Blood Shadow Shrouds the Heavens, One Force Shakes the Mountain

On Blood Saber Peak, in front of the mountain gate.

The air was filled with a thick, nausea-inducing stench of blood. The entire peak was shrouded in a strange, blood-red mist that blocked out the daylight, making it appear gloomy and deathly silent.

Lu Shaoyou stopped, tilting his head up to look.

He could feel an invisible yet powerful force field, like a giant bowl, inverted over the entire Blood Saber Peak.

This power was evil and immense. It shared a source with the "Blood River Spirit Sacrificing Array" that Xue Yutang had set up on Soul Severing Cliff, but it was more condensed and more potent.

It seemed that to welcome him, the Blood Saber Sect had brought out all their reserves.

He took the Qi Mei Cudgel from his shoulder and casually planted it on the ground, producing a dull "thump."

The sound wasn't loud, but it seemed to carry a peculiar penetrating power, clearly spreading throughout the entire peak.

"Xue Yutang."

Lu Shaoyou's voice was calm and indifferent, yet it exploded like rolling thunder through the blood mist.

"I'm here. Are you?"

His voice echoed, and the forest remained silent.

A moment later, the blood mist churned, and a figure walked out from the shadows behind the mountain gate, step by step.

The man wore blood-red martial attire and stood tall, but his face was distorted beyond human recognition.

His skin had a sickly grayish-white hue, covered in spiderweb-like blood-red patterns. His eyes were crimson like blood, devoid of any human emotion.

His gaze towards Lu Shaoyou held only infinite malice and madness.

"Lu Shaoyou, you've finally come. I've waited a long time for this day!"

His voice was hoarse and sharp, like fingernails scraping against metal, making one's scalp tingle.

Lu Shaoyou looked at the ghastly figure before him, his brow furrowing slightly.

"Li Mo?" Lu Shaoyou tentatively uttered a name.

"Haha... hahahaha!"

Li Mo let out a hoarse, sharp laugh, like the cry of a night owl, making one's scalp numb. "Lu Shaoyou! You still recognize me! You actually still recognize me!"

He stared intently at Lu Shaoyou, his blood-red eyes filled with bone-deep hatred.

"It's all because of you! If it weren't for you, I'd still be the Young Master of Black Wind Village! My father wouldn't be dead! I wouldn't have lost my home and family! And I certainly wouldn't have turned into this monstrous appearance!"

"You! You ruined everything for me!"

He roared, his voice filled with self-pity and madness.

"I want you dead! To pay for my father's life! To pay for the lives of my more than three hundred brothers from Black Wind Village!"

Lu Shaoyou listened quietly, his expression unchanged.

Pay with their lives?

Black Wind Village?

He recalled the honest face of his father, Lu Dahai, the desperate eyes of the villagers, and the young girls who were brutally humiliated to death, their bodies left uncovered.

Lu Shaoyou's eyes instantly turned cold.

A chilling killing intent slowly rose from the depths of his heart.

"Are you done?"

Lu Shaoyou asked indifferently.

Before his voice even finished, he moved.

No superfluous words, no fancy techniques.

The Qi Mei Cudgel in his hand, with a sharp whistle that tore through the air, transformed into a black lightning bolt, smashing down towards Li Mo's head.

However, facing this thunderous, powerful blow, a twisted, sinister grin appeared on Li Mo's face.

He didn't dodge. He simply raised the blood-red token in his hand above his head!

"Blood Shadow Array, activate!"

Boom—!

A dull hum resonated, and the entire Blood Saber Peak trembled!

The blood mist enveloping the peak instantly began to boil, transforming into a vast, blood-colored sky curtain.

Immediately after, thirty-five blood shadows, whose auras were connected to Li Mo's, surged up from all directions, merging into the blood-colored sky curtain.

The next moment, a colossal blood hand, condensed from pure blood fiend energy, capable of obscuring the sky and covering the earth, emerged from the sky curtain. It accurately reached out to grasp the iron staff Lu Shaoyou was swinging down.

A deafening roar, like mountains collapsing and the earth cracking, erupted.

Wild waves of energy swept outwards, scraping away a layer of the rock-hard ground.

Lu Shaoyou felt a powerful, viscous force transmitted through the staff, which had managed to block his seemingly certain strike.

His arm went slightly numb.

The giant blood hand, after blocking his cudgel strike, trembled violently but quickly stabilized.

"Hmm?"

A hint of interest finally appeared in Lu Shaoyou's eyes.

To withstand his strike without dissipating... this formation was rather interesting.

"Hahahahaha!"

Li Mo let out an even more unhinged laugh upon seeing this. "Lu Shaoyou! It's useless! I am now empowered by the 'Blood Shadow Array,' the combined strength of thirty-six Xiantian experts! You cannot kill me!"

