"Nothing special."
Li Yuan's voice carried the lingering resonance of battle, standing out clearly amid the energy storm as it gradually subsided. Dark red steam rose from his body, and in his Crimson Sun Battle Body state, he looked as though he had been forged from molten rock, radiating a terrifying pressure.
On the high platform, the Netherworld Cult Bishop's gray-white pupils contracted sharply. His fingers tightened around his bone staff until they turned faintly white. One of his strongest curses had actually been broken head-on by a seemingly young junior! This boy could not be allowed to live!
Just as he was about to throw caution to the wind and unleash an even more powerful forbidden curse, Li Yuanhong's icy voice came from beside him:
"Bishop, why lose your temper over a man who's about to die?"
Li Yuanhong took a step forward. The shock on his face had vanished, replaced by a grim confidence. His gaze passed over Li Yuan and settled on the Yin Sha Body Girl. Bound in black chains, she was curled up in a corner of the high platform, trembling from the energy shockwave.
"Li Yuan," Li Yuanhong said with the taunting air of a cat playing with a mouse, "you think you've won? Look at her."
Li Yuan turned his gaze to the girl's pale face. Her eyes were filled with fear and despair, much like his own had once been on the altar.
"As someone with the same Yin Sha Body, you should understand her value." Li Yuanhong spoke unhurriedly, but one hand had silently clamped around the girl's slender neck like an eagle's talons. "She's the final 'vessel' needed to complete the Sacred Sacrifice. Tell me, what do you think would happen if I crushed her throat right now, or shoved her into that mass of Sacred Spirit Origin below?"
The girl let out a frightened whimper, trembling even harder.
Li Yuan's eyes turned instantly cold as a blade. "Li Yuanhong, you're as despicable as ever!"
"Despicable? That's just how the world works—the victor becomes king, and the loser is disgraced!" Li Yuanhong sneered, tightening his fingers slightly. The girl's breathing grew ragged, and her face turned blue. "Stop resisting and seal your own qi and blood. Maybe I'll let her die quickly. Otherwise...I don't mind making her part of the Holy Spirit in the midst of unbearable agony!"
It was an outright threat! He was using another innocent "vessel" to force Li Yuan to submit!
The Netherworld Cult Bishop also put his attack on hold for the time being, watching it all with cold gray-white eyes. Sacrificing a spare vessel to deal with the powerful enemy before them was undoubtedly a worthwhile trade.
The cavern fell into an eerie silence once more. Only the occasional pop of a bubble rising from the Blood Pool and the girl's stifled, broken sobs could be heard.
All the surviving members of the Netherworld Cult and the Li Family Guards held their breath, watching Li Yuan and waiting for his choice. Would he give in, or watch helplessly as another "himself" was destroyed?
Li Yuan stood where he was. His body, still in its Crimson Sun Battle Body state, radiated heat, but the flames in his eyes were slowly settling. He looked at Li Yuanhong's smug, sinister face, then at the girl struggling on the brink of death.
Time seemed to stretch.
Suddenly, Li Yuan laughed. The smile looked somewhat savage on his dark red, heavily muscled face, yet it carried the chill of someone who saw through everything.
"Li Yuanhong," he said slowly, his voice not loud but strangely penetrating, "you seem to have forgotten that I'm no longer the Li Yuan you could push around on the altar."
Li Yuanhong furrowed his brow, a trace of foreboding rising in his heart. "What do you mean?"
"I mean..." In Li Yuan's Crimson Gold Pupils, a sharp, swordlike gleam suddenly burst forth. "Who told you I need to save her?"
Before the words had even faded, Li Yuan moved!
But his target was neither Li Yuanhong nor the Netherworld Cult Bishop, and he wasn't going to rescue the girl!
His body was like a cheetah that had been crouched and waiting, then suddenly sprang into motion. He turned toward the side ahead of him—the White Bone Altar floating in the center of the Blood Pool, and the mass of dark energy spinning violently in the altar's palm, radiating a terrifying suction force—and charged straight at it!
He moved so fast that a clear afterimage remained where he had stood!
"He's going to destroy the Sacred Spirit Origin?!" The Netherworld Cult Bishop reacted first, letting out a furious, startled shriek. No longer caring about anything else, he sent a surge of black light bursting from his bone staff. Several Netherworld Bone Spikes, condensed until they were almost solid, shot toward Li Yuan's back like black lightning!
Li Yuanhong's expression changed as well. He hadn't expected Li Yuan to be so decisive and ruthless, to care nothing for the Yin Sha Body Girl's life and go straight for the heart of the matter! He instinctively began to crush the hostage's neck, then abruptly stopped—if the Sacred Spirit Origin was destroyed, what would killing the girl accomplish?
In that split second, Li Yuan had already reached the edge of the Blood Pool! Facing the deadly bone spikes closing in from behind, he didn't even look back!
"Crimson Sun True Scripture—Molten Fire Wall!"
His thoughts raced. The dark gold Crimson Sun within him poured out qi and blood, instantly condensing behind him into a thick, translucent wall wreathed in dark red flames!
"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"
The Netherworld Bone Spikes slammed into the Molten Fire Wall with muffled piercing sounds! The terrifying curse power clinging to the spikes clashed violently with the blazing barrier. The wall shuddered, its light dimming rapidly, on the verge of shattering!
But it had held them back for that single moment!
And that moment was all Li Yuan needed!
Riding his forward momentum, he planted his right foot on the edge of the Blood Pool and launched himself into the air. Like a moth flying into a flame, like an arrow shot at the sun, he hurtled without hesitation toward the mass of dark energy in the palm of the White Bone Altar!
His target had never been to save anyone, nor simply to kill anyone.
His target was the mass that stirred longing and restlessness even in the "Crimson Sun"—the Sacred Spirit Origin!
Devour it! Or destroy it!
"No!!!" The Netherworld Cult Bishop let out a desperate roar.
Li Yuanhong was dumbstruck too, watching the dark red figure plunge recklessly into the darkness that even he hadn't dared approach—the darkness capable of devouring everything!
"Plop!"
Like a pebble falling into a deep pool.
Li Yuan's figure was instantly swallowed by the dense, impenetrable darkness.
All that remained in the cavern was the swirling darkness—and a deathly silence.
On the high platform, Li Yuanhong's hand around the girl's neck loosened slightly without his realizing it. His face was full of shock and confusion.
He...just went in? Had he thrown his life away?
Only the Netherworld Cult Bishop kept staring fixedly at the darkness, which seemed unchanged. Deep in his gray-white pupils, for the first time, a hint of something he himself hadn't noticed appeared...fear.
Could that kid really have died so easily?
Before you continue