Sun Yu stood on the headless corpse of the Three-Eyed Blood Ape.
He bent down and thrust his right hand into the shattered skull, his five fingers like steel knives. He felt around for a moment in the steaming mixture of blood and brains.
Sun Yu's wrist jerked outward.
"Splurt."
He ripped out a demon core the size of an adult's fist. It was dark red all over, its surface covered in strange patterns.
The demon core was scorching hot, like a branding iron fresh from the furnace.
Even after it had left the great demon's body, the core's interior was still filled with a wildly rampaging demonic power, rumbling with a dull hum.
Sun Yu casually wiped the blood from the core on a rough animal hide.
He didn't use any vessel to neutralize its medicinal properties, nor did he use any technique to slowly refine it.
Sun Yu opened his mouth and shoved the scorching demon core straight inside.
His Adam's apple bobbed.
"Gulp."
He swallowed the fist-sized demon core whole.
The instant it fell into his stomach—
"RUMBLE!!!"
A power so violently demonic it defied imagination exploded inside Sun Yu like a barrel of dynamite!
It was simply too vast and too ferocious.
An ordinary Blood Washing Realm Grandmaster would have had their internal organs burst apart in an instant and died on the spot, even if they swallowed only a piece the size of a fingernail.
Sun Yu's belly abruptly swelled outward.
But he didn't even furrow his brow.
"Submit!"
Sun Yu gave a cold snort.
Inside him, the Five Viscera Furnace roared at full power.
The Yin Yang Qi Vortex in his dantian, formed where the Great Sun Boiling Blood Art and the Cold Toad Breath Swallowing Technique converged, instantly became a colossal meat grinder.
His Extreme Yang Blood Qi and Extreme Cold Internal Breath spun wildly, grinding down the rampaging demonic power that was trying to run amok.
Under the dual torment of searing heat and freezing cold, the demonic power let out an utterly shrill, soundless scream.
In less than half an incense stick's time—
The terrifying force, enough to burst a Grandmaster apart, was ground to pieces by the Yin Yang Qi Vortex and completely subdued.
The rampaging demonic power was transformed in its entirety into the purest, richest nourishment for his blood and qi, then poured into Sun Yu's limbs and bones.
Sun Yu took a deep breath.
His hunger vanished, and his blood and qi had never felt so full.
He bent down, grabbed one of the Three-Eyed Blood Ape's thick hind legs with both hands, and dragged its massive corpse back to the huge camp inside the demon-beast skull like a dead dog.
Night had fallen deep.
Not a glimmer of light penetrated the poisonous miasma.
Sun Yu sat cross-legged at the center of the demon-beast skull.
He ate the Three-Eyed Blood Ape's flesh raw as he waited in silence.
The blood and qi inside him surged like mighty rivers.
Who knew how much time passed?
The invisible string in Sun Yu's mind suddenly tightened.
The Hour of the Rat had arrived.
Silver light rippled across his retina like water.
The panel appeared.
[Technique: Heavenly Sword Marrow Cleansing Scripture (Major Accomplishment)]
Behind the entry, the faintly glowing "+" lit up on schedule.
This was also the final time he could add a point to this technique.
Sun Yu set down the half-gnawed animal bone and wiped the blood from his lips.
[Heavenly Sword Marrow Cleansing Scripture (Great Perfection)]!
"Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!!!"
The instant the words took shape—
No familiar pain of flesh and blood being torn apart came from inside Sun Yu.
Instead, a clear, soaring sword cry rang out!
The sound didn't come from outside. It erupted simultaneously from deep within all two hundred and six of his bones.
Ten thousand swords sang as one!
The sound pierced through his flesh, reverberating inside the vast demon-beast skull. It even carved a few fine white scratches into the hard bone walls.
Sun Yu closed his eyes.
He could clearly feel the final transformation deep within his marrow complete.
His mortal marrow had vanished without a trace.
In its place was solidified Sword Marrow, condensed purely from razor-sharp Sword Qi!
His bones were divine swords.
Then the most fundamental transformation began.
