Slaughter City, Asura-like Mantis

The sky was as dark as ink, the ground was covered in filth, and the oppressive air around made it difficult to breathe.

Slaughter City, the arena.

A man in black, wearing a ferocious ghost mask, was wiping the crimson bloodstains from his strange scythe with the fresh corpses on the ground.

"Blood Mantis number 0091, victorious in a hundred duels! Newly promoted Slaughter God of Slaughter City—Blood Scythe Slaughter God!"

"Hell Road opens!"

From his throne on the high platform, the King of Slaughter had appeared at some unknown time. His gaze, sharp as a torch, locked onto the man in black in the life-and-death arena below, and he announced in a deep voice.

In the stands, the frenzied fallen erupted in a tsunami-like cheer, celebrating the birth of a new Slaughter God.

The man in black, however, merely swept his indifferent gaze around. He showed no surprise at the madness of the surrounding fallen, turned around silently, and stepped without hesitation into the Hell Road that had just opened.

Only the King of Slaughter watched his departing back, his expression grim.

The moment he stepped onto Hell Road, his vision suddenly went black, and his consciousness plunged into an abyss. Immediately after, a towering and majestic figure abruptly appeared in his mind, chanting solemnly:

"Slaughter God rises, Divine Spark returns, Hell opens, Asura descends!"

After a low whisper of unknown meaning dissipated, the colossal blood-red figure did not linger in the blood-red space. It left a blood bead within him before quietly vanishing, leaving behind only the man in black, who had fainted at the entrance to Hell Road.

The man's name was Chen Chu. He was born in a small village. His father died in war, and his mother fell ill upon hearing the news. She died of illness before he turned one year old.

Fortunately, he was adopted by the village chief, which allowed him to survive. It was also at that time that he realized he was in the Douluo Continent.

When he awakened his Martial Soul at the age of six, he unexpectedly awakened Sagros, a top-tier combat-type elf from his previous life in the world of Seer. With the talent of Innate Full Soul Power and a top-tier Martial Soul, he successfully enrolled in school and cultivated all the way to the Soul King realm.

However, he deliberately concealed his cultivation. Furthermore, the Soul Master who tested his Martial Soul died at the hands of wolf bandits, so very few people knew his true strength. After secretly breaking through to Soul King, he decisively withdrew from the academy without staying to teach.

Instead, he headed straight for Slaughter City and completed a hundred battles here. The reason for doing this was not only to temper Sagros's most primitive combat instincts but also to seek the elusive Asura God Position. However, it seemed his luck was quite good now.

Unsure how long he had been unconscious, Chen Chu finally regained full consciousness and began to recall everything that had just happened.

His divine sense probed into the sea of consciousness, and the first thing that caught his eye was the blood-red bead that had suddenly appeared.

"Holding the Slaughter Blood Bead, wielding the authority of Slaughter City!" The moment his fingertip touched the bead, all information about it flooded clearly into his mind. Immediately after, the scene before his eyes changed drastically, and the entire Slaughter City unfolded like a scroll—he seemed to have transformed into a god overlooking all beings, as if in a god's perspective, he could clearly see the appearance and actions of everyone in the city, including the King of Slaughter seated on his throne.

"Suppress, Command, Control, Release, Order, Purgatory..."

"The authority of Slaughter City? Does this mean I can control everyone here? Is it similar to the King of Slaughter?"

Chen Chu stared at these options, his heart stirred, and he decided to test the waters with the King of Slaughter first.

"Suppress! King of Slaughter!"

As soon as the command was issued, the King of Slaughter, who was enjoying a Bloody Mary on his throne, was instantly forced to lower his head by a vast, high-dimensional power, tumbling from his throne and kneeling heavily on the ground.

"Which great being has descended?!" The King of Slaughter, already cowardly from being possessed by the blood-red bat, was now terrified. He widened his eyes and looked around, his voice trembling. The surrounding Slaughter Envoys also knelt down, prostrating themselves on the ground, not daring to look up or even breathe heavily.

