Chapter 1367
The Bloodline Transplant Warlock who kept trying to drain blood like a vampire couldn't even break through the Tree of Flame's defenses. That tree is basically a projection of the fire rules themselves—good luck trying to suck any blood from it.
Instead, the Tree of Flame's backlash burned him alive. The raging fire formed a cage, trapping the blood-soaked warlock inside, burning him relentlessly, just waiting for him to be roasted alive. The river of blood flowing across the battlefield was constantly tapped by the Bloodline Transplant Warlock, barely letting him survive inside the fiery prison without being reduced to ashes.
Burning mana was useless—the flames on the Tree of Flame were ignited by mana itself. The same fire turned around and ignited the warlock's mana. The more fire burned, the more mana he lost.
With the Tree of Flame as a shield and mana crystals prepared by Leon, even a Tier 5 powerhouse could be exhausted to death—let alone this mere Tier 1.
Deadly poison was incinerated before it could even get close, and psychic shrieks were blocked by the Tree of Flame's rule projection.
Seven Bloodline Transplant Warlocks—suppressed, trapped, or dragged down by burning mana, just waiting to be burned alive. The last one was bound by the Tree of Flame.
In just minutes, all seven warlocks were suppressed. If not for the monster's control, crystallization protection, and magical aid, they'd all be dead by now.
On Reina's battlefield, three of the five Bloodline Transplant Warlocks were frozen in translucent blue ice, their mana and power sealed. Even a flame was frozen inside.
Of the two left, one was pinned to the ground by black-blue ice spears, the earth frozen solid. More spears pierced his shoulders and legs, spreading frost through his body. His blood froze before it could even spill.
The last Bloodline Transplant Warlock transformed into a half-human, half-beast form—like a tiger-man among beastfolk. His razor-sharp claws crashed against Reina's frost shield, furiously tearing at it.
His attacks had no effect, and with the other warlocks under control, the beastman's body began to burn with blood-red flames. His bones cracked and swelled, his body ballooning in seconds to dozens of times its original size—a monstrous figure towering tens of meters high, his aura surging violently to Tier 3.
A flicker of surprise flashed across Reina's icy face before she frowned slightly. Silver light shimmered over her body as she shifted into her true Frost Dragon form, her long body gliding through the air, blue radiance gathering in her maw.
The monster wreathed in blood-red flames charged forward, and any crystallized beast it touched with those flames withered and decayed instantly—their life force burned away in a heartbeat.
Reina opened her jaws and unleashed a blast of ice-blue light—her Zero-Degree Dragon Breath struck the terrifying monster head-on.
Frost instantly coated the monster's body. After just a few more steps, his blood-red flames were forcibly extinguished, and he became a colossal ice sculpture, standing frozen on the battlefield.
There was barely any suspense in the battle between the mage legion and Reina. The Thorned Crown's dozen Bloodline Transplant Warlocks and Mages were all suppressed. If it weren't for their crystallized bodies and Tier-level power, not one of the Thorned Crown would have survived—they weren't just suppressed, they'd have been wiped out.
The Alchemical Golem Army formed a wall of steel, completely halting the rampaging beast horde. The army was like a giant meat grinder, endlessly harvesting the giant insect monsters that charged forward. No matter how the beasts attacked, they couldn't break through the golems' defensive line.
The fiercest battle was unfolding between Hubert and Shelton. After bathing in the blood of gods and demons, Hubert lost the ability to wield elemental power and mana. But as his bloodline strength intensified, the seal on the divine blood broke, and its power completely fused into his veins.
Now that Hubert could once again draw on elemental forces—even casting spells—he still favored support and enhancement magic. In combat, he relied on raw physical might and his indomitable body.
Shelton, meanwhile, had transplanted the bloodline of a low-ranked pureblood demon—one of the seventy-two. His spellcasting was weak, but the demon’s innate physical power was fully inherited. With demon horns grafted onto his brow, he fought less like a bloodline transplant warlock and more like a true warrior.
Once the monster seized control of Shelton, crystallizing his body, the bloodline’s side effects were suppressed. The monster cared nothing for whether Shelton would be consumed by bloodline backlash. Black smoke coiled around him, his body stretched to nearly four meters tall. Demonic power, dark as smoke, condensed in his hands, merging with the underground creature’s strength to form a pitch-black halberd over five meters long.
