The requirement for the advancement ritual was to kill one hundred Professionals.
The slaughters at the Sea God Church and the Governor’s Mansion had brought his kill count to over ninety.
On his way here just now, he had encountered a few more Professionals.
After slaying them, he had finally met the requirement.
Hu Qi merely glanced at it before directly issuing a command.
"Crimson, advance my Sequence Eight Thousand Slash Disciple to Seventh Rank Blood Swordsmen!"
HUMMM!
In just an instant.
His Extraordinary Spirituality began to boil.
And at that very moment,
opposite him, Su Ta naturally noticed this as well.
Her expression changed slightly.
She had no time to wonder how Hu Qi was managing a breakthrough in the middle of a battle.
But she absolutely could not let him succeed.
She thrust out her hand, grasping at the air.
Moisture condensed in the air above the mountain forest.
It formed into a colossal ice palm, dozens of meters wide, and slammed down.
BOOM!
The ground trembled, leaving behind a giant palm print sunk several inches deep.
Hu Qi’s figure, however, had vanished from the spot.
Then, with a flicker, over a hundred figures appeared, completely surrounding Su Ta.
"Hm!?"
The Demon Vertical Pupils in Su Ta’s eyes grew even more distinct.
She scanned her surroundings.
"Stop hiding and die!"
As she spoke,
blood seeped from her mouth, nose, and the corners of her eyes.
This was because her physical body was too weak.
It was simply unable to bear the power of a True God, even when that power was diluted several times over and suppressed by the world.
The instant she finished speaking,
CRACKLE! CRACKLE!
high in the sky, the falling snowflakes condensed, transforming into hexagonal ice crystals that shot downwards.
The Clones were pierced through.
They dissipated on the spot.
In the blink of an eye, all the figures had vanished.
All of them had been Clones; not a single one was his true body.
"You damn thing! If you have any guts, come out and fight me!"
Su Ta’s expression was savage.
Although she had forcibly increased her strength by consuming Divine Soul Power, the world’s rules restricted her. She was unable to use her True God Level abilities and could only resort to methods permitted by this realm.
However, the Professional system of this world was unique. While her current state temporarily reached the strength of a Sequence Six, she couldn’t actually use the corresponding professional Abilities.
Her inheritance only went up to Sequence Eight, so the only means she could actually employ were still at the Sequence Eight level.
This mismatch between strength and Ability would be trivial if she could simply overwhelm her opponent.
But she was facing a monster like Hu Qi, one who had stacked nearly thirty different Professional paths.
No matter what she tried, her attacks, though immense in destructive power, couldn’t even touch the hem of Hu Qi’s clothes.
As time went on, Su Ta’s expression grew increasingly grim.
Forcibly boosting one’s strength by consuming Divine Soul had its limits.
Leaving aside the issue of her physical body being on the verge of collapse,
she could clearly sense an irresistible will from the unseen converging upon her.
If she kept this up,
there would likely be unimaginably severe consequences.
Just as Su Ta was considering whether she should retreat,
Hu Qi’s voice suddenly rang out.
"Is that so? Then I will grant your wish!"
Simultaneously,
a figure reappeared.
It was Hu Qi.
Except this time, his aura had changed from before.
Furthermore, he was wreathed in an eerie, bloody light.
"Die!"
Upon seeing this,
the light in Su Ta’s eyes intensified.
’Although his strength has grown a bit, I refuse to believe he’s a match for me.’
As she raised her hand, a Longbow condensed from flowing water materialized in her palm.
She drew the bowstring, and an Arrow shimmering with a faint, cold blue light rapidly took shape.
The arrowhead was aimed straight at Hu Qi.
FWOOSH—!
The moment Su Ta released the string, the Arrow tore through the air, leaving a distorted afterimage in its wake.
In response,
the two cross-shaped black marks within Hu Qi’s eyes grew ever more distinct.
His Eye of Tempered Blade activated at full power.
In that instant,
everything around him slowed down.
With a calm expression, he raised his Longsword.
When the Arrow was less than a meter away, his Longsword suddenly struck out.
—BOOM!
The Arrow exploded on impact, dissolving into a cloud of mist.
The next instant,
a searing white blade of light shot through the mist like a thunderbolt. Wherever it passed, the air itself was cleaved apart, creating a momentary vacuum.
In the distance,
Su Ta’s body suddenly went rigid.
The Ice Bow in her hand shattered inch by inch, scattering into crystalline dust.
Half of her body slid away silently, the wound as smooth as a mirror. She had been sliced clean in two by that blade of light.
Her remaining half stood in place as blood gushed forth, a bizarre and horrifying sight.
She instinctively tried to dissolve into water to escape, but was horrified to find that the blood in her veins had seemingly solidified. Even the Extraordinary Traits within her were as stagnant as dead water.
Upon this discovery,
the single Demon Vertical Pupil left in its socket widened. Her perpetually calm expression finally broke as she stared intently at Hu Qi.
"How... is this possible...? Your strength, why...?"
Hu Qi gave her no chance to finish.
Several more sharp blades of light fell.
—BOOM!
A cloud of dust and bloody mist exploded where she had stood.
"AAAAARGH—!"
With a final, unwilling, blood-curdling scream, Su Ta’s figure dissipated completely.
Modification Point +151,241 (51%)
Su Ta was dead.
A True God Level expert had fallen, just like that.
Under normal circumstances,
the power of Hu Qi’s Clone would have been nowhere near enough to suppress, let alone kill, a True God.
But now, suppressed by the rules of this world, Su Ta was completely unable to exert her true strength.
No matter how indignant she felt, there was nothing she could do.
To be slain on the spot by Hu Qi like that was an utterly humiliating way to die.
Regarding this,
Hu Qi only spared it a glance.
This wasn’t what he was concerned about.
It was something else entirely.
He had keenly sensed something at the moment of her death.
A unique aura had been drawn from her dissipating body and absorbed into his own.
Before he could examine this phenomenon more closely,
the very next moment,
the voice of the Book Spirit, silent since it had last issued a mission, rang in his ear once more.
"Ding! Detected Manager Number Four has acquired the authority of Manager Number Three. Fusion in progress..."