Enemies Bow Their Heads, the Overlord Army's First Evolution

Blood Butcher gripped the Blood-Bone Demon Blade, and for the first time, a grave expression appeared on his face.

He had not used a soul skill in that strike, yet he had wielded nearly seventy percent of his strength.

A normal two-ring soul master would have already been torn apart by the blade light if they took it head-on.

Yet Chu Jin had only suffered injuries to both arms.

That special power enveloping the battlefield was still steadily growing stronger.

Blood Butcher could sense that the spirits of the hundreds of soul masters and civilians around them seemed to be linked together.

Their anger, trust, and fighting spirit were all converging upon Chu Jin.

"A domain?"

"Impossible."

"How could a mere level-twenty soul master possess a domain?!"

Suspicion and shock flashed through Blood Butcher's eyes.

Chu Jin did not explain the Overlord Army to him.

Instead, he was using his Double Pupils to observe Blood Butcher's Soul Power.

After three blood array nodes had been destroyed, the flow of Soul Power within Blood Butcher's body was no longer as stable as before.

Three dark-red bloodlines extended from his chest, right shoulder, and waist.

Two of them had already been severed.

The final one led to the blood pool beneath the sacrificial grounds.

As long as that final node was destroyed, Blood Butcher would lose all external recovery.

"Qian Renxue."

Chu Jin sent the location through the Faith Anchor.

The southeastern corner of the sacrificial grounds.

Beneath the ruined bell tower.

The final bone pillar was hidden there.

Qian Renxue had already taken to the skies again.

Though she had little Soul Power left, she did not hesitate.

Her golden figure streaked across the night sky, heading straight for the bell tower.

Blood Butcher noticed her intention as well.

"Stop her!"

The remaining evil soul masters rushed toward the southeast.

Qin Yue burst out from the remains of the Blood-Bone Behemoth.

"Your opponent is me!"

The phantom of the Mountain-Splitting Rhino let out an enraged roar.

The Soul Power of a level-sixty-eight Soul Emperor erupted in full.

Three Soul Ancestor evil soul masters were sent flying head-on.

The four Soul Ancestor guards of Spirit Hall swiftly moved back to support them as well, blocking all the remaining enemies.

The battlefield was divided into three sections.

Qin Yue and the others encircled the remaining evil soul masters.

Qian Renxue destroyed the final bone pillar.

Chu Jin and Xiao Jin held back Blood Butcher.

After seeing the situation clearly, Blood Butcher instead calmed down.

"You really think this little boost is enough to kill me?"

He did not use his fifth soul ring again.

That previous strike had consumed too much.

He chose a more cautious approach.

The Blood-Bone Demon Blade slashed out repeatedly.

Every slash avoided the heavy halberd head-on and targeted Chu Jin's body instead.

A Soul King's speed far surpassed that of a two-ring soul master.

Even with the Double Pupils allowing him to predict attacks in advance, Chu Jin still could not evade them all.

The blade grazed his shoulder.

A deep wound that exposed bone instantly appeared.

Xiao Jin pounced at Blood Butcher's throat from the side.

Blood Butcher struck with a backhanded palm, sending it flying.

Xiao Jin crashed through a wooden wall, and large cracks appeared across its scales.

Chu Jin felt its pain through their martial soul connection, and his gaze grew colder.

Holy Dragon Soul Suppression!

His first soul ring lit up.

Xiao Jin flew from the rubble and threw back its head with an enraged roar.

Golden spiritual ripples crashed straight into Blood Butcher.

The gap in their Soul Power was too great.

Holy Dragon Soul Suppression only halted Blood Butcher for half a breath.

Chu Jin's heavy halberd had already thrust toward his chest.

Blood Butcher drove his demon blade downward.

The halberd tip was forcibly knocked aside.

He followed with a kick to Chu Jin's abdomen.

Bang!

Chu Jin was sent flying backward, blood spraying from his mouth.

Blood Butcher did not stop.

A bloody blade light followed close behind.

In midair, Chu Jin forcibly spun his heavy halberd and raised its shaft before him.

Clang!

The second collision.

His body was blasted away once more.

After landing, he rolled several times in succession, his eight-hundred-jin heavy halberd carving a long trench through the ground.

Everyone connected to the army's momentum felt a stab of pain in their chests.

They could feel Chu Jin's injuries.

They could also feel the immense pressure Blood Butcher brought.

In an ordinary battle, low-level soul masters might have already begun to waver.

But the people of River Valley Town did not.

Because the civilians were still evacuating.

Because the Spirit Hall team was fighting in blood-soaked battle.

Because that child barely over seven years old was still gripping his heavy halberd as he stood back up.

A branch hall soul master who had lost his left arm raised his martial soul.

"Chu Jin!"

"We're still here!"

More voices rang out.

"Spirit Hall is still here!"

"Kill these beasts!"

"Avenge the dead!"

The voices continued gathering through the Overlord Army.

The nearly exhausted Soul Power within Chu Jin's body received a faint replenishment.

His mental exhaustion was forcibly suppressed as well.

Blood Butcher's expression grew increasingly ugly.

He had never seen such an ability before.