Hubert, meanwhile, was shrouded in a bloody glow, his eyes burning crimson. An invisible fire seemed to blaze around his body, and the power of the gale swirled like hundreds of tiny spirits, helping him maintain control midair.
Earthly power flooded into Slaughter, turning its surface a deep black-brown. The warhammer weighed at least a million kilos; even the slightest movement shattered the air with thunderous cracks. Lightning danced across its surface—a manifestation of pure, terrifying force.
Gripping Slaughter in both hands, Hubert let out a furious roar and charged Shelton. The warhammer, wreathed in terrifying force, smashed down. Instantly, the space around them trembled; mana, air, and everything else scattered before this raw might. The air compressed and exploded, mana burst apart, and the crackling of magical thunder filled the air as elemental collisions sparked tiny bolts of lightning.
Shelton’s face was expressionless. The demon horns on his brow pulsed with faint black light, and as black smoke roiled, his body began to change again—slowly, inexorably, becoming more demonic. The power of the demonblood erupted, turning him into a monster, half-human and half-demon.
Facing Hubert’s assault, Shelton gripped the massive black halberd, black smoke swirling around its surface. The demon’s power, forcibly crystallized by the underground monster, transformed the weapon into something truly monstrous.
The black-crystal halberd and Hubert’s Slaughter collided with a savage crash. In that instant, mana, elements, and air within dozens of meters were swept away, leaving utter silence. A shockwave, shot through with lightning, rippled outward from the point of impact.
The shockwave instantly expanded into a massive ring, a thousand meters across. The part that struck the sky vanished, but the part that hit the ground was like a giant’s blade, splitting the earth with brutal force.
A fissure several meters wide and five or six hundred meters long split open in the earth. The horde of crystallized beasts that had been piling up inside vanished, torn to dust by the terrifying shockwave.
After the shockwave ring spread, the mana, air, and elements that had been driven out rushed back toward the vacuum at the center. Hubert and Shelton were pressed together, Slaughter and the black-crystal halberd locked like magnets. The space between them was shattered—pure, unfiltered power clashing with a pressure greater than any spell could muster.
It wasn’t that the two weapons were attracted to each other, but that Hubert and Shelton, through sheer force, were forcing them together, each trying to crush the other with brute strength.
Whoever backed down first, whoever couldn’t endure, would face not just the other’s strength, but the full force of everything they’d built up in that collision.
The air and mana rolling back into the vacuum collided with each other, like a thunderball shrinking and tumbling, its force driving straight into the two combatants at the center.
The surging force slammed into Hubert and Shelton, shattering the fragile equilibrium. In an instant, their bodies blurred and vanished from the spot.
The pent-up energy exploded, and neither Hubert nor Shelton could resist. Both were blasted away, leaving a pitch-black void that suddenly expanded in the place where they’d stood, colliding with the returning shockwave.
With a deafening boom, it was as if a piece of the sky had caved in. Hundreds of meters of darkness spread, the air shattered like broken crystal into splintered fragments. Then, slowly, the fragments reassembled, and calm returned.
Up in midair, Hubert and Shelton reappeared, now separated by three or four kilometers. The pitch-black halberd in Shelton’s hands had shattered into a cloud of crystalline black mist—like a flurry of black ice shards swirling around him. The shards swiftly reassembled into a new halberd.
The fine cracks left by the explosion across Shelton’s crystallized body healed rapidly, vanishing in less than two seconds.
On the other side, Hubert was panting, the red glow around him flaring like fire. A tattoo of a blood dragon surfaced on his skin, slithering up to his shoulder with a savage grin, its eyes gleaming with madness and cruelty as it stared at Shelton.
Hubert had taken the explosion head-on, without even using the crystal dragon bloodline’s power for defense. Yet there was only a faint mark left on his skin, which vanished in the blink of an eye.
Having fused several of the most terrifying dragon bloodlines and awakened his own, then combined them with the power of gods and demons, Hubert’s body was now far stronger than anyone of his rank—a nigh-indestructible shield.
Hubert’s greatest asset was his sheer physical toughness, not just his baffling brute strength. After advancing to Sky Rank and completing his transformation, the bloodline and divine power had first clashed, then fused entirely, becoming his own. The result was a body so powerful it defied logic.
With his current body, Hubert could withstand a ninth-level spell with nothing but raw muscle and come away unscathed. Lesser spells couldn’t even scratch that thick hide of his.
Normally, Hubert was terrified of dying and loved to hoard life potions, but once the battle started, he’d forget all that. The instincts buried in his bloodline took over, leaving only one thought: smash his opponent into pulp. Nothing else mattered.
