When Yaxiu was forced to activate False Promise for the fourth time, the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon did not halt his advance. Instead, he took the initiative to press the attack against Yaxiu while in his unstoppable state, taunting him, "I heard that you rejected Stars, and I thought that while foolish, you at least possessed some pride. Yet this is all you amount to—you claimed you wouldn't bow to Stars, yet haven't you been accepting her protection all along?"
Yaxiu's twin blades tore through the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon's body of maggot flies from the corpse sea, his voice rasping as he countered, "What do you mean?"
"Isn't False Promise the gift Stars bestowed upon you?" the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon sneered. "Back in Black Fall Hell, I saw the wonder she left behind. Now, with Hell sealed, it appears in your hands... The only possible explanation is that she secretly constructed a new one."
At this point, the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon grew somewhat curious. "How on earth did you bewitch Stars into letting you seize half of her Supreme Holy Grail, granting you the seat of Heavenly Vice-Monarch, and even gifting you a wonder of fate to protect yourself?"
This wonder of fate was actually the Divine Lord of Stars's masterpiece?
Yaxiu froze in shock, yet in his heart, it felt thoroughly reasonable. Among the six God-Leaders, only the Divine Lord of Stars dabbled in the Fate faction. The only sorcerer capable of constructing a wonder of fate was naturally her alone.
Aside from the Divine Lord of Stars, the other God-Leaders seemingly had no idea he could enter the Six Hells. Yaxiu naturally would not reveal this, let alone offer any explanation.
Timing the final second before False Promise expired, he leapt into the air to distance himself from the Mountain of Corpses and Sea of Blood. Yet countless flies swarmed above him, their droning din weaving into a harsh, grating whisper dripping with malice:
"Where do you think you can run?"
Countless flies coalesced into the silhouette of a humanoid figure. The Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon had only enough time to form his right leg, yet that right leg alone was a heavy sledgehammer sufficient to smash Yaxiu back down to Hell!
The forbidden blood art amplified by Dark Extinction Blood River caused the blade of his right foot to detonate into a burst of fireworks the instant it struck Yaxiu.
Even though Yaxiu blocked it with divine might, the violent shockwave still notched his new twin swords. The terrifying impact slammed him back down into the blood sea like a falling butterfly.
"You can't use False Promise anymore, can you?" The Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon pursued relentlessly, seeing through Yaxiu's cards at a single glance. "If Stars were here, I would fear her somewhat. But did you honestly think a mere unique wonder would leave us helpless? Pure delusion!"
He had hit the nail on the head.
Although Yaxiu still possessed source crystals, wonders had their limits. Having been activated several times in quick succession, False Promise had reached its breaking point. Forcing another use would not only prove ineffective, but the wonder itself would instantly collapse and shatter as its sorcery spirits dropped dead.
Yaxiu clenched his teeth, holding down the surge of blood in his throat. His twin blades whirled like windmills as he entered a brief infinite divine might mode. Through divine might training, Sonia had mastered Divine Might Iai. Yaxiu lacked that specific talent, but he had not come away empty-handed; Sonia had taught him step-by-step how to grasp the sensation of divine might, and he was now capable of unleashing it continuously for a short burst.
Faced with the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon's dark extinction blood arts that could pierce all defenses, infinite divine might was Yaxiu's ultimate line of defense!
The shockwaves of sword clashing against blood detonated the surrounding crimson sea, sending hundreds of meters of blood surging into the sky to drown the world. Amid the pelting bloody rain, Yaxiu repeatedly cleaved through the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon's body of maggot flies, slowly clawing back from what had been a completely one-sided slaughter.
After several minutes of brutal melee, Yaxiu finally caught onto a weakness that was barely a weakness: the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon required time to reform his body via Maggot Flies of the Corpse Sea. This was the only window of opportunity Yaxiu could seize. As long as he relentlessly destroyed the body before the flies could fully coalesce, the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon would struggle to mount an effective offensive and be dragged into a battle of attrition! But Yaxiu's intention was far too obvious—the calculation was loud enough to be heard across the Blood Moon Kingdom. The Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon broke Yaxiu's desperate struggle with a single adjustment:
He used his hands.
