Bell-Tolling Crimson Ground!

The sky gradually darkened, overcast as if drenched in ink.

Dozens of li away from Earth River Village, on a small path paved with black obsidian, a man in a bamboo hat and black hemp clothes raised his head. Through the murky mist, he narrowed his eyes and surveyed the steadily darkening sky.

"Pick up the pace. We should be able to make it back tonight."

Before the Land God Temple, Chu He stood quietly.

Beneath the pale golden skin of his arms, veins glowed fiery red like flowing magma, while scorching, surging blood raced endlessly through them.

From afar, he looked like a volcano on the verge of eruption. Within a foot of him, heatwaves rolled and warped the air.

This was the phenomenon produced by circulating both the Red Line Fist and the Golden Bell Shield at once!

Whoosh!

Chu He's eyes snapped open, shooting out golden light.

At that instant, Han Zhong and Wu Feng both retreated without prior agreement. Chu He's aura had cowed them. The two exchanged a glance, their eyes revealing different emotions—one was shocked, the other resentful and jealous.

The three were roughly equal in strength, yet for some reason, Chu He's aura was far more imposing than theirs, as though he were the one who had received the true inheritance.

"Hahaha, now that everything has settled into dust, neither of you will escape today!" Li Fang slowly led the eerie female corpse out the door. "Even if Hong Shou returns to the village tomorrow, he won't be able to change anything!"

"Village Chief, is this the immortality you wanted?"

Wu Feng moved away from Han Zhong and went to stand beside Chu He. At present, Chu He was the only one who could barely be called an ally.

He turned to Li Fang, confusion in his eyes.

"All I see now is a pile of rotten flesh wrapped in human skin, lingering on its last breath! Even if you can truly be reborn by borrowing a body, can you guarantee that you won't be assimilated? I don't understand what the point of doing this is."

Wu Feng clearly knew more than Chu He. Perhaps he had even learned all of their plans. Only then could he ask such a question that struck straight at the soul.

"Heh heh, how shortsighted. I'll show you exactly what the meaning of everything I've done is!"

The black pupil in the half-face on Li Fang's chest suddenly spun wildly, and the eyeball in the other half of the female corpse's head began spinning with it.

Black threads wrapped around crimson bloodlines as they emerged from the back of the female corpse's head. The threads were like steel needles, piercing straight into the back of Li Fang's head. At that moment, the two seemed to become conjoined twins.

"You're courting death!"

Suddenly, shrill screams erupted from both their mouths at once.

They turned and saw that, at some unknown time, Chu He had stealthily made his way to the villagers who had previously been imprisoned after being possessed by the eerie entity. With one grab, he shattered the yellow paper talismans.

The next moment, a sinister wind surged. A pale phantom burst out of a villager's body, rolling in black mist as it lunged straight at Chu He.

A crimson-gold hand shot out in an instant, ignoring the freezing eerie wind as it clenched fiercely around the phantom. A pained shriek shook the surroundings.

Ding dong! Absorbed eerie energy. Energy +3!

The shriek stopped abruptly, and the eerie entity's soul scattered into nothingness.

At that moment, the eerie female corpse happened to dart to within five meters of Chu He like lightning. Her claws extended, digging straight for his heart as killing intent boiled over.

Chu He immediately retreated, only to find Han Zhong blocking his way behind him.

"Good junior brother, I've wanted to trade a few moves with you for a long time!"

Han Zhong grinned viciously, his surging vitality and blood roaring like a rampaging tyrannosaur.

"Is that so? You think you're worthy?"

Chu He sensed that things were far from good. While mocking him, he did not forget to observe his surroundings and discovered that Wu Feng was entangled with Li Fang's human body.

At the same time, countless strands of the female corpse's hair shrieked like venomous scorpions. Dense enough to blot out the sky, they pierced through the air and stabbed toward Chu He from all directions!

Front, back, and above—an attack from three sides!

Hiss...

He drew a deep breath. In the face of danger, he remained calm and utterly motionless.

