Crimson Ghost King, an Omen of Great Calamity! (Monthly Votes, Please)

There was no sun in the sky.

Three pale red moons hung overhead in a triangular formation. Rather than clear moonlight, they cast a purple radiance with a faintly viscous quality.

When that light fell on the skin, it held no warmth at all, only a chill that bored into the marrow.

The surroundings were terrifyingly still. No insects chirped, no wind stirred; there was only the crisp snapping of dry branches beneath their feet as they landed.

Li Xiang stood on grayish-brown earth. The soil beneath his feet was soft and damp, as though soaked in some sort of grease, and gave off a faint, stale odor, sweet and bloody.

He straightened, and the great dragon of his spine gave its customary sharp crack.

"So this is the suppression imposed by the laws of heaven and earth?"

Just as Kong Qiuji had said, a vast, indifferent power of law enveloped this world.

It was not malice directed at any individual, but an iron law seemingly established when heaven and earth first opened.

All living beings were equal: all were suppressed by one realm.

The blood and qi that had once surged through his body like a mighty river had now met a dam. Only a thin trickle struggled through his meridians.

Yet an almost imperceptible gleam flashed in Li Xiang's eyes.

His blood and qi were suppressed, but his physical strength remained.

The tough skin bestowed by Ice Skin, Jade Bones, along with that great spinal dragon tempered a thousand times over, had not vanished merely because the rules had changed.

His bones were still hard as iron. The explosive power within his muscle fibers lay dormant, its output merely restricted. The hardware was still there.

Interesting, Li Xiang thought.

This environment was a disaster for those whose professions