# Chapter 60: Second Stage
Clang~, clang~
The bell tower of the ancient beast capital rang out, storm flame dragons circled among the clouds dyed gold by the setting sun. For unknown reasons, vast amounts of world force converged in the sky above, causing those sunset-gilded clouds to slowly rotate in a vortex pattern.
Directly below this vortex was the Old King's Hall. At this moment, on the ancient throne, the old beast king sat with authority. Though his frame had become gaunt, his imposing and powerful presence remained undiminished. His hands were clasped with fingers interlocked before him, and his slightly clouded yet still intimidating dark-gold pupils fixed on Su Xiao.
Kacha, kacha~
The hall doors behind Su Xiao pushed open as Bubu Wang, Amu, and Baha entered. As for why Xianlulu hadn't come, this level of battle was something she couldn't adapt to. Though Bubu Wang's physique didn't appear strong, he actually possessed excellent survivability when facing powerful enemies—a skill honed through following Su Xiao in battles against formidable foes.
With a thunderous boom, the doors of the Old King's Hall closed. The old beast king on the throne instinctively reached to straighten his crown but grasped empty air. Instead, he gripped the war blade resting against the armrest.
"Law Destroyer, would you become an enemy of the entire beast race for the sake of this mark?"
The old beast king picked up the [Initial Mark] from the throne's armrest.
"..."
Su Xiao remained silent.
"You would. You would have that insect queen you cultivated bare her fangs at the beast race for this mark. You've already raised that insect queen into an existence capable of annihilating the beast race—a clan focused solely on warfare. The beast race's abundant life force is the fertile ground for those insects to multiply, multiplying until their numbers are enough to swallow the beast race and tear apart the sea race."
The old beast king's words weren't mere delusion but an inevitability. If not for this final battle, to claim the last large piece of the [Initial Mark], Su Xiao would indeed have had the insect race begin mass reproduction, heading straight for Eternal Ring City. Though the remaining stay time wasn't sufficient, he never had the habit of giving up.
The reason the old beast king chose to fight Su Xiao to the death here was that he sensed the insect nest at Twilight Winter City had developed beyond controllable limits.
This was also why, after Su Xiao raised the insect race's clan level to Lv.95, he immediately received the old beast king's steel feather.
The cost of going to war with the insect race was too great—even greater than war with the sea race. Directly handing over that 35% [Initial Mark] seemed like the smallest cost, but that represented several million ounces of space-time force. The old beast king, temporarily notarized by the Void Tree, could also become the top ranker.
If the old beast king became the final victor of the mark rankings, after deducting the Void Tree's notarization fees, various losses, and battle costs, the beast race would receive roughly one-fifth of the space-time force. Assuming the [Space-Time Force Storage Device] contained 2 million ounces of space-time force, the entire beast race would obtain 400,000 ounces.
This was a Transcendent Primordial World, so they naturally knew how valuable space-time force was. Additionally, having only been placed on the mark rankings in the later stages, the old beast king was naturally unaware of Shenfu's arrangements. After all, though the old beast king was difficult to deal with in many aspects, he wasn't omniscient—otherwise, he wouldn't be on the verge of dying of old age.
The cost of war with the insect race was too high, and simply giving up this opportunity to obtain 400,000 ounces of space-time force was unacceptable. Thus, this final battle in the Old King's Hall was the old beast king's best choice.
If he killed Su Xiao, the insect race would immediately be expelled from Wind Sea Continent. Even if Jila wanted revenge, she could never return here. Moreover, a clan that had all its talent points invested in warfare capabilities would perish quickly once deprived of Su Xiao the Hunter's protection—this was inevitable.
Thus, the crisis facing the beast race would be resolved at minimal cost.
Conversely, if Su Xiao killed the old beast king, he would naturally obtain what he wanted. Additionally, the old beast king had set up an insurance measure: if Su Xiao became the final winner, he would definitely leave Wind Sea Continent as quickly as possible.
