The Blood-Mist Tide
He Lingxuan's warning—These are not Fog-Shrouded Blooms; they are the extremely similar Blood-Mist Blooms!—had barely finished echoing when a sound that instantly made their scalps prickle rose up from all directions!
The air, already thick with the smell of sulfur and ancient rot, seemed to drop ten degrees, and the gray mist around them curdled into an almost physical barrier.
Sssshhh... Glug-glug-glug... Jii-jii!
A hyper-dense, sickening noise, as if the entire marsh had come alive, transforming into a single, giant, malicious entity!
Every visible patch of water around them—from the widest pool to the smallest mud puddle—began to churn and boil violently! Countless more jet-black, slick bodies, like demons erupting from the depths of hell, tore through the mud and surfaced, leaping into the air! Their numbers were so vast that they instantly formed a black, suffocating tide. Their countless open, circular sucker mouths, filled with layer upon layer of spiral-arranged, pale-white teeth, emitted a screeching jii-jii sound as they surged madly toward the four students. Everywhere they looked was a mass of wriggling black bodies and heart-stoppingly pale, sharp teeth!
"How can there be so many?!" The ease on Li Shulai's face instantly vanished, replaced by shock and grim intensity. He had vastly underestimated the danger. His long sword danced wildly, the light coalescing into a silver sphere that guarded his entire person. He wasn't just swinging; he was performing the rapid 'Moon-Swallow Defense,' a high-level skill that generated continuous, sweeping arcs of Mana. Each arc sliced through a dozen or more leeches, but the sheer volume meant that for every one he shredded, two more took its place on the perimeter. The sword hilt vibrated violently from the sheer physical impact of the small, hard bodies, and his core spiritual energy was draining at an alarming speed just to maintain the constant silver light.
Chen Ruipeng let out a muffled roar of fury. His great axe no longer aimed for precision but spun and hacked wildly around him, generating howling gales of wind. He was like a massive, churning meat grinder, smashing and flinging away huge clusters of leeches surging from the front. The force was brutal; the noise of the axe impacting flesh and chitin was a continuous, wet, sickening thud. Foul-smelling blood and shredded flesh rained down like a storm, covering his sturdy body in gore. His breathing was ragged; the effort of generating such raw physical power in the swamp's dense, Mana-stifling air was exhausting him faster than simple combat should have.
"Hold the line! Stand firm!" Chen Ruipeng bellowed, his voice deep and gravelly, providing a momentary anchor of stability amid the chaos. He slammed the butt of his axe onto the solid-enough ground beneath him, sending a jarring vibration through the mud, a physical reassurance that they would not be washed away.
He Lingxuan's face was slightly pale, but her movements remained swift and economical. She was the crucial controller. Her hands flicked out continuously, scattering medicinal powders like water. She focused less on killing and more on incapacitation. A cone of paralysis powder stiffened large groups, causing them to fall and clog the path of those behind them; a localized cloud of toxic mist quickly corroded leeches that got close to Lin Yan's vulnerable position; and a screen formed by insect-repellent powder was constantly battered and constantly reinforced. She had become the most crucial crowd-control figure in their defensive circle, her limited Mana being stretched thin by the need to cover three distinct defensive zones simultaneously. Her eyes, though calm, held the sharp, cold desperation of a scientist whose experiment was failing catastrophically; every milliliter of Mana spent felt like a direct subtraction from their total survival time.
Yet, the sheer number of leeches was overwhelming. They were endless, fearless, and consumed the trio's spiritual power and physical strength with their bodies. The defensive perimeter, which had initially been a large circle, was now contracting rapidly. The leeches utilized every discarded body and every moment of distraction to gain ground. The black tide closed in step by step, and the quartet's operating space shrank relentlessly. The defensive circle formed by sword light, axe shadow, and toxic mist began to fluctuate violently, threatening to collapse under the sheer weight of numbers.
"Lin Yan was right, damn it, he was right about the miasma!" Li Shulai snarled inwardly, fighting down a wave of pure frustration and shame. He recognized the heavy, slow feeling in his limbs—the circulation-slowing effects of the swamp air compounded by the relentless exertion. "We wasted too much time and Mana!"
