Rumble!
The sea across tens of thousands of miles instantly boiled. Countless deep-sea beasts trembled beneath the pressure, and some even burst apart and died.
"Who?! Who dared kill my son?!"
A roar filled with boundless killing intent and madness echoed above the entire Blackwater Palace.
Yin Tianzheng, the master of Blackwater Palace, appeared in midair in an instant, his eyes blood-red and his entire body radiating suffocating baleful energy.
"Relay my decree! Seal off the Blood Reef Sea immediately! Deploy the Blackwater Blood Guards! Even if you have to dig three feet into the earth, find the murderer who killed my son! I will tear out his tendons, flay his skin, and imprison his soul within the Nine Nether Sea Eye to torment him for ten thousand years!"
And almost at the same moment.
Atop the Heavenly Sword Sect's cloud-piercing Sword Peak, a terrifying sword intent likewise erupted, tearing through the heavens.
The Heavenly Sword Sect's sect master stared at the shattered Soul Slip of his beloved disciple in his hand, his expression so dark it seemed water might drip from it.
"Pass down my orders. Everyone belonging to the sect is to head to the Blood Reef Sea immediately! Whoever dared kill a true disciple of my Heavenly Sword Sect, no matter who he is or what power stands behind him, must pay in blood!"
That day, two of the Chaotic Star Sea's foremost powers erupted in fury at once.
Countless experts transformed into streaks of light, racing toward the Blood Reef Sea with murderous intent.
Under the tremendous strength of Qin Chen's arms, the massive, heavy bronze doors let out a teeth-grating creaking rumble. After eight hundred years sealed beneath the dust of time, this core inheritance site belonging to Blood Sea Mad Saber, the once-notorious fiend of the Chaotic Star Sea, finally opened its doors to the world again.
As the doors opened, spiritual energy so concentrated that it carried a faintly viscous texture rushed into his face. Qin Chen's expression remained unchanged. Dark-gold true essence circulated faintly over his body, shutting out any poisonous miasma and traps that might be mingled with the spiritual energy, before he stepped into the dim hall of the cave abode.
The hall's interior was extremely spacious. More than a hundred fist-sized deep-sea luminous pearls were embedded in its vaulted ceiling, illuminating the entire hall as brightly as day. Twelve thick stone pillars entwined with carved dragons stood around the hall, each inscribed with intricate spirit-gathering formation patterns. This was also why the spiritual energy here remained so abundant after eight hundred years.
Qin Chen swept his gaze over the hall, finally settling on a raised white-jade platform at its very center.
Atop the platform sat a skeleton in a cross-legged position, its flesh long since gone.
The skeleton wore a tattered blood-colored robe. Though no one knew how many years had passed since its owner's death and the end of his cultivation, its translucent, jade-like bones still radiated a heart-quailing pressure-the skeletal characteristics unique to a Nascent Soul stage Paragon cultivator.
Across the skeleton's knees lay a saber about four feet long, dark red throughout, its blade covered in eerie blood grooves.
Even without anyone activating it, a chilling blood-colored radiance still flickered along its edge. Neatly arranged before the skeleton were three purple-gold storage bracelets and a Blood-Colored Jade Slip emitting a faint glow.
"The supreme-grade spirit artifact, the Blood-Transforming Divine Saber, and Blood Sea Mad Saber's lifetime savings." A gleam flashed through Qin Chen's eyes as he slowly approached the white-jade platform.
Just as Qin Chen came within three steps of the platform, something suddenly changed!
Buzz!
The Blood-Transforming Divine Saber, which had lain quietly across the skeleton's knees, suddenly let out a shrill cry.
Immediately afterward, dazzling blood-colored light erupted from the blade. A cold, evil aura filled with boundless greed and venom surged skyward from it like an erupting volcano!
"Hahaha! Eight hundred years! Eight hundred whole years! At last, I have found a perfect body!"
Accompanied by wild laughter as piercing as a night owl's screech, the blood-colored light filling the air rapidly condensed into the phantom of an infant only three inches tall, wreathed in blood-colored baleful energy.
The infant's face was identical to the skeleton's in life, suffused with boundless savagery and madness. It was none other than Blood Sea Mad Saber's surviving nascent soul!
Back then, Blood Sea Mad Saber had been surrounded and attacked by powerful enemies, and his physical body had been utterly destroyed. After desperately escaping back to his cave abode, he had known his end was near and employed an exceptionally vicious secret art to seal his nascent soul inside the Blood-Transforming Divine Saber. He had fallen into slumber solely to wait for someone with the right fate to open the abode, so he could seize the opportunity to possess them and be reborn.
"A bone age of thirteen or fourteen, yet such terrifying blood and vital energy! You could even blast apart a half-step Nascent Soul cultivator with one punch! Perfect! Absolutely perfect! This is simply the most perfect vessel Heaven could have bestowed upon me! Boy, hand over your body obediently!"
Blood Sea Mad Saber's nascent soul let out a greedy howl. Giving Qin Chen no time to react, he transformed into a streak of blood-colored lightning almost too fast for the naked eye to follow, crossed the three steps in an instant, and shot straight into the space between Qin Chen's brows!
"Possession?"
Faced with this sudden, deadly crisis, Qin Chen showed not the slightest panic. He did not even move to dodge; only a cold, mocking smile curled his lips.
The next moment, Blood Sea Mad Saber's nascent soul had successfully charged into Qin Chen's sea of consciousness.
"Hahaha! I'm in! This perfect body is mine!" Blood Sea Mad Saber's nascent soul laughed arrogantly within Qin Chen's boundless sea of consciousness, just about to employ a secret art to devour Qin Chen's soul.
Yet his laughter had barely begun before it cut off abruptly.
For he discovered, to his horror, that Qin Chen's sea of consciousness was completely different from an ordinary cultivator's.
There was no fragile sphere of soul light here, only a vast, boundless golden starscape, seemingly suffused with a terrifying aura encompassing the cosmos and the primordial ages!
In the instant Blood Sea Mad Saber's nascent soul froze, a supreme, cold, mechanical, terrifying will, seemingly standing above all the heavens and myriad worlds, suddenly descended into Qin Chen's sea of consciousness.
[Ding! Foreign high-level soul entity detected invading the host's sea of consciousness with intent to possess.] [System defense mechanism activated.] [Verdict: annihilation!]
"What... what is this thing?! No! Impossible! What kind of monster is hiding inside you?! Spare me! I am willing to acknowledge you as my master! I'll give you all my treasures-Aah!!!"
Blood Sea Mad Saber's nascent soul let out a scream more agonized than any he had ever uttered.
Before that supreme system power, the nascent soul he took such pride in, which had endured for eight hundred years without perishing, was like a snowflake beneath the blazing sun. Without even the slightest room to resist, he was instantly crushed into the purest soul fragments!
"Too noisy."
Qin Chen snorted coldly. With a thought, he circulated the Primordial Ancestral Dragon Art, directly absorbing every bit of the pure soul energy the system had crushed.
Boom!
After absorbing the soul essence of a Nascent Soul stage Paragon cultivator, Qin Chen felt a cool sensation spread through his mind. The power of his spiritual sense soared wildly like a rocket, instantly breaking through the shackles of the Golden Core stage and reaching a terrifying level comparable to the middle Nascent Soul stage!
As he extended his spiritual sense, the underwater currents, swimming fish, and even the drifting of a single grain of sand within hundreds of miles were all reflected clearly in his mind.
"You wanted to possess me? You really had no idea you were courting death."
Before you continue