Chapter 210: You Are Making Things Difficult For Me
This was truly a laughable matter.
Hoolay let out a low, rumbling laugh that carried a strange sense of relief. Even a runaway war slave possessed more spirit than the current generation of Borisin. The two crimson moons embedded within his chest beat in perfect, thundering synchrony, pumping scalding battle intent through his veins and into every corner of his massive body.
He had waited for this exact moment for hundreds of years.
Rotting away in the Shackling Prison, he had never truly been waiting for freedom. He had been waiting for prey worthy of his absolute, unbridled effort.
Feixiao did not disappoint him.
A cyan gale whipped out from the razor edge of her blade, shrieking through the air and plowing three deep, parallel furrows into the reinforced deck. Hoolay violently twisted his torso to the side. The compressed wind blade grazed his thick mane, cleanly shearing off several tufts of coarse white fur before shattering against the bulkhead behind him.
Her heavy axe-spear swept horizontally to block his immediate counter. Metal shrieked against bone, sending a brilliant shower of orange sparks raining across the battlefield. Feixiao felt her arms sink slightly under the sheer kinetic force. The raw physical strength behind this single claw strike far exceeded any Borisin she had ever slaughtered.
Refusing to yield ground, cyan wind erupted from her core, violently repelling Hoolay's razor-sharp claws. Using the momentum of the deflection, she instantly pivoted, following through with a vicious horizontal sweep of her axe-spear aimed straight for his exposed throat.
Trading blows with Feixiao, Hoolay felt an overwhelming urge to shed tears of pure, unadulterated joy.
'This is true slaughter! This is a real battle!'
If Feixiao were a video game boss, she would be the kind that felt absolutely incredible to fight, complete with top-tier art assets and flawless combat mechanics.
Compared to her, those two brats from earlier were the absolute shittiest of shitty bosses!
They had abysmal gameplay feel, hyperactive attack patterns, and even possessed a garbage, artificially difficult hidden second phase. How could a true warrior enjoy a hunt under those conditions? A satisfying fight was naturally about countering moves, the rhythmic back-and-forth exchange of blows, and dancing on the razor's edge of death.
What the hell was up with a boss that had a one-hundred-percent evasion rate coupled with constant reflect damage? A fight where you had to passively wait for a low-probability special grab animation just to break their guard? It was utterly infuriating!
So, with the trauma of that previous encounter fresh in his mind, Hoolay looked at Feixiao with an immense, deep appreciation. He couldn't land a single hit on those two chaotic kids, but he could actually cross blades with Feixiao.
Unfortunately, the time he had spent bonding with the second crimson moon was still far too short.
Hoolay had already made his grim calculation. Every time he stepped onto the battlefield to hunt prey, he did so fully prepared for the possibility of failure. And this time, it seemed he truly was going to fail.
If he had been given even half a day more to assimilate the power, he could have held his own against two such powerful generals simultaneously. But one hour... one hour was simply too short.
With a deafening crash, the giant wolf was thrown backward, his massive frame slamming heavily onto the deck.
"It is time you were locked back in the Shackling Prison, Hoolay."
Glancing briefly at the unconscious Cloud Knights scattered across the ruined ground, Feixiao tightened her iron grip on the shaft of her axe-spear. Her cyan eyes were cold and uncompromising.
"I have indeed lost, but this is not unexpected... My goal was only to lure you out..." Hoolay's voice squeezed out from deep within his ruined throat, wet and ragged.
Accompanied by a horrifying, harsh grinding sound of shifting bones, he actually forced his broken body to stand back up. His thick legs wobbled violently, and his massive torso leaned forward, but those bloodshot, beastly pupils remained dead-locked onto Feixiao.
"A dead end."
Hoolay bared his blood-stained fangs and let out a raspy, broken laugh.
"I will die! And along with me, the entire Xianzhou Luofu shall perish!"
Without a single microsecond of hesitation, he raised his massive hands. His pitch-black claws pierced directly through his own tough, grey skin, violently puncturing his hardened ribs. A sickening, dull tearing sound echoed across the deck as dark red blood erupted from his wrists, splashing heavily onto the metal plating.
With a guttural roar, he forcefully ripped the two beating crimson moons straight out of his own chest cavity.
"The crimson moons from my chest will bathe this entire ship in bloody light! I will drive all Foxians into absolute madness through Fear! They will crave slaughter! Endless and unceasing!" Hoolay roared, his voice bubbling with his own lifeblood. "What will you do then, Feixiao?!"
The very moment the words left his maw, the frenzied light in Hoolay's eyes completely dissipated. His massive body finally gave out, collapsing onto the deck as a lifeless heap of fur and muscle.
Suspended in the air above his corpse, the two crimson moons began to pulse rhythmically, beating outward like a pair of exposed, demonic hearts. A sinister red halo expanded outward, carrying the maddening infection of the Borisin.
She absolutely could not let this thing's influence spread.
A majestic, massive beastly shadow burst through the air above the deck.
Feihuang—this was Feixiao's Heart Beast.
The spectral entity let out a deafening, world-shaking roar. It stomped heavily onto the deck, instantly transforming into a blinding cyan stream of light that surged forward and completely swallowed the pulsing blood moons whole.
