Hellbound Together, Blood-Red Trial

Hellbound Together, Blood-Red Trial

Thick, icy liquid reeking heavily of blood enveloped his entire body. Immense pressure squeezed in from all directions, as if it would crush him and assimilate him into this sea of blood. His consciousness seemed to fall into a bottomless abyss, sinking endlessly.

Ling Feng abruptly opened his eyes! His golden pupils shot sharp light through the absolute darkness! The Will of Judgment instantly dispelled the suffocating sensation of drowning!

He found himself inside a massive passage formed entirely of Dark Red, semi-solidified blood. The passage was roughly thirty meters high and only wide enough for three or four people to walk abreast. Its walls and ceiling were made of slowly writhing blood that seemed alive, giving off a nauseatingly sweet stench and endless resentment. Thick blood plasma lay beneath his feet, making every step exceptionally difficult. The air was filled with tangible killing pressure that constantly eroded Soul Power and Spiritual Power.

This was the Hell Road! A true death trial ground!

"Hu Liena?" Ling Feng called out in a low voice, which sounded somewhat muffled within the viscous bloody space. He remembered that they had jumped into the blood pool together.

"I... I'm here..." Hu Liena's weak voice came from beside him. She was not far from Ling Feng's side, with nearly half her body trapped in the thick blood plasma. Her face was pale; clearly, the teleportation had drained her considerably. She struggled to stand, but the blood plasma beneath her feet coiled around her as if it were alive.

Ling Feng frowned slightly and reached out without hesitation, grabbing Hu Liena by the arm. Her skin felt icy, slick, and faintly trembling beneath his hand. He suddenly exerted force!

"Up!"

Hu Liena felt an irresistible surge of strength. Her body was instantly pulled free of the thick blood plasma's restraints, landing steadily on the relatively "solid" blood-red ground. She panted in lingering fright, her gaze toward Ling Feng complicated as she softly said, "Thank you."

"Save your strength." Ling Feng released her and swept his sharp gaze over the bottomless blood-red passage ahead. His golden pupils gleamed like two cold stars in the dim light. "The real danger has only just begun."

Warning! High concentrations of killing resentment detected! Mental barrier continuously depleting!

Warning! Five hundred meters ahead, spatial structure unstable. Deadly traps detected!

The system's warnings rang in Ling Feng's mind. He immediately activated the Domain of Judgment. A faint golden-black halo enveloped him and Hu Liena beside him, isolating the all-pervasive killing resentment and bloody pressure. Hu Liena immediately felt the burden lighten, and her spirits were lifted. Her eyes filled with amazement as she looked at that halo.

"Stay close. Watch your footing and the sides," Ling Feng said solemnly as he stepped forward. Every step sank into the thick blood plasma with a squelching sound, exceptionally clear in the deathly silent passage.

Hu Liena immediately composed herself and underwent Martial Soul Possession. Her bewitching fox tail swayed gently behind her as she warily followed half a step behind Ling Feng's side. Within the narrow, oppressive blood-red passage, the two figures were like two insignificant specks of light resisting the boundless darkness and bloodshed.

They had gone less than a hundred meters when a sudden change erupted!

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Countless sharp bone spikes made of solidified blood suddenly stabbed out from the writhing blood walls on both sides without warning! Fast as lightning, they tore through the air with piercing shrieks, covering every direction around the two like a torrential downpour! Even more terrifyingly, the blood plasma beneath their feet instantly thickened into a swamp. A powerful suction force dragged at them, trying to pin them in place as targets for the bone spikes!

"Watch out!" Hu Liena cried. Her third soul ring lit up instantly, and pink seductive light tried to interfere with the bone spikes, but the effect was negligible! These attacks, condensed from pure killing resentment and blood energy, were almost immune to mental control!

Ling Feng's eyes turned sharp!

"Spear of Judgment!"

A golden spear condensed from pure lightning energy instantly appeared in his hand, its tip wreathed in destructive black radiance! He did not choose to defend. Instead, he chose to attack!

"Break!"

With a flick of his wrist, the Spear of Judgment shot out countless afterimages like golden lightning! Each one struck the tip of an incoming blood-red bone spike with incomparable precision!

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang—!

The dense ringing of metal echoed through the passage like rain! The Spear of Judgment, which contained both sacred purification and Destructive Pierce, was the nemesis of this foul blood energy! The struck bone spikes either instantly shattered into blood mist or were eroded by the destructive black radiance, rapidly softening and dissolving!

At the same time, Ling Feng stomped down hard! Judgment Soul Power erupted! The thick blood plasma seemed to meet searing heat and was instantly evaporated and forced aside! He grabbed Hu Liena's wrist and shouted, "Go!"

Like an arrow released from a bowstring, he charged fiercely through the now much sparser rain of bone spikes and burst through the brief opening he had created!

Puff! Puff! Puff!

