Chapter 14: Blood Vendetta

Chapter 14: Blood Vendetta

As his teammates fell one by one, Jonathan Chu howled, "Su Ping, I'll kill you!"

A blinding golden light emanated from Jonathan Chu's body. Amidst the swirl of genetic energy, he morphed into a gigantic gold pangolin, the effect of a superior-grade transformation-type Spirit Essence!

Su Ping's eyes widened. A transformation-type spirit essence was rare enough, let alone a superior-grade one. It would be sure to fetch a good price if he were to auction it off.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a human-type lifeform, so the transformation would render one incapable of using genetic techniques. Otherwise, its price would definitely rise at least a hundredfold.

Donovan Qiu must like his brother quite a bit to have sent him such a rare spirit essence. Well, I'll thank him for the kindness in advance! Su Ping ignored the fuss Jonathan Chu was making, treating the spirit essence in Jonathan Chu's hand as though it already belonged to him.

By the cave entrance, Jonathan Chu's claws swiped at the air around him, forcing even those mutated-grade venom-bane Deathstalkers lurking around him to retreat. The next moment, he grabbed Grace Wang. His scales began to twist rapidly, as though he were a golden drill. With a tremendous grinding sound, he burrowed into the earth.

Except for the four transformed lifeforms, the remainder of Jonathan Chu's team quickly ran into the hole he had created. Fang Liu, Zhou Ming, and the other two hunters prepared to cancel their transformations and follow suit.

The transformation had drained them of much of their spirit essence, and their constant exposure to the poisonous mist was making them muddleheaded.

Right after Fang Liu and Zhou Ming made it into the burrowed hole, however, Zhao Ping and Zheng Cang, who had transformed into the vine asp and crysturtle, respectively, felt their transformations break involuntarily and their spirit essences forcibly recalled.

Neither of them had enough spirit essence to maintain their transformation any longer. Before the two of them could recover from the shock, the wave of Deathstalkers engulfed them.

"Damn it! Hurry, we have to run!" Fang Liu and Zhou Ming had no choice but to collapse the entrance to the underground hole.

Thus ended the fight between the venom-bane Deathstalkers and Jonathan Chu's team. Both sides had suffered massive losses. The once-idyllic glade had been covered in a layer of Deathstalker carcasses, along with the blood of eight hunters.

Jonathan Chu's thirteen-person team had shrunk by more than half. Furthermore, the surviving hunters were all poisoned, and Su Ping had no intention of letting them leave safely. Jonathan Chu had declared a blood feud between them, and neither of them would rest easily before the other was dead.

However, Su Ping wasn't in much of a hurry. The poison in the Deathstalkers' blood was slow-acting, but its effects were particularly difficult to dispel. He was certain that Jonathan Chu and the others wouldn't be able to find an antidote in the short term.

After a few minutes, when the Deathstalkers had finally retreated, Su Ping walked over to the eight corpses and began collecting his spoils. None of their flesh or bones remained, and the souls in their Spirit Reservoir had naturally vanished with them.

All Su Ping could recover were their weapons. A spear, three polearms, and four blades—the weapons of the eight deceased hunters—were quickly thrown into Su Ping's potbellied-toad pouch.

Subsequently, he activated his Aerowolf spirit essence and [Rippling Walk], then ran out through the cave, chasing after the remnants of Jonathan Chu's team. The moment he returned to the waterfall, Su Ping discovered something amiss. There were no traces of upturned ground near the tunnel entrance or the lakeside. Even in the nearby forests, Su Ping couldn't see any fallen trees or disturbed soil. Given Jonathan Chu's condition, he could hardly be so careful as to avoid detection.

In that case... Su Ping turned around and ran back into the venom-bane glade. Evidently, knowing that Su Ping would chase after him, Jonathan Chu had burrowed deeper into the forest rather than out beyond the cave. Unfortunately for him, Su Ping was an experienced hunter and saw through his trick immediately.

Deep within the glade, by an upturned heap of soil, Jonathan Chu, Grace Wang, Fang Liu, Zhou Ming, and another hunter slumped against the ground. At Jonathan Chu's feet were all manner of empty potion bottles.

"Damn it, none of these antidotes are working!"

After swallowing another dose of antidote, Jonathan Chu began to shout in frustration. His spirit essence was slowly being sapped away, and the extremities of his body were slowly falling into paralysis.

