Gray Mist Space.
If the battle between Yan and Lin Mo was the cold correction of order against error, and the slaughter between Ayane Hanyu and Chu You was the abyss’s greedy devouring of traits, then what was being staged here was the most primal, most violent, most hysterical… storm of revenge!
The one leading it was the Fallen Xia Ji.
She hovered in midair, surrounded by dense, inky-black mist that could not dissipate.
This mist was not chaotic; it condensed into countless thick, ferocious-looking black veins that writhed like living things.
They were like madly dancing demon snakes, or the tentacles of deep-sea behemoths, taking her as the center, madly strangling, piercing, and lashing at Mirror Lake!
Her pupils were pure crimson, containing nothing but boiling murderous intent and fury that threatened to burn down the entire world!
Her originally delicate and cute face was now slightly twisted from extreme emotion.
Her lips kept opening and closing, emitting a muttering like a dream or a curse: “Kill you. Kill you… How dare you hurt… Kill you… I must kill you…!”
With each “kill,” the black veins’ attacks became even more ferocious!
They ignored spatial barriers, sometimes thrusting from the front, sometimes coiling from the sides, sometimes drilling up from the ground, sometimes dropping from the zenith!
The density of attacks, the speed, the tricky angles—it was like a storm of metal, completely enveloping the area where Mirror Lake was.
And the target locked by this storm—Mirror Lake—had long lost the leisurely ease he had when facing Gu Qiancheng before.
At this moment, he was a complete mess!
The gray mist was still under his control, forming layers of flowing barriers around him, constantly deflecting and weakening the black veins’ attacks.
His figure also flickered and teleported rapidly within the gray mist, trying to create distance and escape this nearly endless frantic assault.
But Xia Ji’s attacks seemed to have a certain lock-on and suppression property.
What was contained in those black veins was a force far deeper and more overbearing than the gray mist, even beginning to erode and repel the part of the gray mist space that Mirror Lake controlled!
His spatial flicker became sluggish.
The gray mist barriers were being pierced and shredded faster and faster!
Bang!
A thick vein grazed his shoulder, the tailcoat’s shoulder instantly turning to ash, leaving a scorched black mark on the skin beneath, bringing a searing pain.
Hiss!
Another vein, like a scorpion’s tail swipe, stabbed toward his back from an extremely tricky angle.
Mirror Lake twisted his body to the limit, but his ribs were still slashed open with a wound deep enough to see bone, and gray-black blood oozed out.
Ugh!
Mirror Lake grunted, finally revealing a face full of shock and anger.
He wanted to say something, to interfere with Xia Ji with words, to regain the rhythm of the battle, but Xia Ji’s pure and mad killing intent pressed on him like a tangible tide, and those muttered “kill you”s drilled into his ears like demonic sound, leaving him no gap to even organize a complete line of bravado!
‘What kind of monster is this?!’
Mirror Lake was both shocked and enraged, and could only focus more on defense and evasion, struggling miserably to hold on in that black storm.
Behind him, at a distance slightly farther from the center of the battlefield.
Gu Qiancheng finally managed to prop himself up on the cold, sticky gray mist ground.
The penetrating wounds on his back and chest were still shocking, blood staining half his body.
His face was terrifyingly pale, and his breath was weak.
But at least, he was still conscious.
He watched Xia Ji ahead, who was like a demon descending, madly outputting attacks on Mirror Lake, then looked down at his own hands that could barely lift any strength.
A very complicated expression appeared on his face.
First stunned, then relieved, and then… there even appeared a faint hint of relaxation and emotion that he himself hadn’t noticed.
He let out a heavy, long sigh, as if unburdening a thousand-pound weight.
This breath aggravated his wounds, making him cough violently.
Turning his head, with a “pui” sound, he spat a mouthful of dark red bloody sputum mixed with organ fragments onto the gray mist beside him.
The sputum was quickly absorbed and assimilated by the gray mist.
“This feeling…”
Gu Qiancheng wiped the corner of his mouth, his eyes a bit dazed, muttering to himself.
“Hmm… What’s wrong with me?”
He recalled the past.
How many times in critical moments, facing strong enemies, trapped in desperate situations, had he relied on his extraordinary will, adaptability, and formidable strength to forcibly carve out a bloody path and become the key to turning the tide.
He was used to standing at the forefront, used to bearing the greatest pressure, used to being the most solid shield and the sharpest spear for his companions.
But today, in this strange death-realm rift, facing Mirror Lake, he was beaten with no ability to fight back, severely wounded and near death.
