Amid the vast, boundless mountains, there was nothing to catch the eye except the rustling mountain wind and bare rocks.
"Rumble~~~"
Suddenly, a deafening roar rolled over from the distant horizon, where heaven and earth met.
The enormous sound reverberated throughout heaven and earth. Accompanying the thunderous roar, a streak of golden light shot over like a golden bolt of lightning, moving with incredible speed.
A thousand miles behind the golden lightning, a sea of blood surged and churned as it swept forward. Its speed was astonishingly fast, not lagging behind the golden lightning in the slightest.
This crimson sea of blood was incomparably vast, stretching across ten thousand miles.
Although the sea of blood had yet to draw near, its bloody stench had already swept in all directions. Within the scarlet sea, tens of millions of white skeletons appeared and vanished amid the blood, creating an atmosphere of extreme eeriness.
At the center of the crimson sea stood a towering sacrificial altar a thousand zhang tall.
The towering altar was concealed within a layer of red light, appearing exceedingly mysterious.
"Hahaha, Xiahou Zongying, you took a strike from my senior brother's Ten Sorrows Palm and didn't fall immediately. You even managed to flee this far, so I imagine you're already at the end of your tether. This old man advises you to surrender obediently. Considering our past friendship, Star Ancestor might even spare your life."
Suddenly, a thunderous roar that shook heaven and earth rumbled out from the towering altar deep within the sea of blood. The voice was deep and distant. It used no sound-transmission technique, relying solely on profound magical power to carry it forth.
A thousand miles away, within the golden light shooting desperately into the distance, a pale-faced middle-aged man stood.
There was not the slightest trace of color left in his face. His eyes were gloomy to the extreme, and his lower lip had already been bitten until drops of blood seeped out. Yet he did not notice it at all.
At that moment, he was forcibly suppressing the backlash within his body while urging the light beneath him to flee with all his might.
Hearing the words of persuasion from behind, the middle-aged man showed no reaction whatsoever.
Taking advantage of Star Ancestor of the Nine Nether Palace being away, the middle-aged man had risked making a move and stolen two extraordinary treasures from the Nine Nether Palace. Unexpectedly, he had encountered the Nine Nether Palace Patrol Envoy who had come to inspect the area.
Unable to explain himself, he had been forced to fight several opponents of the same cultivation level. Though he had relied on a secret technique to escape the heavily guarded Nine Nether Palace, he had still been wounded by Senior Brother Yan of the Nine Nether Palace.
By now, he had been pursued all the way here.
Had he been at the height of his strength, the same-level existence pursuing him would naturally not have been worth his attention. But he had already suffered severe injuries, and it was difficult for him to stand against his opponent now.
"Xiahou Zongying, as long as you hand over those two extraordinary treasures, this old man guarantees that I will plead with Star Ancestor and spare your life, allowing you to be suppressed beneath Myriad Nether Mountain for ten thousand years. Otherwise, there is no need for me to explain what the consequences will be."
Seeing that the person ahead had no intention of stopping, another word of persuasion came from the boundless sea of blood.
Just as those words were spoken, the golden lightning ahead suddenly contracted. The white-robed middle-aged man stumbled through the air at high speed, then, after rushing several steps, stopped ten thousand zhang above the ground.
His face was hideously contorted. His teeth had bitten so deeply into the flesh of his lower lip that they sank into it, while the veins on his neck bulged violently.
A flush of color appeared on his otherwise pale face.
The white-robed middle-aged man seemed to be suffering extremely severe injuries, but a trace of madness flickered in his eyes.
As soon as the white-robed middle-aged man stopped, the boundless sea of blood also approached to within a thousand zhang amid a thunderous roar.
The endlessly churning blood-red water suddenly encountered an invisible wall. It came to an abrupt halt and stopped advancing even a fraction.
"Hahaha, Xiahou Zongying, it seems your injuries are already difficult to suppress. Will you let this old man act, or will you voluntarily hand over those two extraordinary treasures? If I act personally, you will have no chance of surviving. You had better think this through."
As the enormous voice shook the wilderness, the towering altar flickered once in the center of the sea of blood. The thousand-zhang altar suddenly vanished without a trace, disappearing into the boundless sea of blood.
In the blink of an eye, red light flashed at the edge of the sea of blood, and the towering altar reappeared. Amid flickering azure light, a young-looking cultivator appeared atop the altar.
The young man wore a faint smile as he stared intently at the white-robed middle-aged man a thousand zhang away.
"Hmph. You want this old man to hand over the extraordinary treasures? What a pipe dream. Those two treasures originally belonged to my Lianmei, yet the Nine Nether Palace forcibly seized them. In the end, they didn't even leave her life behind. Though this old man cannot avenge Lianmei's blood feud, taking out the thing she valued most will at least give me an explanation to Lianmei."
The white-robed middle-aged man gave a cold snort and spoke in a low voice, his eyes icy cold. His tone was filled with extreme hatred toward the Nine Nether Palace.
"Hehe, even if you stole them, in your current state, do you still have the ability to keep those two objects safe?"
Facing the white-robed middle-aged man, the young cultivator appeared utterly relaxed. In normal circumstances, he admitted that he was no match for the other man, but with his opponent so gravely wounded, he naturally had no more apprehension.
"Hahaha, even if I cannot personally offer them before Lianmei's grave, your Nine Nether Palace can forget about possessing these two extraordinary treasures."
