There were always plans, and there were always backup plans. Yet no matter how many contingency plans one made, there would always be variables that eluded anticipation—for better or worse, sudden or delayed...
There were always variables.
One might inadvertently step onto a stairway to meteoric success; or, with the slightest lapse in focus, a chasm of despair might abruptly yawn open right beneath one's feet.
To ensure a plan could proceed reliably, one had to account fully for numerous variables, adapting to unexpected developments at every turn. The role of bait was no different.
Ji Jue and An Ning—one in the open, one in the dark.
Moving separately, each served as bait for the other.
Purely in terms of attraction, the wolf lurking in the shadows would most likely ambush An Ning first. If any other complication arose, however, Ji Jue—out in plain sight—would certainly be the first to suffer.
The moment conditions changed, the two had to react and adapt immediately—providing support, pinning down foes, offering cover, or mounting a rescue.
Yet no matter how the plan shifted, one principle remained immutable.
"...If you determine the other person is beyond saving, prioritize your own preservation and pull out immediately!"
Before setting out, Ji Jue had raised a single finger, giving a stern warning. "In other words, once I'm certain you can't be saved, I'll turn and walk away. Don't expect me to throw away my life for you."
"How heartless."
Pinching the hem of his clothes, An Ning had looked at him pitifully, tears welling in her eyes. "Brother Ji Jue, didn't we agree to mutual affection, to live and die together?"
"Keep your sleep-talk in your dreams."
Ji Jue pushed her advancing face away, utterly unmoved. "Now, get to work."
Even now, An Ning still considered Ji Jue a scoundrel who enjoyed spurning a maiden's feelings. Yet abruptly sensing the change in her bracelet and the unexpected protection of the blessing, she could not help but smile.
*Thanks a lot, Brother Ji Jue!*
*I forgive you a tiny bit, then.*
Amid the sudden upheaval, restraints and counters, ambushes and counterattacks, the roles of hunter and prey inside and outside the trap shifted fluidly back and forth.
Yet the instant the daggers were bared, failing to kill the hunter and exposing itself instead meant that the Wolf Sin's prolonged ambush had been rendered entirely futile—an absolute failure.
Now came the joyful time of life and death!
Flying Light rose from her very breath, hurtling forward across the narrow span between them.
Faced with the sudden counterstrike, the blood-formed visage covered in tattoos showed no fear whatsoever. Instead, its ravenous grin grew increasingly savage. Abruptly, it opened its jaws and roared.
The corpse detonated. Boundless blood surged forth, joining the blood rain pouring from the heavens and the mutated, runaway Bashe blood to form an innumerable vortex of sharp blades that shredded and pierced everything.
In the blast, both sides were flung backward.
An Ning's hoodie tore apart, revealing the thin, form-fitting garment beneath, as well as mangled lacerations with upturned flesh spanning from her hands to her neck and across her cheeks.
Aside from her vital areas shielded by Quicksilver, she was covered in wounds.
Meanwhile, the mutilated corpse reformed from blood crashed to the ground, sizzling and hissing. Half its head was gone, struggling to take shape again. The tattoos on its face were blurred and ripped apart by cracks, and half an exposed brain spilled out like shattered tofu.
Mutual destruction!
Yet within that savage grin resembling a wolf's maw, where flesh had split and cracked gums were exposed, sharp canines clamped down firmly onto a wailing wisp of Flying Light.
Then, its jaws snapped shut!
The Flying Light shattered...
Bitten to pieces!
The lethal strike had yielded no result, while the curse poison within the wolf's blood had already plunged deep into An Ning's marrow with that earlier explosive thrust, spreading outward.
Poison!
Merely coating a blade with venom was elementary. In a jungle hunt that spared no method, what place was there for ethics?
The blood of the Wolf Sin was inherently a horrific poison engineered against the White Stag's Heaven's Choice, to say nothing of the numerous curses and the Wolf Sin's taint meticulously woven into it...
At most, the Wolf Sin was injured. But An Ning had been doomed to fail the very moment she was pierced!
Instantly, faint popping sounds like bursting bubbles resonated from within the girl's body—the bursting of capillaries and small arterial branches. Pitch-black, razor-sharp barbs thrust abruptly out from beneath her flesh, tearing muscle fibers, wedging into bones, and ravaging her nerves.
The deadly venom spread.
An Ning reached back and stabbed her own artery. Blood geysered out, spraying violently as massive amounts of black blood congealed into sharp shards and surged from the vessel, hitting the ground and rapidly evaporating.
The shift in the blood was the wolf's Regeneration form. Likewise, the blood from that stab could be viewed as part of its soul. Thus, raging from the inside out, the blood throughout her entire body went berserk; the liquid that sustained life had transformed into a lethal poison meant to extinguish it.
Not only that, but her various blessings were rendered inert by the Wolf Sin's disruption. She could not even manifest her own Regeneration form.
"How does it feel, Hunting Finger?"
The Wolf Sin grinned and spread its arms wide. Laughing heartily, it bowed in mock greeting. "From the shadows, the wolf has waited long for you!"
