427: Scarlet Mirror

"Haa..."

The excruciating pain had almost drained the last bit of air from his chest, leaving him able to emit only a short, wheezing gasp like a torn bellows.

But the kinetic energy of this impact had not yet dissipated!

The instant Su Han's body was violently recoiled and slammed backward toward the ground, he exhausted his last shred of remaining consciousness to forcibly twist his falling posture!

He flung his left arm out at an angle that defied the limits of human skeletal structure, not to brace himself, but to violently sweep toward a relatively "weak" connection point on the side of the bone cage—

It had just undergone Fusion, and several tiny, jagged bone fragments were still protruding, flickering with a decaying glimmer.

"Snap! Squish!"

Amidst the subtle yet clear sound of shattering, there was a sticky noise like a sharp blade cutting through rotten flesh.

Su Han's arm swept past, and those seemingly fragile, decaying bone fragments easily pierced his sleeve like knife blades, digging deeply into his flesh and bone!

Heart-wrenching pain exploded instantly along the nerves of his arm; he could almost feel the shattered bone shards leaving cold trails within his muscles.

That reaction force instantly disrupted the balance of his impending impact with the ground and slightly altered the trajectory of his body!

It was this tiny, desperate change in angle!

Su Han's body, like a broken puppet with cut strings, tumbled past the gap beneath the giant claw-bones of the bone cage. Trailing a spray of blood, he rolled toward the ground behind the skeletal prison, closer to that pool of dark red liquid!

"Bang!"

A heavy thud.

His right shoulder slammed heavily against a giant, porous skull fragment; the sound of bone shattering almost drowned out the stifled groan in his throat.

Shattered gravel and sharp bone shards further tore at his exposed flesh.

But he had finally... rolled to the side of his target!

That pool of dark red liquid was right before his eyes!

It exuded an eerie aura, a mix of a sickly sweet scent and heavy decay. It was murky like congealed black blood, viscous almost to the point of being gelatinous, and its surface reflected the swirling patterns of the crimson beam of light above, resembling a miniature, constantly twisting and struggling Hell.

It was completely out of place with the aura of the entire space, carrying a kind of near-cursed power of weakness and purification!

The desire to live burned like a raging fire, flaring up from the bloody, narrow slits of Su Han's eyes!

He violently splayed the five fingers of his right hand, ignoring the excruciating pain in his arm as if it were being crushed. With a ferocity that threatened to crush the liquid along with the bones beneath it, he clawed fiercely into that murky dark red stain!

Before his fingertips even touched it, the eerie aura emitted by the liquid seemed to have already irritated his wounds, sending a needle-like burning sensation through them.

"No—!"

An inhuman, yet incomparably clear scream exploded once again from the direction of the fake "Bi Yao"!

This time, it was no longer pure panic, but infused with bone-deep brutality and a desperate will!

The figure suspended in mid-air jolted violently, breaking free from the freezing effect of the crimson gaze. The entire person seemed to be yanked backward by an invisible force, and then, with a burst of madness like a beast guarding its food, lunged forward!

She completely ignored the dangerous gaze above that was capable of obliterating everything; in her eyes, only that dangerous liquid she was approaching remained!

However, at the very same instant the fake "Bi Yao" made her lunging movement—

"Arghhh—!"

A higher-pitched, more painful wail, belonging to the true young woman, erupted from within her body at the same time!

Between the ancient will occupying Bi Yao's body and her original remnant soul.

At the moment when the fake "Bi Yao" was experiencing violent fluctuations in her mind due to extreme threat stimulation, and was under the pressure of the horrific gaze of the Crimson Mirror Image...

Bi Yao's own consciousness fragments, which had been forcibly suppressed for so long, at this moment took advantage of the rare opportunity when the ancient will's Divided Soul was focused on the outside world.

Like a volcano buried deep underground finding its only exit, it erupted completely and desperately!

That was the ultimate resistance against the evil will occupying her body, and even more so, a heart-wrenching response to Su Han's life-risking struggle!

(End of chapter)