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The smoke and dust dispersed.
The Firewood Daoist’s body was already broken and beaten into a pulp. His injuries were so cruel, they were hard to look at.
A streak of blood-colored light shot out of his corpse, quick as lightning, and charged deeper into the courtyard.
Su Yi seemed to have anticipated this.
He made no attempt to stop the light. Instead, he shot forth in a flash and followed it.
Whoosh!
In the blink of an eye, the streak of crimson light flew into an ancient well deep within the courtyard.
Su Yi arrived beside the well and reached into it with his divine sense. Moments later, his eyes flashed with a strange light.
“Just as I thought! There’s something off about this guy.”
As he pondered, Su Yi leaped into the ancient well.
Off in the distance, Yuan Heng recovered from his astonishment. He couldn’t help but look ashamed.
He’d planned to deal with the apparitions hiding amidst the pines and cypresses while Su Yi fought.
Who’d have guessed he’d get too distracted….?
Yuan Heng gnashed his teeth. I can’t do this next time, or he’ll be disappointed in me.
“Run away! Everyone, hurry up and run—!”
“He’s too scary! That’s obviously an extremely powerful cultivator, like a god or immortal!”
“Go go go!”
The sharp, panicked shrieks of ghosts rang out. Ghostly mists billowed out of the trees as numerous shadowy figures fled into the distance.
“Hmph!” Yuan Heng snorted coldly, then shifted positions.
Boom!
A gigantic figure, like a grand mountain, suddenly appeared within the courtyard. Yao qi billowed around it, soaring into the air.
Its four legs were like iron pillars, while its shell was dozens of feet wide and flowing with eye-catching, radiant golden light.
This was Yuan Heng’s true body, an incomparably vast golden softshell turtle.
“Roar~~!” Yuan Heng flew back his head and roared. Golden radiance towered into the heavens, then spread out like a divine tide, illuminating this entire stretch of heaven and earth.
“Dammit, dammit! That guy is actually a turtle that’s achieved the Dao!”
“No——!”
As the dazzling golden light swept over the ghosts fleeing in all directions, it incinerated them. Their souls scattered and dispersed, leaving nothing behind.
Not one survived.
Yuan Heng shook his massive, house-sized head. His massive frame shifted as he instantly recovered the appearance of a youth in simple cloth robes.
However, the mountain temple had collapsed, and it was now in ruins. Even the surrounding pines and cypresses had been destroyed.
From a distance, it seemed as if someone had leveled the place.
Yuan Heng didn’t delay. He turned, entered what remained of the courtyard, and shot toward the mouth of the ancient well.
……
The bottom of the well was actually a vast cave carved into the heart of Floating Immortal Ridge.
The center of the cave was a ritual ground shaped like the Eight Trigrams.
Thirty-six bloody pennants lined the perimeter of the ritual ground. There was a pair of children, one boy and one girl, bound to each flag.
There was one notable exception: one flag only had a single captive, a boy.
Regardless of sex, all of the children were young, six or seven at most. The youngest were only three or four.
Some had long since lost consciousness, while others screamed and cried. Terror and uncertainty were written all over their immature features.
A young man in blood-colored robes stood there, completely ignoring the shouting and wailing. It was as if he didn’t even see it.
There was an altar built of piled bones in front of him, with a black idol statue on top.
The statue was a Nine-Headed Bird. Its wings were folded, and it stood proudly on the ground. All of its heads looked in different directions, as if it were surveying all of creation at once.
The young man held a formation disc in his hands, and he gazed piously at the statue of the Nine-Headed Bird. He looked reverent and zealous.
Suddenly, a streak of bloody light shot over and arrived on the ritual grounds before suddenly reverting to the appearance of the Firewood Daoist.
“Patriarch, what happened to you?” The young man in the blood-colored robes exclaimed. He could tell at a glance that the Firewood Daoist’s body had been destroyed, and all that remained of him was his soul. His injuries were extreme!
“Don’t waste time talking! Stand to the side and keep watch!”
The Firewood Daoist seized the young man’s formation disc then strode up to the altar and chanted a series of strange and inscrutable syllables.
Bzzzz~
The Nine-Headed Bird statue suddenly quivered, then burst apart. The surrounding air caved in, and blood-colored light revolved, forming a strange and unsettling crimson vortex.
A dignified, ethereal voice emanated from within the vortex. “Why have you disturbed this lofty one’s tranquility?”
The voice was icy and indifferent, with an unearthly and imposing power.
The Firewood Daoist threw himself to his knees and bowed low to the ground. He said in a quavering voice, “Reporting to the divine monarch, we’ve already arranged the sacrificial offerings. It’s just that while I was gathering them, I was attacked by an extremely powerful opponent, and I now face impending doom. I humbly request the divine monarch’s intervention. Please, help your subordinate smite his foe!”
That dignified voice resounded from within the blood-colored vortex. “Ah? I’d actually like to see just which blind, foolish ant dared harm this lofty one’s divine emissary. Offer the sacrifices, and I’ll naturally make an appearance and resolve this calamity for you.”
“Understood!” The Firewood Daoist was practically mad with delight.
He then crawled to his feet, clutched the formation disc, and ordered, “Blood servant, quick, kill the children and gather their heart’s blood as an offering for the divine monarch!”
However, he got no response.
“Hm?” The Firewood Daoist turned his head to look, and to his shock and horror, he saw a young man in blue was already standing not far away.
The blood servant’s corpse lay sprawled out on the floor. The intruder had long since silently ended him.
“You….” The Firewood Daoist was alarmed and furious. He instinctively activated the formation disc in his hand.