"Pfft—"
Expressionless, An Ning spat out traces of blood. Ignoring the wolf venom spreading through her body, she raised her eyes once more.
Immediately after, her limp, dangling arms shook twice. Innumerable muscle fibers twitched and contracted, flicking away the blood rain that clung to her and the barbs sprouting from her vessels. Her ten fingers flicked, lifting to crook a finger at the Wolf Sin.
Her utterly unfazed demeanor even at death's door sent the Wolf Sin's salivation into overdrive, stirring an uncontainable hunger from deep within its viscera.
Before that could unfold, behind An Ning, a hazy silhouette abruptly materialized amid the pouring blood rain. Its five fingers pressed together like a blade, thrusting straight toward the back of her heart.
A wisp of faint light swept across, shattering the clone congealed from blood. Yet even more afterimages manifested and rose from the gore, surging forward in relentless waves, surrounding and assaulting her without end.
Flickering Flying Light flared incessantly. As her ten fingers snapped, innumerable streams of Flying Light soared into the air amid the siege, crisscrossing and gliding with agile grace.
Between the darkened world and the rain of blood, it looked as though orbiting constellations had suddenly risen—starlight resplendent, its fleeting brilliance flashing continuously.
Yet compared to the pure Flying Light of the past, the illumination now was faint and dim, like fireflies struggling futilely in a sea of blood.
Through the gaps between the hurtling rays of light, the Wolf Sin's silhouette flickered in and out of sight, shifting and dodging at will. The smile on its face was gentle and mocking; instead of rushing to attack, it began to stall for time.
A bleeding prey could not run far. The more violently she resisted and struggled, the closer death drew. The outcome had been decided the moment that blade struck home. The Wolf Sin's venom was quietly spreading through her soul, sinking deep into her marrow.
Yet at that moment, its pupils abruptly shrank.
Amid the flickering of countless rays of Flying Light, An Ning's figure had vanished. Without warning, traversing hundreds of meters, she was right in front of it!
From the flow of countless blood shadows, she had pinpointed the location of its soul!
In a flash, summoning all her strength, she surged forward!
Then, sweeping her empty hand, a wisp of faint light suddenly ignited between her pressed index and ring fingers. Searing and ascending, it burst with an unparalleled, blazing radiance.
There was simply no time to react.
The instant it was noticed, it was already point-blank!
The beast's astonished eyes were illuminated by the light.
This was the so-called Hunting Finger, the claw and fang bestowed by the White Stag—even with only a breath remaining, it was enough to breach the boundary between life and death, overturn the board, and slay the Wolf Sin!
—*Flying Light!*
*Crack!*
The sound of detonation rang out.
The Flying Light extinguished, and An Ning was thrown backward, crashing into the pool of blood.
"Phew, so this is Hunting Finger Flying Light? Terrifying..."
Sighing softly, the Wolf Sin raised a hand and wiped away the shattered scorch marks on its face. "To be honest, if I hadn't found a way to make you approach me on your own, I really wouldn't have known how to deal with you."
Within three paces, the wolf venom resonated with the Wolf Sin.
The bloody traces remaining in her heart wound and the spreading wolf venom converged into one. Then, at the Wolf Sin's command—it detonated!
Her heart burst, and her spiritus shattered.
In the final split second deciding life and death, the Flying Light died.
With a massive, bloody cavity blasted through her chest, An Ning plummeted toward the earth, only to be caught by the throat and hoisted up by a hand congealed from the blood rain.
"Farewell, Hunter."
The Wolf Sin grinned. The blood that formed the hand suddenly morphed, giving rise to a maw that lunged forward, snapping shut to suck the marrow from her bones and chew with ravenous delight!
The sound of splintering bone and torn flesh erupted.
It came from the Wolf Sin itself!
Abruptly, thunder erupted!
A furious roar tore forward at breakneck speed!
A twisted, shattered iron fist blasted through the air, brutally pulverizing that grinning face and torso. Pan Ying slashed, sweeping along its arm to sever the limb. Then, the Dragon Mountain armor, weighing dozens of tons and glowing red-hot from head to toe, slammed violently into its form, utterly grinding the writhing Wolf Sin to dust and detonating in a shower of splattering blood.
In the gale following the explosion, the battered Dragon Mountain armor had already gathered An Ning into its embrace.
Its crimson eyes burned in silence.
Like an enraged giant reclaiming his stray cat.
Except... that massive frame was already riddled with holes and covered in cracks. Even Fluid Alchemy could no longer mend so much destruction and trauma.
"Heh, what touching affection."
The Wolf Sin's body reformed from the blood rain, dripping with amusement. "I was planning to deal with you in a moment. What's the rush?"
Ji Jue remained cold and silent, offering no reply.
"It's a trap, Brother Ji Jue," An Ning murmured with a soft sigh. "You fell for it."
"I know."
Ji Jue lowered his gaze, staring at the catastrophic damage across the frame and the toxic blood spreading through his own body...
To break free of Yue Chen's entanglement, he had been forced to take a Geocentric Fist head-on, and then, mid-dash, had been struck by an ambush of pre-prepared hyper-dense jets.
