Chapter 114: The Regrowth of the Severed Arm

I glanced back and saw the Taotie Divine Bull hot on my heels. Its foul, rancid maw was almost upon me; I could even smell the stench of its breath. I swiftly sidestepped. The Divine Bull was enormous, and its momentum was immense. By the time it turned around, I had already run more than a dozen yards. As I fled, I condensed a protective barrier and poured in as much energy as I could. A halo formed from white vital energy and black demonic energy coiled around me.

When the Divine Bull drew near again, I sidestepped once more, barely evading its attack as I attempted to summon a clone. That was when I discovered that I still could not summon one. This was no longer the first time it had happened; the clone seemed exceedingly difficult to control. I had no time to dwell on it. Against a level-eight creature, I could not fight it head-on—I had to outwit it. The problem was that the space beneath the water was far smaller than the open land above. Even if I could ride the wind and fly, there was no way to escape.

The Taotie Divine Bull closed in on me again. In terms of speed, I was utterly outmatched, so I could only grit my teeth and charge forward desperately. Suddenly, the Divine Bull rammed me from behind. My entire body was sent flying and crashed heavily against the edge of the altar.

I had no time to worry about the pain. I quickly rose from the ground, preparing to resume the fierce chase, but then I suddenly noticed that the Taotie Divine Bull had stopped moving.

It stood where it was, glaring at me like a predator sizing up its prey. Its eyes, each as large as my fist, gleamed with a chilling light. I wondered whether it had grown tired, or perhaps realized that it could not catch me and decided to give up. Whatever the reason, it was best that it had stopped. Leaning against the altar, I slowly edged sideways. I intended to circle around the Divine Bull and enter the secret passage, but unexpectedly, it suddenly opened its enormous mouth. A golden object, blazing like a fireball, shot toward me.

I hurriedly dodged, but I was a step too slow. The golden light reached me in an instant. With a thunderous boom, a crater seven or eight meters in diameter was blasted into the lower part of the altar. The searing shock wave knocked me to the ground, while the violent impact sent shattered stones flying in every direction. A conical rock pierced my chest. Agonizing pain surged through me, leaving me unable even to sit up.

By then, the Taotie Divine Bull had reached me. One of its massive forelegs came crashing down.

Unable to move, I could only twist half my body aside in desperation. I hastily drew the Frost Sword and drove it backward into the ground, intending to pierce the bull’s hoof with its razor-sharp tip. But I had miscalculated. I had underestimated the formidable defenses of a level-eight creature. Under the immense pressure, the Frost Sword bent, then sprang away with a humming sound.

I reached out to catch it, but I was too late. The sword embedded itself in the stone wall behind me. Thinking about it, even a level-six zombie possessed enough defensive power to withstand the Frost Sword. How could the level-eight Taotie Divine Bull be any different?

Seeing the Divine Bull’s enormous hoof about to crush me into pulp, I endured the pain and suddenly tore the conical stone from my chest. Then I rolled away as quickly as I could, narrowly avoiding the devastating blow. The ground where I had lain moments before was now stamped into a deep crater.

Missing its strike, the Divine Bull stretched out its neck and let out a long roar before charging again. I dared not be careless. I spun around and sprinted wildly, then locked onto the Frost Sword’s position and flew there on the wind.

The moment I pulled the Frost Sword free, the Divine Bull arrived. I took a deep breath and watched its trajectory. Just as it came within half a meter of me, I drove the Frost Sword with all my strength into its eye.

The Divine Bull’s momentum was unstoppable, and I was slammed hard against the stone wall. Yet I still clung tightly to the sword. The Frost Sword had been thrust all the way into the Taotie Divine Bull’s eye, leaving only the hilt in my hands. Its brain lay directly behind the eye. Once the brain was destroyed, surely it would die.

I thought it was over, but before I could catch my breath, the Divine Bull suddenly whipped its head around. I was dragged into the air with it. It had suffered a fatal blow and yet still refused to die, leaving me deeply bewildered.

I gripped the hilt with both hands as the Divine Bull swung its head with increasing force. If this continued, I would be thrown off, and dealing with the enraged beast after that would be far more difficult. I made a swift decision: it had to be finished immediately.

I freed my right hand, pulled a revolver from my spatial ring, and fired several shots into the Divine Bull’s left eye. At last, it fell still.

I released the sword and leapt to the ground. The Divine Bull’s body collapsed with a deafening crash, raising a cloud of dust. I waved the dust aside and walked over, preparing to pull out the Frost Sword.

At that moment, a mass of golden light suddenly shot from the Divine Bull’s mouth.

I was standing too close and had never imagined that it would launch one final counterattack before dying. All I felt was a wave of scorching heat before my body was hurled through the air.

With another thunderous crash, my ears began to ring. Pain churned through my chest like a storm. I struggled to sit up, but everything before me was blood-red. Blood streamed from the top of my head, running across my eyes and lips, filling my mouth with a metallic tang.

I tried to raise a hand and wipe away the blood, only to discover that I could not move it. Looking down, I saw that my entire arm had been severed. My left shoulder ended in empty space, blood pouring from it like a broken spring. The violent impact had destroyed everything below my left shoulder.

The Taotie Divine Bull’s final blow before death had been terrifyingly powerful.

I was lying in the bottom of a huge crater. The pain from my severed arm, combined with my broken ribs, caused my consciousness to gradually grow hazy. I lay motionless on the ground. Even moving a finger was unbearably painful.

Slowly, I lost consciousness.

I do not know how much time passed before I climbed out of the crater. Xu Qinghuan was standing before me. I struggled upward and rushed toward her, wanting to embrace her, but then I suddenly noticed that my arm was still there.

My arm passed directly through Xu Qinghuan’s body.

She smiled faintly. Her figure gradually blurred until it finally dissipated.

I cried out, “Don’t go!”

I awoke to find myself still lying in the crater. The pain was gone. I turned my head and saw that my left shoulder was completely intact. My arm was still there.

Could everything just now have been a dream?

I sent my spiritual sense into my body and examined it. I discovered that many of my meridians had been severed, while black streams of energy were rapidly repairing them.

Ever since I had lost the power of the dragon runes, my body had also lost its ability to heal itself. Although I knew that demonic energy could rapidly repair injured parts, I had never imagined that it could actually regenerate a severed limb!

That was when I noticed the severed arm lying in a corner of the crater. It was my arm, and the spatial ring was still on its finger.

Looking at the newly regenerated limb, I felt deeply unsettled. The arm was no different from an ordinary person’s, yet when I looked at the severed limb in the crater, I could not shake the feeling that something about it was unnatural.

The enormous body of the Taotie Divine Bull lay more than ten meters from the crater. It should be thoroughly dead by now. I had heard that magical beasts possessed magic crystals within their bodies. I was curious to see what the magic crystal of a level-eight creature looked like.