Chapter 201 - 200: Dragon Blood Baptism

Chapter 201: Chapter 200: Dragon Blood Baptism

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"Get over there! Get over there, now!"

Gu Su’s eyes were glued to the drop of Dragon Blood drawing closer and closer in the sky. Only one thought ran through his mind: ’This heaven-sent fortune has finally fallen into my lap!’

While shouting into the communicator for Alice to have the cockpit move the Graveyard Demon, he also closed his eyes, using his newly acquired Communication ability to frantically transmit a message to the creature.

’The moment we snatch the Dragon Blood, devour it with all your might!

Use everything you drain from it immediately. I don’t care how you use it—just use it all. Don’t you dare store any of it.

Only what’s been consumed is truly yours.

Something like this isn’t even safe just sitting in your mouth!’

He could feel that the Graveyard Demon had received the message. It wasn’t a response, but a vague impression of acknowledgment, a sense of ’Understood’.

Alice had already sprung into action.

She stood up abruptly, her gaze fixed on the Dragon Blood’s point of impact as she rattled off strings of data.

The two Walking Dead in the cockpit frantically pushed the levers. The stone spheres beneath the Graveyard Demon began to roll wildly, and the entire Mobile City struggled to change course amidst the ruins.

Just then, Gu Su noticed the ground beneath his feet begin to surge.

The Corroding Mycelium, which had retracted underground after the last devouring, now burst forth as if startled, surging madly from every crack and crevice.

They poured out from cracks at the base of the walls, churned up from the soil at the edge of the Withered Wood Forest, and erupted from every inch of ground around the Yin Fire Heap.

In just a few breaths, the entire Graveyard Demon was covered in a thick layer of white mycelium, making it look just like the Mobile Cities it had devoured before—a giant, white cocoon.

Gu Su was stunned for a moment.

He couldn’t imagine just how much Corroding Mycelium the Graveyard Demon had stored away.

He had never set up a special cauldron to produce it, yet the mycelium just kept pouring out, as if the supply were infinite.

The mycelium even crawled onto him, covering his body. Before he could even shake it off, the Graveyard Demon beneath his feet lurched to a halt...

The Graveyard Demon had stopped.

Gu Su looked up, just in time to see the drop of Dragon Blood descending right above him.

When he had seen it in the sky, it was just a single drop.

But now that it was right in front of him, he realized just how massive this "drop" was.

It wasn’t a drop at all—it was a crimson waterfall!

Its area of effect was several times larger than his Graveyard Demon. Carrying a thick, cloying, metallic-sweet scent, it crashed down, blanketing everything.

SPLASH—!

The Dragon Blood slammed into the ground, kicking up a sky-filling mist of blood.

Gu Su was drenched. His clothes were instantly corroded into tatters, and an excruciating, burning pain seared his exposed skin, as if someone were repeatedly grinding a branding iron against him. He clenched his jaw and endured it.

[You have undergone the Dragon Blood Baptism. Power +1.]

[You have undergone the Dragon Blood Baptism. Constitution +1.]

[You have undergone the Dragon Blood Baptism. Constitution +1.]

[...]

System notifications flooded his hearing, each one representing a one-point increase in his Attributes.

Gu Su couldn’t pay them any mind. He only knew that his body was being frantically reforged by the Dragon Blood, every inch of his skin and every muscle writhing in the agony of being torn apart and reassembled.

It wasn’t a simple pain, but a maddening itch that seemed to bore its way out from the seams of his bones, mixed with the sharp sting of his burning skin. He almost cried out several times.

But he held it in.

The effect on the Graveyard Demon was even more dramatic.

The Red Balloons supporting the entire city burst the instant the Dragon Blood touched them, showering the area in scarlet fragments.

Without the lift from the balloons, the Graveyard Demon’s massive body crashed heavily to the ground with a dull THUD, sending violent tremors through the entire city.

The once-solid crenellations on the walls cracked under the impact, sending sheets of metal and chunks of stone CLATTERING down.

The Dragon Blood continued to pour down, its terrifying corrosive power beginning to melt everything within the Graveyard Demon.

