Core Against Core

"Yong Rui,"

Ah, here we go again. Why is he calling me again?

"Yes, Shelter Leader?" I asked, trying to sound as humble as possible. There was no saying when Shen Rong would just snap and attack me for no reason. That's why I had to appease him in any way I can.

"Although I believe that you have the Blood Element, I still have to test you in front of all these people. If not, then you might get assassinated in your sleep along with me." Shen Rong said. It was clearly meant as a joke but he said it rather seriously that I was almost forced to believe such would be the case.

wooooosh...

A menacing aura enveloped me as I was brought to my knees with the intense pressure that Shen Rong released from his body. Compared to before, his aura was so heavy that I felt like I was drowning. My chest tightened and I had difficulty breathing, even my eyes turned blood-red as I felt like my brain was about to explode.

"AAAARGHHHHH!!!!" I screamed as the unbearable pain overcame my brain. For a moment, I was almost reduced to transforming into a mindless rabid human once again, but the System helped keep me conscious.

Although the pressure was pressing me from all directions, I decided to calm my breathing and ignore everything happening around me. A few seconds ago, I could hear a distant murmur from the onlookers but I didn't mind them at all.

"Shouldn't somebody stop leader? He's going to kill that kid!"

"Wait, that kid is bitten?!"

"What is our leader doing?"

"Are we welcoming him like this? Isn't this too much?"

"I get that the kid is bitten... but I don't think this is the right approach."

The constant whispers eventually disappeared from my ears as I completely focused on my breathing. When I finally calmed down, that's when I realized that Shen Rong wasn't actually putting the pressure on me. He was, in fact, applying pressure on my Virus Qi Core.

In other words, Shen Rong was actually attacking me! He was trying to damage my Virus Qi Core!

What insolence! How dare he, a mere Dao Realm, attack me like this when I was reduced to this state.

"System, can you activate the skill Killing Intent without turning me into a mindless rabid human?"I asked in my mind.

"Yes, as long as all the other skills are blocked, do you want me to block the skills Rage and Ferocity?" The System replied. "If we continue on like this, I'm not confident we'll get out of this situation unscathed, Yongrui."

"Yeah, I'm working on it. If you can activate Killing Intent without activating Rage and Ferocity, then that would be extremely helpful. Once his guard is down, I will retaliate by attacking his Virus Qi Core directly."

"Whatever you say, Yongrui. But please be careful."

As the System worked on activating and blocking my skills, I decided to compress and expand my Virus Qi Core just so it wouldn't explode and cripple me for life. Fortunately, the recent situation where I lost myself granted me enough control to constantly expand and compress my Qi Core as I tried to absorb the Virus Qi that Shen Rong was constantly attacking me by.

Before I knew it, my Virus Qi Core was already twice the size of my Original Qi Core and it wouldn't stop growing. If I don't compress it even further, then that would mean the death of me... and quite possibly, the death of everyone in this shelter as well.

In other words, I may very well be a ticking time bomb if Shen Rong continued his attack.

Well... not like he can just stop attacking me. If he does so right now, the interruption would immediately cut his Qi off from him and he will be weakened. It was obvious he didn't expect things to turn out the way they did.

<Killing Intent Activated!>

When I opened my eyes for a split second, I immediately saw Shen Rong's expression turn to that of horror as I directed my killing intent towards him. Because of that, his constant pressure on me was halted for a second, which gave me the leeway to counterattack by applying pressure on his Qi Core.

The moment my Qi energy met with his Virus Qi Core, I could tell that it was unusually weak compared to mine. That's probably because the amount of virus in his body was significantly less than I have, and from the looks of it, he hasn't really experienced turning into a rabid human.

But just as I was beginning to absorb some of his Virus Qi energy, Shen Rong suddenly applied pressure on me using his Original Qi Core, which had the cultivation of the Dao Realm.

And as someone in the Spirit Realm, the gap in our power was five realms apart! Of course, I'd lose!

"Aghk~!" I exclaimed as a mouthful of blood escaped my lips. The pressure that attacked me almost reduced me to becoming a mindless rabid human again.

Because of the pressure, my Original Qi Core ballooned up in size, almost surpassing the current size of my Virus Qi Core. As it was on the verge of explosion, I decided to sit down and cultivate before my body burst into tiny little pieces.

"Attacking someone's cultivation is a double-edged sword. Sometimes, what emerges from an onslaught is a crippled cultivator, but in rare cases, what emerges from such pressure would be a monster who has achieved a breakthrough. As the genius and esteemed Sect Master of the Tang Sect, I should break through right here and now! I can't afford to be a cripple!" I said in my mind as I attempted to control the explosive energy in my body.

And just like before, the Virus Qi Core and my Original Qi Core had increased twice in size. If I'm not careful, I might as well be the end for this Red Sea Shelter as well as Shen Rong.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Let's do this.