After speaking, the white-robed middle-aged man threw his head back and laughed loudly. With his laughter, he opened his mouth and spat out a mass of essence blood. Golden runes flickered continuously within it. Then a round object flew out from his chest and expanded in the blink of an eye until it was a hundred zhang across.
When the essence blood touched the enormous round object, a dazzling mass of golden light immediately flashed forth. The golden light expanded with the wind, instantly enveloping the hundred-zhang round object.
"Ah, what are you trying to do? You... you... you want to use this Primordial Profound Treasure to break through the Miro Realm? Even at the height of your strength, you couldn't accomplish such a thing. In your current, severely wounded state, it is uncertain whether you can even activate this Primordial Profound Treasure for a single strike."
Seeing that the other party had actually brought out a Primordial Profound Treasure, the young cultivator atop the altar was greatly startled, his thoughts flashing rapidly.
"Hmph. Whether it can break through or not, we will only know after trying."
The white-robed middle-aged man did not pause at all. As his essence blood fused with the Primordial Profound Treasure, the crown of his head suddenly opened, and a golden miniature figure, about a foot tall, appeared in a flash of golden light.
The golden figure was entirely naked, but its face was exactly the same as the white-robed middle-aged man's, as though it were simply a greatly shrunken version of him.
The instant the golden figure emerged, the white-robed middle-aged man's entire body suddenly withered at astonishing speed. In the blink of an eye, he transformed into a mass of essence blood, suspended before the golden figure.
The golden figure's face twisted viciously. With a wave of its tiny hand, the mass of essence blood shot toward the hundred-zhang Primordial Profound Treasure like an arrow of blood.
The white-robed middle-aged man had actually abandoned his own physical body, fusing all his essence into the Primordial Profound Treasure.
"Ah~! You have actually cut off your own path of survival, intending to sacrifice this Primordial Profound Treasure with your own blood..."
As an alarmed cry rang out, the ten-thousand-mile sea of blood suddenly roared. The thousand-zhang sacrificial altar erupted with a burst of red light that blotted out the sky and sun, while the sea of blood abruptly raised hundreds of blood-colored dragons a hundred zhang long, sending them shooting toward the front.
Countless skeletons clung to each of the dragons...
"Hmph, it's already too late..."
As the golden figure's words rang out, both its hands suddenly swept toward the sky. The hundred-zhang Primordial Profound Treasure instantly radiated a bleak aura capable of destroying heaven and earth, and a murky yellow beam of light dozens of zhang thick suddenly flashed into existence.
It struck toward the sky. As the attack was unleashed, the entire heaven and earth shook violently. An unparalleled energy fluctuation suddenly surged up, as if it intended to destroy the entire firmament.
"Rumble~~~"
A tremendous sound that resounded through heaven and earth instantly rang out, as though the entire world had collapsed.
Following that sound, an enormous crack a thousand zhang wide suddenly appeared high in the sky. The interior of the crack was pitch-black, and within that darkness, thick bolts of lightning flashed out from time to time.
With the appearance of the crack, a tremendous suction force suddenly emerged. The golden figure and the Primordial Profound Treasure near the crack were sucked into it without the slightest resistance, vanishing without a trace in an instant.
When the golden figure swung the Primordial Profound Treasure, the young cultivator atop the towering altar in the sea of blood already knew that he could not block the strike. Without the slightest hesitation, he caused the ten-thousand-mile sea of blood to churn and rapidly retreat in the direction from which it had come.
Its speed was even two parts faster than when it had come.
Since Xiahou Zongying had displayed an immortal-world forbidden technique and sacrificed the Primordial Profound Treasure he had nurtured within his body for countless tens of thousands of years with his own vital essence, the power of this strike was already impossible to gauge. It was entirely possible that it could even break through the Miro Realm.
Although the hundred-zhang blood-colored dragons retreated rapidly under the young cultivator's urging, dozens of them still failed to escape. They were sucked into the enormous spatial crack and vanished in the blink of an eye...
Three months later, amid cloud-wreathed mountains, several people sat inside an exceedingly grand hall, while a young cultivator stood before them.
"What? Xiahou Zongying actually used the Essence Blood Spirit Feeding Technique to cleave open the Miro Realm? With the mighty power of the Void Domain, Xiahou Zongying must have fallen, but those two extraordinary treasures and his Primordial Profound Treasure must have survived. If Old Ancestor learns that our Nine Nether Palace gained and then lost those two extraordinary treasures, he certainly will not let the matter rest."
"Although the chance of those two extraordinary treasures remaining in the lower realm is extremely small, so long as there is even the slightest possibility, we must search for them. Zou Rui, Junior Brother, it seems this trip will have to trouble you."
An old man with a faintly flushed face spoke in a gloomy yet extremely calm tone.
Hearing this, the young man who had been atop the sacrificial altar in the crimson sea of blood earlier suddenly paled, his expression flickering repeatedly.
"Hmph. If Old Ancestor learns of this matter, Xiahou Zongying escaped from your hands. You need not have this old man explain what the consequences will be, do you?"
Seeing the young man's expression, a cyan-robed cultivator seated beside him spoke up.
Hearing this, the young man's face changed even more drastically. After weighing the matter in his heart, he gritted his teeth and said,
"Fine. This junior will search through those lower realms. If I manage to find anything, I hope several senior brothers will help break open the realm and allow this junior to return."
"Naturally. With the Star Fixing Plate, as long as you find those two extraordinary treasures and activate this plate, we will certainly know and welcome you back to the Miro Realm."
After everyone finished speaking, they rose one after another and headed toward a heavily guarded valley in the distance...
Before you continue