At the sight of the blood mist that had suddenly appeared before them, everyone screamed in terror.
They wanted to flee, but they had long since lost control of their bodies and couldn't move at all.
There was no possibility of escape.
Their despair and fear grew even more intense.
Screams echoed constantly through the great hall, ringing in everyone's ears.
Shen Hao wasn't bothered by the sound in the slightest.
On the contrary, to him, those terrified screams were every bit as good as the most beautiful music.
The aura of fear and despair was what put him at ease.
In that short time, he had already gained two or three hundred Fear Points.
Now he had more than five hundred Fear Points in total.
He really did think his classmates were adorable.
But this still wasn't enough. It would be best if the screams grew even more intense.
"It's the Bloodied Sovereign! He's going to eat us!"
Shen Hao shouted to the crowd. His voice made everyone even more uneasy, and the flames of fear burned ever higher.
The name Bloodied Sovereign didn't sound friendly at all. They had no doubt they would be eaten.
"There's no need to be afraid, everyone. There's still some good news. He'll probably spit out the bones, so there won't be nothing left of you."
But this so-called "good news" did nothing to cheer them up.
There wasn't much difference between being eaten whole and having a few bones left behind.
Neither prospect gave them any reason to be happy.
The screams did indeed grow more intense.
At that moment, the figure in the blood-colored mist grew clearer and clearer, and bright red armor came into view.
Then a massive arm stretched out. It was thick, but its muscles had none of the beauty of defined contours, and its skin was a charred black.
Shen Hao couldn't help thinking, Is that the Bloodied Sovereign's arm? He looks just like a monster!
The arm was pointing directly at Shen Hao. Its beastlike hand grasped at empty air, and Shen Hao suddenly felt his body take an involuntary step forward.
At that moment, his body seemed to feel a yearning: a yearning to walk up to the Bloodied Sovereign and become his dinner.
That yearning nearly made his body betray him.
He hadn't expected the Bloodied Sovereign's first target to be him, but Shen Hao didn't stop his body from moving forward.
He had discovered that as long as he resisted this force, his mental power would drain rapidly.
But as long as he didn't resist, his mental power would be preserved.
So he had to go along with the Bloodied Sovereign. He had to preserve some of his mental attribute, or he really would become a lamb awaiting slaughter.
Soon, his body arrived before the Bloodied Sovereign.
Watching this, everyone's hearts leaped into their throats, because they knew that what happened to Shen Hao would serve as an example for them.
What befell Shen Hao would also happen to them.
At last, he entered the mist, and now he could finally see the Bloodied Sovereign's full appearance.
He stood nearly two or three meters tall, wearing blood-red armor over his bloated body.
His skin was a strange, charred black, and his face was utterly hideous, with sharp fangs like a beast's.
His gaze held nothing but wildness and cruelty; there was no trace of reason in his scarlet eyes.
He was completely different from the person in the portrait.
The so-called Bloodied Sovereign was actually a monster clad in human armor.
Behind the Bloodied Sovereign stood an enormous gate, and the blood-colored mist came from it.
He couldn't see what lay beyond the gate at all, but he could sense an immensely powerful force there, one even more terrifying than the Bloodied Sovereign before him.
But that force was blocked by something and couldn't leave through the gate.
"Hello, Bloodied Sovereign!"
Before Shen Hao had finished speaking, the Demon Blade appeared in his hand, and he slashed at the Bloodied Sovereign before him.
The instant he saw the blade, a strange look flashed in the Bloodied Sovereign's eyes. The Demon Blade seemed to have stirred some of his memories.
For that instant, he seemed to regain some reason, but then his eyes filled with madness again.
The Demon Blade swept across his arm. Even that thick arm couldn't stop the demon's blade; it was severed cleanly and fell to the ground.
The fallen arm rapidly decayed, soon turning to ash and scattering.
Even the flesh around the cut on the Bloodied Sovereign's shoulder was rapidly decaying, and he seemed to feel pain as well.
Boom!
Shen Hao felt a heavy blow strike his chest. His body flew out of the blood-colored mist and crashed heavily to the ground.
He felt as though his internal organs were about to split apart.
Fortunately, he had the Immortal Body ability, and his constitution attribute was also very strong.
An injury of this degree hurt a great deal, but it wasn't fatal.
The others couldn't see what had happened in the blood mist. All they knew was that Shen Hao had been forced to walk into it and then had been sent flying out.
He was the only one among them who had experienced a Thriller Paradise instance. If even he had ended up like this, they had even less hope of surviving.
Terrified screams once again rang out in the great hall.
The Bloodied Sovereign looked at Shen Hao from within the mist, and Shen Hao's hand immediately began to move out of his control.
Holding the Demon Blade, he slashed straight at his own neck.
Shen Hao didn't resist the movement, but just as the Demon Blade was about to touch his neck, he put it back in his inventory.
Although his hand struck his neck, it did him no harm.
Seeing that he had failed to kill Shen Hao, the Bloodied Sovereign reached out and grasped at the air, pulling a crying girl straight to his side.
"Ah—"
The girl let out a terrified scream.
Shen Hao immediately used Possession to possess the girl, drew the Demon Blade from his inventory, and slashed at the Bloodied Sovereign once more.
This time the Bloodied Sovereign was alert. The girl's body was thrown away and hit the ground, and she passed out.
This caused many people to scream in terror again. They didn't know when it would be their turn.
"Insect! How dare you toy with me!"
The Bloodied Sovereign's furious roar rang out.
In an instant, the entire castle began to tremble. The blood-colored mist spread rapidly, growing denser as well.
Before long, the mist engulfed the entire great hall, then quickly filled every corner of the castle.
The ground beneath their feet seemed to come alive. The ground and walls softened, writhing ceaselessly.
Many people sank into the ground or the walls, helpless and despairing.
They knew they weren't far from death.
The fear and despair of approaching death made them scream in terror without end.
Shen Hao's feet also sank into the ground. Only now did he understand the true identity of the so-called Bloodied Sovereign.
Perhaps the castle itself was part of the Bloodied Sovereign, and they had long since entered his stomach.
He had already eaten them and could digest them at any time. The Blood Banquet Ritual was merely a formality, adding a little sense of ceremony.
But now Shen Hao had ruined that sense of ceremony, and there was no need for it anymore.
In that case, the Bloodied Sovereign no longer needed to keep up the act.
Shen Hao immediately took the Demon Blade from his inventory and stabbed it into the ground.
The spot pierced by the Demon Blade immediately turned charred black, rapidly rotted, and then turned to ash. His legs were freed.
But that didn't make the situation much better. The Bloodied Sovereign's body was too large; even the Demon Blade could do nothing about it now.