166: Chapter 166 Internal Strife Collapses, The Capital Chess Game (2)

The Death Squad Leader looked at his arm. His eyes scanned from the base of the scales toward the tips—not quickly, pausing at the deepest part of the scale's cracks. Then he looked up at The Old Demon—not at his eyes, but at the row of dorsal fins that had stopped beneath the water behind him.

"The ship changed course—I was not aware of it."

"You were not aware of it—" The Old Demon pulled his arm back. He climbed half a step onto the reef—his climbing posture involved his webbed feet stepping twice on the waterline edge of the reef. Once steady, he pushed his knees up from under the water, hoisting his upper body above the surface of the reef. As he climbed up, his webbed feet dragged five parallel water marks across the reef. The marks extended from the waterline toward the top of the reef—extending about three feet. Beneath the water surface behind him—the dark green dorsal fins all stopped. The tips of the twenty dorsal fins tilted simultaneously toward the reef by about ten degrees—shifting into a forward posture underwater. "Then my vassals and I have been soaking in vain for two days and two nights."

The Death Squad Leader loosened his hand from the hilt of his sword.

"The loss of the scales—I will compensate you."

"Compensate?" The nictitating membrane in The Old Demon's swollen eye socket spasmed—it could no longer flip out. He used his finger to gouge the corner of his eye—pushing the swollen nictitating membrane away from the inside of the socket. He inserted his finger into the gap he had gouged and dug the nictitating membrane out from the bottom of the eye socket—the membrane he dug out was completely opaque, flipping outward from the corner of the eye to reveal the congested, pinkish-white flesh layer inside. "Your life—" He pointed to the young death squad member behind the Death Squad Leader. "Plus his life—is that enough compensation?"

Three breaths later. A fight broke out on the reef.

The young death squad member moved first—his speed in drawing his sword was nearly twice as fast as a normal draw. As the blade was pulled from the sheath, the whetstone texture inside the sheath scraped against the blade, emitting an extremely sharp metallic screech. His target was the hand The Old Demon was using to climb onto the reef—the blade slashed diagonally from bottom to top, aiming for the webbed membrane between the thumb and index finger. The webbed membrane was the area with the thinnest scale coverage on a Haiyuan Clan vassal—the surface of the membrane had only a layer of keratinized skin, and beneath that skin were blood vessels and tendons. The blade cut into the membrane—the resulting tear ripped nearly four inches from the base of the thumb toward the wrist. The Old Demon's right thumb flipped outward from the tear at an angle it shouldn't have—the tendon had been severed.

The Old Demon did not cry out. He lowered his head and glanced at the tear on his right hand—then plunged his left hand beneath the water surface. Once his left hand entered the water, the dorsal fin closest to the reef immediately moved—a black-scaled fish demon broke through the water from The Old Demon's left side, lunging directly at the young death squad member. The fish demon's mouth opened—a fish-bone blade clamped between its upper and lower teeth had been sharpened; the tip of the bone blade had just been sharpened five days ago on the edge of a sea cave on the reef. The fish demon shook its head in mid-air—flinging the bone blade from its mouth toward the young death squad member's lower leg. The young death squad member did not dodge—he stepped his lower leg forward to meet the bone blade. The bone blade stabbed into the outer side of his lower leg—the tip cut into the subcutaneous fat layer, pierced into the muscle fibers, and scraped against the anterior crest of the tibia, emitting a faint sound of bone scraping. He used the leg that had been stabbed as a fulcrum on the reef—pressing his body forward, and flicked the sword upward from the tear in The Old Demon's webbed membrane. The blade cut into the tear at the wrist—stabbing upward along the gaps between the scales on the inner side of the arm, piercing nearly a foot deep.

Simultaneously, another middle-aged death squad member died—he bypassed the fish demon from the side—his route involved first jumping onto a low reef nearby to avoid the fish demon's first lunge, then jumping back from the low reef to land on The Old Demon's left side. When he landed, his boot stepped on the scales of The Old Demon's left lower leg—three scales were crushed, and the fragments pierced into the sole of his boot. He stabbed the short knife in his hand into the gap between the thinnest row of scales between The Old Demon's left ribs and hip bone—after stabbing it in, he did not pull the knife out, but instead used his elbow to brace the hilt, pushing the knife half an inch toward The Old Demon's abdominal cavity.

Reinforcements of fish demons surged from underwater onto the reef—seven or eight small, Qi-refining level fish demons leaped out from the water surface behind The Old Demon. After leaping onto the reef, they did not form a formation—they crowded together on the reef, using their mouths to bite the death squad members' legs and arms. One fish demon bit the young death squad member's hind leg—after biting down, it shook its head to the left, the force of the head-shake throwing the young death squad member's body from an upright position into a half-kneel. The young death squad member half-knelt on the reef—switching his sword to his left hand, and used the flat of the blade to swat away another fish demon that was lunging toward his face.

The Old Demon was at the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage—under normal circumstances, without the scales splitting, a Foundation Establishment Cultivator's short knife would at most penetrate half an inch under the skin with the same amount of force. However, after soaking in the freshwater mist for two days and two nights, the edges of the scales had flipped out, revealing a very wide white border—the defensive power of the scales at the white border had dropped by at least one grade. After the scales split, the keratin layer between the scale roots and the flesh became brittle—what was crushed was not just the surface scales, but also the layer of chitin beneath the scales, which was formed by condensed spiritual power and hardened layer by layer from the scale root toward the scale surface. The chitin, which could normally withstand multiple attacks from a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, had been softened by the water—at the tear, a single knife strike could break through it. When the middle-aged death squad member's short knife cut into the chitin, the blade made almost no friction sound—the scales snapped directly from the middle of the keratin layer. What he felt was not the rebounding force of the blade tip hitting a hard surface—but the sensation of the blade tip passing through a thin membrane of frozen film and then sinking straight into the soft muscle beneath with zero resistance. He pulled the knife out—as he pulled it out, the blade twisted inside the abdominal cavity.

The mist on the reef dissipated for less than half a zhang—then it was covered by even thicker mist. In the mist, it was unclear who was fighting whom—one could only hear the wet slapping sounds of webbed feet stepping on the reef, the scraping sounds of sword blades cutting into scales, and the dull thuds of bones being clamped by teeth after fish demons bit into arms. Several more dorsal fins surfaced on the water—it was the vassals who had previously been lurking outside the gorge entrance, having heard the commotion and rushed over.