Gubuta fled inside the shattered Fire God Bell like a man hiding in a shrine, shouting through the ringing metal, "I'll stay here forever! Waste your time on me, Huaxia man!" Yet even from his refuge he felt something in Chen Xiao's hand that made his skin prickle — the goat horn. It carried an odd, nauseating presence.
Chen Xiao smiled without warmth. He rode Divine Wind, swung the horn, and struck the bell.
Dang—one blow sent a column of blue water slamming against the bronze. The bell chimed, deep and resonant. Gubuta relaxed—then watched as Chen Xiao's motion accelerated. The horn became a fountain, spitting out raw elemental torment: sun-scorching flames, arctic cold, gale-force winds, crushing gravity, and lightning like rivers of stars. The bell trembled under the onslaught.
"Thirty-one… thirty-two… thirty-three." Chen Xiao counted deliberately. Each number tightened a knot of dread in Gubuta's chest. Some of those flames burned hotter than his own. Could a simple goat horn outmatch an official "opportunity"?
Cracks spidered across the bell. It threatened to explode. In desperation Gubuta produced the stolen hourglass — the Blood Body Hourglass, the desperate life-saver Duan Nanyang had once stolen and Gubuta now clutched.
"Blood Body Hourglass!" he roared, and paid for it in blood. The hourglass demanded flesh; its cost was his own potential. Red wept from his pores as the hourglass activated. Flames roared from his form — he had burned part of himself to buy more power. The Nine-Foot Seal that once suppressed foes nearly completely now only held back half of him.
"Why…" Gubuta spat through teeth clenched by pain and fury. "India's ancient arts are a mockery next to talents. Huaxia keeps all the opportunities—this game is unfair!" He slammed a dragon of fire into the night.
Chen Xiao cocked his head. "Your Fire God inheritance — it isn't exactly ancient arts, is it?"
Gubuta's answer was a bitter laugh. "It's a farce. We survive on myth and faith. If I hadn't eaten the Dark India Bream—if I hadn't done what the cruel voice demanded—I'd be dead." He raged on, naming his SSSS-rank magic [Fire God Roar] and SS-rank [Blazing Fire Seed], a man fused with both fish and flame.
Chen Xiao's expression didn't shift. Water formed into a blade in his hand. The hourglass had been traded for raw, desperate might — laughable now that the bell was gone.
Hum — absolute rule, absolute force. Chen Xiao channeled [Dragon Bone] to the edge, vanished on Divine Wind, and reappeared behind Gubuta.
Pfft.
[Evolution Value +799]
The water blade finished its arc. Chen Xiao flicked a cigarette into the fire and crouched to pick up the hourglass. The HUD text pulsed in his vision:
Blood Body HourglassDescription: Blood conceals infinite potential. By sacrificing one's own blood, dormant power can be forced into use.Effect: Extracts energy proportionally from the user's blood.Note: Strength increases with blood loss; the cost is one's long-term potential.
A tool made for last stands, Pei Tianyuan's plan for Cao Linxuan: trade future growth for an extra burst of life. Chen Xiao had never respected that bargain. He'd chosen to preserve potential, not burn it for a single, pyrrhic survival — especially after Goat Head had shown him just how many "gods" were really convolutions of talents. He needed to grow, to be ready for Horse Face and worse.
He tossed the hourglass into the Mountain and River Map. The horn in his hand hummed with a familiar, foreign voice as the mountain swallowed the glass.
Around them the night settled. Gubuta was down but not annihilated; his body spasmed with residual flame. Chen Xiao rose, the goat horn cold and uncanny in his grip. The map at his back held trophies and secrets. In the silence that followed, Chen Xiao's smile was thin.
"The bright lamp can crack," he murmured. "So can an hourglass."
Some things are meant to be broken.