Hunting Time Has Arrived!

Three thousand li.

A relentless sprint, day and night without rest.

Sun Yu crushed the last massive rock blocking his path beneath his feet, then came to an abrupt halt.

Momentum carried him across the charred, hardened earth, plowing two deep furrows into it.

He did not gasp for breath. His five organs pulsed twice with the force of a blazing furnace, thoroughly wiping away that trace of fatigue.

He raised his head.

Ahead, there was no road.

Or rather, no road that ordinary people could travel.

The Blood Sea Devil Abyss.

There was no real seawater here. As far as the eye could see, there was only an endless dark-red swamp and scarlet poisonous miasma that hung over it year-round, so thick it could not be dispersed.

Not a chirp or cry could be heard. Even the wind, upon blowing in here, seemed to be swallowed by the scarlet haze, unable to make the slightest sound.

A lost high-rank Demon Fowl swept past overhead. It merely dipped slightly lower and inhaled a breath of the thin red miasma at the very edge.

"Caw!"

The Demon Fowl let out an incomparably shrill scream.

Its hard feathers, capable of withstanding fine steel blades, instantly blackened and rotted in midair.

In less than three breaths, the enormous Demon Fowl became a skeleton hung with scraps of flesh and fell stiffly into the swamp below.

The swamp burbled with two bubbles. With a gurgle, the white bones were swallowed completely, leaving not even dregs behind.

All things rotted here.

Even an ordinary Blood Washing Realm martial artist, no matter how long they held their breath, would turn into a puddle of pus within a quarter-hour if their skin and flesh came into contact with this poisonous miasma.

Sun Yu watched the churning swamp expressionlessly.

He wore no shoes, and his upper body remained bare.

His coarse linen clothes had long since been shredded back in the Prefecture City.

Sun Yu raised his right foot. Without any probing, he stepped directly over the sharply defined border of scorched earth and into the scarlet poisonous miasma.

Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!

An ear-piercing sound of corrosion instantly erupted across Sun Yu's body.

As though they had caught the scent of living flesh and blood, the surrounding poisonous miasma surged toward him like countless starving red venomous snakes, frantically burrowing into his pores.

Trying to corrode his skin and flesh, to dissolve his blood.

But at the instant the poisonous miasma touched Sun Yu's skin—

Buzz!

The passive resistance of the Cold Iron Demonic Body instantly activated!

Dark Gold patterns raced wildly beneath Sun Yu's jade-white skin and flesh as though alive.

A deep blue icy gleam flared brilliantly in Sun Yu's left eye.

An incomparably cold, utterly tyrannical Extreme Cold Internal Breath burst through his skin.

The scarlet poisonous vapor that lunged at him with fangs bared had not even managed to bite through his skin before it was instantly frozen by that Extreme Cold qi!

Crack, crack, crack.

The red poisonous vapor became dark-red frost, clinging firmly to Sun Yu's body.

Sun Yu casually shook his shoulders.

Crash.

The red frost covering his body fell away like shattered glass, pattering down onto the swamp.

The outside was defended, but he still had to breathe.

Sun Yu's chest rose and fell as he drew in a deep breath of dense poisonous miasma.

The poisonous vapor rushed down his windpipe toward his five organs and six bowels, attempting to destroy him from within.

Sun Yu's right eye blazed crimson!

Within his body, blood as heavy as lead and mercury surged madly like boiling lava.

His Extreme Yang Blood Qi transformed into the fiercest furnace!

The poisonous vapor that had entered his lungs and bowels had only just touched his furnace-like organs when, without even a chance to unleash its poison, it was burned on the spot by the extreme heat into a wisp of green smoke!

Sun Yu exhaled a breath of foul air.

Green smoke sprayed from his nostrils and dispersed into the red miasma.

An absolute land of death in others' eyes, a fatal dead end where death came with a single touch.

To Sun Yu, it merely made his breathing a tiny bit heavier.

"Nothing more than this."

Sun Yu withdrew his gaze and strode deep into the Blood Sea Devil Abyss.

His Dark Gold demonic body flickered in and out of view amid the crimson poisonous miasma.

He swiftly threaded his way between the swamp and rotting giant trees.

He went a full thirty li deeper.

