Chen Chuan looked at the bloody mess at his feet and glanced at his Second Self. The signs of it fading hadn't disappeared as he'd expected.
From beneath the crater of shattered bricks, an astonishing amount of blood gushed out, quickly filling the shallow pit and seeping into the cracks below.
He glanced around. The blood seemed to possess its own Life Force, spreading outward relentlessly. A faint cracking sound came from the edges of the brickwork as tiny pebbles shattered and popped out. Immediately after, more cracks spiderwebbed outward. A moment later, something pushed up from beneath, buckling the solid brick surface.
Where the blood had soaked in, clusters of small, deep-red, twig-like appendages sprouted. They resembled blood-colored coral, and in just a few moments, they had covered a twenty-meter radius.
