Chapter 126: The Blood Slave Altar
Chapter 126: The Blood Slave Altar
The moment Lu Hangzhi stepped into Combat Zone 618, the Defensive Barrier outside the Matrix Tower abruptly shattered with a boom. His face changed dramatically. Hundreds of Monster Beasts besieging the tower also changed their expressions—not with excitement, but because they immediately sensed an unstoppable, devastating power surging from within the tower…
The Reverse Two Forms Annihilation Array!
After enduring a grueling struggle, Zhao Qian had ultimately failed to hold out. He resolutely activated the Reverse Two Forms Annihilation Array.
Lu Hangzhi tapped the ground, darting backward to escape the blast radius of the destructive force. He stood woodenly, gazing blankly as the entire war zone vanished rapidly into nothingness. His mind went blank for a short time.
Several full seconds passed.
Slowly, Lu Hangzhi pulled out a Messaging Talisman. He reported to the Reinforcement Department in a grave voice,
“Combat Zone 618 has fallen. Venerable Zhao Qian is dead in battle.”
“Dead again? Cough cough… Oh, it’s Hangzhi? Don’t worry, that body was just one of his puppets. He’s still alive, right here at the Reinforcement Department,”
someone from the department replied, their tone utterly calm, as if this were a common occurrence.
Lu Hangzhi felt his brain short-circuit again.
A puppet creation?
“Brother Zhao is a puppeteer?”
“Yup,” came the reply from the Reinforcement Department, dripping with sympathy. “That kid didn’t tell you? He’s just like that—really gets a kick out of seeing people sad and crying for him… total weirdo. Oh, and he’s an unconventional puppeteer. His most impressive work is himself… He carries dozens of Clone puppets in his Storage Ring all the time. Still, his Clones have performed countless heroic deeds for our Southern City.”
“…”
Hearing this, Lu Hangzhi was utterly stunned.
Just a second ago, he was reeling from the sorrowful impact of Brother Zhao’s heroic sacrifice. Yet now…
Recalling it now, it seemed Zhao Qian had intended to guard a war zone solo from the start. And… Lady Honglian sending Zhao Qian himself to escort him up Two Realms Mountain definitely carried the implication of protection.
A Clone puppet you could sacrifice anytime was definitely more reassuring than a team formed by Spirit Coalescence Elders.
“Hangzhi!”
The Reinforcement Department sent another message:
“We detected that Combat Zone 617 and Combat Zone 618 have fallen. That means Combat Zone 619 must be in extreme danger. What’s your situation?”
“It’s holding,” Lu Hangzhi answered.
Combat Zone 619 now had six full Spirit Coalescence Elders garrisoned. Adding himself? Calling it an impregnable fortress was downright modest!
The Reinforcement Department sounded relieved. “Thank goodness! Lady Honglian herself is leading the relief team. She’ll be there soon. Just hang on a little longer! All for the Human Race!”
“All for the Human Race.”
Learning Zhao Qian wasn’t dead lifted Lu Hangzhi’s spirits. However, a flicker of shadow crossed his eyes as more Monster Beasts poured back into Combat Zone 618.
Trouble was endless; they had just achieved victory only to plunge into an even more perilous situation.
“Elder Lu!”
“Monster Beasts coming from this side!”
Everyone soon noticed: streams of Monster Beasts from Combat Zone 617 and the mountain summit flooded into the neighboring war zone, then surged straight towards them without hesitation. Dense. Overwhelming. Their roars deafening, earthshaking. Mixed within were over a dozen creatures radiating the aura of Souls Concentrating Stage. Their numbers surpassed those facing Elder Lu. The situation was critical.
“Can we hold?” asked the three Spirit Coalescence cultivators who had come seeking refuge from Combat Zone 617, their expressions grim.
“Have to hold, even if we can’t!” Lu Hangzhi retreated to the war zone’s center. Facing the beast tide crashing toward them like raging waves from the neighboring zone, he spoke rapidly.
“Lady Honglian is coming! We just need to hold out until she arrives! We’ll be saved!”
“Unleash everything you’ve got!”
Elder Lu and his two comrades were utterly tied down; they had zero time to spare here. The only hope lay with the three cultivators from Combat Zone 617.
“I’ll try something.” All three knew hesitation was fatal now. One man gritted his teeth. “My cultivation technique, Crimson Blood Hell, lets spirits beyond my stage summon Nether Blood Slaves. This place is brimming with Qi and Blood, thick with vengeful spirits—it’s perfect. But… I need you to buy me time.”
He revealed himself to be an Evil Cultivator at the Spirit Condensation Stage.
“No problem!” Lu Hangzhi’s eyes lit up. Hope surged. He quickly downed a gulp of Spirit Honey and stepped forward. The other two needed to control things above; he was the only one left to block the oncoming horde.
Facing everyone, he spun the Tianji Umbrella’s handle. Over a dozen Flying Swords shot out, embedding themselves firmly in the ground before him with sharp clangs!
Clang!
Clang-clang!
Formation!
Lu Hangzhi bellowed,
“First Sword Formation, rise!”
“Second Sword Formation, RISE!”
Fourteen swords unleashed Spirit-Concentrating Sword Qi in torrents. His Magic Power drained alarmingly fast. His face rapidly paled. Activating two Sword Formations simultaneously was a colossal drain. Yet, as sword energy rose skyward, sharp and imposing, radiating fierce power, the Evil Cultivator breathed a sigh of relief. He began placing skeletal remains around him.
The twenty Epiphany Stage cultivators quickly retreated. Each skeleton belonged to a large, sturdy Soul-Concentrating Demon Beast. Even in death, they emitted faint traces of concentrated spirit aura and pressure. Truly an Evil Cultivator—even his preparations were chilling.
