Chapter 125 - 116: Secret Weapon

When Yin Zhen opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was blood. Ian was half-kneeling in front of her. A blood-red bone, covered in thorny spikes, pierced straight through his chest. Its tip had already plunged into her own chest and was still slowly pushing deeper, causing blood to well up from her wound. Ian gripped the blood bone protruding from his chest tightly with one hand, using every ounce of his Strength to stop its advance. His other hand rested on Yin Zhen’s shoulder. His meager remaining Life Force flowed through that hand to her, helping heal the potentially fatal wound on her chest.

A man in a black tailcoat stood behind Ian. His skin was deathly pale, and his expression was sinister. He gripped the blood bone extending from his palm with a single hand. It was the Blood Ancestor of the Dracula family.

Yin Zhen and the others had left Chi Hai for seven days. Time had not been completely frozen; under the Strength of the three Blood Ancestors, over ten seconds had still ticked by. Behind Yin Zhen was the central console. In the distance, Zoe lay motionless on the ground, her condition unknown. On the other side, Adeline was suspended in mid-air by Lilith. Moonlight-like spiritual power dug into her body like countless ultra-fine threads. Adeline struggled desperately, blood seeping from her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Lilith’s spiritual power squeezed into the space between Adeline’s eyebrows. Using their bloodline connection and Bai Qiang’s soul, she intended to forcefully tear open a passage between the two worlds.

Trouble and the others were caught off guard by this ten-second shift. They had barely steadied their footing after crossing back from Ancient Abyss, not even having time to get their bearings, when they saw a third figure appear behind Adeline. It was the Blood Ancestor of the Saint family. He raised his hand toward the back of Adeline’s head, ready to lend Lilith a helping hand.

In that fleeting fraction of a second, Yin Zhen made a choice. She held up the Auditor’s Work Certificate and shouted toward Adeline’s direction.

"Content violation!"

In an instant, the man behind Adeline was pixelated with a mosaic blur. As the mosaic expanded, he completely vanished from the laboratory. Lilith and Dracula looked at Yin Zhen in astonishment. In front of Yin Zhen, Ian overran his very last bit of Life Force to heal her injuries. He forcefully pushed Yin Zhen away and gave her a gentle smile.

"You must... survive..."

Ian’s hand slipped from Yin Zhen’s shoulder. A Character who had lost the female lead’s love and could not fall in love with the female lead was like trash discarded by the plot, ruthlessly and easily obliterated. Yin Zhen’s heart clenched tight. Acting on instinct, she drew Night Song. The Strength of her Inheritance was ignited by her erupting fury. She repeatedly pulled the trigger at Dracula. Despite having no bullets, Night Song fired out beams of pitch-black light.

The bullets ignored the shield Dracula had woven from Blood Bone Thorns, plunging directly into his shoulder and neck. Dracula experienced an emotion of extreme agony that churned his brain like a knife, forcing him to retreat. Ian collapsed, but Yin Zhen had no time to mourn. She was even more worried about Zoe’s current condition. Nevertheless, sticking to the original plan, she tossed Lucy and the prepared equipment beneath the console and gripped the Residual Sound Blade. The situation was exactly as she had anticipated. She couldn’t see the setting that protected the central incubator, so she decisively swung the dagger hard at the adjacent console.

Just as she finished, Dracula’s Blood Bone Thorns surged up inch by inch from beneath Yin Zhen’s feet. She rolled on the ground to dodge, sprinting toward Zoe’s position without looking back. Ying abruptly unfurled from the shadows, transforming into an entire black tide that pounced on Dracula. It obstructed his vision and entangled the arm that was forming a new bone spike. On Adeline’s side, she had broken free from Lilith’s restraints. Trouble and the others had all snapped back to their senses as well, using their respective abilities to skirmish with Lilith.

Dracula tore the shadow to shreds. The torn black silhouette splattered against the walls and floor like ink before struggling to reform. He then turned toward Yin Zhen. Just as he prepared to deliver a lethal blow, a mechanized voice sounded from behind him.

"Hello, Dracula."

Lucy was hiding beneath the console, cradling a device she had spent seven days modifying. It was an ultraviolet curing lamp array from Ancient Abyss, wired to a high-power battery pack, and stuffed inside a portable toolbox bought from the hardware store downstairs from Yin Zhen’s home. It wasn’t some kind of advanced alien technology; it merely utilized the principles of ultraviolet light. As long as the wavelength was short enough, the energy high enough, and the exposure time long enough, the cellular structure of the Blood Clan would disintegrate within seconds.

Now, this device was pointed squarely at Dracula, and Lucy slapped the switch without a moment of hesitation. A violent burst of purple light shot out. His skin began to smoke the instant it came into contact with the ultraviolet rays. The Blood Clan cells suffered structural destruction from the UV photons. His epidermis started to blister, carbonize, and peel off, revealing the necrotizing muscle tissue underneath. The severe physiological pain caused Dracula to scream miserably. He stumbled backward, his Blood Bone Thorns weaving into a shield in front of him. However, under the continuous irradiation, that blood bone shield melted away like wax.

