Blood Demon Ancestor

The instant the ancient bronze coffin shook violently, a sharp light flared in Li Chen Zhou's eyes. His bones crackled like frying beans, his skin instantly turning a reddish bronze as the Indestructible Divine Skill erupted at full force!

"Now!" Li Chen Zhou roared, shooting forward like a cannonball. The Blood Demon Blade let out a piercing shriek, and the Eye of Taotie upon its blade snapped open, its scarlet pupil reflecting Five Venoms Venerable's horrified face.

"Three Abyssal Slashes—Sever Samsara!"

Before the blade light arrived, heaven and earth had already changed color. Countless phantom wraiths appeared out of thin air around the altar, while thick blood seeped from the cracks in the ground. Five Venoms Venerable spun around in panic, only to see three blood-red blade rays woven into a net, as though they would carve the entire space into fragments!

"Five Venoms Divine Palm!" Five Venoms Venerable screamed sharply, both palms instantly turning inky green. Phantoms of five poisonous creatures condensed around him into solid form, becoming five poisonous barriers that met the blade light head-on.

Boom—

The blast wave exploded outward, turning Heavenly Devil Sect disciples within thirty meters into blood mist in an instant. Li Chen Zhou's blade momentum did not diminish. His left hand shot out with the Heavenly Frost Fist, icy true energy sweeping through the entire field like raging waves.

Crack, crack—

More than a dozen black-clad men, just about to form a formation, froze into ice statues with looks of terror still on their faces. Frost spread from their seven apertures, freezing even their flesh and blood into crystalline ice.

"Young brat, you seek death!" Five Venoms Venerable's mask shattered, revealing a savage face covered in poisonous sores. He bit through his tongue and sprayed poisonous blood, which transformed into nine blood-red centipedes in midair and lunged at Li Chen Zhou's face.

Li Chen Zhou sneered as Three-Aspect Primordial Energy gathered in his palm. Wind, cloud, and frost true energies fused perfectly, forming a spinning transparent vortex.

"Break!"

Wherever the vortex passed, the blood-red centipedes shattered completely. Five Venoms Venerable staggered back, a bowl-sized bloody hole already opening in his chest.

"Impossible! What cultivation art is that?!" he howled, poisonous blood gushing wildly from his wound.

Li Chen Zhou did not answer. He raised the Blood Demon Blade again. This time, the Eye of Taotie on the blade fully awakened, breaking free of the weapon and appearing behind him as a massive blood-red phantom.

"Second Slash—Abyssal Hell!"

Before the blade light emerged, the entire altar had begun to collapse. Five Venoms Venerable frantically formed hand seals, sending his life-bound venomous gu into flight to block the attack, but they were devoured the instant they touched the blade light.

"Ah—" Amid his scream, Five Venoms Venerable's right arm was severed at the shoulder. Before the limb even hit the ground, the Taotie phantom swallowed it whole.

"Venerable!" Yin Wujiu cried out and tried to rush to the rescue, only to have his path blocked by the suddenly appearing Earthly Fiends Four.

Li Chen Zhou stepped over the ice statues littering the ground, advancing one step at a time. With every step, the reddish bronze glow on his body grew brighter. Heavenly Frost Fist in his left hand, Blood Demon Blade in his right, and the Taotie phantom at his back roaring toward the heavens, he looked like a demonic god descending upon the world.

"The final slash—"

"Stop!" A thunderous roar suddenly came from the center of the altar. The ancient bronze coffin exploded with a bang, and amid the blood mist, a shriveled skeletal figure slowly rose.

"Martial Truth - Interdimensional Calamity!"

The instant the blade light fell, Five Venoms Venerable frantically condensed his Five Venoms true energy, forming a jade-like poisonous protective barrier before him.

Crack—crash—

The barrier shattered at once, and blade energy pierced through his body. Every meridian in Five Venoms Venerable's body snapped, and he crashed at the edge of the altar like a rag doll.

"Soul Absorption Art!" Li Chen Zhou curled his five fingers into claws, and a black vortex engulfed Five Venoms Venerable.

