Turbid Blood Sealing Meridian

The armor on Meng Tian's arm shattered, and a cyan-gray sword energy bit like a living snake, the steel plates of the armor emitting a "sizzling" corrosive sound. That Chaos Sword Essence, carrying the malevolence that annihilates all things, pierced directly through flesh and bone, drilling towards the marrow. The intense pain made his vision black, yet he still tightly held the scalding body in his arms—Cheng Xi's every twitch was like a dying beast trapped in a cage, the escaping sword energy carving bloody scars between them.

"Let go... you'll be swallowed by it..." Cheng Xi's voice was hoarse like torn silk, the Chaos Sword Essence completely going berserk under the stimulation of the Ancestor Dragon's Power. The faint light of the Tongtian Mark flickered between the cracks of the Qingping Sword Sheath, like a candle flame in a gale, threatening to extinguish at any moment. He felt like a clay pot filled with gunpowder, cracks spreading from the inside, just one last tremor away from mutual destruction.

Just as that uncontrollable sword energy was about to pierce Meng Tian's heart!

Whoosh--!

The sound of air being torn apart shattered the deathly silence. That rough Bone Arrow, entwined with Savage Blood Qi, struck later but arrived first, as precise as fate! The arrowhead was not metal, but polished from the fangs of some colossal beast, a point of dark red blood light at its tip, condensed into substance.

Bang!

The dull impact sound was not the clash of metal, but more like a heavy hammer striking sodden earth. The Bone Arrow fiercely embedded itself into the most violent node of the cyan-gray sword energy! The dark red blood qi entwined around the arrow shaft, like a living creature, instantly transformed into countless fine blood threads, wildly coiling and penetrating the chaotic, sharp cyan-gray light. With a sizzling sound, the ferocious sword energy visibly dimmed and stagnated, like a venomous snake wrapped in muddy sludge, writhing in vain but unable to advance further!

Meng Tian looked up sharply, cold sweat mixed with blood trickling down. From the shadow of the towering palace walls, a figure like an iron tower slowly emerged. A beast-skin loincloth, muscles knotted like ancient bronze, carrying a massive white bone longbow on his back. The moonlight outlined his face, as resolute as if carved by an axe, his calm eyes swept over the eroded hole in Meng Tian's chest, finally settling on Cheng Xi, his brow furrowed like rock strata.

"Houtu Tribe, Hou Yi." His voice was deep, carrying the weight and unquestionable authority of the earth. "By order of Empress Pingxin, seeking the Zhurong bloodline, and encountering this... chaotic malevolence." His gaze was like a torch, fixed on the cyan-gray sword energy pinned by the Bone Arrow, still struggling and sizzling, "This power is vicious, no longer a mortal art, and it pollutes Pangu's legacy. Hand it over to me."

"No..." Cheng Xi struggled, trying to raise his head. The Chaos Sword Essence was forcibly suppressed by the Savage Blood Qi, but the backlash surged like a tide, crashing against his already broken meridians, causing him such pain that he almost fainted. He could feel the essence of the blood qi on the Bone Arrow—heavy, turbid, carrying the impure, malevolent power settled deep within the earth for millennia! While this power could temporarily neutralize the sharp, chaotic Chaos Sword Essence, it was also further polluting the nascent Dao Foundation within him! It was like trying to extinguish lava with mud; the fire might be temporarily suppressed, but what remained was a more polluted ruin.

Hou Yi said no more, taking a step forward. The ground trembled slightly. His rough, bark-like hand moved like lightning, fingers spread, and a primitive Witch Script formed from flowing dark red blood qi appeared in his palm—"Seal"!

"With the turbidity of the earth, I seal the chaos within your body!" Hou Yi roared, his palm carrying the blood-red "Seal" Witch Script, and slammed it fiercely towards Cheng Xi's Dantian Qi Sea!

The side hall of Ganquan Palace had become a purgatory. Amidst the ruins, blazing white flames mixed with wisps of dark gold light, forced out, raged like an out-of-control dragon. Scorched pillars crackled, and glazed tiles melted into flowing crimson magma.

Yan Lingji knelt in the center of the ruins, her crimson dress licked by flames but unharmed. She clutched the back of her left hand, her knuckles turning pale from excessive force. Beneath her skin, the dark golden vertical pupil patterns burned hot, like red-hot brands deeply embedded in her bones, each pulse bringing soul-tearing pain. Demonic whispers in her skull were like maggots on bone, growing clearer and more frenzied:

"Burn! Burn this cage!"

