Chapter 9: Promotion! With Tirus Sundavicki

In the underground cave, Ren had already devoured the crocodile hollow that had practically delivered itself to him. At this moment, he stretched his body fully, his dark golden spiritual pressure surging around him. His tail, resembling a massive centipede, coiled tightly around a nearby rock pillar as the energy within him intensified.

The aura around him surged violently, climbing rapidly until it reached its peak. A dark golden pillar of spiritual energy burst forth from the underground cave, shooting skyward, piercing through the layers of sand above, and illuminating the vast desert. The surrounding hollows, who had been lurking and waiting, were immediately stunned by the overwhelming pressure.

"Roar!"

The explosion of spiritual energy sent shockwaves through the area, and many of the newly born and even powerful hollows nearby sensed the oppressive aura. It was a force that rivaled that of a great hollow, causing them to tremble in fear before scattering in all directions.

Not far away, a massive creature, standing over five meters tall with an enormous wingspan exceeding thirty meters, hovered in the air. Its four wings, resembling a bizarre fusion of moth and bird, trembled as its glowing eyes locked onto the source of the phenomenon. A sinister joy flickered in its gaze before it surged forward with tremendous speed.

"This… This is a giant hollow advancing to become a great hollow?! Why would a great hollow emerge in the Newborn Lands? This is truly my fortune! This is the weakest moment of a great hollow's evolution—if I devour it now, I will ascend as well!"

The winged hollow , known as Tirus Sundavicki, flapped its wings furiously, accelerating toward Ren's location, its hunger and ambition evident.

However, Tirus had miscalculated—she had mistaken Ren's transformation for the evolution of a great hollow.

"Woof!"

The dark golden spiritual pressure column had begun to slowly retract when Rhubarb, who had been keeping watch on the surface, sensed an immense pressure rapidly approaching. The little yellow dog barked anxiously, trying to warn Ren.

The next moment, the sky darkened as a massive shadow loomed overhead. Tirus Sundavicki had arrived, her massive wings spreading wide like storm clouds blotting out the sun. Sensing the imminent danger, Rhubarb barked even more frantically.

Two razor-sharp iron feathers shot down like deadly blades, aiming directly at the small canine hollow . Rhubarb reacted swiftly, rolling to the side just in time to narrowly avoid the lethal attack.

"Woof!"

Despite the near miss, the little yellow dog continued barking desperately, urging Ren to wake up.

Seeing that the nimble pup had evaded her attack, Tirus lost interest in the insignificant creature. Her attention was focused solely on the fading pillar of spiritual energy. Without hesitation, she dove straight toward it, her intent clear—she was going to devour this new great hollow while it was still weak.

"Die! Iron Feather Rain!"

Tirus swung her massive wings once more, unleashing a deadly barrage of iron feathers. Dozens of razor-sharp projectiles shot toward the core of the spiritual light, aimed directly at the emerging entity within.

This devastating technique had slain countless giant hollows of the same level before. Against a newly evolved great hollow, it was a surefire kill. After all, most great hollows were mindless, incapable of defending themselves properly.

The attack landed, striking the target head-on. A painful roar echoed across the desert as countless iron feathers embedded themselves into flesh.

However, instead of the sound of tearing flesh and blood, the unmistakable clang of metal-on-metal reverberated through the air.

As the smoke and dust settled, the figure within was finally revealed.

A monstrous entity, over twenty meters long, stood amidst the dissipating light. Its upper body retained a humanoid form, while its lower half had transformed into a centipede-like structure. Golden patterns shimmered across its surface, radiating an unshakable aura of power.

Tirus Sundavicki's eyes widened in shock.

"It's not a great hollow…?! This is a giant hollow , like me! But… its spiritual pressure is already at the level of a great hollow!"

A surge of unease coursed through Tirus's mind. She realized she had gravely underestimated her opponent.

Wasting no time, she flapped her wings furiously, launching another volley of deadly iron feathers—this time, aimed directly at the entity's eyes, its weakest point.

Yet, as the razor-sharp feathers closed in, Ren made no effort to dodge.

"Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!"

With a single fluid motion, Ren raised his right arm. The iron feathers clashed against his hardened body, bouncing off harmlessly. Not a single scratch was left on his form.

Tirus's heart sank. A sinking dread crept into her mind as she realized the terrifying truth—her attacks, which had felled countless foes, were utterly ineffective against this being.

"Can we… negotiate?" Tirus spoke tentatively, her tone shifting from aggression to cautious diplomacy. Everything she had seen thus far suggested that this half-human hollow possessed intelligence equal to or even surpassing her own.

Ren's cold, piercing gaze locked onto her.

