Chapter 108: The Cursed Blade

Riding his Hummer, with an NMD hovering overhead and protected by Apache and AK, Chu Tian charged into the crumbling ranks of the Reis rebel forces.

Although Prince Zaplan was no fool, he was no match for the seasoned veteran Marshal Makoli on the battlefield. Ten days later, Makoli ordered his Caesar Iron Cavalry and high-level magical beasts to charge once a day. With each assault, small groups of soldiers, led by the elven infiltration master Anna, would inexplicably vanish from the battlefield. Today, all those missing units and beasts appeared on both flanks of the Reis camp.

Under the three-sided encirclement, the Reis army finally collapsed. Looking down from the sky, the area beneath Quarry Fortress was filled with scenes of Caesar’s troops and beasts slaughtering their opponents. Soldiers needed to kill to earn military merit, and the beasts needed corpses to trade for gold coins; consequently, the defeated Reis army could barely leave a single body behind.

"Praise the Goddess of Life!" Chu Tian harvested lives with his own hands, his smile growing increasingly radiant. "AK, this one is mine!" With a shout, Chu Tian swung Dracula’s Wrath. A burst of flame beat the spider silk to the mark, slicing an unfortunate knight in two! The blade of Dracula’s Wrath glowed a little brighter.

"Heehee! Boss is amazing!" AK exclaimed, spraying spider silk while offering heartfelt praise. "That knight was at least a Level 5, I didn't expect Boss to..." Suddenly, AK stopped, her grinning expression freezing on her face. "Boss, you..."

The flames on Dracula’s Wrath grew more intense. Illuminated by the fire, Chu Tian’s typical charlatan-like face turned ferocious, and his eyes shifted to a bloodthirsty crimson! "Haha, hahaha, kill!" Another life was cleaved in two by the flames, and the fiery red blade subtly shifted to a cyan hue.

"Hmm? AK. What’s wrong with me?" Chu Tian licked his lips and gave the beautiful spider a cryptic smile. "Hehe! Boss is feeling great right now! Hahahaha, so many people coming at once, eh?"

Although the Reis army was routing, greed still lingered. A squadron of several hundred men, led by their centurion, charged toward Chu Tian. "That’s the Holy Priest Vladino! Capture him and we’ll be granted our own territory!"

"Hmph! You want to capture me?" Chu Tian raised Dracula’s Wrath again and swung it in a vicious horizontal sweep. Under normal circumstances, the blade in Chu Tian’s hand was merely for show. Even if it could emit Level 6 flames, in the hands of someone who had never undergone any martial training, it was at most intimidating.

But today, tempered by the blood of countless enemies, everything was different. "Die!" Chu Tian roared, his crimson eyes wide. Dracula’s Wrath unleashed a crescent-shaped wave of fire dozens of meters long, bisecting the hundreds of soldiers in one stroke.

"Hahahaha!" Chu Tian held the long blade high and laughed wildly. Praise the Goddess of Life! It felt damn good! Every time Chu Tian reaped a life with Dracula’s Wrath, a strange, warm current flowed through the hilt into his hand, spreading rapidly throughout his body.

Splattered with blood, Chu Tian licked the liquid from his lips with excitement and grinned hideously. With the offering of hundreds of lives, that strange warm current surged, rushing into his brain and stimulating his nerves into a state of even greater bloodlust.

Chu Tian’s eyes turned completely blood-red, while Dracula’s Wrath transformed into a cyan-red, instantly engulfing Chu Tian in its flames! "Ah! Uncle, it’s so hot!" the Hummer beneath him shrieked, struggling and leaping about.

"Level 7 magical flames?!" The half-dragon NMD exclaimed. "Boss, get down, or the Hummer will be burned to death!" Although the Hummer was a Tier 8 magical beast, it could not withstand the burning of Level 7 magic!

"What’s going on?!" Chu Tian’s feverish mind suddenly cleared, and he hurriedly jumped off the Hummer’s back. But his eyes remained crimson! The Hummer stood over ten meters tall; usually, Chu Tian would wait for it to lower itself before jumping down safely. Today, however, he landed steadily from a height of over ten meters without even a sway.

"Leveled up? Haha!" Chu Tian caressed Dracula’s Wrath, watching as the flames upgraded from Level 6 to Level 7. He then said with a savage grin: "No wonder Moffitt said this blade would piss Dracula off if I used it! It turns out it can actually level up..."

The enemy soldiers around Chu Tian were terrified by the carnage of him killing hundreds with a single strike. "Run!" someone wailed, and the ordinary Reis soldiers began to scatter. However, some powerful individuals remained. In their eyes, while Chu Tian’s strike was powerful, it lacked any technique and was useless against true masters.

Two high-level swordsmen watched Chu Tian from a distance. Although the magical beasts like Apache were deterrents, the temptation of capturing the Holy Priest alive kept them from leaving. They hesitated.

"Haha, there are still two who didn't run!" Chu Tian spotted them. Praise the Goddess of Life! He actually charged toward them!