A hint of surprise flashed in Chen Chu's eyes: "Amazing! With this blood bead, all the people and things in Slaughter City are truly under my control."

He then projected himself into Slaughter City and sat on the throne. His gaze swept over the kneeling crowd, and his voice was cold and hoarse: "Watch over this treasure land of Slaughter City for me. I will return!"

The invisible power of rules, after this sentence was spoken, instantly suppressed all the fallen in the city, including the Slaughter Envoys and the King of Slaughter. They felt no resistance in their hearts, only complete submission.

"Yes!"

Amidst the resounding voices of submission, Chen Chu quietly withdrew his divine sense. He chose not to reveal himself, leaving the management of the city to the King of Slaughter. He did not want anyone to know about this or expose his identity.

He now needed to study the other permissions of the bead and delve deeper into this ancient paradise of the fallen.

"Purgatory?" Chen Chu murmured as he looked at this option. He tapped the option with his fingertip, and after a few seconds, his figure disappeared from Hell Road and appeared in another strange space.

The first sensation upon arriving was an overwhelming wave of heat. He looked up and saw floating magma overhead. In front of him stood a stone tower, inverted and plunged into the ground. The words "Nine-Layered Purgatory" were clearly carved on the bottom floor's gate.

Chen Chu walked over and pushed the stone door, but found it wouldn't budge. He then looked at the stone tablet beside it. The tablet had some text, recording information about the tower: The Nine-Layered Purgatory imprisoned all the fallen since the birth of the Douluo Continent. The deeper the level, the greater the sin and the stronger the power. The condition for opening it was—the Nine Asura Trials.

Chen Chu frowned: "The Nine Asura Trials? Aren't those the trials for inheritors of the Asura God? I've already gained control of Slaughter City, so why haven't I received any divine trial prompts yet?"

"Could there be a hidden condition?" He stared at the locked tower door, pondered for a moment, then took out the blood bead and fiddled with it, but to no avail.

"Forget it, I'll go out first. Perhaps when my strength increases further, the divine trial will descend on its own."

Staring blankly wasn't an option. The urgent matter was to leave Slaughter City and obtain his sixth Soul Ring.

When he first arrived at Slaughter City, his strength was that of a level 53 Soul King. Because Sagros could automatically cultivate by absorbing killing intent, by the time he left Slaughter City, he had naturally broken through to the level of a quasi-Soul Emperor at level 60. Now, he was only one Soul Ring away from entering the ranks of true powerhouses on the Douluo Continent.

As he exited the purgatory space, he found himself still in Hell Road. As the new master of Slaughter City, he naturally did not need to go through the dangerous trials of Hell Road. With just a single command, he appeared at the end of the exit and stepped through the light screen before him.

When he opened his eyes again, he was already in a silent forest, with no sign of human presence around.

As soon as he left Slaughter City, the Slaughter Domain he had acquired was uncontrollably released. The violent killing intent instantly enveloped the entire forest.

Chen Chu's eyes turned blood red, but after a moment, this killing intent was devoured by the figure behind him. It was a ferocious and domineering blood-red mantis, his Martial Soul Sagros. It was now intoxicated by the pure killing aura, constantly absorbing and consuming the killing intent.

"The choice of the sixth Soul Ring is very important. I'll stick to my original plan and go to Beast Canyon."

After Sagros finished absorbing, Ling Jue retracted his Martial Soul, a hint of anticipation flashing in his eyes. "Legend has it that there is a Soul Beast called the Dragon Mantis there, which contains a trace of ancient dragon bloodline. Only by borrowing this powerful bloodline can Sagros evolve into a Royal-class."

He could already feel that Sagros was in a special state, and now it just needed a catalyst.

Thinking of this, he steadied himself and galloped towards Beast Canyon according to the map in his memory.