"Pangu is dead! Laws should be destroyed!"

"Embrace chaos! You are eternal!"

The blazing white Zhurong Witch Fire instinctively rose to protect its master, but the moment it touched the dark golden patterns, it erupted into an even more violent conflict, like ice water thrown into boiling oil! The two forces clashed and tore within her slender body. Meridians wailed, and bones groaned. The residual imprint of the Will of Pangu Hall lay like a heavy, cold mountain, suppressing her boiling bloodline, but also stifling the resistance of her own Witch Fire, leaving her like a lamb nailed to an altar, enduring the torment of attacks from both within and without.

The Qingping Sword Sheath in her arms was hot as a branding iron, the last wisp of cyan light emanating from the cloud patterns at its opening, like a fine needle, pierced her brow, bringing a brief moment of clarity. The weak yet resolute voice of Lord Tongtian, mixed with the vast, heavy call from the depths of the distant earth ("Return..."), exploded in her soul sea:

"The lamp of the heart is not extinguished! Witch Fire is not a flame to burn the world... it is... Civilization's Hearth Fire!"

Hearth Fire?

These two words struck like thunder, cleaving through the chaos of the demonic whispers. In an instant, she seemed to see Suirenshi drilling wood to make fire, the sparks that dispelled cold and darkness, the figures of humanity struggling for survival in the wilderness... that flame, weak, yet carrying the hope and heritage to pierce through the ancient darkness!

"Ah--!" Yan Lingji suddenly raised her head and let out a resolute roar! No longer passively enduring, but actively condensing! She poured all her remaining will, no longer used to resist the cold imprint of Pangu, nor fearing the encroaching demonic whispers, but channeling it all into the precarious blazing white flame at her heart!

To burn away filth, not oneself! Witch Fire, should be the fuel for the hearth!

Boom!

The faint flame at her heart suddenly ignited! Its color was no longer pure blazing white, but tinged with a faint, warm orange-red! This flame carried a tragic protective intent, no longer violently burning the dark golden patterns, but transforming into countless fine threads of fire, like nimble weavers, precisely coiling and enveloping the dark golden veins spreading through her bloodline! Burning! Purifying! Neutralizing!

Sizzle... Hiss...

Like cold water dripping into boiling oil! The dark golden patterns writhed and struggled violently where they were wrapped by the orange-red flames, emitting piercing annihilation sounds! Wisps of foul black smoke rose from Yan Lingji's body. The vertical pupil crack on the back of her hand, about to open again, shrank sharply as if burned and closed! The dark golden patterns spreading to her neck receded like a tide!

The price was bone-piercing agony! Every purification was like gouging out a piece of flesh from the depths of her soul! For every inch of demonic pattern the orange-red flames burned, her own Witch Fire origin dimmed by one point, her complexion paled by one point, as if her life was also burning away.

In the flames of the ruins, her slender figure trembled violently, yet she held her spine rigidly straight. Flames intertwined with blazing white and orange-red rose around her, suppressing the residual dark gold flowing shadows firmly beneath her skin, like a stubborn lamp burning in purgatory.

Deep within the desolate forest north of Mount Li, the dead silence was broken by heavy, pained gasps. Lu Buwei curled up in a hollow filled with decaying leaves, his fine robes tattered, stained with mud and dark gold viscous fluid. He clutched the half-charred Demon Lizard's Severed Skull tightly in his arms, as if holding onto his last lifeline, or perhaps embracing a man-eating demon.

"Hah... hah... Mine... all mine..." His eyeballs bulged, bloodshot, greedily pressing his cheek against the cold, foul-smelling broken surface of the skull. The erosion left by the Chaos Sword Essence burned within him, bringing endless weakness and pain, only the cold, sticky sensation from the skull offered a sliver of strange comfort and... the illusion of power.

Buzz...

The severed skull in his arms trembled violently! The dark gold slurry that had long since solidified, like a hibernating venomous snake, suddenly regained its activity and, through the wound torn by the sword energy on Lu Buwei's chest, surged in even more madly! Cold, slippery, with a soul-shivering hunger!

"Ugh!" Lu Buwei's entire body convulsed as if struck by electricity. Fragments of broken, frenzied images filled with destructive desire surged into his mind like a tsunami: stars shattering under giant claws, gods and demons dissolving in slime, endless darkness and devouring... Finally, the image froze on a pair of immensely large, cold dark gold vertical pupils staring down at the entire Primordial Era! Ruthless, greedy, viewing all things as sustenance!

