Chapter 308: Getting to Work
“Hoo— Hoo— Hoo—”
On the battlefield in Youdu Square, Yan Zeyu floated down from mid-air, swaying unsteadily.
The shoulder he was clutching and his heaving chest proved that this hero had fought to his limit.
Green characters with the word “Heal” integrated into the wounded parts of his body, and Yan Zeyu’s pale face regained some color. He looked at the half-severed corpse lying on the ground with a complicated expression, finally relieved of the burden in his heart.
Although Sakuraba Masashi wasn’t the strongest opponent he had ever faced, this battle was perhaps the most perilous of his entire career.
[Fortunately, I won in the end….]
The spiritual envoy form on his body slowly faded, and Yan Zeyu raised his head to look at the energy light membrane that was slowly dissipating before him. No matter the cost, at least he had defeated the enemy. Now, all he needed to do was destroy this magic array and wait for the Association to clean up.
With so many civilians behind him, Yan Zeyu couldn’t imagine the consequences if he had lost.
“What a shame.”
“!”
A phantom-like voice rang out from behind him. Yan Zeyu’s relaxed body froze. Energy surged through him, characters reappeared, and the long saber he had put away slashed towards the source of the sound.
“Boom—”
Before he could even activate his spiritual envoy state, a massive blood-red snake erupted from the ground directly beneath him. Its sharp teeth dug into Yan Zeyu’s flesh, and blood-colored energy instantly engulfed him, cutting off all energy flow.
“Snap— Snap— Snap—”
Enduring the stinging pain, Yan Zeyu opened his eyes. What entered his vision was Sakuraba Masashi, still wearing that strange smile, clapping his hands as he walked towards him.
“You!”
Yan Zeyu looked at the corpse that had been cut in half on the ground with disbelief, then at the unharmed Sakuraba Masashi before him. He struggled to use his abilities. However, as if sensing his intention, several sharp teeth pierced his body without hesitation, once again interrupting the convergence of energy.
“A very well-planned tactic. You even fooled me.”
Sakuraba Masashi walked up to the blood snake, squinted his eyes at Yan Zeyu, who was struggling painfully in the blood snake’s mouth, and praised the opponent who had just decapitated him with a smile.
Then, several dark purple spikes plunged without hesitation into the hero’s shoulder blades.
“Ahhh!!”
The sudden pain made even this seasoned hero cry out involuntarily. However, he quickly recovered, forced his eyes open, and glared at Sakuraba Masashi, who seemed to be playing a game, and said through gritted teeth.
“What… exactly… are you trying to do?”
“Hahahahahah.”
As if he had heard a hilarious joke, Sakuraba Masashi let out a few unrestrained laughs. Then, he leaned his head close to Yan Zeyu, whose face was covered in cold sweat, and slowly said in a low voice.
“Of course… it’s to kill you all~”
With a gentle clap of his hands, the two halves of “Sakuraba Masashi’s” corpse on the ground instantly turned into countless small white snakes and crawled away. Then, as if satisfied with his cruel prank, Sakuraba Masashi no longer communicated with Yan Zeyu and took two steps toward the magic array with his back turned.
His hands fluttered with various obscure sorceries, and in the next moment, the previously closed blood-colored light membrane actually cracked open a small gap. The second snake pillar, which was gathering energy, emitted a blood-colored beam of light that directly connected to the two purple energy light blades embedded in Yan Zeyu’s chest.
“Hmm… this level of life energy should be enough. In this case, I feel like I can activate another snake pillar before the troublesome guys arrive?”
With one hand on his chin, Sakuraba Masashi carefully analyzed the feasibility of his plan.
Although he had, in effect, eliminated the greatest obstacle to his blood sacrifice, the real trouble was yet to come. With such a huge commotion, the heroes sent by the Heroes Association would certainly not be as easy to deal with as the [Spiritual Envoy] before him. Therefore, his goal was to gain greater benefits before the blood sacrifice ended.
Capturing Yan Zeyu alive was an ideal outcome for him. By using the more powerful life energy of a psychic, he could accelerate the charging effect of the snake pillars. This way, activating another snake pillar would widen the crack in the seal, and he could collect more Demon Snake abilities.
Sakuraba Masashi looked with satisfaction at Yan Zeyu, who was howling as his life energy was being drained, before turning his gaze to the battlefield in the distance.
The followers of the Poisonous Snake Cult were clearly no match for those heroes, let alone the deputy team of the [Spiritual Envoy] leading these neighborhood heroes.
Upon seeing their main hero defeated, the remaining heroes became anxious. Even though these fearless cultists kept sacrificing their lives, they couldn’t stop the hero team from breaking through to the center of the battlefield.
“Tch.”
With a disdainful “tch,” Sakuraba Masashi slammed his hands on the ground. With a violent tremor, three huge pythons of various colors broke out of the ground and crawled towards the breaking-through heroes.
After all, it was his church as the cult leader. Although they were almost wiped out in the previous crackdown, Sakuraba Masashi was willing to protect his subordinates, as there might be times they could be useful.
The appearance of the three giant snakes with different abilities broke the balance of the battlefield. The cultists, who had received divine blessings, became even more fanatical, forcing the hero teams to retreat while fighting and not daring to approach this side.
Sakuraba Masashi nodded with satisfaction as he watched the heroes pushed to their limits by the three giant snakes. Only heroes of Yan Zeyu’s caliber were worth him using this direct life-draining method; using it on those petty troublemakers would only be a waste of energy.
Therefore, Sakuraba Masashi’s plan was to force them to use more of their abilities. The more energy they used, the more life energy would be absorbed by the magic array. This absorption method would yield a greater total amount than simply killing them.
Under this arrangement, life energy several times more turbulent than before surged into the second snake pillar. The second snake pillar, which was only a little over half-full, visibly grew and eventually transformed into a blood-colored energy serpent, just like the first one.
The two serpents stood up from their coiled pillars as if receiving an order, then leaped into the air, transforming into blood-colored energy and constructing an irregular, small gap in the sky.
Like a shattered mirror, the small gap revealed a sudden void in the sky, and then boundless death energy, as if it had found an exit, madly leaked out from the gap.
Just as the young girl was about to feel this extremely familiar energy up close, the small snake on her wrist came alive again. Its cute mouth parted slightly, but the voice that emerged was not so cute.
“Coffin, time to get to work!”
