The next moment, a strong sense of crisis arose in Zhang Huan's heart.
In a split second, he stopped letting the other party buy time, decisively condensing Saint Power in his palm and striking out with all his might.
With the power of a Great Sage strike, a Saint would die upon touching it, and a false Saint like Old Man Mu had zero possibility of surviving.
Yet the strike, delivered from a hair's breadth away, dissolved and dissipated in the air before even touching Old Man Mu, leaving not a single trace behind.
Something is indeed weird!
No wonder this old man simply stayed put and let Zhang Huan track him down—he truly had some kind of backing. The weird dissolution of this Saint Power... if it were flesh and blood, touching it would probably turn it into bloody water.
Zhang Huan retreated several hundred meters behind him, raising his vigilance.
He had probed with his spiritual sense over a hundred times: the house and ground were utterly ordinary, and the underground was completely empty, consisting entirely of soil and rock. He simply could not find the reason why the Saint Power was being dissolved.
According to what the old man had said earlier, he already knew the news of his son's death; perhaps the other party had long since left behind some Life Token that allowed Old Man Mu to know of life and death.
As a result, Zhang Huan would inevitably find this place by following the clues, and this person intended to wait for a hare by the stump to avenge his son.
He did not know what could give him such great courage to feel certain he could counter-kill Zhang Huan under such a massive disparity in strength.
Thinking about it, it should not be simple—it should at least be able to threaten a Saint King.
Old Man Mu's hole-like eyes looked over, the corners of his mouth grinning horrifyingly, covered in tiny cracks.
"Hehe, this was originally used to deal with those sacred lands, left as foundation-level existences, but now it's useless too. As long as I can kill you, it's worth destroying."
An unpleasant voice came from his hoarse throat. Old Man Mu had already transformed into something neither human nor ghost, a three-chi-long small tower flying out from his Bitter Sea and guarding above his head.
Something terrifying was coming.
A wave of palpitation rippled through Zhang Huan's heart. This was his sixth sense sounding the alarm, and he couldn't help but gaze at the crystal-clear, glazed small tower.
The tower had nine stories, of which several were already decayed, exuding dead qi and emitting a withered-yellow faint glow, extremely eerie and ominous.
As if it were coming alive, the small tower erupted with powerful pressure the moment it appeared, its deity seemingly awakening and emitting waves after waves of heart-palpitating fluctuations.
It was more terrifying than a Great Sage.
A Quasi-Emperor Artifact!
No wonder he was confident and fearless, believing he could take revenge on the spot—he had actually hidden such a fatal trump card.
Seeing Zhang Huan's solemn expression, Old Man Mu seemed very satisfied, and spoke again: "It's not over yet!"
Lifting his hands, the next moment, fluctuations a hundred times more terrifying than before emerged. Their might was monstrous, vast and profound, like an ancient emperor descending—unfathomable and terrifying to the extreme.
It was like a behemoth waking up before him; merely approaching its body was as heavy as Mount Tai pressing down.
All the vital qi and blood throughout Zhang Huan's body were vibrating, trembling uncontrollably, and profound shock filled his heart.
"This is... Supreme Dao Pressure!"
The Ruthless Bloodline had actually hidden so deeply. With this kind of foundation, even a Quasi-Emperor coming would not be able to gain the upper hand, and dealing with a Great Sage like Zhang Huan was more than enough.
Zhang Huan would never misidentify it. He had used the Heaven Swallowing Demonic Jar many times and was familiar with the Supreme Dao Aura; the other party definitely possessed a trump card related to an Ancient Great Emperor.
Thinking about it, it shouldn't be a Supreme Emperor Weapon or the like—if it were, why waste breath? The other party would have already fought desperately at all costs.
Judging by the other party's earlier action of luring Zhang Huan into the courtyard, nine times out of ten it was an Emperor Formation.
No wonder his spiritual sense could not detect any abnormalities.
If it were an Emperor Formation, as long as he didn't step into the killing zone, Zhang Huan was confident he could protect himself by relying on the Heaven Swallowing Demonic Jar.
Intact Emperor formations in this world almost only existed in legends; they were invisible even to Supreme Dao Lineages. What the other party held should be a broken fragment, its power less than one-tenth, in which case the threat was greatly reduced.
A fragment of an Emperor Formation and a Quasi-Emperor Artifact—if it were any other Great Sage, this old bastard really would have succeeded in getting his revenge.
Zhang Huan did not hesitate any longer, feigning fear as he flew backward, heading straight up into the starry sky.
