# Chapter 2: Blood Awakening
Walking through the corridor on the third floor of the madhouse, through the connected windows along the hallway, Su Xiao noticed that the lights in the courtyard were going out one by one, including the guard tower at the center of the yard.
This was the drawback of clearing out the General Captain Diyuer, but Su Xiao had to do this. Although Diyuer was both capable and somewhat slick, he was someone from the "Hunter Unit."
The "Hunter Unit" and "Twilight Madhouse" were on the same level functionally, both being directly subordinate departments of the Capital Council, though their areas of responsibility differed.
Supernatural criminals within the Alliance, ghosts that had degenerated into evil spirits, or dangerous cult members—all of these were handled by the Hunter Unit.
After the Hunter Unit captured these people, those guilty of heinous crimes were sent directly to the Twilight Madhouse for correction and reformation.
If they survived this stage, they would be imprisoned in the cells on the first to third underground floors of the madhouse based on their crimes.
As for the five floors above ground in the madhouse, the first floor contained the cafeteria, reception room, chess and card room, etc. The second to third floors were wards, and the fourth to fifth floors were nighttime wards.
The so-called nighttime wards housed more dangerous insane criminals. These criminals genuinely had mental illnesses, but they also had another identity—supernatural beings. Once these patients with supernatural powers had episodes, they posed unpredictable risks to the neighbors in their residential areas. That's why they were sent to the Twilight Madhouse.
Setting everything else aside, when it came to treating mental illnesses, the Twilight Madhouse's expertise was absolutely top-notch. They had cured many mental illness patients. However, because the security here was too strict, they only accepted insane supernatural beings. Ordinary mental illness patients should be sent to regular madhouses for recuperation and treatment.
At the Twilight Madhouse, after these supernatural madmen were treated, Eleanor would conduct mental evaluations on them. If the evaluation was normal, it meant the supernatural madman's previous crimes were caused by mental illness. Such cases would be transferred to a sanatorium, and their ultimate fate would be decided by the Tribunal. The Twilight Madhouse did not interfere in this aspect.
However, if Eleanor's evaluation revealed that the person was purely evil at heart and committed their previous crimes out of malice, then things were simpler. The underground cells of the Twilight Madhouse welcomed this new resident. If the new resident was dissatisfied, they had every right to file an application with the Tribunal.
This was the first type of criminal imprisoned at the Twilight Madhouse. There was another type—those whose crimes were so heinous that the Tribunal sentenced them directly to the madhouse. These were even easier to handle; they were simply locked up in the underground cells.
Besides these two types, there was also a third—those sent by the "Hunter Unit." The criminals sent by them were handled the same way as those from the Tribunal, all imprisoned in the cells on the first to third underground floors.
These expanded and reinforced three underground floors of cells had a total of over 160 cells. The first underground floor had over 100 cells, with four people per cell. The second underground floor had over 50 cells, with two people per cell. The third underground floor had only 10 cells, all single occupancy.
The reason for this arrangement was that the deeper you went, the thicker the gravity alloy walls became, making it harder for criminals to escape. Don't underestimate the deepest cells here. They were rarely fully occupied. Unless someone was so heinous it was appalling, they wouldn't be locked up there.
The "Hunter Unit" and "Twilight Madhouse" appeared to be cooperative, but conflicts often arose between them. This was because the Hunter Unit would send anything they caught to the madhouse. Once, an Abyss Spawn summoned by the Dark God Cult was captured after a siege and sent here.
When they saw it was an Abyss Spawn, the old director of the madhouse was so furious his nose nearly twisted crooked. He refused to accept it on the spot.
The Hunter Unit was unhappy too. They had suffered so many casualties to capture this thing alive, and now the madhouse wouldn't take it. Where else could they send this hard-to-kill creature? Lock it up at Hunter Unit headquarters? Then they wouldn't be able to sleep well at night.
Hearing this argument, the old director's blood pressure soared. If the Hunter Unit couldn't sleep well with an Abyss Spawn locked up at their headquarters, could the madhouse sleep well with one locked up here?
And so, both sides took the container holding the Abyss Spawn straight to the Capital Council, demanding a ruling. At that time, you could almost hear the council staff screaming in their hearts: "Don't come over here!"
