The waves roared as they surged along the blood river. Darren and the others realized they'd be whisked away if they tried to cross it directly, and they were forced to flee downstream instead.
"Get them!"
The group of warriors chasing them divided into three groups. Each group held a Blood Suppressing Bead, and rushed towards them into the blood river.
"Darren, they're running at us with great speed. I'm worried we won't be able to escape," said Chaz, nervously.
"Don't worry. We're going to be fine," Darren replied confidently.
"Assimilate!" Keeping his pace up, Darren activated his assimilating skill.
All of a sudden, several booming noises came from the direction of the river.
A huge ray of blinding light came shining from the blood river.
Darren was delighted to witness what was left of the holy emperor's power.
Suddenly, piercing howls began to emerge from the river, one after the other.
Terrifying blood red figures began to rush out like a swarm of bees.
"What in the world? Why are there still living creatures in the blood river?"
Darren was shocked. As the mysterious creatures emerged, what was left of the holy emperor's power in the blood river no longer gathered towards him. The creatures were absorbing it.
As they gorged on the holy emperor's power, their aura became stronger and their bloodlust heightened.
"What's going on?" Darren ceased. It seemed he'd just be helping the strange creatures if he continued to gather the holy emperor's power. The creatures would all assimilate it just by their strength in numbers, leaving Darren with none of it.
On the bright side, the group of warriors that were chasing them were now surrounded by the mysterious creatures. None of them seemed to be near Darren and his friends.
"There are too many of these powerful creatures. What should we do?"
The group of warriors were extremely surprised. These blood red creatures had fangs and were similar to fish. They all had the strength comparable to the peak of four-tribulation junior holy warriors. The number of them was probably hundreds of thousands or even more!
With so many mysterious creatures, how could they contend against them?
Luckily Darren had stopped his assimilating power. Otherwise, if these creatures could absorb more holy emperor's power, they would be as powerful as five-tribulation junior holy warriors!
The sound of quick scampering rang through.
The army of mysterious creatures swarmed towards the crowd.
As the creatures passed through the crowd, it seemed li
ng eight drops, why can't I increase it?'
Darren had actually gathered enough holy emperor's power to form a hundred drops, but after eight drops, the power disappeared as a result of the strange stone's ability. It did not form any more liquid.
'Wait a minute! The strange stone in my head has created another crystalline plane face!'
Only then did Darren find that the thirteenth crystalline plane face had begun to form.
'It seems that the holy emperor's power that I assimilated from the creatures has bonded with the strange stone.' Darren had solved his eight drops mystery.
After some time, Darren's aura began to simmer down and he returned to his original state.
"The effect of the holy's emperor power this time is similar to before, but it lasted for a longer time," Darren murmured.
After a long time, the blood river finally calmed down. Darren tried to reactivate his assimilating power, but there was no more holy emperor's power to assimilate. He was forced to give up on it, for now.
Darren and the others flew to the five remaining survivors, and found that the bearded man who cheated Anthony was still alive.
"You wanted to kill me just now, right?" Darren said coldly. He shot them a terrible glare.
The remaining five people, with wide eyes, were utterly speechless. The fear in their eyes was even stronger than when they were under siege by the mysterious creatures earlier. A few of them had already begun to break out in a cold sweat just by making eye contact with Darren.
They never thought that the weak kid from earlier that day would suddenly become so fearless and powerful.
Even the Tiger Cat wore an unbelievably fearful expression on his face.