Lin Feng fervently hoped this would be the end of the troublesome level 5 demon beast. Alas, events unfolded contrary to his desperate wish...
Just as the desiccation effect was about to spread from the withered tentacle to the blood octopus's main body, the beast acted with brutal pragmatism. An adjacent tentacle lashed out like a whip-sword! THWICK! The desiccated tentacle was severed clean off at its base!
"RRROOOAAARRRGGGHH!!!"
An explosion of pure fury erupted from the creature. Blood gushed from the stump, churning the surrounding seawater into a turbulent crimson cloud that made the colossal beast appear even more monstrous. Every single tentacle beneath its body arched upwards, elongating like a forest of gigantic, malevolent seaweed, all surging towards Lin Feng!
"Dammit! Still coming?! Fine! Let's turn you into dried octopus jerky!!" Lin Feng's brow twitched violently as a curse tore from his lips, fueled by rising anger. The Blood Demon Blade's previous performance had ignited a spark of defiance within him. No more fleeing. He gritted his teeth, resolve hardening – it was time to fight.
Even as he spoke, his right hand slashed through the water. A streak of bloody light shot forth from the severed, withered tentacle, aiming directly at the massive wave of attacking limbs.
Lin Feng had expected the beast, having just suffered from the blade, to recoil or dodge. To his shock, the tentacles didn't hesitate or deviate in the slightest. In the blink of an eye, the Blood Demon Blade struck home again with a sharp 'THWIP'. A flicker of triumph crossed Lin Feng's face, but half a second later, his expression froze. One tentacle adjacent to the newly struck one abruptly twisted and, without hesitation, sliced clean through the tentacle that had just begun to wither! Meanwhile, the remaining multitude of tentacles continued their relentless assault, closing in on him!!
"Shit!!" Lin Feng paled. He hadn't anticipated this ruthless tactic. A grim realization struck him – with over a hundred tentacles, sacrificing one or two means nothing to it!
"Sacrificing tentacles is fine... but what about your HEAD?!" Lin Feng hesitated for only a fraction of a second about fleeing. A ruthless glint flashed in his eyes. Clenching his jaw, he stood his ground, pouring all his focus into controlling the Blood Demon Blade. His outstretched right hand slammed downward with fierce intent!
"BOOM!!" A muffled detonation rocked the water. A thick cloud of crimson mist erupted from the severed section of the withered tentacle. At its core, a thin, impossibly bright line of blood-energy shot forth like lightning! THWIP! THWIP! It pierced effortlessly through two tentacles positioned directly in its path, bursting through the dense thicket of writhing limbs. Its trajectory was now unimpeded, aimed straight at a colossal target looming behind the tentacle net – the blood octopus's head!
"WHRROOO?!"
A roar of shock and fury erupted. The mass of tentacles, mere moments from engulfing Lin Feng, jerked to a sudden halt. Then, they began to recede rapidly. It wasn't that the tentacles were being withdrawn defensively; the creature's entire body was retreating, dragging all its limbs with it. Faced with the terrifying threat of the Blood Demon Blade targeting its core, the beast chose evasion. Its immense size demanded a massive movement distance to dodge. In an instant, the deadly trap around Lin Feng vanished.
A surge of fierce joy washed over Lin Feng. Instead of fleeing, he did the unthinkable. He kicked off hard, propelling himself forward – chasing the retreating behemoth!!
As he surged towards it, an intense blue light erupted from his body. His hands flew together before his chest, weaving intricate seals at blinding speed. Instantly, vast amounts of water spirit energy coalesced from the surrounding ocean. Above his head, the faint outline of an enormous crescent moon, easily dozens of meters across, began to materialize, glowing with profound azure light...
Blue Moon Soul Restriction Art!!
"RROOOAAARRR?!!"
Simultaneously, the retreating blood octopus shuddered violently. Its massive, crimson eyes widened, projecting unmistakable, primal terror. Another guttural roar tore from its maw as an overwhelming aura of pure, savage bloodlust erupted from its form!
It sensed the immense, soul-crushing threat emanating from Lin Feng's spell. Panic warred with its inherent ferocity. It halted its retreat. Destroy the threat before it completes! It abandoned defense for all-out annihilation.
"SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!!"
The blood octopus moved with terrifying speed. The moment it stopped, its entire arsenal of tentacles – nearly a hundred – lashed out simultaneously. This time, however, their speed was blinding, their reach extending far beyond anything seen before. It was pushing itself beyond its limits, ignoring the internal strain. The tentacles crossed the dozens of meters separating them from Lin Feng in the blink of an eye, whipping towards him like crimson death!
"THWIP!!" Amidst the lashing forest of limbs, a faint piercing sound was heard. A streak of bloody light shot past one tentacle, streaking towards the beast's main body – the Blood Demon Blade!!
