Chapter 141: Transcending Death, Sky-Piercing Flame

"Pfft, pfft, pfft!" Weaving through the gaps between the creatures, the twisted, shifting blades plunged into their vital points with every change in direction.

The blades, forged from congealed blood, became the deadliest of weapons in the hands of the humanoid figure behind Wang Yu’s body. Empowered and tempered by the secret arts of the Bloody Wrath Knight, they moved with a fluidity that defied all reason.

Once this blood was freed from the constraints of a physical body, it gained not only in lethality and agility but also in a terrifying expansion of its reach and volume.

The number of lethal creatures Elfin had created was vast—so vast they filled the surrounding space, surging forward in a relentless, crushing tide toward Wang Yu.

These staggering numbers of creatures, jostling and struggling in a dense, desperate mass, resembled nothing so much as the tides of the dead seen in cinematic horrors.

No matter how formidable you might be, you would eventually be submerged by this endless, lethal flood; the ceaseless attacks from every direction would exhaust anyone.

Yet, at this moment, Wang Yu, surrounded by the dense swarm of lethal creatures, shattered this fated death. Utilizing ripples to channel his entire being into the blood outside his body, he began his counterattack.

Several sharp limbs made of blood unfurled from behind his torso, sweeping across the creatures closing in from all sides.

Abandoning a human shape, the blood behind his back became the most lethal and flexible weapon attached to his frame. These blood-wrought limbs, like the appendages of a hunting spider, danced and lunged, weaving through the swarm.

At the tips, rotating structures of flowing blood mimicked the mechanics of a chainsaw, ensuring these creatures could not even hope to jam the weapon.

The canine creatures that had previously torn Wang Yu’s forearm to shreds now numbered in the dozens. These beasts, each capable of inflicting grievous harm, were now nothing more than common fodder.

With eerie howls, several leaped toward Wang Yu. Their four-petaled maws opened wide, sharp teeth bristling as they aimed for every part of his body, ignoring the blood-limbs dancing in the air.

These creatures possessed neither intelligence nor fear; their genetic code had denied these simple biological weapons any other possibility.

"Step! Bang!" Wang Yu’s body moved with terrifying speed. Driven entirely by instinct, his frame pushed the concept of a "sixth sense" to its absolute limit. Every movement was swift, devoid of hesitation, and even faster than when controlled by his own consciousness.

Each action was streamlined to the maximum by instinct, and the exertion of his muscles was executed in the most efficient manner possible. In a flash, he completed a sequence: stepping, leveraging, sinking his arms, grabbing, twisting his waist, spinning, and smashing!

As these lethal creations swarmed in a fearless, clustered mass, Wang Yu’s body reacted in perfect synchronization. His left and right hands snatched a slain creature from the ground, and with a violent stomp, he channeled the force from the earth through his entire frame.

Borrowing this momentum, the gears of his flesh interlocked, transmitting power. The battle aura born spontaneously from his body, now under the control of his instincts, surged through every muscle. With the combined force of aura and flesh, his strength erupted.

The two heavy corpses spun rapidly in his hands, delivering a powerful, crushing blow to all the creatures lunging at him.

"Crack, crack, crack, crack!" Flesh collided with flesh. Under the immense impact, the corpses shattered; bones turned into sticky fragments, skin burst, and muscle turned to pulp. The creatures struck fared no better; the shockwave sent them flying, their internal organs and bones ruptured and broken by the mid-air collisions.

The blood controlled by Wang Yu offered no mercy to these airborne targets. Several blood-limbs slashed through the air, their rotating saw-blades slicing through the creatures like tofu.

Entrails spilled, blood gushed uncontrollably, and broken carcasses littered the ground. Above Wang Yu’s head, the phantom Flag of Triumph flickered frantically.

The life force usurped from these slain creatures poured endlessly into Wang Yu, repairing damage and replenishing stamina. The engine of this killing machine, fueled by the carnage, roared to its limit once more.

"Boom, boom, boom!" The ground shook as a behemoth charged out from the dense swarm. With heavy plates covering its body, thick limbs, and a massive frame, the horn on its head was as thick as the waist of a grown man.

This rhino-like creation trampled over the others, charging toward Wang Yu like a heavy tank across a road paved with gore.

"A creation full of signs of a rush job—are you panicking, too?" Wang Yu’s gaze fixed on the creature crushing everything in its path. Its structure was a mess; only its weight and the horn on its head served as weapons, with almost no other lethal organs.

