By the time Zi Yao's tailbone crashed into the rubble of her underground city, her blood had already formed a puddle underneath her. Her mouth stayed open, and her eyes trembled still, as if refusing to accept that after giving it all she had and braving all of the East's taboos, she still fell to a single blow.
Typically, thanks to her third-order Blood Energy and many body modifications, Zi Yao's wound should have healed by now. It didn't. Worse, unlike the Blood Shards before, the wound inflicted by the Diabolic Shard oozed with eerie forces that spread unspeakable energies throughout Zi Yao's body.
"Just 100 years...no, even less. If the Evil Blood Tree was complete I...would have never lost!" Fighting through her wound, Zi Yao made a bold claim. Her abominations, all controlled by her mutant core, entered a stasis—paralyzed due to the lingering diabolic energies that infested the core.
