63: Chapter 63 The Barefoot Path of Atonement

The third level of Mictlan—Obsidian Knife Mountain.

As far as the eye could see, the earth looked like it had been sliced a thousand times by the gods. Dense obsidian shards stood upright, each sharpened like a razor blade, glinting with a chilling light.

There was no path here; every step was onto a blade.

"Creeeak... Creeeak..."

A tooth-gritting grating sound came from overhead.

Everyone looked up in horror.

Those weren't birds; they were thousands of "Blade-wing Bats" made of thin obsidian shards.

They circled under the lead-gray sky, their wings scraping against each other, emitting a metallic screech like cutting metal. Their pupil-less stone eyes were locked onto the intruders.

"Screech—!!"

The swarm of stone bats in the sky rioted instantly. They dove down like a black meteor shower.

"Run!!"

Zhao Tie roared, but after just two steps, his specially-made hiking boots were sliced open like paper. With a "squelch," blood seeped directly from the soles.

The dagger in Lin Sa's hand danced into a blur of silver light, attempting to build a defensive line.

But it was completely useless.

These things were made of stone; they had no sense of pain and were not afraid of death!

"Clang, clang, clang!"

Sparks flew everywhere. Lin Sa let out a muffled groan. Her windbreaker was shredded, and three deep, bone-deep gashes appeared on her arm in an instant.

"Damn it! Burn them!"

Pei Duo, who was in a state of invisibility, was also driven to desperation by this onslaught.

With a flick of her finger, that seductive [Karma Fire Red Lotus] bloomed again, turning into a towering sea of fire that swept toward the bat swarm in the air.

However, what happened next made Pei Duo, this "pay-to-win player," lose her mind.

The Karmic Fire passed through the bat swarm as if it were burning through air.

These stone bats were purely dead things! They had no souls and no sins. The Karmic Fire, which specialized in soul attacks, could do nothing to them!

"Useless?!"

Pei Duo gritted her teeth. Seeing Lin Sa about to be submerged, she could only forcibly activate the [Netherworld Shield] on her wrist.

"Hum—"

A black light barrier rose, protecting everyone within.

But this time, the barrier trembled violently.

Countless stone bats struck the shield like crazed chisels, each impact making the barrier dim a bit more.

It couldn't hold.

In three minutes at most, the shield would break and they would die.

"Don't move!"

Xu Mo suddenly barked, his voice as calm as if he were stating an autopsy report.

He stared intently at Zhao Tie, who was struggling in pain at the edge of the light barrier.

Just now, because Zhao Tie's boots were pierced by the blades on the path and his feet hurt, he tried to hop on one leg to reduce the contact area. As a result, those bats attacked him like crazy.

Conversely, when Zhao Tie knelt on the ground and his knees and soles were pierced and bleeding, the circling bats actually strangely ascended and stopped diving.

Bleeding... atonement... climbing the mountain of knives...

In a flash, an absurd but logical chain closed in Xu Mo's mind.

"This isn't a battle; it's a punishment!"

A ruthless glint flashed in Xu Mo's eyes: "This level should be 'Climbing the Mountain of Knives'! It should follow the same principle as Eastern mythology—climbing the mountain of knives is for atonement. Since it's atonement, there must be blood, and there must be piety!"

"What do you mean?" Ah K clutched his bleeding head and shouted in terror.

"Take off your shoes!"

Xu Mo didn't explain; he bent down and ripped off his own tactical boots.

Then, he tore off his socks.

His pair of clean soles were thus exposed to the sharp obsidian blade thicket.

"Xu Mo, are you crazy?!" Lin Sa's scalp tingled at the sight.

Xu Mo was expressionless as he lifted his foot and, without any cushioning, stepped heavily onto the tip of an obsidian shard as sharp as a dagger.

"Squelch."

The subtle sound of flesh being sliced by a sharp blade was clearly audible in the dead silence.