A short distance away, Rekka casually stepped onto the deck of the Jingfeng Ship.
He was currently locked into the form of the Path of Abundance.
Golden ears of wheat swayed gently behind Rekka's head, forming a radiant, floating halo that looked identical to a Buddha's divine light. Pristine white blossoms bloomed across the deer-antler-like branches protruding from his hair. Thick, thorny vines wrapped elegantly around his body like sacred vestments, and a translucent white veil hung delicately over his head. Divine banners, inscribed with ancient, glowing runes, dangled softly from his horns.
He was the spitting image of Yaoshi the Abundance.
One hand gently held a stalk of golden wheat, while the other cradled a pristine lotus blossom. He radiated an overwhelming, suffocating aura of pure divinity.
"I am sorry."
Looking toward Feixiao, who was currently standing perfectly still, locked in a brutal mental battle against Hoolay's desperate attempt to possess her consciousness, Rekka sighed softly. He closed his eyes, his expression a perfect mask of divine pity and sorrow.
'Oh, Rekka, are you perhaps asleep?'
Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh—
Inside the mental scape, the poor, fragmented soul of Hoolay had already been locked onto by over nine thousand blinding light arrows. Even Rekka couldn't help but close his physical eyes, shedding a single, dramatic tear for the sheer overkill about to take place.
'Actually, if I don't look at it, it doesn't count as me doing it.'
Within the dark, chaotic space of Feixiao's mind.
"You may command the current Borisin as you wish. Whether you want to kill them or enslave them."
Hoolay's spiritual remnant looked at the projection of Feixiao standing before him.
"Take the crimson moon. I do not care who the Warhead is; even a Foxian will do. With the crimson moon, you will be the undisputed Warhead of our people."
"I am a general of the Yaoqing. My duty is only one: to hunt down the Abominations of Abundance until not a single one remains."
When Feixiao gripped the ethereal weapon sent by the Reignbow Arbiter before the battle, her mind was already completely free of all distractions.
"My oath is as clouds obscuring the sky, guarding the Xianzhou."
Suddenly, a blinding purple light arrow tore violently through the chaotic, dark space of her will.
"...The Reignbow Arbiter's arrows."
Hoolay slowly looked up. The entire mental sky was completely blotted out by a torrential rain of purple light arrows, all aimed directly at his soul.
It seemed that from the very beginning... he never had a single fraction of a chance of winning.
Hoolay's consciousness was instantly vaporized in the apocalyptic torrent of purple light, dissipating like thin mist torn apart by a hurricane.
When Feixiao finally opened her physical eyes, she felt that her internal condition was excellent. In fact, her spiritual and physical state had never been better.
However, she quickly realized she was currently confined in a very strange place. It felt as if something fundamental was missing from her body, yet she didn't feel any actual discomfort or weakness.
Stepping forward, Feixiao emerged from the containment field.
Turning around to assess her surroundings, her breath hitched. Standing directly behind her on the deck of the ship was a glowing, golden Ambrosial Arbor.
And standing peacefully beneath the branches of that cursed tree was a person with incredibly refined features and an otherworldly, beautiful appearance, making it entirely impossible to tell if they were male or female.
"General Feixiao, I heard you were looking for me."
Rekka smiled warmly at her.
"...Who are you?"
This was simply pure, unfiltered Abundance!
The aura of divinity rolling off the person standing before her was so thick and suffocating that Feixiao subconsciously tightened her grip on her axe-spear, her muscles tensing for an immediate strike.
"I am Rekka, a Trailblazer of the Astral Express."
"The aura of Abundance radiating from you is far too heavy." Feixiao's voice was dangerously low.
"Understandable."
Rekka nodded sagely, not at all surprised or bothered by her overt hostility.
"So, did you really eat the Ambrosial Arbor?"
Looking at Rekka's current divine, antlered appearance, Feixiao couldn't help but actually believe the completely bizarre, nonsensical answer Stelle had given her earlier.
"You could certainly say that."
"This appearance of yours..." Feixiao hesitated, her eyes narrowing at the glowing halo of wheat. "...makes things very difficult for me."
"Understandable."
"...Fine. Explain the situation in detail."
"I couldn't bear to see him suffer, nor could I bear to see the innocent suffer, so I helped him," Rekka said, his voice smooth and serene.
"You helped him?" Feixiao raised an eyebrow.
"Yes. I helped him by allowing him to die in battle."
"Do you realize that doing this makes you an active accomplice to an Abomination?"
"But, I was the one who shot the arrows."
Rekka slightly opened his eyes, looking directly at Feixiao with those glowing, somewhat otherworldly pupils.
"Whether it was the arrows raining down from the Seat of Divine Foresight, the ones that shot down the Borisin fleet, or the Phantom of the Reignbow that just appeared inside your consciousness... in truth, it was all me. You should be well aware of that by now, General Feixiao."
Rekka smiled, the divine aura of the Abundance clashing absurdly with the destructive words leaving his mouth.
"The meteors of The Hunt only fall upon places entirely beyond saving, without distinguishing between friend or foe. Those light arrows were simply the support fire I provided while acting on behalf of The Hunt."
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