He was clearly only a level-twenty soul master.

Yet after fighting for so long, not only had his aura not weakened, it was growing stronger and stronger.

"Then I'll kill them all first!"

Blood Butcher suddenly changed targets.

Blood light condensed around his demon blade as he prepared to slash at the civilians behind him.

Chu Jin had already seen the shift in Soul Power.

"You're not going anywhere."

He took a step forward.

All the boosts of the Overlord Army concentrated in his legs.

Chu Jin's speed suddenly surged.

The heavy halberd smashed into the demon blade from the side.

Blood Butcher's attack trajectory was forcibly altered.

The blade light skimmed over the crowd, collapsing a distant house.

"Get lost!"

Blood Butcher slashed back at Chu Jin.

Chu Jin did not take it head-on.

He moved sideways, his heavy halberd sliding forward along the blade.

His Double Pupils locked onto the point where Blood Butcher's wrist exerted force.

The halberd blade suddenly pressed down.

Blood Butcher's wrist dipped slightly.

Seizing the chance, Xiao Jin rammed into the back of his knees.

Blood Butcher briefly lost his balance.

Chu Jin swept the halberd shaft sideways, smashing it hard into his waist.

Bang!

Blood Butcher was forced back head-on for the first time.

Though he had only retreated two steps.

For a level-fifty-four Soul King, it was still utterly unacceptable.

"You..."

Blood Butcher had just begun to speak.

A powerful holy light suddenly erupted from the southeastern corner of the sacrificial grounds.

Qian Renxue had found the final bone pillar.

She gripped the Angel Sacred Sword with both hands, pouring all her remaining Soul Power into its blade.

Angel Sacred Flame!

Golden flames descended from above.

Countless remnant souls within the bone pillar let out piercing screams.

The dark-red bloodlines burned away one by one.

The final node completely collapsed.

Rumble!

The blood pool beneath the sacrificial grounds lost the array's control.

Viscous blood sprayed from cracks in the earth, only to rapidly evaporate under the Angel Holy Light.

Blood Butcher's body shook violently.

All three bloodlines connecting him to the outside world were severed.

The endlessly replenishing Soul Power instantly vanished.

Even the blood glow on the Blood-Bone Demon Blade dimmed considerably.

"My blood pool!"

Blood Butcher finally panicked.

He had spent three years and slaughtered thousands to refine this blood pool beneath River Valley Town.

With the blood pool, he could rapidly recover and multiply his cultivation speed severalfold.

Now, it had all been destroyed.

This was the moment Chu Jin had been waiting for.

"Xiao Jin!"

Xiao Jin unleashed Holy Dragon Soul Suppression once again.

Having lost the blood pool's protection, Blood Butcher's spiritual defenses had clearly weakened.

The dragon's roar descended.

His thoughts went blank for an instant.

Chu Jin's Double Pupils opened fully.

Every Soul Power node within Blood Butcher's body was revealed with perfect clarity.

Right shoulder, chest, waist, and abdomen.

Among them, his right shoulder had the weakest Soul Power circulation due to his repeated swings of the blade.

Chu Jin did not attack his chest.

The heavy halberd suddenly thrust toward his right shoulder.

Squelch!

The halberd tip pierced through flesh.

Blood Butcher's right arm froze.

Xiao Jin pounced forward and bit down on the back of the Blood-Bone Demon Blade.

Holy light came into contact with evil soul power.

Thick black smoke poured from the blade.

Blood Butcher tried to reclaim his martial soul.

Qian Renxue had already descended from the air.

Her face was pale, but the holy sword in her hand still shone with razor-sharp brilliance.

"Slash!"

The sword light fell.

Blood Butcher's right arm, along with the Blood-Bone Demon Blade, was severed.

"Aah!"

His scream echoed across the sacrificial grounds.

Blood Butcher staggered backward.

Chu Jin pulled out his heavy halberd, blood dripping from its tip.

Blood Butcher clutched his severed arm, and fear finally appeared in his eyes.

He turned to flee.

Qin Yue had already dealt with the remaining high-level evil soul masters and blocked the street entrance.

Four Soul Ancestors sealed off the other directions.

Qian Renxue was in the sky.

Before him stood Chu Jin and Xiao Jin.

Blood Butcher had nowhere to go.

"Wait!"

"You can't kill me!"

His voice trembled.

"I know everything that happened to your parents back then!"

"I know what they said at the end!"

"Don't you want to hear it?"

Chu Jin walked toward him step by step.

"Not interested."

Blood Butcher's expression stiffened.

"They died protecting a group of worthless commoners!"

"Don't you want to know whether they regretted it?"

Chu Jin did not stop walking.

"They did what they chose to do."

"You only need to pay for what you've done."

Blood Butcher suddenly bit through his tongue.

All his remaining blood energy ignited.

He was preparing for one final self-destruction.

Double Pupils had already seen the reverse flow of Soul Power.

Chu Jin raised a hand.

The heavy halberd thrust straight forward.

Its tip pierced the core Soul Power node in Blood Butcher's chest.

The swelling evil soul power instantly collapsed.

Blood Butcher lowered his head.