The final result was that the Capital Council angrily rebuked both the "Hunter Unit" and "Twilight Madhouse." On the surface, they were scolding both sides for their infighting, but in reality, they were saying: "If you dare bring that thing to the capital, neither of you will see a single cent of your funding applications for the next five years."
During that period, the city's patron saint, Mayor Perkin, had not yet taken office. Once funding was mentioned, the old hag of the Hunter Unit and the old director of the madhouse both became much more polite, saying that perhaps they had been a bit loud earlier and the council shouldn't get so worked up.
After mediation by the four Grand Councilors of the Capital Council, the final result was that the Hunter Unit would pay heavily to help reinforce the underground cells beneath the madhouse. As a condition, from then on, the madhouse would have to accept all dangerous criminals and dangerous objects captured by the Hunter Unit.
During that time, the Hunter Unit was unhappy, and the madhouse was unhappy too. But with the Capital Council watching, they couldn't fight, so they could only spit at each other. Strangely enough, although they were spitting at each other, both sides were extremely meticulous about the renovation of the madhouse's underground prison. After all, if something went wrong here, both sides would be roasted over the fire.
From these incidents, you could see the wisdom of the old hag from the Hunter Unit and the old director of the madhouse. Kusu City was far from the capital, beyond the council's power control. If the Hunter Unit and the madhouse showed mutual affection like a family, then it would be the Capital Council's turn to lose sleep.
The Hunter Unit needed the Alliance's most elite supernatural forces to combat all kinds of vicious criminals, as well as strange or evil unknown beings. These were guardians walking in the darkness; they had to be strong.
The madhouse, on the other hand, imprisoned these dangerous criminals and strange things, so it also needed sufficiently powerful strength.
If these two powerful forces were close to each other, they could do far too many things—things that would make the Capital Council uneasy.
Conversely, if these two sides hated each other to the point of needing the Capital Council to mediate, the council would be angry on the surface but secretly relieved. They would feel comfortable letting the Hunter Unit and the madhouse be stationed in Kusu City.
During that period, the Alliance was not at its most stable. The most stable period began a few years ago, when two things happened. First, the leader of the Hunter Unit stepped down, passing the position to her trained successor, Tessa.
Second, Kusu City welcomed a new mayor, Mayor Perkin. From then on, the Alliance entered its most stable period.
To this day, the old director of the madhouse had also stepped down. After Su Xiao took this position, he had to clear out the Hunter Unit's people. In the next few days, he absolutely could not allow the Hunter Unit's leader, Tessa, to have any chance to interfere here.
The city's Mayor Perkin, this patron saint, could not be offended. The madhouse's accounts only had over 700,000 Gulang left (Gulang: Alliance common currency). Offending the patron saint would mean the 6 million Gulang allocated the day after tomorrow would disappear without a trace.
You should know that as the director, Su Xiao's monthly salary was only 12,000 Gulang. This was not low income; even in the capital, this was high income.
Su Xiao had just taken office, and Mayor Perkin, this patron saint, had allocated 6 million Gulang. This patron saint had always been generous to the Hunter Unit and the madhouse. This was also why the Hunter Unit's leader, Tessa, was unwilling to offend this patron saint.
Su Xiao went down to the security room on the first floor. Opening the door, he found only an old man in front of the monitoring equipment. The old man was holding a cup of hot tea, staring intently at the surveillance screens. Although he wore a security uniform, he looked somewhat slovenly.
Su Xiao sat down next to the old man. Noticing someone had arrived, the old man turned his head and said, "Still not asleep at this hour."
"Mm."
"I heard you cleared out the General Captain of the security department? That was rash."
"There will be many things to think about later. I don't want to waste brainpower on this matter."
"Sigh."
The old man sighed, then took a sip of hot tea. Don't underestimate this gatekeeper old man. He was the director two terms ago. After retiring, he was too bored and came to be a gatekeeper.
"I have a feeling you're going to stir up some big trouble. To avoid being implicated, I'd better go back to retirement."
"You can, but before you leave, recommend some talented people to me."
Su Xiao naturally knew this old fox's intentions. The recently retired director had been trained by this old fox. This showed the old fox's seniority at the madhouse.