His last blow hadn’t hurt Shelton much, but Hubert’s face twisted with rage, the whites of his eyes slowly turning blood-red. The blood dragon’s power doubled his bloodlust and fury, and the strength of the Three-Headed Golden Dragon surged forth, streaks of gold mingling with the red glow on his skin, boosting his monstrous force even further.
Keep in mind, the Three-Headed Golden Dragon could even go toe-to-toe with gods and demons in close combat. Its raw power was the strongest of all dragonkind.
Ancient Poison Dragon blood surged, resonating with Slaughter—crafted from its bones—as if the dragon itself had returned. Slaughter’s power soared again, and a final layer of crystalline brilliance enveloped it, boosting both brute force and Hubert’s defenses.
Hubert’s eyes were entirely blood-red now—a sign of berserk fury. Only a handful of beastfolk with powerful bloodlines could achieve a second-tier berserk state like this.
Once that blood-red haze took over, Hubert lost all reason. He was like a terrifying beast, fully awakened, with only one thought left: kill Shelton. Nothing could stop him. Anyone who tried would become his enemy.
Even if a living god or demon stood before him, it wouldn’t matter. Not even Leon could talk him down at this point.
A guttural growl rumbled from Hubert’s throat, his terrifying aura spreading through the air. Even the crystallized magical beasts on the surface, mindless as they were, instinctively sensed the deadly danger and fled from him.
Boom...
With a thunderous crash, Shelton swung his black halberd, slamming it into Hubert’s shoulder. The weapon shattered into black smoke, Hubert’s left shoulder dipped slightly, and a faint mark appeared on his skin.
In the next instant, Hubert gripped Slaughter in his right hand, a savage grin on his face. His left hand grabbed Shelton’s right arm, yanking hard, while his right knee slammed into Shelton’s abdomen. Shards of broken crystal burst apart; Shelton’s abdominal crystals tried to reform, but kept shattering under the force.
Though the brutal force didn’t seriously injure Shelton, it cracked his crystal defenses and bent his massive frame. Hubert’s left hand, sharp as a blade, plunged into the wound on Shelton’s belly, then he soared upward, his head smashing into Shelton’s forehead with a crazed, savage smile.
With a crack, one of Shelton’s demon horns snapped off from the impact, leaving him stunned. The monster controlling Shelton’s power faltered, and the layer of crystal on Hubert’s forehead shattered, leaving only a blood-red mark—barely a scratch.
While Shelton reeled from the blow, Hubert appeared above him, gripping Slaughter in both hands. With a furious roar, he smashed it into Shelton’s chest.
Lightning surged, like a thunderbolt crashing down, slamming into Shelton’s chest. Massive shards of crystal shattered, his chest caving in, crystallized flesh exploding, and black smoke pouring out from within.
Black smoke engulfed Shelton’s entire body, thick as ink. His demonized blood sprayed out, and in that moment, the half-demon Shelton transformed completely—his face twisted into a true demon’s visage, and the broken horn regrew instantly.
His shoulders and back broadened, hands turned into demon claws, and his spine burst through his flesh, sprouting a thick demon tail. His legs mutated into grotesque, fly-like limbs, feet reshaping into three-toed demon paws, his height shooting up to over ten meters.
Even fully demonized, Shelton couldn’t withstand Hubert’s devastating blow. His body, trailing black smoke, plummeted to the ground like a meteor.
Boom—a massive explosion blasted black smoke and dust across the earth. The ground within a kilometer collapsed, revealing a huge crater, its edges lined with deep fissures stretching hundreds of meters.
Pure demon power erupted from the bottom of the pit. Shelton lay there, chest caved in, skin split open, seven or eight ribs broken. Within the shattered, crystallized flesh, a crystalline heart throbbed violently, each beat spraying thick black smoke.
Shards of crystallized flesh flew back into Shelton’s body, broken bones snapped into place, and under the demon’s power, everything healed at a startling rate.
Shelton flexed his neck and, expressionless, lifted his head, struggling to rise from the pit. Suddenly, a shadow pierced the dust and smoke above—a blow from Slaughter, bursting through the haze and clearing the air in a single, howling sweep.
Hubert’s eyes blazed blood-red, his face twisted in a wild, savage grin. Veins bulged along his arms as he gripped Slaughter and swung it brutally at Shelton’s head...