"No... Ancestor, save..." His hoarse plea for help stopped abruptly as thirty years of pure inner force flowed away like rivers pouring into the sea.

Ding—Obtained 30 years of inner force

Current inner force: 245 years

Realm advanced to late fifth rank.

The ancient bronze coffin exploded with a bang. Amid the blood mist, a shriveled skeletal figure slowly rose. His withered lips moved, producing a piercing sound like metal grinding against metal:

"Young brat... you seek death..."

The Blood Demon Ancestor had returned to the mortal world.

"System, scan the Blood Demon Ancestor's information."

"Scanning..."

"Ding—"

Character: Blood Demon Ancestor

Gender: female

Realm: Grandmaster (life force exhausted; can currently exert at most peak fourth-rank strength)

Cultivation arts: Blood Demon Scripture, Star Absorbing Art

A cold gleam flashed in Li Chen Zhou's eyes. "Peak fourth rank? Nothing more than that!"

Before his words had faded, the Blood Demon Blade had already slashed out fiercely, wrapped in Frost Heaven Six Annihilations true energy. Wherever the blade light passed, countless ice crystals condensed in the air, and the ground instantly froze into a mirror.

"Three Abyssal Slashes—Frost Annihilation - Interdimensional Calamity!"

In an instant, the entire altar transformed into an icy hell. The Blood Demon Ancestor's withered body was sealed within the ice, his startled expression frozen into an ice statue.

"Three-Aspect Primordial Energy!"

Li Chen Zhou thrust both hands forward, launching a transparent sphere of energy that howled through the air and warped it in its wake. Just as the energy sphere was about to strike—

Crack!

The ice statue exploded, and the Blood Demon Ancestor burst free, his withered body swaying unsteadily.

"Young brat... seek death!" His hoarse voice rasped like sandpaper. He raised a withered claw, and a terrifying suction force suddenly erupted.

"Star Absorbing Art!"

The surrounding Heavenly Devil Sect disciples immediately twisted out of shape, their flesh and blood drawn out like strands of thread. Zhang Zhiruo and the scholar lost control of their bodies, on the verge of being swept into the vortex.

"Cosmic Shift!"

Li Chen Zhou flashed forward, his palm wind winding around the two like silk and forcibly dragging them out of the field of suction. As he turned, his pupils suddenly contracted—

The Heavenly Devil Sect disciples who had been drained dry had turned into mummies, while the Blood Demon Ancestor's gaunt body visibly began to fill out. White hair turned black, wrinkles smoothed away, and in the blink of an eye, he transformed into a breathtakingly beautiful woman with skin as smooth as congealed fat.

"Hahaha... I have finally..."

Before he could finish, Li Chen Zhou's long-prepared killing move had already crashed down.

"Three Origins Return to One!"

A purple thunderball tore through the air. The Blood Demon Ancestor hastily formed hand seals. "Blood Demon Bodyguard!"

The blood-colored skull phantom had barely formed before the thunderball blasted it into scattered pieces. The shockwave from the explosion shook the entire underground palace, sending dust sifting down.

"Three Abyssal Slashes—Martial Truth - Interdimensional Calamity!"

"Frost Annihilation - Interdimensional Calamity!"

"Three Origins Return to One!"

Li Chen Zhou gave him no chance to catch his breath. Blade light and fist shadows poured down like a torrential rain. The underground palace shook violently amid the unending explosions, shattered stones falling like rain.

"System, scan again!"

"Ding—"

Current status: Grandmaster (injured, life force weakened, combat strength reduced to half-step third rank)

Just as expected! Li Chen Zhou understood everything clearly. Even the heaven-defying Star Absorbing Art could not instantly make up for a century of losses. This old demon was merely a powerful crossbow at the end of its bolt!

"Go!" he suddenly roared. The Blood Demon Blade swept across the battlefield, its blade energy completely cleaving apart the already crumbling ceiling. With a rumble, the entire underground palace began to collapse.

The three figures darted like lightning through the falling boulders. Behind them came the Blood Demon Ancestor's hysterical roar: "I will definitely suck your marrow dry—"