Chapter 364

Chapter 364: Rot’s Memories

It was well-known that when practitioners leveled up, their Vitality would experience a minor burst, causing temporary physical transformations.

Promotions from level 59 to 60 brought even more pronounced changes to a practitioner’s body.

During the earlier battle against the giant octopus’s psychic energy pressure and intense counterattacks, Midi’s Spirit Dragon Sword had approached completion.

The demon viscount’s relentless assaults further solidified Midi’s power, pushing him to the absolute limit of level 59.

Battle remained the ultimate catalyst for growth, and consecutive confrontations with powerful foes created prime opportunities.

At this stage, Midi could instantly advance to level 60 through sheer willpower alone, encountering no bottlenecks.

This upgrade combined with his diluted Dragon’s Blood bloodline’s recovery capabilities essentially granted him an instant healing skill.

The breaking of Midi’s spine by the demon viscount’s hand strike had been premeditated.

Passively awaiting crippling injuries would’ve been disastrous, but deliberately revealing a flaw changed everything.

Though severed, Midi’s spine sustained no crushing damage – merely a surgical cut from the demon’s strike.

Paralyzed yet bearing only one clean wound, this injury could be rapidly treated with focused care.

The Vitality surge during leveling might not heal complex wounds, but mending such precise damage became child’s play.

Thus unfolded Midi’s scheme –

Feigning total paralysis lulled the demon viscount into lowering his guard, even drawing him close.

Once within striking distance, Midi secretly initiated his upgrade process while suppressing energy fluctuations.

When the demon viscount attempted memory extraction, Midi let Rot activate mind-related abilities through their eye contact, freezing their foe momentarily.

At point-blank distance against an unprepared, restrained target, no creature could dodge the dagger Golden Forgiveness’s lethal strike.

Amid battlefield chaos, Midi executed flawless Psychological Warfare.

He outmaneuvered a notoriously cunning demon, securing victory against overwhelming odds.

The cost proved severe.

A severed spine and paralysis tormented anyone enduring such trauma.

One miscalculation could’ve meant permanent disability – or worse, dooming Fina and Alice alongside him.

Only Midi the reincarnator understood the true weight of this all-or-nothing gamble.

Yet through meticulous planning, he overcame the mighty demon viscount.

Three lives preserved.

Their survival hinged on tacit cooperation, Midi’s strategic brilliance, and the mysterious dagger Golden Forgiveness’s decisive role.

Without this weapon, two seconds of paralysis would’ve yielded nothing.

Now the battlefield lay silent.

The dagger that felled both giant octopus and demon viscount rested in ashes, its golden edge gleaming under cold starlight.

Then, a faint shadow slowly appeared beside the dagger.

At first it was just a blurry outline, but gradually grew clearer until it became a solid image.

The thin figure wore an expensive robe and had the distinct octopus-headed appearance of a Heart-Seizing Demon, with ten tentacles sprouting from its head.

This was the Eighth Apostle, Rot.

“It’s finally over,” Rot said in an ancient voice, nodding at Midi. “Trapped nearly a century in this waterless Star Ocean, almost turned into a Soul Diamond… Now I’m free.”

A deep blue light flashed. Midi suddenly felt his mind clear, like drinking cool spring water.

Memories from Rot poured into the minds of Midi, Fina, and Alice.

The vision showed events from a century past.

In the Demon Realm’s ocean, Rot – ruler of the seas – had fallen into deep sleep after a great battle to heal his wounds.

But the battle had been fake, meant to weaken him.

While Rot slept, the Second Apostle “Tearful” Helder found him. Unable to kill Rot directly, Helder used giant Teleportation Arrays to send Rot onto the Behemoth in the Sea of Clouds.

This “sea” world had almost no water. Here, Rot lost most of his ocean-based power. His old injuries made things worse.

Helder also placed refining formations on the Behemoth to slowly destroy Rot’s body and soul.

Dehydrated and tortured by the formations, Rot began losing his mind like a thirsty man drinking seawater. His beastly nature took over.

Using raw psychic power, Rot’s wild side – the giant octopus – enslaved the Blue Truth Sect living on the Behemoth. Under overwhelming psychic energy pressure, sect members abandoned their god Lailis to worship the octopus instead.

The octopus built a Mind Crystal Pool, creating armies of Heart-Seizing Demons. It brutally changed the sect, causing internal conflicts.

The elite Blood Purification forces, led by Marcel, split from the main sect during this chaos. But without psychic defenses, they couldn’t fight the demons.

Rot didn’t want his beastly side to win. If this continued, the formations would erase his soul – leaving only a Soul Diamond and a mindless beast for Helder.

The proud Eighth Apostle chose to destroy his own body to free his soul from the formations.

Since he couldn’t do it himself, Rot’s consciousness left his body. Using mind-related abilities, he created a Mind Maze in the Star Ocean and lured Blood Purification members there.

Some became Thought Capturers who fought the demons. The maze’s floating island became their base – Blood Hell Island.

For fifty years, Rot’s mind and body played a chess game across the Star Ocean, using Blood Purification and the sect as pieces.

But the formations kept weakening Rot. Helder’s demon viscount spy made things harder. In recent years, Rot could barely resist.

Without outsider help, Rot’s soul would’ve become a Soul Diamond soon. But then Midi arrived – seven years earlier than normal adventurers.

The reincarnator broke through the Stormy Region, disrupted the balance, conquered the Mind Maze, and gained part of Rot’s heritage – the Inheritance of the Sea Emperor.

Rot used all his stored psychic energy to guide Midi, helping him defeat every enemy.

Now, with Rot’s body destroyed and the demon viscount dead, the century-old chains finally broke. Rot was free.