Returning to the Mysterious Era-Chapter 470 - These Sharks Taste Like Molten Lava

Blood Shark revealed his signature vicious grin. His mouth was lined with two rows of shark teeth. Strands of flesh and blood lingered between his teeth, but it was unclear which creature they came from.

He had no fear whatsoever of the Hunters' Association Treatment Ward. Half a year ago, Soul Scythe, the Director of the Treatment Ward, hadn't been able to match him at all. Did they really think the reorganized Treatment Ward could capture him now?

Absolutely impossible! Besides, this was the Eclipse Society's first branch where many powerful elders were stationed. Unless the Hunters' Association launched a full scale attack, a single Treatment Ward under its banner posed little threat.

Blood Shark walked out of the cathedral in great strides. His chilling eyes remained fixed on Nine Serpents at the center of the battlefield.

"I'll chop off that strange head of yours and keep it as a trophy..." A crimson glint flashed in Blood Shark's eyes as he suddenly spread his arms.

Fwoom...

A searing red flame rose from his body, blazing fiercely in the wind. As the flames rippled through the air, they seemed oddly tar-like, more like blood than fire. A shark made of the blood-flames rapidly took shape. It was nearly five meters long with a ferocious head. Its massive maw could easily swallow a whole adult, devouring both flesh and bone completely.

Whoosh!

A crimson blur streaked across the air, leaving an afterimage of a shark. The flaming blood-shark treated the air like seawater, speeding through the air at high speed. It wasn't exactly flying, more like hovering in the air.

Fwooo!!!

A crushing, explosive sound suddenly emanated from above Nine Serpents' head. It was a massive blood shadow accelerating downward, jaws gaping wide!

Boom!

Three giant serpents covered in bloody scales shot upward from the ground. They spun in midair, slamming heavily into Blood Shark.

The ground all around them fractured with a crack. Spiderweb fissures spread out in every direction, halting only at the corners of the walls.

Nine Serpents stomped on the ground, causing soil to surge from the cracks like a fountain, raising a cloud of grey dust. The three scaly pythons whipped about like iron rods within the haze, repeatedly clashing with the flickering Blood Shark in the air.

Each strike produced a muffled boom that rippled through the air with every impact. The visible dust in the air quickly rippled outward in waves.

Blood Shark was not only incredibly fast and large, but the corrosive burn of his crimson flames made each attack lethal. After several clashes, the three serpents above Nine Serpents’ head had lost quite a few scales. A plume of blood burst in midair, only to be evaporated by flames the next moment.

"Is that all you've got? Six months ago, Soul Scythe, the Number Four Shadow Hunter, died by my hand!" Blood Shark's true voice echoed unpredictably through the haze, carrying contempt for Nine Serpents' skill. "You're already in such a sorry state fighting just one of my sharks. What if there were three...or five?"

As he finished speaking, another streak of crimson appeared in the air. It scorched the atmosphere along its path, leaving a trail of red flame in the airflow.

A second blood shark—no, more than that! A third followed closely, speeding along the same path. In an instant, three crimson beams hovered and swirled in midair, diving down together. They aimed straight for Nine Serpents' head like three gleaming blades!

Hissssssss...

Nine Serpents did not dodge, remaining rooted as her serpent eyes fixed on the sky. Her alluring face turned monstrous in an instant, with veins as thick as branches crawling across half her countenance. Nine scaly pythons shot up instantly, like nine razor-sharp metal lances.

Boom, boom, boom...

Sword and lance collided head-on, concentrating terrifying power at a single point. The air swirled violently, blasting outward and instantly clearing the dust.

In the center of the battlefield, nine serpents as thick as barrels were locked in a vicious brawl with three flaming blood sharks. Bloodstained scales fell from above as the savage beasts were caught in a death grapple, with petal-like blood flames bursting upon contact with the ground.

Neither the Treatment Ward doctors nor the cathedral's dark creatures dared approach within nearly a hundred meters. They were forced to skirt around the devastated open area, clashing desperately in narrow corners on the periphery.

