The Blood Demon Falls
Ouyang Qiangang dismissed Akasha's warning without a second thought.
The altar where the Blood Spirit Human Demon stood was now close enough to touch.
He swiftly drew a single Supreme-Grade Yang Dragon Pill from his robes and swallowed it. He had already taken one while training at the Ouyang Clan Manor, so it offered no further boost to his power — but its effectiveness at healing internal injuries and restoring vitality remained outstanding.
The raging meridians in his body steadied, and the internal energy drained from his dantian began to refill, drop by drop. It couldn't compare to being at full strength, but for that alone he was grateful.
"Keheheheh!"
Behind the Blood Spirit Human Demon's mask, eyes bloodshot and rimmed red with burst vessels glistened with madness. Even with his guards annihilated at Ouyang Qiangang's hands, there was no fear in those eyes — only ravenous greed.
"Magnificent! Magnificent! Your soul and flesh shall make a perfect offering to the Blood God!"
As he spread his arms wide, a crimson mist swirled atop the altar like an apparition. A nauseating stench of blood engulfed the forest, and streams of blood energy writhed like serpents from his palms.
He shrieked in a grotesque, unearthly voice.
"Come to me, offering!"
Standing atop the altar, Ouyang Qiangang locked eyes with the Blood Spirit Human Demon glaring down at him and spoke to Akasha.
'I'm ending this lunatic. Akasha — support me!'
*sigh*… Understood, Doctor.
Ouyang Qiangang's body blurred.
Whoosh—!
As the Flash Swiftness Step unfolded, the five jang between him and the Blood Spirit Human Demon vanished in the space of an instant.
At the same moment—
Kwakwakwakwakwa—
Seventy palms of the Gale Chain Palms spread out in a linked line like beads on a string, hurtling toward the demon's head and chest.
He didn't dodge. He simply swung his twin palms down with savage force, and the tremendous palm force wrapped in blood energy rose to meet the storm of strikes.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWANG!
The explosion sank the stone altar under the demon's feet two inches deep, and everything within a two-jang radius was swallowed by a storm of blade-like energy. The corpses strewn about were shredded into pieces no larger than sliced jerky.
The shockwave bounced Ouyang Qiangang a full jang into the air. He staggered as he landed, then charged straight back at the Blood Spirit Human Demon.
The Blood Spirit Human Demon's internal energy is roughly equal to yours, Doctor. However, you have already expended thirty percent of yours through continuous combat — you are at a disadvantage. I do not recommend a direct clash.
At that instant, the demon's palm force came flying again.
Shwaaaaaak—
Its speed was chilling. Even Ouyang Qiangang, running maximum combat mode with his dynamic vision pushed to its limits, could barely follow it with the naked eye.
Pupuk!
Despite chaining the Nine Palace Secret Tracking Step with the Flash Swiftness Step, a stream of blood energy grazed his body. In that instant, a shimmering blue shield of nanobots rippled across his skin like waves on water.
Impact absorption: 84%. Internal injury accumulation: 30%.
Even so, the blow reverberated down to his bones, and the pain made the corner of Ouyang Qiangang's mouth twitch almost imperceptibly.
The cold qi of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians, which he had been suppressing, came creeping up from the depths of his chest, writhing like smoke.
'If I get pushed back like this, I'll never reclaim the momentum.'
His eyes grew terrifyingly sharp. He punched straight through the swirling vortex of blood energy and poured a storm of Gale Chain Palms down upon the demon.
Pupupupupung!
His palm force collided with the blood energy, and deafening detonations erupted without pause as the altar crumbled, stone dust blooming like fog.
"Keheheheh! Despair, and despair again! He will be well pleased!"
The continuous impacts were taking their toll on the demon as well — hairline cracks had begun to spider across his mask. Yet he seemed to savor pleasure within the pain, his maddened eyes gleaming as he poured out even fiercer blood palms.
Warning! Doctor — the cold qi of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians is attempting to reverse its flow!
Akasha's worried voice rang through Ouyang Qiangang's mind. But his burning eyes didn't so much as flicker.
At that moment, the Blood Spirit Human Demon drew all the blood energy rising from the altar into his own body. And across both his hands, enormous crimson palm shadows took form.
It was a grotesque art, seemingly a condensation of the stench and vengeful grudges steeped into the altar itself.
"I will offer your soul as sacrifice! Blood Demon's Descent!"
With the demon's savage roar, a crimson palm shadow — as though every drop of blood and every grudge upon the altar had been compressed into it — was hurled at Ouyang Qiangang.
KWARURURURU—!
With a thunderous sonic boom, the crimson palm shadow sealed off every avenue of escape and crashed down upon him with terrifying force.
Evasion impossible! Impact projection complete. Estimated probability of death: 99.8%!
'If I can't dodge it or block it…!'
Ouyang Qiangang did not run. His eyes gleamed colder than they ever had before.
'Then there's only one way!'
Akasha's urgent voice followed.
Doctor — that attack's energy waveform carries a yin attribute fundamentally identical to your Transcendent Formless Divine Art. It is extremely corrupted and destructive, but it can be absorbed!
'Then… there's no choice. Akasha — absorb it!'
Understood.
It was a gamble with his life on the line — but Ouyang Qiangang had no other option.
He spread the Gale Chain Palms head-on into the crimson wave of death surging toward him.
Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwa—
Seventy palms layered five times over in an instant — a storm of palm shadows collided head-on with the crimson Blood Demon's Descent.
Pupupupupupupupupung—
The clash of palm forces conjured the image of endless waves crashing against a colossal iron wall. Though it seemed a single instant, the Gale Chain Palms struck the blood palms three hundred and sixty times.
