The Sacrifice
The Poison Leech King's massive sucker, lined with layers of spiral-arranged razor teeth, expanded infinitely in He Lingxuan's shrinking pupils like a gateway to the abyss. The stench of death and putrefaction washed over her. She could even clearly make out the dark, purplish muscle fibers constantly twitching in the depths of its throat, and the residual fragments of unknown creatures caught between the serrated teeth.
Everything unfolded too quickly; it was so fast that she couldn't even register true despair. Her body's instincts screamed for retreat, but the chilling murderous intent seemed to have frozen her limbs.
In this moment of dire peril—
A figure clad in humble cyan shot out from the side, moving with a speed that was almost clumsy and uncoordinated, yet surpassed everyone's reaction due to sheer desperation and resolve. A shoulder slammed heavily into He Lingxuan's side, pushing her ruthlessly away with such force that she tumbled directly into the muddy water beside them, splashing up a deluge of filth.
It was Lin Yan!
He had reacted purely on instinct, his body moving faster than conscious thought. In his 'Qi-gazing' perception, He Lingxuan's initially clear and stable spiritual aura had been completely locked onto and compressed by the cold, greedy, and solidified murderous intent. In the next instant, it would shatter like fragile glass. He knew he possessed almost no power; his meager spiritual energy wasn't enough to cast even the simplest defensive spell. He only knew that she could not die.
"Puh-chee—!"
The next second, a sickening, bone-jarring, mind-numbingly loud thud—the sound of sharp teeth viciously sinking into flesh and clamping down—reverberated clearly in everyone's ears!
The Poison Leech King's enormous, repulsive sucker had missed He Lingxuan's slender, fragile neck. Instead, it had latched squarely onto Lin Yan's entire forearm, savagely devouring the flesh! The dense, overlapping layers of pale-white razor teeth acted like countless tiny, sharp blades of a meat grinder, instantly sinking deep. Blood spurted out like juice from a crushed berry! A sickening crack and grinding sound of bone being squeezed and rubbed by immense force faintly reached them!
"Urghh—!"
The intense, soul-rending pain tore a short, sharp gasp from Lin Yan. His entire face instantly drained of color, turning ashen yellow. Veins bulged on his forehead and neck, and his eyes became bloodshot from the extreme agony.
Even worse, a freezing, brutal, strongly paralyzing and corrosive venom—like countless cold, venomous needles—surged madly into his body through the wound, instantly overwhelming his already pitifully weak spiritual defense line. The venom was not merely a poison; it was a condensed form of the swamp's malevolent Qi. It seized his meridians, freezing his Mana circulation entirely, and began actively devouring his life essence. It rushed toward his vital organs, the heart and brain, like an icy tidal wave!
Lin Yan's body gave a violent shudder, as if every bone had been removed, or as if he had been struck by an invisible sledgehammer. He then slumped forward limply, lifelessly, half of his body crashing into the foul, bloody mud.
The Fury of the Vanguard
"Lin Yan!!"
He Lingxuan, who had been violently thrown into the swamp and was soaked in mud, struggled to look back just in time to witness the entire horrifying sequence: the leech biting Lin Yan's arm, his agonized cry, and his collapse. Her usually cool voice broke for the first time, carrying an uncontrolled, sharp tremor and heart-wrenching horror! That sudden, desperate act of sacrifice had shattered her professional composure. Her eyes, usually so focused on analyzing data, were now filled only with blank terror and panic.
This scene struck Li Shulai and Chen Ruipeng like a thunderbolt!
"LIN YAN!!!"
Li Shulai's eyes bulged, almost tearing from their sockets, his furious roar so desperate it nearly shredded his own throat! The residual Mana in his body burst and burned uncontrollably, as if driven by madness! He was not fighting for victory anymore, but for retribution. The long sword in his hand erupted with an unprecedented, blazing light. Gone were the precise sword techniques; this was a reckless, life-for-life frenzy of hacking and slashing! He desperately tried to charge forward, carving a path through the blood tide. The cost was immediate: his back was left completely exposed, and three or four more relentless Poison Leeches viciously bit into him. The sharp sting and rapidly spreading numbness briefly stalled his movements, yet he seemed oblivious, charging forward with bloodshot eyes! Every step forward was a physical battle against the paralyzing venom seeping into his own bloodstream, yet the fury in his heart was a stronger, temporary antidote.