Apache was stunned, nearly falling from the sky. NMD stood blankly, forgetting to follow and protect his boss. AK was left wide-eyed and dumbfounded, while the Hummer continued to jump around, enduring its burns. Chu Tian was acting too strangely today; the usually cautious boss was personally challenging high-level swordsmen!

The pets were bewildered and slow to react. Anna, who usually protected Chu Tian in secret, had been reassigned by Makoli to help move the troops. Yet, Chu Tian’s running speed seemed as if he had been buffed by wind magic, and in a blink, he was before the enemies.

"Go to hell!" Chu Tian leaped high, swinging Dracula’s Wrath down toward one of the swordsmen!

"Attack!" one of the swordsmen shrieked with excitement. Chu Tian’s skillless strike made him an easy target for a high-level professional!

One swordsman dodged the blade, flipped his sword, and lunged for Chu Tian’s chest, while the other leaped up and slashed at his spine. As they expected, both blades hit their mark...

Aoooh! Chu Tian let out a howl that did not belong to any human, then smiled hideously.

The two swordsmen made a mistake that could not be called a mistake. While Chu Tian’s attack lacked technique, his strength and speed were terrifyingly high, and Apache was charging in fiercely. To kill Chu Tian in the shortest time possible, they abandoned building up their power and instead used low-level battle aura for a quick strike. They believed that against a Holy Priest who couldn't cast magic, low-level aura was enough.

If they had taken the time to gather high-level sword energy, Chu Tian would have returned to the embrace of the Goddess of Life by now. But they used low-level aura, and could that harm a body transformed by the Dragon Emperor’s blood? Of course not!

Not only could it not harm him, it seemed to trigger something within Chu Tian at this critical moment. "Aoooh!" Another howl. One of Chu Tian’s eyes turned even redder, while the other became golden-yellow.

With his red and yellow eyes intertwined, the air within a meter of Chu Tian began to twist and the temperature plummeted. Water vapor condensed into razor-sharp dry ice, and the two swordsmen froze like statues.

BOOM! Amidst Chu Tian’s howl, a dull roar erupted from the space centered around him! It felt as if the entire Quarry Fortress shook. Then, everything around Chu Tian vanished—the swordsmen in front, the ground beneath his feet, the surrounding air—all gone.

A pitch-black, spherical void appeared around Chu Tian. Though small, it was visible to the naked eye; this was absolute nothingness!

"Ahhh!" In a flash, everything returned to normal, as if nothing had happened. Then, Chu Tian groaned in pain. He was familiar with this agony; it was the same feeling he had when he injured Moffitt. This time, however, he didn't faint because Dracula’s Wrath was supporting his body.

Thud! Once his eyes returned to normal, Chu Tian was dumped onto the ground. The void had swallowed not only his enemies but also the earth beneath him, leaving him in a hole half a man’s height deep.

"Praise the Goddess of Life!" Chu Tian climbed out, shaking his head to drive away the headache. "Damn it! Can someone tell me what just happened?"

"Boss, are you okay?" The pets finally arrived. After Apache pulled him from the hole, he asked, "What just happened?"

"I wish I knew!" Chu Tian rolled his eyes and held Dracula’s Wrath up to examine it. The flames were gone. The blade was pitch black, with a sharp edge and a hilt featuring a skull inserted through dragon wings. Aside from its unique design, it looked like an ordinary sword.

"Eh? Where are the flames on the blade?" AK asked, blinking in confusion. "Where’s the Level 7 magic fire?"

"I ate it!" Chu Tian replied with a bitter, irritable laugh. He was telling the truth; just as he was about to pass out, he clearly felt a massive surge of power flowing from Dracula’s Wrath, filling his nearly drained body. Then, the flames on the blade vanished.

Carefully putting the blade away into his ring, Chu Tian returned to his charlatan persona. "Praise the Goddess of Life! The Goddess says that when her most devout believers face danger, she will manifest a miracle!" Looking around at his own men, Chu Tian narrowed his eyes and grinned: "Remember! When we go back, if anyone asks about what just happened, that is how you answer!" Just like that, an inexplicable encounter was turned into a miracle of the Goddess of Life by Chu Tian.

"Uncle! Why are you lying?" the little Hummer asked, puzzled.

"Hmm... you’ll understand when you grow up." Although he didn't know what had happened, how could Master Chu pass up such a golden opportunity? Many on the battlefield had seen the eerie scene, and with the propaganda from Apache and the others, heehee! No one would know Chu Tian just got lucky. Instead, the whole continent would say that when His Excellency Vladino was in danger, the Goddess of Life had descended to protect him!

Tsk tsk, from now on, he was a man favored by the Goddess. Damn it! There would be a whole new wave of followers for His Excellency Vladino across the continent, right? Hehe...

"Let’s go! We’re heading back!" The battle was almost over. Seeing nothing more to gain, Chu Tian waved at his pets. "Follow me back to tally the military merits!"