Chapter Ninety-One: The Twin Body

“Benefactor...”

At that voice, Ye Ran first thought it was an illusion. Then he sensed the violet aura within his body, gradually turning thick and misty.

Shock and joy flooded him. Before his eyes, a translucent world appeared; the snow-white mountains and the violet realm overlapped.

Within the violet haze, the figure of a violet-haired woman flickered in and out of view.

A piercing sword cry rang out.

A vast surge of violet energy erupted from the abyss, and a violet blade tore a long tail of light across the sky before plunging straight down. In an instant, the sword tip was already before Ye Ran’s brow.

The sword was like violet crystal, clear and brilliant throughout, wrapped in sacred purple radiance. Its sharp sword aura seemed capable of cleaving even space itself.

Even beneath that blinding sword light, Ye Ran could not suppress his wonder at it.

The violet-haired woman said, “Take the sword.”

Ye Ran froze, then came to himself and reached out to grasp the hilt.

It was as though he heard the sound of wind breathing within his body. In an instant, the violet aura became abundant. Streams of purple qi rose from within him, and the force in his veins surged of its own accord, bright and boiling. He felt an unprecedented power flood his entire body.

A thunderous roar broke his reverie.

The overlapping world before his eyes vanished in an instant.

Looking up, he saw that the blizzard in the ravine had already risen to a height of fifty meters. Six giant centipede beasts had discovered their “prey” and came skimming over the ground with shrill cries, sending snow and wind whirling in their wake, toppling mountainsides and scattering broken rock.

“Brat, get moving already!”

Pandora’s voice came from behind him. Blood stained the corner of her mouth, and while she fought Charlotte, she was retreating toward the glacier.

Yet Charlotte’s injuries seemed even worse than hers; the protective wall of qi around her body had nearly vanished by half.

The centipede beasts’ roars shook the heavens. Ye Ran dared not linger. With a light tap of his toes, he sprang into the air. With a whoosh, his body shot skyward, even startling himself.

If it were usual, such a leap might have carried him only seven or eight meters, but after the violet qi had washed through and remade his body, this single bound carried him nearly a hundred meters high. Wind screamed past his ears, and the scenery changed in an instant.

Below him, there came a deafening boom as one forty-meter-long centipede beast savagely smashed through the mountain peak where he had just stood.

Ye Ran drew a long breath and swept his hand in a slash. Violet light cut across the heavens and struck the centipede beast’s hard skull.

A crisp metallic ring rang out from its head. A few drops of black blood splattered, but otherwise it was unscathed.

Ye Ran dared not pause. Gathering his breath, he crossed the sky in streak after streak of afterimage, racing over the mountain tops toward the glacier ahead. The six centipede beasts pursued relentlessly behind him, their howls deafening as the blizzard rose into the sky.

“Bang.”

By now Pandora and Charlotte were also locked in fierce combat above the glacier. Charlotte, grievously wounded, could only barely keep her qi wall from collapsing under Pandora’s long whip, while her psychic power grew ever thinner.

Pandora sprang high into the air, and the long whip in her hand suddenly extended and came slashing down in a sweeping arc. Charlotte had no way to evade; she took the blow head-on and was forced downward against her will.

The lash was terribly heavy. The psychic power and qi wall around Charlotte were almost entirely shattered, and she could no longer withstand that immense force, her body plummeting rapidly.

Wind howled in her ears. Faintly, she heard the shrieking of the centipede beasts over the glacier.

A huge black shadow pressed down over her, carrying with it a vile, savage stench of blood. The unique aura of a divine emissary seemed to excite the only two giant centipede beasts on the glacier; they stood upright on the ice, opening their maws to devour the “food” falling from the sky.

Was this where she would die?

Blood spilled from the corner of Charlotte’s mouth again. There was no fear on her face, only a smile of calm readiness to meet death. Peacefully, she closed her eyes.

A roar.

A whistle.

At that very moment, a streak of violet light shot through the air. The sound of breaking wind and the centipede’s howl rang out together, and a strong hand seized her collar, yanking her up violently.

The giant centipede missed its bite. It could only watch as the sudden young man snatched the prey from its mouth. Enraged, it roared and kicked up a gale as it surged after him.

Two centipede beasts closed in from either side, their enormous bodies pressing down through the air, casting twin shadows across the ground.

Ye Ran dared not meet them head-on. He pulled Charlotte into his arms and leaped down into the nest of centipede beasts below.

Several arm-length centipede beasts immediately lunged upward. Ye Ran’s sword turned in his hand and severed them in midair. Then, reversing his grip on the violet blade, he drove it suddenly into the thick ice.

Crackling.

Bang.

Rumble.

One thrust shattered the ice surface. Ice water splashed upward as Ye Ran seized Charlotte and smashed heavily into the glacier below.

Then came another thunderous impact. Two massive water columns shot high into the air as the two giant centipede beasts also fell from above, smashing through the ice and crashing into the glacier.

“Brat...”

By then Pandora had already crossed the glacier. Turning back, she happened to see Ye Ran rescuing Charlotte and plunging into the ice river, with the two giant centipede beasts arriving one after the other.

The entire ice river boiled. The ice cracked continuously, and the huge roars coming from beneath the surface rose again and again. For a moment, even Pandora felt a flicker of nervousness, and she could not tell whether it was for Ye Ran or for Zi’er.

Roughly a quarter of an hour later, violet energy suddenly surged up from the river surface. Streams of sword aura burst from the riverbank; the surface of the entire ice river thawed, and waves of blood rose with it. A stiflingly dense smell of blood struck the face.

Just as Pandora was about to retreat, she saw a figure darting swiftly beneath the water, severing centipede limbs wherever he passed, blood spraying everywhere.

With a splash, a figure leapt from the ice river like a fish breaking the surface. Rings of purple force spread outward in waves.

Ye Ran had one arm around Charlotte and the other wielding his sword through the void. Violet qi and sword light interwove into a vast net; any centipede beast that drew near had its limbs severed instantly. He had actually fought his way out from among the corpses of the centipede beasts.

“Pandora, are you still not leaving?”

Ye Ran was drenched in blood, the foul air in his chest fully vented. He had slaughtered his way for miles from the glacier, staining the entire river red.

The moment Ye Ran landed, the two giant centipede beasts also roared out of the ice river and slammed headfirst into the shore.

A huge crater opened on the bank.

Pandora stamped her foot and hurried after Ye Ran.

The two of them fled together, and only after an exhausting struggle did they finally shake off the two giant centipede beasts.

When Ye Ran finally stopped, panting hard, he discovered that he and Pandora had reached the forest draped in silver.

A few ogres and blood goblins moved through the woods, but the moment they caught the astonishing killing aura around Ye Ran, they hastily retreated far away.

They possessed a keen instinct for danger.

Ye Ran wiped the sweat from his forehead. After this bloody battle, the violet aura within him had not diminished at all; on the contrary, it seemed to be growing stronger.

Even more astonishing was the blood stained upon him. It seemed to seep little by little through his pores, like droplets of water sinking into his body.

His pupils contracted.

Violet aura spread outward. From within it, a solid violet figure slowly walked forward.

“Ye Ran, you do not loathe slaughter.”