Chapter 253: Fierce Fighting in the Tunnel
Translator: Cynthia Editor: CakeHermit
Dong!
The grave sound of an explosion sounded out from Old Lei’s chest.
A crescent moon penetrated Old Lei’s chest and exited from his back together with a bloody mist. The blood elementalist who had rushed forward to help had no time to dodge and could only protectively cover his vital parts with his arms.
Those who had survived the bloody fight at the casualty barrack were all cruel and ruthless people. The injury didn’t freak the blood elementalist out, but infuriated him instead.
With a stifled groan, he took the initiative to attack. Curving his body at a weird angle, he stepped on the vertical tunnel wall.
He passed by Old Lei like a ghost, and before jumping onto the ground, bent his leg like a folding knife.
He was fast; all these moves were done in the blink of an eye. Previously, he had been moving silently, but when his leg chopped down, the sharp whistle of wind it produced could be heard all over the tunnel.
Puff!
His leg cut down like a sharp knife and plunged into the ground. The solid rocks broke like bean curd.
In the dark tunnel, the expression of the blood elementalist changed drastically.
Nothing!
How was it possible?
His attack had been fast, without any delay, and had covered a large scope, so he had been pretty sure that he could land the blow on Ai Hui. Despite all that, he’d failed.
Where was Ai Hui?
Did he withdraw immediately after succeeding?
Suddenly, he felt something at his back like a needle with a sharp chill in the air. His body froze and eyes widened in disbelief.
He thought of one possibility.
Ai Hui hadn’t retreated. Instead, he’d gotten closer to Old Lei in order to hide himself behind Old Lei’s figure.
That meant Ai Hui was right behind him!
Even though Ai Hui was his enemy, the blood elementalist couldn’t help but admire his reaction and flexibility. Meanwhile, a chill rose in his chest. Unlike Old Lei, he knew of Ai Hui but had still been confident because of his own rapid advance in fighting skills. This unimaginable improvement was supernatural and greatly helped build up his confidence.
Therefore, even though their enemy was Ai Hui, he’d still believed that they had a chance to beat him.
Now, however, he finally realized how frightening and dangerous Ai Hui could be. They had been on the losing side of the confrontation since the very beginning and their moves and attacks had all fallen within Ai Hui’s expectations.
Ai Hui would have spoken highly of him if he’d known that the blood elementalist figured everything out almost instantly, but he was now curled up and closely clinging to Old Lei’s back.
His sharp elemental energy had cut open the skin on the blood elementalist’s back; the blood elementalist didn’t even feel any pain because the sword ray was too sharp.
The blood elementalist made a harsh decision. Before his pain started to spread, he stepped hard with the leg that was stuck in the ground and pushed himself backward. His back was pierced by the sword, but it also smashed into Ai Hui like a wall.
Ai Hui hadn’t expected him to be so resolute in killing him even at the cost of sacrificing his own life.
Right at that moment, another blood elementalist caught up with them.
This blood elementalist’s fist was surrounded with red, bloody light, which made it look like a red drill. He punched Ai Hui using all his effort because he was freaked out by Ai Hui’s swift and mysterious movement. A bloody light suddenly appeared around his body, arousing an upsurge in his power.
He saw the space in the tunnel was limited, so he took the initiative to start a head-on confrontation with Ai Hui.
This was because they had the advantage with their superiority in number.
In the blink of an eye, Ai Hui was caught in a dangerous situation where he had enemies in front and behind him with nowhere to hide. At this moment, the Dragonspine in his hand suddenly bent like a spring. The force of the blood elementalist’s backward attack almost pressed the sword to the limit.
But with the sword buffering the impact, the blood elementalist’s power was largely reduced.
Then Ai Hui loosened his grip on the sword and it sprung out like a loosened spring. The huge elasticity pushed Ai Hui backward. With force, his back that was near Old Lei’s chest trembled violently.
[Arching Fishback]!
The tempestuous elemental energy and force from the Dragonspine sword swatted the unconscious Old Lei like a huge wave.
Bang! Old Lei’s chest was dented. In the next second, he flew out like a stone struck by a wildly running beast and heavily dropped to the ground.
It was too late for the blood elementalist to reclaim his force, so his fist punched forward without any restraint.
His fist surrounded by the bloody light collided forcefully with Old Lei.
The frightening sound of broken bones reverberated throughout the tunnel.
The wounded blood elementalist became completely discouraged and freaked out. All their attacks were within Ai Hui’s expectations.
Along with the force from the sword, he jumped forward with all his effort in hopes of escaping.
He felt that the sword stabbed into his back was like a toothed saw, leaving behind great pain as it was pulled out. Despite this, he couldn’t care. All he wanted to do was run away.
He rushed forward and was about to break away from the sword, when he felt the saw-like bone sword suddenly come to life.
The feeling was so strong that all his hair stood on end.
An even stronger danger alert broke out in his heart. He had a hunch that his life was coming to an end.
No!
