Yi Chen closed his eyes and chanted sacred syllables, faint rings of blood-red light circling him. His body slowly grew taller, and pale purple and black-red flames began to rise from him.
Yi Chen had reached roughly two meters thirty in height, standing a full head taller than Abel. All his clothes had burned to ash, leaving him a hideous, terrifying sight.
Abel's father stared, petrified. Even his soul trembled.
With a thunderous boom, a dark-gold demon-god statue over three feet tall appeared beside Yi Chen. Six bone spurs sprouted from its limb joints, its fangs gleamed menacingly, and its eyes were crimson. A ball of eerie green ghostfire burned within it.
Yi Chen opened his eyes and said indifferently, "Is this what you're relying on?"
Abel's father gave a savage smile and spat out a wisp of white smoke. He shouted fiercely, "Kill!"
A mass of whitish mist churned and swept toward Yi Chen.
Yi Chen smiled. The flames on his body suddenly expanded dozens of times over, and a jet-black short sword, three feet two inches long, appeared in his hand. He swung it down, sending a blood-red streak of sword light howling out. It sliced through the mist in an instant.
The blood mist was severed in a single stroke, turning into streams of black smoke that drifted away.
Yi Chen's voice was cold to the bone, chilling the listener like a wind from the Nine Nether Hells. "How could a mere obstacle like mist possibly stop me?!"
A savage light gleamed in Yi Chen's eyes. His pupils turned dark red, brimming with an endless aura of slaughter. Threads of soul power transformed into wisps of blood mist that coiled around him, making him seem all the more uncanny and unfathomable.
A strange cry rang out. Twelve members of Abel's Family appeared all around him and began chanting spells in unison.
The twelve men and women of Abel's Family formed a circle, each reciting bizarre incantations in a different sequence. Bloody streaks appeared at the corners of their eyes. Thin threads of blood wriggled like earthworms as they seeped from their eye sockets, then gathered together.
The terrifying statue also struck fiercely at Yi Chen!
Yi Chen's figure flickered, turning into a faint blood-red shadow that slipped through the statue's attack range. Then he reached back and caught Abel's father in his hand.
Abel's father screamed and struggled. Yi Chen said flatly, "My patience has run out, so you're dead."
Every muscle in Abel's father's body went taut. He stood stiffly like a puppet-all fluctuations of thought in his mind had been imprisoned, leaving only a single awareness.
With a crack, a fissure opened in Abel's father's neck, then swiftly spread from within to the surface. His body gradually fractured and crumbled.
His soul let out a piercing, agonized wail, struggling desperately, but Yi Chen held it firmly under his control.
His body disintegrated, fine particles of powder scattering through the air.
Abel watched in horror as Yi Chen's hand slowly changed shape, becoming a sharp claw. Then Yi Chen grasped with it, and Abel felt as though a powerful suction were dragging his soul out of his body.
Yi Chen turned his wrist and sank his claw deep into Abel's chest. Abel's body rapidly shrank, then dissolved beneath the claw. Specks of pale green spiritual light rushed into Yi Chen's palm, and his claw became much sturdier, heavier, and steadier once more.
Abel knelt on the ground in a daze, staring blankly at Yi Chen.
A blood cloud appeared out of thin air and enveloped Abel's soul. Then his soul spun rapidly within it, submerged in thick blood.
Abel let out one final, despairing roar. "I curse you... may you die a miserable death! Ah, I curse you, I curse you! Ahahahahaha..."
The blood cloud abruptly contracted, blood splashing everywhere. Abel's soul was shredded within it, and his vital essence was drained dry.
Yi Chen's body returned to normal. Looking at the few pale yellow flames floating in the sky, he murmured, "It really does work. Such pure flames, and they've actually gained a trace of the power of laws. Very nice."
Then Yi Chen saw a ball of white light shoot toward him from afar, charging at him with an immense amount of soul power.
Yi Chen dodged it easily. The ball of white light slammed into the valley's rock wall and exploded into countless fragments. Then a figure fled in a bedraggled rush.
Yi Chen snorted contemptuously, stamped his right foot against the ground, and strode after the fleeing figure.
With a low, mournful wooo, the rocks near the valley suddenly shattered. Eighteen fist-sized stone projectiles hurtled toward the figure with piercing whistles, like a pack of vicious dogs pouncing on food. At the same time, multicolored radiance suddenly lit up all around the valley. Countless vines filled the air, and a transparent dome of light enveloped the entire valley, trapping everyone and every demonic beast inside.
Yi Chen seized the figure by the throat. A blood arrow shot into the man's throat, and Yi Chen asked sinisterly, "Abel?"
Abel's face was ashen. He stared venomously at Yi Chen. "Let me go. You can't kill me. Would you dare kill me?"
Yi Chen shook his head and said calmly, "I'm not interested in playing at duels with a bunch of beasts. I'm killing you simply because I hate you lot. That's all... you damned bastards, do you understand?"
Yi Chen suddenly roared in a furious frenzy, "You actually wanted to destroy everything built through so much hard work? I want you dead..."
Yi Chen slapped Abel across the cheek, caving his head in by half an inch and drawing a deafening scream of agony.
A man from Abel's Family standing nearby roared madly, "Bastard! You filthy, lowborn ant! How could you possibly hurt the great Abel?"
Yi Chen hurled a punch straight at the man's head. With a ripping sound, it tore through his skin and smashed his skull to pulp. Yi Chen said coldly, "A lowborn ant? Then what does that make you?"
As Yi Chen spoke, countless beads of blood shot out of his body. Over a hundred wounds of varying sizes appeared across his torso, blood streaming from them, yet they healed in the blink of an eye.
A thin layer of milky-white crystalline armor appeared on Yi Chen's back. His body seemed to have been coated in pure white jade, looking exceptionally magnificent.
Yi Chen's lips curled into a sinister smile. "None of you will survive. From the moment you were sealed away, you were already dead. Who cares about you? If I want you dead, all it takes is a word. Do you think I can't do it? Hmm?"
Abel's body began to tremble violently.