This time, however, the blood octopus didn't flinch or dodge. Its eyes blazed with even greater ferocity. With another thunderous roar, it poured more power into its tentacle assault, increasing their speed. It was gambling everything – kill the cultivator before the blade struck true!
And Lin Feng? Faced with annihilation by the crushing forest of tentacles, he didn't falter. His eyes burned with fierce concentration. He roared hoarsely, "Xiaoqiu!!"
"CHEEP!!" Before the echo of Lin Feng's shout faded, a high-pitched squeal erupted from within his robes. A small, blurry yellow figure shot out, unfolding mid-flight. Before it even stabilized, a spirit stone blazing with blinding white light was flung forward with incredible force.
"CHEEP-CHEEP-CHEEP-CHEEP!!" Xiaoqiu hovered protectively before Lin Feng. An almost invisible, powerful force field seemed to ripple around its tiny body, distorting the seawater nearby. Its eyes were wide, teeth bared in a snarl of pure effort. As soon as one high-grade spirit stone was hurled, its little paw flashed to the dimensional ring around its neck, pulling out another, and then another, hurling them in a relentless, rapid-fire barrage...
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!" A series of deafening concussions tore through the seabed. Blinding white explosions erupted in a wide fan-shape, less than fifty meters in front of Lin Feng. The leading edge of the tentacle swarm was violently shredded and scattered. The dozen or so tentacles at the very forefront were instantly pulverized into mangled, bloody pulp.
"RROOOAAARRRGGGHH!!!" A howl of agony and incandescent rage echoed from the beast. Even amidst the raining gore and dismembered tentacle fragments, several blurred crimson 'whips' managed to spear through the explosion's periphery, still reaching for Lin Feng...
But Xiaoqiu had bought the crucial second Lin Feng desperately needed. Above him, the Blue Moon Soul Restriction Art completed its formation. An immense crescent moon, easily twice the size of any Lin Feng had conjured before, now hung fully formed, radiating profound, soul-chilling azure light.
"Huuummm..." A deep, resonant hum vibrated through the water. Ethereal moonlight cascaded downwards, illuminating the pitch-black seabed for a kilometer in all directions. A strangely gentle, warm, yet profoundly disorienting energy washed over everything. Then, in an instant, all that power coalesced into a single, concentrated beam, lancing straight towards the massive creature below...
Within the beam's radiance, the dozen or so tentacles that had pierced through Xiaoqiu's explosions froze mid-lash, mere meters from Lin Feng's face. Further back, the scores of other tentacles, mangled and flailing from the blasts, also locked rigid. And beyond them, the blood octopus's entire colossal form was bathed in the blue glow, petrified... utterly motionless.
Time seemed suspended. In this eerily frozen tableau, only one thing moved: the hair-thin streak of bloody light hurtling towards the blood octopus's head!
Now clearly visible: directly before the beast's primary eyes, one solitary tentacle hung poised – held back as a sacrificial shield meant to intercept the Blood Demon Blade. Useless now in its frozen state. The blade flashed past the immobilized limb like a crimson thread of lightning and plunged deep into the crown of the blood octopus's head!
Against the sheer mass of the beast's skull, the Blood Demon Blade was smaller than a sewing needle. Its entry produced no discernible sound. The creature remained rigidly frozen, showing no outward reaction.
Everything happened in less than a heartbeat. One second later, the blue moonlight rapidly faded. The colossal crescent moon flickered once and dissolved into nothingness. Lin Feng had poured every ounce of his remaining strength into that single, all-encompassing Blue Moon Soul Restriction Art, sustaining its effect for only the briefest, most fleeting instant.
Yet, strangely, even as the spell's influence vanished, the blood octopus remained frozen in place. Its lantern-sized eyes flickered erratically, a bizarre, unsettling glow shifting within them.
"SKREEE!!!" After two seconds of unnerving silence, an ear-splitting shriek of pure agony shattered the stillness. The colossal creature convulsed violently, snapping from absolute stillness into frenzied, uncontrolled thrashing!
"WHOOSH—THUD!!" In its wild flailing, one massive tentacle whipped out blindly. It struck Lin Feng squarely – he was utterly spent, incapable of even raising a defensive hand. He was sent hurtling backward like a ragdoll. A startled gasp echoed faintly behind him as a blue figure shot forward from nearby, intercepting his tumbling form.
An Xiyue caught Lin Feng, her heart lurching at his ashen face and limp body. "Lin Feng! Are you alright?!" she cried, panic edging her voice.
"Pfhht! I'm... I'm fine... Not dead yet..."** Lin Feng spat out a mouthful of blood before rasping the words. He looked down at Xiaoqiu, whom he had instinctively scooped into his arms just before being hit. The little creature was unconscious, but its breathing seemed steady – likely just exhausted from the immense expenditure. A wave of relief washed through him before he lifted his head with immense effort, gaze fixed on the blood octopus hundreds of meters away.
