Chapter 89: Chapter Fifty-Seven: Explosive Survivability

“Ga ga~~.”

A flock of crows flew through the night sky, perhaps tired, they landed on a power pole half-broken.

As the crows landed, a loud crash echoed from below—the pole snapped, thick dust rising, and the crows cawed in panic as they fled.

“Cough cough~.”

A figure, clothes torn and face covered in blood, rose from the ground.

“I told you, this kind of attack and pain doesn’t affect me.”

Nico licked the blood from her palm, her entire body covered in knife wounds, her face even split cleanly in half.

If any other ghoul had suffered such injuries, they’d be dead—Nico paid no mind, her face lit with a delighted grin.

If one looked closely at Nico’s severed wounds, they’d see only minimal bleeding, and her entire body had no muscles—replaced by tissue modified like a Kakugan.

At some point, Nico’s Kakugan behind her had vanished, absorbed into her body.

“Strange body structure.”

Su Xiao stepped out from the back door; moonlight fell on him, revealing bloodstains on his body—not his own.

After activating Qinggangying, the Zhanlong Flash in Su Xiao’s hand stood out sharply—by night, it looked like a long blade forged from lightning, emitting a pale blue glow.

Qinggangying had little visible effect on Nico—true damage worked, but pain was completely ineffective.

This gender-bending creature was a super masochist, utterly indifferent to pain—or perhaps the more pain, the more excited he got?

All the knife wounds on Nico’s body were from true damage; ordinary strikes did nothing.

Su Xiao strongly suspected Nico’s power far exceeded SS rank—likely an SS+ to SSS-level ghoul.

As for survivability, Nico was even stronger than Kōsuke Izumino.

As for attack power? That bastard’s wild punches couldn’t even land on Su Xiao.

The current situation: Su Xiao couldn’t really hurt Nico, and Nico couldn’t hurt Su Xiao at all—and with Su Xiao’s speed, Nico couldn’t even escape.

“How about it, handsome? Wanna keep fighting? I’m fine with it.”

Nico’s face twisted into a sickly grin, even eager for Su Xiao to slash him again.

Su Xiao clenched his lips, cold light flashing in his eyes.

He bent his body, sprinted toward Nico—within five steps, he stood before him.

Nico swung a wild punch at Su Xiao; his recovery was terrifying, but his strength and speed were average.

Su Xiao stopped his step, sidestepped the punch—missed, Nico’s guard was wide open; Su Xiao drove his knee hard into Nico’s groin.

“Crack.” A chilling sound of shattering rang out.

Nico let out a bizarre scream, eyes bulging—no masochist trait could mask the agony of having one’s testicles shattered.

Nico’s testicles were truly shattered; though he could regenerate, the pain sent black spots dancing before his eyes.

“Aaaah~!”

A howl like a wolf echoed across half a kilometer.

Nico’s body instinctively bent forward; Su Xiao flashed to Nico’s left and kicked his calf.

The calf twisted unnaturally; Su Xiao reversed his grip on the Zhanlong Flash and drove the blade through Nico’s spine, pinning him.

Seizing the moment, Su Xiao grabbed Nico’s chin with his left hand, placed his right hand on Nico’s skull, and pulled in opposite directions.

“Crack.”

Nico’s head rotated one hundred eighty degrees, jaw pointing skyward.

Su Xiao gripped the Zhanlong Flash’s hilt, withdrew the blade, and stepped back to observe Nico from a distance.

Genitals shattered, calf severely fractured, spine pierced, head rotated one hundred eighty degrees.

If Nico still lived after this, Su Xiao had no more options.

As for decapitating Nico—he’d tried. The blade felt like it had sliced through water, not solid flesh.

Nico’s body began convulsing, eyes rolling white.

“This is~… so damn satisfying! Hahaha~.”

Clearly, Nico wasn’t dead. Su Xiao glanced at Nico’s health bar—speechless.

The bastard still had 86% HP—all damage was true damage; normal attacks were useless.

Su Xiao sheathed the Zhanlong Flash and strapped it to his waist, then turned and walked back into the back door.

Fighting this gender-bender was pure waste of time and stamina.

He could kill the bastard—but it would take too long. By the time he finished Nico, the battle between CCG and the Bronze Tree would already be over.

If CCG lost, his 10,000 contribution points would vanish—and that blue-rarity potion? He’d have no idea how long it’d take to earn enough points.

More battles were coming. Overexerting now was unwise.

After Su Xiao left, Nico’s body gradually returned to normal.

“To wound me this badly… what a terrifying guy.”

Nico’s grin vanished. After a moment’s hesitation, he walked away into the distance. He had this survivability—but it wasn’t without cost.

Gaining such tenacious survivability required sacrificing much.

It was the fusion of Kakugan and body tissue. After fusion, lifespan halved, fertility lost, and during feeding, he lost all reason.

During feeding, no one dared approach—just like Ryo of the Bronze Tree.

Anyone who came near would be attacked in a frenzy—no matter who they were, even the closest friends.

…

As Su Xiao entered the back door, a group of ghouls in red robes rushed toward him—they were members of the Bronze Tree.

About twenty of them. It seemed they’d successfully drawn CCG’s attention and were now retreating.

Unfortunately, someone had already cut off their escape route.

“Who the hell is this?”

Su Xiao stood in the shadows; the ghouls could barely make out his white trench coat.

“Either way, he’s human—and no Quinque. Kill him.”

The Bronze Tree ghouls charged silently toward Su Xiao, unaware they were rushing straight to death.

The fight with Nico had left Su Xiao irritated. Enemies like sticky candy—nobody liked them.

The Zhanlong Flash drew—its blade became a thin silver thread.

“Pthth, pthth…”

The ghouls passed Su Xiao in a blur—within a single exchange, five ghouls fell, spurting blood.

The ghouls’ faces twisted in terror, staring at Su Xiao in dread.

A sliver of moonlight shone through a window hole, illuminating Su Xiao’s upper body—his face, streaked with a few drops of blood, came into view.

“This guy is~.”

An A-rank ghoul’s teeth chattered, as if standing on the Arctic tundra, his entire body freezing.

“Run, or we’re dead.”

The ghouls lost all will to fight—they fled for their lives.

But under Su Xiao’s 13-point Agility, escape was impossible.

Three minutes later, a trembling, blood-drenched arm reached out from behind the door; moonlight glinted on it.

“Help…”

Pthth—a long blade pierced through the skull, blood dripping from the tip.

Su Xiao withdrew the blade, flicked the blood from the Zhanlong Flash, and resumed guarding the back door.

During the CCG-Bronze Tree war, killing ghouls granted bonus contribution points.

Each ghoul killed granted roughly 20 CCG contribution points.

Su Xiao stood like an iron wall, cutting off the ghouls’ key escape route.

Worse, the Bronze Tree ghouls retreated in small groups—if they fled en masse, CCG would notice.

Ten to thirty at a time, the Bronze Tree ghouls came to the back door like the Seven Brothers of the Gourd, one batch after another, to die.

Half an hour later, a large pile of corpses lay near the back door.