"Where am I going to find talented people to recommend to you? Don't overthink it. I'm just an old man."
The old fox took another sip of hot tea and let out a comfortable puff of steam.
"Alright then. Tomorrow, I'll transfer your granddaughter to the madhouse."
Hearing Su Xiao's words, the old fox paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "Do as you please. That's between you young people. Even if you married my granddaughter, I wouldn't interfere. You're about the same age anyway."
"After she's transferred, let her work under Eleanor."
"Cough~. I'll send you some resumes later tonight."
The old fox put down his hot tea, stood up, and walked toward the door. At the doorway, he stopped, carefully examined Su Xiao for a moment, and finally nodded with satisfaction. Entrusting the Twilight Madhouse to someone with both strength and flexibility—he could rest assured.
Inside the security room, Su Xiao learned the current situation of the madhouse through the surveillance footage. The security personnel inside the building had been withdrawn, but those at the main gate and the guard towers along the perimeter wall remained. This was Diyuer's slickness. On the surface, it seemed he had completely fallen out with the new director and withdrawn his men, but in reality, he hadn't touched the key positions—the main gate, all guard towers, and the security forces on the third underground floor. Instead, he had even added personnel to the surrounding guard towers.
"Boss, should I go patrol outside?"
Baha spoke, clearly knowing what Su Xiao was about to do next.
"Mm."
Su Xiao stood up and went to the archive room at the innermost part of the first floor. After opening a heavy metal door inside, he took a mechanical elevator downward. As for why they didn't use electric elevators here—to be precise, neither the lighting nor anything else in the entire underground prison used electricity. They used other energy sources. Previously, a prisoner had escaped through the electrical circuits.
Don't be surprised. This was actually normal. There had been a prisoner who split himself into molecular form and escaped through the ventilation system.
As for disguising themselves as guards, or using invisibility and stealth—there were even more of those. These criminals spent most of their time thinking about how to escape from this underground prison. The key point was that these guys had all kinds of talents.
When the elevator stopped, Su Xiao arrived at the 0.5th underground floor of the madhouse. This was the management floor, responsible for monitoring the situation in each cell level, controlling the central elevator, and opening and closing individual cells.
"Director, hello."
A middle-aged man with naturally curly hair and a gloomy expression spoke.
"..."
Su Xiao raised his hand, signaling this squad leader to bring him the communicator. He wanted to borrow it.
After testing the communicator, Su Xiao walked toward the corridor at the back. At the end of the corridor, he descended the stairs there. Before long, he arrived at the outermost area of the first underground cell level. This was where the criminals could usually move around. They could come here for one hour of free time every day and go to the courtyard upstairs for one hour every week—except for the criminals locked up on the third underground floor.
Stopping here, translucent blue crystals spread behind Su Xiao's feet. First, they formed a crystal chair with armrests. Then, further back, they formed a half-meter-thick crystal wall, sealing off the path to the outside.
Su Xiao sat on the crystal chair. Bubu Wang beside him went to a corner, blending into the environment while activating all his aura abilities.
Sssss~
Static came from the communicator. Su Xiao pressed the call button and said, "Open all gravity locks on the first and second floors."
As soon as Su Xiao said this, the guards on the other end of the communicator—on the 0.5th floor above—didn't know how to respond for a moment. But since the new director had given the order, they had to obey. Besides, if something went wrong, it wouldn't be their responsibility.
Meanwhile, on the first and second underground cell levels, all cells were pitch black. At this time, all criminals were sleeping. But suddenly, the lights in all cells on the first and second floors flickered on.
Doo!
A harsh, short alarm sounded, stopping after just one ring. Then came a continuous series of clanking metal door opening sounds.
A heavily tattooed strong man with a black circular emblem branded on the back of his head got up from his upper bunk. He cracked his neck, looked at the open cell door, frowned, and said with anger in his slow speech:
"What's going on?"
"I don't know. Let me check. Not sleeping in the middle of the night—what's this about now?"
A lean prisoner, also with a black circular emblem on the back of his head, indicating he was a member of the Dark God Cult, got up and went to the cell door. His eyes showed surprise.
"Tonight is really strange. All the cell doors are open. What time is it now?"