Beyond these main reasons, the old beast king naturally had some selfish motives. He had fought his entire life, leading the beast race to establish Eternal Ring City, yet now he was decrepit and dying on his sickbed.
Rather than lingering on for a few more months or years, the old beast king preferred to pick up his former weapon and let his life force burn one last time before it extinguished.
Kacha, kacha, kacha~
The already dilapidated and aged throne began to crack extensively as the old beast king's aura awakened. Broken stones floated up due to the beast king's aura.
The old beast king stood up from his throne. His three-meter-plus stature made the nearly two-meter-long war blade in his hand not appear overly long but perfectly proportioned. His cloak, with soft leather inside and iron feathers outside, hung down. Each steel feather had a sharp edge, but this wasn't a weapon.
An extremely sharp aura appeared on every steel feather, all concentrated onto the war blade in the old beast king's hand. The blade's edge had many nicks and damages, showing how many bloody battles it had endured. Though the edge had considerable damage, no one who saw this weapon would doubt its sharpness or the heavy thickness that ordinary strong individuals would find difficult to wield.
The long blade in Su Xiao's hand pointed diagonally toward the ground. The dual-blade state of Silver Moon Blade and Spirit Blade had been successfully applied. Yet even so, he felt the pressure bearing down on him growing stronger and stronger.
What faced him wasn't a decrepit old beast king but rather a burning steel blade. This wasn't a fire-type ability but the formidable power and unparalleled regenerative force unleashed by life force burning fiercely.
Was the Knight Commander's survivability as a heavy warrior twisted enough? He was actually the old beast king's disciple, having only learned the old beast king's [Vigorous Beast Blood] without fully mastering the old beast king's weapon usage.
Simply put, the Knight Commander had absurd survivability with mid-to-upper damage output, while the old beast king had absurd survivability plus formidable attack power.
The Eye of All Gods floated behind Su Xiao, scanning the old beast king's data before him.
[Comparing both parties' intelligence attributes... Comparison complete. Our intelligence attribute is 0.99 times the enemy's. Obtaining 80% of enemy data.]
Name: Beast King·?? (Due to the influence of Extremely Pure·Abyss Blood, causality has been severed by the Abyss).
Health: 105.8% (Permanent damage and aging reduce max health by 14.2%).
Battle Soul Force: 86500/86500 points.
Strength: 300 points (True attribute, dropped to barrier value due to aging).
Agility: 300 points (True attribute, dropped to barrier value due to aging).
Stamina: 300 points (True attribute, dropped to barrier value due to aging).
Intelligence: 300 points (True attribute, dropped to barrier value due to aging).
Charm: 1 point (Due to the influence of Extremely Pure·Abyss Blood, this attribute has been fixed to 1 point).
Skill 1, King of Wind Sea (World·Passive, Lv.1): Health +92000 points, Willpower +126 points, gain aging-slowing trait.
Note: The absolute maximum level of this ability is Lv.1.
Skill 2, War King (Passive, X): Health +110000, ignore all control effects, physical damage reduction 12%, energy damage reduction 15.5%, Willpower +138 points.
Skill 3, Beast King (Passive, X): Max health +20%.
???
???
Skill 6, Abyss War Spear (Technique·Passive, Lv.85): ???
Skill 7, Blade Grandmaster (Technique·Passive, Lv.78): ???
Blade Grandmaster Lv.10 Derivative Ability·Heavy Strike: Slash judgment rank +1.
Blade Grandmaster Lv.20 Derivative Ability·Furious Beast: Slash judgment rank +1.
Blade Grandmaster Lv.30 Derivative Ability·Collapse: Slash judgment rank +1.
Blade Grandmaster Lv.40 Derivative Ability·Crippling Annihilation: Slash judgment rank +1.
Blade Grandmaster Lv.50 Derivative Ability·Asura Slash: Slash judgment rank +2.
Blade Grandmaster Lv.60 Derivative Ability·Furious King: Slash judgment rank +3.
