Molten Path

"Enemy attack!!"

The shrill alarm echoed at the entrance of the Netherworld Path, bouncing off the damp rock walls and layering into overlapping reverberations, adding to the eerie, ghostly atmosphere.

The four Netherworld Cult disciples guarding the gate braced themselves as if facing a great enemy, moving almost the instant the alarm sounded. They were clearly well-trained and coordinated, not rashly charging forward but instead raising their bone staves inlaid with skulls, chanting rapid and strange syllables from their mouths.

Hum—

Four streams of gray-black curse power surged from the skulls' eye sockets atop the staves. Instead of attacking directly, they swiftly interwove and merged in the air, forming in the blink of an eye a massive net of countless twisted runes, gray-black in color, carrying a chilling aura that could seal souls and freeze qi and blood, bearing down on Li Yuan's head!

Before the net even fell, the air around Li Yuan seemed to solidify, the temperature plummeting, and a thin layer of white frost formed on the ground. A sinister wind howled, stirring the runes on the net, emitting a hissing sound like the weeping of countless vengeful spirits.

If this were before he obtained the legacy from the ruins, facing such a coordinated curse technique, even if Li Yuan could break through it, he would have had to exert considerable effort and might even have been temporarily trapped.

But now...

Li Yuan looked up at the massive curse net descending like a canopy blotting out the sky. His Crimson Gold Pupils held no ripple, only a cold, calm stillness.

He didn't even assume any defensive or evasive stance.

Just as the net was about to touch the tips of his hair—

"Whoosh!"

An invisible, scorching aura exploded outward from him, spreading in all directions!

There was no world-shaking explosion, no blinding flash of light. But the chilling curse net, capable of freezing the qi and blood of Aperture Opening Realm martial artists, upon touching this scorching aura, let out a satisfying "sizzling" sound of melting, like winter snow meeting a blazing sun!

The gray-black curse power forming the net visibly thinned and turned transparent, the twisted runes on it crumbling and dissipating like erased smudges!

In the span of a single breath, that seemingly formidable curse net vanished without a trace, as if it had never existed. Only a faint burnt smell lingering in the air and the rapidly rising temperature testified to what had just happened.

"What?!"

The ferocity and confidence on the four disciples' faces froze instantly, transforming into extreme shock and disbelief! The "Soul-Binding Curse Net" they had laid together would have required even a Deacon in the cult to handle with care—how could it have disappeared without even touching the hem of his clothes?

Li Yuan moved.

He took a step forward.

With just that step, the ground beneath his feet underwent a dramatic change!

The layer of white frost on the damp, cold surface where his foot landed instantly vaporized and vanished. Not only that, but the hard rock floor, centered on his foothold, rapidly turned dark red, softened, and began to emit a "sizzling" sound, like iron thrown into a furnace, even giving off wisps of blue smoke!

A clear footprint, its edges in a molten state, was left behind.

He took a second step.

Another molten footprint appeared.

Thus, step by step, each leaving a burning footprint, he walked unhurriedly toward the four stunned disciples. The invisible scorching aura around him pushed aside the chilling gloom and filth permeating the Netherworld Path entrance, forming a brief path filled with the scent of sulfur and destruction—a "Molten Path"!

Crimson Sun True Scripture—Burning Qi Field! It was no profound technique, merely the extreme outward diffusion of the scorching nature of his Crimson Sun Qi and Blood, guided by his own will, creating an absolute domain of his own. Within this domain, all yin, evil, and filthy forces were suppressed and purified!

"M-monster!" One disciple's mental defenses completely collapsed. Screaming, he aimed his bone staff at Li Yuan and frantically channeled curse power, firing a solid gray-black arrow!

The arrow tore through the air, but within three zhang of Li Yuan, its speed visibly slowed, the curse power on its surface rapidly dimming. By the time it flew halfway, most of it had already dissipated on its own, and when it finally struck Li Yuan's Bronze Color chest, it didn't even leave a white mark before completely vanishing.

The other three disciples snapped out of it as well, launching desperate attacks—bone blades slashing, curses firing in unison.

Yet every attack, once it entered the range of that scorching Burning Qi Field, lost over ninety percent of its power, and what reached Li Yuan felt no more than a tickle.

Li Yuan had already walked up to them.

Looking at this figure like a walking natural disaster, feeling the heat that seemed ready to ignite their very souls, the four disciples' faces twisted with fear to the extreme.

Li Yuan wasted no words.

He extended his Right Hand, fingers spread, and pressed down lightly toward the two disciples in front of him.

"Boom!"

A condensed, solid wave of Crimson Sun Qi, like an invisible giant hammer, crashed down with a roar!

The two disciples didn't even have time to scream before they were slammed into the ground by that immense force! The sharp sound of bones shattering exploded, and the ground was dented into two shallow pits, the rock at the bottom glowing dark red and steaming. Like insects killed by a branding iron, they went silent in an instant.

The disciple on the left let out a strange cry, turned, and tried to flee deeper into the Netherworld Path.

Li Yuan casually waved his left hand.

A crescent-shaped air blade, its edges in a molten state, shot out, overtaking the fleeing disciple and slicing across his waist in a flash.

The disciple's forward motion abruptly froze. He looked down, incredulously at the fine red line appearing around his waist. The next moment, his upper body slowly slid off. The cut was charred black, with no blood spurting out, only the smell of cooked meat spreading.

The last disciple was already terrified out of his wits. His bone staff clattered to the ground, his legs gave way, and he Slumped to the floor, his crotch instantly soaked, a stench of urine spreading. He looked at Li Yuan as if at a demon descending upon the world, his lips trembling but unable to utter a single word.

Li Yuan walked up to him, looked down, his Crimson Gold Pupils utterly devoid of emotion.

"Has the Sacred Sacrifice begun?"

The disciple shuddered violently, tears and snot streaming down his face as he screamed incoherently: "...S-soon... it's inside... the Bishop... and... and the Li family... they're all there... don't kill me... please..."

Li Yuan got his answer. He didn't look at him again. Lifting his foot, he stepped over the filth and the corpse, entering the deeper, darker entrance of the Netherworld Path.

Behind him, he left only a gradually cooling Molten Path, four corpses in various states of death, and a dead silence.

Inside the Netherworld Path, the sinister wind grew fiercer, the wailing more piercing.

But within three zhang of Li Yuan, it was scorching like spring, and all evils fled before him.

He had arrived.