"Today, you are the one who will die!"

"Is that so?"

Lu Shaoyou's lips curved upwards slightly as he tightened his grip on the iron cudgel.

"Then let me see just how much substance this group of common thugs has when you all band together!"

Golden Xiantian true qi erupted from his body like a volcanic eruption.

The Twelve Dragon-Elephant Power was poured into the Qi Mei Cudgel without reservation!

Instantly, the winds and clouds changed, and the very air seemed to resonate with the roars of dragons and elephants.

The Qi Mei Cudgel in his hand, at this moment, transformed into what seemed like the legendary pillar capable of suppressing gods and demons. Carrying an unparalleled dominance and might, it smashed down hard once more!

"ROAR—!"

Facing this world-ending strike, Li Mo's expression drastically changed. He frantically urged the array forward.

The sky-obscuring blood curtain condensed into an even larger, blood-colored demonic shadow. The shadow let out a silent roar, crossing its arms to block in front of itself, attempting to withstand this earth-shattering cudgel strike.

BOOM—!

This collision was more than ten times fiercer than the previous one!

The entire Blood Saber Peak shook violently, countless rocks tumbled from the cliffs, and dust filled the air.

Under the crushing force of the iron cudgel, the giant blood-colored demonic shadow was deeply indented. Its entire body was covered in fine cracks, looking as if it would collapse at any moment.

However, in the next moment, countless wisps of blood mist surged in, and the blood-colored demonic shadow recovered at an incredibly fast pace.

"Hahaha!"

Li Mo laughed even more maniacally at this sight. "Lu Shaoyou! It's useless."

This Blood Shadow Array not only combines the strength of my thirty-six Blood Shadow Guards, but it is also integrated with the entire earth vein of Blood Saber Peak.

"As long as Blood Saber Peak stands, the array will not be broken!"

"No matter how strong you are, Lu Shaoyou, can you possibly be stronger than the power of heaven and earth?!"

In the forbidden blood pool.

Xue Yutang and Xue Yugang were watching the scene at the mountain gate through a water mirror.

Upon seeing the Blood Shadow Array stubbornly withstand Lu Shaoyou's full-power attack, both of them revealed expressions of ecstatic joy.

"We succeeded! Brother, we succeeded!" Xue Yugang trembled with excitement. "This Blood Shadow Array can indeed trap him!"

A sinister smile spread across Xue Yutang's withered face. "Trap him? No... we intend to wear him down and kill him here alive! No matter how potent his true qi is, there will come a time when he's exhausted!"

"At that time, the mere Lu Shaoyou will be nothing more than lamb to the slaughter."

At the mountain gate.

Lu Shaoyou slowly retracted his iron cudgel.

He looked at the blood-colored demonic shadow, which was connected to the aura of the mountain peak, and then at the ground beneath his feet, which was trembling slightly. He fell into deep thought.

Brute force, indeed, could not break it.

This formation linked all its power to the mountain body, forming a continuous, self-sustaining whole.

To break the formation...

Unless he had the ability to shatter the entire mountain with one strike.

Wait...

Shatter the mountain peak?

A thought, like lightning, flashed through his mind.

He recalled how, back at Black Tiger Hall, with only two Dragon-Elephant Powers, he had reduced Black Tiger Hall to dust.

The power of that strike... it seemed to be more than just simple brute force.

The corners of his mouth curved into a cold arc.

A thought surfaced in his mind.

"System, upgrade Dragon-Elephant Mountain Collapse Strike to the Proficient level."

[Ding! Consumed 20,000 Slaughter Value, Dragon-Elephant Mountain Collapse Strike has been upgraded to the Proficient level!]

Instantly, a vast and profound comprehension of martial arts flooded his mind like a bursting dam.

Countless mysteries of power transmission, vibration, resonance, and disintegration flowed through his mind.

He seemed to see an ancient dragon-elephant lift its front hooves and stomp gently. It wasn't a world-shattering impact, but rather, the ten-thousand-foot high mountains before it turned into the finest dust, silently and imperceptibly.

This wasn't destruction, but... decomposition.

"So, this is the true meaning of the Dragon-Elephant Mountain Collapse Strike."

Seeing Lu Shaoyou retract his iron cudgel and stand still, Li Mo thought he had exhausted all his tricks. The smile on his face grew more smug and cruel.

"What is it, Lu Shaoyou?"

"Scared? Desperate?"

"Now, kneel down, kowtow to me three times, and then commit suicide here. I might consider leaving you with an intact corpse!"

Lu Shaoyou slowly raised his head.

He glanced at Li Mo with an expression as if looking at an idiot.

Then.

Lu Shaoyou slowly raised his right fist.

There was no world-shaking aura, no golden light.

With a seemingly ordinary punch, he gently swung it towards the void in front of him.