Chapter 56: The Second Non-Human Entity

"This should do him in."

Clutching the massive wound on his abdomen inflicted by the Executioner, the Feathered Serpent vomited a large mouthful of black blood.

Suddenly, however, the great serpent Bashi began to writhe and thrash violently in place.

Then, before the Feathered Serpent's horrified eyes, a massive blade cleaved straight through Bashi's belly, tearing all the way up to sever its head.

"Raaagh!!" Bashi let out a sky-shaking roar of agony as countless torrents of black blood rained down from the sky.

Boom!

Victor’s bear-like, robust physique crashed heavily onto the ground. Wielding his colossal executioner's blade, the eyes behind his burlap mask glowed with a bloodthirsty crimson light.

Far from being digested by Bashi, he had carved his way out from the inside, smoke rising continuously from his charred and bloodied flesh.

Yet, Victor felt not a shred of pain. He raised his executioner's blade once more, expanding his Executioner Domain for a second time.

"What a godforsaken monster!" The Feathered Serpent hastily ripped the serpent-tooth necklace from his neck and hurled it into the air.

"O Bashi, god of the abyss, grant him a despairing death!"

The serpent teeth instantly elongated, transforming into razor-sharp steel spikes. Under the Feathered Serpent's manipulation, those spikes rained down in a barrage toward Victor.

**Curse of Bashi**
*Skill Description: Sacrifices the serpent teeth of Bashi to transform them into cursed steel spikes. Should six spikes successfully strike the target, Bashi will devour the enemy's life force from the spiritual plane, dealing massive soul damage.*

Squelch! Clang!

Victor parried several spikes with his greatsword, but having already sustained severe injuries, the few that slipped past the defense buried themselves deep into his flesh.

Behind Victor, the towering phantom of a giant serpent slowly materialized, opening its cavernous maw, poised to strike.

Just as the number of embedded spikes reached five, with the sixth about to hit...

With a crisp ring, Mo Xuanyu suddenly descended from the sky, landing right in front of Victor and deflecting the final spike with a swift strike.

"You?!" The Feathered Serpent nearly choked on his own breath at the sight.

The serpent phantom behind Victor instantly dissipated.

Simultaneously, because the curse had been aborted mid-execution, the Feathered Serpent himself suffered a tremendous backlash. After all, now that Bashi had been summoned, it wouldn't leave empty-handed without tasting something.

Consequently, a chunk of the Feathered Serpent's soul was directly bitten off by Bashi, nearly costing him his life.

If not for the fact that this Chosen One was his own devout follower, Bashi would have bitten him to death right then and there.

"Ugh—!" Clutching his chest, the Feathered Serpent spewed a mouthful of fresh blood.

A profound sense of confusion gripped him: Why wasn't Victor attacking Mo Xuanyu?

How on earth was this possible?

Mo Xuanyu was, in truth, somewhat uncertain whether the necklace would work. Keeping a cautious distance from Victor, he touched the necklace at his collar and tested it tentatively, "Victor."

His clear, melodious voice echoed in the empty air.

Those three words seemed to activate some dormant emotion hidden deep within Victor. He slowly lowered his head to look at Mo Xuanyu.

Certain now, Mo Xuanyu pointed at the Feathered Serpent and said calmly, "Kill him."

"Roar!"

Fueled as if pumped with adrenaline, Victor let out a furious roar. Hefting his massive blade, he charged toward the Feathered Serpent like an armored juggernaut.

"He can actually command this monster?!"

Lacking the leisure to be shocked, the Feathered Serpent scrambled to turn and retreat. If he stayed any longer, his life would truly be forfeit.

Yet Victor was no longer the same as before; his hunting drive had surged to its peak, locking onto the Feathered Serpent as his absolute target.

This was an order from the King!

Slash!

The colossal blade pierced clean through the Feathered Serpent's torso, simultaneously triggering the instant-death effect of the Executioner Domain.

From beneath his burlap mask, Victor emitted a rough, sandpaper-grating, hoarse voice.

"...Executed... by death!"

The greatsword cleaved the Feathered Serpent's body in two. Bathed in blood, Victor slowly turned his head back to look at Mo Xuanyu.

[You have killed the Chosen One "Feathered Serpent"]

Dragging his heavy executioner's blade, he limped back to Mo Xuanyu's side, the massive sword gouging a deep trench into the ground.

Arriving before Mo Xuanyu, Victor—possessing limited intelligence—simply repeated two words from beneath his mask:

"Reward... Reward..."

In that era, once an executioner completed a task for the King, they would typically receive an extra reward from the Sovereign, and Victor evidently expected the same.

After a moment of thought, Mo Xuanyu retrieved a red silk ribbon from his storage space and tied it into a neat bow around Victor's hilt.

"How is this?"

"Heh... heh..."

Like a child receiving a piece of candy, Victor gently stroked the ribbon on the hilt with a massive fingertip.

"Is Kong Ling inside you, Victor?" Mo Xuanyu seized the opportunity to ask.

Victor shook his head, indicating a negative answer.

Protected by the authority of the Sovereign's Necklace, the entity could not lie.

With that, Victor turned around, dragging his heavy blade as he limped off into the shadowy corners of the domain.

With a soft click, the Executioner Domain dissolved, and Victor vanished.

The Sovereign's Necklace could only command Victor to a certain extent.

More often than not, the creature acted on its own accord, wandering aimlessly through the Inverted World. Trying to boss him around continuously was entirely unrealistic.

It seemed he would have to find another target.

Mo Xuanyu walked over to the corpse of the Feathered Serpent and picked up the blood-red spear the latter had dropped.

Good loot should never go to waste.

