Chapter 10: Demon
Blood dripped from his chin as Su Xiao held his longsword in a slashing stance.
Fast. Faster.
As if sensing Su Xiao's desire, the longsword in his hand actually became a bit faster. In the eyes of others, Dragon-Slaying Flash had already become a blur.
Puchi.
The longsword slashed down, and Xi's body froze.
A red line appeared on Xi's head, and a small portion of his skull began to slowly shift.
"Haah... haah..."
Xi made unintelligible sounds from his mouth. Two seconds later, he began to fall backward.
The invincible shield lasted only a moment before disappearing. A bullet shot toward Su Xiao's lower back.
Bang.
An energy shield with 50 points of strength shattered, and the bullet struck Su Xiao's lower back.
What did it feel like to be hit by a 30mm caliber bullet? Su Xiao's personal experience was that it felt like being struck by a hammer.
The front half of the bullet embedded into his flesh and skin. Fortunately, the energy shield had provided some buffer, otherwise the bullet would have punched a hole through him.
A sound of wind breaking came from his side. Su Xiao turned his head as much as possible, and a bloody gash appeared on his cheek. It was Yan Yao.
Although Yan Yao had launched an attack, Su Xiao still couldn't locate her position. It was as if she didn't exist.
He glanced sideways at the red clown not far away. This guy had barely done anything since the battle started.
There were two possibilities. One was that the red clown was a support type and not very strong in combat.
Based on the previous situation, Ku Shi had requested backup from the red clown, so it was unlikely the red clown was just a support.
Since he wasn't support, that left only the second possibility: he was preparing something, and the red clown's aura was becoming increasingly abnormal.
While thinking, Su Xiao generated an energy shield with 300 points of strength to defend against the distant 'turret'.
A sound of wind breaking came from in front of him. Su Xiao's left hand reached forward.
Puchi.
A sharp weapon pierced through Su Xiao's palm. His five fingers clenched tightly, and a muffled grunt came from the air.
Gotcha!
Su Xiao grinned. Yan Yao, who was in her transparent state, felt a chill run down her spine upon seeing that smile.
The longsword in his hand slashed forward. As the blade swung out, a sharp weapon pierced Su Xiao's chest. Yan Yao was using a dual-wield weapon.
Ignoring the sharp pain in his chest, Su Xiao brought the blade down.
"Ah!"
A scream rang out. A severed arm holding a dagger fell to the ground.
"Spare me..."
Su Xiao continued to slash. A second strike, a third strike, a fourth strike.
When he delivered the fifth slash, an 'invisible' arm gradually appeared in his hand. He looked down and saw the fragmented corpse of a woman at his feet.
He casually tossed the arm aside. A long dagger was still piercing through his palm. He bit down on the dagger's hilt and pulled it out.
Spitting out the dagger, Su Xiao shook the blood off his left hand.
The gunfire had inexplicably stopped. Su Xiao spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva and fixed his gaze on the red clown.
"Brilliant."
The red clown applauded from a distance.
Su Xiao didn't speak. He just slowly walked toward the red clown.
"Finally complete. Xi, Yan Yao, once I could have died for you. Today, you die for me. Are you... willing?"
The red clown actually closed his eyes and said, "Mr. Hunter, have you ever... seen a demon?"
Dark red flames rose from the red clown. Within those flames, two figures could faintly be seen. Looking closely, they were the souls of Xi and Yan Yao. They didn't resist, as if they had been prepared for this moment for a long time.
The two were willing to die for the red clown, showing that he possessed a unique personal charisma.
"Boss, thank you for taking in a heretic like me. Xi will become a part of you."
The dark red flames merged into the red clown's body, and his aura began to change.
"Hellfire."
The red clown pointed his index finger forward. Whoosh, a ball of dark red fire flew toward Su Xiao.
A wave of heat rushed toward him. Su Xiao sidestepped to dodge, barely avoiding the dark red flame.
