Slaying the Old Monster

Lu Chen, treading the Wind and Thunder Steps, charged into the canyon wedged between two sheer cliffs.

The rock walls on both sides were covered in honeycomb-like holes, through which malevolent energy flowed like living creatures, emitting shrieks like a baby's cries.

A wound on his shoulder, torn open by Old Monster Feng'an's ghost face, was oozing black blood. Each drop that fell to the ground hissed and rose as foul-smelling green smoke.

"Lifeless Ravine..." Lu Chen wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, the Devouring Furnace trembling slightly.

The concentration of malevolent energy here was more than ten times that of the outside.

The roar of the bronze war chariot behind him was like an inescapable curse.

At the bottom of the ravine, the Gale Force, mixed with the sharp wails of fierce souls, whipped his protective aura, causing it to flicker unstantly.

"Little beast, you're quite quick to escape!"

Old Monster Feng'an's dry laughter echoed from above.

Nine skull prayer beads suddenly exploded, transforming into a hundred-zhang white bone giant wheel that crushed the bloody mist. The edges burned with an eerie green ghost fire, and wherever it passed, even the rocks corroded into dust.

Lu Chen threw the Devouring Furnace with a backhand. Black light surged from the furnace's opening, biting onto the giant wheel for half a breath.

Seizing this moment, he leaped into a natural rock cave at the bottom of the ravine.

BOOM!

The white bone giant wheel crushed the entrance, and debris rained down like a storm.

Lu Chen pressed his back against the stone wall, his three clones having already silently climbed to the top of the rock.

"Form the array!"

Old Monster Feng'an's withered hand grasped, and the bones on the ground writhed like living creatures, forming nine three-zhang-tall Corpse Puppets.

Each step these Corpse Puppets took caused the ground to tremble.

Ji Wujue stood atop the war chariot, grinning as he formed seals. Dense runes appeared on the surface of the bronze war chariot, effectively sealing the entire rock cave into a cage.

Lu Chen closed his eyes and took a deep breath, his bloodline power surging like lava.

The next moment, the three clones, carrying the furnace, erupted!

The left clone, wielding the Asura Furnace, crashed into the Corpse Puppets. The Asura phantom with three heads and six arms clashed head-on with the bone puppets' claws, sparks flying like rain.

The right clone activated the Devouring Furnace, its dim light transforming into a vortex that ensnared two Corpse Puppets, tearing them to shreds.

The central clone, holding the external furnace, detonated itself fiercely!

BANG!

Amidst the blinding white light, five Corpse Puppets exploded.

Lu Chen's main body, enduring the backlash from his clones' self-destruction, moved like a phantom through the energy storm, the Soul Severing Saber, wreathed in soul fire, slashing directly at Old Monster Feng'an's brow.

"A mere trick!"

The skull in Old Monster Feng'an's hand suddenly expanded like a small mountain, and two purple-black beams of light shot from its empty eye sockets.

Lu Chen drew his saber to block. The saber blade collided with the beams, and Lu Chen spat out a mouthful of blood, sent flying backward.

"The furnace is mine!"

Ji Wujue seized the opportunity, thrusting his halberd at the clone holding the Devouring Furnace, blood patterns flaring on the tip of the halberd.

Unfortunately, he missed, and Lu Chen recalled it.

A cold glint flashed in his eyes. The Myriad Manifestations Furnace emerged from his body, and the blood qi surging from its opening formed chains, dragging the war chariot towards Ji Wujue.

Simultaneously, the Asura Furnace was suddenly inverted, and the energy within formed a torrent that blasted towards Old Monster Feng'an's back!

"Pfft!"

The withered body was struck, staggering forward. Old Monster Feng'an turned in rage, and the skull suddenly erupted with countless bone spurs.

Lu Chen neither dodged nor blocked, holding the Devouring Furnace in front of him. The moment the bone spurs entered the furnace's opening, he moved his mind, and the Myriad Manifestations Furnace suddenly appeared behind Old Monster Feng'an.

"Explode!"

The surging blood-red chains detonated behind Old Monster Feng'an, tearing the very bottom of the ravine into a vacuum with terrifying energy.

Old Monster Feng'an's protective spiritual light shattered inch by inch. He crushed a jade talisman with his withered hand, intending to escape, but it was intercepted by the blood-red chains extending from the Myriad Manifestations Furnace once more.

"It's over."

Lu Chen grunted, the Soul Severing Saber piercing his chest, its saber energy shredding his dantian.

Old Monster Feng'an's eyes widened. His Nascent Soul had just left his body when it was swept into the Myriad Manifestations Furnace.

Ji Wujue was horrified and fled, driving the war chariot into a streak of light.

Lu Chen ignored him, snatching the skull magical artifact with a backhand.

The Myriad Manifestations Furnace trembled, and a gray-white Law Fragment emerged, its surface bearing mysterious white patterns, like a skeleton.

