The old man at the second layer of the Fusion Realm gave Chen Changming an eerie smile, then slowly stepped out of the crowd and approached the patch of ground where the Yin-Yang Tree had fallen.
He lowered his head and glanced beneath his feet. The black-red sap flowing from the withered tree had already seeped into the ground, soaking the soil until it was sticky and wet.
"Come-"
With a low shout, he extended his withered hand, his five fingers curved like hooks, and grasped at the ground from a distance.
Gurgle-
A muffled sound came from underground, as though something were being forcibly dragged up from the depths.
Immediately afterward, a fissure opened in the soil, and black and red sap welled up from it, thick as syrup and giving off a powerful, bloody-sweet scent.
The sap continuously gathered, spun, and compressed before his palm, finally condensing into a liquid sphere more than ten feet tall. Alternating black and red patterns slowly flowed across its surface, like a beating heart.
"Hahaha, this is the day I've been waiting for..." The old man turned, swept his gaze over the people behind him, and gave a sinister chuckle before becoming the first to step inside.
His body sank into the sap without raising so much as a ripple, as though the liquid sphere were merely a doorway.
After the sap swallowed him whole, it swelled slightly, and its color deepened a few shades.
Then the other Fusion Realm cultivators stepped inside, one after another.
Their movements were eerily orderly. One after another, they entered without the slightest hesitation, as though they had rehearsed this countless times. With each person who entered, the sap swelled a little more, and the black-red patterns on its surface grew more intricate and dense.
Once