Boom!
The thirty-six crimson pennants dispersed throughout the ritual grounds suddenly lit up and surged with blood-colored, baleful mists. The howling and wailing of ghosts emanated from within, and the mists swept forth with astonishing momentum.
The Blood Transformation Netherworld Soul Formation!
This was a mighty blood sacrifice formation. The Firewood Daoist had poured three years of blood, sweat, and tears into placing it before finally succeeding.
He’d originally planned to use the formation’s power to refine the young virgins’ fresh blood and condense a “Natal Blood Spirit Heart Pill.”
But now, he couldn’t concern himself with that. He gnashed his teeth and bellowed, “Friend, the heavens offered you a path, but you refused to take it! You brought your doom upon yourself. Die!”
Boom!
The churning, baleful mists surged, charging at Su Yi like a raging dragon.
“Nothing but a petty trick. Can you block even a single one of my attacks?” Su Yi laughed dryly, then waved his sleeves.
A streak of clear, misty light shot forth with unparalleled sharpness. It revolved in the air, cutting a round sword curtain, which spread outward.
Bang bang bang!
The thirty-six blood-colored pennants each snapped in two.
At the same time, the churning, crimson mists escaped the formation’s control, dispersing in midair and disappearing without a trace in the blink of an eye.
The Firewood Daoist’s eyes widened as if he’d been struck by lightning.
The power of the Blood Transformation Netherworld Soul Formation was enough to kill any cultivator of the Grain Avoidance Realm, and even Origin Palace cultivators would struggle to contend with it.
Yet now, Su Yi had effortlessly destroyed it!
The Firewood Daoist instantly slumped as if he’d lost his soul. His knees thudded to the ground once more, and he shrieked into the crimson vortex, “I humbly request that the divine monarch makes an appearance and destroys this man!”
Su Yi ignored the Firewood Daoist. He walked up to the center of the ritual grounds, where the blood-colored vortex hovered overhead.
His gaze was somewhat strange. “Why is it that this scenario seems somehow familiar?”
The Firewood Daoist glared hideously and shrieked, “Familiar? You ruined my grand sacrifice to the divine monarch! You’re doomed! Just you wait!”
Su Yi’s eyebrows rose, and something suddenly occurred to him. He faced the vortex and asked tentatively, “The Divine Monarch of Tragedy?”
The vortex suddenly churned. Then, an ethereal, dignified voice rang out. “You’re… that Su kid?”
The cold, indifferent voice already carried a trace of alarm.
“Haha, no wonder I thought this blood sacrifice looked somewhat familiar. So, it’s you again, you worthless beast.” Su Yi laughed.
Su Yi witnessed a similar sacrifice deep within the waters of the Great Azure, in the Wuhuan Water Monarch’s Ninebends City. The recipient of that sacrifice was this very creature, the Divine Monarch of Tragedy.
Su Yi also recalled that, at the time, he tried provoking the Nine-Headed Bird, deliberately antagonizing him in hopes of convincing him to make a personal appearance.
Alas, the Divine Monarch of Tragedy never appeared.
From this, Su Yi deduced that the Divine Monarch of Tragedy simply wasn’t capable of crossing the barrier between worlds and appearing in person.
He wouldn’t have guessed that here, deep within the Great Liang’s Floating Immortal Ridge, he’d encounter the bird once more.
“W-worthless beast?” The Firewood Daoist’s mind went blank. He saw the Divine Monarch of Tragedy as a god-like, unsurpassed existence. The monarch’s powers were vast and boundless.
He could never have guessed that Su Yi would dare slander the divine monarch like this!
How was this any different from blaspheming against a god?
“It really is you, you little bastard!” The Divine Monarch of Tragedy’s dignified voice emanated from within the vortex. He sounded enraged, and it seemed he was on the hint of losing it.
Su Yi laughed, not the least bit concerned, then asked with great interest. “It’s been half a year since we last met. Do you have the power to cross over now?”
“.....”
The depths of the blood-colored vortex were silent.
Su Yi furrowed his brow. “Since you can’t make an appearance in person, you ought to at least have a way of manifesting your power across worlds, right?”
“.....”
Yet another silence followed.
This abnormal exchange left the kneeling Firewood Daoist dumbstruck. He was completely flabbergasted.
How could an existence like the Divine Monarch of Tragedy possibly endure a young cultivator’s repeated provocations like this?
This shouldn’t be happening!
Yuan Heng had already rushed over, and he saw this too. Waves coursed through his heart as well.
He could already tell that Su Yi had clashed with the Divine Monarch of Tragedy on the other side of the vortex before, and furthermore, that he’d come out on top!
“It’s been half a year, but you’re still such trash. I understand now. So that’s why that embarrassingly-weak ghost cultivator went to such great lengths to round up virgin boys and girls with Gathering Yin Jade. It turns out he was acting on your orders, you worthless beast.” Su Yi shook his head. His tone carried three parts contempt and three parts disgust, as well as a hint of disappointment.
Whoosh~
The blood-colored vortex churned violently.
Immediately afterward, the Divine Monarch of Tragedy’s formerly dignified voice rang out, but this time, he sounded hysterical. “Su Yi! Are you fucking done yet!?”
It seemed he’d completely lost his temper, and he was beside himself with rage, as if it were burning him up. He even started spouting obscenities.
“If this lofty one weren’t trapped within the Den of Caterpillars, I would have killed you a long time ago, you @#$%&-……”
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A whole series of curses followed, spraying from the depths of the blood-colored vortex like water from a nozzle.