Deep within the marshlands, around the altar at the center of an earthen mound, several thousand followers of the evil god lay prostrate, ceaselessly kowtowing toward the altar above.
Farther out, even more evil god followers knelt in dense, sprawling ranks, numbering in the tens of thousands.
Atop the central altar stood a huge, grotesque tree trunk. As the believers worshipped and sacrificial priests continuously poured over it the blood of slaughtered followers, the trunk slowly began to melt and writhe, streams of strange scarlet liquid flowing down onto the ground.
As the trunk gradually transformed, bulges rose from within it. Twisting and changing without end, they slowly sprouted facial features and limbs. Before long, a massive scarlet monster, as though flayed of its skin, appeared upon the altar.
As a whole, it looked as if it had been forcibly kneaded together. Arms of differing lengths crowded its body, some abnormally muscular, others hideously deformed.
Its head was covered in densely packed eyes—some piled together, some incredibly sparse—growing in utterly irregular patterns. Its lower body consisted of thick, gigantic tentacles, impossible to tell whether they were tails or legs.
At that moment, the old Daoist's Primordial Spirit Shadow Reflection appeared in the sky. Seeing this sight, he gave a cold snort. "Heretical fiends—perfect fodder for me!"
He stepped forward. With a boom, blazing red-gold light erupted over his entire body, while vast Daoist tones rang around him. Then, like a shooting star, he plunged straight at the evil god's true spirit!
Before his figure arrived, the vast Daoist tones had already rolled forth, resounding through the vault of heaven. The tens of thousands of evil god followers below immediately bled from all seven orifices, their organs turned to pulp as whole swaths of them were shaken to death.
The evil