This creature’s construction was on a completely different level from the previous ones; it was clearly a last-minute creation meant to stop him. It seemed Elfin, unable to stop Wang Yu, was panicking. Could a god panic?

Though a successful hit would see Wang Yu crushed under absolute, overwhelming force until he was nothing but a pulp of meat that no amount of life force could save, he only needed to avoid being hit, didn't he?

The formidable heavy tank thundered forward, shaking the earth, its massive, heavy shell exploding with surprising speed thanks to solid muscles.

The surrounding creatures went completely mad, converging from all sides, attempting to pin Wang Yu in place. They were willing to be crushed themselves just to drag Wang Yu into this terrifying collision.

His body used hands and feet to smash away those creatures that were no longer attacking but trying to trap him. The blood behind his back retracted slightly, congealing into a sphere, and just before his body was completely submerged, it bloomed.

The blood exploded from behind him, spreading in all directions and turning into sharp, congealed spears. They pierced the surrounding creatures, then detonated within them. Even if they didn't die, the blood piercing and destroying their internal networks left them completely incapacitated.

The bodies of the creatures attempting to surround him fell at his feet, and the charging "rhino" was now within reach.

Just before the impact, Wang Yu’s body leaped into the air. The blood behind him extended into limbs, gripping the rhino’s horn and swinging him onto its back.

As he sprawled onto the "rhino’s" back, the moment his fingers touched the armor plates, he knew his own physical strength could not shatter them.

The defense Elfin had specialized was something his blood blades, which had carved through the swarm, could not handle. Was this thing specifically designed to counter him?

He seemed to have no way to deal with this "rhino," whose eyes and breathing holes were covered by mobile plates. The design he had initially dismissed as useless now revealed its purpose.

If this unmanageable beast kept rampaging, Wang Yu would indeed face serious obstacles in his advance.

But the limitations of a mere biological creature were its fatal flaw. As long as it was biological, as long as it didn't possess something like battle aura, its structural integrity was limited by the strength of its flesh. Wang Yu couldn't pierce it, but that didn't mean Avia couldn't.

"The back of the neck!"

"Understood!"

The communication was instantaneous. The gun barrel extended, aiming at the plate on the back of the "rhino’s" neck—a piece that had to be smaller and thinner to allow the head to turn.

The barrel had been modified: increased propellant, heavier bullets, and a more stable metal structure. The heavy ammunition, designed specifically for single-point penetration, was loaded.

A dull, loud roar erupted. The muzzle flashed with a brilliant, crimson-gold fire. The projectile, five times heavier than standard ammunition, was imbued with terrifying kinetic energy by the increased propellant.

The rear of the barrel cracked slightly from the recoil. The girl felt a sharp pain in her hand, but fortunately, the barrel pressed against Wang Yu’s chest allowed him to forcibly absorb the kick.

The armor-piercing round punched directly through the biological plate, tore through muscle, shattered bone, and blasted a hole in the "rhino’s" neck.

This was not the end. Following the bullet, Wang Yu’s blood quickly surged into the hole. Such a useful vehicle—it would be a shame not to make use of it.

The blood turned into tough, thin cords, entering through the massive wound the girl had intentionally widened. It wound its way up from the exposed spine, binding and controlling one of the beast’s most vital components from the inside.

With a hard pull, the beast, despite its tenacious vitality, had its head forcibly twisted by the tugging force on its internal vulnerabilities. Struggling to drive its massive frame, it turned and charged toward the center of Stevenson Academy—the target of Wang Yu and Avia.

Its massive body crushed everything in its path. The staggering, tidal waves of Elfin’s creations were meaningless before the absolute power of this giant beast. No matter how many stood in the way, they were merely ground into meat paste that seeped into the earth.

The shell covering the beast—likely the hardest armor a purely biological entity could form—rendered the attacks of creatures trying to stop it futile.

The specialized creatures that could easily pierce Wang Yu’s body left only shallow claw marks on the beast’s thick armor.

Rampaging forward, Wang Yu, forcibly driving the beast, charged in a straight line toward their goal. His body only needed to smash any creatures that leaped onto the beast’s back.

The lethal blood-weapons harvested lives along the way, maintaining the terrifying state of external blood manipulation through the life force continuously converted by the Flag of Triumph.

"A fine state. You have surpassed death, but it is still not enough. You have no idea what the final state of life is. It is a process of constant evolution, a process that can only rely on life itself. Even if you reach my side, it is meaningless."