**Spear of Slaughter**
*Grade: Blue Rare*
*Rating: S*
*Weapon Trait "Bleed": Every time the Spear of Slaughter inflicts an open wound on an enemy, it stacks a layer of Bleed. Upon reaching ten stacks, the Bleed can be detonated, dealing devastating internal damage to the target.*
*Weapon Trait "Bloodlust": When wielding this weapon, the Chosen One gains 10% physical lifesteal, while stamina consumption is reduced by 50%.*

Before leaving, Mo Xuanyu called out to the Ouroboros lingering in the shadows, "The Feathered Serpent is dead. Remember to uphold your end of the contract."

A smile appeared within the shadows as Ouroboros replied, "No problem. I'll have the intelligence you desire delivered to you shortly."

Bound by the constraints of Sacred Geometry, Ouroboros could not breach the agreement.

Retrieving his Cursed Spirit Compass, Mo Xuanyu headed northwest toward the town library.

Along the way, any Grade-1 Cursed Spirits he encountered were casually put down. Slaughtering these spirits required virtually no effort and yielded a hefty sum of bonus points.

[Current Total Points: 22,300]

***

**Hospital Ruins**

The Feathered Serpent of the Black Snake Guild had not been truly destroyed.

Ensuring Mo Xuanyu's figure had vanished from sight, the Feathered Serpent slowly crawled out from within his own lifeless husk.

Vomiting a small amount of bile, he thought with bitter resentment, *"The moment I get back to the guild, Ouroboros is the first one I'm taking care of! And if I ever run into that blue-eyed bastard again... I'll feed him to the snakes!"*

"Are you looking for me, Guild Master?"

A voice suddenly broke the silence behind the Feathered Serpent. Clad in a priest's uniform, Ouroboros stood holding a longsword, gazing at him.

The Feathered Serpent instantly realized what had happened. Why else would that blue-eyed brat have shown up with such immaculate timing?

Sneering coldly, he spat, "You surely don't think your pathetic strength is enough to finish me off, do you? Molting does result in a temporary drop in my attributes, but you're still not qualified to challenge me."

"You never know until you try," Ouroboros shrugged indifferently.

His objective had essentially been achieved. Reviving through molting left the Feathered Serpent in a brief period of vulnerability, during which the guild's system would officially register him as deceased.

After all, cheating death always came at a price.

And that vulnerability was Ouroboros's opportunity.

Unfettered by guild rules here, if he could manage to slay the Feathered Serpent in this world, this trip would be entirely worth it, even if he accomplished nothing else.

Meanwhile, further northwest, Mo Xuanyu had located another Special-Grade Cursed Spirit, which was currently being swarmed by members of the Holy Creation Church.

The leading Special-Grade Sorcerer wielded a rusted medieval longsword, effortlessly suppressing the Special-Grade Cursed Spirit amidst the skirmish.

Atop the library roof, Mo Xuanyu narrowed his eyes slightly.

There was no mistaking it—that was "Hundred Years' War."

Seeing that the cursed spirit was about to be executed, Mo Xuanyu gripped his Nightmare Moon Blade, shattered the glass overhead, and plummeted from the sky.

Bang!

The edge of his blade plunged deep into the cursed spirit's head, instantly shattering its brain.

Pity; there was still no sign of Kong Ling inside...

[You have killed a Special-Grade Cursed Spirit. Received: 10,000 Points, Soul Crystal x1!]

"You must be Joshua?"

The Special-Grade Sorcerer wielding the Hundred Years' War felt no anger at having his kill stolen; he was not a Chosen One, so slaying cursed spirits yielded no system rewards.

As long as Kong Ling hadn't been taken, it mattered little who dealt the final blow.

The only thing that concerned him now was that capturing Mo Xuanyu alive would undoubtedly earn him heavy commendations from the Pope.

His gaze grew eager as a deep crimson ring slowly materialized within his pupils.

The four remaining sorcerers likewise drew their cursed artifacts or summoned their respective cursed spirits.

Rated at Grade 1 individually, their combined forces were fully capable of posing a significant threat to Mo Xuanyu.

Yet, that was all they could manage.

The battle erupted instantly. Mo Xuanyu sliced into the fray in the blink of an eye. Though it appeared he was surrounded, the reality was quite the opposite—it was they who were trapped with him.

The attacks of the cursed spirits could scarcely graze Mo Xuanyu; instead, they served as stepping stones, assisting his rapid vaulting between the sorcerers.

His speed had reached its absolute zenith. Running a sorcerer's heart through with a single slash, he immediately sidestepped to evade an incoming strike from a cursed spirit.

Taking advantage of Mo Xuanyu's momentary distraction, the Special-Grade Sorcerer wielding the Hundred Years' War brought his longsword down toward Mo Xuanyu's head.

Clang!

A short dagger materialized in Mo Xuanyu's left hand—none other than the pseudo-Blade of Demon Breaking.

Sensing imminent danger, the Special-Grade Sorcerer instantly retracted his blade and leaped backward.

Yet, from Mo Xuanyu's perspective, his retreating maneuver was riddled with openings.

"That is not how you wield a sword."

Mo Xuanyu severed the man's arm in a clean arc. Gritting his teeth, the sorcerer fully activated all the cursed power within the Hundred Years' War, unleashing a horizontal slash toward Mo Xuanyu.

"Breath of War!!"

A colossal torrent of cursed power poured forth in an instant, illuminating the entire library as bright as day.

Under the violent shockwave of cursed power, the pseudo-Blade of Demon Breaking in Mo Xuanyu's hand instantly shattered, though it successfully bought him enough time to dodge.

As the radiance gradually faded, the entire library had been cleaved cleanly in two, resembling a slice of layered cake.