Early the next morning, deep within Spirit Hall.
The great doors closed, completely shutting out all the clamor outside.
Lu Xuan drew a deep breath and looked at the Slaughter God Sword.
Determination shone in his eyes. "Let's begin!"
The moment he spoke, the Asura God Sword seemed to awaken like an ancient Ferocious Beast, its blade suddenly erupting with towering blood-red light!
That light was so dense it seemed almost tangible.
In an instant, it swallowed Lu Xuan whole.
In that split second.
A suffocating aura of mountains of corpses and seas of blood surged toward him.
It was as though countless wronged souls were wailing shrilly beside his ears.
Lu Xuan felt a stab of agony deep inside his brain.
An irresistible, terrifying force violently dragged at his consciousness, tearing it apart and plunging it into an endless abyss.
When Lu Xuan opened his eyes again.
The scene before him had changed beyond recognition.
"Kill-!"
"For our children! For our homeland! We must drive these beasts back!"
Deafening battle cries, the clang of clashing weapons, and the screams of the dying intertwined, rising straight into the clouds.
Lu Xuan looked around in bewilderment.
He discovered that, at some unknown point.
He had found himself on an ancient battlefield strewn with corpses.
All around him were soldiers in battered armor, their eyes bloodshot.
Two or three Soul Rings circled each of them.
They were fighting to the death against enemies surging toward them like a tide.
"My Soul Power... what's happening?!"
Lu Xuan's pupils contracted sharply, his eyes filled with horror.
To his terror, he discovered that his original cultivation had vanished without a trace!
Even the twin God-level Martial Souls he took such pride in were gone.
At this moment, he was merely a level-38 Soul Elder whose Martial Soul was an ordinary iron sword!
He was given no time at all to think.
Ahead of him, a Two-Ring Soul Grandmaster under Wind Chime Bird Martial Soul Possession was already diving toward him with a savage grin.
His sharp talons drove straight toward Lu Xuan's throat!
"Sword Draw Slash!"
Faced with mortal danger.
Lu Xuan's body reacted instinctively.
He stamped his foot.
His pitiful yellow third Soul Ring suddenly lit up.
The iron sword in his hand became a streak of icy light.
And slashed fiercely upward from below!
"Squelch-"
The sound of a blade slicing through flesh set teeth on edge.
Dazzling blood instantly gushed from the Wind Chime Bird Soul Grandmaster's neck.
He clutched his throat, his eyes fixed on Lu Xuan.
His face was filled with disbelief, as though even in death he could not understand.
Why a battered soldier who seemed utterly exhausted had killed him in an instant.
Scalding blood splashed across Lu Xuan's face and slid down his cheeks.
He stared blankly at the blood-drinking iron sword in his hand as an uncontrollable surge of brutality and madness suddenly welled up in his mind.
At that moment, only one utterly pure thought remained in his mind.
Keep killing.
Kill until not a single living thing remains anywhere in sight!
"Boom-!"
Suddenly.
The depleted Soul Power within him erupted like a volcano.
It actually soared wildly amid the slaughter!
From a three-ring, level-38 Soul Elder, he broke through every barrier like splitting bamboo, climbing straight to a level-58 Five-Ring Soul King!
His Soul Rings changed as well.
Their original white, yellow, yellow became yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black.
And the Iron Sword Martial Soul in his hand transformed into a blood sword radiating an eerie red glow!
He became the god of death on the battlefield.
And began tirelessly, madly reaping everyone's lives.
Whether enemy or ally.
Anyone who approached him had their throat slit with a single stroke.
Until... the dying sun at dusk glowed with the mournful beauty of blood.
A dark-red blood sword stood alone, embedded atop a small mountain piled from countless corpses.
Thick blood gathered into streams, staining this scorched earth completely red.
Lu Xuan stood alone atop the mountain of corpses, soaked in blood from head to toe, its heavy stench rushing into his nostrils.
He could no longer tell whether that blood belonged to his enemies or himself.
His heart beat extremely slowly, his eyes empty and numb.
His sword-gripping hands trembled violently beyond his control.
Why... am I even here?
And just what... am I killing endlessly for?
He did not know.
