No-Man's-Land, Slaughter City!

Lu Xuan stood before the mirror in his room and drew a deep breath.

On the forehead of the youth in the mirror, a dark red mark stood out at the very center.

It was a small, inverted blood-colored sword, faintly emanating heart-palpitating Asura killing intent.

With a thought, he deliberately switched his Martial Soul to the Life Scepter.

In an instant, the blood-colored sword on his forehead melted away like ice and snow.

In its place appeared the emerald-gold mark of a divine tree brimming with vitality, and a gentle aura of life instantly filled the entire room.

"Holy moly, this thing can even switch seamlessly?"

Lu Xuan touched his forehead, his eyes full of wonder.

Wonder aside, however, he knew very well that since the Divine Trials had descended, the focus of his cultivation now had to shift entirely toward these two great Divine Trials.

He pushed open his door and headed straight into the depths of the Worship Hall.

"What did you say?! Two deities bestowed Divine Trials at the same time?!"

Inside the Worship Hall, Qian Daoliu, usually as composed as a deep abyss, abruptly rose before the Angel God Statue, his golden eyes filled with disbelief.

He knew his disciple had the potential to become a god, but throughout the ages, who had ever heard of one person catching the eye of two deities at once, let alone receiving their Divine Trials simultaneously?

"It's absolutely true, Teacher."

Lu Xuan looked solemn. "My two First Trials are to climb the Life God Tree and traverse Hell Road!"

Qian Daoliu drew a deep breath, forcibly suppressed the shock in his heart, and frowned slightly.

"We don't yet know where the Life God Tree is, but Hell Road... it seems you'll have to make a trip to Slaughter City. What are the time limits?"

"I have ten years to climb the Life God Tree, but only five to traverse Hell Road!" Lu Xuan answered truthfully.

"Five years... time is short!" A glint of resolve flashed through Qian Daoliu's eyes as he spoke gravely.

"With your current strength and trump cards, traversing Hell Road isn't impossible. Go get ready and bring all the necessities. I'll personally take you to Slaughter City!"

Time waited for no one.

Half a day later, two figures, one old and one young, turned into streaks of light and left Spirit City, heading straight for the wilderness in the far west of the Douluo Continent.

Slaughter City lay in the continent's most chaotic No-Man's-Land.

This was a true gathering place for outlaws. Bandits, robbers, wandering Soul Masters, and the fallen swarmed like carp crossing a river, with murder, arson, robbery, and pillage playing out every day.

Although Spirit Hall had stationed patrols led by Titled Douluo here, they could barely maintain order on the outskirts.

"I only have a rudimentary understanding of the rules inside Slaughter City myself. But you must remember that there is no morality to speak of in there. It's extremely dangerous!"

In midair, Qian Daoliu gave these instructions with a grave expression.

Although he had absolute confidence in Lu Xuan's talent, as his teacher, he felt every bit of the worry a teacher should.

To help Lu Xuan adjust in advance to Slaughter City's suffocating, bloody rules.

Over the next few days of their journey, Qian Daoliu deliberately slowed their pace, taking Lu Xuan to wipe out one den of vicious bandits after another.

Sword light flashed, and blood splattered. From his initial slight discomfort to his later unchanging expression, Lu Xuan's gaze grew ever colder and sharper.

Qian Daoliu intended to use this most direct method to get Lu Xuan accustomed to the feeling of having his hands covered in blood, and to showing no mercy in battles to the death.

Several days later, at the end of a wilderness shrouded in windblown sand, a gloomy, dilapidated town finally appeared in their sight.

The two pushed open the battered wooden door of the dim tavern in the town's center.

A pungent odor of thick blood mixed with cheap alcohol struck them in the face.

Inside the tavern, pairs of eyes filled with malice and greed turned in unison toward the two uninvited guests.

Ignoring the gazes around them, Qian Daoliu told Lu Xuan quietly, "For ordinary people, the condition for entering Slaughter City is to drink the 'Bloody Mary' here."

"Of course, you can also choose a more direct approach-kill everyone here, then force your way through the entrance."

"Then I'll take the ordinary option. No need to waste energy," Lu Xuan said mildly.

He knew very well that a Bloody Mary was actually human blood and contained a potent poison. Drinking too much would cause mental derangement.

But he had just undergone the Ice and Fire Golden Body at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, and his constitution had long since become immune to all poisons. A mere poison.

Could do nothing to him.

"A Bloody Mary!"

Qian Daoliu walked up to the bar and called out coldly.

Soon, a glass of dark red liquid giving off a strong bloody odor was served.

Lu Xuan picked up the glass without so much as a frown, tilted his head back, and, downing it in one gulp as though to show the depth of his affection, drained the nauseating liquid.

Qian Daoliu looked at Lu Xuan, a trace of gratification and reluctance to part flashing through his eyes. "I can't accompany you any farther inside. But I'll station people at the exit to wait until you come out!"

Lu Xuan nodded, then turned toward the sinister-eyed server behind the bar and said calmly, "I want to enter Slaughter City."

"Heh..." The server looked Lu Xuan up and down and sneered in disdain.

"You little brat, you haven't even grown all your hair yet. Go home and find your daddy! Slaughter City isn't somewhere a little kid like you can enter just by drinking a Bloody Mary!"

"Sigh. I wasn't planning on causing trouble."

Lu Xuan sighed softly.

Before his words had faded, terrifying killing intent erupted from his eyes!

Clang-!

A dazzling streak of blood-colored sword light suddenly flared in the dim tavern!

The Asura God Sword instantly appeared in Lu Xuan's hand, its edge sweeping through the air like lightning.

Before the mockery on the server's face could even freeze, his head flew high amid a gush of blood, then landed and rolled across the floor with a rumble.

The fallen inside the tavern blanched in horror. Before they could react, Lu Xuan had already swung his hand back and slammed his palm onto the thick, solid wooden bar!

Boom!

Violent Soul Power poured out, instantly reducing the sturdy bar to wood chips flying through the air.

With a flick of his wrist, Lu Xuan drove the Asura God Sword hard into the exposed floor with the irresistible force of snapping rotten wood.

Amid a violent roar, the floor collapsed, revealing a pitch-black, bottomless entrance that exuded bone-piercing cold and a thick reek of blood.

"Teacher, wait for me to come out!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Lu Xuan put away his sword and leaped down, his slender figure instantly swallowed whole by the endless darkness and abyss of slaughter.

After entering the darkness and falling only a few meters, Lu Xuan's feet met solid ground.

He needed no light. His Fear Demon Dragon Eyes could see everything clearly in the darkness.

This was a long passage sloping downward, and a cold, sinister aura continually brushed against Lu Xuan's body.

Yet just before the chilling wind touched Lu Xuan, it scattered on its own, as though afraid.

Lu Xuan strode forward.

Suddenly, an icy voice rang out from every direction.

"Welcome to Slaughter City. This is the capital of hell, a world filled with slaughter. Here, you can obtain everything you desire. The price is your life."