As his heart pumped fiercely, his blood, heavy as lead and mercury, began to rush through the Great Perfection Sword Marrow.
Blood and Sword Marrow merged.
The moment his formerly dark-red Lead-Mercury Blood flowed out of his marrow, an inconceivable transformation took place.
The razor-sharp Sword Qi forced its way into the microscopic structure of his blood.
That heavy, viscous blood was now tinged with a razor-sharp pale gold!
Pale-gold Lead-Mercury Blood!
As it flowed through his veins, it no longer made a dull, burbling sound. Instead, it sounded like countless tiny flying swords scraping and clashing against one another.
Sun Yu opened his eyes.
A flash of golden light disappeared deep in his pupils.
He slowly exhaled.
The white breath streamed from his nostrils without dissipating. Instead, it formed two straight arrows of qi that slammed into the hard rock three feet ahead.
"Shhk! Shhk!"
Two smooth sword marks, each an inch deep, were cut into the rock.
Breath turned to swords!
Sun Yu rose to his feet.
He hadn't deliberately activated his Internal Breath or used any Martial Skills.
He simply raised his right hand and casually swung his arm through the air.
"Riiip!"
His arm cut through the air.
His pale-gold blood gave him an unparalleled sharpness.
With that single swing, he sliced through the air, drawing out an ear-splitting whistle.
Sun Yu lowered his head and looked at his hands.
He felt that his body was no longer mere flesh and blood. It had become a peerless humanoid killing weapon, through and through.
Every movement he made—even walking, sitting, or lying down normally—carried a terrifying sharpness capable of cutting through metal and stone.
Blood Washing Realm Peak!
Marrow Transformation Perfection!
Sun Yu clenched his fists, feeling the berserk power inside him, a force that seemed capable of cleaving heaven and earth apart.
Now, if he encountered a Blood Washing Realm Grandmaster of Daoist Withered Sword's caliber again—
He wouldn't even need to use his two-colored Ice-and-Fire Internal Breath.
With nothing but his Extreme Dao Physique imbued with Sword Qi, one punch would reduce both the man and his protective aura to a pulp.
Just as Sun Yu was about to turn and leave the camp, ready to keep fighting until he grew accustomed to his newfound power—
The silver panel on his retina suddenly flickered violently without warning.
Its silver border was now veiled in an intensely thick glow of blood-red light.
Lines of blood-red text danced wildly across the panel.
[Host detected completing Marrow Transformation!]
[Bones like divine swords, blood like lead and mercury. The foundation of the Supreme Dao Divine Ability has reached its limit.]
[The Extreme Divine Ability Cold Iron Demonic Body is about to undergo its first advancement and transformation!]
[Condition for transformation: Absorb extreme Killing Intent as a catalyst and ignite the potential of the demonic body.]
Sun Yu stared at the panel's crimson notice. His breath caught for an instant.
"Cold Iron Demonic Body, advancing?"
An unprecedentedly feverish light flared in his eyes.
This Supreme Dao Divine Ability, formed by fusing ordinary Houtian Skills, had already granted him the abnormal strength of being impervious to blades and spears and mastering the extremes of ice and fire at the beginner level.
If it advanced and transformed again, what kind of terrifying spectacle would that bring?
"Extreme Killing Intent as a catalyst."
Sun Yu quietly repeated the condition.
He turned and looked toward the crimson swamp beyond the skull camp.
This was the Blood Sea Devil Abyss.
The most terrifying death ground in the entire Great Wind Snow State.
And Killing Intent was the one thing it had in abundance.
But the thin poisonous miasma, found everywhere along the outskirts, clearly didn't meet the panel's standard for extremity.
To advance, he had to find a core source of immensely dense, wildly violent Killing Intent.
Or—
He could personally unleash a slaughter so extreme that it ignited a tidal wave of Killing Intent.
Sun Yu licked his lips.
He walked out of the demon-beast skull, his feet sinking into the black muck.
Through the roiling crimson miasma, he looked toward the abyss's depths.
