Chapter 161: The Final Showdown

Chapter 161: The Final Showdown

Xia Zheng no longer wished to move. He felt that his entire body was filled with exhaustion and pain. The battle with the King of Jinling had left him severely wounded, and he was now merely a spent force at the end of his tether.

"Luo Bing should be able to complete the mission..." Xia Zheng comforted himself with this thought.

Suddenly, a woman's crisp and resonant voice echoed across the heavens and the earth: "Not bad. To be able to slaughter so many of my descendants truly impresses me. However, this is the end of the line. Today, upon my resurrection, marks the beginning of the end for the Azure Federation. The hatred between the Blood Clan and humanity shall be brought to a final reckoning."

Struggling to his feet, Xia Zheng looked toward the direction from which the voice came—the altar.

"Luo Bing..." Thinking of Luo Bing and the federal soldiers having to face the resurrected Blood Clan Progenitor all alone, Xia Zheng sighed. He once again reached into his spatial pouch, grabbed the final handful of energy pills, and swallowed them. Then, he closed his eyes and meditated for nearly a minute. When he opened his eyes once more, although he was immensely exhausted, a trace of firmness and unyielding spirit shone within them.

Manifesting his wings once more, he flew toward the direction of the woman's voice, vanishing into the distance in a few rapid flashes.

Around Luo Bing, the last remaining thousand or so elite soldiers capable of combat had gathered, along with less than a hundred genetic warriors. Most of these individuals were already nursing injuries, but they had no other choice left.

At this moment, three figures flew in from behind the Blood Clan Progenitor. They were none other than the returning Blood Spirit King, Netherworld King, and Charm King. The three of them looked somewhat wretched at the moment. The Blood Spirit King was missing an arm, the Netherworld King’s aura was withered and her body stained with blood, and only half of the Charm King’s body remained.

"The three of you shielded Mother from that optical-energy cannon and suffered heavy injuries. Withdraw for now and wait aside." The Blood Spirit King and the others looked back as the Progenitor spoke, her eyes filled with doting affection for her children.

"Yes, Mother." Complying with the order, the three retreated, landing on a nearby hill to watch the final remnant of human forces.

The Progenitor turned her face back, her expression growing stern. She then extended a palm and made a casual grasping motion toward the human soldiers below. Instantly, a wave of spatial force erupted, forcibly lifting dozens of people into the air as if an invisible giant hand were acting in accordance with the Progenitor's will.

Luo Bing ordered fire to be opened, and a dense barrage of firepower instantly streaked toward the Progenitor. However, they soon discovered that all this gunfire came to a complete standstill within the mysterious energy field surrounding the Progenitor, unable to advance another inch.

"This..." Witnessing this scene, Luo Bing and the others sank into despair. Faced with such power beyond human comprehension, they appeared utterly helpless. The optical-energy cannon units could no longer function—these were the only powerful weapons currently capable of threatening the Blood Clan. Perhaps nuclear bombs could work, but they had none on hand at the moment.

Even if they wished to go down together in mutual destruction, it seemed impossible. This despair made the situation even more crushing.

The federal soldiers captured by the Progenitor were reeled in by the invisible giant hand to hover above her, and then subjected to relentless compression. Instantly, the victims wailed in agony, blood squeezing out from their bodies and spilling from their mouths. Below, the Progenitor opened her mouth and swallowed all of this blood, causing Luo Bing and the others to shudder with dread and indignation.

"As expected, the blood of those who dare to resist is far more delicious and flavorful. The resentment within seems to have blended into the blood, making it exceptionally sweet to me." The Progenitor extended her tongue to lick her plump lips, some of the bloodstains even dripping between her full breasts, presenting a demonic and seductive allure.

"Hmm?" At that moment, the Progenitor shifted her attention into the distance, and the Blood Spirit King trio also snapped to attention.

A fierce sword qi swept across the area. The Progenitor nimbly dodged it, while the sword qi severed her connection with the federal soldiers. Immediately after, a surge of mental energy caught the dozens of soldiers, shielding them from further harm so they could be swiftly rescued by their comrades.

Sensing a familiar aura, Luo Bing was overjoyed. Looking toward the booming supersonic sound approaching from afar, she could not help crying out, "He's alive! He's still alive..."

As the news of Bonson Wood's survival spread, the human army burst into rousing cheers. In their eyes, Xia Zheng was already a legendary figure.

The complexions of the Blood Spirit King and her two companions turned pale. Since Xia Zheng had returned alive while the Black Prison King and the King of Jinling had not, could it mean... The mere thought left the three of them unable to fathom the outcome.

When Xia Zheng appeared before Luo Bing and the others, despite his pale complexion and exhausted appearance, he still managed to reveal a confident smile.

Luo Bing threw her arms around him recklessly, sobbing for a moment. She had thought she would never see her beloved again, yet a miracle had been born in this very moment.

The Progenitor did not immediately attack Xia Zheng; instead, she looked at him with keen interest, a deep look of contemplation in her eyes.

"Human, did my two children, the King of Jinling and the Black Prison King, die at your hands?" the Progenitor asked. The previously jubilant and noisy atmosphere instantly fell into a dead silence.

Xia Zheng patted Luo Bing's lower back, gesturing for her to temporarily hide behind him, then stepped out from the crowd and said, "That's right. You must be the Progenitor of the Blood Clan, aren't you?"

"Heh... You certainly have some nerve, daring to act so presumptuously before me." The Progenitor's expression turned cold as she reached out to grab him once more.

Xia Zheng had long anticipated this. He instantly vanished from the spot, reappeared behind the Progenitor, and unleashed a Scorching Ice Sword strike.

The blade swept toward the Progenitor, and this time it was infused with the Will Attribute—"Illusion." When the Progenitor disdainfully reached out to grab him directly, she found her hand grasping empty air. Immediately afterward, she was struck by the Scorching Ice Sword, and a freezing state rapidly spread across her body.

Crash!

However, almost in an instant, the Progenitor surged with power, engulfing and erasing both the freezing effect and the blue flames of the Scorching Ice Sword.

Yet, Xia Zheng had not expected to injure her so easily. Wrapping his voice in his energy, he condensed it into a beam of light and sent it to Luo Bing, who immediately ordered everyone to evacuate.

The Progenitor repeatedly lunged to grab him, but he evaded every attempt using divine telekinesis and spatial teleportation. Once Luo Bing and the others had retreated to a safe distance, he immediately summoned massive flying boulders that blotted out the sky, raining down toward the Progenitor and her subordinates.

"Again?" Annoyed, the Progenitor manipulated both hands in a flurry. Waves of air instantly rippled across the space, and the descending boulders seemed to crash into an elastic net, halting their descent completely.

Xia Zheng was momentarily stunned. Although he knew the Progenitor was formidable, he had not expected her to block his boulders in such a manner. One had to remember that the mass of those boulders was staggering; purely in terms of weight, perhaps even a mountain god could not compare.

After wrapping the boulders in her power, the Progenitor casually hurled them far away. Their landing spot happened to be the exact location where Luo Bing and the others were gathered.

Startled, Xia Zheng immediately manipulated the boulders to dangerously graze past Luo Bing's group and crash beside them, triggering an earthquake-like shockwave as they slammed into a massive crater.

Facing the Progenitor once more, Xia Zheng felt a sense of powerlessness. Confronting her with his current strength was a losing battle—this was beyond doubt. Although the dungeon's dynamic difficulty peaked at S-rank, Xia Zheng felt that the Progenitor before him was an insurmountable existence.

Hearing Luo Bing's voice echo in his ears caused him to freeze completely. Then, glancing toward where she stood, he made a decision in that very moment.