Spirit of the Wolf Ancestor

Night was as black as ink, swallowing the last sliver of daylight over the Golden Tent Grassland. The Northern Mang Royal Court had been surrounded by the Northern Expeditionary Army's torches, becoming a lone island amid the flames. Firelight flickered across the soldiers' icy faces and gleaming weapons, while a killing air congealed like iron.

Deep within the Royal Court, the tallest Golden Wolf Great Tent had already been dismantled. In its place stood a massive altar built from white bones and black stone. Countless twisted, grotesque dark-red totems were painted around it, and the air reeked with a blood stench so thick it made one retch.

Tens of thousands of slave corpses lay piled around the altar. Their blood flowed like streams through the carved channels, pouring without end into a bottomless black hole at the altar's center. Members of the Northern Mang royal clan and shaman priests stood around the altar's edge, pale-faced yet consumed by feverish despair, chanting ancient and sinister prayers.

The Northern Mang National Preceptor stood atop the altar, gripping a bloodstained white-bone staff. His aura was linked to the entire altar and had become wildly unstable—at times waning like a guttering candle in the wind, at times surging like a volcano on the verge of eruption.

"With royal blood as the guide!"

"With shaman souls as the bridge!"

"With a hundred thousand living beings as the sacrifice!"

"We respectfully invite the Spirit of the Wolf Ancestor to awaken and protect Your descendants!"

The National Preceptor's voice was hoarse and crazed as he suddenly drove the white-bone staff into the black hole at the altar's center!

Boom—!!!

The entire altar shook violently. A thick pillar of bloody light shot into the sky from the black hole, piercing straight through the clouds! From within the pillar came a wolf's howl, as though it had risen from primordial antiquity, brimming with brutality and hunger!

The sound did not ring beside their ears. It reverberated directly within every soul! Many Northern Expeditionary Army soldiers surrounding the Royal Court went pale and instinctively retreated half a step, tightening their grips on their weapons.

Even Meridian Condensing Realm generals like Old Niu and Sun Quezi felt their minds sway and their blood churn.

"Damn it, what the hell is that thing?!" Old Niu spat, staring fixedly at the pillar of bloody light.

Chen Qing floated above the army formation. His twenty-four-meter Fierce Tiger Domain naturally spread out, blocking that soul-level impact. He calmly watched the bloody pillar, sensing the terrifying aura rapidly gathering and swelling within it.

That aura surpassed the Aperture Opening Realm and carried a trace... of the flavor of a higher level of power! Though impure and chaotic, filled with resentment and madness, it had truly touched the threshold of a "Dharma Aspect"!

The Dharma Aspect Realm lay above the Aperture Opening Realm. A martial artist's divine soul would begin to merge with the laws of heaven and earth, allowing them to condense a Heaven-and-Earth Dharma Aspect possessing immense power! That was the true beginning of transcending the mundane!

This Northern Mang National Preceptor had actually used such an evil Blood Sacrifice to forcibly awaken and condense an incomplete Wolf Ancestor Dharma Aspect!

"Interesting." Rather than fear, an even fiercer fighting spirit ignited in Chen Qing's eyes. He had been troubled by how difficult it was to swiftly advance his mid-stage Aperture Opening Realm cultivation. How could he possibly let this "feast" delivered right to his doorstep slip away?

At that moment, the towering pillar of bloody light abruptly contracted, all of it sinking back into the altar. Space above the altar twisted, and a gigantic wolf Dharma Aspect, one hundred zhang tall and formed entirely from dark-red energy, slowly condensed into existence!

This giant wolf Dharma Aspect was more than a hundred times more solid than the phantom previously condensed by the Wolf God Guard! Its fangs were like mountain peaks, its claws tore through the void, and bloody flames burned around its body. Within those enormous wolf eyes was nothing but the purest desire for destruction and devouring! The pressure it exuded made heaven and earth lose their color. It had astonishingly reached the Dharma Aspect Realm! Though it was an incomplete pseudo-Dharma Aspect sustained through Blood Sacrifice, its power was still far beyond that of an ordinary Aperture Opening Realm martial artist!

"The Wolf Ancestor! The Wolf Ancestor has manifested!"

"Northern Mang is saved! Slaughter these southern barbarians!"

Around the altar, the surviving Northern Mang nobles and soldiers erupted into fanatical cheers, as if they had seen the dawn of victory.

The Northern Mang National Preceptor's face was deathly pale, and his aura had withered. Presiding over this Blood Sacrifice had clearly consumed more than half his life force. Yet his eyes were filled with madness and triumph as he pointed at Chen Qing and roared, "Wolf Ancestor! Kill him! Devour him!"