The lean prisoner looked at the situation in the corridor. The entire first underground cell level was divided by crisscrossing corridors, all brightly lit now.
"Probably around eleven."
"What do we do? Go out? Stay here?"
"Of course we go out. I heard from those Ghost Gang guys that the director changed. I didn't believe it, but now it looks like something's wrong with this madhouse."
As they talked, several criminals left their cells. As soon as they stepped out, they saw two to three hundred criminals already in the crisscrossing corridors.
After realizing the guards hadn't arrived immediately, the criminals on the first floor began to show their true colors. They tore down the iron doors of their cells and used them to ram the metal door of the central elevator. They all knew the central elevator led outside.
Before long, criminals with fiercer or darker auras came up from the second floor below. Seeing these people, the strong man with the black circular emblem on his head felt a chill in his heart.
Seeing his reaction, a criminal who had come up from the second floor laughed and said, "Don't worry. Those doors on the third floor didn't open. We checked."
Hearing this, the strong man breathed a sigh of relief inwardly, though his expression remained unchanged. He just showed a dull, fierce smile and nodded.
"Hey, the cell door leading to Zone 1 is open. That connects to the outside too!"
The shouting thin monkey was excited, but he didn't charge ahead himself. Instead, several violent heavy criminals rushed to the front. When they didn't trigger any alarm devices, the other criminals filed out.
Among them were the thin monkey, the strong man, the one-eyed man from the second floor, and the infamous Shan Lishi, Baron, White Lion, and others.
The criminals filed out and rushed all the way to Zone 1. The few at the front suddenly stopped, causing all the criminals to halt.
At the very front, the strong man with the black circular emblem on his head was now staring at the crystal wall ahead. This seven-to-eight-meter-tall crystal wall firmly sealed off Zone 1. And at the bottom of the crystal wall sat a man on a crystal chair, his legs crossed, a sheathed longsword resting diagonally across his arms and thighs. What the strong man found hardest to ignore were those eyes with faint blue at the center of the pupils. As a vicious criminal who had once massacred an entire village, when he looked directly into those eyes, he only felt cold—a cold that seemed to freeze his soul.
"Wait, I'll go back to my cell right now..."
Before he could finish, the sound of a blade being drawn reached the strong man's ears. In that instant, his adrenaline surged, and all his muscles bulged, especially his proud arms. These had once been his means of withstanding the Hunter Unit's "Shadow Scythe." He firmly believed that no blade could break through the defense of his hardened arms in one strike.
Zheng~
The longsword rang crisply. A slight coldness appeared on the strong man's arms and neck. The next moment, his vision began to spin and lower, finally hitting the ground with a thud. His arms, which he had believed couldn't be broken through, had not only been cut open in one slash, but the blade had also taken his head.
Before his vision completely darkened, fear began to show on the strong man's severed head. The blade was too fast and too sharp—faster than fear itself.
The previously noisy Zone 1 suddenly became so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Drip, drip, drip~
Blood dripped from the tip of the Dragon-Slaying Flash. The headless corpse in front sprayed blood and fell heavily. The corpse's fingers unconsciously clenched once, then slowly relaxed.
With a swoosh, the longsword cut through an elegant arc, flinging off the bloodstains.
Su Xiao felt the longsword in his hand. The Dragon-Slaying Flash had naturally been upgraded to the Origin level. This pure sharpness was exactly what he pursued.
"You..."
A criminal with dead fish eyes was provoked into ferocity. He suddenly disappeared from his spot. Because the restraining device on him wasn't activated, his speed was too fast for the eye to track.
Su Xiao's pupils slightly contracted. He suddenly raised his left arm, pointing his left index finger at an empty spot. Compressed to the extreme, blood energy gathered at his fingertip.
'Blood Smoke Cannon!'
Bang!
Compressed to the limit, it turned into a blood-colored ray that blasted out, breaking through layers of small air waves in the air along the way.
With a boom, blood mist exploded. The disappeared dead-fish-eyed criminal reappeared—or rather, his spiraling half-leg did. That was all that remained of him.
Su Xiao was satisfied with the power of the Blood Smoke Cannon. This was still without the enhancement of "Blood Soul."