"First, you attack my companion. Then, you try to interfere with my evolution. And now you want to negotiate?" His voice was frigid, laced with disdain. "Are you joking?"

Tirus hesitated but quickly adapted. "We could hunt together! There are many other hollow to prey upon. If we join forces, we can even take down Gillians!"

She wasn't ready to give up yet. If she could manipulate him into an alliance, she could bide her time and strike when the opportunity presented itself.

But Ren wasn't so easily fooled.

"It's this meaningless nonsense again. As expected, the higher the spiritual intelligence, the more afraid of death?"

Ren shook his head contemptuously at this. Then the giant tail swung a thunder whip and shot it out from its tail and directly slashed towards the big bird in the air.

Tirus Sandavicki was hit by this extremely fast thunder whip and fell from high altitude, landing heavily into the sand.

Then Ren actually used a sound and teleported in front of Tirus Sandavicki. He followed her bird's head with his right hand and flicked it directly.

"Bang!"

The huge explosion was filled with smoke and dust.

Immediately afterwards, a hurricane rose up flat, and Tirus Sandavicki, who had an extra blood hole on her head, flapped her wings and retreated quickly, hoping to distance herself from Ren.

Unfortunately, all this was futile. In front of Ren, who had already mastered the sound, Tirus Sundavicki's proud speed was simply not worth mentioning.

"Impossible, why do you even master the sound and the false flash!" Tirus had no idea of resisting when she saw Ren using the false flash and the sound one after another.

"Tirus is willing to surrender to you and worship you as my master, my powerful master!"

Ren, who was about to kill, stopped immediately when he heard the bird-shaped hollow's words.

"Your name is Tirus Sundavicki?"

"Yes, my future master!"

After receiving the affirmative answer from Bird Shadow, Ren couldn't hide his expression and was excited.

But he didn't plan to let go of the bird-shaped hollow in front of him. He immediately swung the centipede's tail and the thick thunder whip shot out again. Seeing this, Tirus Sandavicki's wide wings fell off on her back. She actually permanently gave up her own organs and briefly obtained explosive movement speed in order to avoid the attack of Ren's thunder whip.

Ren looked at Tirus Sundavicki, who took off her wings and looked a bit weird.

"It's a decisive person!"

This hero's move to cut off her arm really allowed Tirus Sundavicki to escape a thunder whip, but what about the second one?

Ren followed with a sound and waved another thunder whip. Tirus Sandavicki was not afraid. When she gritted her teeth, her tail also faced the thunder whip like a long whip.

The thunder whip was like a peerless divine striker that directly cut off Tirus Sandavicki's cautious tail. Then Ren took a bold move, holding the bird's head with both hands and twisting it. Tirus Sandavicki's head was separated directly.

Then he took a closer look at the posture of the giant bird, which was indeed in line with the image of Tirus Sandavicki in the original work.

Thinking back ,Tirus Sandavicki was a member of the first ten blades of NO.105, and she was at the level of Adjuchas.

However, at this time she was not even a great hollow. Obviously, Ren was at a time point, and it was still a long time before the original story line, which meant that he had a long time to develop.

The timeline was in his favour, only in this way could he ultimately achieve the purpose of transcendence as he had time to grow his strength.

Originally, Tirus Sandavicki had quite a few scenes in the original work. She first appeared in the Breaking Chapter, was defeated by Ishida Yulong, and finally was resurrected as a zombie by Nikori in a thousand-year bloody battle. But now she was killed by Ren before she grew up.

This action will definitely have a certain impact on the original plot line, but Ren was too lazy to care about the impact.

Who made her mess with Ren? Thinking of this, Ren directly stabbed his centipede tail into Tirus Sandavicki's body, and then the huge bird corpse disappeared invisible.

This is one of Ren's new abilities to be promoted to the giant virtual world - the ghoul soul. He can directly absorb the opponent's spirit through the mouthpart at the tail. From then on, he will no longer need to swallow the opponent's corpse every time, he could just activate the ghoul soul though it would consume much of his spiritual pressure.

In addition, the ghoul can also allow Ren to permanently seize one ability of his opponent, but this trick can only be activated once, so the choice of Ren to seize what ability to seize must be very cautious.

He also gained the second new ability - clone: he can split his body and split a soul clone with whom he shares the same soul clone, but splitting the clone requires depleting his spiritual pressure. He has just been promoted. If he uses it randomly, he will most likely fall off the level, so he does not intend to use this ability for the time being.

Moreover, his old ability to restrain breathing and flash thunder have been enhanced to varying degrees. Now Ren's flash thunder can be turned into a thunder whip for long-distance attack.

And he also mastered the sound in advance!

In short, Ren's promotion to Giant hollow this time has been qualitatively improved. He estimates that even if he faces Gillian, he can still win.