Chapter 36

Bibi Dong landed on the ground, failing to rein in the force beneath her feet and leaving a crack where she stepped.

She could not help thinking, Was Life Divine Power really this formidable?

This was a skill she had created through her recent study of Rakshasa Divine Power. It should have exploded on contact, tearing apart and devouring everything of its target. She had been confident that no one could block this strike unscathed.

Yet Lan Changsheng, standing opposite her... had caught it with nothing but his hand.

It made her feel as though she had merely thrown a stone into a lake, yet the surface remained calm, without so much as a ripple.

Lan Changsheng stood before her. Where Bibi Dong could not see, a gash marked his concealed palm. Life Divine Power continually repaired the injury, but a wound that would normally have healed with a sweep of divine power was now healing slowly.

Blood seeped from it. Though Lan Changsheng immediately wrapped it in divine power, his arm trembled slightly, and Bibi Dong still caught a trace of blood in the air.

Bibi Dong looked at Lan Changsheng, watching him for three seconds. Then she laughed, freely and wildly. Now she knew: she had already cracked the lake's surface.

"You're wounded. So you can be killed after all!"

Lan Changsheng stopped hiding it and brought his still-trembling hand out from behind his back.

"That strike of yours was powerful. It was no easy feat for me to catch it."

Even as he spoke, Bibi Dong was already brandishing her Spider Spears and closing in on him again. Her six Spider Spears clashed repeatedly with the Blue Silver Emperor Spear, throwing off flash after flash of light.

"Then why didn't you dodge? Aren't you afraid?" Bibi Dong still remembered to use her words to affect Lan Changsheng.

The question left Lan Changsheng unsure how to answer, because he truly felt no fear. "Because of the lives here. If I hadn't blocked it, that strike would have wiped them out."

Lan Changsheng himself might not have noticed that, after losing the emotions of fear and sorrow, his other emotions had become more active-like the compassion he felt now.

But Bibi Dong clearly had no interest in continuing their conversation. She straightened, drew her six Spider Spears close, and assumed a new stance.

She crossed her hands before her, spreading all ten fingers as though cradling something. "Then try this!"

The space before her began to distort. Centered on her hands, the light within a radius of ten zhang began to contract inward. A mass of dark purple light slowly condensed between her hands, but unlike last time, the surface of this orb was covered in cracks, like a shell that might shatter at any moment.

As the orb contracted, scarlet beams leaked through its cracks, shooting outward in every direction. One beam skimmed past Lan Changsheng's face. That instant of light left a long, thin arc in his vision and scored the earth behind him.

"Now, let's see you block this!"

This was no longer an attack from a single direction, and Bibi Dong would not give him another chance to touch the orb.

Holding the Blue Silver Emperor Spear, Lan Changsheng touched its butt to the ground. Fluctuations of the law of life flowed through it into the earth.

The newly sprouted Blue Silver Grass beneath his feet began to surge violently, all bending and growing toward Bibi Dong. The entire grassy slope wrapped around her like a flag billowing in the wind.

Countless strands of Blue Silver Grass formed an airtight cage around Bibi Dong.

The orb in Bibi Dong's hands continued firing beams. Each strike tore an opening in the cage, but more Blue Silver Grass came to fill it.

Lan Changsheng realized that merely holding up this orb was already taxing Bibi Dong somewhat. She had actually failed to evade his Blue Silver Cage.

Bibi Dong had forced Lan Changsheng to choose; now Lan Changsheng made her choose.

Would she continue sustaining her attack, or abandon it to free herself?

But Bibi Dong was no frail woman. Inside the cage, she raised her head and looked at its ceiling. Not a sliver of light came through. The only light was that cast by the orb in her hands.

She raised both hands, and the dark purple light erupted. Rakshasa Divine Power burst from the orb, seeking to force the silver-white cage apart.

The vines stretched to their limit, fine cracks appearing across their surfaces. But just before they snapped, Lan Changsheng added a second layer outside.

Layer upon layer of Blue Silver Grass piled up, as though plastering an ever-thickening city wall. Countless vines converged on the center from every direction, as though the entire grassy slope were closing around her.

Then she did something unexpected: she withdrew the orb.

The dark purple light receded into her palm and vanished, as though sucked into another space. Her hands fell to her sides, and those scarlet markings began to emerge all over her body.

Unlike last time in Spirit City, the blood vessels on her face, neck, and the backs of her hands turned dark red all at once, as though weaving a new network within her body.

Her aura surged once again, rising more than a single level above what it had been. Her pupils turned pure scarlet.

Then she spoke, her voice carrying a triple echo, as though three voices were speaking at once. "The meaning of Rakshasa has never been merely devouring."

Then she vanished.

It was not the kind of disappearance caused by moving too fast to see. It was as though she had lost the very definition of existence. Even Lan Changsheng's Life Divine Power could not detect Bibi Dong's current location.

A rift split open in the space behind him. Six scarlet Spider Spears pried it apart, and Bibi Dong slashed at Lan Changsheng with the enormous Rakshasa Demon Scythe in her hands, like a soul-reaping judge seeking to sever his head and send his soul back to heaven and earth.

At the keen edge he sensed behind him, the Blue Silver Grass around him frantically sounded a warning. Lan Changsheng instinctively tried to use Teleportation to escape, but failed! His ability to teleport had been sealed again. He lunged forward, and the oath of protection automatically manifested behind him to block the attack.

But the Rakshasa Divine Power long accumulated on the scythe still pierced the oath of protection and cut a gash across his back. Golden-red blood scattered in a bloody blossom, and a drop splashed onto Bibi Dong's face.

As Lan Changsheng fell, he dispersed into several strands of Blue Silver Grass and reassembled a short distance away. But the wound Bibi Dong's attack had just inflicted did not disappear when he re-formed. Instead, it clung to him like ants fastened to the bone, impossible to shake off.

He looked at Bibi Dong. A drop of golden-red blood was running down her noble, exquisitely beautiful face, leaving a bloody trail that complemented the dark red markings beneath her skin.

Bibi Dong raised her hand and gently wiped away the blood with the pad of her index finger. She looked at the blood shimmering gold on her fingertip and held it toward the sunlight, as though confirming something. Then she smeared the blood from her fingertip onto her lower lip, like a woman applying her makeup.

Lan Changsheng truly could not imagine how such uncanny allure and nobility coexisted in her.

Bibi Dong was also watching Lan Changsheng. Her tongue lightly licked her lower lip, and a smile so satisfied it was almost tender appeared on her face. Yet it sent an involuntary chill down Lan Changsheng's spine.

"Your blood is warm..."