Bai Shi drove his elbow into the Vessel of Rot, slamming it straight into the rock wall.
The Vessel of Rot was clearly in bad shape after the elbow strike. Large sections of its skeleton had fractured, and its entire chest had caved in.
Yet despite the devastating blow, the Vessel of Rot acted as if nothing had happened and lashed out with a claw.
The sharp claws easily shredded through the armor, leaving massive gouges on Bai Shi’s body.
Though its figure was gaunt, the Vessel of Rot possessed a terrifyingly imnse strength.
The Dragonslayer Armor was completely unable to withstand such an attack. It shattered and disintegrated in mid-air.
And so, the armor that had accompanied Bai Shi for so long was finally destroyed.
Bare-chested and covered in the flas of Ember, Bai Shi’s muscles were corded and powerful. Burning, hot blood spilled from his wounds, flowing like lava.
The blazing Ember made him look like a fla demon clawing its way out of hell.
Unconsciously, the repeated increases to his strength and other attributes had gradually altered Bai Shi’s physique.
Now, after using the power of a Great Rune to magnify his size, with two of his attributes breaking their limits, the change in his appearance was even more pronounced.
The Bai Shi of this mont was a titan on the sa level as Godfrey... or rather, as Hoarah Loux.
Bai Shi paid no mind to his injuries, nor did he care about his ruined armor.
Who cared? How could re early-ga armor compare to a body honed by countless battles!
More important than armor was utterly pulverizing the enemy before him.
Right now, Bai Shi had only one thought: to tear this thing to shreds.
The fight... It was exhilarating!
The Vessel of Rot’s giant claw swiped out again, only to be t by Bai Shi’s punch, which snapped it. Bone jutted out at a sickening angle, the limb instantly twisted into a grotesque shape.
Before it could strike again, Bai Shi’s fists rained down like a furious storm.
The continuous heavy blows were like ocean waves, each stronger than the last.
Faced with such a torrential onslaught, the Vessel of Rot didn't even have a chance to breathe, and could only wretchedly shield itself with its arms and scepter.
But scepters could be snapped and arms could be shattered.
Against Bai Shi, none of it mattered.
The rock wall cracked continuously, the spiderweb-like fissures spreading across the face of the mountain.
Bai Shi leaned back, a vicious light glinting in his eyes. The montum built from his relentless assault was unleashed in a single punch.
“Sea Tiger! Blast Punch!”
The punch tore through the body of the Kindred of Rot, saring it like paste onto the already pulverized rock.
The next mont, the cliff wall behind the Vessel of Rot could hold no longer, and it collapsed entirely, taking the creature’s body with it.
Boulders tumbled down, swallowing the Vessel of Rot’s form.
Bai Shi flew backward, shaking out his hand.
“Whew—”
“So satisfying!”
Of course, he didn’t actually know any Sea Tiger Blast Punch, let alone possess any kind of magnetic power.
He just shouted it for fun.
He had to admit, shouting out attack nas was definitely the most satisfying part.
Especially now, with his body enlarged, it maxed out the intimidation factor, at the very least.
Bai Shi floated silently in the air, watching the spot where the Vessel of Rot had been buried.
Bai Shi knew his opponent wouldn’t be defeated so easily.
Besides, this was its ho turf.
For now, Bai Shi decided to wait and use the ti to recover from his injuries.
During his constant assault on his opponent, a great deal of blood had spilled from Bai Shi’s own wounds.
But thanks to his life attribute having broken its limits, his current injuries couldn’t be considered severe at all.
The Scarlet Rot lingering in the wounds was incinerated by the Ember, and the purely physical damage would heal quickly.
However, in order to resist the rot’s encroachnt, Bai Shi was currently burning his Ember at its absolute maximum.
The furiously burning Ember seared his body, granting him a massive attribute boost and rendering the rot completely ineffective against him.
Though it seed as if the rot had no effect on Bai Shi, this was entirely dependent on the intensely burning state of his Ember.
If Bai Shi dared to let his guard down and lower the Ember's intensity too much, the power of the rot would corrode his body.
In this high-intensity state, the amount of vitality burned every second was terrifying.
It was so much that Bai Shi didn't even have spare energy to allocate to healing his wounds.
Of course, that was because he had yet to supplent it with healing incantations or the like.
If he were to use a healing spell, he could afford to burn the Ember even more intensely.
But Bai Shi was reluctant to use a sunlight incantation here in this place of rot.
Sunlight had a special effect on the rot, and Bai Shi couldn't be sure if the change would be for the better or for the worse.
But with flas, there were no such concerns. He could just burn everything to ashes.
Bai Shi slightly lowered the intensity of his burning Ember, and his transcendent life attribute finally showed its remarkable effects.
The wounds on his body began to recover at a terrifying speed, completely healing in a matter of monts.
As his injuries healed, Bai Shi proactively expelled so of his blood.
This was the blood near his wounds. Although the Ember had essentially disinfected it, it was better not to take any risks.
Besides, he would regenerate that little bit of blood in a couple of seconds.
His burning, scorching blood dripped to the ground, searing the rot-covered shore into charcoal.
