Li Yuan's voice was like a stone tossed into a still pool, sending ripples across the silent cavern before they were swallowed by an even more surging killing intent.
"Li Yuan?!" On the high platform, Li Yuanhong first froze, then his face twisted with undisguised shock, fury, and venom. "You little bastard, you actually found your way here! The altar—so you really were behind what happened!"
He had long suspected Li Yuan was involved in the altar's abnormality, but he hadn't expected the boy to be bold enough to barge straight into the heart of the Sacred Sacrifice! More unsettling still was the aura Li Yuan was giving off now: steady and weighty, with a scorching pressure that made him seem like a different person from the frail-looking boy he'd been back at the Lineage!
The Netherworld Cult Bishop's ashen pupils lingered on Li Yuan for a moment. His voice grated like ice scraping against ice. "So it was you... You killed my Deacon, destroyed my talisman soldiers, and ruined my ritual... You're the rat behind it all. The aura around you... I find it very unpleasant, and very... interesting."
He sensed the overwhelmingly yang, unyielding qi and blood within Li Yuan, yet there was a trace of icy sharpness mixed in. This contradictory yet formidable power both repulsed him and stirred a greedy curiosity.
"Take him down!" Li Yuanhong barked, unwilling to invite any further trouble. He only wanted to deal with this unexpected obstacle as quickly as possible and complete the Sacred Sacrifice.
At his command, the cavern's atmosphere instantly snapped taut!
Dozens of Netherworld Cultists near the passage reacted first. They let out low snarls like a pack of wolves roused from sleep, brandished bone blades and claws, and urged on their frigid curse power as they sprang at Li Yuan from all sides! Gray-black curse light joined into a single mass, surging toward him like a tide, intent on tearing apart the intruder who dared profane their holy ground!
Li Yuan stood his ground before the oncoming assault. There wasn't the slightest trace of fear in his Crimson Gold Pupils, only cold composure.
He drew a deep breath. Deep within his qi sea, that dark-gold Crimson Sun suddenly accelerated!
BOOM!
An even more powerful, even more scorching Burning Qi Field erupted around him—far stronger than the one he had unleashed at the entrance to the Netherworld Path! Its reach expanded to five zhang in every direction!
This time, it didn't erupt without a sound!
The scorching air visibly warped the space around him, forcing back the ghostly green light within a five-zhang radius and forming a translucent, crimson-gold spherical domain!
The Netherworld Cultists who charged into the domain struck an invisible wall, red-hot as a furnace!
SIZZLE!
Bloodcurdling screams rang out!
The curse power wreathing the cultists at the front met its Nemesis. It instantly blazed and disintegrated! The moment their skin touched the domain, it reddened, blistered, and charred! The bone blades in their hands grew so hot they could barely hold on!
This was no longer suppression. It was Purification! It was Destruction!
Li Yuan moved.
He stopped defending passively and launched an attack of his own! His figure was a phantom, leaving streak after streak of afterimages within the crimson-gold Burning Qi Field!
He used no flashy moves, only the simplest, most brutal fists, palms, fingers, and elbows!
One punch caved in a cultist's chest along with the curse-power shield he had hurriedly formed, blasting a charred hole through his back.
One palm came crashing down, and another cultist's head burst like a watermelon. Before the red and white matter could spray out, the searing heat vaporized it in an instant.
A blade of finger wind struck a cultist between the brows. His body stiffened, scorching white smoke billowed from all seven orifices, and he toppled straight to the ground.
His movements were blindingly fast, his strength utterly ferocious! Every blow came with the crack of shattering bones and the stench of flesh seared by fire!
He was like a giant of molten lava crashing into a flock of sheep. Wherever he went, Netherworld Cultists fell in droves! Their attacks struck Li Yuan like mud bulls plunging into the sea, unable to make him pause even for an instant! Every counterattack from Li Yuan, meanwhile, claimed at least one life—often several!
Screams, cracking bones, the sizzling of burning curse power... Within the cavern, they played a bloody and brutal requiem for the dead!
On the high platform, Li Yuanhong's expression grew grim. He knew Li Yuan had grown stronger, but he hadn't expected him to become this powerful! These Netherworld Cultists might not have been the best of the best, but there were so many of them—and Li Yuan was slaughtering them as easily as chopping vegetables!
The Netherworld Cult Bishop's ashen pupils also filled with solemnity for the first time. He stared fixedly at the crimson-gold domain around Li Yuan and the demonic figure within it.
"Such overwhelming yang power... To think he could cultivate it to such purity and ferocity... This boy must not be allowed to live!"
He slowly raised the enormous bone staff in his hand. The ghostly green flames in the skull's eye sockets at its tip began to dance violently, as a force far more terrifying than any attack before it rapidly gathered.
Li Yuan punched the last charging cultist into a charred husk, shook off nonexistent blood from his hand, and came to a stop.
The area within five zhang of him had been cleared. Only charred, twisted corpses remained, filling the air with the smell of cooked meat and burning flesh. His crimson-gold Burning Qi Field rippled faintly, illuminating his bronze body like that of a war god.
He raised his head. His crimson-gold gaze passed over the roiling Blood Pool between them and fixed once more on the two people atop the high platform. His voice was calm, yet carried boundless authority:
"The riffraff are taken care of."
"Now it's your turn."
Before you continue