Earlier, the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon had attacked primarily with his legs, so Yaxiu had focused on shattering those legs. But anyone thinking for a second would realize that as the progenitor of the Blood Saint Moon Shadow, how could the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon not be a master of fist and claw techniques? It wasn't that Yaxiu failed to realize this, but rather that he was already on the verge of his absolute limit.
When he barely parried the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon's heavy blood-cannon punch, a fierce whip kick nearly shaved off his neck. Yaxiu was sent spinning across the blood sea like a top. By the time he barely recovered his balance, the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon's swarm of flies had already reformed into a humanoid shape right before his eyes.
In just a few breaths of clash and counter, Yaxiu's body was riddled with wounds and drenched in blood. One side of his face was torn open, exposing ghastly gums, and white bone jutted from his shoulder. Like a ragdoll in a tempest, he could only cling to a single breath, holding on with everything he had. But the world would not treat you kindly just because you put your life on the line.
Powerless without False Promise? Incapable of doing anything unless leaning on the protection of Stars? This time, the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon's swarm of flies gathered beneath Yaxiu, the eerie, buzzing voice sneering, "Still, I've grown bored of playing.
"Let's end this."
The Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon instantly reconstituted, kicking upward from below. Yaxiu summoned his divine might to block, but at that exact moment, his entire being froze. Aside from his conscious thoughts still running, his source energy and soul body both ground to a complete halt, as if a pause button had been pressed.
The third eternal wonder of the Mountain of Corpses and Sea of Blood: Blood Origin Curse Poison. Activating this wonder required no physical contact; as long as the target's blood spilled into the blood sea, it could be triggered indirectly. The more blood the target had shed, the longer the curse poison's paralysis would last—an extraordinarily potent form of crowd control.
Yet because Yaxiu possessed False Promise, which granted immunity to all damage and crowd control, the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon had held this wonder in reserve, keeping it hidden. Only after Yaxiu exhausted his uses of False Promise did he bare his deadliest fangs to end this divine war in a single stroke!
To guard against any trickery, the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon first delivered a violent kick that sent Yaxiu flying into the air. Yaxiu watched helplessly as he flew like a severed kite. His gaze swept across the other battlefields: he saw Sword Princess suppressed beneath the Weaver's ferocious onslaught, and he saw the Witch and the others pinned down by the Lord of Joy's Wind, Flowers, Snow, and Moon. To capture him, the three God-Leaders had coordinated with unprecedented synergy, creating a foolproof window for the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon to secure his prize. Yet seeing the God-Leaders expending such painstaking effort just to keep Sword Princess and the others at bay, Yaxiu suddenly felt an inexplicable surge of pride.
As expected of my girls. Every one of you can hold your own.
This was his limit. Short of paying with himself, Yaxiu seemed to have exhausted all options. In truth, it should have been this way long ago—long before Sword Princess departed for the ancient battlefield, long before the three God-Leaders acted as substitutes, he should have played his final trump card... Yet Yaxiu had harbored wishful thinking all along.
And fear.
Last time, he had forgotten Vichy. Whose turn would it be this time? Sword Princess? The Witch? Or the Silver Lantern?
He hadn't lost a quarter of himself in the Six Hells, yet here in reality, he was forced to sacrifice a quarter. He wasn't afraid of losing a fourth of his own existence, but losing the memories of any one of them was a price he could never bear.
Yet what choice did he have? The enemies were God-Leaders capable of destroying heaven and earth. Aside from borrowing the power of the Doomsday Quintet, what else could he do?
What else could he possibly do?
Was this truly his only option?
Before Yaxiu's eyes flashed the image of Sword Princess rushing toward the ancient battlefield, of the Witch, Silver Lantern, and maid locked in fierce combat... They were all fighting with their lives on the line, none of them had given up, so how could he sell himself out and betray them? Just how much further was he going to let them down!
My life no longer belongs to me alone. I traded lives with them; I cannot sell away what belongs to them... I belong to them, and they belong to me!
Yaxiu could not circulate source energy, nor could he move his soul body. The only thing he still commanded was his mind, and the only resource within his heart was—
The negative emotions dwelling within Sword Princess and the others.