"Jonathan, what do we do? What do we do?! Are we going to die of poison?" Grace Wang trembled as she held back her tears. In the end, Grace Wang was only a young woman. When faced with the prospect of death, how could she remain calm?

Of course, the other hunters were much the same way.

Hearing Grace Wang's words, Fang Liu, who had suffered the brunt of the Deathstalkers' attack, squeezed his insensate palm. Clutching onto a forlorn hope, he asked, "Captain, could it be that the antidote just hasn't taken effect yet? All your antidotes are top-tier, after all!"

"The apothecary you bought all these antidotes from surely wouldn't sell us fake potions, would they?" Zhou Ming suggested.

Jonathan Chu waved his arm in frustration. "No, these antidotes work fine. The poison is just too tricky to deal with!"

Fang Liu couldn't help but groan. "To think we were tricked by a weakling like him!"

"Grace Wang, it's all your fault! If not for you, Jonathan Chu wouldn't be fighting against this fellow in the first place. You've killed everyone!" Zhou Ming's despairing accusation made Jonathan Chu glance thoughtfully at Grace Wang.

However, it was only one glance. After all, he understood quite well that he was the one who had brought them all to this juncture.

On the other hand, Grace Wang, indicted by Zhou Ming, suddenly shouted, "That's right! Su Ping! We just need to find him! While we were fighting, the poisonous mist spread all over the glade, but Su Ping wasn't affected! He must either have the antidote or know some way of avoiding the poison!

"Jonathan, we just need to go find Su Ping! As long as we promise him some resources, I'm sure he'll give us the antidote!"

The other hunters' eyes brightened, but then they looked toward her as though she were an idiot.

"What's the matter? Are you all too prideful?" Grace Wang asked, confused.

This time, none of the other hunters bothered to look at her. She was a sheltered orchid in a greenhouse and clearly didn't understand the true nature of the three-dimensional world.

As she felt her body slowly seizing up, Grace Wang began to cry. "Jonathan, I'm begging you; can't we ask Su Ping for help?"

"Jonathan, you're too naive! We gain nothing from asking him except for revealing the fact that we've all been

 weakened. But you don't have to worry too much—given my cousin's reputation in the dimensional world, he might give us a shameful beating, but he wouldn't dare take our lives.

"As for the poison in our bodies, after circulating my Spirit Essence a few times, I've found that it only has paralytic properties. At worst, we'll be stiff for a few hours. The purple powder that we saw on that fellow should be the key to avoiding the Deathstalkers' poison.

Furthermore, the fact that we're now deep within the glade rather than out by the waterfall means that it'll take quite a while longer to find us. As long as we make it through the next few hours, we can still beat him! "

Jonathan Chu was exceedingly patient with Grace Wang, not only dissuading her from her inane decision but also giving her hope to live.

"Really? Jonathan, this poison isn't lethal?" Despite Jonathan Chu's patient explanation, Grace Wang still seemed quite doubtful, causing Fang Liu and Zhou Ming to let out twin glares of impatience.

They were about to mock her—while their mouths could still move—when they heard a chuckle from the distance.

"Haha, of course it's true. Jonathan Chu, it looks like you're not an idiot after all! In that case, shall we have a little talk?"

Su Ping appeared from a distance.

"Su Ping!" Fang Liu, Zhou Ming, and Grace Wang all exclaimed in shock.

Jonathan Chu, on the other hand, lying on the ground with his four limbs all but paralyzed, knew that he'd lost. Rather than panic, however, he smiled coldly. "Alright, you win. What do you want from me?"

Su Ping's face warped in greed. "Spirit Essence, all the Spirit Essence in your Spirit Reservoir!"

"You're a little greedy, aren't you? You're sure you want my spirit essence?" Jonathan Chu's simmering anger was reflected in his words.

Su Ping retrieved the spear he had picked up from one of his teammates' carcasses, then pointed it at Jonathan Chu. "Are you threatening me?"

"Consider it a warning. Most of my spirit essence is from my cousin. How do you think he'll react when he finds that you've got them all?"

"Jonathan, you mean? I'd like to spar with him if I get the chance. That reminds me, didn't you claim you were going to give me a beating?"

Su Ping's face was calm, but Jonathan Chu could see the pale blue energy emanating from his body, as well as the spear pointed directly at his chest, its tip glinting.

And even though he knew he had to remain calm, Jonathan Chu shuddered. "No, wait! I'll give you my spirit essence, all of them!"