Preparations had been extensive, and nearly all of her Crimson Crystals were used up. To ensure the Flame would catch, Jiang Sui had made plenty of arrangements on her way up the stairs.
Before the battle had even truly begun, she had already lost an arm. This duel between the two of them was only going to get harder.
The red crystal she had used on Gu Lan just now was her last remaining piece. She had originally hoped to end the fight quickly, but she had underestimated just how troublesome Gu Lan could be.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t have such an ugly expression upon learning of her current situation. Fortunately for her, Gu Lan wasn’t doing much better either.
Jiang Sui felt the concrete floor beneath her feet heating up. The Flame was spreading, and they could already see the glow and feel the heat.
“A deep purple Poisonous Potion.”
Gu Lan took a deep breath and pulled out her final trump card.
Even Jiang Sui couldn’t help but comment: “How come you people from the Black Star Cult are so fond of using this stuff?”
“What do you know? This is the blood of our God, a blessing bestowed upon us by the King in Black Robes.”
“Is that so? You like it so much, then you surely wouldn’t mind the side effects of using it, right?”
“Is that right?”
Her way of rebuttal was to prove it with action. Jiang Sui’s words left Gu Lan speechless. The best…
She tilted her head, raising the Boiling Blood, the trembling needle hesitating several times before the skin of her neck. Each failed attempt made her clench her teeth harder.
Of course she was still afraid. No matter how the cult’s high-ranking members preached the wonders of Boiling Blood, the zealots who injected themselves the moment they got their hands on it—many of them couldn’t withstand the side effects and were crippled on the spot.
Gu Lan slowly lowered her hand. The moment she looked up, Jiang Sui’s figure had already vanished from where she stood. When she sensed her presence again, she had silently appeared right beside her.
The chilling Scythe came swinging in, and Gu Lan hastily controlled her Nine Tails to defend.
Jiang Sui had long since identified the flaw in this defensive method, so before making a move, she always prepared a Green Crystal in advance. She would toss the Green Crystal before swinging her Scythe, and as the blade cleaved through it, the burst of wind would blast the clustered fox tails apart, leaving Gu Lan’s weakness completely exposed before Jiang Sui.
In that critical moment, Jiang Sui saw Gu Lan’s remaining arm rise once more, and the needle filled with Boiling Blood plunged into the Side Wing of her neck.
Gu Lan’s expression instantly twisted into something savage, her eyes flooded with bloodshot veins. The tails that had been blasted apart by the wind began to move again, closing in around Jiang Sui.
Could she cut off her head before the tails touched her?
After a brief hesitation, Jiang Sui chose to retreat instead, dodging her counterattack.
The Nine Tails converged on a single point, punching straight through the floor, cracks spreading all the way to Jiang Sui’s feet.
Indeed, having only one hand was somewhat troublesome.
Had she been able to use both hands just now, the Scythe could have moved even faster.
By now, Gu Lan had injected all of the Boiling Blood into her body. The strange purple liquid rapidly spread through her veins.
She tilted her head back, gasping for air, the bulging veins on her neck taking on an eerie dark purple hue.
She heard those voices—completely incomprehensible in meaning, yet low whispers that forcibly burrowed into her mind, threatening to split her skull apart!
But Gu Lan could clearly feel her weakened body regaining its strength. Her wounds no longer ached, and she even felt stronger than at her peak.
So this is the power of God’s blood?!
A grin crept across Gu Lan’s lips. She felt like she feared nothing now.
Behind her, the nine fluffy tails shed their fur, leaving behind something that could no longer be called tails. They were entirely Touch Tentacles now.
The flesh rapidly swelled, becoming sharper and more jagged. Jiang Sui had just been thinking that when she saw the tips of these “tails” bloom open like flowers, their inner surfaces lined with fangs. It was utterly revolting.
Only after the tails finished transforming did Gu Lan hunch over, as if that single act had nearly drained all her strength.
The moment Jiang Sui took a step forward, those mutated fox tails shot into motion at terrifying speed.
The frontal strike came so fast she almost didn’t react. Though she twisted aside to dodge, the tip still slashed her cheek. She was about to raise her Scythe to cut it off when another mutated tail swept in from the side. Jiang Sui could only raise her Scythe to block, and she was sent flying.
Gu Lan laughed in excitement: “Hu ha ha, ha ha ha ha!”
“This is the feeling!”
The sheer thrill of crushing an Enemy!
Gu Lan gave Jiang Sui no chance to catch her breath, stepping forward on her own initiative, the mutated tails attacking again and again.
They opened their mucus-filled “mouths,” as if starving, desperate to catch Jiang Sui and tear her to shreds.
