Chapter 81 - An Unexpected Crushing Victory

Chapter 81: Chapter 79: An Unexpected Crushing VictoryEven if the four Gold guardians’ power of vitality and blood were extremely ferocious, to Lu Hong, his ultra-high defense was enough to ensure that he only suffered some minor external injuries. Moreover, with the presence of a recovery BUFF, such damage could almost be ignored.

Lu Hong broke through the long river of bursting blood and slashed down with his sword at the four Gold guardians.

"Indeed, quite powerful. Even our all-out strike is not enough to cause you much harm." The four Gold guardians dropped their weapons and calmly met their destiny.

"No!" Lu Hong saw several of them give up their defense and hurriedly tried to retract his move, but it was too late.

As the robust Fighting Spirit poured down, the four Gold guardians immediately bled from all seven orifices, their bones shattered, and they were ultimately ground into a pulp.

"This is not the result I wanted!" Lu Hong looked at the blurred flesh and blood on the ground and fell into silence.

In the game, from the first level to the last one, all the bosses guarding the levels were soulless spirits with no intelligence, but it was different here. Aside from the first level, they all had their own thoughts and will.

Lu Hong slowly closed his eyes, knowing that the guardians only had two fates: to kill or be killed.

"Gold guardians! Why didn’t you dodge? Why did you let Lu Hong win so easily!" Bodo roared incessantly from the throne in the Holy Temple. Clearly, there was still room for resistance, yet they had willingly embraced death.

"Stop shouting, it’s your turn now, Blood Lord, Bodo." Lu Hong stepped into the center of the Holy Temple, where there was only one throne, that of the Blood Lord.

Around the throne were eight other standing spots, probably reserved for the Blood Lord’s eight major subordinates.

"You arrived quite quickly." Bodo pacified his rage and stared hard at Lu Hong, "I admit you have some capability, but relying solely on this to contend against me is still far from enough."

"You’re just at the peak of the First Transition, who are you trying to scare?" Lu Hong wasn’t fooled at all. If that damn Blood Lord were really so fierce, why would Bodo say that he had been schemed against?

"You!" Bodo’s speech stiffened. He was originally going to make Lu Hong submit and then trick him into handing over the Judgment Dual Blades, but now he couldn’t even utter those words.

"Come on, I’m tired of this place, the slaughter of the innocents exhausts me." Lu Hong raised his greatsword, pointing the blade straight at Bodo.

"Do you really think you can defeat me?" Bodo drew out the Blood Holy Sword and stood up from his throne.

As Bodo rose, the Bloodline Power erupted like a volcanic eruption, wildly dancing in the air.

"Whatever, let’s find out through the fight." Lu Hong pushed off the ground and charged towards Bodo.

"Imposing force!" Having watched Lu Hong fight several times, Bodo was well aware of the kid’s astonishing strength and immediately activated a BUFF Skill that increased his force.

Yet even so, Bodo was still sent flying by Lu Hong, crashing heavily against the wall.

The main hall of the Holy Temple was different; the walls were built much sturdier than in other places.

"Damn it!" Bodo got up and, with a thought, the Blood Holy Sword split in two.

"I don’t know why the Gold guardians didn’t use their full strength, but I will. I’ll show you how much of a difference there is due to levels and skills!" Bodo roared, "Madness!"

With the activation of the Madness skill, the power of vitality and blood turned into thousands of three-inch blood nails that tightly pierced into Bodo’s body, and the densely packed blood nails formed a suit of vitality and blood armor.

Lu Hong’s eyes slightly narrowed; he knew this skill, and it was also one of the skills he used the least in the game. This armor formed by blood nails not only had extremely high defense but also inflicted tremendous pain on the Spellcaster, driving the user into a semi-mad state. Combined with the blood-sucking aura that Madness brought, it was simply an undying brute.

"Heavenly God... descends!" Despite the intense pain of thousands of blood nails piercing his body, Bodo activated another new skill.

"What?!" Even Lu Hong was unsettled now. Heavenly God Descent was a hidden skill of the warrior class, not learned through leveling up. Among millions of warriors, not one could learn this skill, and Bodo actually knew it.

"Hahaha, I originally wanted to leave a way out for you, but you forced me into this." A divine thunderbolt penetrated the ceiling of the Holy Temple and struck Bodo. As the heavenly thunder entered his body, Bodo’s height, originally about one meter eighty, shot up to over two meters. His muscles swelled to more than double their size, filled with explosive strength.

"I didn’t see you trying to spare my life either, so let’s not waste time talking now." Lu Hong wasn’t stupid—could Bodo really change the challenge rules of the Blood Temple? Even if Lu Hong lost, could he spare his life?

"Die!" Exposed, Bodo stopped wasting words and instantly appeared in front of Lu Hong, kicking him before he could react and sending him flying.

Bodo wasn’t like Lu Hong; he didn’t show mercy. He chased after Lu Hong before he could land and chopped down toward his head with the divided Blood Holy Sword.

A mournful clash of blades echoed throughout the Holy Temple, and the ground, hard as iron, fractured around Lu Hong as its center.