Su Xiao's style of drawing his blade and attacking without a word made the criminals present instinctively want to retreat. The fact that all cell doors on the first and second floors had been opened tonight was already eerie.
Just then, Su Xiao pulled a strangely shaped key from his chest. Seeing this key, several criminals' eyes went wide.
"Is that... the key to the central elevator?"
"It must be. Every time that door opens, I stare at this key. I've tried to forge this little darling hundreds of times, never succeeded."
"Sir, whoever you are, if possible, give me that key."
The criminals began to surround him in a semicircle. Su Xiao had killed two people, but that couldn't intimidate these vicious criminals.
Su Xiao gripped the central elevator key with one hand, initiating crystal assimilation. Finally, with a crack, he crushed the key that had been assimilated into crystal.
Crystal fragments slid through Su Xiao's fingers. This made the noisy criminals fall silent, all lowering their eyes without a word.
Under the gaze of over four hundred criminals, Su Xiao pulled another central elevator key from his chest. Seeing this, Baron, who had become the de facto leader of the criminals, twisted his face in rage. His eyes wide, he roared, "Crush this bastard! Grab that key!!"
As soon as he said this, all the criminals charged at Su Xiao.
Boom!
A domain-level ability spread outward from Su Xiao—the Blade Domain.
"Blade Grandmaster Lv.70·Ultimate Ability: Blade Domain (Ultimate Level·Active). Forms a 100-meter range Blade Domain. When you are within this domain, you gain 10% damage reduction and can parry strong attacks with strength attributes not exceeding yours by 25 points. After successful parry, knockback and knock-up resistance are briefly and greatly enhanced.
Tip: After activating this domain, consume 1500 mana points per second.
Tip: Within the Blade Domain, your slashing damage is increased by 20%.
Tip: Within the Blade Domain, your Dragon Shadow Flash ability activation speed is increased by 35%.
Tip: Within the Blade Domain, all your blade technique abilities are enhanced by the Blade Domain."
...
Su Xiao found that after activating the Blade Domain, there was no change in the surrounding air. Not only could others not see it, but even sensing his domain was difficult. This was good news. The ability was stealthy enough. Suddenly activating it during a fierce battle would surely catch a strong enemy off guard.
With a whoosh, wind broke from behind. Su Xiao's decision to take on several hundred wasn't impulsive. Although these criminals were relatively powerful, they had no weapons and were bound by special prisoner devices that prevented them from using ranged abilities.
Under these circumstances, killing these vicious criminals into submission was far more efficient than playing mind games with them. With Su Xiao's current strength, there was no need to waste brain cells on these guys. The six traitors were his main targets.
'Blade Path: Ring Break.'
Zheng!
With Su Xiao as the center, a ring-shaped slashing light spread outward. It had to be said that the quality of criminals at the Twilight Madhouse was indeed high. Of the dozens of criminals nearby, more than half jumped or leaned back, while the rest prepared to withstand the attack.
Blood splattered. Severed limbs fell, followed by screams of agony.
'Blade Path: Super·Ring Break.'
At the center of the criminals, Su Xiao assumed a blade-drawing stance. Seeing this, White Lion charged forward with a flying punch. His nearly four-meter height, combined with this punch, even produced a lion's roar.
The heavy fist wrapped in white energy struck Su Xiao but passed right through him—Su Xiao had entered a space-penetration state.
Su Xiao naturally ended his stance, shifted his footing, and crystal layers climbed up his left calf. He casually tripped White Lion in the most ordinary way possible. But White Lion didn't know that this utterly ordinary trip would be something he remembered until the end of his life.
With a crack, White Lion's terrifying force shattered the crystal layer on Su Xiao's calf. The heavy punch that had hit nothing caused White Lion to uncontrollably fall forward.
Su Xiao assumed a straight-kick posture. After predicting where White Lion's head would be, he kicked straight.
In that second, White Lion felt everything around him slow down. He vaguely remembered childhood playmates and other childhood memories.
"!"
White Lion's eyes bulged like copper bells. He concentrated all the physical energy in his body into his head. Even knowing this was extremely risky, he had to do it.
Boom!!!
