"While the Blood Sea endures, Styx shall never die... inherit my legacy, and wield the power of slaughter..."
"Blood Scripture... refine the essence-blood of all living things, forge an unsurpassed blood body..."
"Yuantu, Abi... supreme treasures of the killing path... Karma Fire Red Lotus... burn away sin and sever karma..."
"Boundless Blood Sea... divide into countless incarnations... Blood God Children..."
A cold, vast voice of the killing path, as if it had originated in the primordial wilderness of time.
It carried visions of an endless Blood Sea and profound, arcane arts, brutally crashing into Lin Chen's consciousness!
The memories of more than twenty years from his previous life were as insignificant as dust before this torrent.
The incomplete sword shadows of Yuantu and Abi, the faint glow of the Karma Fire Red Lotus!
The towering waves of the Boundless Blood Sea, the mysterious incarnations of the Blood God Children...
They conveyed the same ravenous will:
Blood! Souls!
Agonizing pain tore through his soul as he teetered on the brink of annihilation.
The basic chapter of the Blood Scripture began operating on its own!
It protected his frail, young heart!
Hiss!
A cold, vicious power took root in Lin Chen's withered dantian.
He snapped his eyes open.
Within the body of a five-year-old child dwelled the adult soul of a man filled with towering hatred and icy killing intent:
Chilly and reeking of blood.
Rough iron chains chafed his wrists and ankles, making them ache.
Beyond the cramped iron cage stood other cages, holding equally terrified children.
Dark bloodstains had dried on the walls.
He had already been in this world for five years!
The Dou Qi Continent, the son of a Xiao Clan guard.
His parents, Lin Shan and Su Wan, had discovered several months ago that Jalie Lang and Jalie Bei, brothers from a Jialie Clan branch family, were abducting children.
They had been tortured to death!
Xiao Bao, a friend of his parents, had taken bribes from the brothers.
He had abducted Lin Chen from the Xiao Clan Nursery and brought him here.
The brothers cultivated a wicked art, and had only managed to enter the Dou Master realm by sucking the essence-blood of children!
At that moment, in the center of the cellar, the baleful energy rebounding from their wicked art spread like poisonous fog:
"Useless! Imbecile!"
Jalie Lang, gaunt as a jackal and with sinister eyes, pointed at the dried, blackened corpse of a child nearby.
His voice was shrill and grating, like sandpaper scraping:
"Look! Look what you've done! The 'Blood Bait' went berserk, and less than one-tenth of the essence remains!"
"This whole batch is fucking ruined! I went to so much trouble to find a 'yin-hour child'!"
The muscles on his sallow face twisted as sinister energy rose within him.
He looked like a skeleton wearing human skin:
"Bullshit!"
Jalie Bei, broad as a bear, had blood-red eyes and an erratic, violent aura.
He was like a keg of gunpowder on the verge of exploding.
Irritably, he tore at his already-tattered clothes.
He bared knotted muscles, with blue-black veins writhing across them like earthworms:
"It's you, Jalie Lang!"
"The half of the incantation you gave me was flawed!"
"Are you trying to kill me and keep the Blood-Devouring Demon Infant Art all to yourself?!"
He roared and slammed a fist into the stone wall beside him:
Boom!
Pebbles pattered down, and the entire cellar seemed to tremble.
He stared at Jalie Lang with suspicion and the savage glare of a beast.
The wicked art had not only corroded their bodies, but had thoroughly twisted their brotherly bond.
It had magnified their suspicion and greed:
"Keep it to myself? Bullshit!"
"We discovered the art together. How could I keep it all to myself?!"
A cruel glint flashed in Jalie Lang's eyes as he forced down his surging murderous intent.
He squeezed out a smile more painful than tears and pulled an exquisite silver flask from his robes:
"But I really was in the wrong about this!"
"Bei, calm down! Your elder brother was too hasty."
"We're brothers, one body, and we've both received this supreme fortune. We should work together."
"Here, have a swig of my treasured Red Refinement Nectar. It's the best thing for calming your agitated blood and stabilizing your demonic art!"
He shook the flask, and a thick liquid sloshed inside.
The aroma of wine, oddly sweet and rank, wafted through the cellar.
Jalie Bei eyed the flask suspiciously, but his throat bobbed against his will.
The heat and frenzy brought on by the wicked art, combined with his long-suppressed craving for alcohol,
instantly broke through the last of his vigilance:
"Hmph! You'd better know your place!"
He snatched the flask and threw his head back, guzzling it down.
Amber liquid ran from the corners of his mouth, soaking the hair on his chest.
Lin Chen curled up in the corner of the icy iron cage.