Despite her limited mobility, Jiang Sui kept dodging these attacks without a moment’s pause. The moment she slowed down even slightly, the mutated tails would grab her.
Every time the mutated tails struck the ground, they left a crater behind. The flames had nearly reached this floor, thick black smoke pouring endlessly from the holes.
When Jiang Sui’s back hit a wall, she knew she had no way out.
“Hee!”
Gu Lan narrowed her eyes, and all nine mutated tails attacked at once.
With a thunderous crash, the entire Unfinished Building seemed to tremble.
That wall was smashed straight through by the mutated tails, debris raining down and disappearing into the sea of fire below.
Gu Lan retracted her tails. When the dust cleared, Jiang Sui was nowhere to be seen.
She walked to the edge of the massive hole and looked down. All she saw was roaring Flame.
Where is she?
The ground behind Gu Lan suddenly split apart. Jiang Sui, Scythe over her shoulder, leaped out from it and, seizing the moment of her shock, swung her blade.
“Aaah!”
A bloodcurdling scream.
Six of the nine tails were severed by Jiang Sui’s blade, and Gu Lan let out a shriek.
The angle wasn’t quite right. She’d need another strike.
This time, Jiang Sui aimed for her back, but before the cut could land, she was struck again by the remaining mutated tails.
The two distanced themselves once more. Both Jiang Sui and Gu Lan were utterly battered.
It hurts.
Jiang Sui clutched her stomach, feeling like her dinner was about to be knocked right out of her.
“Why? Why! Why?!”
Gu Lan, on her knees, pounded the ground with all her might.
“Why can’t you just die quietly?!”
When their eyes met, Jiang Sui let out a pained laugh instead.
“We’re all fighting this hard just to survive. Why must it be me who dies instead of you?”
The two stared at each other, but neither launched the next attack.
Halftime.
They stayed silent, as if sharing this brief moment of respite together.
Jiang Sui propped herself up with her Scythe, while the tails behind Gu Lan worked to mend her wounds.
Hidden in Jiang Sui’s palm was a crystal, but she didn’t toss it out just yet. She was waiting for the right moment.
The Flame had already spread up. The walls around them were catching fire, and the tremors of the collapsing structure grew more and more pronounced.
Gu Lan’s expression grew increasingly impatient, until the moment her patience ran out entirely. Her gaze turned vicious in an instant.
The ground behind Jiang Sui cracked open. A mutated tail that had been lurking underground struck at her back.
Got her!
Gu Lan was about to witness Jiang Sui’s body being pierced through by the tail.
But it didn’t happen.
Jiang Sui, who appeared completely unguarded, dodged the tail’s attack in a split second.
She had sensed it all along. While fighting Gu Lan, she had never deactivated her Beast Transformation Senses, constantly keeping track of her surroundings.
She had been waiting for the moment Gu Lan attacked first!
Her tails hadn’t fully grown back yet. As Jiang Sui dodged the attack, she tossed the Blue Crystal into the air, then swung her Scythe like a baseball bat, knocking it straight across to the other side.
The Blue Crystal shattered. Water surged over Gu Lan’s body, then rapidly froze into ice.
Gu Lan’s remaining tails were frozen solid. Jiang Sui dashed forward, leaping into the air.
A black blade cut through Gu Lan, finally stopping behind her.
The two stood still once more.
Crack!
As the ice broke apart, Gu Lan’s last fox tails shattered into fragments. Her stomach was torn open by a massive gash, blood spraying as her entrails spilled out.
Jiang Sui lowered her Scythe and ran straight for the edge of the building. Before it fully collapsed, she jumped.
She landed steadily, not sparing a glance at the toppled Unfinished Building, and headed toward the Small Forest instead.
But after barely two steps, her swaying body reached its limit, and she collapsed to the ground.
“Cough, cough!”
All Beast Transformation Senses active, and for this long, no less.
The fact that Jiang Sui had held on this long was already breaking records.
Fortunately, the battle was over. All she needed to do now was find a place to rest before her consciousness sank into the abyss.
But it seemed she had overestimated her own physical condition. Before she could get very far, her vision went black.
Meanwhile, in the Ruins of the building where the flames were slowly dying out, a hand pushed through the rubble.
She used every last ounce of strength to dig herself out of the wreckage, then spotted Jiang Sui lying not far away.
“Heh heh, what do you know? In the end, I’m the one who survives.”
Gu Lan’s skin was burned beyond recognition, making her look like some kind of creature raised in recovery.
The thought that Jiang Sui was lying there waiting for her to end her life made her forget all the pain in excitement.
“That’s not necessarily true.”
A voice interrupted her advance.
A cute Black Cat appeared from who knows where, locking eyes with Gu Lan, who crouched there looking more monster than human.