The isolation layer had been completely shattered.
Worst of all was the erosion of the Wolf Sin's blood.
Following the fissures across the armor, the wolf's blood had writhed like a living creature, seeping inside until it landed on the arm Ji Jue used to wield his sword. In an instant, it sank into his marrow, spreading like a raging tide.
It rapidly surged up his arm toward his heart!
"A minor issue," Ji Jue said.
In an instant, Solid Alchemy engaged, freezing every shift of spiritus within his arm. Immediately afterward, the material property interference of corruption alchemy forcibly transmuted the arm's flesh and blood.
Finally, Crucible Blood surged with violent fury, burning every trace of the Wolf Sin's poison to cinders.
The price was that his right hand went completely numb, the arm transmuted into a metal-like substance, and most of Non-Offensive ceased responding.
He had lost an arm.
Ji Jue sighed silently.
An Ning was gravely wounded, and their opponents still had a pristine Desolate Ruins and a Wolf Sin...
This had been truly reckless; all previous efforts had gone down the drain.
"Heh, liar."
Leaning against the armor, An Ning smiled weakly. "Weren't you supposed to abandon me and just leave?"
"I lack manners, not brains," Ji Jue retorted. "If I abandon you, how am I supposed to face Xiao An when I get back?"
Yet An Ning turned her head, peering through the fissures in the armor to gaze into Ji Jue's face, brimming with curiosity. "Is it really just about how to face Xiao An?"
"Shut up."
Ji Jue couldn't be bothered to entertain her. At such a critical juncture, she was fussing over such an absurd question—what on earth was going on in her head?
After severing the remaining two completely warped metal arms, he spurred his dragon blood once more and drew his sword, setting Pan Ying humming violently.
Not far away, the Wolf Sin seemed in no hurry to attack. It leisurely converged with Yue Chen, as though they were old acquaintances. Reaching into its own throat, it actually pulled out an Echo employee badge and hung the navigator insignia back around its neck.
"Working one job is bad enough, but taking on two side gigs at the same time? Do you think the boss can give us a raise?" the Wolf Sin joked with a smirk.
"Shut up and do your work," Yue Chen warned, looking straight ahead without turning his head. "Don't screw this up."
"Sure, sure."
The Wolf Sin grinned. The indistinct silhouette of blood stepped forward, treading onto the patch of out-of-control Bashe flesh that was still spreading madly. Ignoring the wailing, writhing faces and the tugging of limbs, it suddenly asked, "Can you lend me this body for a bit?"
"Whatever you want."
"Then wake up, little brother." The blood shadow laughed maniacally, its hands plunging like blades into the endlessly expanding mass of flesh. "Let's have some fun!"
*Crack—*
Without mercy, it crushed the final remnants of Lü Yang's soul, injecting wolf venom and blood into the mass. Then, under the nourishment of the blood rain, it thoroughly ignited the Bashe's final ferocity and madness!
A world-shaking hiss echoed from the flesh rearing up from the ground, reverberating outward as pillars of bloody bone abruptly rose, detonated, and reformed.
As Lü Yang's consciousness was completely annihilated, the blessing of the fish scale, the Bashe's flesh, the contamination of the blood rain, and the Wolf Sin's deadly poison merged entirely into one.
A foul stench resembling rotting fish permeated the blood rain, growing ever more pungent. The runaway flesh proliferated wildly as colossal heads rose from it one after another. A nine-headed giant serpent writhed like a mountain range, whipping up a tempest. Beneath each scale lay distorted, wailing faces, their weeping and prayers endless.
Every one of the nine heads bore a twisted, writhing face, while eight rotting tails swept across the ground. Tossing its heads back, it swallowed the blood rain like a whale, growing without limit.
Previously under Lü Yang's control, this cursed, endless vitality had been entirely unable to unleash its true might. But with his consciousness completely wiped out, nourished by the blood rain, the abomination known as the Bashe had finally undergone complete rebirth under the Wolf Sin's guidance!
It ignored Ji Jue's all-out bombardment. The blasts of phlogiston bombs and the pervasive incineration of napalm were rendered useless; writhing, mutated limbs sprouted rapidly and withered away like flowers blooming and fading.
The wounds carved open by Pan Ying closed completely the moment they appeared. That cursed, mutated vitality could not even be used for blood sacrifice—it would only contaminate and taint one's blood essence.
Amid the boundless blood rain, afterimages rose, closing in from all sides.
In the distance, Yue Chen raised his hand once more.
Boundless matter converged, and hyper-dense matter materialized again. A horrific force sufficient to completely obliterate Ji Jue and his armor on a physical plane surged and coalesced!
Then, Ji Jue heard a voice from within his embrace.
Though faint and dying, it was extraordinarily gentle.
"Good thing... I brought a 'Bitter Day' with me when I left the house..."
An Ning murmured. Amid the splashing rain of blood, a flush of color returned to her pale face, full of delight. "Brother Ji Jue, let me show you... the part Xiao An never learned."
The so-called essence of the Hunting Finger—
—The 'Ultimate Realm' of [Projection]!
Chapter 373