Initiating the Baleful Intent Blood Mad Blade, ambushed by a Spirit Realm Ninth Level demon

Red light exploded a hundred meters overhead.

The dark red light and shadows rapidly contracted in the air, outlining an enormous ghost face within a few breaths.

Su Yu stopped searching the corpses and held his black-and-gold saber across his body.

Air currents churned overhead, and thick, blood-colored Spiritual Qi began dripping from the ghost face.

The Spiritual Qi crisscrossed in midair.

Mountains, rivers, secluded valleys.

An extraordinarily detailed miniature map unfolded in the air.

At the heart of the map, a skull-shaped ravine flashed with dazzling red light.

Three wildly cursive seal-script characters appeared beside the red light: Ghost Shadow Sect.

The Spirit-Seizing Art circulated furiously within Su Yu's sea of consciousness.

His immense Spirit Realm Fourth Level divine sense surged out of his body, enveloping the entire map in the sky.

He swiftly reproduced it in his mind, hammering the location of every tributary and mountain peak deep into his memory.

This was no ordinary messaging jade talisman.

It was a contingency left behind by a high-ranking member of the Ghost Shadow Sect before death, meant to guide fellow sect members in recovering the sect's treasures.

The red light in the sky lasted less than three breaths before shattering completely.

Tiny red specks fell into the soil, burning a dense array of charred pits.

The jade talisman turned entirely to drifting ash, and Su Yu withdrew his divine sense.

Xiang Kui had actually been a surviving remnant of the Ghost Shadow Sect. Su Yu had not expected that.

He crouched and searched Xiang Kui's mangled corpse.

Aside from the black token engraved with the character for "shadow," the greatest prize was the eight-sided heavy hammer that had fallen to the ground.

The hammer was deep purple throughout, its surface densely covered in lightning patterns, and weighed at least two thousand jin.

It was an excellent spiritual forging material that could be exchanged for a substantial amount of merit at the Demon Suppression Bureau.

Su Yu stuffed it straight into his newly acquired storage pouch. The stench of blood in the air had already grown unbearably thick.

On the outskirts of the Black Demon Mountain Range, such a smell was a beacon that would draw a beast tide.

Without a moment's hesitation, he became a dark shadow and vanished completely with a few swift movements.

A quarter of an hour later.

A powerful presence hurtled over from the distant horizon, led by an old man riding an enormous blue-green sword over ten feet long.

The Mystic Sword Sect's grand elder, Chu He.

The terrifying pressure of the Mystic Realm Third Level poured down without restraint.

The towering ancient trees nearby could not withstand that crushing weight and snapped one after another with teeth-grating cracks.

Chu He landed before the cave amid the mud.

Blue-green light spilling from beneath his feet instantly evaporated the mud within five meters, leaving dry, pale ground.

He stared at the corpses of Xiang Kui and the disciples on the ground, pressed two fingers together, and slashed sharply through the air.

The two elite disciples following him immediately spread out to search.

Chu He closed his eyes, and his powerful Mystic Realm perception spread out like a tide.

Xiang Kui had died here, and so had those useless disciples of the Mystic Sword Sect.

Killing intent flashed in Chu He's eyes. Turning his hand over, he produced a demon core that exuded potent blood Qi.

It was a treasure he had acquired at an auction house at great expense.

He turned toward the main peak that pierced the clouds on the outskirts of the Black Demon Mountain Range.

A great Mystic Realm demon that had run rampant throughout this region for years held that place.

Only by borrowing the great demon's sense of smell could he drag this cunning rat out.

Blue-green light shot into the sky, heading straight for the main peak.

Elsewhere, deep within the forest.

Su Yu stopped behind an enormous dead tree.

He summoned the system panel.

[Current Slaughter Points: 1,500]

Su Yu's gaze shifted downward, settling on the uninitiated technique.

[Blood Baleful Intent Mad Blade (Spirit), supreme grade, uninitiated]

This was an exceptionally demanding supreme-grade Spirit Realm saber technique. The greater the killing intent, the fiercer the saber's momentum.

"Allocate points."

[500 Slaughter Points consumed. Blood Baleful Intent Mad Blade (Spirit), supreme grade, advanced to initiation]

An extremely violent surge of killing intent shot up from the base of his spine, rushing straight to the crown of his head.

