"Suddenly a Father"

"Perhaps the increase in spiritual energy had something to do with the scent emitted by the crystal," Chen Xu thought.

More than half of the crystal had turned blood-red. Several people on the altar could no longer maintain their posture due to excessive blood loss and had collapsed to the ground.

The crimson color grew ever richer. The high priest trembled with excitement, as though he were having an epileptic fit.

Lightning struck, turning the dense forest atop the mountain into a sea of flames.

Thunder roared and lightning flashed, as if it would not stop until it had split the mountain apart.

The last believer within the altar fell, and the blood-red color completely covered the black crystal.

"Did it work?" The high priest could not help swallowing as he staggered onto the altar.

Just as he reached out to touch the blood-red crystal, it abruptly broke free from the stone slab and pierced through the high priest.

"Ahhh..." The aged voice contained endless agony.

In less than three seconds, the high priest was sucked dry into a desiccated corpse and fell dead to the ground.

At that sight, the prayers did not cease. Instead, they grew even more fervent.

Their god had heard their wishes. They were about to enter the realm of the gods and follow in their god's footsteps forever.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

In fewer than thirty breaths, Chen Xu was the only one left standing at the very back.

"Still not full?" Chen Xu flung off his black robe. "You want Chen's blood? Come and see if you have what it takes!"

As if sensing Chen Xu's provocation, the blood-red crystal emitted a soft hum. Its tip pointed directly at him before it shot forward.

"Ha!" His shout was like thunder exploding on level ground as Chen Xu sprang out with a short blade in hand and brought it down with all his might.

The short blade collided with the blood-red crystal, and its edge snapped at once.

The blood-red crystal accelerated again, trying to pierce Chen Xu's body, only to be firmly seized by two large hands.

Chen Xu casually glanced at the panel and discovered that once he grabbed the crystal, his spiritual energy began skyrocketing. Strength immediately surged through him.

After three minutes of deadlock, the crystal hummed again. It desperately needed blood to replenish itself; how could it afford to waste time here?

No longer intending to maintain the stalemate, it suddenly exerted force, trying to break free from Chen Xu's control. It planned to drink its fill of blood first, then come back to settle the score with him.

It tugged once, but could not pull free. It tugged again, yet still could not move.

It realized that something seemed wrong. If it could speak, it would probably have asked, "What is wrong with you? I was already planning to spare you for now. Can't you show me a little respect?"

"You come when you want and leave when you want?" Chen Xu gripped the crystal tightly. He had never seen such a precious treasure that willingly delivered spiritual energy to him. There was no way he was letting go of such a top-tier power bank.

Sensing the blood-red crystal struggling ever more fiercely, Chen Xu immediately spent spiritual energy to raise the Myriad Beasts Bronze Statue Art to the fourth level.

His strength increased once more, leaving the blood-red crystal with no chance of escape.

The crimson color slowly faded, while Chen Xu's spiritual energy rapidly rose.

After gripping it for five minutes, the crystal shattered with a series of cracks. Chen Xu's body stiffened, as though he had fallen into some illusion.

Within the scene, he experienced the fragmented memories of a female martial arts powerhouse. She had grown from a village girl in some unknown mountain hamlet into a towering figure of the demonic path during the Great Qi dynasty.

He even saw the old man who had taught the Blood Surge Through the Nine Apertures breakthrough method in one memory, when the demonic path launched a massive assault on the dynasty in an attempt to overthrow it.

He held a book scroll and stood beside a figure clad in a dragon robe.

The scene shifted. The woman had already become frail with age, sitting cross-legged as two transparent crystals floated above a massive cauldron.

Blazing flames rose as countless items Chen Xu could not identify were tossed into the cauldron one after another to burn the crystals.

At last, the old woman removed her clothes and leaped into the cauldron filled with raging fire.

As time passed, the two crystals gradually changed. One became black as ink, while the other turned entirely emerald green.

The illusion faded. Chen Xu slowly opened his eyes, and amid a despairing howl, the crystal completely shattered.

Based on those fragmented memories, Chen Xu now understood the crystal's purpose.

That demonic path giant had used a method utterly beyond his comprehension to divide her memories and cultivation into two parts. If one crystal absorbed enough blood, she could successfully live another life.

Then, after retrieving what was stored in the other crystal, she might be able to regain her peak strength within only a few years.

Unfortunately, Chen Xu's interference had turned everything into a fleeting dream.

As fragments scattered through the air, Chen Xu vaguely heard a desperate wail.

The only thing that puzzled Chen Xu was that, judging from the few times she had acted in those memories, calling her a walking nuclear bomb would not have been an exaggeration. Why had such a flourishing martial civilization slowly faded into the dust of history?

From Great Zhao's fragmentation to Great Abyss's unification, what had happened during those centuries of chaos?

There was no use overthinking it. Chen Xu turned and was about to leave the cave when he suddenly felt moisture in his palm.

At some point, a thumb-sized ball of flesh had curled up in his palm.

The fleshy ball seemed to contain part of a face. It extended a tiny tongue and licked the crystal fragments.

With every lick, the ball of flesh changed slightly. By the time it had licked Chen Xu's palm clean of all fragments, distinct facial features had appeared, bearing some resemblance to the demonic path giant in her youth.

Soon, after discovering that there were no more fragments in Chen Xu's palm, the ball rolled out on its own and bounced across the ground.

Even while bouncing, it would not stay still. Its tongue stretched out desperately, and whenever it touched a fragment floating through the air, it snapped back like lightning and curled the fragment into its mouth.

Like this, through constant repetition, her features became more defined, limbs formed, and she eventually transformed into a finger-sized little girl around five or six years old.

She slowly opened her tightly shut eyes and cautiously looked around.

When she saw Chen Xu, her eyes suddenly widened. "...Dad... Daddy."

She sprang up from the ground and ran toward Chen Xu. She occasionally stumbled and fell, but quickly climbed back up each time.

"What the hell?" Chen Xu's expression changed slightly. He erupted with full force and threw a punch without hesitation.

His sandbag-sized fist landed solidly on the little girl formed from the ball of flesh, yet Chen Xu did not feel the impact of flesh bursting apart.

The little girl lay in the crater with her limbs spread wide.

Then she suddenly sat up, bit a finger, and giggled before running toward Chen Xu again.

Chen Xu inexplicably felt that she had taken his attack as a game.

What alarmed him was that his full-force strike had failed to leave even the slightest mark on her body.

With his current strength, punching through a steel wall would be effortless, yet he could not even leave a pale mark on her. What kind of terrifying physique was this?

The little girl grabbed his trouser leg and rapidly climbed up his body.

When she tried to climb onto his face, Chen Xu caught her with one hand.

"Dad... Daddy." The little girl stretched out both hands and called out again in her childish voice.

Chen Xu had somehow gained a finger-sized daughter, but he felt none of the excitement of suddenly becoming a father. Anyone who acquired such a bizarre daughter probably would not be happy about it.

With a whoosh, he flung the little girl far away, turned, and sprinted off. Whoever wanted this thing could have it. He certainly did not.

If you can't find it by searching the book title, try searching for the author instead. It may simply have been renamed!