Blood gushed out instantly, winding down the black stone blade and staining the desolate earth red.

Xu Mo trembled all over from the pain, veins bulging on his forehead, and cold sweat instantly soaked his back. But he gritted his teeth and didn't even let out a muffled groan; instead, he took a second step.

One step, two steps.

A miracle happened.

The dense swarm of stone bats in the sky, which had been like a pressing dark cloud, actually stopped diving.

They circled in mid-air, their wings tilting slightly toward Xu Mo, as if paying tribute to this "sinner" who had voluntarily accepted punishment.

"This is the rule."

Xu Mo's lips were pale with pain, but he turned back and gave a chilling, wretched smile: "If you want to live, take off your shoes. Opening a path with blood is the only way to pass."

Everyone looked at those two rows of shocking bloody footprints, their scalps tingling.

But the countdown to death was right above their heads.

"Damn it, let's do it!" Zhao Tie gritted his teeth, tore off his tattered boots, and stepped barefoot onto the blades.

Lin Sa took a deep breath, threw away her shoes, and followed behind Xu Mo.

Ah K followed suit, trembling.

This path was simply a living hell.

Every step was a piercing agony; every step allowed them to clearly feel the sensation of the blades slicing through their plantar fascia. Blood dragged out a winding river behind them.

Pei Duo, still invisible, watched this scene with eyes full of shock.

Although she could float across with the protection of the Netherworld Shield, Xu Mo's extreme way of breaking the deadlock—being so ruthless to himself—made her feel awe for this "mortal" for the first time.

Finally.

These five hundred meters felt like they took a century.

When everyone, their feet covered in blood, helped each other climb onto the natural karst cave altar halfway up the mountain, they all collapsed on the ground in exhaustion, looking like they had been fished out of water.

"We... we survived..." Ah K clutched his mangled feet, weeping bitterly.

"Clap, clap, clap."

Just then, a series of mocking claps came from the cave entrance.

Xu Mo snapped his head up, his gaze instantly cold and sharp as a knife.

Outside the cave entrance, Mateo stood there, carrying his blood-stained long blade and leading four Gods Chosen Ones, watching as if they were viewing a gorilla performance.

They wore heavy alloy tactical boots and walked on the mountain of knives as if it were level ground.

This was their home turf; the gods had opened a back door for them, so they didn't need to atone at all.

"Wonderful, truly wonderful."

Mateo looked at the group slumped on the ground like dead dogs, a cruel smirk on his face: "As expected of people from the Dragon Country, you're so ruthless even to yourselves. A pity, though—after running so far, you still have to die."

"Run! Why aren't you running anymore?"

Mateo approached step by step, his long blade dragging a trail of sparks across the obsidian: "The previous level had a turtle shell protecting you. This level, let's see what you use to block me!"

Desperation.

Lin Sa and Zhao Tie were severely injured in their feet and could barely even stand, let alone fight.

"Hum—!"

The air vibrated.

At the critical moment, Pei Duo didn't care about exposing herself; the [Netherworld Shield] manifested out of thin air again, firmly blocking the entrance to the karst cave.

The black light curtain flowed, blocking Mateo and the others outside.

"This piece of junk again!"

Mateo, however, didn't fly into a rage like last time. He stopped and pulled out a small, pale-white mirror polished from an unknown skull from his robes.

[Bone-Eroding Mirror]

This was a law-breaking artifact specifically bestowed by the Aztec Queen of the Underworld to counter Pei Duo.

Mateo grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth: "Break for me!"

He suddenly raised the bone mirror.

A turbid beam of light, as pale as corpse water, instantly shone onto the Netherworld Shield.

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—"

The indestructible Netherworld Shield, the moment it touched this beam of light, actually began to boil and melt violently, like ice meeting boiling oil.

The black runes dimmed rapidly, and the originally perfect defensive layer was eroded through with a large hole at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"What?!" Pei Duo's heart shook violently.

The shield was broken.