"Squelch!"
The sting of the cold bone blade cutting through his skin had yet to fade.
Jalie Lang's wrist, steeped in a heavy stench of blood and cruelty, dripped with thick, dark-red blood.
He slammed it hard against Lin Chen's bleeding wound!
"Devour blood and seize essence!!!"
Jalie Lang grinned viciously, eager to pour all his power into the Blood-Devouring Demon Infant Art!
He could already picture the little brat screaming in despair, his body shriveling up.
The thought of revenge made his whole body tremble.
But the moment their blood touched—
His evil art surged through the wound and flooded into Lin Chen's body.
Then, in that instant:
"Vmmm!"
An indescribable supreme pressure, as though it had come from the primordial past.
It crashed down like a divine mountain from the Ninth Heaven!
Jalie Lang felt his soul and Dou Qi freeze in an instant!
The Blood-Devouring Demon Infant Art, raging through his body, seemed to have slammed into a ten-thousand-foot wall of black iron.
It let out a muffled whimper and came to an abrupt halt!
"Wha... What?!"
The vicious grin on Jalie Lang's face froze.
In its place came utter shock and bewilderment.
The power he had poured into Lin Chen's body felt like a mud ox sinking into the sea.
It vanished without a trace:
"Boom!!!"
Worse still, an enormous, irresistible force of suction, drawn from the very source of life.
Burst out of Lin Chen's body through the two tightly pressed wounds.
And turned against him!
This wasn't simple devouring. It was plunder!
A crushing defeat on the level of laws!
The vast energy of blood essence and the chaotic Dou Qi he had just gained by devouring Jalie Bei, still not fully refined.
Poured out of him like a flood breaching its banks, uncontrollably and furiously draining back through the wound.
Rushing toward Lin Chen!
His aura, firmly established at Peak Three-Star Dou Master, began to plummet before his eyes.
Like a balloon punctured by a needle!
"No! Impossible!!"
Jalie Lang let out a terrified shriek, his voice twisting out of tune.
His eyes nearly bulged from their sockets.
He desperately tried to pull his hand away, to sever this terrifying connection.
But their wrists seemed welded together by the chains of some unseen law!
His shriveled body shook violently as all his strength went toward resisting that dreadful suction.
Forget breaking free—even moving a finger was beyond him!
His art was being suppressed by a technique that followed the same path and rules, but was of far higher quality.
And the gap in quality wasn't just a little!
He couldn't move at all!
He felt like a lamb nailed to an altar.
Being mercilessly sacrificed to an existence on a higher plane!
The Blood-Devouring Demon Infant Art he had always prided himself on was powerless before the force rising from Lin Chen's body.
That force was cold and ancient, bearing an endless will to slaughter.
It was as fragile as a child's toy, unable to stir even the faintest ripple of resistance!
"You... What kind of monster are you?!"
Jalie Lang stared at Lin Chen, horrified beyond words.
Lin Chen's eyes were closed, yet his expression was strangely calm.
There was even a hint of eerie satisfaction.
His small body seemed to have become a bottomless black hole.
Greedily and efficiently devouring every last bit of a Dou Master's essence!
Lin Chen's consciousness was immersed in the incomparably profound paths of the Blood Scripture.
The moment the vast torrent of energy from Jalie Lang poured into his body.
It was wrapped in his pure blood essence force, broken down, and refined!
Before the supreme laws of the Blood Scripture, the residual malice and impurities of the Blood-Devouring Demon Infant Art.
Were like snow beneath the blazing sun, instantly purified and stripped away.
Only the most fundamental, purest life essence and Dou Qi remained.
This vast, refined energy poured into his parched dantian and fragile meridians like sweet rain.
The Blood Scripture surged imperiously, taking that energy as kindling!
It frantically expanded, fortified, and strengthened him!
His meridians were forcibly widened and toughened amid pain as sharp as tearing flesh.
His bones gave off faint cracks, growing denser and stronger.
His flesh greedily absorbed the essence of life, storing explosive power.
His dantian and sea of qi rapidly filled and stabilized, as if being inflated!
Dou Qi Stage One... Stage Two... Stage Three...
His cultivation rocketed upward!
Under the shaping of the supreme Blood Scripture, his foundation wasn't the slightest bit flimsy.
Instead, it grew denser, firmer, and more robust to an unbelievable degree!
Every advance through a minor stage brought a full transformation of his body!
"No! Don't..."
