Endless Debt

The protection from the Tyrant, supported by the Shared Chord Body and Bologue's own Ethereal Amount, converged three streams of Ether into a singular, pure force, all infused into the Bright Light Blade.

This Alchemy Armament acquired from Kedening, which Bologue later had appraised by Belli, was confirmed to be an ordinary Alchemy Armament that hadn't undergone a metamorphosis. Its strength largely related to its nature.

"Ether itself is a pure energy, and its Alchemy Matrix concentrates and releases this power. You can understand it as exchanging a large amount of Ether for maximized lethality."

Belli explained, introducing the Origin School that had similarities to it.

"The Origin School often uses such tactics. Once they master Ether to a certain degree, they can also shape Ether into Ethereal Blades and inflict damage."

This is the effect of the Bright Light Blade, allowing Bologue to transcend the limitations of his school to some extent, shaping his Ether into deadly Ethereal Blades.

In the dazzling light, the faces of Bologue and Latis were illuminated in a ghastly pale, their blue-gold eyes filled with rage. Bologue knew that the opportunity to strike down Latis was rare, perhaps the last one, so he exerted all his strength.

The Ethereal Sword severed the Bone Sword, carving a massive gash across Latis's chest. But this was not the end of the battle; Latis clasped his fingers together, and menacing bone spikes protruded from between them, delivering a punch to Bologue's chest.

The Silver Hand tugged Bologue's body, making him slightly sidestep. The sharp fingers missed Bologue's heart but still pierced through his chest.

After all, Latis was a Negative Power User, even in his weakened state, he remained a noble Negative Power User.

"And then!"

Latis laughed heartily. He had only one arm left, yet in this final confrontation, he had still won.

Bologue was too naive to think that as a Condenser he could possibly shake a Negative Power User. It was utterly ridiculous.

The decaying root tendrils infiltrated Bologue's body through his fingers, corroding him from within. Unlike Latis, who had a massive body, no matter how he was hacked it was merely a minor wound. In an instant, scarlet roots spread throughout Bologue's chest cavity.

"I... won't die." Bologue sneered.

"Even the Undead can be imprisoned."

Latis had already guessed Bologue's identity as an Undead. Although somewhat shocked, it wasn't enough to change the course of the battle.

The decaying root tendrils would slowly assimilate Bologue, embedding him into the blood and flesh of a massive tree, residing permanently between death and rebirth.

"No, what I mean is, these injuries are not enough to stop me."

Bologue laughed, explaining.

Faced with such fatal wounds, ordinary people would fall into despair and lose their mobility, but Bologue was different. Until he completely died, he could fight in the most powerful manner.

A huge amount of Ether surged through Bologue and Aimou's Alchemy Matrix, advancing triumphantly, infusing into the Bright Light Blade.

The Alchemy Armament could not withstand such an Ethereal Amount, and it began to spark and collapse in frequency, while the form of the Ethereal Blade lost its restraint, like an erupting stream of fire, firmly gripped by Bologue.

"Swarm of snakes!"

Bologue raised the fire of Ether high, his other hand clenched into a fist as if intending to twist the Latis before him into foul blood.

"Obey my command!"

An invisible large hand grasped Latis, also capturing those scattered snakes.

The massive blood and flesh of the body began to tremble violently, endless agony emanating from beneath the shell, as if a swarm of snakes slithered among the flesh and blood, devouring it.

In an instant, countless serpents ruptured from the giant serpent's body, like seeds, instantly exploding into countless Iron Branches.

Cold thorns spread across every part of the snake's body in the blink of an eye, and the thorns continued to ascend, even piercing out of Latis's throat, stained with mottled blood.

"How... is this possible?"

Watching all this in disbelief, Latis soon understood everything.

Against this massive blood and flesh body, Bologue's reckless hacking couldn't solve anything. As he traveled inside the giant serpent, Bologue left countless Deceitful Snake Scale Liquid behind, connected by slender threads.

This was Bologue's true killing move. Numerous thorn seeds were hidden inside the giant serpent, interlinked, and even shifted continuously with the twitching of flesh and blood.

The previous throwing of Iron Spears towards the giant serpent buried seeds constantly until this ultimate killer moment burst forth completely.

Bologue swung the Ethereal fire in his hand, burning through the path of blood and Bone Armor, reducing all material it touched to dust, until the Bright Light Blade could no longer sustain, shattering into mundane iron.

But this was enough.

A massive blood cavity appeared in Latis's chest, exposing internal organs, bones, and even the beating heart entirely to Bologue. Most importantly, it also revealed the pitch-black blade that almost killed the heart.

Now up close, Bologue finally recalled where he had seen this pitch-black blade before.

