Chapter 1187: The Carnage Begins
Vermilion Bird felt that the few people before him had clearly grown a pair of bear hearts and leopard gallbladders. As "Participants," they actually dared to lay a hand on him.
"If Black Tortoise doesn't show up, I'll just do her job myself," Vermilion Bird said, looking up at the sky. "There are quite a few 'Participants' breaking the rules."
"Too bad she can't show up anymore," Liu Twenty-One replied.
"Oh…?" Vermilion Bird withdrew his gaze and looked at the tall, gaunt man in front of him. "From the sound of it, you're saying Black Tortoise is already dead."
"That's right. We sent her off." Liu Twenty-One slowly pulled Weekend behind him. "Next, we'll send you off too."
"Such big words…" Vermilion Bird frowned slightly, but the smile on his face remained. "Even I couldn't send Black Tortoise off. You think you can?"
"If you don't believe it, go ahead and try."
Cold sweat slowly trickled down Liu Twenty-One's forehead. All they could do now was stall for as much time as possible. After all, all of "The Cat's" attacks required a high degree of coordination. Theoretically, the more people who arrived, the greater their chances of winning.
Meanwhile, the "Ultimate Path" members felt that the situation before them was getting out of hand. Despite the many support-type "Echoes," none of them could injure Vermilion Bird at this moment. So, while the standoff persisted, they kept inching closer to the "Gate." After all, their mission had never been to "kill the Divine Beasts" but to "board the vehicle."
"Tch, we need to find a way to free Earth Pig…" Weekend whispered to Cui Fourteen from behind. "He knows something about Vermilion Bird's weakness that we don't. He can't die now."
"Just the three of us… I'm afraid…" Cui Fourteen's expression was troubled.
"Tch, it's fine." Weekend shook her head. "We'll stall as long as we can."
As she spoke, she noticed that Cui Fourteen and Liu Twenty-One were both covered in injuries. It seemed the battle against Black Tortoise had not gone smoothly for them either.
Vermilion Bird looked at the three of them with an amused expression. Then, step by step, he walked forward. "Whether you're lying to me or not, I'll take over Black Tortoise's job. Now, rest in peace."
The moment he finished speaking, Vermilion Bird vanished from where he stood. At the same time, Earth Pig, caught by the high-speed movement, was slammed against the wall, leaving a shocking trail of blood across its surface.
With Vermilion Bird out of sight, Weekend and the other two immediately looked around frantically, but they couldn't spot him at first. Then, listening closely, they heard him appear not far behind them.
They turned around and found that, in just an instant, Vermilion Bird now held several human heads in his hands—the very heads of the "Ultimate Path" members from before.
He held them by the hair, like someone carrying a plastic bag full of groceries fresh from the supermarket.
Each head still bore the shocked expression of the moment before death, their mouths even twitching slightly. The seven headless bodies stood at the entrance of the teleportation gate, not yet having had time to fall.
"Some children just don't listen," Vermilion Bird said. "The moment I take my eyes off them, they try to sneak away."
Liu Twenty-One's brow furrowed deeply. He realized that Vermilion Bird wasn't refraining from killing them—he was simply toying with their lives. If they didn't strike first, they might die without even knowing how.
With a flicker of his mind, the seven heads began to sprout tender green shoots from their seven orifices, silent and eerie.
Since Ning Eighteen—who possessed "Rampant Growth"—was absent, the shoots grew a bit slowly, but they still crawled upward in a grotesque display.
Vermilion Bird seemed to sense something. Smiling, he stared at Liu Twenty-One. "Playing tricks… are we?"
With that, he gathered all the heads in his left hand, grabbed one by the hair with his right, spun it around in his hand like a meteor, and then hurled it toward Liu Twenty-One.
Seeing a human head flying at him like a missile, Liu Twenty-One's eyes shot wide open. He crossed his arms in front of his chest, and the next moment, he felt a bowling ball slam into his forearms.
A clear sound of bone cracking reached his ears. The head, hard as a rock, exploded like a watermelon against Liu Twenty-One's arms. A mist of blood sprayed into the air, sending him flying backward.
Liu Twenty-One skidded across the ground for a long distance before stopping, his entire body wracked with excruciating pain. He couldn't tell whether the cracking sound had come from the skull shattering or his own bones breaking. All he knew was that his mind had gone completely blank, unable to think.
"Twenty-One…" Cui Fourteen immediately ran over to check on him, but after only three steps, she heard the sound of something cutting through the air.
She turned her head and saw another head flying toward her. Its speed was so immense that its expression had twisted and deformed from the force.
Cui Fourteen grabbed two rings. In the nick of time, she held one ring in front of her and hurled the other.
The head passed through the ring in front of her and shot out from the other ring, abruptly changing direction and flying back toward Vermilion Bird.
Vermilion Bird merely puffed out his chest, letting the head smash to pieces against him.
Cui Fourteen, still shaken, gasped for breath, then hurried over to help Liu Twenty-One up.
"Are you okay…?" she asked.
"Fourteen… it seems he can only fight hand-to-hand…" Liu Twenty-One didn't tell her that his hands had gone numb; he simply shared his observation.
"What?" Cui Fourteen was confused.
Liu Twenty-One coughed lightly. "Fourteen, he's different from Black Tortoise and White Tiger… He can't use 'Detonation' or 'Pocket Reach'… The way he deals damage is the same as an ordinary 'Zodiac'—hand-to-hand combat."
"Even if it's just hand-to-hand, we're no match for him…" Cui Fourteen said grimly. "Besides, he has 'Phase Shift,' 'Levitation,' and 'Heartsteal.' That makes his lethality far greater than any other 'Zodiac.'"
When Weekend heard this, she was stunned. "'Phase Shift,' 'Levitation,' and 'Heartsteal'…?"
A strange thought surfaced in her mind—
If that's the case, Vermilion Bird was almost no different from a "Heavenly Rank." So how could he possibly have the power to punish all the other "Zodiacs"?
Was the deterrent of "Heartsteal" really that great?
"Mmph mmph…" At that moment, Earth Pig desperately forced sounds out of his throat. Though he couldn't speak a single word, his eyes told Weekend that things weren't as simple as they seemed on the surface.
Even with "Heartsteal" as a trump card, Vermilion Bird couldn't possibly suppress all the "Zodiacs." After all, unlike Black Tortoise, he was only responsible for the "Zodiacs." If even one "Earth Rank" figured out that deafening themselves could counter "Heartsteal," Vermilion Bird would be in danger.
"But what are we supposed to do now…" Weekend had no idea how to get Earth Pig to reveal Vermilion Bird's true trump card.
Just then, a crisp sound of a lighter flicking came from not far away.
A short dwarf lowered his head, lit a cigarette, and said softly, "It's alright. Let's figure it out together."