The Oriole Behind

"Is that all you've got?"

Li Yuan's voice carried the lingering echoes of battle, cutting through the fading energy storm with startling clarity. Steam of dark red blood energy rose from his whole body, his Crimson Sun Battle Body state forging his frame like molten rock, exuding a suffocating pressure.

On the high platform, the Netherworld Cult Bishop's gray-white pupils contracted sharply. The fingers gripping his bone staff whitened from strain. One of his strongest curses had been broken head-on by a seemingly young junior! This one could not be left alive!

He was about to disregard everything and unleash an even more forbidden curse when Li Yuanhong's cold voice sounded beside him:

"Bishop, why trouble yourself with a man already dead?"

Li Yuanhong stepped forward, the earlier shock on his face replaced by a smug certainty of victory. His gaze passed over Li Yuan and landed on the Yin Sha Body Girl, bound by black chains, curled up in a corner of the platform, trembling from the shockwave of the earlier blast.

"Li Yuan," Li Yuanhong said, his tone dripping with cat-and-mouse mockery, "You think you've won? Look at her."

Li Yuan's eyes shifted, landing on the girl's pale face. Her eyes were filled with terror and despair—so similar to his own when he had been on that altar.

"Both of you share the Yin Sha Body. You should understand her worth." Li Yuanhong spoke slowly and deliberately, but one hand had already, like an eagle's talon, silently clamped around the girl's slender neck. "She is the final 'vessel' to complete the Sacred Sacrifice. Tell me—if I crush her throat right now, or shove her into that mass of Sacred Spirit Origin below... what would happen?"

The girl let out a terrified whimper, her body shaking even harder.

Li Yuan's eyes turned instantly cold as a blade: "Li Yuanhong, you truly are as despicable as ever!"

"Despicable? The victor writes history!" Li Yuanhong sneered, his fingers tightening slightly. The girl's breathing grew ragged, her face turning pale. "Drop your resistance, seal your blood energy, and I might grant her a quick death. Otherwise... I don't mind letting her become part of the Sacred Spirit in excruciating pain, ahead of schedule!"

This was a naked threat—using another innocent "vessel" to force Li Yuan's submission!

The Netherworld Cult Bishop temporarily held back his attack, his gray-white pupils watching coldly. Sacrificing a spare vessel to eliminate this major threat was clearly worth it.

The entire cavern fell into an eerie silence once more. Only the occasional bubble bursting from the Blood Pool and the girl's suppressed, broken sobs broke the stillness.

All remaining Netherworld Cult disciples and Li Family guards held their breath, watching Li Yuan, waiting for his choice. Would he compromise, or watch another "himself" be destroyed?

Li Yuan stood still. His body in Crimson Sun Battle Body state still radiated heat, but the fire in his eyes was slowly settling. He looked at Li Yuanhong's smug, treacherous face, then at the girl teetering on the edge of death.

Time seemed to stretch.

Suddenly, Li Yuan smiled. The grin on his dark red, muscle-ridged face was somewhat savage, yet carried a bone-chilling clarity that saw through everything.

"Li Yuanhong," he said slowly, his voice not loud but carrying a strange penetrating force, "You seem to have forgotten. I am no longer the Li Yuan who let you push him around on that altar."

Li Yuanhong's brow furrowed, a bad feeling rising in his heart: "What do you mean?"

"I mean..." Li Yuan's Crimson Gold Pupils suddenly blazed with a sharp, sword-like light, "Who told you I need to save her?"

Before the words faded, Li Yuan moved!

But his target was neither Li Yuanhong, nor the Netherworld Cult Bishop, nor even the girl he was supposed to rescue!

His body, like a coiled leopard finally springing, pivoted sharply and charged toward the side—toward the White Bone Altar floating above the Blood Pool, and the violently spinning mass of dark energy in its palm, radiating a terrifying suction!

His speed left a clear afterimage in place!

"He's going to destroy the Sacred Spirit Origin?!" The Netherworld Cult Bishop was the first to react, letting out a furious shriek. Abandoning all restraint, his bone staff erupted with pitch-black light, and several solid, spear-like Netherworld Bone Spikes shot like black lightning toward Li Yuan's back!

Li Yuanhong's face also twisted in shock. He hadn't expected Li Yuan to be so decisive and ruthless, completely ignoring the Yin Sha Body Girl's life and directly going for the jugular! He instinctively wanted to crush the hostage in his hand, but then stopped—if the Sacred Spirit Origin was destroyed, what use was killing the girl?

In that split second, Li Yuan had already reached the edge of the Blood Pool! Facing the lethal bone spikes hurtling toward his back, he didn't even turn around!

"Crimson Sun True Scripture—Molten Fire Wall!"

His mind raced. The Dark Gold Crimson Sun within him furiously output blood energy, instantly condensing a semi-transparent, thick wall of blazing dark red flames behind him!

"Thud! Thud! Thud!"

The Netherworld Bone Spikes slammed into the Molten Fire Wall with dull, piercing sounds! The terrifying curse power attached to the spikes annihilated against the scorching barrier. The wall shook violently, its light rapidly dimming, on the verge of shattering!

But it bought that one moment!

And that moment was enough for Li Yuan!

Using his forward momentum, his right foot stomped hard on the Blood Pool's edge. His entire body launched into the air, like a moth diving into flame, like an arrow shooting at the sun, charging without hesitation into the dark energy mass in the White Bone Altar's palm!

His goal had never been to save someone, nor simply to kill.

His goal was that mass of energy that made even the "Crimson Sun" feel hunger and agitation—the Sacred Spirit Origin!

Devour it! Or destroy it!

"NO!!!" The Netherworld Cult Bishop let out a despairing roar.

Li Yuanhong stood dumbfounded, watching that dark red figure plunge fearlessly into the darkness that even he dared not approach—a darkness capable of devouring everything!

"Plop!"

Like a pebble dropping into a deep pool.

Li Yuan's figure was instantly swallowed whole by the thick, impenetrable darkness.

Inside the cavern, only the spinning mass of darkness remained, along with a deathly silence.

On the high platform, Li Yuanhong's hand loosened slightly from the girl's neck, his face filled with shock and confusion.

He... just went in? To his death?

Only the Netherworld Cult Bishop stared fixedly at the darkness, which seemed unchanged. Deep in his gray-white pupils, for the first time, a flicker of fear appeared—one he himself hadn't even noticed.

Would that brat really die so easily?