Blade Grandmaster Lv.70 Derivative Ability·Overlord's Blade: Slash judgment rank +6.
???
Skill 9, Vigorous Beast Soul (Passive, Lv.80): Based on lost health and own willpower, increase health recovery speed by absorbing surrounding world force.
???
Skill 11, Self-Developed Technique Abilities (53 total): Unable to detect detailed data. 33 passive types, 20 active types (originally 695, refined down to 53).
???
Skill 14, Molten Iron Body (Ultimate·Passive, Lv.50): When health drops below 50%, the Beast King enters a strong unstoppable state, gaining relatively high damage reduction, physical defense, and super knockback resistance.
Skill 15, Molten Iron Body·Slaughter (Ultimate·Passive, Lv.55): Due to accumulated injuries and severe aging, this ability has failed.
Skill 16, Dark·Beast King (Ultimate·Passive, X): When the Beast King's health drops below 30% and certain conditions are met, he will enter this state, temporarily restoring him to his peak condition.
...
Seeing this data, Su Xiao knew that while this battle against the old beast king was dangerous, it was winnable. Due to the old beast king's old injuries, hidden ailments, and aging, his peak strength at the early Supreme level had continuously declined.
Currently, the old beast king's combat power was below Absolute Strength but exceeded Ninth Rank. If the old beast king could stably maintain this level, with his thousands of years of accumulated combat techniques, Su Xiao wouldn't be his opponent.
The problem was that the old beast king's condition wasn't stable, fluctuating between Ninth Rank peak and half an Absolute Strength powerhouse, with considerable amplitude. This made the fight possible. Su Xiao couldn't fight an Absolute Strength powerhouse, but he could fight a strong enemy that hadn't reached the Absolute Strength level.
That said, Reincarnation Paradise's deep treatment authority was indeed a good thing. If the old beast king had once had this level of recovery and treatment, he certainly wouldn't have ended up like this.
Even so, Su Xiao wouldn't underestimate this formidable enemy. He had previously thought that among the strong enemies he had faced, the old knight with unstoppable slash was the toughest. Now it seemed otherwise—once the Beast King's health dropped to 50%, he would be in continuous strong unstoppable.
In fact, the Beast King's ability system was simple and brutal: a powerful physique combined with absurdly high-judgment force slashes. This was a war king who had fought his way through thousands of troops—his abilities naturally weren't flashy. No matter how fancy the opponent's techniques, one war blade force slash would either kill them or peel their skin off.
Simply put, the Beast King's first stage was high attack + thick health, and the second stage was full unstoppable + high attack + thick health.
Compared to these fierce and domineering first two stages, the Beast King's third stage, Dark Beast King, was simply absurd. There was no need to consider how to deal with the third-stage Beast King—the absolute priority was preventing him from entering the third stage. Otherwise, Su Xiao would die without a doubt today.
The old beast king, who had injected [Extremely Pure·Abyss Blood] into his heart, would hold nothing back and do everything possible to kill Su Xiao. Therefore, the old beast king entering the third stage equaled Su Xiao's death sentence.
The good news was that the old beast king needed his health to drop below 30% plus an unknown condition to enter the third stage.
Currently, Su Xiao's Demon Blade ability was ready for use at any time. Thus, the key to this battle was how to execute a combo to kill the old beast king the instant his health dropped below 30%.
"Amu."
Su Xiao spoke in a low voice. Amu, who had been preparing for some time, let out a moo and charged toward the old beast king, Dragon Heart Axe in hand, taking the lead.
Each of Amu's steps was exceptionally steady, but due to the charge ability activating, his speed grew faster and faster. When he was a few meters in front of the old beast king, Amu leaped low, gripping the Dragon Heart Axe with both hands raised above his head, and brought the axe crashing down toward the old beast king's head.
Whoosh!
The war blade cut through wind pressure. After the old beast king delivered a horizontal slash full of force, Amu suddenly transformed into a beam of light—a beam carrying freezing aura—that blasted into the wall on the side.