In the black sludge ahead, an enormous skeleton lay half-buried.

It was the skull of some unknown demon beast, as large as a house. A gray-black metallic sheen glimmered across its surface. Clearly, it had belonged to an exceptionally formidable great demon in life; even after death, its bones could still resist the poisonous miasma's erosion.

The inside of the skull had been hollowed out, forming a natural shelter.

Sun Yu walked up to the skull.

From deep within its cavity, a triangular snake head as large as a water vat suddenly thrust out. Its Vertical Pupils stared fixedly at Sun Yu as it opened its gaping bloody maw and sprayed a stream of foul-smelling black venom.

Sun Yu did not even dodge.

He let the venom splash across his chest, where it hissed and gave off white smoke.

It did not leave even a pale mark on his Dark Gold skin.

His left hand shot out like lightning and clamped around the snake's lower jaw.

Extreme Cold Internal Breath erupted in an instant.

"Kacha!"

The water-vat-sized snake head was frozen into a lump of ice on the spot.

Sun Yu clenched his right hand into a fist and threw a straight punch.

"Bang!"

The ice lump exploded, shards of ice and rotten flesh scattering everywhere.

The headless snake corpse convulsed violently twice in the swamp before sinking beneath the water.

Sun Yu stepped over the snake corpse and entered the enormous demon beast skull.

It was spacious and dry inside.

He sat cross-legged in the center of the skull.

With the poisonous miasma obscuring the sky outside, it was impossible to distinguish day from night.

But the circulation of Sun Yu's blood and qi was the most precise water clock.

There was still time.

Sun Yu took out the white jade tome he had found on Withered Sword Daoist's corpse.

Heavenly Sword Marrow Cleansing Scripture.

By the faint red light filtering in from outside the skull, he opened the jade tome and went over the circulation routes and cultivation mnemonics within once more in his mind.

The jade tome clearly recorded that this technique was the very foundation upon which the Heavenly Sword Sect had been established.

To cultivate this technique, one had to use the Heavenly Sword Sect's specially prepared bone-melting secret medicine.

One would soak in the medicinal bath for seven times seven, forty-nine days, gradually softening the Bone Marrow of one's mortal body.

Then, using True Qi as a sword, one had to carefully scrape away the marrow strand by strand, replacing it with Sword Marrow condensed from True Qi.

The entire process was like treading on thin ice. The slightest misstep, and if the Sword Qi went out of control, one would end up with shattered bones and torn tendons, crippled for life.

That was why only core true disciples and Elders of the Heavenly Sword Sect were qualified to cultivate it.

He closed his eyes and adjusted his breathing.

The sound of his heartbeat echoed through the hollow beast bone like war drums.

"Thump, thump, thump."

Who knew how much time passed.

In Sun Yu's mind, it was as though an invisible bronze gong had been struck.

Zishi had arrived.

Silver light rippled across his retina like waves.

[Heavenly Sword Marrow Cleansing Scripture (Beginner)]!

"Boom!!!"

The instant the panel flickered.

Sun Yu felt as though a grand formation of ten thousand swords had exploded within him!

Countless incomparably sharp, incomparably terrifying invisible Sword Qi appeared out of thin air throughout his limbs and bones.

These Sword Qi did not care whether his bones could withstand them. Like a school of bloodthirsty mad sharks, they plunged viciously into all two hundred and six bones in his body!

"Urgh!"

Sun Yu let out a low growl from his throat, like a dying beast.

He abruptly threw back his head. The veins on his forehead bulged wildly like tiny black snakes, and even the whites of his eyes were instantly bloodshot.

Extreme pain!

This pain far surpassed that of the Great Sun Boiling Blood Art and Giant Spirit Trample.

It was as though someone were peeling away his Skin and Flesh while he was still alive, then using a rusty iron file to scrape the Bone Marrow from within his bones, bit by bit, with brutal force!

"Crack, crack, crack, crack!"

A scalp-numbing sound of bones grinding came from inside Sun Yu's body.

The system's brutal stat-allocation mechanism was forcibly extracting the mortal Bone Marrow he had originally possessed.

Blood like lead and mercury roared madly through his veins, trying to stop this foreign destructive force, but it was utterly futile.