Chu He fiercely inhaled, his face rapidly flushing red. His chest swelled larger and larger like a balloon, faint sounds of wind and thunder rumbling within.

The three attacks were about to reach him.

The golden light over his body suddenly flared. An ancient, massive golden bell three zhang tall crashed down upside down, enveloping everything within ten meters.

Han Zhong's heart jumped, and he hurriedly activated the Golden Bell Shield to defend himself.

How could Han Zhong fail to recognize such a sign...

Wasn't this the Golden Bell Shield's famous technique, Bell-Tolling Crimson Ground?!

But why was Chu He's aura so vast and magnificent? Both the vitality-and-blood phenomenon he produced and the range covered by his attack were several times greater than Han Zhong's!

"Roar!!!"

A great roar exploded like thunder in a drought-stricken sky, like a tiger's howl shaking the mountains and forests.

Visible to the naked eye, layer upon layer of nearly solid soundwaves emerged inside the golden bell, like massive hammers smashing against its surface with irresistible force.

Bzzzz—

The crisp, resonant toll rang through the entire village in an instant.

Inside the golden bell, the chime echoed again and again. The ground and walls were all forcibly scraped away by a layer, as though scorched, leaving behind a field of crimson.

Within that terrifyingly scorching bell toll, the eerie female corpse bore the brunt of it. Soundwaves engulfed her, forcing her to withdraw her claw attack.

The black hair stabbing down from the sky had long since been shredded into pieces by the invisible waves of Bell-Tolling Crimson Ground, turning into countless fragments and eerie mist.

Han Zhong had reacted in advance and defended himself the fastest. Aside from being blasted back several meters, with aching bones and flesh and a slight pain in his ears, he had only suffered minor injuries.

As an eerie entity, this attack of utmost hardness and pure yang should have been the most lethal to the female corpse. Yet after the crimson bloodlines inside her body faintly lit up, they effortlessly blocked the most terrifying scorching heat within Bell-Tolling Crimson Ground.

Vitality-and-blood power?!

Seeing the fluctuations emitted by the blood threads, Chu He's eyes abruptly widened. Wasn't this blood energy the vitality-and-blood power cultivated by martial artists?

At last, he understood just how vast Li Fang's ambition was. Li Fang not only wanted the endless lifespan of eerie entities, but also wanted to gather vitality and blood like a martial artist, allowing him to move freely among humans.

"This scourge absolutely cannot be allowed to continue existing!"

Boom!

With a tap of his foot, the ground exploded, dirt and shattered stones shooting in all directions.

Chu He's hands, covered in thick red tendons, vanished in an instant, dragging afterimages behind them. Like enraged dragons bursting from the floodgates, they clamped fiercely around the female corpse's neck.

Then his steel fists followed like shadows. In an extremely short span of time, he threw nearly a hundred punches, sending airwaves rolling as every strike hammered some part of the female corpse's body.

Bang bang bang—

The relentless barrage left the female corpse unable to retaliate for a time.

On the surface, Chu He held the overwhelming upper hand, but only he deeply understood how terrifying and troublesome this corpse's regenerative ability was.

He had originally broken through to the second level of the Red Line Fist, sending his attack power soaring in a straight line. Yet now, he could not even break through the female corpse's skin.

Moreover, with the vitality-and-blood red threads intertwined with black threads inside her body, even the scorching, burning force naturally carried by vitality and blood had been weakened to the extreme.

An indescribable sense of stifled frustration suddenly surged into his heart.

Boom!

As Chu He rained down blows, a fierce wind suddenly howled at his waist. The next second, agonizing pain struck his side, and he was sent flying.

A distant wall and pillar shattered upon impact. Several supports in the side courtyard snapped, and the entire building swayed on the verge of collapse before finally crashing down.

"Cough... I forgot you were still here."

Chu He spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm, then looked coldly at Han Zhong, who stood side by side with the female corpse. "Looks like the two of you are going to come at me together?"