Feeling intense frustration, he knew that there was no way back. Streaks of bright blood traces lit up on his body, each of which was about the size of a copper coin. They spread all over his body, including his face, nape, and arms, and flowed slightly. If Ai Hui had the time to count, he would notice that the number of blood traces was exactly nine.
As the blood traces lit up, the blood in his body boiled and became as bright as lava. It sensed the external invasion and squirmed like a monster to rush at the Dragonspine sword stabbed in his back.
He didn’t know why he was doing this. It had not been long since he’d gained the ability to agglomerate blood traces, but at this moment, his counterattack seemed to come from an intuition buried deep in his body.
The blood in his body flowed quickly. If Ai Hui could see through him, he would have seen numerous blood streaks appear in his body that stretched from each of its corners to the point of the sword.
When the blood touched the Dragonspine, it abruptly triggered a bizarre chime from the sword.
The chime was like the hiss of a blood snake.
The sword was excited to feel the smell of its kind.
Meanwhile, the end of the bandage on Ai Hui’s wrist also rose like a snake and twined weirdly around the sword hilt.
The hissing chime stopped all of a sudden and the mysterious Dragonspine sword suddenly became like a stove poker.
This happened so abruptly that even Ai Hui was surprised.
The bandage!
It had just absorbed the blood of the girl in red and Ai Hui hadn’t had time to check if it had caused any changes.
The bandage was a blood refinement object. Therefore, it could devour blood.
This was not a secret, but just because of this feature, the bandage had saved Ai Hui’s life many times.
If it were not for the bandage, he would have already died in the blood disaster.
That’s why he had been keeping a watchful eye on it. After careful observation, he found that the bandage was becoming more and more fastidious about blood.
For example, it had no interest in the blood of ordinary blood fiends at all.
It only acted when there was some special blood, such as the drop of the girl’s blood, which was extremely weird.
Ai Hui didn’t expect that the bandage would move this time and he felt the "fear" the Dragonspine held toward the bandage. That’s right, if Dragonspine was a living thing, then it would feel "fear".
Its unique quality was revealed in such specialties.
All of a sudden, Ai Hui became curious about the bandage. What had it been in the Cultivation Era?
It was a pity that Mistress had also come across it by accident and thus knew nothing about its origin.
All these thoughts flashed through Ai Hui’s mind within an instant while the mysterious red blood shone and then quickly merged into the bandage. Then, like a successful hunter, the bandage retracted silently and tied itself into a knot at Ai Hui’s wrist.
If he hadn’t seen it himself, Ai Hui would have thought that what happened just now was his imagination.
Ai Hui retook control of the Dragonspine and was surprised by the feeling at its point.
The blood elementalist in front of him was totally lifeless. His blood traces which had been bright red were now grey and gloomy.
Whoosh!
Hearing the whistle of wind approaching from behind, Ai Hui stepped lightly to the side.
Old Lei, who was limp and feeble from head to toe, flew past Ai Hui. Ai Hui could still see a streak of incredulity in his widened eyes.
Seeing his two companions killed within the blink of an eye, fear flashed in the other blood elementalist’s eyes and he shouted, "Shi Wei! What are you doing?"
Before he could finish his words, Ai Hui rushed at him like a beast pouncing on its prey.
The blood elementalist had to retreat step by step and put up a desperate fight to withstand Ai Hui’s attack.
The sword moves were as fast as a violent storm. There was nothing magnificent, but all the ordinary sword moves were fast, precise, and powerful.
The Dragonspine seemed to be alive in Ai Hui’s hand. It could bend freely and thrust out at a weird angle. What was more annoying were the seven small swords which were like a colony of bees that would sting anyone who showed the slightest flaw in his movements.
In an instant, the blood elementalist was covered with wounds like a blood man.
"Shi Wei, help…"
The blood elementalist could never finish his words. The Dragonspine sword curved weirdly and slid into the gap between his arms.
Puff!
Blood splashed. The body of the blood elementalist stiffened as the sword pierced his throat.
He fell on the ground with a loud crash.
Shi Wei trembled all over. He never thought that Ai Hui could enjoy overwhelming superiority throughout the battle. He felt his throat dry up and stammered, "Ai Hui, I was compelled. I, I didn’t want to be your enemy. Can, can you let me go…"
Ai Hui knew his face. He said calmly, "I know you. You are a student at Central Pine Academy."
Feeling soothed by Ai Hui’s calm tone, Shi Wei spoke more fluently. "Great! I was afraid you wouldn’t know me. Since we are classmates, would you please let me go?"
"If you want to survive, then surrender." Ai Hui looked into his eyes calmly and said in a low voice, "I will send you to Mayor’s residence. You will not die, but will be observed and have the opportunity to get medical treatment."
"No, I won’t surrender…"
Ferocity and cruelty flickered in Shi Wei’s eyes. He was struggling.
"Then one of us will die here, you or me." Ai Hui raised his sword and walked slowly toward Shi Wei.
Seeing Ai Hui approaching put great pressure on Shi Wei, who was putting up a last-ditch struggle. The lights of fear and danger flickered on his face.