Those were the emotional resources Yaxiu used to activate the Sword Attendant wonder, carefully sealed away and kept untouched out of sheer dread. But driven by instinct—or rather, a desperate last-ditch gamble—Yaxiu threw open this Pandora's box, letting their malice, hatred, madness, and cruelty completely invade his soul!
The sky seemed to collapse into Yaxiu's eyes, the air turned thick and viscous, his body felt light enough to float, and the blood in his veins ran cold as ice... The Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon suddenly sensed an uncanny shift taking place within Yaxiu. Yet whatever happened, it didn't matter. Bound by the Blood Origin Curse Poison, Yaxiu couldn't move an inch. His next strike would completely strip Yaxiu of all ability to resist—
Just as the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon's strike was about to land on Yaxiu, in the distance, Felix suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood with a choked cry and lost consciousness completely. Simultaneously, a fleeting shimmer flashed across Yaxiu's body, and the Blood Origin Curse Poison was dispelled—his source energy circulation and control over his soul body fully restored!
The Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon saw it with absolute clarity: that was the signature casting trace of False Promise. But hadn't the wonder itself already reached its limit? And why had it triggered for merely an instant, doing nothing more than freeing him from the Blood Origin Curse Poison?
When Yaxiu turned around, the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon saw a pair of ruby-red, crimson eyes glaring back at him.
At a distance where neither could evade, the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon pierced Yaxiu's chest, while Yaxiu's sword impaled the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon's head. The two crossed paths. The Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon recoiled far away, letting out a muffled grunt as half of his body dissolved into a pool of bloody water, unable to reform for the moment!
Just now, when Yaxiu drove his blade through his skull, crimson ripples had surged from the sword. These ripples had not only ravaged the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon's soul body, but also inflicted a swordsmanship curse upon it. The Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon had been completely unable to reassemble his flesh, forced to directly discard the cursed portions and rapidly regenerate using Maggot Flies of the Corpse Sea!
The Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon looked up and saw Yaxiu freely unfurl his void wings. This human actually possessed three pairs of silver void wings, three pairs of golden void wings, three pairs of prismatic void wings, two pairs of sword-colored void wings, and one pair of soul-colored void wings, alongside overlapping hell wings, supreme tail feathers, and... war-colored void wings!
Yaxiu, in the body of a demigod, possessed all seven wings!
Yet war-colored void wings clearly originated from the ancient battlefield and should only exist on Sword Princess. Why did Yaxiu have them as well? Moreover, the crimson ripples Yaxiu had unleashed earlier seemed to be a swordsmanship miracle that Sword Princess wielded—how could he use it too?
However, recalling that Sword Princess also possessed Yaxiu's supreme tail feathers, the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon reasoned that this was likely a special authority of supreme void wings and did not ponder it further. Besides, these war-colored void wings were merely superficial; Yaxiu hadn't activated the ancient battlefield's eternal wonder, and at most could only draw upon the feather's hue to bolster his own sorcery.
Although Yaxiu had escaped a fatal deathblow, the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon was unconcerned. Yaxiu was still a battered, crippled husk, and that fleeting False Promise had not healed his injuries in the slightest.
More importantly... the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon clenched his right fist hard, crushing Yaxiu's heart to pieces!
Without a heart, let's see how much longer you can hold on!
This is a wound inflicted by Dark Extinction Blood River—you have no way to heal it! The agony of the flesh curse alone is enough to wish you were dead!
And so, the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon watched as countless soul locks emerged within the hollow cavity of Yaxiu's chest, stitching together the severed blood vessels. Draped in a dark veil, each time the veil pulsated, the soul locks pumped blood through his body in rhythm, crimson fluid coursing through eerie blue conduits and gleaming a vibrant violet. Blood spilled incessantly from his mouth, half his face stripped down to gums and bone, yet the hands gripping his swords grew firmer and steadier, and the bloody glare in his eyes burned ever fiercer!
This lunatic actually used a soul miracle in place of a heart...
The Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon couldn't help but lick his lips, one eye widening while the other narrowed. "I take back what I said earlier.
"Stars truly has fine taste. You really are an extraordinary human, Yaxiu Heath. I've taken a liking to you too." The Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon threw open his arms as tens of thousands of tons of blood surged behind him, thoroughly engulfing them both. "So entertain me even more!"
Chapter 1174