Chapter 2235: Blood Toad

At this moment, gazing at the heavily overcast sky, a strange thought suddenly struck him:

When the battle began, the sky was clear and boundless. When did it become shrouded by such thick clouds?

These clouds churned incessantly, like an overturned ocean, as if some monster was trapped within.

Before he could finish his thought, more than ten bolts of lightning suddenly erupted from the clouds, striking the distant mountains with loud crashes. The sight of those long chains of electricity sent shivers down one's spine.

Not only did trees catch fire, but a boulder measuring twenty feet in diameter was also cleaved by the lightning, rolling thunderously down into the deep valley.

Both armies were startled.

Wu Yitian, a general under Hu Min, was leading his troops over a low hill when he heard the sound and turned to look. To his astonishment, a cloud of red mist suddenly appeared behind him!

In an instant, the red mist transformed into a monster.

It resembled both a human and a toad, or more accurately, an upright toad. Its hind legs were long, while its front limbs were short. It had a massive head and an enormous mouth that stretched to its ears when it grinned, and its body was covered in numerous red pustules.

Unlike a toad, however, its claws were longer and sharper than a sloth's, yet remarkably agile.

Seeing this, Wu Yitian's personal guards behind him shouted "Look out!" and lunged forward simultaneously.

But it was too late. The creature bared its teeth, and a red blur shot out, piercing through the back of Wu Yitian's head.

Immediately afterward, it opened its vast maw and swallowed Wu Yitian whole!

Everyone was stunned.

This was the first time anyone had witnessed a deity consuming a human on the battlefield.

Furthermore, its appearance was completely different from its original form.

In all the divine descents He Lingchuan had seen before, regardless of which deity was in control, the host body's appearance remained essentially unchanged; only the consciousness within was replaced.

This creature, however, had drastically altered its host body, indicating a significant increase in its combat abilities.

More than a dozen arrows flew toward its back, but the red toad dissolved back into red mist.

As the arrows passed through the red mist, it vanished completely.

After more than ten breaths, Hu Min's heart suddenly pounded wildly—a warning sign!

He was a battle-hardened warrior with an almost instinctive sense of danger. The sudden contraction in his heart felt as if a needle had been jabbed into it.

He happened to be standing next to a fine steed and, without hesitation, lunged sideways, using the horse to shield himself.

Immediately, a sharp pain shot through his left arm, and he heard the horse's pained whinny.

Two red tendrils had pierced through the horse's hindquarters and, with lingering momentum, then stabbed into his arm.

If not for his incredibly swift reaction, those red tendrils would have pierced his heart.

Looking closer, he realized they weren't red tendrils at all, but clearly the monster's tongue!

Moreover, after piercing its prey, the tongue immediately bifurcated and spread out, securing the victim in place.

Despite the monster's relatively small size, when it retracted its tongue, it pulled both the man and the horse back, clearly intending to swallow them both in one gulp.

However, a large horse combined with a human proved to be quite heavy, making its tongue retraction slower than usual.

A blade flew in from out of nowhere, slicing through the red tongue with a "whoosh."

The red tongue, as tough as a steel cable, was severed, saving Hu Min. The long blade then flew another ten feet before sticking into the ground, its hilt sculpted into a beautiful dragon's head.

Fusheng.

In that critical moment, He Lingchuan had intervened just in time.

The Fusheng Blade now possessed the ability to conceal itself, vanishing into thin air immediately after being thrown, only reappearing directly in front of the enemy. This greatly reduced the chance of interception and made it less susceptible to interference during flight.

With another wave of his hand, the Fusheng Blade returned to its master's side.

The red toad's gaze followed the treasured blade, locking firmly onto He Lingchuan.

He beckoned to the creature, "Come on."

"Let's see who kills whom."

Strictly speaking, the monster's ability was identical to the Fusheng Blade's concealment: it would appear only in the blind spot behind an enemy. And He Lingchuan feared this type of opponent the least.

The monster grinned at him, revealing blood-stained, steel-like teeth.

As it paused, Xu Shichu immediately remarked, "It seems a bit stronger."

Before the blood toad's first attack, its skin was sunken, making it look like a wind-dried duck. But now, after ambushing Hu Min, it had gained some muscle and was no longer skeletal.

He Lingchuan's eyes flickered. "It can strengthen itself by eating people."

The blood toad glanced at He Lingchuan again, then vanished from its spot once more.

The personal guards around General Huyi gripped their weapons tightly, ready to strike the moment it reappeared.

However, it didn't come towards them.

Where did it go? Everyone's gaze swept across the battlefield. The open ground by the lake was neither very large nor very small, teeming with people everywhere. The terrain was undulating, with countless cover points, making finding a monster here akin to searching for a needle in a haystack.

A nearby Da Feng guard suddenly shouted, "There!"

Following his direction, they saw the red toad on a small hill two hundred *zhang* away, biting Du Lingshan, a young general of the Panlong army. Du Lingshan had just turned twenty-three yesterday, having distinguished himself in the previous battle of Yuheng City. He was later promoted by He Lingchuan and was currently leading troops to intercept Beijia's forces at the foot of the mountain.

Two personal guards behind him desperately tried to rescue him, but both were eaten.

But Du Lingshan endured the pain and retaliated with two swift slashes, striking the monster's shoulder and severing one of its arms!

The monster's skin, enhanced by divine power, was incredibly tough; even treasure blades that could cut metal and jade couldn't pierce it. Du Lingshan's successful strike, besides his own exquisite cultivation and martial skills, was mainly due to his potent red Yuan force!

The Yuan force of the Panlong army's generals was so strong that even a divine descent body couldn't withstand it head-on. Furthermore, their reaction speed actually exceeded the demon god's expectations.

The blood toad roared in fury and dispersed into red mist.

Before the Panlong army's current expedition to the Xiluo region, Beijia and Panlong City had not been at war for several years. Although Beijia had never stopped monitoring Panlong City, much intelligence could only be truly understood through direct engagement, such as the growth and changes in Panlong City's Yuan force.

The blood toad suffered from outdated intelligence; a dignified demon god was actually wounded by a human.

However, this exchange also showed that individual soldiers of the Panlong army were still hard-pressed to contend with a demon god. Aside from the demon god's inherent strength and agility, its divine arts were diverse and unpredictable, and an opponent could easily fall victim if they weren't careful.

At this moment, Hu Min also rushed over, holding the half-severed long tongue cut off by the Fusheng Blade. General Hong, who was pursuing the Jindu ghost spawn, looked back and shouted across the distance to Xu Shichu, "It's just an illusion! Track its whereabouts."

The blood toad's long tongue was like an oversized earthworm, soft, slimy, and wriggling in his hand. Xu Shichu, however, showed no disgust. He grabbed it, scraped off a flesh sample with the blunt end of a silver needle, and then applied fire to it.

The flame was an eerie pale blue, its heat imperceptible to the human hand, yet the entire silver needle glowed a searing iron-red.

Seizing this opportunity, Hu Min's personal guards quickly attended to his injury.

Hu Min was fortunate; the blood toad's attack hadn't broken his bones, and the wound was small. He sealed the acupuncture points to stop the bleeding himself, swallowed two pills, and his guards applied a gel-like ointment. A tingling itch spread through the wound.