Blind Spot
Chapter 501: Hope 4

Chapter 501: Hope 4

"Balance keeper? Haha... I’ve been expecting you," Saul suddenly chuckled.

A dense black aura surged from the body of the Three-headed Shadow Dragon.

And likewise, innumerable shadows and black mists rose from the walls of the surrounding cave.

The entire cavern was instantly isolated from reality and entered the Shadow Space shaped by the three dragons themselves.

"Separated from reality, what will you use to fight us?" Saul laughed heartily.

Whoosh!

In an instant, his figure flashed and he appeared behind the person in the white robe, his claw thundering down.

Boom!!!

A massive force exploded between the two.

The white robe was torn, revealing the true body underneath.

She firmly grasped Saul’s swinging claw, but that hand was not human.

It was a small arm, furry and covered in soft brown fur.

At the front of the small arm was a paw with only four fingers.

"I told you, you stand no chance..." the person in the white robe ripped off their upper garment, revealing a muscular torso.

That was unmistakably a giant squirrel with muscles sinewy like a dragon or snake!

Her two shiny black eyes looked down at Saul nearby.

The three-cleft mouth and button-like round nose were quietly exhaling heavy breaths.

"What the devil!? A squirrel!?" Saul’s face was filled with astonishment, stunned.

"This... it’s actually a squirrel!?"

"No... I’m not a squirrel..." the person in the white robe spoke indifferently, "When I was crowned king, perhaps even your father had not been born..."

She swiftly grabbed another of Saul’s swinging dragon claws.

"So... please call me King of Thousand Waters, Emperor of the White Sea!!"

Boom!!!

A terrifying roar erupted.

Saul was sent flying backward like a rocket, crashing into the wall of space filled with shadows.

He was smacked across the cheek by the squirrel’s paw, his head swelling up at once.

The sheer force, several times greater than his, had stunned him on the spot.

"Kill him!!" Ying and Farn charged forth together, Shadow Flash flanking both sides, striking simultaneously.

More than ten minutes later...

The Shadow Space suddenly dissipated.

Squirrel Alice knelt on the ground, her fur stained red, gasping for breath, one of her paws completely severed at the wrist, the wound riddled with torn flesh and tendons.

The remaining Three-Shadow Dragons were scattered in three places; two without both arms, one with half its neck eerily missing as if sliced off by some sharp blade.

"We won... Hahaha! We won!!" Farn burst into laughter, not minding the bloody froth at the corners of his mouth.

"Fools, if our restrictions weren’t so severe..." Squirrel Alice spoke resentfully.

"The ritual... is nearly complete," Ying said gravely.

At those words, everyone’s gaze focused on the space above the throne.

There, a mass of dark red, crystal-clear like a gemstone, blood was slowly taking shape.

It seemed to draw sustenance directly from the void around it, rootless and drifting, just suspended in midair.

"Dragon King Bloodline!! Haha! Success!!! We did it!!!"

Farn, seeing the orb of blood, became so agitated he was almost hysterical.

"Go! Quickly take it down!!"

The Three-headed Shadow Dragon struggled desperately towards the blood.

Hum!!

Just then, three white streams of water bound the dragons tightly from behind, immobilizing them in place.

It was Squirrel Alice.

She clenched the source of the three water streams in her hand.

"Xiao Rou, you go and take the Dragon King Essence! That shall be the foundation for your advancement this time!" she commanded sharply.

"Yes!"

From a breach in the cave wall close by, a figure that appeared to be a Dragon Descendant hurried in.

The woman quickly tore off the Dragon Scales disguise and ran straight for the essence of blood above the throne.

If Li Chengyi were here, he would recognize at a glance that she was none other than Zhao Xianrou, who had gone missing before!

She was actually the inside-man arranged by the Blank in the Shadow Eater faction!

*

*

*

In another underground passage.

Li Chengyi and another person in a white robe stood facing each other.

"Someone from Star Lake once said something similar to me," Li Chengyi mused as he looked at the other person.

"I’ve also been wondering why there are powerful monsters guarding the other Blind Spots, but not in reality."

He paused momentarily, then looked at the other person.

"But now, it seems I was wrong... It’s not that there aren’t any in reality, they are just hidden..."

"If avoiding is the only choice, would you still go forward?" the person in the white robe suddenly said something cryptic.

"That depends on why it’s the only choice," Li Chengyi smiled, "By the way, do you know about the ’onces’ in this world?"

"I know everything, yet you are the one thing missing," the person in the white robe sighed, "You are the variable, perhaps even the hope..."

"Let’s not talk about hope. I have seen the ’onces’ of here. There are two scars on the world’s shell – they once existed, but now, they have been sealed up..." Li Chengyi laughed.

The person in the white robe fell silent, motionless for a while.

He seemed to be an exception.

After a long pause, he turned around.

"To advance is to die, to retreat is to die, even to stay put is to die, and to flee is merely living a little longer. The only difference is the extent of the impact. If it were you, how would you choose?"

With his back to Li Chengyi, he posed the question.

"How to choose..."

Li Chengyi seemed to perceive the conflict and melancholy in the other’s heart.

"...."

There was a pause.

Then he suddenly flashed a smile.

"I choose to hack to death whatever deserves to die!"

Silence.

The man in white was stunned.

