Chapter 200 | Blood

Chapter 200: 200 | Blood

The broken barrier opened the ship to night and slaughter.

Black wind poured through the torn left side of the hull, thick with demonic aura. The first wave of attackers landed hard on the outer deck plates, boots cracking against spirit wood, weapons already swinging. Alarms screamed through every corridor. Disciples shouted. Steel met blackened blades. The Flying Spiritual Ship, once a steady travel vessel, turned into a battlefield above the clouds.

Lin Tian pulled the Profound Void-Yang Blade free in one clean motion.

He did not release his true Peak Foundation aura. Under the Abyssal Shadow Veil he still looked like a Middle Stage cultivator, but his movements were sharp and decisive. A demonic soldier rushed him with a bone spear. Lin Tian stepped aside, cut through the shaft, and drove the heavy blade into the attacker’s chest. The body flew back and tumbled toward the broken rail.

All around him, the lower spirit deck was chaos.

Instructor Qing fought at the center line like a crimson spear point. Her Divine Valkyrie Body burst with explosive strength as she cut down two attackers in a single exchange. Each movement was clean, violent, and efficient. Yet even from a distance it was clear the continuous fighting was draining her. The Lethal Fire-Poison buried in her meridians always consumed extra stamina under heavy battle. Her breathing had grown harder. Her strikes were still fierce, but the edge of exhaustion had begun to show.

"Hold on disciples!" Qing shouted.

A group of disciples rallied around her command. They were terrified, but her presence kept them from breaking.

Higher along the damaged branch, Elder Bai stood before a cluster of failing array nodes with both hands raised. Dark force from outside kept slamming into the barrier remnants she was trying to stabilize. Sparks of broken rune light burst around her arms. Her Exquisite Spirit Body forced the whole damaged structure into her senses at once, and the soul strain made her face go pale.

She was not given time to work in peace.

A deep, rotten pressure dropped over the deck.

A Core Formation demonic cultivator stepped through the largest gap in the barrier, black cloak torn by wind, eyes the color of old blood. His aura alone made several Foundation disciples fall to one knee. In his hand was a long blade of fused bone and dark iron, dripping with a foul mist.

He looked over the ship and laughed.

"So this is Crimson Nimbus’s pretty boat," he said, voice rough and amused. "I thought a sect vessel would have thicker bones."

Elder Bai turned sharply. "Demonic scum."

The man pointed the bone blade at her. "Array Peak witch. Good. If I break you first, the rest of the ship will open like ripe fruit."

He moved.

The clash between them cracked the air. Bai met his first strike with a hastily formed barrier, light flaring between them. The demonic cultivator smashed through it with pure violent force and forced her back three steps. She redirected the impact into a side plate, saved her footing, and sent a lattice of rune pressure toward his chest. He tore through that as well, laughing harder.

Bai was a Core Formation expert and a 4 tier Array maser, but this was not a quiet room for structure work. This was raw combat under a failing barrier, with soul strain already biting into her focus. Every exchange pushed her further onto the back foot.

The demonic cultivator pressed her toward the broken rail.

"You arrays look beautiful when they crack," he sneered. "You look better under pressure too. Don’t die too quickly. High-rank women from righteous sects sell for a fine price in the black dens. If you survive, I’ll chain you myself and let the brothers take turns teaching you how loud a Peak Mistress can beg."

Bai’s eyes went ice cold. "Shut your mouth."

She forced a complex node burst directly into his blade path. The explosion of structured force staggered him for the first time, cutting a line of blood across his shoulder. It was not enough. He roared, demonic aura detonating outward, and smashed her barrier down by brute power. Bai blocked with both arms and was thrown across the deck, boots carving sparks as she slid to a stop near a broken support post.

Blood touched the corner of her lips.

She was not finished, but she was losing ground.

On the lower line, Instructor Qing cut down another attacker and nearly dropped to one knee after the follow-through. Her arms trembled once before she locked them still. The Fire-Poison inside her was no longer quiet. Battle heat had stirred it, and every full-power movement made her vision flicker at the edges. She forced herself up anyway and kept the center from collapsing.

"Qing is reaching her limit," a steward shouted.

"She has already held too long!"

Lin Tian heard it and cut through two more demonic soldiers trying to flank the stairs. He wanted to push toward the upper breach, but the lower deck would fall if he left the gap open. Blood marked the Profound Void-Yang Blade. His public aura remained Mid Foundation. The denseness under it did not.

Then a clear emerald light swept onto the damaged deck from the inner corridor.

Elder Liu arrived with her alchemist robe already marked by smoke and blood. She had left the recovery station the moment the left barrier fully collapsed. In her right hand was a short battle flame brand used by combat alchemists, green-gold fire running along its edge. Her Core Formation pressure unfolded without restraint.

A demonic cultivator with a hooked saber rushed her the instant he saw a fresh target.

Liu did not give him a second movement.

Her brand swept up, Verdant Flame exploding point-blank into his chest and face. The man screamed as the fire ate through protective aura and flesh together. Liu stepped in, twisted her wrist, and drove the burning edge through his throat. The body fell hard, still smoking.

One kill. Clean. Immediate.

The nearest demonic soldiers hesitated.

Elder Liu’s cold eyes lifted toward the Core Formation attacker still pressing Bai.

"Your turn ends here," she said.

The demonic cultivator looked over his shoulder and grinned wider when he saw her. "Another one? Alchemy Peak this time. Even better. Array witch for the chains, alchemist for the bed. If the martial woman on the lower deck survives, I’ll take all three. Your ship is full of treasures that scream."

Qing’s head snapped up from the lower line, fury burning through exhaustion. Bai forced herself upright, blood on her lip and rune light still trembling around her fingers. Liu stepped forward between the broken plates, emerald fire rising higher along her brand, Core Formation power spreading through the ruined deck like a second sun against the black wind.

Lin Tian tightened his grip on the Profound Void-Yang Blade.

All across the ship, the life-and-death battle was still raging. Disciples fought and fell. Stewards tried to hold corridors. The barrier remained torn open. And at the heart of the breach, a Core Formation demonic cultivator turned fully toward Elder Liu, bone blade rising, foul aura screaming outward in open hunger and joy.

Bai had been pushed to the losing side.

Qing was nearly spent.

Liu had claimed her first kill.

Now the true clash was about to begin.