Beneath the sunken clouds, at the very center, stood a castle shrouded in gray mist.
Outside the castle, the sounds of battle raged incessantly. There were cultists clad in gray and black robes, and a greater number of monstrous, grotesque fiends.
But the most striking sight was a man in black, wielding a great saber, carving his way through the masses of fiends and cultists. He had been fighting for over an hour, without a single moment's pause.
The man was drenched in blood, appearing like a demon.
Even the cultists, who feared no death and were willing to sacrifice everything for the great Scarlet Moon, felt a chill. As the man in black approached, they involuntarily recoiled.
Their unwavering, eternal faith seemed to waver in that moment.
Inside the ancient castle,
The clamor from outside receded like a retreating tide. Here, it was silent, cold, and eerie. On the primitive altar built in the center, the blood-red runes had become much denser than before, though they were still a long way from being completely filled.
On the altar, the blood-bearded priest Pukkala's face contorted in a grotesque grimace.
He gnashed his teeth.
He hated!
Years of waiting for this single opportunity, a chance to ascend to the heavens, had been ruined! Ruined by these weak, damned natives!
"Blue Star—natives—!"
Pukkala's vision was filled with the figure in black, who was piercing through the ranks of fiends, advancing and retreating.
At this moment, the black silhouette stepped through the void, ascending step by step. The blood-red glow of the great saber in his hand stretched for more than ten meters.
Blood-red! Dazzling!
Above the crimson radiance, an even more brilliant golden light erupted, accompanied by an indescribable sharpness.
The man in black raised his saber high, his form soaring to a hundred meters into the sky, and brought down a heavy strike.
This strike could cleave mountains!
This strike, its sharpness, was unstoppable!
The four-armed giant demon, sixty meters tall, was split from top to bottom by this single blow, its massive body tearing apart with a sibilant hiss.
Crimson fragments splattered.
The evil-slaying saber hummed.
A piercing, shrill hum erupted across the heavens and earth.
With a single strike, the four-armed giant demon, a colossal four-star disaster-level fiend, resembling a god or demon...
Was cut in two!
Even the blood-bearded priest, witnessing this scene firsthand, was astonished.
He was indeed strong, his true form a Sixth Awakening Throne-level being, an invincible existence beneath divinity. But at this man's stage, he could never have achieved such a feat, cleaving a disaster-level fiend in two with a single strike.
Even if that strike had accumulated immense power.
"Having only recently come into contact with the fiend realm, and with the advent of mystery only happening not long ago, a four-awakened non-human expert has already emerged on the tiny Blue Star."
This alone was enough to shock the blood-bearded priest.
Such talent was akin to divinity. It meant that even without the favor of a great being, relying solely on his own strength to break through layer after layer of heavenly barriers, this person had a chance to reach the Seventh Awakening!
To enter the realm of gods!
He was undoubtedly the Son of the World!
Many worlds did not even produce a single individual with such talent.
But,
What about the other regions? How had they failed?
Especially Fog City and Wave City. Pukkala had deployed a significant amount of power, but as the ritual shattered and backlash occurred, he had lost contact with the church leaders there.
He no longer wished to contact them.
His heart was filled with rage.
Pukkala only wanted to destroy, to annihilate.
He stood on the altar, and the blood-red runes, not yet fully filled, sprang to life.
Twisting and writhing, they emitted a scarlet glow. Soon, a crimson pillar of light shot through the castle and pierced the sky, connecting with the collapsing, sunken clouds.
At this instant, it seemed as if something shattered. Above the sunken clouds, a mirage appeared, like a fata morgana.
Across the mirage was a vast tribe.
Fiends roared, and strange, humanoid creatures moved about. In the center of the tribe stood a massive, blood-red altar.
A figure stood upon it.
Suddenly, their gaze cast outwards!
Bang—!
The mirage shattered.
The vortex-like clouds scattered outwards, and the heavens and earth churned with wind and storm.
An overwhelmingly terrifying, oppressive aura descended. For dozens, hundreds of kilometers around the ancient castle, the awakened individuals sent by surrounding nations to investigate the situation suddenly found themselves struggling to breathe, their hearts feeling as if a mountain was pressing down upon them.
They were miles away and could see nothing, yet that immense terror still enveloped them tightly.
What, in the world, had happened?!
The awakened teams from various neighboring nations cried out in their hearts.
...
"Ding!"
"Notification: Special mission information updated."
"Scarlet Moon Priest: Pukkala (Sixth Awakening)"
"Status: Ritual backlash, injured from forcefully entering the Blue Star world."
...
Inside the ancient castle,
The figure standing on the altar underwent subtle changes.
The changes in appearance were minor, but the shift in aura was earth-shattering!
Beneath his feet, the blood runes on the entire surface of the ancient altar had vanished. The altar itself cracked and crumbled, leaving only a pile of useless rubble.
Pukkala, the Throne-level expert and Scarlet Priest, coughed up blood from the corner of his mouth.
But the chilling coldness in his eyes intensified.
He took a few steps and emerged outside the castle. His gaze, filled with hatred, fell upon the man in black.
He extended his hand.
From his hand, strands of blood-tendrils emerged, climbing into space and continuously spreading.
This was the power granted to him by his great Lord.
Divine Art: Nascent Sprouts of Samsara!
Like fleshy tendrils, the blood-tendrils climbed through the invisible space, spreading hundreds, thousands of meters in the blink of an eye. They formed a gigantic hand woven from countless fleshy tendrils, descending towards the man in black.