And then… he was saved by Xia Ji, who hadn’t even graduated high school, in such a violent and unreasonable manner.
Watching Xia Ji’s petite back that exuded boundless ferocity, watching the terrifying power she unleashed that even Mirror Lake could barely handle…
In Gu Qiancheng’s heart, there was suddenly a strange, never-before-felt sensation.
That sensation was sour and astringent, a bit tight, as if his heart had been gently squeezed by a warm hand.
“It must be from too much blood loss… My mind isn’t clear…”
Gu Qiancheng shook his head, suppressing this strange feeling, and muttered a sentence.
He turned his gaze back to the battlefield.
Mirror Lake, despite being in a sorry state, was still Mirror Lake.
His control over the gray mist space remained.
Although Xia Ji’s attacks were ferocious, they seemed to lack an effective finishing move.
It would likely be hard to truly kill the opponent in a short time.
Moreover, Xia Ji’s state must be consuming enormous energy; if this dragged on…
Gu Qiancheng’s gaze sharpened.
He couldn’t just sit and watch.
He took a deep breath, enduring the shattering pain throughout his body, and began to arduously, thread by thread, mobilize the nearly depleted and stagnant divine Oracle power within him.
This small amount of power couldn’t even be used for defense, let alone attack.
But he didn’t need attack or defense.
He only needed… a little, perfectly timed interference.
He condensed this minuscule power extremely, like the finest silver needle, silently infiltrating the gray mist.
Then, at the point where Mirror Lake would next attempt a short-range spatial flicker and his landing point was about to solidify, he created an extremely tiny, almost imperceptible… spatial imbalance.
Although the extent and range of the effect were pitifully weak, for Mirror Lake—who was now being pushed by Xia Ji’s storm-like attacks with nerves taut, calculations precise to the millimeter, and all actions at their limit—it was enough.
Then Mirror Lake’s figure flickered and vanished from the spot again, trying to flicker ten meters to the side and rear to temporarily avoid a combined attack from the black veins.
His figure began to solidify at the target point.
At that very instant!
The gray mist ground beneath his feet, which should have been absolutely stable and under his control, extremely abruptly and without warning… slipped!
It was like stepping on a piece of glass coated with grease that was suddenly yanked away!
This sudden sense of imbalance, completely contradicting his spatial perception, made Mirror Lake’s solidifying form lurch violently, creating a fatal pause and opening that lasted less than 0.1 seconds!
And Xia Ji’s black veins, as if possessing their own combat instinct, or rather, the attacks driven by that mad killing intent were already extremely sharp!
Almost at the same instant that Mirror Lake lurched and exposed his opening!
Three of the thickest black veins, with tips sharp as spears, like poison dragons that had been coiled for a long time, stabbed viciously from three tricky angles at a speed even faster than before!
Squelch!
Squelch!
Squelch!
Three jarring, muffled sounds of sharp weapons piercing flesh rang out almost simultaneously!
One vein pierced Mirror Lake’s right chest!
One vein pierced through his left abdomen!
And the last one, the most lethal one… precisely stabbed in from his back, and emerged from his chest, slightly to the left of his heart!
It brought out a large spray of gray-black blood and what seemed to be internal organ fragments!
Ugh… cough cough… huff…
Mirror Lake’s entire body instantly stiffened in place, like a specimen nailed to the void.
He lowered his head, looking in disbelief at the black spear tip that had pierced out from his chest, still twitching slightly, emitting a dense aura of death and brutality.
Agony surged through his nerves like a tsunami.
What was more terrifying was that the corrosive power within the black veins was frantically destroying his body structure, even attacking his connection to the gray mist space!
He struggled to roll his eyes, looking ahead—Xia Ji hovered in midair, her crimson pupils locked onto him.
The killing intent within them had not diminished at all; it was only a more blazing flame, as if about to burn his very soul to ashes.
Then, extremely slowly and painfully, he turned his head slightly, using the corner of his eye to glance behind him—at Gu Qiancheng, sitting on the ground, his face pale as a ghost, but who, at some point, had a slight… smiling expression on his face, and even raised his uninjured hand, weakly but unmistakably… waving at him!
Cough… huff…
Mirror Lake wanted to say something, but only more gray-black bloody froth surged into his throat.
Boundless agony, the coldness of life rapidly draining, the frustration of plans repeatedly encountering unexpected failures, and at this moment, the absurdity and sense of humiliation of being schemed against by the weak and capsizing in a ditch…
All kinds of mixed emotions eventually turned into a thick, inerasable… desolation deep in his eyes.