Chapter 151: Small Goal Achieved
After a fierce, all-night battle,
the various squads of the Demon Hunting Bureau had finally reached the summit.
The team members were all in a wretched state.
Every one of them was injured to some degree.
Chu Zhengxiong appeared at the altar, brandishing a large saber.
The sky was filled with a sea of blood-red clouds, still churning ceaselessly.
Atop the altar, the red-robed priest ignored the Demon Hunting Squads and continued his incessant dance.
With every wave of his hands,
the blood clouds in the sky churned even more violently.
The thick stench of blood saturated the air.
It was nauseating...
Chu Zhengxiong’s face was dark as he stared coldly at the High Priest on the altar.
After a long moment, he finally grit his teeth and said, "Damn it, you’re at death’s door and still putting on a show? I’ll fucking cut you down!"
With a furious roar, Chu Zhengxiong gripped his giant blade.
He swung it straight at the High Priest.
BOOM—
A deafening crack echoed as a wave of immense, savage blade energy tore a trench across the ground.
It surged toward the altar.
The instant the blade energy touched the altar,
the structure shattered like tofu, offering no resistance whatsoever.
It simply exploded, yet the High Priest on top showed not a single trace of fear.
Even though death was already upon him,
he continued his calm, composed dance on the altar.
It wasn’t until the altar burst apart that a powerful shockwave sent him flying.
THUD...
The moment the High Priest slammed heavily onto the ground,
PTHOO— he spat out a mouthful of blood.
Forcing his body up, he staggered back to his feet.
His hood had been blown off, revealing a nauseating face to the crowd.
His head was completely bald.
Bulging green veins covered his entire scalp, and his pupils glowed blood-red, savage and bloodthirsty.
No matter how you looked at him now, he no longer resembled a human.
He was more like a demon crawled up from Hell, terrifying and chilling to the bone.
His blood-red pupils stared at every person present.
Some of the less strong-willed team members, at the very moment their eyes met,
felt an inexplicable sense of terror and unease.
Then, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly, his purplish lips parting.
He spoke in a raspy voice, "My old friends from the Demon Hunting Bureau, we meet again!"
"Hahaha... A pity. The Demon King is about to be born! When that happens, the entire world will be plunged into misery and chaos. How many people can you possibly protect? By then, our Blood Drop will rule the world, and the Blood Lord will—"
"Will my ass!"
Before the High Priest could finish, Chu Zhengxiong cursed furiously.
He charged, giant blade in hand.
He launched himself off the ground, bringing the giant blade crashing down on the High Priest.
SQUELCH—
The giant blade cleaved down through the High Priest’s head.
As Chu Zhengxiong landed, a look of terror was frozen on the High Priest’s face.
He stared fixedly at Chu Zhengxiong as his body slowly split apart.
A torrent of blood gushed out.
He was split in two, a gruesome death on the spot...
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!—
Instantly, the blood clouds overhead began to rumble.
It was as if something was hiding within them,
and with the High Priest’s death, it had grown even more violent.
Chu Zhengxiong looked up at the blood clouds and at the corpses of the Martial Artists on the eighteen pillars.
Their blood had long since been drained.
They were devoid of any sign of life.
But the blood in the troughs was still flowing slowly toward the altar,
as if something were continuously absorbing it.
Just then, Yin Xiaoyu cried out, "Captain Chu, look at your feet!"
Alerted, Chu Zhengxiong quickly glanced down.
He saw that the High Priest’s blood seemed to have come alive, flowing purposefully toward the troughs.
"Damn it, he sacrificed himself!"
"Old Chu, get out of the way!"
Han Bin shouted urgently.
Chu Zhengxiong leaped aside, giant blade in hand.
The moment he hit the ground,
the High Priest’s blood had already flowed into the troughs.
It rushed with incredible speed toward the center of the altar.
In the blink of an eye, not a single drop of blood remained in the eighteen troughs; it had all been completely absorbed.
This bizarre scene left the other team members utterly astonished.
Just as they were trying to figure out what was happening,
RUMBLE—
The entire Wushan began to shake.
Seeing this, Han Bin and Chu Zhengxiong exchanged a look.
"The Demon King is being born?"
"Born my ass. It’s just a cheap trick..."
Chu Zhengxiong’s expression was grim as he walked toward the altar.
The other captains also drew near.
When they reached the ruined altar and looked down,
they saw the core of a formation beneath the rubble.