The dark red flame traced a parabolic arc and eventually landed on a rock. The rock was incinerated in an instant. Not only that, but the ground burned by the dark red flame actually turned into magma.
"Finally succeeded. The accumulated achievements of ten derivative worlds."
The red clown looked at the hand that had cast the flame, as if he couldn't believe the ability he had just used was his own. For this 'godforsaken' demon bloodline, the red clown had sacrificed countless souls.
Due to his personal character, each soul he sacrificed had one chance to seize his body.
Even so, the red clown still obtained the demon bloodline, an extremely rare bloodline in Reincarnation Paradise.
Su Xiao's brows were tightly furrowed. The red clown's aura had completely changed, giving him a dangerous feeling.
The two stood several meters apart in a standoff. Neither made the first move.
On a hillside a kilometer away, the girl with the long blue braid was observing the battlefield through binoculars. Both her sniper rifle and magazines had been put away.
Her name in Reincarnation Paradise was Weini, squad number 8, 16 years old. Although she was 16, her figure looked like she was under 14, at least in terms of chest size.
Weini twirled a strand of her long blue braid in her hand. The ground at her feet was littered with shell casings.
"Clown, twenty minutes are up. Do you want to renew? Friendly reminder, your enemy is named Bai Ye. Squad 8's revolver guy lost to him once. I heard his bladder was even stabbed."
The red clown didn't respond. Weini pouted.
"Forget it if you don't renew. If you die, I don't want to get close to that guy. Getting close means certain death."
Weini put away her binoculars, whistled, and left. She had known from the very beginning that she couldn't get close to Su Xiao, and she kept that in mind.
120,000 Paradise Coins for 20 minutes of combat. After deducting ammunition costs, Weini netted 80,000 Paradise Coins.
"Sigh, bullets are so expensive. I really envy melee fighters. But with my flimsy plastic physique, I could never become one."
...
On the field, Su Xiao and the red clown were still in a standoff.
Su Xiao checked the hunt mission progress. It was complete (4/5). Only the red clown remained.
[No. 1 Potion] slid out from his sleeve. He used his thumb to pry open one side of the [No. 1 Potion] casing, revealing a gleaming needle.
[No. 1 Potion] had two uses: it could be drunk or injected.
Because [No. 1 Potion] contained diluted Hashirama cells, injection carried some risk, but the recovery effect was stronger.
Su Xiao was in a standoff with the red clown. There was no way the other party would let him drink the potion. The opening during drinking was too big.
He pressed the needle of [No. 1 Potion] into his neck and pressed the injection button on the vial.
Hiss.
The potion was injected into his body. The blood vessels on Su Xiao's face bulged as highly invasive cells invaded his body.
He converted mana into Cyan Steel Shadow energy, which immediately expelled the 'invaders'. After a moment, the situation inside Su Xiao's body calmed down. The Hashirama cells were devoured and annihilated.
The wounds on his body healed quickly. The bullet lodged in his lower back was gradually pushed out. His health points recovered rapidly from 30% to around 98%.
Although his injuries had healed, the fatigue couldn't disappear. Having blocked so many bullets and been knocked flying twice, Su Xiao felt exhausted.
But the enemy was right in front of him. The situation now was simple: either the enemy died, or he did.
Two short blades, about 70 centimeters long, appeared in the red clown's hands. Dark red hellfire clung to the two blades.
"Mr. Hunter, allow me to reintroduce myself. I have changed my name to Hell Clown. I used to be an actor."
As he spoke, the clown stomped on the ground and actually charged at Su Xiao.
It was rare for someone to actively charge at Su Xiao. Kakashi from the Naruto World had done it once, but Kakashi had already turned into a treasure chest—an opened one, at that.
Su Xiao lowered his body, holding the longsword in one hand as he stood still, his eyes fixed on the clown's footsteps.
The clown's footsteps were chaotic and unpredictable. No one could guess where his next step would land or from which angle he would attack.
Swoosh.
The clown suddenly vanished. He had performed a short-distance teleportation and reappeared right in front of Su Xiao.