Chapter 882 - 236: Earth Vein Guardian
The flames receded, yet those silver infants clung to the walls as if unharmed, much like snails climbing up tree bark in the rain.
Chang Yi watched this scene with a tingling scalp, clueless about what these creatures were, and uncertain why others seemed driven like mad to leap downward.
These people were Extraordinary, possessing considerable Spiritual Power, capable of resisting substantial mental influences.
"There’s no other choice."
He knew this couldn’t go on, and took out a black crucifix, roughly palm-sized, from his chest. The crucifix gleamed, appearing as if coated with lacquer.
Then.
He inserted the crucifix into the ground of the high wall, its black patterns spreading outward from the center, covering the surrounding area, with ghost-like blue figures appearing at the points of the patterns.
[Glorious Cross: B crown, formed by long-accumulated faith, can dispel negative effects on a large scale; the stronger the faith, the more potent the effect.]
Under the influence of the Glorious Cross, those previously enchanted suddenly snapped out of it, stopping and bewilderedly looking around.
"I seemed to see my child just over there..." said a middle-aged man with a bushy beard, breathing deeply, frightened, aware that his child was long dead.
The teammate beside him, who was gripping his body with his left hand, breathed a sigh of relief and said, "If I hadn’t grabbed you, you’d have jumped. Falling from this height would leave you crippled if not dead."
"It seems those driven to jump down were all people who had children."
The coverage of the Glorious Cross wasn’t vast, so they dragged the enchanted to the crucifix’s side.
The cross could only last a relatively short duration, and the accumulated faith would be continually consumed within that time.
The silver infants hadn’t fully ascended but stagnated halfway, as if withered, their flesh dried up, and they fell off.
Yet more silver infants appeared from thin air below, and climbed upwards.
These little silver creatures were highly defensive, though resembling infants, impervious to blades and bullets; only a Tier Eight Extraordinary could breach their defense, requiring considerable effort to kill.
Non-orderly creatures are incomprehensible to entities of Order, whether in their composition or behavior.
The Blood Moon world’s masters are Blood Species, yet these monsters scarcely qualify as such; people of the World of Heaven seemingly lack the ability to send Blood Species over.
Monsters in the city kept increasing, yet their speed slowed; Blood Moon creatures formed no organization, wandering the city aimlessly, constantly consuming the Death Curse.
The south of the high wall.
"What did you see?" Zhu Xin Xue asked Xu Kai beside her.
Xu Kai, his eyes covered thickly with black cloth, looked towards the scene inside the city, and said solemnly, "It’s all people, or animals, or other creatures; perhaps this is their original appearance, turned into this form under distorted rules."
Zhu Xin Xue nodded, thoughtfully saying, "You’re saying the Blood Moon world might have been a normal world at the start, changed only by some cause."
Xu Kai said calmly, "Probably so, if we were swallowed by the Blood Moon, we’d end up like them."
His soul burned constantly, like blazing stars, perceiving what others couldn’t.
This placed him in an extremely perilous position, potentially losing control at any moment, going insane, or encountering unknown entities.
"Deputy Lin said we’ll win this battle because he can see destiny," Zhu Xin Xue continued.
Xu Kai was silent for a moment, "I don’t believe in that; it’s just rhetoric. If he could truly see destiny, he wouldn’t fight so desperately."
As soon as the words fell, he leaped from the edge of the high wall without hesitation, black flames following, turning surrounding black infants into ash.
Meanwhile.
More people entered the city, slaughtering the Blood Moon monsters at the edges.
These monsters hardly counted as Blood Species, manageable at least; easily killed, whereas the horror of Blood Species lay in their vigorous Life Force, extraordinarily hard to slay, given the chance, reborn through the flesh of other beings.
Most of their knowledge on Blood Species came from Zhu Wenwu, who, before leaving, listed hundreds of Blood Moon creatures and methods to counteract them.
Xu Kai moved through city streets like a blazing fire, unaffected by the Death Curse, clearly identifying monsters, cutting them down one by one, black flames spreading and burning with his steps.
The battle reached its most intense point.
People from the World of Heaven appeared, first dozens of soldiers in pitch-black Iron Armor, then copious clear springs gushed from the air, spreading into the city.
Monsters of the Blood Moon, upon touching the descending springs, bodies rapidly dissolved.
Their arrival was at the city’s center, where Death Curse and Blood Moon monsters were most concentrated.