White Lion turned into light—or rather, a blur—embedding into the wall ahead. He was like a dart, firmly stuck in the gravity alloy wall, impossible to pull out.
Zheng, zheng, zheng!
Blade light flashed. Several severed arms flew up. Amidst splattering blood beads, Su Xiao leaned forward and took a step, slashing out.
Zheng!
The longsword cut diagonally. A criminal's head was split diagonally, the upper half sliding off.
"Wait, I..."
A thin monkey criminal covered his severed arm, begging for mercy, but the longsword aimed at his neck didn't slow down at all, only flicking off droplets of blood.
Just after killing an enemy with one slash, Su Xiao raised his left arm. A heavy fist wrapped in black stone came at him. The crystal layer on his left arm shattered and scattered.
With a slap, Su Xiao grabbed the black stone man's face with lightning speed. The next moment, the black stone man let out a pig-like scream, his legs kicking wildly, his arms flailing. No wonder—his head was being assimilated by crystal. During this process, his thoughts became chaotic, making effective resistance difficult.
Crack!
Su Xiao crushed the crystal head and leaped back, leaving a blood-colored afterimage. With a bang, a black crystal spear embedded itself where he had just been, dispersing the blood afterimage.
Su Xiao looked forward. It was Shan Lishi among the criminals. He was now like a human tank, his body armed with black crystal.
Boom!
Shan Lishi clashed his two door-sized arm shields together. His face full of flesh grinned fiercely. Seeing this, the criminals who had been attacking Su Xiao scattered like a swarm.
Boom! Boom! Boom!...
Shan Lishi charged forward step by step. It felt like a mountain was coming at him.
Su Xiao raised his left hand, pointing at Shan Lishi.
'Blood Smoke Cannon.'
Bang!
The Blood Smoke Cannon hit the black crystal arm shield in front. Crystal fragments flew everywhere. Shan Lishi slid backward more than ten meters in a half-crouch. Blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, he squinted at Su Xiao. On the surface, he seemed to have withstood Su Xiao's attack, but in his heart, he was thinking, "Where the hell did this monster come from?!"
"Roar!!"
Shan Lishi's body expanded a full circle, reaching nearly six meters in height like a small giant. He raised his black crystal shield and charged at Su Xiao like a war chariot.
Seeing this, two blood souls appeared behind Su Xiao, along with a blood energy phantom above him. The blood souls simultaneously enhanced both himself and the blood energy phantom.
The blood energy phantom, only having an upper body but equally massive, pointed at Shan Lishi.
'Super·Blood Smoke Cannon.'
Boom!!
A blood energy cannon as thick as a water vat blasted out, breaking through layers of air waves and sonic booms along the way. The momentum was terrifying.
Smoke and dust dispersed. When everything settled, fine black crystal fragments fell to the ground. Shan Lishi was gone—blown to nothing.
The surrounding criminals looked toward where Shan Lishi had been. There was a cylindrical hole, slanting downward, breaking through the second floor and hitting the corridor on the third floor. On the third-floor corridor, it left a bottomless, slanting cylindrical pit.
In a dim cell on the third floor, a female voice spoke: "If I'm not mistaken, that's the new director. You two, were you planning to execute your escape plan soon?"
Hearing this, the prisoners in the two cells opposite remained silent. Soon, groundwater gushed out from the hole in the third-floor corridor, spreading to the one-way ventilation opening of a cell. Inside, a pair of fair, slender hands cupped some water and took a drink. Red lips curved into an elegant arc as she said:
"Groundwater from a thousand meters deep. Truly sweet."
These words made the prisoners in the two cells opposite even more silent. Breaking through to groundwater wasn't the scariest part. The scariest part was breaking through the foundation of the underground prison. No one knew better than those two how sturdy that foundation was.
"How about we postpone the escape plan?"
"Mm, I think so too. Our plan isn't perfect enough yet."
Hearing their conversation, the female criminal let out a series of laughs.
Meanwhile, on the first floor above.
Shan Lishi's gruesome death and the heavy casualties during the subsequent siege were like a bucket of cold water poured over the criminals' heads. Incomplete corpses lay on the ground around them. The walls were covered in bloodstains and slash marks.
"Don't give up! Do you want to be locked up here forever?!"