Jalie Lang's screams became desperate whimpers.
He could feel the strength he had accumulated through decades of arduous cultivation, by devouring countless children!
Rapidly draining away.
His skin began to sag and lose its luster.
His muscles shrank like air escaping a punctured skin, and his eye sockets sank.
In just a few breaths, he went from a viciously imposing Dou Master.
To a frail old man, on the verge of death!
"Spare... Spare me..."
He used the last of his strength to beg.
His cloudy eyes held nothing but boundless fear and regret.
Lin Chen suddenly opened his eyes!
Deep within them, an illusion of a churning sea of blood flashed and vanished.
Only cold indifference remained.
With a thought, Lin Chen made the Blood Scripture's devouring power surge!
"Gah!"
Jalie Lang let out a brief, shrill scream.
His body went limp, as though every last support had been pulled out from beneath him.
The final traces of his life essence and fragments of his soul were mercilessly ripped away.
And poured into Lin Chen.
Jalie Lang's body rapidly shriveled and crumbled.
At last, it became a heap of gray-white powder, mixing with the filthy bloodstains.
The cellar fell silent.
Only the rush of energy within Lin Chen and the faint clicks of his bones could be heard.
Ninth Stage of Dou Qi! Peak!
The vast energy had finally been fully absorbed and refined.
Lin Chen felt the surging, unceasing Dou Qi within him, far more powerful than that of others at the same stage.
And the perfect foundation forged by the Blood Scripture, so solid it was almost maddening!
He was only one step away from becoming a Dou Zhe!
A powerful sense of strength filled his entire body.
Though his body was still small, the explosive power it contained was enough to alarm an ordinary Dou Zhe!
His gaze swept over the heavy iron chains around his wrists and ankles.
With a thought, he tried to communicate with the shadow that had faintly emerged deep in his dantian as the Blood Scripture circulated.
It was the phantom image of a twelve-petal lotus platform, so illusory it was almost invisible:
A trace of the Karma Fire Red Lotus's source projection!
It was so tiny as to be nearly imperceptible, and its every ability had weakened by who knew how many tens of thousands of times!
But it was enough for now!
"Vmmm!"
A faint crimson flame, carrying an aura that seemed to burn away the sins of all creation.
Suddenly rose from beneath the skin of his wrists and ankles, where the chains were locked!
The flame was pure and scorching, imbued with a sacred air of judgment!
"Sss! Sss! Sss!"
Under the burning crimson flames, the chains forged from refined iron.
Softened and melted through in moments, like wax exposed to fire!
The broken ends were smooth as mirrors, tinged with the dark red left behind by the scorching heat.
"Hah..."
Lin Chen breathed out in relief and shook off the broken chains.
A wave of intense weakness swept over him, as though half his body had been hollowed out.
Even melting just a few chains by activating this trace of the Karma Fire Red Lotus's source.
Consumed an enormous amount from his Dou Qi Stage Nine body and faint soul power.
It had nearly drained half the strength he had just gained!
Bracing himself against the cold wall, he slowly stood up.
His small frame looked slight in the dim light.
But his eyes were sharp as an eagle's as he surveyed this prison, a veritable hell.
Nine children about his size huddled in their own iron cages.
Most had already passed out from extreme terror and the erosion of evil energy.
Their breaths were faint, like candles flickering in the wind!
A complicated, hard-to-name feeling welled up in Lin Chen's heart.
They were all fellow wanderers at the ends of the earth.
But right now, he could barely save himself.
As he wondered how to escape—whether to flee alone or find a way to rescue the children—
"Tap... Tap... Tap..."
Clear, steady footsteps suddenly sounded from the stone stairs above the cellar entrance!
They drew closer, step by step, coming down!
Those footsteps definitely didn't belong to a child!
Nor did they have the sinister cadence of the Jalie brothers!
Who was it?!
Xiao Bao? Someone else from the Jalie Family?
Or...
Lin Chen's pupils contracted, and his heart sank!
He had just survived a deadly counterattack, and his strength was nearly spent.
He couldn't use the Karma Fire Red Lotus for now, and facing an unknown visitor in his current state would be extremely dangerous!
His gaze swept across the two withered corpses on the ground and the unconscious children.
His thoughts raced.
Run? Too late!
Hide? The cellar was wide open, with nowhere to conceal himself!
The footsteps drew nearer. They were already on the last few steps into the cellar!
A growing silhouette blocked the dim light at the entrance...
Before you continue