The demons had long noticed this group of unlucky souls whose spawn point happened to be right in their outpost.
The reason they hadn't swarmed forward to kill them yet was simply because there were too many demons and not enough targets to go around.
If a fight broke out over the kills, it might lead to internal strife.
So, they had been discussing how to distribute the prey since the beginning.
Since many present were professional enforcers who didn't want to breakthrough yet, they proposed that those who wanted the kill rights should pay a kickback to the others.
Of course, some argued that it should be first come, first served—these were generally the ones in a hurry to breakthrough. After all, human adventurers usually traveled in teams of seven; if they encountered them alone outside, they'd usually just get thrashed.
The two groups were arguing because of their differing opinions.
Once the barrier vanished, they saw that one of the seven was already heavily injured. The others surrounded the wounded person, looking at the demons with expressions of suicidal resolve.
Fearing that these humans might force a one-for-one trade, no one stepped forward for the moment.
"Thanks for the kind intentions."
At that moment, Jiang Lin stood up and patted the head of Aili, who was on the verge of tears.
Blood continued to flow from the unhealed wounds on his body, droplets trailing down his arms and trouser legs onto the ground.
Jiang Lin ripped off his clothes, which had been reduced to rags, revealing a body of solid, powerful muscles—though those muscles were now covered in scars.
He stepped out alone, leaving the six teammates with the sight of his tall back.
"But if the opponents are these guys, then I alone am enough."
The next moment, a terrifying aura beyond description erupted from Jiang Lin.
He had just finished a fight with the Shadow of Blood and felt incredibly stifled and frustrated. Now that he had encountered such a group of 'blood bags' delivering themselves to his door, he naturally wouldn't hold back.
Given the urgency of the situation, Jiang Lin stopped hiding things from his teammates. He activated the effects of the title 【Crimson Slaughterer】, and simultaneously, the patterns of the Demon Lord Seed began to surface over his heart.
A surging blood qi erupted from him, tinting his originally black eyes and hair with a hint of blood-red.
Anyone who looked directly at him felt a shock in their hearts, as if they were seeing an endless sea of corpses and blood behind him.
A seven-colored longsword wrapped in blood qi condensed in Jiang Lin's hand. He stepped toward the surrounding demons one slow pace at a time, each footfall seeming to stomp directly on their hearts.
The demons felt as though they were seeing a devil carrying a blood-stained longsword, walking toward them over the severed heads of those he had slain.
However, after only two steps, Jiang Lin stopped.
He placed the hand wearing the spatial ring on his waist. Then, a brand-new pair of pants was taken out and put on immediately.
The reason was simple: during the battle with the Shadow of Blood, his clothes had been torn into shreds by the aftershocks.
It was fine when he wasn't moving, but once he started walking, it felt a bit breezy, and it looked rather indecent.
He wasn't some pervert like a certain Frederick who had a habit of fighting while exposed.
"Stop acting! Everyone, charge! Surround and kill them!!"
A burly demon man roared in the demonic tongue, calling for his companions to attack together.
However, after his shout, no one moved, including himself.
Everyone present was frozen in place like wooden statues.
The reason was simple: the pressure emanating from Jiang Lin was too strong—so strong they didn't dare make a reckless move.
In fact, not just them, even Jiang Lin's six teammates were currently paralyzed by the fear of his deterrence, remaining in their initial positions, not daring to budge.
"What kind of gibberish are you chirping?"
Jiang Lin frowned. Then, a seven-colored sword qi carrying a blood-light flew toward the burly man.
The sword qi carried an incredibly terrifying momentum. Although the burly demon immediately used defensive measures, they were torn apart instantly.
In the next moment, his body was split in two by Jiang Lin's blood-light sword qi.
Furthermore, the violent energy ground the remaining flesh into powder.
As Jiang Lin made his first kill, a buzzing sound echoed in his ears, and he entered that state of absolute focus.
battle flow!
Strands of blood qi drifted from Jiang Lin. He reached out and made a grasping motion, intending to pull the blood qi from the corpse directly.
However, Jiang Lin found that he couldn't quite pull it.
