The faint light where the cavern roof had collapsed was like a beacon guiding the way to the gates of hell. Li Yuan stood below it, knees slightly bent. Beneath his bronze skin, his newly born Crimson Sun Qi and Blood surged steadily, carrying the weight and heat of molten lava. He didn't need to look up to sense the several chilling presences above him, clinging like bone maggots—the Netherworld Cult Deacon and his remaining minions were still keeping watch.
They hadn't come down. Were they wary of the unknown dangers deep in the ruins, or still shaken by the aftershock of that energy burst?
It didn't matter anymore.
Li Yuan's lips curled into a smile utterly devoid of warmth. He drew a deep breath, hot and long, and the sulfurous air filling the cavern seemed to become kindling. Deep in his qi sea, the dark-golden Crimson Sun suddenly spun faster. A force far purer, more condensed, and heavier than before surged through every limb, like a waking volcano!
He didn't let his muscles swell grotesquely as before. His frame grew only slightly taller, his lines sharper and more defined. The bronze sheen beneath his skin darkened to a deep crimson, like cooling lava. In his eyes, crimson-gold light burned quietly, as tangible as flames.
[Crimson Sun Battle Body] · Normal State!
This was his newfound mastery of the Battle Body: power drawn inward to the utmost, yet more dangerous, more lethal.
Thud!
He drove off the ground. The hard rock beneath his feet, still warm to the touch, sank slightly and cracked! His figure shot upward like a pillar of lava surging against the current, tearing through the dim air toward the collapsed opening above!
He moved so fast that only a blur remained!
At the edge of the opening, the Netherworld Cult Deacon was focusing on the activity below, his gray-green eyes filled with uncertainty. The vast, masculine energy that had erupted and then quickly subsided had left his heart pounding. Was that brat dead or alive? What was down there?
Suddenly!
A dark-red figure shot skyward from below, carrying such scorching pressure that even the curse power in his body seemed to seize up!
It was Li Yuan! He wasn't dead! And his aura...
The Deacon's pupils contracted. He didn't even have time to think about what had happened to Li Yuan before that terrifying speed and oppressive presence were upon him! Almost by instinct, he swung his bone staff and hastily raised a gray-black barrier of curse power before himself!
Sss—!
Li Yuan neither dodged nor used any technique. He simply rammed straight into it!
The barrier, strong enough to withstand ordinary blades, met his body like fragile glass crashing against a red-hot anvil. It let out a piercing melting hiss and shattered in an instant, unable to hold him back for even half a breath! The scattered curse power was swept away by the scorching waves radiating from Li Yuan and vanished completely!
"What?!" The Deacon's face blanched. Li Yuan's speed and strength were nothing like before!
He tried to retreat, tried to unleash a stronger curse spell, but it was already too late!
Li Yuan's charge didn't slow at all as he smashed through the barrier. A hand covered in dark-red skin, fingers curled like hooks, pierced through the shattered fragments of curse power and shot straight for the Deacon's throat, bringing a dreadful heat like molten metal being forged!
Fast! Too fast!
The Deacon had time only to raise his bone staff across his neck!
Crack!
The staff, crafted from the bones of a strange beast and exceptionally tough, snapped beneath Li Yuan's hand like a dry twig!
The next instant, that scorching hand clamped around the Deacon's cold, vulnerable throat like an iron vise!
"Ugh..." The Deacon's eyes bulged. A hoarse, rasping sound escaped his throat. The terrifying heat pouring from that hand, as if it could burn everything to ashes, suppressed all his curse power and left him unable to summon even a trace! He struggled helplessly, feet off the ground, like a chicken caught by the neck.
Only then did the few remaining monsters, twisted by curse power, react. They let out hoarse roars and lunged at Li Yuan, brandishing their claws and bone blades.
Li Yuan didn't even turn around.
He casually swept his free left hand behind him, and a condensed wave of Crimson Sun Qi and Blood, solid as a wall, slammed outward!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The monsters struck a red-hot iron wall and flew backward even faster than they had charged, smashing hard into the surrounding rock. Their bones cracked like popping beans. They hit the ground, twitched a few times, and fell silent.
With casual ease, he crushed them like ants.
Only then did Li Yuan turn his gaze back to the Netherworld Cult Deacon in his grip. Those gray-green eyes were now filled with utter terror and disbelief.
"You... you..." The Deacon struggled to force out a few words. He felt the dreadful heat at his throat, as if it could reduce him to ashes at any moment, and trembled all over.
Li Yuan leaned closer, his crimson-gold pupils fixed coldly on the other man. His voice was low, with the texture of flowing magma. "Whatever's down there belongs to me. Where is your Netherworld Cult's 'Sacred Sacrifice'?"
A flicker of struggle crossed the Deacon's eyes.
Li Yuan tightened his fingers slightly.
"Crack..." His neck bones groaned under the strain.
The fear of death instantly overwhelmed everything! The Deacon cried out hoarsely, "In... in the Netherworld Path... east... the biggest cavern... You need... need a 'key' and a... 'vessel'..."
"A key? You mean these?" Li Yuan took out the Talisman Fragments and Black Fragments with his other hand and held them up before the Deacon.
The Deacon's gray-green pupils contracted sharply. He stared fixedly at the items, a rasping sound coming from his throat, impossible to tell whether it came from fear or excitement.
Li Yuan had gotten the answer he wanted. He said nothing more.
His fingers suddenly tightened!
Crack!
The crisp snap of breaking bone rang out, especially loud in the silent passage. The Deacon's head lolled to one side, the light in his eyes fading in an instant. He was dead.
Li Yuan tossed the body to the ground like trash without sparing it a glance.
He stood still, feeling the ceaseless, seemingly inexhaustible power surging through him, and recalling the profound Crimson Sun True Scripture in his mind.
A key, a vessel, the Sacred Sacrifice, the Netherworld Path...
He raised his head. His gaze seemed to pierce through layer upon layer of rock toward the deeper reaches of the ruins, in the direction known as the "Netherworld Path."
The hunt had leveled up.
Now it was time to wipe out the rats' nest.
Before you continue