White Lion, covered in blood, roared. It had to be said that taking a kick from Su Xiao to the head and not only surviving but waking up so quickly was rare.
Hearing White Lion's shout, the criminals hesitated. But soon, their desire to escape overcame their fear of Su Xiao.
"Kill him!"
"Keep attacking him! Don't stop!"
Shouts came from all around. Su Xiao tilted his head to dodge a punch from behind while delivering an elbow strike that cracked the head of the criminal behind him.
'Blade Path: Blood Blade.'
Su Xiao disappeared. He shot upward like a straight blood line, dodging the surrounding criminals' attacks.
'Blade Path: Blood Fall.'
Midair, Su Xiao turned into another straight blood line, crashing downward.
With a boom, a blood-colored shockwave spread outward. Its power was so great that several nearby criminals were turned into large chunks of flesh. Not far away, Baron, whom Su Xiao had been targeting as a priority, was already severely injured. After taking this hit, he completely collapsed.
Amidst the splattering blood, Su Xiao slashed through a criminal's throat with one stroke. After killing the enemy with one slash, he felt his blood energy involuntarily burst forth in a special way.
"Basic Passive·Blood Awakening, Lv.80·Skill Effect 1: When killing an enemy, there is a certain probability of causing a fear effect on surrounding enemies. Enemies in a fear state have their overall defense reduced by 65% and movement speed reduced by 92.5%."
Boom!!
With Su Xiao as the center, blood energy burst forth. The surrounding world suddenly turned blood-colored. The ferocious blood energy erupted, piercing through the flesh and soul of every criminal present.
In the eyes of these criminals, Su Xiao's appearance had drastically changed. He had become a blurry but overwhelmingly oppressive scarlet figure. Blood smoke filled the surrounding air, and the ground was stained crimson.
After their souls were pierced by the blood energy, the criminals felt as if the sky might collapse in the next second. The person they were fighting was the most terrifying enemy in the world. Their souls were filled with such fear that they couldn't think straight. But when they tried to turn and run, they found their legs seemed not to belong to them. It took great effort just to take a single step.
From the perspective of a few criminals outside the blood energy's range, this scene appeared as: Su Xiao, holding a longsword in one hand, stood at the center of a crimson domain. A scarlet mask appeared on his face. The criminals around him were either crawling on the ground trying to escape, or sitting against the wall, legs kicking wildly, screaming in terror, eyes bulging like copper bells, tears streaming uncontrollably, drool flowing from the corners of their mouths. These vicious criminals, who usually feared nothing, were being driven mad by the god of death on the battlefield. This was the power of "Blood Awakening."
When the crimson domain gradually dissipated, the battle stopped. To be precise, no criminal dared to come within ten meters of Su Xiao anymore.
Su Xiao stepped forward. The criminals in front of him scrambled backward in panic, a chaotic mess. Their eyes held nothing but terror and dread.
Su Xiao stopped in front of the severely injured, blood-soaked Baron. He raised one foot and placed it on the man's head, leaning down to ask, "You seemed to have cursed me earlier."
"If you dare..."
Splat!
Su Xiao crushed Baron's head like stepping on a watermelon. This criminal would never again attack those remote towns and cities.
Su Xiao flicked the blood off his blade and sheathed the longsword.
"Good evening, everyone. Let me introduce myself. I'm the new director of this madhouse."
After saying this, Su Xiao looked around at the criminals. Finding no one responded, he frowned.
Seeing that he seemed displeased, the criminals quickly said:
"We know, we know."
"Hello, Director."
The few criminals in front bowed and scraped, all smiles. They were terrified of this new director to the bone.
"It's so late. Aren't you going back to your cells? Do you want me to treat you to a midnight snack?"
As Su Xiao spoke, he looked around at the criminals.
"No, no, no."
"We're going back. Right away."
All the criminals backed away facing Su Xiao. When they were far enough, they ran toward their respective cells. Since being locked up here, they had never felt their cells were so safe and welcoming.
Su Xiao watched the criminals run back to their cells. Feeling everything was in order, he dispelled the crystal wall and headed upstairs. This side was mostly handled. It was time to release the five Devourers. He wanted to see which of the five Devourers would emerge victorious in their battle.