Crack~
Fine cracks appeared on the edge of the Dragon Heart Axe. This pained Amu greatly. He roared, eyes bloodshot, and charged at the old beast king again.
Boom!
Another force slash sent Amu transforming into a beam of light once more, crashing into another wall. As broken stones scattered, a bloodied Amu emerged from the dust. After taking two strikes from a formidable enemy like the old beast king, Amu still had this kind of condition...
Pfft!
Blood sprayed from Amu's entire body. Looking closely, one could see cracks spreading across him from the vibration, some cracks deep enough to reveal internal organs.
Clang!
A dark-gold slashing light with a metallic texture swept past. Blood sprayed from Amu's chest. As blood scattered, Amu fell with a thud, his aura rapidly weakening—clearly a sign of impending death.
Seeing this, the old beast king no longer paid attention to Amu. It turned out that if Amu had a grandmaster ability, it wouldn't be the Grandmaster of Taking Beatings but the Grandmaster of Playing Dead. He played dead so convincingly that even his soul aura seemed to dissipate.
Just as Baha noticed this, his eyes widened. This wasn't playing dead—Amu was truly too heavily injured and about to die. Seeing this, Baha activated the potion control device in the team storage space, causing several biological capsules pre-injected into Amu's heart to burst. The powerful recovery potions within rapidly integrated into his bloodstream, pulling him back from the brink of death.
Though Amu seemed to collapse after just two strikes, his help to Su Xiao was significant. Through Amu's injuries, Su Xiao learned about an undetected ability.
Each of the old beast king's strikes carried a judgment. The first was a normal heavy slash, the second was a powerful slash with powerful vibration, the third returned to normal heavy slash, and the fourth was another powerful slash.
Confirming this, Su Xiao turned into a blood shadow, using his speed advantage to fiercely attack the old beast king.
When Su Xiao was still three meters from the old beast king, the latter swung his blade. In that instant, Su Xiao had a strong feeling that aside from swapping positions with the demon spirit, he couldn't avoid this strike in any way. He could only block it with his blade. If he recklessly dodged, he would pay a heavy price, and the battle might end just as it began.
As a triple grandmaster, how could Su Xiao not trust the sharp combat instincts derived from technique abilities? He met the old beast king's blade with his own.
Clang!!
Blades clashed. Su Xiao saw high-speed double images caused by the vibration. Every strike from this formidable enemy had to be endured head-on. More deadly, the slashing force was absurdly strong. Su Xiao's right arm was already somewhat numb, and the battle had only just begun.
Su Xiao took a step back. The moment his foot landed, with a crack, dense cracks exploded from where he stood, spreading all the way up the hall's walls before stopping.
Without giving Su Xiao even half a second to catch his breath, the old beast king swung again. This strike was a powerful slash with super lethal damage, and that overwhelming, unavoidable feeling returned.
Fortunately, Su Xiao was prepared—Amu hadn't been beaten for nothing. Su Xiao blocked with his long blade and activated the [Perfect Block] ability.
Thud!
A shockwave spread from the point where the war blade and long blade met. Su Xiao felt the raging flame-like impact coming head-on. It was fortunate he chose to use [Perfect Block] to withstand this powerful slash; otherwise, the cost would have been severe.
The astonishing slashing force passed through his body, and the space behind Su Xiao exploded. In the hall behind him, the air was filled with spatial cracks, suspended like countless blades in midair.
A piece of broken stone shaken loose by the impact flew behind Su Xiao. When it passed half a meter behind him, it was silently sliced into flakes, then further into particles as it fell.
This was the old beast king's powerful slash. Though he had no spatial abilities, he could shatter space in an area through his slashes to kill enemies. This method was similar to Su Xiao's lightning resistance and lightning control.
Half of the king's hall's terrain was altered, becoming a death cutting zone. Combined with the old beast king's slash knockback being incredibly strong, even Su Xiao, whose normal attacks were like ultimate moves, could barely withstand it—showing how dangerous this battle was.
