Hell Road

Under the red light, the fallen seemed to go mad, desperately clawing at their faces, their bodies...

As though they felt no pain, they clawed faster and faster, growing more and more excited! Skin peeled back and blood sprayed everywhere. They even tore their own organs from their bodies.

The frenzy only stopped when their lives ended.

Once every fallen spectator was dead, blood flowed down from the stands and gathered together, streaming toward the center of the Hell Slaughter Arena.

Grooves appeared in the ground. All the blood poured into them and gradually formed an enormous blood-red pattern.

The pattern formed from blood was a bat!

Suddenly, the bat's eyes lit up, and dizziness flooded Tang Chen's mind.

A deep voice sounded behind Tang Chen. "Good luck. I hope we meet again."

It was the King of Slaughter's voice.

As the blood-red light swallowed him, Tang Chen felt the ground vanish beneath his feet. Everything around him turned hazy, and all his senses were sealed.

What Tang Chen could not see was the killing intent around him gathering into faint white ripples that shielded his body. Without it, he would have been swallowed the moment the crimson light spread.

When the light returned, Tang Chen found himself on a circular platform.

The platform was only about five meters across. Everything around him was tinged pale red, and beyond the platform beneath his feet lay a bottomless abyss!

The only other thing there was a narrow path, less than half a foot wide and barely wide enough for both feet to stand side by side. It stretched into the unknown darkness—the platform's sole route out.

Tang Chen looked down and saw an immense pool of blood below.

The blood pool was filled with all kinds of unknown poisons.

Tang Chen had only one choice: take the path ahead.

It was so narrow that even Tang Chen would have a hard time crossing alone.

His previous life was too far behind him. Tang Chen had long since forgotten how Tang San had crossed it.

So Tang Chen stepped onto Hell Road with the utmost care.

He walked about three or four hundred meters.

Then he heard a rustling ahead.

Unfortunately, his mental power was not strong enough to sense what creature made it.

All Tang Chen could do was stay on guard.

From then on, Tang Chen paused after every step.

Yet he saw no creature charge at him.

Then Tang Chen glanced down.

The blood pool below was slowly rising.

But that was no problem for Tang Chen, who was already immune to all poisons, fire, and ice.

He kept the same pace as before, walking steadily onward.

Soon the buzzing grew louder. Tang Chen could see a huge Blood Bat ahead with his own eyes.

One became two, then two became three. In moments, more than a thousand Blood Bats had closed in.

Tang Chen summoned the Clear Sky Hammer, but his face showed no panic.

"Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer!"

One strike.

Two strikes.

Eighty-one strikes!

Tang Chen unleashed the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer, smashing every Blood Bat that lunged at him down into the blood pool.

The Blood Bats dissolved like cream as they fell in.

Just as Tang Chen was about to finish off the last of them, a ring of blue sound waves swept toward him.

Every Blood Bat the sound waves touched shut down as if someone had flipped a switch. They froze in midair, then dropped straight into the blood pool.

By the time Tang Chen saw the sound waves, they were already upon him.

Bzz!

Unable to dodge, Tang Chen took the attack head-on.

He immediately lost the ability to move, but broke free of the sound waves' hold after just one second.

Tang Chen looked up. In the middle of the Blood Bat swarm, a dark-gold bat had appeared.

It was over four meters long, with a terrifying wingspan of eight meters! Its entire body was dark gold, and it had three heads.

This bat was the Blood Bat swarm's second-in-command: the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat.

Tang Chen looked at the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat and muttered,

"Ugly thing."

Just as Tang Chen was about to fight the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat, a thought struck him.

Wait, I have the Flight-Ban Domain!

Tang Chen had gotten so caught up in fighting that he had forgotten about his Flight-Ban Domain.

He immediately activated his Body Martial Soul.

"Flight-Ban Domain!"

The Blood Bat swarm and the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat, still flying overhead, dropped straight down like birds with broken wings.

One by one, they fell into the blood pool and dissolved like cream.

Tang Chen breathed a sigh of relief. He had finally passed the first trial.

It had been so dangerous because of his own carelessness. Once a fight started, he forgot everything else—even his Flight-Ban Domain.

Tang Chen reflected on his mistake, then continued along Hell Road.

As he walked, a sudden rustling came from ahead. Tang Chen immediately grew wary—though not that wary.

A strange snake lay across the path ahead.

Its eyes were scarlet, and its body was dark red.

Nine bulges ran along its head and back. Each resembled a bright-red mushroom, with what looked like blood flowing inside it.

The snake's belly was enormous, bulging over the narrow path, and its body was at least ten meters long.

Tang Chen thought, It's... it's... what was it again?

So much time had passed that Tang Chen had forgotten it.

The strange snake was a Primordial Variant: the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent!

When the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent saw Tang Chen, it let out a croaking sound like a crying infant.

The nine fleshy lumps on its back began to glow gold-red.

Croak—

A fiery-red beam suddenly shot from its mouth. Carrying a powerful stench, it raced toward Tang Chen.

The red beam burned so hot that even the stone crackled beneath it.

And that stench was plainly poisonous.

But neither intense heat nor deadly poison posed any threat to Tang Chen.

He had eaten Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot. He had long since become immune to fire, ice, and all poisons.

Tang Chen walked straight into the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent's attack.

He soon reached the serpent.

Seeing that its attack could not hurt Tang Chen, the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent switched to a physical assault.

Its muscles tensed, and it burst forward, charging straight at Tang Chen to deliver a vicious blow.