Chapter 104: Is Your Head Buzzing?
Because she had been rejected by this place earlier, Xu Zhi’s speed wasn’t very fast. Although the rejection feeling had now faded, she was still inside her spiritual body rather than her original physical body, so she couldn’t move too quickly. Chasing after the man would take some effort.
The island wasn’t large. Rather than an “island,” it was more like a patch of land floating on the sea. Aside from the beach, the only thing there was the blood-red staircase at the center.
It didn’t take much effort to run up to the stairs, but the moment Xu Zhi stepped onto the first step, things changed.
An overwhelming stench of blood flooded her nose. Her footsteps stalled, and she nearly gagged from the smell. Also, whether it was a hallucination or not, she touched her nose and found fresh blood oozing from her nostrils.
She wasn’t sure if the blood smell was because her nose was bleeding or if it had been there all along.
Wiping the blood from her nose, she stepped up another stair. At that moment, a sudden buzzing noise erupted in her ears, followed by a sharp pain, forcing her to cover her ear with her hand.
When she lowered her hand, more blood had appeared in her palm.
Puzzled, she touched her ear and saw blood on her fingers.
First the nose, now the ears—Xu Zhi stubbornly stepped onto the next step, only to involuntarily spit out a mouthful of fresh blood.
Her burning anger briefly subsided, and her reason returned slightly. She looked up at the middle-aged man ahead who wasn’t much faster than her. He was drenched in fresh blood, like a walking blood creature climbing the stairs.
If she continued upwards, she’d probably end up the same way.
But she didn’t have that much blood to lose!
Xu Zhi rashly decided to climb quickly and kill the man before she bled out.
By luck or fate, it was the right choice.
After all, the man had plenty of sacrifices backing him, enough organs and blood to replenish the losses, but Xu Zhi did not.
The sacrificial victims in the ritual not only opened the gate to the island but also provided the chosen person with enough flesh and organs to successfully climb a portion of the staircase.
Only then was the ritual complete.
Yu Shenwei had failed to ascend and advance to Archbishop precisely because of insufficient sacrifices.
Xu Zhi didn’t understand the details—she only realized she didn’t have that much blood to spare.
So she hurried up the stairs, ignoring her body breaking down and blood loss, and caught up to the man, grabbing his coat.
The man looked back in shock. Xu Zhi gave him a malicious, bloody grin.
Then she suddenly used force, grabbed his arm, and jumped off the stairs. Caught off guard, the man was dragged down with her.
Xu Zhi had no plan—she acted purely on impulse. This move was basically “hurting the enemy more than oneself.”
The man hit the ground with a muffled grunt. Staggering up, he found his leg broken and roared angrily at Xu Zhi, who had also fallen nearby, “Are you crazy or what?!”
Xu Zhi looked confused: “Aren’t you the one yelling at me first?”
“Because of this? Time is limited, and instead of climbing, you waste time on this nonsense?!” The man was furious, feeling like his lungs would explode.
Xu Zhi didn’t understand what he meant but felt she hadn’t done anything wrong, so she nodded firmly: “Yes, I want to kill you first.”
She slowly stood up, surprised to find that although she was in pain, she wasn’t disabled.
Despite feeling weak from blood loss, compared to the man with a broken leg, she was in far better shape!
The man thought Xu Zhi was utterly irrational. Xu Zhi didn’t want to waste time talking either, so without further words, they fought.
Thanks to the man’s broken leg, Xu Zhi’s improved skills since before the incident in Cloud City, and her reckless disregard for self-injury, the fight became somewhat of a stalemate.
“Damn it! What good does fighting me do for you?!” the man shouted.
As time passed, he grew desperate.
He had spent nearly three months preparing this, pouring in immense effort, money, and even gained support from powerful figures in the capital to become the ritual’s beneficiary. If he failed to get what he deserved, everything would be wasted—and he would die!
The materials and special organs were difficult to gather. This was his all-in. The Federation would be wary next time; it wouldn’t be so easy again.
Thinking this, a dark look appeared in the man’s eyes. No longer restraining himself, he fought to the death, as did Xu Zhi.
Neither had weapons. The sandy terrain and the fact that transcendent beings were stronger than normal people made killing each other difficult.
The man grew more frenzied, his eyes bloodshot with raging anger. Xu Zhi, though in pain, kept some clarity and noticed they had reached the edge of the staircase. An idea came to her.
She pretended to be overwhelmed and slowly retreated. The man eagerly followed, throwing punches. When Xu Zhi reached a certain spot, she suddenly reversed his punch with a wrist lock, and as he wobbled from exhaustion and surprise, she released one hand and shoved his head hard.
With a bang, the man’s head hit the blood-red stairs squarely.
“How’s that? Is your head buzzing now?” Xu Zhi, exhausted, barely able to stand, still found time to taunt him.
The man’s head did buzz, and he didn’t even hear her mockery. He closed his eyes in pain, holding his head, trying to recover from the severe throbbing, to no avail.
Xu Zhi, weakened from blood loss, finally collapsed. The vigorous exertion only worsened her bleeding. She could only hold on thanks to her transcendent spiritual body.
Her vision darkened, her ears ringing, and she knew she was about to faint.
Too bad she hadn’t killed the man yet.
But he was in no condition to keep climbing either.
Thinking this, Xu Zhi felt a moment of satisfaction.
As her consciousness faded, she smugly thought: “That’s what you get for yelling at me!”
The next second, she completely lost consciousness.
When she opened her eyes again, she was back in her original body.
But unlike before, this time she painfully closed her eyes and frowned upon regaining consciousness.
To be honest, she felt like her head was about to split apart.