But the patches of rot sward forward one after another, devouring the fallen droplets of blood.
Bai Shi frowned slightly. This sight gave him an ominous premonition.
A ball of fierce fire appeared in his hand, and he flung it at the rot below, allowing the flas to purify it completely.
At the sa ti, a massive amount of Scarlet Rot surged from the lake onto the shore, rolling toward the buried Vessel of Rot.
The pile of rubble was subrged in the rot, forming what looked like a red burial mound.
“BOOM—”
A beast cloaked in Scarlet Rot stood up from the grave, glaring furiously at Bai Shi.
Its entire body was covered in flowing Scarlet Rot, and its form gradually swelled back to its original size.
With a tear of its claws, the Scarlet Rot mantle was ripped away, revealing the form of the Vessel of Rot once more.
Healed by the Scarlet Rot, the Vessel of Rot was almost completely unscathed, aside from a slight decrease in power.
Of course, its scepter, which had been broken long ago, could not be restored.
At this mont, the water level of the vast Lake of Rot had visibly dropped.
To restore this beast, whose power approached that of a god and a king, from such heavy injuries was a massive expenditure, even for an Outer God of Rot.
After all, being in a sealed state, there was no telling how much power it could actually wield.
Seeing the Vessel of Rot stand up again, Bai Shi smiled.
What a durable punching bag.
In that case, he’d just have to keep hitting it until it split at the seams!
Bai Shi landed on the ground, standing face to face with the Vessel of Rot.
Mimicking Hoarah Loux's stance from the ga, Bai Shi spread his arms to his sides, his hands open as if to grasp the Vessel of Rot.
He lowered his body and charged furiously toward his opponent.
Not to be outdone, the Vessel of Rot dropped to all fours and aid its massive horns at Bai Shi once more.
But just as it was about to clash with Bai Shi, bracing for a contest of strength—
Bai Shi's outstretched arms suddenly dropped, bypassing its horns and head to grab it by the shoulders.
With that motion, Bai Shi's push turned into a lift. In an instant, he seized the Vessel of Rot and flung it high into the air.
The Vessel of Rot’s four limbs kicked in the air, and it actually used the power of its forr Ancestor Spirit self to instantly stabilize its body.
However, the toss was all Bai Shi needed.
Bai Shi appeared beside the Vessel of Rot, locking it in a firm hold as they plumted toward the ground.
Man and beast, inverted, spiraled rapidly downward from the sky.
Seismic Toss!
Only at the last mont before impact did Bai Shi release his grip, slamming the Vessel of Rot down hard.
The Vessel of Rot's body shattered what little remained of the lake's shore and crashed straight into the Lake of Rot.
Bai Shi spun and floated in the air, waiting for the Vessel of Rot.
This little skirmish didn’t keep Bai Shi waiting for long. Soon, waves began to stir in the Lake of Rot.
The scarlet water churned violently, as if so terrifying presence was reawakening. A gigantic scarlet flower bud suddenly erged from the center of the Lake of Rot.
The bud, condensed from pure rot, swelled and throbbed as if breathing, continuously accumulating power.
Finally, the rot-infused bud burst open, detonating the Scarlet Rot.
Butterflies of rot circled behind the Vessel of Rot, filling the entire underground cavern.
Watching the Vessel of Rot rise slowly from the Lake of Rot, Bai Shi grew vigilant.
This was clearly the God of Rot getting serious.
Perhaps sensing that the vessel's power alone was not enough to defeat Bai Shi, the God of Rot had decided to use all the power at its command.
What the Vessel of Rot was now unleashing was the true power of a god.
As the orange-red essence of pure rot suffused the air above the lake, even Bai Shi’s intensely burning Ember-clad body began to be corroded by the rot.
Sensing this, Bai Shi decided to stop toying with it.
He didn’t care what it had up its sleeve. The mont it showed its face, he would destroy it!
Bai Shi held out his hand, and a Great Rune imdiately appeared before him.
Bai Shi summoned the power of the sun dwelling within Radahn's Great Rune, and a blazing sun hung high in the subterranean space.
A true underground sun had descended.
The scorching sun dispelled all influence of the rot. Bai Shi floated before it with his arms crossed, declaring the rot's defeat.
“You are already dead.”
“Tokamak of Hell—”
“Giga Flare!”
The Vessel of Rot, having just been fully unleashed in the lake, lifted its head and looked toward Bai Shi.
But with Bai Shi standing before the sun, all the Vessel of Rot could see was a pair of blazing eyes within a silhouette.
And that was the last image seared into its blank mind.
A destructive white light robbed it of its vision, and terrifyingly hot flas vaporized its body, leaving not even a trace of ash behind.
—
The sun slowly dissipated from the underground space.
But the traces it left behind proved that an ultimate power had once descended—
In those brief dozen or so seconds, nearly all creatures of rot had been rcilessly swept away by the sun.
Under the devastating sun, the Lake of Rot had visibly withered, leaving almost nothing but a thin layer.
In the end, however, Bai Shi did not completely eradicate the rot.
It wasn't that he couldn't, but he still had so concerns.
The seal here was conceptual, most likely needing to conform to the principles of ‘flow’ and ‘sedintation’.