Sharp Sword Qi directly pulverized the old Bone Marrow.

Then, an even more violent force surged into his hollowed bones, forcibly reshaping new Sword Marrow with incomparably keen energy!

"Bang!"

Sun Yu's muscles spasmed violently. His arms suddenly exerted force, and he actually crushed a large chunk out of the incomparably hard demonic beast skull beneath him with his bare hands!

Cold sweat instantly soaked his entire body, but the moment it emerged, it was evaporated into white mist by his Extreme Yang Blood Qi.

As the old Bone Marrow was stripped away—

The pores all over Sun Yu's body abruptly opened.

Streams of black, foul-smelling blood filth, mixed with impurities from deep within his bones, were forcibly expelled from his body.

When that black blood fell onto the demonic beast skull, it actually corroded the white bones on the ground, making them hiss.

Marrow replacement, bone cleansing!

Sun Yu clenched his teeth so hard that blood seeped from his gums.

He did not use his Extreme Cold Internal Breath to freeze away the pain.

He endured this ultimate torture, as though ten thousand swords were piercing his bones, and felt the earthshaking transformation occurring deep within them.

A full incense stick's worth of time passed.

Only then did the violent agony of having his bones carved out slowly recede like the tide.

In its place came an intensely hollow yet supremely sharp tingling sensation.

Sun Yu released his hand.

He panted heavily, gulping down breath after breath.

He lowered his head and glanced at the black blood filth covering his body.

He ignored the stench.

Sun Yu slowly clenched his right fist.

"Crack."

An exceptionally crisp, strange sound rang out.

This time, the friction of his bones no longer produced dull popping sounds.

Instead, it rang out like a sword cry as a sharp blade left its sheath!

Sun Yu could clearly feel that his bones had changed.

His bones, which had originally only been frozen as hard as iron through the Cold Toad Breath Swallowing Technique, now possessed an incomparably terrifying resilience and sharpness within.

It was the embryonic form of Sword Bone unique to the [Heavenly Sword Marrow Cleansing Scripture]!

"This is only the beginning..."

Sun Yu wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. There was not the slightest fear of that recent torture in his eyes.

Instead, an exceedingly fanatical flame blazed to life.

The system's violent reconstruction had spared him the decades of bitter cultivation endured by disciples of the Heavenly Sword Sect.

This ultimate pain had bought ultimate strength!

Sun Yu rose to his feet and shook off the black blood filth on his body.

The transformation of his bones made him seem like a peerless vicious weapon hidden within a sheath of flesh.

But immediately after—

Sun Yu's body suddenly swayed.

An incomparably terrifying rumble suddenly erupted from within his abdomen.

A hysterical hunger, as though it could devour all his internal organs whole, seized him!

Replacing marrow was equivalent to smashing apart and rebuilding the blood-making factory within his body.

This process had consumed nearly seventy percent of Sun Yu's Blood Qi reserves.

The Extreme Devil Body was frantically warning his brain: it needed energy, an enormous amount of vital blood to fill the emptiness left by marrow replacement!

Sun Yu grabbed the bundle he had brought out from Prefecture City.

He tore open the cloth strips.

Inside were still more than ten jin of prime Iron Armor Ox meat.

He seized the beef and stuffed it straight into his mouth, barely chewing before swallowing it down.

More than ten jin of exotic beast meat rich in vital blood dropped into his stomach.

The Five Viscera Furnace instantly refined it.

But to Sun Yu as he was now, that little vital blood was like pouring a cup of water into a parched desert.

It was utterly useless!

Not only did the hunger not fade, but after tasting flesh and blood, it became even more savage.

Sun Yu's eyes faintly reddened.

He turned, his gaze passing through the hollow eye sockets of the demon beast skull and locking onto the swamp outside, shrouded in dark-red poisonous miasma.

This was the Blood Sea Devil Abyss.

There was no human food here.

But what this place lacked least were Devil Abyss mutants that had devoured blood Baleful Intent all year round, their vital blood violently raging to the extreme.

Sun Yu stepped out of the skull camp.

His foot landed in the rotting mud.

"Time to hunt!"

He muttered to himself, and his body instantly melted into the crimson poisonous miasma.