By now, the blood humanoid creature's size could truly be called gigantic—by visual estimate, it stood over twenty meters tall and was still continuously growing.
However, its blood-formed body was already battered and torn, covered with scorch marks and holes. From these wounds, foul-smelling dark red liquid gurgled out, while the wounds continued to heal themselves, greatly slowing the blood giant's growth.
"This thing is still absorbing power? Where exactly is it drawing blood energy from?"
Yaolin, having finished vomiting, wiped his mouth and stood up, staring in disbelief at the blood giant ahead, whose every movement stirred up waves of air and bloody storms. As a fellow practitioner of blood magic like the dark practitioner leader, he knew very well that even through sacrifice or other rituals to absorb power from the outside world, amplifying one's strength to this degree wasn't realistic.
"Um, we know a bit of information here—not sure if it's related to this big guy..."
Hermione beside them raised her small hand and said:
"We were transported by teleportation magic to the dark practitioners' headquarters. Those bad guys had set up some kind of blood sacrifice ritual in underground caverns that operated using divine beast blood."
"But that place has already collapsed now, and we destroyed several power supply devices maintaining the blood sacrifice ritual... Could there be some connection between the two?"
"Also, all the dark practitioners in the entire secret realm seemed to self-destruct for some reason. Glenn and I currently theorize that their leader placed curses... or similar magic on them, because they were forced to self-destruct—they were still cursing angrily before dying."
"Remote sacrifice, offering one's own body... Strange, if that's the case, the target of the blood sacrifice you mentioned shouldn't be this guy..."
Yaolin frowned as he stared at the blood giant before them, muttering to himself:
"This kind of sacrifice generally involves offering blood power to some dead evil existence and summoning it to the present world to gain its temporary assistance. Logically, it shouldn't directly feed power back to the person arranging the ritual."
Black-purple lightning tore through the dark sky, striking the blood giant and nearly tearing it from shoulder to waist. Even though the lightning's burning slowed its healing considerably, the blood giant was still mending its wounds at an incredible speed.
This bolt of lightning also sent a flash through Yaolin's mind, shattering the thoughts that had been constraining his thinking.
"...But if this guy's purpose in arranging the ritual wasn't to have the summoned existence help him accomplish tasks, but to seize the powerful force that existence possessed, then it all makes sense!"
Dark practitioners were greedy beings, the most selfish and self-serving among humans. Even when they gathered together to form organizations, it was only for mutual protection—in reality, they remained self-centered and fought individually.
If forced to choose between "having a powerful existence help accomplish something" and "amplifying oneself to gain powerful strength," without doubt, basically all dark practitioners would choose the latter.
In the end, they only trusted themselves.
These madmen, to achieve their goals, could even drag those self-proclaimed superior evil existences up from the underworld to scheme against them.
"Looking at it this way, this guy's current state can only be considered a defective product. The reason he felt angry not long ago was probably because the sacrifice ritual he arranged was destroyed by Glenn and Hermione, right?"
Yaolin thought silently, his hands already quietly gripping his blood sword.
He showed no worried expression over the enemy's great strength, nor any relief that the opponent's ritual had been destroyed. Instead, Yaolin's face revealed a sinister, mad smile.
"Ah... no, no, the old problem is acting up again. I can't let these two little ones see this expression."
Yaolin struggled to control his facial muscles, trying to suppress the evil grin, but could only manage a twisted expression.
Normally, when not using dark blood magic, Yaolin was just a slightly thin young man who loved eating and had a laid-back personality. But once he began using dark blood magic, the side effects of practicing this technique would make him bloodthirsty, irritable, violent, and mad. The inner demons suppressed in his heart would become active, uncontrollably pouring brutal and evil thoughts into his brain.
Right now, he had only one thought:
Cast aside reason and compete with this fellow practitioner who had schemed against a powerful existence!
"Huff... huff... I say, you two, do you have any way to quickly send me alone to the top of this blood giant's head?"
Yaolin in front of Glenn and Hermione suddenly began breathing heavily for some reason, his tone strange as he asked the two youngsters.
Glenn and Hermione exchanged glances, neither understanding what this practitioner intended to do.
However, they did indeed have the method he mentioned.
Since he was asking, Glenn and Hermione decided not to inquire what Yaolin wanted to do and simply satisfy his request.
"Yes."
"Yaolin, just wait a moment."
Glenn and Hermione replied simultaneously, both drawing their wands and beginning to cast spells.
The two had previously considered similar combination magic. In their conception, they could use this method to quickly deliver certain objects to distant targets—for example, stone golem puppets equipped with complete gear, possessing certain intelligence, and capable of individual combat. Of course, Hermione's Transfiguration wasn't yet advanced enough for that level, but they had already developed the combination magic as a delivery method.
Actually, this wasn't too difficult—they just needed to layer and operate magical circuits with "repelling," "launching," "accelerating," and "propelling" properties according to certain patterns. Glenn could easily accomplish this.
However, their magic was prepared for stone golem puppets with extremely high physical durability—using it on humans might be a bit much to handle.
So Glenn explained all the possible consequences to Yaolin.
"It's fine, just minor injuries. My healing ability is very strong—no need to worry."
Yaolin only replied this way, his tone slightly urgent. Since his back was to the two, Glenn and Hermione couldn't see his expression clearly.
Since he said so, Glenn asked no more questions and immediately began preparing the magic with Hermione.
Then, amid Hermione's scream, Yaolin suddenly thrust the blood sword in his hand into his own chest, piercing his heart and penetrating his entire body.
"With my blood, I sacrifice my demonic body!"
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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