The black saber swung.
He unleashed a forty-meter-long saber aura, cleaving through wave after wave of blood-tendrils and fleshy sprouts. But their numbers were too great, seemingly infinite.
And he was only in his Third Awakening body.
His strength was insufficient!
The black saber swung as he retreated, but his speed could not match the enraged strike of the Throne-level expert, the Blood-Bearded Priest.
The blood-tendrils and fleshy sprouts, climbing and spreading through space, grew more numerous and dense, covering the night sky of the entire region.
In the distance,
At the edge of the sky,
Teams arriving by helicopter, experts who ascended into the sky using their abilities, or awakened beings watching from mountaintops.
They all trembled in fear!
They could not see the insignificant black saber, but these blood-tendrils and fleshy sprouts, obscuring the entire sky, were clearly visible even from miles away.
Fear, uncontainable, arose. It was not something mere courage could suppress. Their hearts felt as if they were being clutched.
Even further away,
Those like Xing Jinglei and Yiluoxi, who were on their way to the final battlefield by private jet, could not see clearly. However, just by looking in that direction, they felt waves of trepidation.
A great terror lay ahead.
...
"What kind of enemy is this!"
An Jianyou bit her lip, trying desperately to keep herself from trembling.
She looked at the mission details.
On it, the approximate situation of the main battlefield and the participating personnel were marked.
There was Instructor Black Saber, the organization's top war pet, Lord Black Pupil, and also Xin Huo warriors like Roland, Luo Rui, and Fan Anyuan.
They were all fighting at that moment.
They were in grave danger.
An Jianyou gasped for air. After a few breaths, she half-crouched, her amplification abilities enveloping her mount, a giant monstrous bird.
"Faster!"
She gazed into the distance, her eyes unwavering, when suddenly a golden silhouette appeared.
Her tense face broke into a smile of relief.
The invisible mountain that had loomed over their heads seemed to... shatter at that moment.
...
"Perish now!"
In front of the ancient castle,
The Blood-Bearded Priest Pukkala finally managed a slight smile.
The ritual had failed! He had fallen from heaven to the depths. Even if he offered the entire Blue Star, he could not achieve the Seventh Awakening. The forceful descent into the Blue Star world had also inflicted a very serious, difficult-to-heal, fundamental wound.
But all of this could be somewhat compensated by personally destroying a monstrous prodigy with the potential for divinity.
A sliver of satisfaction arose in his heart.
This satisfaction froze abruptly.
Before the man in black, particles of light converged, forming a figure enveloped in golden light.
In an instant, boundless lightning erupted, and destructive power tore a colossal hole through the net of blood-tendrils and fleshy sprouts that obscured the sky.
The remaining destructive force continued to spread and impact, colliding and canceling out the extending blood-tendrils and fleshy sprouts.
"Leave this place to me."
Within the golden radiance, Fang You looked into the distance, his gaze falling upon the figure standing before the ancient castle.
Behind him, Black Saber did not hesitate.
He nodded and retreated, grabbing the shrunken Black Pupil from a certain spot, and vanished into the night, leaving behind numerous afterimages with his full use of Phantom Step.
Fang You also employed Phantom Step, ascending into the sky.
His form appeared minuscule amidst the dense blood-tendrils and fleshy sprouts that still surrounded him.
Yet, he possessed an undeniable, unshieldable golden radiance!
This light was brilliant, and even though covered by the dense blood-tendrils, it still managed to pierce through, reflecting into the eyes of those in the distance.
It was the light of hope.
"Staff!"
From the large hole torn in the blood-tendrils by the lightning, a blood-red shadow flew in, instantly arriving before Fang You and stopping abruptly.
It was a bird with a massive beak.
Purple fiendish artifact, Blood and Flesh Flying Bird!
It opened its beak.
Fang You reached out and grasped it. A vast mental power of 110 points diffused outwards, and instantly the Sky Net Hand flew out, firmly fitting onto his right palm.
Next came the Angel's Tear necklace!
Finally, the legendary fiendish artifact, the Staff of Splendor!
Staff Amplification, Activate!
Splendor Domain, Open!
Golden light permeated the heavens and earth, which were covered by endless blood-tendrils. It was filled with brilliant golden radiance, and blue-purple lightning also emerged, instantly covering the sky.
Destructive power surged, stirring up wind and clouds!
The satellite footage of the heavens and earth once again showed turbulent air currents and changing weather.
The Blood-Bearded Priest Pukkala's eyes widened.
He was surprised, shocked, horrified, and terrified.
He continuously channeled his life energy, and the Divine Art, Nascent Sprouts of Samsara, spread rapidly. The sky-spanning net descended layer by layer towards the golden figure.
Until not a single wisp of golden light could penetrate.
He finally revealed a sinister smile.
The smile lasted only a moment before it froze.
A colossal hand of lightning, obscuring the sky, tore through the net of fleshy sprouts. The resplendent lightning seemed to rip through a piece of paper, annihilating the dense network of blood-tendrils and fleshy sprouts.
The dazzling lightning illuminated the frozen face of Priest Pukkala.
The giant hand descended.
Lightning surged into the sky.
The shifting clouds were torn apart, and streaks of lightning raged, illuminating the night sky brightly.
Under the illuminated night, countless blood-tendrils and fleshy sprouts withered and turned to ash.
They fell like dust.
At the end, the ancient castle had been flattened, wisps of smoke rising.