"Die! Die! Die!" Bodo continued swinging his greatsword, desperately hacking at Lu Hong lying on the ground.

"The Lion King descends!" Under the fourfold enhancement of the Bloodthirst, Heavenly God’s descent, and Bodo’s secretly activated Bloodline Power, Bodo’s strength had surpassed Lu Hong’s.

"So what if you have the Lion Heart Bloodline, you will not defeat me!" Bodo sneered and continued his assault, with each sword drop akin to a great mountain charging at Lu Hong.

"What’s happening?" Even Lai Li outside the Holy Temple felt the intense vibration of the ground. Audron emerged from the Stele, his face filled with shock as he looked at the teetering temple.

"Audron, Grandpa! You can’t run away now!" Lai Li sprang at Audron as soon as she saw him appear.

"Snap!" Audron sidestepped slightly, and Lai Li crashed to the ground.

"Stop fooling around! The warrior lord’s life is probably in danger." Although not inside the Holy Temple, Audron knew better than anyone what was happening inside.

"Ah? Is Tu Kur Lu dying? Did he fail the challenge?" It was only then that Lai Li became concerned again about the cause of the severe vibration coming from the temple.

"Not yet, but it’s close." Audron’s expression was mournful, "I discovered that the lord of the temple had fallen. They no longer pursue justice or symbolize peace. Hundreds of millions of years have been enough to turn them vicious and venomous."

"But from the beginning, I was just a spirit body, utterly powerless to stop their corruption." Audron continued, "Even at the cost of my old life, I should not have let them come back into the world."

"If you knew about the lord’s fall, why did you rebuild the Holy Temple?" Lai Li didn’t understand. If Audron had known a long time ago that the three lords had degenerated, if Audron truly didn’t want Tu Kur Lu to enter the Holy Temple, then he should not have reconstructed it from the start!

"The Holy Temple was not shaped by me but by the Stele," Audron said, caressing the smooth Stele, "Actually, I only knew in advance of the Stele’s reconstruction of the temple, and just tagged along for the scene."

So, it turns out the resurrection of the temple wasn’t this old guy’s doing.

"What’s the situation inside now?" Lai Li pressed on.

"The Blood Lord is beating up the warrior lord." Audron’s face showed anger, "Bodo alone would never defeat the warrior lord, who possesses the Bloodline Power. They are cheating!"

"Cheating? Bloodline Power?" Lai Li was confused.

"Yes, the warrior lord has the number one Bloodline of a hundred races, the Lion Heart Bloodline. With the power of the Lion Heart Bloodline and the warrior lord’s master-level combat skills, there’s no chance Bodo could have won."

"The Lion Heart Bloodline?!" Lai Li’s heart suddenly clenched. The king of beasts’ bloodline! How could a human have the Lion Heart Bloodline? Could he actually be a beast-man? At this thought, Lai Li’s expression turned grave. If Tu Kur Lu was really a spy sent by the beast-men into the empire, such a person, once grown, would certainly be a great calamity for the empire!

With this worry, Lai Li almost wished Lu Hong would not survive; perhaps dying inside would be better. After all, no one would believe that the origin of the Lion Heart Bloodline was merely a coincidence. Even the Lion King’s own clan had great difficulty birthing a successor. Could the appearance of a half-human, half-beast-man be a coincidence? The Lion King’s clan had always been devoted to researching bloodline reproduction; perhaps Tu Kur Lu was the result of their research, an experimental subject released into the empire.

"They are cheating! Cheating!" Audron pounded the sanctified Stele with all his might, seemingly trying to awaken the will of the Stele, "The three lords have managed to fuse souls. Do you not care?!"

But no matter how Audron struck the Stele or poured out his complaints, the Stele remained utterly unresponsive. The violent shaking coming from within the temple did not cease either.

"Fury Blood Strike!" The wild dance of qi and blood under Bodo’s control merged into a fierce tiger, lunging at Lu Hong, who was still pinned to the ground and taking a beating.

Lu Hong, on the defensive, had no chance to use his skills. Bodo’s relentless attacks left no gaps, his speed was simply too fast.

The tiger pounced, the power of qi and blood burst explosively. The terrifying force blew apart the entire Holy Temple, revealing the two figures to Lai Li and Audron.

Through the ruins, Audron shouted angrily, "Bodo, you’re cheating!"

"Cheating?" Bodo looked at Lu Hong, bleeding from his seven orifices, and kicked him away with his foot.

"And what of it? The combined force of the three lords has broken the rules of the Holy Temple. I feel my power slowly returning. I believe it won’t be long before I can ascend to a god!" Bodo laughed wildly.

"The rules have been broken?" Audron’s face turned extremely grim.

"Yes, if it weren’t for this kid getting to the final challenge, War and Iron would not have been willing to bet. But now, everything is going smoothly."

Turns out Bodo’s initial fear of Lu Hong was real, and now the crushing power was also real. And the origin of all these changes was the soul fusion of the three lords. They had been secretly in touch all along, perhaps even infiltrating the body of the Blood Lord in advance, but they lacked the courage to merge. Lu Hong’s intrusion had forced the other two lords to make up their minds.