted, tightening his grip on his blade.

He had no chance to catch his breath.

Shen Ye's second slash followed immediately. This time, Ghost Head became visible for an instant, its dark red blade trailing an afterimage in the sunlight as it cleaved straight toward the top of Yang Feng's head.

Yang Feng's pupils contracted sharply.

Decapitation Oath.

He roared the skill's name in his mind.

An invisible force of law instantly locked onto Shen Ye. His next strike was guaranteed to hit a vital point.

This was his ultimate trump card. Once activated, there was no turning back.

The enormous expenditure made his body sway, but his blade was already moving.

The laws of the Decapitation Oath forcibly corrected the blade's trajectory, sending it straight toward Shen Ye's heart.

But Yang Feng had forgotten one thing.

He had been marked by the Slaughter Mark.

That dark red mark was constantly burning away at his mind.

Facing Shen Ye, he felt instinctive terror. His strength was weakening, his movements were slowing, and even the hand gripping his blade was shaking.

His willpower could not overcome this fear. It came from suppression at the level of sequence laws.

In the fraction of a second before the Decapitation Oath finished locking on, his fingers shifted an inch against his will.

Just one inch.

Yang Feng's Life-Bound Blade pierced Shen Ye's left shoulder instead of his heart.

The tip sank less than two finger-widths into his flesh before powerful muscles clamped it firmly in place.

Shen Ye gave him an expressionless look, then slashed backhanded.

Ghost Head pierced Yang Feng's right arm, spraying a mist of blood as it came free.

Yang Feng screamed, nearly losing his grip on his Life-Bound Blade.

How could the gap be this huge?

What pathway did his sequence belong to?!

Knife Credit Pact, Decapitation Oath-he had played every trump card he had.

Yet against Shen Ye, he had lasted fewer than five exchanges.

If he had not been just one step away from advancing to Sequence Eight, with physical prowess well above an ordinary ninth-rank Awakened, he would already have died when Shen Ye delivered his second slash.

It even gave Yang Feng a mistaken impression.

He believed Shen Ye was an eighth-rank Sequence Awakened!

By now, he had four or five blade wounds of varying depths.

The deepest was on his right arm, almost reaching the bone.

The shallowest was across his chest, but even that had split his flesh open. Blood ran down the fabric of his floral shirt, leaving his white trousers a stained mess.

He fell to his knees. His cowboy hat had fallen off at some point, exposing the sparse stubble on his scalp.

The once-imposing captain of the Blood Eagle Convoy now looked as wretched as a stray dog pinned beneath someone's foot.

But he was not dead yet.

"Zhou Zhiqiang! Hurry up and attack!" Yang Feng bellowed at the top of his lungs.

Before his shout had faded, a huge dark figure sprang from the crowd.

The burly, bald Zhou Zhiqiang completed his transformation in midair. His muscles swelled as though inflated, gray-brown beast-hide patterns emerged across his skin, and his hands turned into beast paws tipped with sharp claws. His entire body grew nearly fifty percent larger in an instant.

Beastman Sequence, ninth rank.

Razor-sharp beast claws swept toward Shen Ye.

Shen Ye drew his blade back to block. Ghost Head collided with the claws, sending sparks flying.

Zhou Zhiqiang was far stronger than Yang Feng, but against Shen Ye's two stacked sequences, he was still knocked back two steps.

Shen Ye turned his head, fixing his crimson eyes on Zhou Zhiqiang.

The suppressive effect of the second Slaughter Mark erupted within him at the same time.

Zhou Zhiqiang's heart jolted. The terror of being targeted by an ancient behemoth instantly overwhelmed him.

His movements visibly stiffened, and even his breathing grew labored.

During the few seconds Zhou Zhiqiang forced himself to hold the line, Yang Feng dragged his wounded body over to Chen Na. Reaching with his right hand for the gemstone necklace nestled in her deep cleavage, he tore it off.

Chen Na winced in pain.

A dark red gemstone was set in the center of the necklace. Oval and the size of a fingernail, it had vein-like patterns clearly visible through its crystalline surface.

On the surface, it was a piece of jewelry.

In reality, it was a Weird Object Chen Na had scavenged from a dying Sequence Awakened after the apocalypse, called the "Crimson Leech Heart."

After a glance, Yang Feng removed the gemstone, shoved it into Chen Na's hand, and signaled to her with his eyes.

Chen Na's gaze was hesitant. "You really want to use this thing?"

Yang Feng took a deep breath, his expression resolute. "Hurry!"