Infinity, The Arcade Age-Chapter 505: The Blood Buddha Halts the Kill

After flinging the heavily injured Ryu away with a kick, Akuma strode coldly toward Gouken.

Gouken, who had taken a devastating hit from a finishing move and was gravely wounded, clutched his chest and knelt on one knee, blood flowing endlessly from his mouth and nose.

Seeing Akuma closing in, he didn’t hesitate to lift an arm to launch another attack—but his pupils suddenly shrank.

The next second, a massive wave of energy surged from within him—launching his body into the air as he unleashed a powerful uppercut with all his strength.

Assassination Sect Secret Art—Shoryuken!

Akuma had expected his senior brother to have some fight left in him—but he hadn’t anticipated the extent of it!

Caught off guard, there was no time to defend. Akuma took the full brunt of the blow to the chin, his face contorting grotesquely as he was blasted backward.

He flew more than ten meters before crashing heavily to the ground—motionless.

Seeing this, Gouken, whose body was now shrouded in a swirling blue aura, stood there with his arm lowered, panting heavily, blood dripping from his chin.

His steps faltered, and he dropped back to his knees in exhaustion.

The two brothers—Akuma was a master of the Hurricane Kick, while Gouken had mastered the Shoryuken. Each had their signature move, and for Gouken, the Shoryuken was his most powerful trump card.

But the reason he could unleash such devastating power this time was largely because he had chosen to take the Shun Goku Satsu head-on without using any inner energy to resist.

Though it left him severely injured, the energy he had stored up earlier was fully unleashed in this blow—successfully taking Akuma down in one strike.

Now kneeling, blood flowing from his mouth and nose, Gouken panted heavily, coughing violently, his expression despondent.

A direct hit to such a vital point—from his most powerful ultimate move, launched with everything he had... who could survive that?

He had evaded Akuma for so many years, and in the end, was forced to...

Just as he wallowed in sorrow, Gouken suddenly felt the ground tremble. Alarmed, he looked up in shock.

Only to see—Akuma, who had just taken his ultimate move to the jaw, rising slowly as if nothing had happened!

He casually stretched his jaw and, seeing the wide-eyed Gouken, cracked a twisted grin.

"Good power."

"You... how can you still—?!"

Gouken stared in disbelief, his pupils contracting.

Akuma simply rolled his shoulder and smiled darkly.

"If I were human, I’d be dead from that punch. But unfortunately—I’m not. I’m a demon. An Ashura who has mastered the Killing Intent Wave!"

He clenched his fist. Black mist surged from his body, and black vein-like markings crawled across his skin as the vessels in his forehead bulged.

"I’ve long transcended the realm of mortal flesh, Gouken! Your fist can’t kill me!"

Having fused with the Killing Intent Wave for years, Akuma—though still in human form—had become something no longer human.

If this were the Nightmare Space, his condition would be equivalent to forcibly awakening a special bloodline through a particular power—a Killing Intent Wave Bloodline, or perhaps more accurately, an Ashura Bloodline.

With mortal strength, he had broken through mortal limits and become a monster.

But even that wasn’t enough. Akuma still sought to absorb more killing intent to grow even stronger.

So...

Shifting his gaze away from Gouken—who had now lost all ability to fight and held no further value—Akuma looked toward the cave behind him. His eyes glinted with a crazed excitement.

"My path... my fated enemy... is in there!"

He strode forward, eyes locked solely on the cave ahead.

Gouken struggled to rise, attempting to block Akuma’s path—but was swatted aside by a single sweeping arm.

The two brothers were still roughly equal in skill—but their bodies were no longer on the same playing field.

Gouken hadn’t lost to skill—he’d lost to the physical difference.

With a deafening boom, Akuma punched through the stone wall, revealing the cave behind it. He closed his eyes and inhaled greedily, trying to savor once more the rich, ancient killing intent lingering within...

But the next moment, his eyes snapped open in astonishment.

He found—to his disbelief—that not a single trace of killing intent remained in the cave. It had turned into nothing more than an ordinary cavern!

Frowning, Akuma looked deeper inside.

At the far end of the cave, a towering figure sat cross-legged, his body radiating golden light like a living Buddha.

Seeing this, Akuma’s brow twitched, clearly surprised.

He’d thought he’d encounter someone just like himself—a fellow Ashura. But instead, it was... a monk?

What the hell? This brat purified all the killing intent? What, does he plan to purify me next?!

As the climactic Ashura-versus-Ashura battle he’d envisioned dissolved into dust, Akuma’s expression contorted into something savage.

Just as he was about to speak, the seated Qin Ming—hands still forming a Buddhist mudra—suddenly opened his eyes.

The next instant, an overwhelming torrent of killing intent exploded from his body, sweeping toward Akuma with such force that his red hair whipped violently behind him, his face twisted by the pressure.

Killing intent made manifest!

Qin Ming slowly stood up. His eyes were blood-red—gone was the image of any serene Buddha. He looked far more like a vengeful demon crawling out of hell.

Seeing this, Akuma’s grim face lit up with joy.

"A monk?"

"Half of one," Qin Ming replied.

"You plan to purify me?"

"No. I’m not good at guiding people to the Western Paradise. I’m better at personally sending them there. Purifying you’s too much effort. Physically exorcising you sounds more doable."

His hands dropped to his sides as the killing intent surged around him, staining the air blood-red. Qin Ming’s voice was low and cold.

Turn blood into Buddha. End killing with killing.

Other Buddhist cultivators redeemed sinners by helping them lay down their weapons and attain enlightenment.

But Qin Ming was different. He wasn’t a proper monk. He was a Blood Buddha.

His version of salvation was simple: stab the person with their own weapon, then take the weapon away. Whether they attained enlightenment or not—who cares.

Where others purified killing intent, Qin Ming absorbed it—storing it within himself, making it his own. Brutal and direct.

If the world sees me as evil, then let me be Buddha. If the world sees me as good, then let me be a demon.

Expression calm but eyes ruthless, Qin Ming stood in the sea of blood-red killing intent and locked his gaze onto Akuma.

"Akuma. I want your killing intent."

Akuma bared his teeth in a twisted grin.

"Perfect. I feel the same way. Monk, I’ll kill you, devour your killing intent, and ascend the Ashura Path!"

"Then let’s see who’s stronger!"

"Fine! Monk! Let’s settle this—one of us dies!"

"...Wait, why do you keep calling me ’monk’?"

"Huh? Because you are a monk."

"My bloodline gives it away that clearly? People can just tell at a glance—wait a second—WHAT THE HELL, WHERE’S MY HAIR?!"

Qin Ming instinctively reached up to scratch his head—and suddenly let out a horrified shout.

He had just realized... he was bald.

(End of Chapter)

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