“Hangzhi, be careful.”
“The beasts coming down from the peak are anything but ordinary. Tough to handle,” Elder Lu shouted a warning after a quick glance.
Lu Hangzhi didn’t respond. He just kept gulping down Spirit Honey.
Boom… Boom…
The Monster Beasts from the neighboring zone, converging together, quickly launched a full assault!
Monster Beasts packed tightly together. Qi and Blood boiled over. Their roars were deafening, world-shaking.
Gritting his teeth, ninety-eight streams of Sword Qi rapidly materialized and spread out flat in the air before Lu Hangzhi. Their edges grew sharper, colder, deadlier. Their power stacked up, overlapping layers dense and overwhelming. It was like a Heaven Swallowing behemoth opening its maw wide before the beast tide, displaying rows of sharp, needle-like fangs. Its terrifying aura stood unflinching!
The Evil Cultivator kept pulling out more Monster Beast bones…
Only after eighteen skeletons surrounded him did he pause. Glancing anxiously at the neighboring war zone, he gritted his teeth and pulled out a cluster of blood-red orbs. He scattered them around, each orb landing perfectly within the jaws of a skeleton.
Eerie. The eighteen skeletal jaws clamped down onto the blood pearls automatically. The Epiphany Stage cultivators shivered, huddling close.
Finishing his grim setup, the Evil Cultivator began weaving hand signs. He chanted rapidly,
“The nether realm opens, souls return, exchange blood for life, return to the living world…”
BOOM!!
A swirling vortex of pitch-black energy instantly formed above their heads.
A chilly, sinister aura roared out from the vortex.
The War Zone immediately changed.
Blood from countless Monster Beast corpses that had fallen on the nearby ground was pulled into the air by an invisible force, gathering around the Evil Cultivator.
How many Monster Beast corpses were there in the War Zone?
Hundreds…
Thousands!
There were even more mutilated bodies.
Thousands of bloodlines pulled together to form a huge crimson network, converging into a massive torrent of blood that, under the Evil Cultivator’s command, poured into the first Monster Beast corpse.
The Monster Beast corpse rapidly grew tendons, muscles, skin, and crimson fur at a visible pace, and its aura continuously rose. Soon, it revealed a powerful aura close to the Concentrated Spirit Peak Stage…
The Evil Cultivator’s face showed wild joy:
“This is amazing!”
“To produce the first Concentrated Spirit Peak Stage Blood Slave so quickly! Fantastic! Haha…” Just as the Evil Cultivator rejoiced over the initial success, the Beast Tide finally surged into the War Zone and clashed with Lu Hangzhi.
This time.
Before Lu Hangzhi could act, he was preempted by the Mid Soul-Concentrating Stage and Late Concentration Stage Monster Beasts mixed in the Beast Tide…
A huge rock, about two meters in diameter, wrapped in blazing flames from tearing through the air, roared toward him like a suddenly appearing Meteorite, crashing down fiercely.
Even before the rock arrived, the intense air pressure made it hard to breathe, setting off urgent alarms and nearly causing suffocation.
At the same time, a massive fireball descended from the sky!
A volley of black arrows, carrying a deadlier aura than the giant rock…
“Hangzhi, be careful!”
“Oh no!”
Elder Lu and the others suddenly realized that although Lu Hangzhi was quite capable, his cultivation level was still too low—facing a Soul-Concentrating Demon Beast on level ground put him at a fatal disadvantage due to the range of Spiritual Sense attacks.
Fortunately, this wasn’t Lu Hangzhi’s first time in such a situation!
He sighed, then without hesitation threw something in front of him.
Boom!
Amid the loud rumbling, the Matrix Tower rapidly expanded, landing with a crash. The sudden surge of Magical Artifact aura and the Power of Heaven and Earth, combined with the wall-like thickness of the Matrix Tower, perfectly intercepted the oncoming giant rock…
The moment the rock hit the Matrix Tower, it shattered into dust.
Although the Matrix Tower wasn’t fully activated, it was forged from the hardest materials, tougher than even a Concentrated Spirit Peak Stage being, capable of withstanding several full-force strikes from a Concentrated Spirit Peak Stage Monster Beast even without the Barrier.
In the loud explosion, the giant rock crumbled, and the Matrix Tower only shook slightly, then withstood the barrage of black arrows;
Only the descending fireball slipped through, aiming straight for Lu Hangzhi’s head, but it was easily dispersed by the five Sword Spirits;
The three Spirit Coalescence Elders were stunned;
Elder Lu and the other two were dumbfounded;
A group of Epiphany Stage Cultivators were speechless.
Facing a deadly assault from two Late Concentration Stage Monster Beasts and one Mid Soul-Concentrating Stage Monster Beast, Lu Hangzhi had just thrown out the precious Matrix Tower…
Using it as a shield?
Lu Hangzhi paid no mind to others’ reactions; the moment the Matrix Tower landed, ninety-eight strands of Mind-Concentrating Sword Qi spread out and shot forth.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The Sword Qi broke the sound barrier.
The Epiphany Stage Monster Beasts at the front immediately became cannon fodder.
Like the dense Beast Tide assault, Lu Hangzhi didn’t even need to aim; the ninety-eight Sword Qi easily killed ninety-eight Epiphany Stage Monster Beasts, and the residual power of the second Sword Formation’s Mind-Concentrating Sword Qi cut down another ninety-eight Epiphany Stage Monster Beasts, slicing them in two.
As the corpses hit the ground, threads of blood immediately drifted from their wounds, converging toward the Evil Cultivator’s sinister altar…
A second Concentrated Spirit Peak Stage Blood Slave was rapidly being nurtured!