All the blood had flowed into this very core.
"I get it now. The Demon King is inside the mountain!"
"This was just a catalyst. The High Priest sacrificed himself and may have fulfilled some kind of condition. The Demon King might really be about to emerge..."
Han Bin said with a grave expression.
As his words fell, Chu Zhengxiong glanced back at him.
Before he could say anything,
BOOM—
an immense pressure erupted from the formation’s core, soaring toward the heavens.
A huge blast of qi sent Chu Zhengxiong, Han Bin, and Mo Ya flying.
BANG! BANG! BANG!...
The few of them slammed heavily onto the ground.
The other team members were all affected to some degree as well.
In the face of this immense blast, even a Six-Star Realm expert like Chu Zhengxiong was powerless to resist.
"Everyone, steady yourselves! Don’t panic!"
Chu Zhengxiong shouted hastily.
He then forced his body up, slowly getting to his feet.
The next moment, a pillar of blood shot up from the formation’s core.
It pierced the heavens, connecting the sky and the earth.
The stench of blood filled the air, blanketing all of Wushan.
The blood clouds in the sky grew even more agitated, their churning becoming more frequent than before.
It was at this moment that Liu Yuan walked over.
"The old chief was right. The Demon King’s birth is just one catalyst away!"
"What catalyst?"
Chu Zhengxiong glanced back at him.
Liu Yuan looked up at the sky and said lightly, "Don’t forget what day it is."
"Today? Holy shit, the day of the Martial Arts exam?"
"Don’t tell me the catalyst is the essence blood of the exam candidates?"
Liu Yuan nodded lightly.
"Although I don’t know what method they’ll use to steal the essence blood of so many students,"
"at this point, they must be completely confident they can pull it off."
"The key now lies with the old chief and his people."
"If they can protect those students, the crisis will resolve itself. But if they can’t... I’m afraid the Old District will be washed in rivers of blood!"
For a moment, everyone’s expression turned incomparably grave.
They subconsciously turned to look in the direction of Xinghai City.
In the distance, the horizon was faintly brightening.
A sliver of fish-belly white had quietly appeared over the mountains.
It formed a stark contrast with the blood-red sky above Wushan.
A complex mix of emotions flickered in the eyes of every Demon Hunting Team member.
Fear, unease, anticipation, farewell...
At this moment, they all put aside thoughts of their own life and death.
They instinctively sat down in a circle around the altar.
They could only wait to see if today’s Martial Arts exam would end without incident.
If something happened, they would be the first line of defense to stop the Demon King’s birth.
Or... cannon fodder.
...
"I did it! Hahahaha..."
"I finally broke through to the Three-Star Realm! First little goal accomplished!"
「Early Morning」
A jubilant cheer echoed through the Jingnan Hufu District.
Lin Yi sat in his room, looking at his personal stats panel.
[Name: Lin Yi]
[Occupation: Student]
[Martial Arts Realm: Three-Star, Tier 0]
[Qi and Blood Value: 0.11%]
After an entire night of cultivation,
just a moment ago, his body had suddenly felt as if it had been completely hollowed out.
His once-abundant Qi and Blood had vanished like a clay ox sinking into the sea—gone without a trace.
In an instant, he felt a sense of depletion.
He quickly exited his meditative state from the [Star River Qi Transformation Technique].
He hurriedly checked his body and his stats panel.
Only then did he realize he had broken through to the Three-Star Realm.
The appearance of his third major acupoint was frantically absorbing his existing Qi and Blood, trying to fill itself up.
However, even after nearly all the Qi and Blood in his body had been depleted,
the third major acupoint still wasn’t full. It wasn’t even halfway.
What followed was an intense feeling of hunger.
His vision began to black out in waves.
Sitting on his bed, Lin Yi immediately recalled something Qin Zhaoxue had told him.
"Don’t use the composite potions carelessly. You’ll understand when you break through to the Three-Star Realm!"
’Composite potions?’
’Right, I still have composite potions!’
Lin Yi quickly took a bottle out from his Storage Magical Artifact.
Without a second thought, he poured it into his mouth.
As the potion slid down his throat and into his stomach, its nutrients immediately began to break down.
In less than ten minutes, the intense hunger gradually faded.
But he still didn’t feel full.
’The consumption is this high? Looks like I’ll need two or three bottles to solve this?’ Lin Yi felt a pang of reluctance.