In his perception, the opponent's blood qi was disappearing at an alarming speed, seemingly being teleported out of this world.
'Is this... the reason why one can be resurrected after being killed in the God-blessed Land?' Jiang Lin thought.
From the looks of it, the opponent truly experienced physical death once.
'It must hurt quite a bit, right?'
'But pain is good; it helps build muscle...'
Refusing to give up, Jiang Lin beckoned toward the dissipating blood qi again, but he still didn't succeed.
Right then, the holy light mark left by the statue inside him began to glow.
Seeing this, Jiang Lin was slightly startled.
'Don't tell me the monitoring of the God-blessed Land has intensified, and the righteous god detected me using evil methods and wants to punish me?'
However, while Jiang Lin was overthinking, the holy light acted.
It wasn't punishing him but helping him seize the blood qi that was being teleported and reconstructed.
Jiang Lin's eyes widened.
'There's such a good deal?'
He noticed that the blood qi that was supposed to be teleported away was easily snatched back with a light squeeze.
The physical reconstruction stopped. After a moment's pause, Jiang Lin felt an identical surge of blood qi appear on the spot and begin teleporting again, but he could no longer use that particular surge.
The blood qi was inhaled, and it began to heal Jiang Lin's wounds.
He took out another MP potion and started drinking it casually.
At the same time, the surrounding demons seemed to have finally reached a consensus and charged at Jiang Lin.
However, Jiang Lin's current state was countless times better than before.
With the addition of battle flow, everything around him seemed to slow down. His perception became exceptionally sensitive. A feathered wing shot toward him from behind; even without using the 【Chronowalker's Evil Eye】 to see the vision of himself being hit, he dodged it purely through his keen perception.
Jiang Lin was a bit surprised. Because previous conditions hadn't allowed him to fight in the battle flow state, he hadn't known his perception could be this sharp.
Seeing that many attacks were aimed at the other six, Jiang Lin no longer held back and began his violent assault.
Streaks of seven-colored sword qi carrying blood qi flew in all directions. These sword moves, which fused seven high-tier skills, could only be described as unstoppable against the attacks or defenses of these demons.
If it was a long-range skill, the sword qi cut right through it. The violent energy contained within was worlds apart from those rank-0 skills; there was no possibility of resistance.
As for the demons trying to rush in and ambush Jiang Lin, they were simply cut in two. Their bodies exploded horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. In an instant, this small demon outpost turned into a scene resembling a slaughterhouse.
Almost simultaneously, the seven people present each received a notification that the quest was completed.
【The team has defeated 7 members of a foreign race. Basic requirements met. You will complete your life level breakthrough after exiting.】
However, they no longer had the heart to care about such things, because the scene unfolding before them had completely overturned their previous understanding.
He had actually slaughtered nearly 40 demons almost single-handedly in an instant?!!
Among these demons were many experts who had been lingering at rank-0 for years.
And he had done it while heavily injured.
'Is he... really a rank-0 adventurer?'
In just a few blinks of an eye, the demons surrounding the group were wiped out by Jiang Lin.
Due to the massive amount of blood qi, Jiang Lin's injuries recovered quickly.
Simultaneously, the blood-light on his body became even denser.
Jiang Lin scanned the area again and found a few stragglers who were now scared witless by what they had just seen.
'Is this youth... really human?!'
'Isn't he some overlord-tier humanoid beast?!'
The next moment, the sword qi that made their hearts skip a beat flew toward them.
"Boom!"
They felt an exaggeratedly violent energy tear through their bodies. Their vision went dark, and they lost consciousness.
In their final moments, the only thought left in their minds was that it was lucky this was the God-blessed Land; otherwise, they would have truly died out there.
Meanwhile, Jiang Lin received a system notification.
【Obtained Random Skill Upgrade 51】
Quite a decent harvest!
From the daily quests and various minor challenges over the past two months, Jiang Lin had collected about 70 random skill upgrades.
He had spent 16 of these points to upgrade 【High-level Strengthening】 to its limit-broken state, 5 on 【Five Elements Shield】, 7 on the Seven Star sword techniques, and 7 on the seven-element longsword. Then he had learned some other practical minor spells, like the mid and high-tier 【Fireball】, mid-tier 【Healing】, and some spells to clear buffs or debuffs.