Gu Su could see the structures he had painstakingly built melting like wax before the Dragon Blood, beginning to soften, warp, and dissolve.

Large holes were corroded through the iron sheets on the walls, their edges curling and turning black. Wooden plank walls dissolved into piles of sludge, their original forms unrecognizable.

The sturdy Metal supports sizzled, their surfaces erupting in a dense layer of bubbles as if they were being boiled.

Even the Deceitful Tree’s branches began to wither under the corrosion of the Dragon Blood. Its leaves fell one by one, turning to ash before they even hit the ground.

But he didn’t panic.

The Graveyard Demon was carrying out the command he had just given.

The Corroding Mycelium spewed madly from the ground, covering the melting structures layer by layer.

As the Dragon Blood melted one layer, a new layer of mycelium immediately rose to replace it. It melted the next, and another took its place.

The mycelium and the Dragon Blood were locked in a head-on clash, neither willing to give an inch.

In the areas covered by the mycelium, the rate of corrosion slowed significantly. Some spots even reached a stalemate.

Meanwhile, the Yin Fire Heap went into overdrive.

The beating of the Petrified Heart grew faster and faster, accelerating from dozens of beats per minute to over a hundred. The muffled THUMP-THUMP-THUMP could be heard from a great distance.

Eerie Blue flames shot out from the furnace’s chamber, burning the entire Melting Furnace red-hot until the Metal of its walls began to glow.

Vast amounts of Yin Qi were drawn from the Yin Fire Heap and frantically pumped through a dense network of pipes into every corner of the Graveyard Demon.

The areas corroded by the Dragon Blood began to slowly heal, nourished by the Yin Qi. The mycelium, replenished by this energy, surged forth with even greater ferocity.

And so, the Dragon Blood and the Yin Qi waged a tug-of-war within this small Graveyard Demon.

On one side was the noble bloodline, powerful enough to melt anything and carrying the residual might of an ancient Giant Beast. On the other was the Undead Energy Gu Su had accumulated over a long time, chilling and tenacious.

Neither side would concede, locked in a brutal struggle of push and pull.

For every inch of structure that melted, new mycelium filled the gap. For every wave of mycelium consumed, a fresh injection of Yin Qi arrived.

The entire Graveyard Demon became a living battlefield where the two forces clashed violently in every corner.

Gu Su stood on the wall, watching everything unfold before his eyes.

His body was still being reforged by the Dragon Blood, and waves of agony washed over him, but he grit his teeth and refused to fall.

He knew he had to hold on. If he fell, the Graveyard Demon might lose its support as well.

He gripped the edge of the wall, his fingernails digging into the wood. Every muscle in his body was as tense and hard as stone.

An unknown amount of time passed—it could have been minutes, or it could have been hours.

The torrent of Dragon Blood finally began to subside.

What had been an overwhelming waterfall of blood gradually thinned to a stream, until only scattered drops continued to fall.

The cloying, metallic-sweet scent in the air began to fade, replaced by a mixture of something scorched and a damp chill.

As for the Graveyard Demon, though it was a scene of utter devastation, covered in the marks of corrosion, it had ultimately held on.

The frantically surging Corroding Mycelium began to slowly retract. The flames of the Yin Fire Heap subsided, and the heartbeat returned to a normal rhythm.

Where the Dragon Blood and mycelium had battled, a layer of dark red, crystalline material remained. It seemed to be a byproduct of the two forces merging, and it gleamed with an eerie luster in the faint light.

Gu Su could feel the Graveyard Demon beginning to absorb the Dragon Blood that remained on its surface.

It wasn’t resisting or dissolving it, but truly absorbing it.

It was as if it were converting that noble bloodline into something of its own, bit by bit. He could feel the power seeping into the walls, into the buildings, into every inch of land. The process was slow, but it was definitely happening.

He let out a long breath, only then realizing he was soaked to the bone, unable to tell if it was with sweat or blood.

His fingers were still clamped tightly to the edge of the wall. When he pried them away, his palms were covered in bloody impressions.

But it was worth it.

This one drop of Dragon Blood had nearly destroyed the Graveyard Demon, but having survived it, the rewards would be beyond imagination.