Cen Yao focused on channeling the magic power inside her.
The power, which had been resting quietly deep within her body, now seemed to be stimulated by something, beginning to flow into her limbs bit by bit.
From her chest, to her shoulders, down her arms, and finally pooling at her fingertips, she recalled the sensation of casting spells with her wand.
That exhilarating feeling of absolute freedom, where magic moved in perfect harmony with her thoughts.
This time, she no longer relied on the wand. Instead, she placed her faith in herself, believing that she could command the magic power on her own.
Closing her eyes, Cen Yao repeated the command to herself over and over in her mind.
Come out. Obey me. I can do this. I will do this.
The fish-headed man lunged at her, opening its maw full of razor-sharp teeth.
At the same time, several tentacles of the tentacle monster whipped down toward her.
A rancid wind blasted against her face.
Sensing the danger, Xie Zhouxing struggled to push himself up from the floor, but his severe injuries held him back.
“Cen Yao, get out of the way!”
For the first time, a clear note of urgency cracked his voice.
In the next instant, a faint cracking sound echoed in Cen Yao's ears.
Crack.
It was as if some invisible barrier had been completely shattered.
Immediately after, the magic power pooled within her surged outward, bursting forth like a torrent out of control.
A dazzling white light exploded outward, centering on her.
Boom!
The entire dim, rancid corridor was instantly illuminated as bright as day.
Though the white light was not blinding, it carried an incredibly pure, vast power.
The fish-headed man and the tentacle monster had just closed in when they slammed headfirst into the barrier of white light.
“Roar!”
“Screeech!”
The two monsters let out agonizing shrieks.
Under the white light, the fish-headed man's black claws rapidly charred. Large sheets of fish scales peeled off, exposing the festering flesh beneath.
The tooth-lined appendages of the tentacle monster curled and twisted wildly as if scorched by raging flames, its purple nodules bursting one after another.
They were forcefully blasted backward by the white light.
Thud!
Thud!
Both monsters slammed heavily against the walls on either side of the corridor.
Supporting herself against the wall, Cen Yao slowly stood up. The wound on her waist burned with heat.
But the searing pain did not last long.
Guided by her will, warm motes of white light swirled around her. The torn flesh at her waist began to slowly squirm and knit back together.
The bleeding stopped, and new skin grew, eventually forming a thin scab.
The scab quickly peeled away, revealing fresh, fair, and tender skin underneath.
She could feel that the magic power within her had changed.
What was once a trickling stream of power had suddenly turned into a raging river breaking through a dam, surging through her limbs and bones.
Turbulent and overwhelming.
It filled her with an unprecedented sense of strength.
Cen Yao slowly raised her head. Her eyes, which had been filled with pain and fear moments ago, gradually grew calm and steady.
She looked at the two monsters that had been blasted away by the white light. Half of the fish-headed man's body was scorched black.
The tentacle monster was huddled against the wall, its tentacles squirming weakly. It was clearly severely injured as well.
Yet they were not dead. They continued to glare at Cen Yao.
The hunger in their eyes was suppressed for a moment by pain and wariness, but it quickly welled up once more.
Cen Yao exhaled softly, the remnants of the white light still dancing on her fingertips.
“You two seemed to have a lot of fun hitting me earlier.”
The fish-headed man growled low, and the tentacle monster's teeth began to clack. They seemed to hesitate for a fraction of a second.
But soon, hunger overcame fear.
The two monsters lunged at Cen Yao once again.
Lying on the floor, Xie Zhouxing's expression changed slightly as he heard them approaching again.
“Cen Yao, watch out!”
Cen Yao slowly raised her right hand.
The magic power flowed through her arm, palm, and fingertips with unprecedented clarity. She did not even need to chant an incantation.
A single thought surfaced in her mind: Slice them apart.
In the next instant, several invisible blades of light sliced through the air.
Hum—
The air was suddenly sliced open by something incredibly sharp.
The fluorescent lights in the corridor flickered in unison.
The fish-headed man and the tentacle monster froze mid-lunge, looking as if they had been nailed to the spot.
Although Xie Zhouxing could not see, he could hear.
It was an extremely light, faint sound of rushing wind, like silk threads cutting through the air, or like something silently slicing space itself into countless fragments.
A moment later.
Splurt—
The fish-headed man's head split down the middle first.
Then followed its shoulders, arms, torso, and the fish tails haphazardly stitched onto its legs.
Dark green blood sprayed violently.
The tentacle monster followed immediately after.
Its tangled mass of flesh and tentacles was diced into several segments by the invisible blades.
Dark purple blood, mixed with burst purple nodules, splattered wildly in all directions.
The moment Cen Yao unleashed the attack, she had instinctively conjured a thin isolation barrier around herself.
The dark green and dark purple liquids splashed against the transparent barrier, making a sizzling, corrosive sound.
Xie Zhouxing was not so fortunate.
Lying not far behind Cen Yao, he could clearly hear the sound of the monsters' bodies being sliced apart.
However, he was completely blind to the blood and flesh spraying toward him.
Consequently, he only heard a series of eerie, squelching thuds.
Splat.
Squish.
Plop.
Immediately after, a stench several times more intense than before completely enveloped him.
Dark green and dark purple blood dripped down from the top of his head, over his shoulders, and down the sides of his face.
To make matters worse, a small chunk of something—whether it was a fish gill or a tentacle nodule—landed with perfect accuracy right on his golden curls.
Xie Zhouxing: “Blegh!”
Cen Yao: “...”
The corridor fell into an eerie silence.
Cen Yao looked at Xie Zhouxing, whose head and face were covered in monster blood and whose body was draped in unidentifiable chunks of flesh, and desperately pursed her lips.
But after holding it in for two seconds, she ultimately failed to restrain herself.
“Pfft!”
Her laughter echoed clearly in the empty corridor.
Xie Zhouxing: “...”
He lay motionless on the floor.
He didn't dare to speak.
Because he had heard every single sound of the monsters' flesh being sliced and the chunks of corpses dropping to the floor with crystal clarity.
So she really is the Witch Cen Yao.
He could even roughly estimate just how much debris was currently hanging off his body.
Xie Zhouxing's face darkened bit by bit.
After a long silence, he raised his hand and felt the slimy thing stuck in his hair.
His fingertips stiffened slightly.
“...”
His voice was very calm—scarily so.
“Does this young master... have something on him?”
Cen Yao: “Ummm...”
She looked at the purple nodule still wriggling slightly on his golden hair, and finally nodded with great difficulty.
“A little.”
Xie Zhouxing fell silent.
“How much?”
Cen Yao took a look.
“...Not much.”
Xie Zhouxing: “?”
Cen Yao added earnestly.
“Really, just a little... from head to toe.”
Xie Zhouxing completely broke down: “............”
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