Both sides tangled, caught in a kind of balance, broken by their arrival.
More people emerged from mid-air, landing on the streets, mostly Tier Seven Extraordinary, though some were Tier Six.
Since Tier Five Extraordinary would touch the world’s rules, they didn’t appear immediately.
After these people appeared, the overwhelming Death Curse seemed to be activated, boiling over, akin to Evil Ghosts rushing forward.
Instantly.
More than a dozen people from the World of Heaven were entangled by the Death Curse, falling to the ground and gradually turning into mummified corpses.
More laser cannons fell from the sky, crashing towards the center of the city, covering every area.
Although laser cannons are powerful, they are not fatal to the monsters from the World of Heaven nor to the blood monsters; they only serve as a means of consumption.
People from the World of Heaven, braving the Death Curse and cannon fire, first cleared the surrounding monsters, then fought their way east, where more people continued to fall.
Leading the charge was a young man with dark skin, bare-chested, wielding a long spear, who pierced through a newly formed giant red sludge monster with a single strike.
"Follow me and kill!"
He stepped forward, running on the shattered street, as the ground around him trembled like a mountain walking.
Zhou An looked at this person, revealing a solemn expression, sensing a dangerous aura.
This person’s strength surpassed all his previous opponents; terrifying energy hid within his flesh and blood, causing the Death Curse to dissolve in the air before reaching his body, like snowflakes falling on a furnace.
"Looks like he’s not afraid to die."
He said softly, standing up from the high wall, then lifted his sword and swung.
The blade turned into a black line, connecting the space between the two, a visible sharpness stretching across half the city.
This sword strike was accumulated after a day and night and was Zhou An’s strongest; after battling the Sixteen Swordsmen, his strength soared, leaping over the limits of rules.
But he was not restricted by those rules; even at this level of power, he wouldn’t be erased.
Wherever the blade passed, all turned to decay.
The young man wielding the spear blocked the attack, his flesh turned crimson, emitting vast amounts of steam.
"You’re the demon they spoke of."
The young man wielding the spear looked up at Zhou An atop the high wall, shouting excitedly, "I, the Earth Vein Guardian, will cut you down here today!"
Zhou An looked at him calmly, showing a disdainful expression, "This is something that’s rather difficult to achieve."
The man claiming to be the Earth Vein Guardian charged towards Zhou An at an uncanny speed, but halfway through, he fell onto the ground, his upper body split open, skin cracking inch by inch, flesh decaying.
Just as Zhou An thought he had resolved the threat and looked elsewhere, the decaying corpse moved again, launched fiercely with its spear, rising high into the air before him.
"Die!"
The Earth Vein Guardian screamed excitedly, his flesh still tremendously powerful, even Zhou An couldn’t kill him with one strike.
This completely surprised Zhou An, leading to negligence and giving his enemy a chance to get close.
Since mastering the Decaying Sword Intent, no one had survived his sword strike, this one was the first.
Swords clashed, sparks flew in the skies over Jinghan; Zhou An turned to appear on the other side of the high wall, his left hand bloodied, clutching a Bronze Flying Saber, the other holding a red, decaying arm.
"Haha, close one, you’re no match for me." Zhou An laughed, mouth full of blood.
The Earth Vein Guardian’s body completely severed, falling from the sky, crashing into the ground and creating a deep pit.
This person endured two of his strikes; when Zhou An swung his third, the body completely collapsed, dying without having launched a single effective attack, only landing one punch on his chest, insufficient to be fatal.
At this moment.
Hundreds of people appeared on the streets, bursting out from all directions, some even climbing the high wall, charging into the crowd.
"They’re going for a full assault." Su Changxing noticed this scene, realizing the people of the World of Heaven were more decisive than imagined.
Simultaneously.
Cannon sounds rang out in the outer regions, as predicted, the remaining people from the World of Heaven in this world organized to attack them.
Though their numbers are few, they are still a formidable force.
"Those people are yours; don’t let them come over."
Before Su Changxing finished speaking, Jin had already vanished without a trace.
The National Council yielded to the World of Heaven, acknowledging the tremendous strength of the World of Heaven, realizing pointless resistance was futile and choosing submission instead.
This was the wise choice.
Su Changxing understood, under normal circumstances, they couldn’t stop the World of Heaven, even though Zhou An had become this strong, even though they had already made so many sacrifices, even though Lin Xiuyu had calculated most situations.