Ying re-condensed her body and spread out behind Yin Zhen and Zoe, shielding them from the scattered ultraviolet light. Yin Zhen helped Zoe up from the floor and patted her face firmly.

"Zoe, wake up!"

Why had they all come back, but Zoe hadn’t? What went wrong? Finally, Zoe’s eyelids twitched, and they slowly fluttered open. "May, I saw the end..."

Before she could finish speaking, there was a deafening BANG. Dracula, in excruciating pain, lashed out with streaks of Blood Bone Thorns, frantically and blindly sweeping across the entire console area. Lucy’s ultraviolet device was hit and exploded. Half of Dracula’s face had carbonized and sloughed off, exposing the dark red bone and wildly regenerating granulations underneath. A brand-new Blood Bone Thorn condensed in his palm, and he launched it violently toward Lucy’s direction.

"Watch out!"

Zoe’s eyes widened. A stream of water swirled up from beneath Dracula’s feet and snagged the bone spike. The spike was deflected by a few inches, scraping right past Lucy’s ear. Then Zoe saw Ian lying nearby, and her pupils violently contracted and trembled.

"Why is it happening now...?"

Ian lay in a pool of blood. His white shirt was soaked dark red, leaving a gaping hole in his chest. Scalding tears welled up in Zoe’s eyes. She had the ability to see the colors of a person’s soul. Yet, at this moment, Ian no longer possessed that kind of color. Dracula sensed the threat emanating from Zoe, as well as the aura of an archenemy radiating from her. The newly formed Blood Bone Thorn in his palm aimed at the two of them. His expression was so dark it bordered on madness.

Yin Zhen stepped in front of Zoe. Unable to move her right hand, a Hand Axe materialized in her left. The Strength of her Inheritance flared to life. Black flames ignited along the axe’s blade, and as the Blood Bone Thorn shot toward them, she chopped down fiercely. Like a knife splitting firewood, the blood bone—capable of piercing through alloy steel plates—was cleanly severed by Yin Zhen’s axe. Simultaneously, a wave of agonizing emotion was transmitted to Dracula, causing his entire body to shudder. Yin Zhen pulled Zoe up from the ground, and the two faced Dracula together.

On the other side, Trouble tossed an Ultraviolet Shock Bomb, which landed perfectly on the edge of Lilith’s Spirit Shield. Ye Se, who only possessed a Stealth Ability, took the umbrella Adeline handed over and opened it in front of the group, blocking the harmful ultraviolet rays. This kind of Weapon had been developed a long time ago. The reason it wasn’t used earlier was because it was a double-edged sword—a pyrrhic tactic that hurt the user almost as much as the enemy. They were also members of the Blood Clan and could just as easily be burned by ultraviolet light. But right now, as long as it worked, they couldn’t afford to care so much.

Intense light enveloped in high heat blasted outwards. A layer of Lilith’s Spirit Shield was seared away. Enraged, she swept a silver spiritual power shockwave toward them. Trouble sidestepped to dodge. The electric arc from the Signal Palm lashed out fiercely. Logoff crashed in from the side, smashing a fist right into the softened spot of the shield, causing fine cracks to splinter across the wall of light. Working seamlessly in pairs, they coordinated with one another, seizing every opportunity for a sneak attack. They continuously flanked and maneuvered. From time to time, one person would toss an Ultraviolet Shock Bomb, and the other would open the umbrella to block the blinding light. Adeline did the same, focusing primarily on hit-and-run tactics and evasion. Their goal wasn’t to outright defeat Lilith, but to hold her attention and keep themselves alive.

This was the ultimate villainous boss of Chi Hai. Even though Adeline was the protagonist of Ancient Abyss, she could still be killed by this final boss. Neither Yin Zhen nor Zoe had any intention of clashing head-on with Dracula either. They were both avoiding his sharp edges and attacking his weak points. The real secret Weapon was Lucy!

[Protection program has been cracked]

The heavy alloy doors blocking their path let out a deep, muffled boom. Layers of locks popped open sequentially, and the blood-red brain revealed the tip of the iceberg through the widening gap. Dracula’s bone spike froze in midair, forgotten and unlaunched. He even forgot to regenerate and repair the half of his face that had been scorched by the ultraviolet light. Lilith’s moon-white spiritual power suddenly fell into disarray. She turned around, staring in sheer shock at the slowly opening doors. The Echo Blade couldn’t directly erase the setting of the protective doors, but it could erase the setting that had jammed the cracking program. Without this layer of obstruction, with the progress already at 99%, it only took Lucy a few seconds to finalize the breach.