Several bone spikes that slipped through grazed Ling Feng's cloak and Hu Liena's hem, scattering scraps of fabric. The two narrowly escaped the bone-spike trap zone.

Still shaken, Hu Liena looked back at the area where blood-red bone spikes continued to stab outward. Then she looked at the wrist Ling Feng had tightly held. A faint, barely noticeable blush rose to her face, only to be swiftly replaced by solemnity. If Ling Feng had not reacted so quickly, attacked so precisely, and wielded such overwhelming force, they would have been severely wounded even if they survived!

"There's a spatial trap ahead. Follow my steps. You cannot make a single mistake." Ling Feng let go of her hand. His voice remained cold, but his tone brooked no argument. The phantom of the Eye of Destiny flickered between his brows, while his powerful Spiritual Power scanned the seemingly calm yet deadly blood-red passage ahead with the precision of an instrument.

Hu Liena nodded firmly, concentrating with utmost intensity as she followed closely behind Ling Feng, stepping precisely into every footprint he left behind.

One step, two steps, three steps... It was like dancing on a blade's edge!

The instant Hu Liena took her final step over an invisible boundary, the area they had just crossed behind them twisted and collapsed like a shattered mirror! Countless black Spatial Rifts appeared out of thin air, madly cutting apart and devouring everything! The viscous blood plasma and writhing blood walls were instantly ground into their most primitive particles and vanished into that terrifying void!

Hu Liena's face went deathly pale, and cold sweat instantly soaked her back! If she had been even a step slower, or stepped in the wrong place... the consequences would have been unimaginable!

As she looked at Ling Feng's straight, steady back ahead of her, something indescribable appeared in her purple eyes for the first time, beyond gratitude and reliance... trust.

"Keep moving. Don't stop." Ling Feng's voice interrupted her lingering fear. The road ahead remained long and perilous.

Protected by the Domain of Judgment, the two continued their difficult advance through the oppressive, bloody passage. Killing resentment transformed into the shrieks of invisible evil spirits, relentlessly battering their mental barrier. The blood plasma beneath their feet sometimes became quicksand traps and sometimes solidified into blade-like blood crystals. From the blood walls on either side, blood-red energy wraiths occasionally lunged out in crazed attempts to drag them down together...

Every time danger struck, Ling Feng responded like the most precise war machine. He either smashed it apart with the Spear of Judgment, forcibly broke through with destructive Soul Power, or avoided it in advance through the Eye of Destiny. His fighting style was simple, efficient, and domineering, carrying the cold precision of judgment as he kept Hu Liena firmly behind him in a relatively safe position.

Hu Liena gradually adapted to this hellish rhythm after her initial nervousness. Although her fox charm skills had little effect on the creatures here, her sharp perception and agile movement, combined with Ling Feng's powerful offense, had defused flank ambushes at critical moments several times. Amid this death dance of blood and fire, the two gradually developed an unspoken understanding.

No one knew how long they walked or how many waves of attacks they killed. The depletion of Soul Power and the exhaustion of their minds surged over them like tides. Hu Liena's breathing became labored, and fine beads of sweat formed on her forehead. Ling Feng remained steady, but the golden light of his domain had dimmed somewhat. The constant expenditure and erosion of killing resentment had not left him unaffected.

Just as they both began to feel exhausted, the passage ahead suddenly opened up!

A massive blood-red space, like an underground cavern, appeared before them. At its center was not the expected exit, but an even larger terrifying blood pool churning with Dark Gold magma! Above it hung a scorching sulfurous stench hot enough to distort the air, mixing with the dense smell of blood below into an environment that made breathing difficult.

And in the middle of that rolling Dark Gold magma blood pool, a colossal creature lay coiled!

It was a terrifying giant serpent beyond description! Its entire body was covered in Dark Red, heavy scales resembling cooled lava, while Dark Gold magma flowed through the cracks between them. Most horrifying of all, it had not one head, but ten! Ten savage serpent heads were raised high, each as large as a house. Their fangs were exposed as they spewed venomous mist and flames of different colors—crimson poisonous fire, sickly green acid mist, ghostly blue frost breath, black corrosive smoke... Twenty cold serpent eyes, like twenty lanterns from hell, instantly locked onto Ling Feng and Hu Liena!

A pressure far more terrifying, violent, and filled with destruction and greed than any enemy before crashed over them like a tangible tsunami! The halo of the Domain of Judgment shook violently, emitting a groan of near collapse!

The Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent! Guardian of the Hell Road! A legendary primordial aberration!

"Hiss—Roaaar—!!!"

All ten snake heads let out an earth-shaking hiss capable of tearing souls apart! The entire blood-red space trembled! The Dark Gold magma blood pool churned violently!

"Get back!" Ling Feng's pupils constricted. He pulled the pale-faced Hu Liena behind him as the Spear of Judgment instantly condensed in his hand. Unprecedented gravity and fighting intent erupted from his golden eyes!

The true trial was only beginning now!