"Damn it! Our spiritual power won't last at this rate! We need an exit!" Li Shulai parried a massive surge of leeches, his breathing heavy, sweat beading on his forehead. This high-intensity sword work demanded extreme Mana consumption, and the chilling realization dawned on him: this was not a fight to win, but a fight for survival until exhaustion.
He Lingxuan's reserves of pills were depleting fast. She pressed her lips together, her eyes still calm, but the frequent application of techniques was rapidly draining her spiritual energy. Her mind raced, calculating the exact milligram of antidote needed versus the potential energy saved by using a weaker paralyzing agent, knowing that one error would cost them precious seconds.
Chen Ruipeng remained silent, but each swing of his axe became heavier, his muscles strained and veins bulging—clearly under immense pressure. He was relying almost entirely on sheer brute strength and physical endurance now, Mana simply serving to keep his axe sharp and heavy.
The Fatal Strike
Just as the three were struggling to fend off this seemingly endless deluge of common leeches, Lin Yan, who had been focused on observing and whose face was bone-white with strain, felt his heart suddenly constrict, as if gripped by an icy claw!
His Micro-Perception Sight was operating at maximum overdrive. The world was no longer just bodies and weapons, but a blinding, complex tapestry of energy flows, future vectors, and lethal convergences. The chaotic Qi of the marsh, mixed with the murderous intent of the creatures, was slamming against his consciousness like physical blows. His vision blurred, and a sharp, paralyzing pain shot from his temples down his spine—the classic sign of pushing his Augury past safe limits.
He had seen it! Beneath the surface of a seemingly placid patch of water, whose color was dark as ink, an extremely subtle, cold, viscous, and powerfully malevolent 'Qi,' filled with greedy, predatory intent, suddenly locked onto them! The strength of this 'Qi' far surpassed the combined total of all the surrounding common leeches, and its energy signature was predatory, calculating, and far too intelligent for a common swamp beast!
The sense of fatal crisis was like a drenching of ice water!
"Watch the water!!" Lin Yan shrieked with nearly all his strength, his voice sharp and strained, the sudden physical effort making his nose bleed again—the cost of forced precognition.
His warning was laced with an unprecedented level of terror!
He tried to move. He had seen the exact vector—a tiny, almost imperceptible shift to the left would have saved He Lingxuan—but his limbs, already heavy from the miasma and sluggish from the mental backlash, refused to obey the command. The physical distance of two steps felt like miles. He could only watch the prediction unfold.
And in that very instant—
The surface of the inky black water parted silently, without a single ripple. A shadow as thick as a barrel, far larger than its peers, covered in grotesque dark-red patterns, its sucker head the size of a mixing bowl and its razor teeth capable of grinding metal, shot out like a long-dormant arrow of death. It moved silently, yet faster than any attack before it. Its target was not the primary force, Chen Ruipeng, nor the flank defender, Li Shulai, but the one whose spiritual power was most chaotic and whose aura was subtly unsteady from frequent poisoning techniques—He Lingxuan!
The Poison Leech King! It had been lurking in the shadows, calmly watching its prey struggle, waiting for the perfect moment to deliver this fatal strike! Its dark-red patterns pulsed with the stagnant, malevolent Qi of the marsh, showing it had successfully assimilated the environmental energy Lin Yan had warned about.
Its speed was too fast! The angle was too sharp! The timing was impeccably precise!
He Lingxuan had just flicked out a handful of paralyzing powder to block the surge of leeches from the left; her previous strength was spent, and her new energy had not yet materialized. Her stance was in a momentary state of suspension, leaving no time for any effective dodge or defense!
Li Shulai and Chen Ruipeng were fiercely entangled by the torrent of common leeches, unable to break free or offer timely rescue! Li Shulai saw the massive shape moving on the periphery, but a sudden crush of leeches forced his sword back just an inch, denying him the angle to throw a saving blow. Chen Ruipeng was mid-swing, the sheer inertia of his axe making it impossible to change trajectory in time!
The monstrous sucker, filled with deadly teeth and carrying a foul stench, rapidly enlarged in He Lingxuan's suddenly contracted pupils, about to engulf her fragile neck entirely!