Chapter 900: Side Story 4: 137

Dozens of runes surrounded the blood sword, striking it all at once; the blood sword buzzed continuously, blood light surged, and it darted back and forth inside the temple.

However, this process lasted less than half a minute, and those runes were already exhausted.

The surface of the blood sword grew dim, it hovered again above the statue's position, nourished by the blood qi rising from below.

Xiao Jiu certainly seized the opportunity, immediately thrusting the Mòyù Bānzhǐ toward the blood sword.

The blood sword was scattered by the Mòyù Bānzhǐ; when the Mòyù Bānzhǐ returned to Xiao Jiu's thumb, the scattered blood sword had already re‑condensed.

But this time what condensed was not a sword, but a huge, dripping brain!

It had only the shape of a head, its eye sockets clearly empty; yet when it stared at Xiao Jiu, it exuded endless blood‑thirsty killing intent.

Even though she was used to grand scenes, Xiao Jiu's heart still jolted.

She instinctively aimed an arrow feather at the blood brain's brow and shot it.

Whoosh!

The arrow feather hit the blood brain's brow, and Nirvana Fire instantly ignited inside.

From start to finish, the blood brain never tried to dodge.

The flames of Nirvana Fire leapt in those hollow eye sockets, and Xiao Jiu actually saw a strange smile in its gaze.

Then a man's voice suddenly echoed in Xiao Jiu's mind: "Thank you."

Thank you?

Who is thanking her?

Thank her for what?

To be honest, at this moment Xiao Jiu really felt a bit panicked, as if something were about to slip beyond her control.

In the next instant, Nirvana Fire had already set the entire blood brain ablaze.

The roaring flames illuminated the whole temple.

At that very moment, Xiao Jiu saw a faint golden light glowing on the ground.

That was… a formation!

The formation, weakened by the opponent's impact, was still barely holding him; at this point, he had stopped struggling.

The temple was eerily silent, save for the occasional crackle when the Nirvana Fire burned.

Pop.

At the instant a tiny, sharp pop sounded, Xiao Jiu suddenly realized something and reached for the Mòyù Bānzhǐ—but it was already too late.

The blood brain, now a blazing fireball, slammed violently toward the ground below.

The formation flickered incessantly from the impact, clearly on the verge of collapsing at any moment.

Meanwhile, the blood brain lodged dead‑center in the formation, half above, half below.

Xiao Jiu closed her eyes; despite a thousand precautions, she could not guard against it.

His "thank you" was actually gratitude to Xiao Jiu for giving him the chance to break the formation.

The blood brain stuck in the formation's center; as the formation lay damaged, Nirvana Fire continually scorched it, and the thing below breaking the formation was merely a matter of time.

Xiao Jiu now found herself in a dilemma.

If she went forward to slay the blood brain and extinguish the Nirvana Fire, the impact on the formation would be no less than now.

She could only watch helplessly, waiting for him to break the formation and confront him face‑to‑face.

Actually, facing him head‑on wasn't necessarily bad; they had originally planned to wipe him out in one strike.

But even after the formation was shattered, the blood brain turned into a pool of filthy blood, and the Nirvana Fire went out, the opponent still did not show himself.

If the enemy does not move, neither do I.

But soon, Chishe gave a warning: "He's coming……"

Xiao Jiu saw it.

A small clot of fresh blood welled up from the center of the small temple, then quickly spread outward; wherever the blood flow reached, everything was corroded clean, leaving only a patch of wet, blood‑stained soil turned inside out.

Many white bones were wrapped within the soil.

Squeak……

A string of opossums suddenly appeared, squeaking twice.

When Xiao Jiu followed the sound and looked, she saw that string of opossums darting east and west; the instant they touched the blood flow…… they were all devoured.

Not even bone fragments remained.

Chishe sucked in a breath of cold air, then wondered aloud: "Why can this blood flow corrode the opossums' bones, yet leave the bones in the soil completely unharmed?"

Yeah, why?

Is there any difference between the bones in the soil and those of the opossums?

Next, the blood flow, as if gone mad, rapidly coated the entire small temple.

Even the walls of the small temple, under the blood flow's corrosion, turned into a sheet of blood‑mud.

Xiao Jiu retreated while unleashing Nirvana Fire.

Nirvana Fire could indeed scorch away a surface layer of blood mist, but it could not penetrate the blood flow.

That blood flow, which seemed able to devour everything, kept moving yet was so thick and viscous that not even a thread of air could squeeze in.

What the hell is this thing!

After stepping back a few paces, Xiao Jiu suddenly stopped.

Chishe immediately urged: "Xiao Jiu Zhanggui, what are you trying to do? You're not thinking of going to figure out what this thing is, are you? Don't be stupid—it can even eat a house!"

Xiao Jiu indeed felt an urge to step forward and investigate.

But she would not foolishly use her body to touch that blood flow.

She merely spread her true form, let out a long cry, flapped her wings to soar into the sky, then dove and swung her massive wings, fanning the edge of the blood flow below.

The blood flow spreading out in all directions paused for a moment, yet it was not lifted by the hurricane.

It seemed to have grown out of the soil, and indeed it was impervious to wind.

A phoenix feather floated down from above.

The phoenix feather was completely devoured the moment it touched the blood flow.

At that moment, the blood flow had already reached ten meters away, touching the Formation Array set up by Lei Xiulin.

A puff of black smoke rose, and with hardly any effort, the Formation Array was destroyed.

Xiao Jiu hovered in midair, witnessing all this; for the first time she truly saw what 'a scene of utter devastation' meant.

This is truly the suffering of all living beings.

No wonder... No wonder Bai Qi, knowing full well that the Azure Abyss Sword bore the taboo 'Do not cut down surrendered soldiers, and you shall be invincible under heaven,' still slew the surrendered prisoners.

Faced with such a powerful enemy that offers no opening, where would any genuine surrendered soldiers come from?

To suppress this enemy has already exhausted primordial strength; where would there be extra energy to restrain surrendered soldiers and prevent false surrenders?

Therefore, the only choice is to slash! To kill!

Better to mistakenly kill a hundred than let any of them go.

After all, each surrendered soldier could bring unforeseen disaster to our side.

This is the most helpless yet correct choice at present.

No matter how great the cost, as the leader, one must do this!

As the range of that blood flow expanding outward grew larger, its flow speed also increased; in the blink of an eye, the Formation Array twenty meters away was also broken.

Furthermore, within a radius of twenty meters, all flowers, grasses, trees, all living beings, even an earthworm in the ground, ceased to exist.

Within the upturned blood-red soil, every inch was wrapped in layers of white bones.

Such a scene was excessively bloody and eerie.

In the flash of lightning and sparks, Xiao Jiu thought: if we regard this blood flow as a whole, could the enemy's true form be hidden within it?

Or perhaps this blood flow itself is part of the enemy's true form?

Then... would drawing down heavenly lightning to strike it be effective...