Including the previous ones, he had about thirty-something random skill upgrades left.
So, Jiang Lin had gone all-in on two Seven Star sword techniques. By the time he entered the Blood Realm, he had two upgrade points remaining.
Thus, his current inventory was:
【Random Skill Upgrade 53】
Jiang Lin saw that the most obvious threats had been cleared, so he tilted his head back and gulped down the MP potions.
It was only then that Jiang Lin's six teammates snapped out of it. The seemingly certain death situation had undergone such a massive reversal, and it had happened so quickly.
The most shocked among them was, naturally, Aili.
After all, in her memory, although Jiang Lin was a genius, he was definitely within the realm of normalcy. Even his first-place finish in the mid-term exam had been achieved through his rather degenerate use of skills and clever tricks.
And now, after not seeing him for only two months, Jiang Lin had undergone such a massive change?!!
One against fifty, and it was a total crush!
Even if a 2nd-rank adventurer came, they definitely couldn't do this, right?
What exactly had happened to him over these two months?
Is Saint Brilliance Magic Academy really that incredible? Can it bring such a massive improvement to a person?
At that moment, Jiang Lin, who had been standing still, started moving again.
He charged toward the other corners of the outpost. No longer using sword qi, he slashed down with the blood sword in his hand, one demon body after another falling.
Ultimately, Jiang Lin completely cleared out the outpost.
【Random Skill Upgrade 71】
This was almost every demon in the outpost.
Some demons had noticed the commotion and started fleeing early on, and Jiang Lin didn't bother to chase them.
Since everyone could only stay here for seven days, the personnel in this outpost were basically in constant flux. A steady stream of demons needing breakthroughs entered, which barely maintained the outpost's numbers and kept it going.
Now that all these demons were eliminated, the outpost was basically crippled.
Rebuilding it would likely take a considerable amount of time.
After dealing with all potential hidden threats, Jiang Lin ran back to the six people and said:
"Thanks for your kind intentions, but things are a bit urgent for me outside, so I have to go first."
Only then did the group remember that this youth had appeared before them covered in blood and on the verge of death.
Just what kind of opponent could injure this ferocious youth to such an extent?
Aili was about to say something, but Jiang Lin spoke first.
"Good luck. I'll wait for you at the middle academy."
Jiang Lin didn't mention the name of Saint Brilliance Magic Academy.
Aili understood his meaning and nodded. "I'll work hard. Will you be okay after you leave? Do you want to wait a bit for the danger to pass before going out? Do you need any magic scrolls or potions? I saw you using rank-2 potions; is your body really okay?"
Jiang Lin shook his head. "No need. I know what I'm doing. No more talk, I'm off."
Then, Jiang Lin activated the holy light mark in his body and began his teleportation.
At the same time, he felt a certain shackle that had always bound him finally loosen.
The shackles of his life level were broken. Jiang Lin felt as though the power he had been accumulating finally erupted at this moment.
The limits of his physical body and spirit were broken. All his basic attributes were steadily growing: reaction speed, dynamic vision, magic essence quality, and a whole series of other attributes.
And as the holy light mark shone inside him, Jiang Lin felt an independent space being carved out within his body. This was the space for a paladin to summon a mount.
If the current Jiang Lin were to go back and fight his former self, while it might not be a total crushing victory, it certainly wouldn't be too difficult to win.
Meanwhile, Jiang Lin noticed that the original holy light mark actually dissolved within him, merging into his body.
'Is this the binding placed by a god?'
Right then, Jiang Lin suddenly received a message.
【Due to your outstanding performance in the God-blessed Land, the god has bestowed a special title reward upon you.】
【Title】: Holy Arbiter
【Rank】: epic
【Introduction】: You are the light, the justice, and the sharpest blade facing evil. Practice your beliefs, stand firm in your path, and use the sword in your hand to slay all evil in the heavens!
【Effect】: After equipping, you can choose to disguise any ability as a holy light effect.
Rate on N.U.