With every collision, Ouyang Qiangang's palm force was driven back a little. But he was not being pushed away helplessly — each impact moment of the Gale Chain Palms shaved away at the blood palms' momentum.
And that would have been impossible without the Absorption Knot of the Transcendent Formless Divine Art. The demon's internal energy, drawn into Ouyang Qiangang's body, was purified in real time by the nanobots — and then added back into his own reserves.
But the strain this placed on his body was beyond imagination. His meridians burned scorching hot one moment and froze solid the next, over and over again.
At some point, the crimson blood energy that had shrouded the altar vanished entirely. Ouyang Qiangang — the altar's stone shattered beneath him, his body driven into the ground up to his waist — vomited a great gout of black-red blood.
"Kehak…!"
His body was a ruin. Forcing himself to absorb and purify his enemy's sinister energy had torn his meridians apart, the pain like being shredded inch by inch.
The Blood Spirit Human Demon, still reeling at the sight of his final trump card vanishing so futilely, took in Ouyang Qiangang's gruesome state — planted in the earth, vomiting blood — and quickly grasped what had happened.
"You… you swallowed my blood energy by force, didn't you?"
Disbelief colored his voice, but it faded almost at once. He had seen the state the young man was in — he couldn't even breathe properly.
The demon let out a triumphant burst of mad laughter.
"Keheheheh! It seems you've learned some bizarre demonic art, but in the end your vessel was too small to contain it. Good — very good! I will tear you limb from limb while you still breathe, and offer you to the Blood God!"
Certain of victory, he slowly raised his hand to end the intruder's life.
But at that very moment, Ouyang Qiangang — head bowed, still retching blood — snapped his head up. And his eyes were not dimmed. No — they blazed with a fury hot enough to burn the world down.
"It's… not over yet, you bastard!"
KWANG!
The mound of altar stone burying him erupted outward as if it had exploded, and his shadow shot skyward like a bolt of lightning.
Ignoring Akasha's warnings, ignoring his body's agony, he wrung out the very last drop of his remaining internal energy. Flash Swiftness Step carrying him off the ground in a charge, he unleashed the Explosive Thunder-Flame King Fist with his entire life's force behind it!
The absolute art, supreme in speed and single-point penetration, tore through the air toward the Blood Spirit Human Demon's chest with terrifying momentum.
"Y-you…!"
The demon's eyes split wide with disbelief as the strike closed the distance in a flash. The color drained from his face as he frantically tried to gather his energy — only seventy percent of it had assembled.
Only then did he remember: Ouyang Qiangang had stolen his internal power. And because of that, he had no strength left to evade the Explosive Thunder-Flame King Fist.
"Hk—!"
The face behind the mask turned sallow.
In the next instant, the Explosive Thunder-Flame King Fist struck the demon's heart with unerring precision. From the great hole punched through his chest, a purple mist of blood bloomed thick into the air.
Kwang!
Puhwak!
Unable even to scream, the Blood Spirit Human Demon fell backward, staring down at his own pierced chest with eyes of sheer disbelief.
Instant death.
Internal energy remaining: 0.8%. Reverse flow of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians is critical. Immediate treatment required.
Ouyang Qiangang's vision blurred. The frigid qi of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians froze him from within, squeezing the breath from his lungs.
But he could not collapse here. The battle was not yet over.
He turned his head — and his eyes found some five hundred pirates rising from their seats.
The frenzied festival that had surrounded the altar had fallen silent, as if it had all been a lie. The terrible screams and greedy laughter were gone, and in their place only the crackle of bonfires and a suffocating stillness remained. Hundreds of pirates stared at the lone figure standing atop the altar with eyes that could not believe what they were seeing.
At that very moment, Ouyang Qiangang noticed a strange light seeping out from the Blood Spirit Human Demon's shredded corpse.
Keeping his guard up, he approached the glowing thing with care. In the place where the demon's heart should have been, a black shard of bone the size of a fingernail pulsed with an ominous violet radiance.
Thump… thump…
Its surface was densely carved with grotesque patterns, like worms writhing beneath skin.
'Akasha — what is that thing?'
Doctor, the object is emitting a high concentration of negative psychic energy along with biological contamination wavelengths. Do not touch it with bare hands!
Akasha's urgent warning rang through his mind.
'So it's not just a cult trinket, then?'
Correct. This appears to be a kind of crystallized conduit — or amplifier — created by condensing the pain and vengeful spirits of countless living beings offered in sacrifice. My assessment is that the rituals performed at the altar existed to feed energy into this bone.
Ouyang Qiangang tore a strip from the demon's crimson robe, carefully wrapped the bone in it, and picked it up.
Madness flared in the eyes of the watching pirates.
"Kill him!"
"Take back the sacred relic!"
"That demon slew the Master!"
With bloodthirsty howls, some five hundred pirates swept their blades up and came charging at him.
Ouyang Qiangang glanced up at the tree where Ju-pyo was hiding, forced down the mouthful of blood filling his mouth, and let out a jeering laugh.
"Your sacred relic belongs to me now!"
Gathering the last dregs of his internal energy, he unfolded the Heavenly Meteor Divine Movement and sprinted south.
Hwiiiiiing—
A thrown dart whistled past his ear, and curses-laced shouts rang out behind him.
"Catch him!"
The cold qi of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians felt as though it were freezing the Eight Extraordinary Meridians solid, but Ouyang Qiangang gritted his teeth and drove his feet into the earth.
Once every last pirate had vanished in wild pursuit behind him, a hush settled over the clearing that had, moments ago, been a living hell.