He released the shattered pieces of the Bright Light Blade from his hand, allowing the pitch-black blade to cut his palm. Then Bologue infused all his strength, twisting the pitch-black blade, churned Latis's heart into foul blood.

Forcefully withdrawing the pitch-black blade, Bologue flicked an eye-catching scarlet arc in mid-air.

"Farewell."

Bologue looked at Latis, whose eyes had lost their luster, and the chains loosened their grip on the massive body of flesh and blood. Then, Bologue's body uncontrollably leaned backward.

The final strike had nearly drained Bologue's Ether, and his body was heavily injured; he had no strength left to speak of.

The wind began to rise as Palmer leaped from one side, catching the falling Bologue, and the two tumbled together, rolling several times before coming to a stop.

The crimson giant serpent also lost all its support and completely collapsed, crushing column after column of stone, and the bridge surface began to crumble incessantly.

Fortunately, this upheaval didn't last long, and everything returned to tranquility again. The crimson serpent, like a creature from myth, lay dead at the end of the Long Bridge, while two figures in the near distance leaned against the base of a stone column, observing the scene.

It took Bologue several moments to regain his senses; the decaying roots embedded in his body were quite deadly. He had no energy left to deal with them, but fortunately, their gnawing was balanced by his resurrection, and apart from intense chest pain, Bologue felt things were relatively normal.

Palmer sat next to Bologue, gazing somewhat blankly at the dead crimson serpent. After a long pause, he faintly asked Bologue.

"Can you still make some orange juice?"

"Huh?"

Bologue never imagined Palmer would say such nonsense at this moment, but this time Bologue didn't resist and was rather happy to follow the track of this fool, so he said, "I'll try."

Bologue snapped his fingers.

Nothing happened.

"Looks like I can't,"

Bologue remarked, annoyed by problems caused by the Tyrant, this lunatic. He was about to rub his forehead to alleviate some headache, but his head bumped into something cold.

Lowering his hand, Bologue found himself holding a glass of orange juice, the chilled kind. Turning his head, he saw Palmer had the same glass, crazily even with a straw and a little umbrella in it.

The two exchanged a glance, silently clinking their glasses and, facing the dead corpse, emptied them in one go.

After a brief silence, Palmer couldn't hold back his laughter, followed by Bologue.

Bologue was probably amused by Palmer or confused by this absurd scene; eventually, the two laughed out loud.

"Good heavens, Bologue!"

Palmer, while biting the straw, slapped forcefully on Bologue's back, causing a few drops of fresh blood to seep from Bologue's wounds with each hit.

"A Negative Power User! We really took down a Negative Power User! And a bastard from the Corrosive Sect, no less!"

The fear of life and death vanished; Palmer's behavior became absurd and exaggerated, raising three fingers to repeatedly emphasize to Bologue.

"Triple pay! Triple pay, indeed!"

Bologue, too, nodded laughingly. Though he didn't want to laugh, he couldn't control his expression. He guessed Aimou must be the one laughing.

"Aimou, you're quite a prodigy," Bologue sighed, "not yet onboard, and you helped us take down a Negative Power User. Your rookie showcase is way better than mine."

Aimou said nothing, just letting out a burst of confident laughter.

Bologue and Palmer supported each other, wobbling as they got back on their feet. Just as Bologue pondered the next move, Palmer patted him.

"Wait a second, Bologue, that thing..."

Palmer's tone was somewhat terrified. Turning his gaze, the once-dead crimson serpent began to writhe again.

"Didn't kill it thoroughly?"

This time, Palmer truly panicked. Now they were both merely at their limits, utterly without the energy to face a Negative Power User.

"No, it's not the Negative Power User. Those are the decaying roots."

Bologue accurately judged that Latis was dead, and now the decaying roots regained control, acting on biological instinct.

That pure, insatiable appetite for devouring.

One wave after another, Bologue's feelings were already numb, and the crimson serpent also caught the scent of living beings, slithering its way toward the two, smashing through the rocks along the path.

Just as Bologue and Palmer were preparing for a last stand, another powerful Ether reaction surged from behind, and the Canyin glow shone like a blazing sun, illuminating half of the gloom while bathing the crimson serpent in light, freezing it in place instantly.

A gunshot echoed.

A pure white flame darted through, penetrating deep into a bloody hole in the crimson serpent's body, slicing through from head to tail, almost completely severing the serpent's form.

This wasn't any ordinary flame; Bologue could feel the absolute and violent Ether coursing through it, flames forged entirely by Ether.

"Yo, you two did quite well."

A familiar voice rang out. Bologue turned his head as the brilliant light faded, revealing at the end of the Long Bridge a fierce tiger holding a handgun in one hand and a Bone-breaking Knife in the other, accompanied by a Blade-Biting Wolf, its body clad in pitch-black sharp blades.