Just then—
His terrifying perception at the Blood Washing Realm Peak let him catch a faint disturbance.
It was a subtle fluctuation, yet it bore the unmistakable trace of human True Qi.
It wasn't a demon beast.
It was a group of people.
Quite a large group, too. They were pushing through the poisonous miasma from dozens of miles behind him, carefully fanning out as they closed in on his position.
Sun Yu stopped.
He turned to face the direction of the disturbance.
A cruel smile flickered in his abyss-cold eyes.
He had just reached Marrow Transformation Perfection.
He'd been wondering where to find extreme Killing Intent and high-grade blood and qi.
And now people had delivered themselves right to his door.
"They're certainly quick on my heels."
Sun Yu made no attempt to conceal his aura.
He stood still as pale-gold blood surged wildly through his body.
His Extreme Devil Body was like a black hole with its bloody maw wide open, silently awaiting its prey.
Meanwhile—
In the swamp on the outskirts of the abyss, thirty miles from Sun Yu—
A group of several dozen people struggled through the mire.
They all wore black clothes embroidered with a blood-dripping little sword over the chest.
Heavenly Sword Sect Sword Guards.
They were the sect's most elite and cold-blooded Death Warriors.
Every one of them had reached at least the early stage of the Blood Washing Realm.
At the very center of the group—
Four Sword Guards jointly carried a bronze mirror artifact that radiated a pale-blue glow.
The glow formed a round shield, holding back the crimson poisonous miasma as it tried to seep inside.
The shield hissed as the miasma corroded it, its light flickering bright and dim. It clearly wouldn't hold for much longer.
Leading the group was a middle-aged man with an exceptionally sinister face and a long scar across his cheek.
Li Canghai, Head of the Punishment Hall of the Heavenly Sword Sect.
He wasn't carrying an artifact. Instead, True Qi poured from his body, forcibly parting a three-foot-wide stretch of clear air in the poisonous miasma.
Half-step Fetal Transformation Realm!
In his hand, Li Canghai held a blood-red Array Disk about the size of a compass.
At the center of the Array Disk, a drop of blood hung suspended, dried and blackened.
It was the Vital Essence Blood Withered Sword Daoist had left in the sect's Soul Lamp.
Using an especially vicious bloodline-tracking secret art, Li Canghai had seized upon the lingering aura of Withered Sword Daoist's killer through that drop of blood.
The pointer on the Array Disk spun wildly, then fixed firmly on the path ahead.
"First Seat, the poison miasma in this Devil Abyss is too strong. Our poison-repelling artifacts can hold out for at most another half an hour," one Sword Guard commander reported in a low voice, his forehead slick with cold sweat.
"Half an hour will be enough."
Li Canghai stared venomously at the roiling red miasma ahead.
"That little bastard thinks he can stay alive by fleeing into the Blood Sea Devil Abyss? What a pipe dream."
Li Canghai raised a hand and signaled for them to stop.
"Right here."
His voice was icy, radiating an indisputable intent to kill.
"He can't have gone far. Spread out and set up the Heavenly Gang Absolute Kill Sword Formation!"
The dozens of Sword Guards didn't waste a word.
They quickly fanned out across the mud, taking up positions at the Formation Eyes.
Each Sword Guard drew the fine-steel longsword on his back and poured True Qi into its blade. Sword Qi shot skyward, linking together.
A vast net of Sword Qi, brimming with the aura of destruction, slowly took shape in the poison miasma.
Standing at the center of the sword formation, Li Canghai drew the broken Spirit Artifact Flying Sword at his waist, which radiated a dense blood-red light.
"Wait for him to come. Once the formation closes, I'll hack him to pieces!"
Li Canghai gave a cruel sneer.
He thought Sun Yu would blunder around the Devil Abyss like a headless fly, only to run straight into this deadly net.
But he had no idea.
Thirty li away.
Sun Yu's foot came down hard, smashing through the swamp.
His figure became a dark-golden streak that tore through the air, surging forward with ferocious force.
He was charging straight toward the sword formation, intent on crushing it!
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