lcionline Chapter 312, wait for the end
Chapter 312, wait for the end
Li Xiaoxiao had just breathed a sigh of relief when the stairs beneath her feet suddenly began to shake violently. Countless giant hands covered with scales stretched out from the mist, grabbed the edge of the stairs, and pulled the entire stone staircase to the point of collapse. A low roar came from the distance, with a tooth-grinding sound of bones rubbing against each other, which made her eardrums hurt.
Before she could react, a black shadow swooped down from the clouds. It was a giant beast with blue flames burning all over its body, a snake body with eagle wings, and seven heads opened their bloody mouths at the same time, spewing black fire with a corrosive smell towards her. Li Xiaoxiao hurriedly used the broken sword to draw a protective light shield. The moment the black fire hit the light shield, a harsh sizzling sound was made, and a pungent smell of burning rose in the air.
"Little girl, you want to run?" A hoarse laugh suddenly sounded in the void, and a hunched figure appeared above the giant beast's head. The old man was leaning on a dragon-headed cane, his face covered with wrinkles like bark, his left eye was empty, but his right eye was glowing a strange blood red, "You think you can pass the level by killing a small minion? How naive!"
Li Xiaoxiao clenched the broken sword, and the shadow of the gatekeeper reappeared. But this time, the shadow became transparent as soon as it appeared. The old man waved his hand, and a dark purple lightning struck down, and the shadow disappeared instantly. The giant beast took the opportunity to launch an attack, and its seven heads swung at the same time, and its claws swept across like a sickle. Li Xiaoxiao rolled sideways to avoid it, and a large piece of the stairs was cut off by the claws, and the gravel fell into the clouds.
"Is this an illusion?" Li Xiaoxiao suddenly realized. She remembered that the ancient books mentioned that the closer to the truth, the more likely it is for the illusion to have fatal loopholes. She bit her tongue hard and sprayed blood on the broken sword, while mobilizing the power of the contract mark. Sure enough, the beast's attack suddenly became slow, and the old man's figure also appeared double.
"I see!" Li Xiaoxiao's eyes flashed. She no longer faced the enemy head-on, but instead rushed towards the densest part of the cloud when the giant beast moved. It looked like fog, but in fact there were traces of flowing spells. The giant beast sensed her intention and spurted out black fire to stop her, but Li Xiaoxiao relied on the instinct left by the gatekeeper's phantom to flexibly shuttle through the sea of fire.
Just as she was about to touch the mist, the old man suddenly appeared in front of her, and the dragon head on the top of the cane opened its mouth and bit her. At the critical moment, the contract mark on Li Xiaoxiao's wrist burst into a strong light, and the golden light wrapped around the dragon head like a chain. She took the opportunity to stab the old man in the chest with a sword, but found that his body turned into a ball of black smoke and dissipated - this was indeed just an illusion!
With a crisp "crack", the broken sword in Li Xiaoxiao's hand pierced through the mist. The entire space began to shatter like a mirror, revealing an ancient bronze door behind it. There were dense runes engraved on both sides of the door, and a beating "heart" was embedded in the center. On the bright red flesh surface, one could vaguely see a human face twisted in pain.
The bronze door trembled, and the flesh and blood heart suddenly burst into a dazzling red light, and countless blood lines spread like spider webs on the runes. Before Li Xiaoxiao could see the details clearly, the stairs on the ground began to grow in the opposite direction, and the jagged stone thorns broke through the ground, trapping her in a thorn-like cage. The flesh and blood heart screamed like a baby crying, and the runes turned into a swimming blood snake, wrapping around her arm along the broken sword.
"Be careful!" A crack suddenly appeared in the void, and the blood-soaked boy fell from it. Chains were entangled in his silver hair, his left eye was covered with a black cloth, but his right pupil was shining like a star. The broken jade token in his hand resonated with the contract mark on Li Xiaoxiao's wrist, "This is the Nine Nether Devouring Heart Formation. Every time you attack, the resentment at the center of the formation will devour your spiritual power!"
Before he finished speaking, the bronze door burst open, and a three-headed, six-armed demon god emerged from the mist. The demon god opened his eyes, and the faint light he emitted knocked the boy away. The jade token fell to the ground, revealing half of the spell engraved on the back. Li Xiaoxiao seized the opportunity, and the broken sword wrapped in blood slashed at the blood snake, but saw that the runes suddenly formed a new pattern - it was the forbidden "reversal of reincarnation" recorded in ancient books.
"So that's how it is..." Li Xiaoxiao injected the golden light of the contract mark into the broken sword, and the sword reflected the afterimage of the young man falling. "You and I are both chess pieces in the formation!" She stabbed the broken sword into her heart with her backhand, and the golden light blended with her blood and turned into a long river of time flowing backwards. The phantom of the demon god roared unwillingly, and his flesh and blood heart began to beat in reverse. Those twisted faces actually showed expressions of relief.
The boy struggled to pick up the jade token, and the incomplete spell matched the broken sword rune, and the entire space began to collapse. Li Xiaoxiao saw countless fragments in the vortex of time and space: the true face of the man in white under the mask turned out to be the boy's appearance, the shadow of the gatekeeper and the shadow of the demon god coexisted from the same source, and the end of the stairs was the mountain gate when she first entered the secret realm... When the light faded, the two fell into the ruins of reality, the boy's chain broke quietly, and the rune of the bronze gate was quietly engraved on Li Xiaoxiao's back, perfectly overlapping with the position where the Heavenly Dao Mark disappeared.