Looking at the heavy halberd piercing his chest, he continuously spat blood from his mouth.

"You..."

Chu Jin gripped the halberd shaft with both hands.

He exerted force through his waist and abdomen.

The heavy halberd swept upward.

Blood Butcher's body left the ground and was violently nailed to the shattered stone wall behind him.

Chu Jin did not question him.

He did not give him another chance to speak.

The halberd blade twisted sideways.

Blood Butcher's heart meridian was completely severed.

Five soul rings quickly dissipated.

The leader of the Bloodfang Evil Soul Group, who had terrorized Bluestone Town and River Valley Town for years, died on the spot.

The entire sacrificial ground fell silent for several breaths.

Then, the Spirit Hall soul masters erupted in thunderous cheers.

"Blood Butcher is dead!"

"The Bloodfang Group has been wiped out!"

"We won!"

The remaining low-level evil soul masters lost all will to resist and were swiftly killed or restrained.

Qin Yue did not allow surrendering evil soul masters to blend in among the civilians.

The controlled Soul Ancestors sealed their Soul Power one by one.

After identification, all seventy-three members of the Bloodfang Group who had taken part in this battle had been accounted for. Not one escaped.

The Blood-Bone Behemoth was also completely shattered.

Qian Renxue landed beside Chu Jin.

Her Soul Power was already close to exhaustion, yet she still stood perfectly straight.

"Your vengeance has been taken."

Chu Jin withdrew his heavy halberd.

His gaze fell on the broken Dragon-Patterned Spear on the ground.

He walked over and picked up the spearhead and the remaining half of the shaft.

Blood Butcher's Soul Tool was opened.

Aside from a large amount of evil soul master materials, it also contained a damaged Light Feather Badge.

It was the Spirit Hall badge his mother, Lin Yu, had worn while she was alive.

Chu Jin put away the two keepsakes.

He neither shed tears nor vented aloud.

Yet the stone that had weighed on his heart for three years had finally fallen away.

After the battle had completely ended, Spirit Hall began clearing River Valley Town.

The blood pool was thoroughly purified by the Angel Sacred Flame.

Qian Renxue and the soul masters from the branch hall performed rites for the lingering souls of the corpse puppets.

The civilians received food, medicine, and temporary shelter.

Qin Yue counted the casualties.

No one on Spirit Hall's side had died. Eleven were injured, three of them seriously.

Seven civilians had died during the rescue.

Had the group arrived half an hour later, all of River Valley Town might have been consumed by the blood sacrifice.

Chu Jin remained involved until the final wounded person had been settled.

The Overlord Army did not dissipate immediately.

After a true hundred-man battlefield and the crushing pressure of a Soul King, this ability was undergoing a transformation.

The golden threads within the army formation no longer connected only to Chu Jin.

They began intertwining among his teammates as well.

When a soul master's mind was affected by corpse energy, the will of those around him helped him resist it.

When someone spotted a danger they would otherwise have struggled to notice, that perception was also transmitted through the army formation to nearby companions.

[Overlord Army has completed its first transformation.]

[New effect: Within the army formation's range, teammates who genuinely accept the host's command share part of the host's mental resistance.]

[New effect: Teammates may share basic battlefield perception.]

[The strength of the sharing increases with trust, numbers, and the host's spiritual power.]

Chu Jin closed his eyes.

He could feel the fatigue and relief of the surrounding soul masters.

He could also feel Qian Renxue beside him.

This connection was clearer than before.

At the same time, the Soul Power accumulated within his body finally completed its breakthrough.

Level twenty-one.

He had reached the bottleneck of level twenty before the battle, but had yet to obtain his second soul ring.

Under normal circumstances, his level would not have manifested directly.

However, the Soul Power accumulated from the great battle and the feedback from the army formation's transformation had all settled within his meridians.

Once he absorbed his second soul ring, all of that power would be released together.

Three days later.

On a hillside outside River Valley Town.

Chu Jin erected a cenotaph for his parents.

The Dragon-Patterned Spear and Light Feather Badge were not buried in the grave.

They were keepsakes he intended to bring back to Chu Lie.

Inside the grave were his parents' old Spirit Hall uniforms and two new identity plaques.

A great number of River Valley Town's residents came voluntarily to see them off.

Many of them did not know Chu Xiao and Lin Yu.

But they knew that three years ago, these two Spirit Hall soul masters had died protecting other villages.

They also knew that three years later, their son had come to River Valley Town and, together with Spirit Hall, saved the entire town.

Chu Jin stood before the grave.

Qian Renxue, Qin Yue, four Soul Ancestors, and numerous branch hall guards stood behind him.

Chu Jin slowly poured a jug of wine before the grave.

"Father."

"Mother."

"Blood Butcher is dead."

"From now on, no one will use your deaths to provoke me again."

The mountain wind blew past.

The leaves of the trees beside the cenotaph rustled softly.

Chu Jin did not say much more.

After a while, he set down the wine jug, turned, and walked toward the group.

Qian Renxue followed at his side.

After the two had walked some distance, she spoke again.

"Your vengeance has been taken."

"Now, it's time to move forward."