Blood flowed down Su Xiao's sleeve, staining the long blade. Though his health had dropped over 10% and his internal organs ached from the vibration, Su Xiao's attention was unprecedentedly focused. This battle wasn't about ability clashes—it was a contest of techniques.
The shattered space behind him exuded sharpness and cutting sensations. With no retreat possible, Su Xiao fiercely advanced. As the wind whistled past his ears, he swung his long blade down.
Just as the two blades were about to clash, Su Xiao entered the Space Penetration state. This allowed his Dragon-Slaying Flash to pass through the old beast king's war blade without obstruction. Almost simultaneously, he exited the Space Penetration state.
This created a situation where Su Xiao's long blade slashed toward the old beast king's neck while the old beast king's war blade slashed toward Su Xiao's head.
Blood spurted violently. Su Xiao and the old beast king passed each other. A severed arm spun through the air before landing with a thud.
Su Xiao, with a few drops of blood on his left cheek, stood with his back to the old beast king. Dozens of spirit shadow threads extended from his severed arm.
Behind Su Xiao, more than ten meters away, blood gushed from the old beast king's throat. Though his throat had been cut in one strike, the old beast king displayed extremely strong self-healing ability. The wound healed at a visible rate. Self-healing wasn't a rare ability, but having such self-healing with such a powerful physique was indeed uncommon.
Some self-healing and regeneration abilities that seemed invincible in the early stages might not even achieve basic bleeding stop effects when used against late-stage strong individuals. It was like an ant being able to drag a leaf quickly but never being able to pull a magnificent palace.
Zzz~
The spirit shadow threads extending from Su Xiao's severed arm all retracted, pulling his arm back. They performed micron-level suturing at the wound, connecting the severed muscles and nerves, then fixing the bone.
Su Xiao moved his left hand. Initially, his fingers were slightly uncoordinated, but they quickly returned to normal. They weren't as flexible as before and were a bit numb, but temporarily usable.
'Blood Smoke Cannon.'
Blood energy gathered at his fingertips, compressed to the limit, then shot out as a blood-colored beam, breaking through layers of small air waves along the way.
With a boom, the Blood Smoke Cannon was sliced apart by the old beast king's blade. Then, the old beast king thrust his war blade into the ground.
!
A terrifying sense of crisis, like countless sharp needles piercing his entire body, made Su Xiao sidestep. Invisible cone spears pierced up from the ground, one of them tearing through the skin of Su Xiao's right shoulder, leaving a blood trail as it pierced through the ceiling above.
As broken stones fell from above, Su Xiao landed. His aura suddenly sharpened by a notch.
'Blade Path: Azure Demon.'
Clang!
A several-meter-wide Azure Demon slashing light flew out. When it reached the old beast king, it suddenly split into numerous smaller Azure Demons. They flew past the old beast king's surroundings. Just as he relaxed his vigilance, the dozens of small Azure Demons formed a blade chain that retracted, making the old beast king experience being pierced by Azure Demon...
Boom!
The old beast king swung a heavy slash into the void. The dozens of split small Azure Demons shattered like broken crystals. Not only that, the damaged Azure Demons, due to the old beast king's powerful slashing force, flew back at Su Xiao like shotgun bullets.
Su Xiao tilted his head to dodge. Pieces of broken Azure Demon flew past him. One fragment grazed his cheek, leaving a blood trail. The Azure Demon, which had only been standing tall for a few days, was beaten down again.
'Blade Path: Flow.'
A wind scar slashed out. Seeing this attack, the old beast king's gaze turned somewhat serious. He delivered a heavy slash and took half a step back before managing to disperse 'Flow.'
Su Xiao could see that the old beast king's method of dealing with mid-range attacks, though unadorned, was truly unsolvable. No matter what mid-range attack, one heavy slash would shatter it completely.