He looked at the scattered corpses. After busy work, he condensed a new furnace and then refined another clone.

He melted the Law Fragment, extracted from Old Monster Feng'an's skull magical artifact, into the new furnace.

As a wave of energy spread, the new furnace was promoted, surpassing low-grade to reach the peak of mid-grade.

The furnace body had skull engravings. With a tremor of the furnace, a Bone Warrior stepped out of the void.

The Bone Furnace could summon a Bone Warrior to assist in battle.

This came as a pleasant surprise to Lu Chen.

Although limited to the Qi Surge Realm due to his main body's level, its level would continuously advance along with his breakthroughs, making it terrifying in the future.

It wasn't in vain that he suffered for a few days.

He had been chased like a dog by those two guys, in a truly pathetic state.

Lu Chen stroked the furnace body, refining Old Monster Feng'an's corpse into a Nascent Soul Fragment.

Considering he was on the verge of a breakthrough, he didn't dare to use it and put it away for now.

"While it's injured, strike it down!" Lu Chen looked outside the ravine, his expression turning cold.

Moreover, after being chased like a dog, he had to fight his way back.

Half a day later, he saw the blood-red pillar of light soaring into the sky from the camp once more.

Lu Chen lay prone on the edge of the cliff, his brow furrowed slightly, a cold glint in his eyes.

Below the cliff, a thousand cultivators were bound to bronze pillars by iron chains. Their vital blood flowed along grooves into a central blood pool.

BOOM!

The blood pool suddenly boiled, and half a demonic face covered in scales emerged from the bottom.

Ji Wujue stood in the air atop a bronze war chariot, the Blood Devouring Banner stirring up a foul wind. "It's almost time, isn't it?"

"Almost time for what?" Lu Chen's toes shattered the rock wall as three figures shot towards the altar like arrows loosed from a bow.

The left clone threw out the Asura Furnace, its mouth spewing Asura Fire that condensed into an Asura Fist, smashing towards the war chariot.

The right clone activated the Devouring Furnace, its dark light spreading like a net over the blood pool.

The middle clone intercepted Ji Wujue.

The main body lunged straight for the east side of the altar, the Soul Severing Saber cleaving down, wreathed in blade light.

"I've been waiting for you!"

The Blood Owl suddenly materialized from the blood mist. Nine blood pythons flew out from under its cloak.

The venom sprayed from the pythons' heads condensed into a cage in mid-air, trapping Lu Chen in the center.

Ji Wujue seized the opportunity to sweep his halberd, the blood patterns on its tip flashing. He actually forced both clones back over thirty feet.

Lu Chen spun to evade the blood pythons' bites, the Bone Furnace suddenly hanging upside down.

The warrior clad in bone armor cracked the ground, purple flames flaring in its eye sockets, its giant axe shattering three blood pythons.

Taking advantage of this opening, Lu Chen thrust his blade into the altar, only to find the broken engravings healing themselves as if alive.

"This formation is fueled by the vital blood of an Ancient Demon. How can it be broken by brute force?"

The Blood Owl cackled and formed a hand seal. The remaining blood pythons suddenly self-destructed.

The corrosive blood condensed into poison arrows that pierced through his protective Gale Force, etching bone-white flesh on Lu Chen's left shoulder.

At the same time, Ji Wujue attacked, the tip of his halberd flashing with cold light.

There was nowhere to dodge!

At the critical moment, a clear sword cry echoed from the heavens.

Han Qingxue broke through the clouds, followed by three hundred cultivators from Myriad Bone City who formed a formation and shot a beam of sword light.

It aimed directly behind Ji Wujue.

Ji Wujue retracted his halberd and spun, colliding with the sword light.

Ji Wujue was forced back dozens of meters.

"Han Qingxue, you're courting death!"

Ji Wujue roared. Seeing the blood pool about to be frozen by the cold air from Myriad Bone City's cultivators, he flung the Blood Devouring Banner into the formation's core. The frozen blood plasma began to boil again.

The Ancient Demon's face broke free of half its body. Its claws tore open a spatial rift, and the Gale Force whipped the Myriad Bone City cultivators, sending them falling like leaves.

Lu Chen used the momentum to leap up, the Myriad Manifestations Furnace emerging from his dantian.

The energy sealed within the furnace formed intertwining chains, pointing directly at the Blood Owl.

The Blood Owl's expression changed, and it rapidly retreated.

Ji Wujue wanted to provide support but was blocked by the three clones.

Han Qingxue, meanwhile, drove the Ice Soul Sword, summoning a sky full of frost that poured into the spatial rift.

The Ancient Demon roared in pain, its claws tearing at space rapidly retracting.

A ferocious glint flashed in Lu Chen's eyes. The muscles in his right arm suddenly bulged like coiled dragons, boundless power surging forth and converging in his fist.

Earth Shattering Collapse Fist!