The beast was now an avatar of primal chaos. Its maddened thrashing churned the seabed into a maelstrom of silt and violent currents. Wherever its tentacles slammed down, the ocean floor cracked open like shattered glass, mimicking a violent underwater earthquake. Most horrifying of all, the octopus's entire body pulsed with a grotesque, rhythmic crimson light... like a gargantuan bulb flickering wildly under catastrophic overload.
Lin Feng could feel it through his connection to the Blood Demon Blade – an overwhelming sensation of exhilaration, of ravenous feasting, flooding back to him. The feeling intensified with terrifying speed. Several breaths later, as this sensation peaked, he witnessed the horrifying climax.
The blood octopus's body, shining almost blindingly bright, suddenly froze. Then, exactly like an overloaded bulb, its crimson luminescence flashed violently several times... and extinguished completely.
Darkness swallowed everything. But in the final instant before the light vanished, Lin Feng glimpsed the impossible: the beast's bloated form collapsing inward, shriveling at an inconceivable rate...
Though sight was lost, An Xiyue's spiritual sense remained locked onto the beast. What she 'saw' left her breathless with disbelief. The colossal frame rapidly wilted, collapsing in on itself. Most crucially... all traces of life force had vanished.
"Heh... heheh... HAHAHA!! Cough... Cough... Cough!!"
An Xiyue sensed the death through her spirit; Lin Feng knew it through the Blood Demon Blade. A ragged, triumphant laugh burst from his blood-flecked lips, triggering another painful fit of coughing.
"You... you're laughing?! Heal yourself! Now!" An Xiyue snapped out of her daze, horrified by his coughing fit. She frantically grabbed his wrist, channeling her own spiritual energy to support him. "Focus on recovery!"
"Mmm..." Lin Feng finally managed to stifle the coughs. With trembling hands, he retrieved several healing pills and swallowed them. Gritting his teeth against the agony, he began circulating his meager energy while instructing An Xiyue, "I can't move it... Take me there. We need... the corpse. Then we must leave... immediately. Not safe..."
"Understood." An Xiyue nodded, composure returning. Supporting Lin Feng, she swam towards the location of the fallen beast.
...
"Tch... Even dried up, it's still enormous... Thank the heavens for that large-capacity ring..." Standing before the carcass, Lin Feng surveyed the desiccated, yet still immense, remains of the level 5 demon beast. He retrieved the dimensional ring acquired from Feng Liefeng, mustering the last dregs of his recovered energy. With a surge of effort, he stored the entire colossal corpse – Blood Demon Blade still embedded within – into the ring's spatial pocket.
"Done. Let's go. Fast."
Lin Feng swept his weary gaze across the dark, turbulent seabed. Leaning heavily on An Xiyue, they began swimming away.
"Huh?" Barely a few kilometers later, Lin Feng stiffened. He jerked his head around, peering intently into the darkness behind them. Two faint, rapidly approaching lights pierced the gloom, heading straight for them!
"DAMN IT!! It's those two who fled earlier!! RUN!!" Recognition slammed into Lin Feng after only a heartbeat's delay. His face, already pale, drained further of color. He yanked An Xiyue's arm, and they desperately tried to accelerate away.
But Lin Feng was a wreck. His speed was pathetic, slower even than An Xiyue's, forcing her to practically drag him along. And An Xiyue, only at the Golden Core stage, stood no chance of outrunning two pursuing Nascent Soul cultivators. Within moments, the distance between them had halved. They were being overtaken rapidly.
Lin Feng glanced back. He could now make out the faint silhouettes of their pursuers – undoubtedly the two Nascent Soul cultivators who had fled earlier from Qin Gucang. They hadn't truly escaped. They must have lurked nearby, observing the entire battle. Seeing all threats eliminated and Lin Feng critically weakened, they had emerged to claim the spoils – the ultimate scavengers.
"What to do... What can we DO?!"
Panic clawed at Lin Feng's heart. He desperately tried to assess his own condition, only to be met by waves of excruciating pain radiating from every fiber of his being. He was truly combat-ineffective, unable to even wield his artifacts. Glancing down, Xiaoqiu remained deeply unconscious. An Xiyue beside him was uninjured but stood utterly no chance against two Nascent Souls.
At this proximity, even if he gave her the Invisibility Cloak, it couldn't hide them from the pursuers' spiritual senses.
Strategy after futile strategy flashed through his mind. None offered escape. A wave of bitter despair washed over him. I survived the Blue Moon Sect ruins. I resisted possession by two ancient Soul Transformation cultivators from millennia past. I emerged victorious against a God Transformation cultivator. I even slew a level 5 demon beast! And now... am I to die ignominiously at the hands of these two scavenging vultures?! The injustice of it choked him.