Grasses and trees burst with blossoms, flourishing in lush profusion.
This had been a densely wooded stretch of mountain land, its ancient trees nearly a hundred zhang tall, towering into the rosy clouds as though they would touch the heavens.
Countless birds and beasts dwelled within, chasing one another and raising cries and howls that rose and fell in succession.
Wind and mist swept the green wilderness; mountains called and valleys answered, all brimming with vigorous, burgeoning life.
But soon, a streak of bloody light abruptly cut through the sky and passed into this place.
That natural scene was shattered in an instant, followed by a burst of wretched screams and savage cries of slaughter.
A hundred zhang above the ground.
Xie Rui shook his sleeves, releasing the five natal blood souls that inhabited his five viscera. Then he stood expressionlessly with his hands behind his back, neither leaving nor doing anything but watching coldly below.
Those blood souls were merely faint, hazy phantoms.
They looked as though a breath of wind would scatter them like smoke, yet their power was extraordinary!
Whether bird or beast, anything they pounced upon instantly had all its blood essence sucked away, leaving only a thin hide, pulpy as sodden paper.
And though these blood souls came and went as swiftly as lightning, utterly beyond the resistance of mundane creatures.
This mountainous region was vast, after all, and teemed with living things. Slaughtering them all with ease was still not the work of a mere snap of the fingers.
Only after roughly an incense stick's time had passed.
By then.
The mountains below lay utterly silent, without even the faint rustle of insects chirping or birds calling.
The thick, rank stench of blood spread and lingered, nauseating to smell...
The sight stirred no emotion