Death... and me
chapter-817

*Arrrgh!*

A Zasfin was hit by Xaon's poison before he fell from the skies like a meteor.

*Boom!*

The guy tried to get up, but Xaon didn't let the opportunity pass up, striking with a sure-kill attack.

'Myriad Snakes Poison!'

Before any of the Zasfins around could move to help, Xaon's attack had arrived head-on. Of course, Xaon's opponent was still a Zasfin with a Rank Ten Soul Mark. Sensing the poison spreading through his body, the fear of death assaulted that Transition Realm Zasfin. Without even thinking twice, he activated the Soul Mark Immolation Art. It immediately began to burn his Soul Power in a way that it would never come back again.

He was the first Zasfin to activate that technique after many days of battle. Once his Soul Power was completely burnt out, he wouldn't be a threat to any of the demon beasts anymore. However, Xaon knew very well that this Zasfin would be at his strongest during the next few moments. 'Time to head out.'

Xaon also didn't waste time as he darted into the distance. He was a Divine Demon Beast, so he was confident that he could still distract that Zasfin long enough until the technique lost its effect. However, Xaon had no reason to do that since the Zasfin would self-destruct anyway. As long as he fleed, that Zasfin would be done for. 'First of all, with my poisons running inside your body, let's see if you'll waste your time pursuing me.'

Xaon was right. The Zasfin looked in the direction where the Basilisk escaped with a furious expression. However, the pain inflicted by the Basilisk's poisons was more than a loud enough sign for his incoming death. The Zasfin had to get rid of it first, so he used the increase in his strength to dart into the distance as well. 'I need to cure these poisons quickly!'

Phex, who was in a heated battle against Fikin, laughed out loud as he saw that. "Hahaha! Now, would you look at that? Quite a few of us had retreated before, but that was only because our injuries were somewhat more serious. However, I don't think that guy will come back anymore. What do you think, Fikin?"

"Hmph!" Fikin didn't seem that affected, though. "We have plenty of Transition Realm Zasfins here, so a single one of them won't make too much of a difference."

*Bang!*

*Roar!*

It was then that another change in the battlefield happened as a Stage Nine Demon Beast was gravely injured. It, too, fell on the ground as the Zasfin it was fighting against made its way towards it.

Fikin couldn't help but show a scorned expression at Phex as he told him, "And...you were saying?"

Phex's mouth twitched in response as he felt like giving that demon beast a beating. 'Couldn't you have held on a little bit longer?'

The Zasfins had their Soul Power to sacrifice in exchange for strength. As for the demon beasts, they had their bloodlines. However, unlike the Divine Demon Beasts, the increase in strength wasn't that big, let alone compared to the Zasfins' Soul Mark Immolation Art. That being said, although the gain in strength was a lot weaker, they had their advantages. Simply put, they could recover their blood in the future even though it would take a long time. The Zasfins, obviously, sacrificed their Soul Power forever.

Just like Xaon, the Zasfin also gave up fighting the demon beast for the moment. Even if that demon beast returned in the future, that would take a lot of time, and this war would be over by them. It was better to do that than forcing the demon beast into its wits' end. Once that happens, the demon beast might throw caution to the wind and attempting to bring both of them down together.

However, little did Fikin know, but Phex wasn't really worried about that demon beast. 'Hehe! Compared to the amount of blood Darian used in the Underwater Demon City, what Yue did was a joke.' Naturally, that was the name of the demon beast that fled. 'Rean should be able to heal him and recover his blood in a few hours at most.'

Indeed, after the first Zasfin fled with his Soul Mark Immolation Art, the delicate balance had already teetered to one side, putting the demon beasts at an advantage.

The same thing happened throughout the day, with six Transition Realm Zasfins having to activate the Soul Mark Immolation Art. As for the demon beasts, five of them were forced to use their bloodline powers. It's just that neither the Zasfins nor the demon beasts were able to kill anyone... for now.

Roan concluded that the war between the low-level demon beasts and Zasfins would not bear any fruit for the next few days at least. That being said, he left someone else to command it since the war would now be determined by the top experts.

As for Roan himself, he might not be as good as Rean at healing others, but he could definitely do it...and so he did. Rean and Roan then passed the night healing the demon beasts, connecting limbs, eliminating poisons, using Dark Element to get rid of foreign energy, and so on.

Only when the next day arrived did Fikin and the others finally notice the problem. All the demon beasts that were supposed to be out of commission came back to fight again. That wasn't the main problem, though. 'How's that possible?! Their strength should have dropped a lot after sacrificing their bloodline for power. How come their cultivations seem to be intact?! This isn't something you can do without a huge amount of resources and pills, let alone with so many demon beasts.'

Unfortunately for them, they couldn't retreat either. The only good thing was that the Zasfins still had a slight advantage in numbers. After all, even the Zasfins that used the Soul Mark Immolation Art returned as well. They used their best pills to return to fighting conditions, but they were definitely much weaker than before. A Zasfin's combat power was highly reliant on Soul Power, which those seven didn't have anymore.

It didn't take long before the first death between those old monsters appeared.

'Silver Flash!'

Frin's body moved at unbelievable speed as he took one of the Zasfins by surprise. His jaws then ripped the Zasfin's body in half before Frin swallowed the guy's dantian whole!

"Good nourishment!"