His more than twenty years of experience from his previous life let him see the situation as clear as day.
Poisoned wine! Brothers turning on each other!
Jalie Bei really was an idiot!
He forced down the discomfort of his frail, young body.
His eyes stayed fixed on Jalie Bei, his heart filled with bone-deep cold.
The sight of his parents' gruesome deaths rose before him again, along with Xiao Bao's hypocritical face...
They had raised him for five years, at least!
His blood feud remained unsettled. How could he die here?!
He needed power!
And now, at last, his golden finger had arrived.
The killing intent in his heart could barely contain his excitement. This was a cultivation art from the primordial wilderness!
The cold power brought by the Blood Scripture flowed through his fine meridians.
The primordial hunger to devour sharpened his senses to an extraordinary degree.
The wine had barely gone down when—
"Ugh... ptooey!"
The ferocity on Jalie Bei's face suddenly froze, giving way to unbearable agony and disbelief!
He dropped the flask and clutched at his throat with both hands.
His eyes bulged, and his face turned from scarlet to a ghastly blue-black in an instant!
"Wine... wine... Jalie Lang!"
"You... you fucking... poisoner!!"
Rank black blood gushed from his mouth and nose like a fountain.
His body convulsed violently, writhing and thrashing on the ground like a fish out of water.
The Dou Qi raging within him went completely out of control.
It tore through his meridians like countless steel needles.
The black veins beneath his skin bulged one after another, as though they might burst at any moment!
A Dou Master's powerful vitality kept him from dying at once.
He endured inhuman torment:
"My dear Bei,"
The fake smile vanished from Jalie Lang's face, leaving nothing but naked cruelty and greed.
He slowly stepped back, avoiding Jalie Bei's blackened hands as they flailed wildly in his death throes.
His voice was as cold as the winds of Nine Nether:
"Your essence-blood and Dou Qi origin will nourish me a hundred times more than those little 'treats'!"
"Rather than let an idiot like you keep wasting my 'materials' and ruin my plans, I might as well let you do your elder brother a favor!"
"Don't worry. Once my demonic art reaches perfection, I'll take good 'care' of your wife and children."
"I'll send them down to reunite with you!"
There was no trace of brotherly affection in his eyes, only an insatiable greed for power.
Without further hesitation, he drew a ghastly blade of pale bone.
An eerie green light shimmered along its edge.
First, he slashed deeply into Jalie Bei's wrist, which was still convulsing violently.
A stream of viscous, black blood welled from the wound, reeking of sinister energy.
Then he cut into his own withered wrist.
Dark red blood seeped from the wound, carrying a chill, baleful aura.
Jalie Lang's eyes glittered with feverish excitement.
He seized Jalie Bei's bleeding wrist and forcefully pressed their wounds together!
"Devour blood, seize essence! Suck him dry!"
Jalie Lang roared and circulated the Blood-Devouring Demon Infant Art with all his strength!
Gloop! Gloop!
A viscous dark-red thread of blood, almost tangible, was forcibly drawn from Jalie Bei's wound as if it were alive!
Countless tiny, twisted, wailing specters seemed to writhe inside it.
It carried Jalie Bei's life essence, his Dou Qi origin, and the muddled baleful energy accumulated from cultivating the wicked art.
It surged madly into Jalie Lang's body!
"Uuuaagh!!!"
Jalie Bei let out a bloodcurdling, inhuman scream.
His body withered before their eyes.
His muscles shrank, his skin lost its luster and clung tight to his bones.
He became like dried jerky.
Jalie Lang, meanwhile, groaned in exquisite pleasure.
A sickly flush spread across his face.
His gaunt body swelled slightly, like a wineskin being filled.
The dark-red sinister aura around him suddenly surged:
Boom!
His aura climbed in successive surges, closing in on the Peak Dou Master realm—three stars!
The whole cellar filled with howling yin winds and shifting ghostly shadows.
It seemed to have become a living hell!
Inside the cage, Lin Chen's pupils contracted.
The basic chapter of the Blood Scripture, operating on its own within him,
clearly sensed the torrent of life essence and muddled soul energy being forcibly drawn away!
A primal hunger, far more domineering and refined than the wicked art Jalie Lang cultivated,
was accompanied by an insatiable urge to devour, carrying the will of supreme plunder.
Like a ferocious beast that had starved for a billion years, it roared madly in the depths of Lin Chen's soul!
The Blood Scripture refined the essence-blood of all living things!
The torrent of energy before him had been partially refined by the wicked art, and Jalie Lang was devouring it right now.
Wasn't it a feast of essence-blood from all living things?