"ROAR!!"
Chen Ruipeng let out a sound that was less human and more the primal roar of a severely wounded, dying beast. Both his eyes instantly turned blood-red! His door-sized great axe was now swung without any thought of defense or any reservation of strength! The muscles in his arms strained to their limit, veins twisting like dragons. The great axe spun and hacked with terrifying shrieks that tore the air, moving beyond his normal limit! With every swing, he annihilated, crushed, and pulped large swaths of the leech tide surging from the front. The force was brutal; the noise of the axe impacting flesh and chitin was a continuous, wet, sickening thud. Foul blood, shattered organs, and viscous slime splattered over him. The massive man's entire torso was trembling, not just from exertion, but from the realization that his massive shield had failed his friend. He stood as their final, unbreakable barrier, using his life force as fuel to desperately hold back the densest, most ferocious assault, fighting for the slim chance of survival for the others.
He Lingxuan forced herself up from the mud, ignoring the searing pain of the scrapes on her arms and the churning turmoil in her heart. Her eyes were sharp as knives, infused with a kind of frenzied calm. Her hands flicked out, launching her last treasured, life-saving 'Corrosion Pills' without hesitation. They detonated precisely at the junction between the head and body of the Leech King that was still savagely clamped onto Lin Yan's arm!
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
A thick, dark-green toxic mist instantly engulfed most of the King's head, emitting fierce sizzling sounds of corrosion!
However, the Leech King's dark-red hide only released a few strands of thicker black smoke and became slightly pitted, but it was not truly incapacitated! It seemed utterly enraged, emitting a low, brutal gurgling sound. The sucker clamped onto Lin Yan's arm suddenly tightened its grip again, and the King violently thrashed its head!
"Crunch!"
A subtle, heart-stopping sound of fracturing bone faintly reached them!
Lin Yan was dragged mercilessly through the mud like a broken puppet. The wound was horrifically torn open and widened, and blood gushed like a spring, staining the mud beneath him a blinding, dark red. The last trace of life seemed to drain from his face along with the blood.
Descent into Despair
Spurred by their King's blood and rage, the leech swarm became even more frenzied and bloodthirsty! They surged like a black, viscous, unending tide of death, wave upon relentless wave, crashing against the trio's already collapsing defensive line. The air grew heavy and cold, a palpable sign that the Blood-Mist Blooms and the Poison Leech King were actively draining the life and spiritual energy from their surroundings to sustain their attack.
The countless open suckers, lined with layers of constantly wriggling, pale-white teeth, formed a suffocating, hopeless wall of fangs, relentlessly shrinking their pitifully small remaining space with an overwhelming, putrid stench. The three combatants were now effectively trapped on a tiny island of slightly firmer mud, the black tide lapping at their feet.
Li Shulai's sword light had dimmed to a flicker, like a candle flame in a gale. His arms were heavy and numb as if filled with lead. Every swing felt like his last, his inner Mana sea almost entirely dry, and his vision was swimming. His movements were becoming slower, the fatigue finally winning out over the adrenaline. He could feel the paralysis starting to creep up his back toward his neck—the end was near.
Chen Ruipeng's great axe no longer whistled sharply through the air; the sound was replaced by the heavy drag of exhaustion and sluggishness. His breathing was like a broken, leaky bellows, each inhalation carrying the dense smell of blood and iron. His massive body began to shake slightly—a precursor to utter physical collapse beyond the breaking point. He knew he only had a few more truly powerful swings left before his muscle fibers simply gave out.
He Lingxuan's pills were entirely depleted, and her Mana was critically low. She could only rely on her still-nimble footwork to dodge within the narrow confines, occasionally parrying with her personal steel dagger, which jolted her arm numb and placed her in constant, extreme peril, moments away from being swallowed by the black tide.
Despair! A chilling, paralyzing, bone-deep despair!
Mana exhausted, physical strength spent, pills gone, methods depleted, a teammate gravely wounded and dying... Before them were endless, ever-multiplying monsters and the cunning, powerful, seemingly unconquerable Leech King. The aura of death, thick and palpable, choked every one of them.