An increasingly strong sense of oppression came head-on, telling Su Xiao that some ability of the old beast king was gradually activating. He had to finish this quickly; otherwise, once that ability activated, it would be his death.
'Super·Blood Smoke Cannon.'
A loud boom. The Blood Smoke Cannon, several times more powerful, blasted out. The old beast king, as if foreseeing this, sidestepped the moment the Blood Smoke Cannon was fired. The wind pressure from the Blood Smoke Cannon lifted his steel feather cloak.
Seeing this, Su Xiao felt puzzled. Why did the old beast king, who had been directly hard slashing all attacks, choose to dodge? Even though the Super·Blood Smoke Cannon was very powerful, this dodge caused his continuously rising sense of oppression to suddenly drop significantly.
It felt like the old beast king was charging up some ability. The more this ability charged, the stronger the sense of oppression Su Xiao felt. Just now, that powerful ability had at least charged to 50%. But with this dodge, the terrifying feeling from the charge suddenly loosened considerably, meaning the charge bar of that powerful ability had suddenly dropped from 50% to 25%.
Su Xiao's Blade Path: Flow was more powerful than the Blood Smoke Cannon with single blood soul enhancement. Under these circumstances, why did the old beast king choose to withstand 'Flow' but dodge 'Blood Smoke Cannon'?
This made Su Xiao think of a possibility. Though the old beast king had the unsolvable ability of strong unstoppable, and continuous strong unstoppable after health dropped below 50%, gaining something meant paying something. Everything had balance. For example, Su Xiao could ignore causality and divination systems, but his luck would be worse.
So what was the cost of the old beast king's strong unstoppable ability? An overly rigid physique could sometimes break, so there must be a weakness. This weakness was that the old beast king had something like a parry limit, commonly known as a parry bar.
This trait was normally used to relieve the excessive rigidity brought by strong unstoppable. But in battle, once the old beast king's parry bar filled up, he might enter a brief defense-breaking state.
In a very short time, Su Xiao thought of these factors. This cleared his somewhat dazed mind from the slashes. He knew how to win. He couldn't retreat. If the enemy was tough, he would apply enough pressure until the enemy's parry broke.
With a boom, broken stones splashed beneath Su Xiao's feet. He transformed into a blood shadow, abandoning his previous defensive stance and fiercely attacking. In fact, this was the biggest trap in fighting the old beast king. The old beast king's fierce blade technique would instinctively make people cower and choose a safe defensive stance. But once they made that choice, they would likely be suppressed by the Beast King until death.
The Azure Demon, which had just been sent to the cold palace, was dragged back out. The reason was that though the Azure Demon seemed to have failed, the dense slashes had caused the old beast king, who shattered them, to fill his parry bar significantly more than when he shattered 'Flow.'
Clang!
Long blade and war blade clashed. The vibration made Su Xiao feel a stifling sensation in his chest, but he didn't retreat an inch. Instead, he swung again.
With an explosion, the impact spread outward, sending large amounts of broken stones flying, riddling the walls on both sides with holes. This king's hall, reinforced with formations, began to fail under the clash between Su Xiao and the old beast king.
'Blade Path: Time.'
Thud~
An invisible impact spread outward. Centered on Su Xiao, everything around slowed down. He slashed at the old beast king's throat. Though the old beast king's speed had slowed, he incredibly precisely used the front third of his war blade to block, causing the Dragon-Slashing Flash to scrape along the war blade's edge and miss.
Not only that, as his speed gradually returned to normal, the old beast king grabbed the edge of his cloak with his left hand and flung it forward with full force. Countless slightly glowing sharp steel feathers shot toward Su Xiao.
Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!
Clear striking sounds spread. Su Xiao continuously blocked the flying steel feathers with his long blade. When he blocked the last feather, over a hundred spirit shadow threads extended from the fingertips of his left hand. With a full-force flick, these threads connected all the steel feathers into a blade chain, attacking the old beast king.