And it had already been "processed," turned into "nourishment" that could be plundered more easily by a higher-level power!
An utterly mad plan, yet one made crystal clear by the support of Ancestor Styx's legacy,
took shape in Lin Chen's icy heart in an instant:
Turn the tables and seize control!
Use the devouring channel his opponent had opened himself.
With the supreme devouring power of the Blood Scripture, plunder in return!
There was no doubt. The Blood Scripture's rank was more than high enough to do it!
Jalie Lang greedily devoured the last wisp of energy.
Jalie Bei had completely withered into a curled-up, skin-and-bones corpse.
His face was frozen in an expression of unbearable pain and hatred.
Jalie Lang let out a satisfied howl.
His aura had astonishingly stabilized at the peak of the three-star Dou Master level!
Evil energy roiled around him, and the red light in his eyes burned even brighter.
He was filled with brutality and power.
His scarlet, savage gaze swept over the deathly silent cages like a searchlight.
Most of the children had passed out, like lambs waiting to be slaughtered.
Only in the cage belonging to that little brat from the Xiao Clan, there were those cold, indifferent eyes.
They even seemed to hold a trace of... mockery?
That infuriated him!
"You little bastard!"
Jalie Lang strode forward, cloaked in a thick smell of blood and a suffocating pressure.
In an instant, he was at Lin Chen's cage.
A bone blade spun deftly between his fingers, flashing with a frigid, eerie gleam.
His face twisted with cruel amusement and revenge.
His voice sounded like an owl's wail:
"Those two ungrateful bastards you call parents ruined my plans?"
"They made me go to all that trouble and cost me so many 'materials'?"
"Hm?!"
He suddenly kicked the cage, and the metal clanged shrilly!
"Now it's your turn, brat!"
Jalie Lang sneered as he roughly unlocked the iron lock.
The rusted chains rattled.
His withered hand, brimming with terrifying strength, reached into the cage like an iron pincer.
He grabbed Lin Chen by the collar and dragged his small body out as roughly as if he were lifting a chick.
Then he slammed him onto the cold, damp floor, filthy with blood!
Lin Chen grunted. The chains around his wrists and ankles tightened, biting painfully into his skin.
He struggled to lift his head.
His icy eyes met Jalie Lang's face, twisted out of shape by his evil technique, without the slightest fear.
"What are you looking at, you little beast?!"
Lin Chen's gaze sent Jalie Lang into a rage.
He felt his authority had been challenged:
"I'll make you watch your own blood run dry, one drop at a time!"
"I'll make you die slowly in despair!"
"I'll make your dead parents watch from below as I suck their brat dry!"
"This is what happens when you cross me!"
"Hahahaha!"
Jalie Lang let out a frenzied, triumphant laugh.
It echoed through the sinister cellar like the roar of an evil spirit.
Amid his wild laughter, he crouched down.
His withered fingers clamped around Lin Chen's slender wrist like iron shackles.
The force was enough to nearly crush his bones!
The cold bone blade, stained with Jalie Bei's still-wet black blood and thick evil energy,
glimmered with a ghostly green light as it pressed against Lin Chen's pale, fragile skin:
"Let's start with you!"
"Brat, get a good feel for what true despair is!"
Jalie Lang sneered and abruptly tightened his grip!
"Shhk!"
The sharp bone blade instantly sliced open Lin Chen's wrist!
Bright red blood, pulsing with the vigor of a young life,
welled up like pearls slipping from a broken string.
It dripped onto the cold, filthy floor, spreading into a small, glaring red stain.
Pain surged through him, but Lin Chen clenched his teeth and didn't make a sound!
His gaze was cold to the extreme, like ice.
He stared fixedly at Jalie Lang's wrist, also cut open and still oozing dark-red blood.
The basic chapter of the Blood Scripture inside his body began circulating frantically, faster than ever before.
That faint thread of power was like a shark catching the scent of blood!
It instantly converged at the wound on his wrist!
A devouring vortex, born from the primordial source of slaughter and carrying a faint yet supreme will to seize everything,
quietly formed deep within the wound, poised to strike!
Jalie Lang paid no heed to Lin Chen's gaze or the insignificant wound.
He was wholly immersed in thoughts of revenge and the "fresh blood meal" he was about to enjoy.
He extended his own wrist, dark blood streaming from it.
His face brimmed with cruel anticipation and the excitement of a tormentor.
He was about to press his wound hard against Lin Chen's!
He would make the brat who didn't know his place, in the depths of pain and fear,
have every drop of blood and every wisp of soul sucked from him.
Their wrists, each bleeding freely,
drew closer and closer beneath the dim, wavering firelight...
Before you continue