In one corner, Blood Shark's true body watched the center of the field with a laid-back gaze. The blood sharks he summoned and unleashed had gained the upper hand, firmly overpowering Nine Serpents.

It seemed she was already giving her all, and unlikely to offer him any further surprises. Blood Shark, feeling somewhat bored, flicked his right hand to play with his flames. Another flaming blood shark was about to materialize in midair.

Tap, tap, tap...

Once he formed a fourth shark, Blood Shark himself moved in to engage the frontline for the first time. He intended to personally claim Nine Serpents' head.

However, at the very moment Blood Shark dashed forward, Nine Serpents, who seemed fully preoccupied by the three blood sharks attacking from above, revealed a strange grin at the corner of her mouth.

She suddenly turned her head toward Blood Shark, rotating nearly one hundred and eighty degrees.

Buzzzz...

Her Golem totem lit up, as every rune twisted and crawled like tiny tadpoles over her skin. A surge of extremely potent Golem Qi erupted, combining with the totem framework to unleash terrifying power.

Snakes were treacherous, fond of ambush, and relished a single lethal strike! From the moment Nine Serpents saw Blood Shark attack, she knew her opponent was no close-quarters fighter. His body kept conjuring flaming blood sharks to attack from a distance, confirming that fact clearly. Thus, she had refrained from using her Golem totem until then, waiting for the perfect moment.

Finally, Blood Shark was close enough.

Crack, crack, crack...

The nine pythons swirling through the sky underwent a horrifying change, rapidly doubling in size. Their scales morphed into a Golem's armor, granting them terrifying defensive power.

Before, Blood Shark's ferocious bites could rip off chunks of scales, but now he could only leave streaks of white marks. Even his corrosive flames had no visible effect whatsoever.

Boom, boom, boom...

The giant serpents lashed out to fling the first three blood sharks away, sending three crimson meteors hurtling through the sky.

Nine Serpents lunged forward, her previously human form swelling into a massive python's body that was as large as a building, crushing everything on the ground beneath it. Nine serpent heads lashing out, jaws snapping at the air in a horrifying display as they charged at Blood Shark's real form.

"How despicable!" Blood Shark's eyes bulged in fury, realizing that Nine Serpents had feigned weakness to lure him into attacking.

In that moment, Nine Serpents' unleashed strength posed a genuine threat to him. With no time to spare, Blood Shark let loose every shark inside his body without hesitation.

Whoosh!

Another shark emerged from the blood-flames, pairing with the one already in front of him. A savage glint flashed in Blood Shark's eyes, sensing it still wasn't enough. He pulled out a vial of crimson liquid from his coat, marked with a moon emblem.

Crunch!

His sharp shark teeth shredded the glass, swallowing the contents. A fresh surge of energy coursed up from deep within, driving Blood Shark's expression to new heights of mania. He roared as a sixth shark burst from his chest, its tail whipping even faster than the others.

The three blood sharks that were previously flung away descended again, marking a total of six sharks surging forward side by side!

Boom!

Serpent and shark collided.

The ground shook violently, seeming more like liquid than solid. The tremors intensified, toppling roads and walls in their path. Some dark creatures and Treatment Ward doctors lost their footing, staggering wildly. They tumbled in disarray, barely managing to stand again.

At the center of the battlefield, two figures, both wounded, stood on opposite edges of a large crater. Nine Serpents, transformed into a nine-headed python, crouched low; one head had been severed halfway, revealing a gushing bloody hole. Across from her, Blood Shark's face was contorted in agony. His entire left forearm was missing, as though it had been bitten off in a single chomp.

Blood Shark glared fixedly at Nine Serpents, panting heavily. Only one shark remained guarding him; the other five had been flung away. Thankfully, those sharks were still alive, though each was injured.

Each shark was part of Blood Shark's origin. If a shark died, a portion of Blood Shark's strength would be lost forever.[1]

"This top fighter from the Treatment Ward is truly formidable to be able to fight me to a standstill even after I've taken the Blood Moon Serum. It seems she still can't kill me, but I can't kill her either. I'll have to wait for the Black Moon Clan Leader to sense the battle and come from the manor to finish her off..." Blood Shark muttered to himself.