Zhang Huan was dead set on killing him, and he was dead set on revenge; the commotion of this battle definitely wouldn't be small. If they started fighting on Big Dispirited, it was possible even the boundless Eastern Wasteland might be beaten down into sinking.
Once those Supreme Dao forces sensed it, it would be hard to wrap things up. It was best to head into the starry sky to wage an Extreme Dao War, at which point Zhang Huan could also take the opportunity amidst the deserted starry sky to study the other party's memories and techniques.
Seeing Zhang Huan flee, a wisp of black evil qi drifted out from the old man's body, constantly muttering the two words revenge.
It seemed entwined with malevolent and evil qi originating from the Underworld, and the surrounding air was turning poisonous.
He took out more than a dozen implements, every single one of them a Saint Artifact, refining them with a secret technique until cracks climbed across the surfaces of the Saint Artifacts.
The Saint Artifacts vibrated, emitting mournful cries as if unwilling to dissipate, but they ultimately could not resist the person manipulating them and the eerie dissolving force. They exploded one by one, their saintly brilliance scattering like starlight.
"Sacrifice of Saint Artifacts, control the possession of ten thousand ghosts, and provide me with drive to kill the enemy!"
Old Man Mu let out a hoarse roar, materialized resentment continuously overflowing and transforming the other party into a monster in a mere few seconds—half-human, half-ghost, enough to chill the hearts of Saints.
Seeming to still retain some sanity, the ghost-like old man gripped the fragment of the killing formation, drove the ghosts to crawl at his feet, and quickly caught up with the aid of the Quasi-Emperor tower.
"This person is definitely connected to the Underworld."
First was that decayed small tower exuding dead qi, and then this secret technique commanding ten thousand ghosts—it was all dealing with dead people, and ordinary people didn't have this ability.
His escape light reached the ultimate limit, instantly passing through floating clouds and flying into the boundless starry sky. Zhang Huan did not stop, heading straight toward an ancient battlefield.
The old ghost behind him was not slow either. Under multiple amplifications, he was actually not much different from the limit speed of a Saint King, locking onto Zhang Huan the entire time.
"Old thing, I'll let your whole family reunite right now."
Zhang Huan's eyes were gloomy, a wave of disgust welling up as he looked at the old man's utterly resentful appearance.
He had learned the overbearing nature of the Ruthless Bloodline today. They viewed other living beings as straw dogs while treating their own kind as special—such double standards, how were they any different from Heavenly Dragons?
Perhaps some of it stemmed from the traits of the Heaven Swallowing Demonic Art, but more of it came from people's own arrogance and superiority.
"Kill you, kill!"
The old ghost followed closely behind. This was a Field of Shattered Meteorites, tens of millions of miles away from Big Dipper.
The broken fragment of the Emperor Formation in his hand evolved all things in an endless cycle, shooting out a streak of white light that encompassed the rules of dissolution and dispersion. It caught up to Zhang Huan and shot toward him.
Extreme Dao Power cannot be resisted by anything other than the Extreme Dao. With this single strike, even a Quasi-Emperor would be stripped of a layer of skin. Seeing the white light drawing closer, the old ghost laughed excitedly, feeling thoroughly gratified.
"Hahahaha, die! Ha."
Seeing that they were far enough away from Big Dipper, Zhang Huan no longer held back. Emperor Power surged, wiping the white light away completely with even greater tyranny and terror.
Before he could be happy for more than a few seconds, Zhang Huan expressionlessly raised the Heaven Swallowing Demonic Jar.
The old ghost acted as if he were seeing an unbelievable sight; his breathing stopped entirely. Despite the ten thousand ghosts howling around his body, he stared fixedly at the demonic jar carved with a ghostly face held in Zhang Huan's hand.
The ghostly face upon it looked neither crying nor smiling, preternaturally strange. The dark light it revealed was chilling and terrifying, wreathed in countless strands of Chaos Qi, archaic and mysterious.
The endless devouring laws resembled a bottomless black hole capable of swallowing up the sun, moon, and stars entirely.
"This, this is..."
His hollow eyes widened so much that two eggs could be stuffed inside. The old ghost trembled with his hands, unable to utter a single coherent sentence for a long time.
At this moment, he had even cast the grudge of his son's murder to the winds, staring motionlessly at the demonic jar.
"As part of the Ruthless Bloodline, you surely must recognize it. After searching for hundreds of generations, you finally see it—don't you have any thoughts at all?"
Seeing that the other party had lost his mind, Zhang Huan raised the Heaven Swallowing Demonic Jar in his hand and said teasingly.
Before you continue