If he vaporized all the rot here, the rash change might have unforeseen consequences.
Until he was absolutely certain he could solve the problem of the rot for good, Bai Shi wasn't willing to do that.
Just then, Bai Shi noticed the place where the Vessel of Rot had been.
In his mind, it should have been hit directly by the solar flare, and nothing should have remained.
Yet right there, a dazzling orange-red light in the shape of a small flower bud floated quietly.
As ti passed, its color gradually shifted to a dim, reddish-black, and the aura of rot began to spread.
A line of small text appeared before Bai Shi's eyes, revealing what this object was—‘Divine Essence of the God of Rot’.
Bai Shi frowned at the words that appeared before him.
He wasn't surprised by the object's existence.
Upon reflection, the appearance of a Divine Essence wasn't strange at all.
The God of Rot had possessed the body of an Ancestor Spirit, infusing it with Its Divine Essence and turning it into a Vessel of Rot.
Now that the vessel had been destroyed, it was only natural for the Divine Essence to be left behind if it wasn't reclaid.
It was just that... Bai Shi didn't seem to have a good way of dealing with it.
When it ca to the power of the Outer Gods, the most effective tool was, of course, the Unalloyed Gold Needle.
No matter the entity, within the constraints of the Lands Between's rules, the Unalloyed Gold Needle could restrain and seal it.
Even with its potential risks, it was almost the optimal solution.
However, Bai Shi himself hadn't mastered the power of Unalloyed Gold, and the person most familiar with it, Leda, wasn't here.
So, sealing it with the Unalloyed Gold Needle was out of the question for now.
Bai Shi stroked his chin, pondering what to do.
Maybe... he should just destroy it with the power of the sun?
Both were powers from gods, but the sun's standing was far higher than that of rot.
There was no reason he couldn't use the power of the sun to grind the Divine Essence of rot to dust.
Blazing flas appeared in Bai Shi’s hand as he reached toward the Divine Essence.
But soon, Bai Shi discovered that the Divine Essence was undergoing a strange transformation under the flas:
While it was being vaporized and destroyed, its color was actually gradually shifting to a golden-yellow.
Bai Shi’s expression tightened, and he imdiately stopped.
Scarlet Rot would only do this when it encountered sunlight; when it encountered the sun itself, it was directly vaporized.
But this Divine Essence was completely different.
It seed the Divine Essence of rot was not so afraid of the sun.
No, it was almost... affectionate?
In Bai Shi’s hands, the sun's power manifested in two ways.
One was the warmth of sunlight, the other was the destruction of blazing flas.
And now, even when Bai Shi was using blazing flas, the Divine Essence of rot seed to be drawn to it, which was clearly not normal.
He recalled how in Caelid, when he used sunlight, it could bring the rot to a state of bounteousness.
Now, Bai Shi had to suspect that perhaps, back when the sun had not yet distanced itself from the Lands Between, these two had a one-sided, very intimate relationship.
Plants need sunlight; this is a law of nature.
Since it had two ends of the spectrum—bounteousness and rot—then perhaps its source, the Divine Essence, existed sowhere in the middle.
Lean toward bounteousness, it turns golden. Lean toward rot, it becos reddish-black.
This would explain why it was now gradually turning golden even under his blazing flas.
Perhaps the amount of light the Divine Essence of rot could endure was vastly different from that of ordinary rot-infested plants.
Looking at the ‘Divine Essence of the God of Rot’ in his hand, Bai Shi hesitated.
Should he give it a try?
The mont the question arose, an answer imdiately surfaced in his mind:
Rot and bounteousness? Yes, I'll try it!
It was just a tiny bit of Divine Essence, anyway.
He had already beaten the Vessel of Rot to a pulp. What was there to fear from a disembodied power?
Using the power of sunlight, the Divine Essence of rot indeed turned completely golden.
Within it, Bai Shi could no longer feel the power of rot.
Seeing how smoothly it went, Bai Shi breathed a sigh of relief.
After a mont's thought, Bai Shi took out the Aeperia.
Although he didn't have any weapons related to rot, the Aeperia could be considered loosely connected to bounteousness.
Bai Shi pressed the blade of the Aeperia against the ‘Divine Essence of the God of Rot’.
The golden brilliance imdiately suffused the Aeperia from top to bottom, making it incredibly dazzling.
Then, new sprouts erged from the sowhat damaged blade, completing its form.
The Aeperia was completely restored to its peak state.
Just as Bai Shi thought it was all over, a strange change occurred, pushing things in an unexpected direction.
The radiance on the Aeperia began to separate. The golden light at one end grew even more brilliant, while the other end steadily dimd.
The light on that other end continued to dim until it beca a deep crimson, and Scarlet Rot clung to the blade.
In the end, the twinblade ca to possess two diatrically opposed powers, yet they both originated from the sa source.
Bai Shi grasped the weapon, which had beco far more powerful, yet completely unfamiliar.
A surging power pulsed through it. Just by holding it, Bai Shi could feel its might.
He gave it a few practice swings and nodded.
Aeperia, Bounteous and Rotten.
From now on, that would be its new na.
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