Soul Burning Blood Sacrifice

"Roar—!"

From within the pile of rubble, the Blood Saber Saint suddenly threw back his head and howled. The hoarse sound waves crashed against the ravine walls, shaking loose stone chips that fell like rain.

Blood still trickled down his chest, but he paid no heed to his injuries. He planted his ghost-headed saber heavily into the ground and pressed his left hand against his brow like an iron claw.

Dark-red blood qi seeped through his fingers like living snakes, winding down his deeply lined cheeks before gathering into droplets at his chin.

"Since holding back is useless, then let me show you... the ultimate technique I've kept hidden!" His voice seemed ground out from a rusted iron throat, every word steeped in indelible bloodlust. "Secret technique—Soul Burning Blood Sacrifice!"

The instant his words fell, the blood qi around the Blood Saber Saint exploded! The pale red mist that had circled him began to churn madly like flames doused in kerosene, swelling within a few breaths into a blood-red cocoon over thirty feet tall.

Countless tiny blood veins raced across the cocoon's surface like a spiderweb. Faintly, one could hear the shrill wails of innumerable wronged souls trapped within, enough to chill the heart.

Even more terrifyingly, the Dou Qi within him began to surge at a visible rate. His aura, which had only just entered the High-level Half-Saint realm, now burst through its restraints like a flood breaching a dam. Even the surrounding space was pressed into a slight distortion by that violent energy.

Whenever the ravine wind struck the cocoon, it was instantly stained blood-red, exploding outward as scorching currents of air. Even the distant grass and trees were blackened and withered by the heat.

Crack! Crack!

A succession of brittle pops rang out as his bones strained