The old beast king was somewhat surprised, but his movements weren't slow. He stepped forward with one foot, and a beast head formed from soul energy let out a roar, dispersing the incoming blade chain.
With a series of crisp sounds, all the steel feathers retracted back onto the old beast king's cloak.
This brief opening, barely a flaw, was perfectly captured by Su Xiao. Even the old beast king, a war king, found this uncomfortable. A triple technique grandmaster Law Destroyer was indeed troublesome.
Su Xiao rushed forward and delivered a straight kick. Fierce wind pressure suddenly surged toward the old beast king, causing the corner of his eye to twitch almost imperceptibly. This kick was very wrong!
'Roar!'
An almost illusory beast roar spread. The old beast king gripped the war blade's handle with one hand and pressed against the blade's spine with the other, enduring this straight kick.
With a loud thud, the old beast king staggered back a few steps. Of course, Su Xiao, who had kicked the blade edge, also had his foot cut open. However, he had previously used the Solar Straight Kick, which had blown off his foot and lower leg, now housed in a life-support device. What he had now was a crystal lower leg and foot.
The old beast king's parry was broken, causing inevitable brief stiffness. Taking this opportunity, dark blue smoke surged from Su Xiao's body.
'Blade Path: Demon Shadow.'
As Su Xiao slashed, the released blade demon spirit had already appeared behind the old beast king. Just as his Dragon-Slashing Flash was about to strike the blocking war blade, he swapped positions with the demon spirit, appearing behind the old beast king.
Pfft!
Blood and sparks flew. The long blade cut through the cloak, causing slashing damage to the old beast king's back. However, this steel feather cloak was too tough; the defense-breaking effect wasn't ideal. But if another strike hit the same spot, the steel feather cloak would be cut through, leaving only the upper half.
With a clang, the demon spirit's crystal long blade struck the old beast king's war blade. The sense of crisis from behind made the old beast king swing a backhand round slash. But what he cut open was the demon spirit.
Su Xiao swapped positions with the demon spirit again, appearing behind the now-turned old beast king.
'Blade Path: Extreme.'
Su Xiao combined two blade technique abilities, delivering his strongest close-combat strike.
Blood and steel feathers scattered. The old beast king's steel feather cloak was severed. Su Xiao gave the old beast king no chance to counterattack, swinging again.
This made the old beast king abandon blocking. He gripped the blade handle with both hands and thrust it into the ground. A powerful impact spread from him as the center.
Su Xiao's pupils gradually contracted as he seized the timing. Just as he was about to be swept away, he swapped positions with the demon spirit. Since he and the demon spirit were the same distance from the old beast king, this swap perfectly avoided the impact of the furious slash.
'Blade Path: Blood Explosion.'
The blade of Su Xiao's Dragon-Slashing Flash turned crimson red, with high-concentration blood energy clinging to it.
A red gleam appeared in Su Xiao's eyes. The long blade stabbed toward the old beast king's chest. The old beast king sidestepped, and it only pierced his left shoulder. Then a loud explosion spread. The Dragon-Slashing Flash, having pierced the old beast king's shoulder, detonated, shattering his left shoulder and arm simultaneously.
This was the power of Blood Explosion. This move consumed 60% of Su Xiao's blood energy and a large portion of the Dragon-Slashing Flash's durability. It couldn't be used more than twice within a single world.
As blood smoke dispersed, a war blade slashed toward him. Its power caused fine black cracks to appear in the surrounding air.
'Perfect Block.'
Clang!!
After successfully blocking this strike, Su Xiao staggered back a few steps. As for using [Perfect Counter] to counter-shake the enemy after blocking, that would probably break his own waist. Even without countering, his entire skeleton felt like it was about to fall apart. The old beast king's powerful slash had absurdly fierce strength.
Su Xiao's health had already dropped below 50%. In the blood smoke before him, golden-red soul flames rose, indicating the old beast king had entered the second stage and begun continuous strong unstoppable. This made Su Xiao feel that this deathmatch had only just begun.