The hundred-zhang Wolf Ancestor Dharma Aspect instantly fixed its cold, massive eyes on Chen Qing in the air. It let out a heaven-shaking roar, and its enormous claw slammed down at him with a terrifying force capable of tearing heaven and earth apart! Before the claw wind even arrived, the power of laws within it had already begun to solidify the space around Chen Qing!

Facing an attack far beyond the Aperture Opening Realm, Chen Qing's gaze became solemn to the utmost—but his excitement also reached its peak!

He held nothing back. He drove his mid-stage Aperture Opening Realm cultivation to its limit, sending the twenty-four-meter Fierce Tiger Domain into full operation as the three True Intents of slaughter, annihilation, and devouring fused in an unprecedented fashion!

"Black Tiger Dharma Aspect, condense!"

With a low shout, the void behind him twisted. Endless dark-red and deep-blue Killing Intent gathered madly, condensing into an eighty-zhang black giant tiger Dharma Aspect!

This giant tiger Dharma Aspect was not a physical entity. It was formed from the purest Killing Intent and Chen Qing's Black Tiger True Intent! Dark-red and deep-blue radiance flowed around its body. Its tiger eyes held the tyrannical dominance to suppress all things and the deathly stillness to annihilate all creation. On its forehead, the character "King," condensed from Killing Intent, faintly exuded a vortex-like force capable of devouring everything!

This was the Fierce Tiger Dharma Aspect Chen Qing had initially condensed after breaking into the Aperture Opening Realm, combining it with the traits of his own cultivation art! Though it was far less solid and immense than the Wolf Ancestor Dharma Aspect, its quality was purer and more tyrannical!

"Roar!"

The Fierce Tiger Dharma Aspect released an earth-shattering tiger roar and fearlessly charged toward the descending giant claw!

Boom——!!!

Tiger claw and wolf claw collided viciously!

It was like two stars crashing together! A terrifying energy storm erupted in an instant, forming an enormous sphere of energy that expanded madly in every direction! More than half the altar below collapsed at once. Northern Mang nobles and priests around it were swept by the leaking energy and turned to ash in an instant! Even the defensive light barrier over the Northern Expeditionary Army camp several li away shook violently, flickering in and out of existence!

Chen Qing's body jolted violently, and the Fierce Tiger Dharma Aspect blurred for a moment. Sweetness rose in his throat as blood surged upward, only to be forcibly suppressed. The other side's power truly far exceeded his own!

But the Wolf Ancestor Dharma Aspect did not fare well either. The claw that had collided with the Fierce Tiger Dharma Aspect was being eroded by the annihilating and devouring power within it, its dark-red energy constantly dissipating!

"Devour! Devour it for me!"

A fierce glint flashed through Chen Qing's eyes. Controlling the Fierce Tiger Dharma Aspect, he opened its massive jaws. A powerful devouring force erupted, actively tearing at and devouring the energy in the Wolf Ancestor Dharma Aspect's claw and arm!

[Engaging a pseudo-Dharma Aspect Realm opponent, Fierce Tiger Iron Body proficiency +2000!]

[Devouring Dharma Aspect energy, Fierce Tiger Dharma Aspect solidity increased...]

Madness! Utter madness!

He was actually forcibly devouring the enemy Dharma Aspect's energy in the midst of battle!

The Wolf Ancestor Dharma Aspect let out an enraged, agonized howl and tried to break free, but the devouring force clung to it like gangrene eating into the bone! The energy it had obtained through Blood Sacrifice was being plundered at a terrifying speed!

Seeing this, the Northern Mang National Preceptor's eyes split with rage. "Impossible! How could the Wolf Ancestor's power be something you can devour?! Explode! Explode for me!"

He actually intended to detonate this incomplete Wolf Ancestor Dharma Aspect and perish together with Chen Qing!

The Wolf Ancestor Dharma Aspect's body instantly became extremely unstable as terrifying energy gathered madly within it!

Chen Qing's pupils suddenly contracted. He sensed a lethal threat!

Without hesitation, he controlled the Fierce Tiger Dharma Aspect to retreat sharply, while simultaneously shrinking the twenty-four-meter Fierce Tiger Domain to its utmost limit to shield himself!

At that very instant!

Rumble rumble rumble—!!!

The hundred-zhang Wolf Ancestor Dharma Aspect detonated with a thunderous blast!

Destructive energy swept outward like a tsunami, instantly swallowing the altar, swallowing the remnants of the Northern Mang Royal Court, swallowing everything!

Between heaven and earth, there remained only endless blood-red destruction!