"An interesting and arrogant existence. I invite you one last time to join me. You have the qualifications to witness the ultimate form of life with me. Weakness is not the most terrifying thing; arrogance is."

Elfin’s voice rang out again. The power Wang Yu displayed had once again caught the god’s eye, and he had once again extended his olive branch.

"..." This time, Wang Yu offered no response, merely steering the beast in a straight charge toward the center of the academy.

"A pity. You will realize your mistake..." The cold, emotionless voice faded. Close at hand, just beyond the circle of surging creatures, lay their destination: the very heart of Stevenson Magic Academy, where none of Elfin’s creations existed.

The rampaging beast broke through the final layer of the lethal swarm. Wang Yu and Avia breached the endless, dense encirclement and arrived at their destination—the center of the academy, the heart of the Inner Annihilation Array.

"Crack, crack, crack, boom!" The blood-cords pulled with sudden force. The beast’s spine snapped under the pressure. The body, losing its drive, slid and overturned on the academy grounds, leaving a long trail of meat paste.

Wang Yu’s body stood up beside the beast’s carcass. The humanoid figure of blood floated at his side. Avia raised her gun.

The scene at the center of the academy revealed itself to them, and the indescribable biological creation at the heart made both their pupils shrink.

"It is useless. Your lives are too fragile. Before my evolving creations, you are merely fodder for growth. That thing in your hand will only take you further from the power of life itself. This is the arrogance of you humans."

Elfin’s form appeared on a platform at the center of the academy, constructed of circular metal grids that looked much like a shaft.

It was a body both familiar and strange. Wang Yu had seen Elfin’s form before, but this felt entirely different.

A translucent sac made of flesh contained an incomplete embryo floating in orange-red liquid. To say it was incomplete was only because it was still constantly perfecting itself.

It was hard to describe what it was. It looked as if a pile of biological organs had been cobbled together onto a single frame, yet that wasn't quite it. The chaotic, indescribable structure possessed a strangely eerie harmony.

These organs were not randomly assembled. A brief glance with his knight’s combat intuition allowed Wang Yu to see the terrifying lethality that could be unleashed by their coordination.

And the creature was still evolving, changing visibly to the naked eye. Its form melted and reformed within the sac—beast, human, even plant-like. It constantly shifted its shape, moving toward a more powerful state.

This thing, which completely violated the rules of biological evolution, instilled an instinctive sense of discomfort in any intelligent being.

It is not yet complete, it continues to evolve, and the information left behind by those creatures that besieged you, once slain by your hand, serves as a link in its progression; the so-called creators of mine in Sevantan included these harvestable fragments of evolution as part of the reward for my mission.

They are as arrogant as you, casting aside the essence of life to pursue those alien powers, yet I shall surpass them through constant evolution, grinding their so-called transcendence into dust, and even in its unfinished state, it is more than enough to slaughter you all.

A wet tear! The creature within the egg sac evolved into a humanoid form, its limbs tipped with razor-sharp claws rending the membrane that birthed it, thrusting outward.

This entity of pure might crawled from its incubator, a terrifying existence composed entirely of non-transcendent parts, preparing to unveil its power for the first time, while Wang Yu appeared pathetically weak before it.

I am not saying you cannot evolve, but could you perhaps grow a bit of intelligence alongside your body? Your mind seems clouded, prattling on about arrogance—tell me, who is truly the arrogant one here?

Facing a creature powerful enough to slay him with a mere thought, Wang Yu’s tone remained remarkably flat, accompanied by the thunderous roar of the girl’s firearm.

The bullets streaked forth, yet to this horrific beast, they were meaningless; their target was not the creature, but the shaft-like structure beneath it.

The void energy the girl had meticulously hoarded was unleashed in its entirety, and under the forced distortion of Avia’s power, the projectiles began to veer.

Downward they plunged into the shaft, navigating the labyrinthine pipes far more complex than the opening above, guided by the Wizard’s Eye attached to the shells, twisting and accelerating through the warped void until they reached their destined mark.

A muffled thud! The bullet pierced a vent, entered a chamber, and struck a lever.

Click-clack, click-clack; gears meshed, and the purely mechanical structure, devoid of any magic, groaned into motion, forcing open a hatch of the Mountain Forge.

This was never a mere shaft; it was one of the heat-dissipation vents of the Mountain Forge itself.

In an instant, an endless torrent of light and heat erupted from the vent beneath the creature’s feet, a searing pillar of flame that pierced the heavens, annihilating all in its path, shattering the barrier...