He reached out with his senses to the sharks scattered in all directions, intending to reconsolidate his power. However, at that very moment, his expression changed drastically, becoming unspeakably grim.

He'd sent five sharks flying but now he could only sense four!

He was certain there had just been five—how could this be...

What!? Now it's three!!!

Blood Shark's mind blanked in an instant—he'd lost yet another!

His throat turned dry and scratchy as he called out in a panic, "Come back! Hurry back!"

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Three crimson figures shot skyward from the distant rubble of a collapsed house.

One of them rose into the air, only to be snatched down effortlessly by a tall figure on the rooftop. The figure made stopping a creature moving at cannon-like speed look easy, like picking an apple from a tree. From the moment he laid eyes on it, that apple no longer belonged to the tree but to him!

Two figures looked down upon the battlefield in silence from atop the roof. On the right stood a tall man in a trench coat, holding a blood shark in one hand—a five-meter-long monstrosity that caused more commotion than a stomping elephant when it struggled. Yet in this man's grip, it couldn't even muster the faintest ripple, appearing entirely powerless.

"What an interesting power; being able to split off part of one's life essence. And it tastes pretty good, like molten lava." Cassius turned his head slightly, offering his assessment. With a light squeeze of his right hand, the entire blood shark's head began to spasm violently, then exploded on the spot.

In the blink of an eye, the huge creature had become a handful of blood-red powder, like drifting sand in his palm. A surge of life vibration energy coursed through his arm toward his abdomen where two identical energies were already swirling.

Blood Shark's summoned sharks had, of course, been devoured by Cassius as a little snack.

As it happened, the sharks had crashed precisely into the building from where Cassius and Evil Mother were secretly watching. A few sharks had literally demolished the house, forcing Cassius to find another vantage point, which offered a poorer view. He was slightly annoyed, so he decided to collect a bit of "compensation."

"Should I intercept the other two as well?" Evil Mother, standing beside Cassius, eyed the crimson shapes streaking by and asked. It seemed like the sharks had intriguing characteristics.

"Why intercept them? Didn't I tell you before we launched this operation? Unless absolutely necessary, don't attack the Eclipse Society directly. Our strength so completely overwhelms them that stepping in directly would be pointless. That would make it impossible to see if this new batch of Treatment Ward doctors holds anyone of real potential. You're not looking at this from a broad enough perspective...understand?" Cassius shook his head, admonishing her in a gentle yet firm tone.

Evil Mother's eyelid twitched. "Then why did you just kill three of them?"

"That was necessary," Cassius answered, turning to glance at Evil Mother. His gaze seemed to ask whether she intended to question him.

Evil Mother fell silent.

In the middle of a crater at the cathedral's south gate, Blood Shark counted disbelievingly with his fingers, mumbling, "One, two, three...one, two, three!"

"Half of them are gone—half are gone!!!" He was so frustrated he could almost vomit blood. He couldn't understand what was happening. He hadn't lost even a single shark in a life-or-death fight with someone as strong as Nine Serpents, yet half disappeared in the short time that they were flung away.

What in the world had transpired?

Blood Shark leaped out of the crater and turned to look at the collapsed house. It was in the shadows, and looked like an enormous jaw in the darkness. Anything that fell in would be swallowed whole by that ravenous monster!

"What are you staring at? Letting your mind wander in a fight can be fatal~" A nine-headed serpent sprang out of the crater behind him. Its colossal body blocked the last vestiges of light, casting a vast shadow.

Blood Shark spun around, a look of profound despair filling his eyes. Having lost half his strength, he stood no chance against this formidable foe. Not to mention, a far more terrifying presence seemed to be observing silently from the darkness beyond. Its gaze was brimming with greedy malice and vicious intent.

1. From previous chapters: There are three things considered as "origin" in the human body–Physique,Qi, and mind. Arcane energy refers to the ability from one's origin. ☜

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