But he wasn’t simply stunned, rather... his body trembled slightly, he was raging.

"Do you think... this is a joke?"

His voice began to quiver faintly.

"Do you think you can escape everything just by spouting a few clever words? Escape a certain death? Escape destruction?"

"Where exactly... do you place the efforts and sacrifices of countless others before you!!!?"

"So what!" Li Chengyi’s peaceful look vanished. He had begun to guess the other’s identity.

"So you’re in despair, and I should follow you into it!? Share in your pain and despair, abandon all other possibilities, cry and whine like you, resenting the world and hating fate!?"

"You’re really ridiculous!!"

His expression darkened, a golden light flickered in his eyes as he stared down the other.

"Since when has fear meant giving up, terror meant despair? Who fed you that nonsense?"

"I don’t care who you are! But now, I, Li Chengyi, am telling you!"

With a swoosh, Shadow Flash appeared in front of the other man, and he grabbed his collar and lifted him.

"If you’re afraid, hack it to death! If you’re terrified, hack it to death! No matter what you face, hack first! Think later!!"

"You understand nothing!!" The man in white grabbed Li Chengyi’s collar as well, angrily yelling.

"Anyone can talk pretty! But what can you do!? You can’t do anything!"

"I can’t do anything?" Li Chengyi laughed, "You think I’ve never despaired? You think I’ve never been afraid?"

"You have no idea what we’ve been through!" The man in white roared.

"I don’t know what you’ve been through. All I know is, stopping means death, moving forward means death, retreating also means death, then what the hell are you afraid of!? Do whatever you want to do! Since every way leads to death, why be afraid!!?"

He firmly grasped the other man’s collar, pulling him close.

But a tremendous force instantly tore through the man in white’s clothing, ripping off his mask and hood.

The mask shattered, crashing to the ground.

Revealing the face beneath that Li Chengyi found faintly familiar.

Li Chengyi’s pupils constricted instantly, a familiar name flashing through his mind.

"It’s you!!?"

"...." Lien raised his head, looking deeply at Li Chengyi, "You... understand nothing...."

Whoosh.

In an instant, his entire body exploded into countless white particles, scattering and drifting down like snow.

Li Chengyi’s fingers closed on thin air, he stood still, his expression gradually becoming ferocious.

"Pretentious trash!!"

Boom!!!

His palm slammed down in furious rage.

Countless white Blood Essences converged to form a massive palm print, which in the blink of an eye became a giant hand over ten meters in diameter and crashed to the ground.

The terrifying hand instantly pierced the ground, creating a straight passageway all the way down.

Amidst the rumbling noise, the white giant hand broke through every barrier in its way, until, with a thunderous crash, it burst through the hard wall above the Dragon King Ceremony.

In front of the ceremony throne, a Three-headed Shadow Dragon fixated on the Dragon King Throne that was shimmering with a red light in madness.

The essence of the Dragon King that was condensing above the throne was their only hope for ascension!

And there Zhao Xianrou was, reaching out for that essence, her face alight with ecstasy.

Just then, a giant hand smashed through the ceiling above, breaking through their Shadow Formation, and directly reached for the Dragon King Essence.

Boom!!!

An ear-deafening explosion.

Rubbles, dust, reverberating sound waves, and a vast expanse of Blood Essence mist churned around.

All three heads of the Three-headed Shadow Dragon, as well as Squirrel Alice, were flung high into the air by the Giant Strength, thrown toward the edge of the cavern.

Before they could recover from the shock and assess what had happened,

in front of the Dragon King Throne, Zhao Xianrou let out a piercing scream.

"That’s mine!! No!! Give it back to me!!!"

She was hit by the onslaught of white energy, coughing up blood, but her fingers still clung to the armrest of the throne, refusing to let go even if they broke.

Above the throne, a gigantic white hand delicately, as if embroidering, held the Dragon King Essence within its grip.

"Give it back to me!! That’s mine!!" Zhao Xianrou rushed forward in madness, hysterically hitting the giant hand.

She had gone through endless struggles, finally finding the one opportunity to change her fate, even taking an oath to forever become a void being for this.

But now...

Bam!

The giant hand flicked a finger, hitting her squarely in the chest.

Zhao Xianrou’s body jolted as if struck by lightning, was sent flying, tumbling several times on the ground, spitting out blood.

The giant hand dissipated, turning into mist, and within the mist, Li Chengyi slowly emerged, looking from high above at the Three-headed Shadow Dragon and Squirrel Alice.

He didn’t even bother with Zhao Xianrou, such an ant didn’t deserve his attention.

He didn’t deem that level worthy of his gaze.

"The outcome was destined from the moment I stepped here," he said, looking at Squirrel Alice with a hint of mockery.

"You didn’t really think that keeping me busy would allow you to quietly snatch away the fruits of my labor, did you?"

"It was clearly ours..." Saul roared, but before he could finish, a gust of white energy struck him squarely on the forehead.

Boom!!!

He was knocked backward, his body erupting in black energy, his scales and skull shattered, his brains nearly mashed.

The white energy quickly formed a cage of bones, trapping him inside.

"Perfect, the four of you could serve as tools to vent the resentment I’ve harbored from before," said Li Chengyi, grabbing the essence, a slight chill crossing his face.

He couldn’t beat the Mother of Emerald, but he couldn’t beat these three little failures either!?