On this cursed battlefield.
It seemed he was not supposed to know, either.
Just as he reached the brink of collapse, that terrifying pulling force descended again!
This time, the world before him became a primeval forest.
He was no longer human.
Instead, he had become a hundred-year Wolf Soul Beast several meters long!
At that moment.
His pack was locked in a bloody battle with another group of Soul Beasts over territory.
Lu Xuan was swept along by the frenzied tide of beasts.
And forcibly pushed into the meat grinder on the front line.
There was no sword, no Soul Skill.
He could only bite through his enemies' throats with his sharp fangs!
And tear open their chests with his powerful, sharp claws!
Even when his own abdomen was slashed open, his flesh torn apart.
That killing instinct rooted deep within his soul could not stop him from lunging forward to bite.
Kill!
Tear this enemy Soul Beast younger than me to pieces!
After an unknown length of time, deathly silence finally returned to the forest.
Mutilated Soul Beast corpses lay scattered in pools of blood, one after another.
Yellow and purple Soul Rings floated faintly above the corpses like ghostly flames.
Panting heavily and dragging his ravaged wolf body, Lu Xuan had once again survived to the end.
And the aura he radiated had become as terrifying as an abyssal demon's.
At some unknown point, strange blood-red markings had appeared across his originally gray-white fur.
They exuded a chilling, sinister quality.
The cycle continued mercilessly.
Again and again.
He became an ordinary soldier defending the frontier, fighting to the death without retreating.
He became a Sea Soul Beast in the depths, devouring others of its kind to survive.
He became a ruthless imperial general who climbed to power over heaps of bleached bones.
He even became an emperor who slaughtered his entire court of civil and military officials to secure his imperial authority...
His identities kept changing, the scenes constantly shifting.
But within this endless cycle.
The only constant was the never-ending slaughter.
His eyes gradually lost all human emotion.
Becoming utterly numb and cold.
By the end, he did not even need a reason.
As long as he held a weapon.
As long as living creatures were around him.
He would involuntarily swing his butcher's blade and chop them into bloody pulp.
He forgot who he was.
Forgot his identity.
Forgot his past.
He even forgot what sorrow and fear were.
Just as his soul was about to sink completely into this blood-red abyss.
Suddenly...
A blinding white light blazed before his eyes!
"Haah-!"
"Haah-!"
Lu Xuan's eyes flew open.
Like a drowning man finally breaking the surface.
He gulped down air greedily.
He was back.
Back in the real secret chamber within Spirit Hall.
Cold sweat had soaked all his clothes.
Looking as though he had just been hauled out of water, he collapsed limply onto the floor.
As real air flooded his lungs, those sealed memories finally returned like a tide.
I remember... my name is Lu Xuan.
I am an unparalleled genius with twin God-level Martial Souls and innate full Soul Power at level 20.
I am the personal disciple of Qian Daoliu, the Great Enshrined of Spirit Hall.
I am a favored son of heaven granted the Nine Trials of Two Gods!
"How terrifying..."
Lu Xuan clawed at the floor with both hands, his chest heaving violently, his voice frighteningly hoarse.
Recalling those countless cycles in which he had lost himself.
He still shuddered with lingering fear.
He raised his head with difficulty.
Looking at the Asura God Sword ahead, still floating quietly and emitting a faint red glow, he tugged bitterly at the corners of his mouth.
"Did I... fail this time?"
The Asura God Sword seemed to understand his words.
Its blade bobbed up and down in midair, as though nodding.
Mercilessly declaring the failure of Lu Xuan's first attempt.
At the divine sword's response, Lu Xuan suddenly threw back his head and let out a wretched laugh uglier than crying.
"Hahaha... Slaughter Body Tempering?"
"Fuck Slaughter Body Tempering!"
He covered his face with both hands, a murmur on the verge of collapse escaping between his fingers.
In the sealed chamber, Lu Xuan's laughter echoed with a hint of madness.
He felt that if he went through a few more cycles like this...
He would probably go completely insane and become a monster that knew only slaughter.
This was even more terrifying than his time in Slaughter City.
In Slaughter City, he could still find himself again.
But here, he could not.
Before you continue