"No! Get out! This is my body! My power!" The remaining sanity screamed frantically, the Chancellor who held sway over the court instinctively resisting this complete erosion. He tried to fling the demonic skull away, but his fingers were as if welded to it by invisible slime, unmoving! The dark gold liquid that seeped into his body, like greedy roots, spread wildly through his flesh and meridians, taking root. Wherever it passed, the feeling of being "human" rapidly faded, replaced by a cold, chaotic, non-human sensation.

Squelch...

A faint but bone-chilling tearing sound came from the edge of the wound on his chest. Lu Buwei looked down in horror.

He saw that along the edges of the flesh and skin repeatedly soaked by the dark gold liquid, several small, sharp-edged dark gold scales, like newly grown poisonous mushrooms, were stubbornly piercing his ashen human skin and slowly emerging! In the dim moonlight, they shimmered with a metallic, cold luster!

"No... no--!" Lu Buwei let out a non-human howl, full of despair and fear. He clearly felt something awakening within him, something... replacing him!

As if responding to his fear, the half-silent Demon Lizard's Severed Skull in his arms, the remaining half of its scarlet evil eye, the charred muscle tissue at the eyelid suddenly twitched... very slightly.

Deep beneath Mount Li, time seemed to have frozen. Only the majestic golden Dragon Vein Earth Energy, like the blood of a sleeping dragon, surged silently through the ancient rock tunnels, nourishing the mountains and rivers, maintaining the foundation of Great Qin's national destiny.

That drop of heavy, viscous Dark Gold Demonic Blood had already permeated the edge of the main dragon vein along the finest rock crevices, without a sound. It was like a sentient poisonous insect, patiently lurking, searching for the most surging, yet most "lax" moment in the flow of the dragon qi.

It's here!

A torrent of Dragon Vein Earth Energy surged past, its momentum slightly slowing, precisely the node of power flow in the Great Zhou cycle!

This is the moment!

The Dark Gold Demonic Blood suddenly dissolved! No longer a droplet, but scattered into billions of threads, as fine as gossamer, twisted like living snakes, dark gold patterns! Like leeches that had smelled blood, they accurately and madly lunged towards the pure golden torrent of dragon qi, coiling, piercing, and merging!

Sizzle sizzle sizzle--!

Silent erosion proceeded fiercely at the level of laws! The majestic and vast dragon qi was forcibly injected with factors of violence, chaos, and destruction! Within the golden torrent, countless winding dark gold patterns were instantly dyed, like corrupted blood vessels rapidly spreading on healthy flesh! The originally warm and majestic earth energy suddenly became scorching hot, restless, filled with ominous malevolence!

Rumble...

A dull, pained roar echoed from deep within the Mount Li mountain range, like a colossal dragon's heart pierced by fangs in its slumber. On the mountain's surface, countless birds and beasts took flight in alarm, while wild animals fled, an invisible panic spreading through the forest.

At the core of the earth's veins, within the rapidly contaminated golden torrent, a colossal, indistinct phantom of a vertical pupil, condensed from pure dark gold demonic energy, was rapidly taking shape. The pupil was not solid, but composed of billions of struggling, wailing resentments and fragments of chaotic laws. The instant this vertical pupil fully formed--

Hum!

The vertical pupil violently "rotated." Its cold, emotionless, and utterly greedy gaze, like tangible probes, instantly pierced through the thick rock layers and earth energy. Disregarding spatial barriers, it locked onto the northwest!

At the end of its sight lay--shrouded in night, its palaces magnificent, yet faintly entwined with a trace of residual Ancestor Dragon's Power and a denser aura of chaotic demon energy... Xianyang Palace!

The vertical pupil's "gaze" swept over the palace walls, skimmed the unfaded bloodstains on the plaza, penetrated layers of halls... finally, it precisely landed on a secluded chamber--where a potent scent of blood, Chaos Sword Essence, and... the sealing aura of the earth's turbid miasma lingered!

Target locked: Cheng Xi! And... the Witch Clan's turbid blood that was suppressing the Chaos Sword Essence within him!

Deep within the dark gold vertical pupil, reflecting Cheng Xi's pained, curled-up form and the blood-red "Seal" Witch Script in Hou Yi's palm, a pure, destructive desire, like a poisonous vine, grew and spread.