Su Yu reached back and gripped his black-and-gold saber, veins bulging on the back of his hand.

An exceedingly fine layer of blood-colored threads faintly appeared on the pitch-black blade.

Vajra Demonic Baleful Intent circulated within him, drawing out the Sha Qi hidden in his body and gathering it upon the black-and-gold saber in his hand.

Just then, a harsh rustling came from the bushes ahead, and three enormous Black-Spined Spotted Tigers slowly emerged, treading over loose stones.

They were Spirit Realm Second Level demonic beasts. Su Yu did not conceal himself or avoid them.

His newly initiated saber technique needed fresh flesh and blood to hone its edge.

Whoosh!

His saber left its sheath.

The three demonic tigers let out earth-shaking roars. The foremost pushed off with all four paws and lunged straight at him.

Su Yu stood where he was, his saber-bearing right hand hanging casually at his side, until the tiger's barbed claws were less than three inches from his face.

Wandering Dragon Steps, Dragon Concealment.

His body abruptly sank low, and he became a streak of blood-colored lightning skimming the ground.

A blood-red crescent swept horizontally through the darkness.

There was not a sound.

The spotted tiger suspended in midair was neatly sliced into two halves from skull to tail.

A thick surge of blood Qi poured from the spotted tiger's corpse. In the blink of an eye, the blood-colored threads on the blade forcibly sucked it dry.

The blade blazed with red light.

[Spirit Realm Second Level Black-Spined Spotted Tiger slain. 300 Slaughter Points obtained]

The Blood Baleful Intent Mad Blade could absorb the blood Qi of slain creatures during battle. The more blood Qi it absorbed, the greater the technique's power.

Su Yu gave the remaining two demonic tigers no chance to flee. Saber light flashed again and again.

Within just ten breaths.

Three shriveled tiger corpses lay on the ground.

Su Yu sheathed his saber and circulated Suppressing Prisons and Subduing Demons, suppressing the killing intent boiling excessively within him.

The scarlet in his eyes gradually faded.

Just then.

An exceedingly faint ripple stirred the pool to Su Yu's left.

Thud! Thud...

Immediately afterward, tiny, extremely regular tremors traveled through the ground. Some enormous creature was advancing along the ground at a terrifying speed.

Su Yu's Spirit Realm Fourth Level divine sense instantly sounded its highest alarm.

At the edge of his perception, a streak of scarlet light was violently smashing through every obstacle, charging straight toward him.

"Spirit Realm Eighth Level, or Ninth Level?!"

Su Yu's expression grew grave. He was currently on the outskirts of the Black Demon Mountain Range. Under normal circumstances, demons above the Spirit Realm Sixth Level would not appear here.

Most demons on the outskirts were beasts. Such demons naturally possessed powerful physiques, but Su Yu had nothing to fear if they were at his level.

Against the Spirit Realm Eighth or Ninth Level, however, his Vajra Demonic Baleful Intent, merely a middle-grade Spirit Realm technique, fell somewhat short.

Su Yu's eyes flickered. The power of his divine sense poured furiously from his mind and gathered over the surface of his body.

With the aid of his divine sense, his presence was completely suppressed, as though he had merged entirely into the surrounding darkness.

Boom!

A moment later, an ancient tree ahead was smashed to pieces by brute force, and a gigantic scarlet tiger over fifty feet long stepped into the clearing.

It had no tiger markings on its forehead. Instead, a tightly shut vertical eye grew there.

A mutated demon, a Spirit Realm Ninth Level Three-Eyed Scarlet Tiger.

The scarlet tiger stopped, its enormous nostrils twitching rapidly.

The vertical eye on its forehead slowly opened a crack, and an eerie, dim light swept through the surrounding shadows.

The scent it had been tracking ended here.

The instant the vertical eye's dim light swept over the dead tree where Su Yu was hiding, a streak of dark gold light suddenly stabbed out of empty space.

Major accomplishment, Vajra Star-Shattering Seal!

Su Yu compressed all his blood Qi and dark gold finger radiance to their limits between his index and middle fingers.

There were no wasted words, nor any showy display of presence.

Only a thrust of utmost speed.

This finger strike aimed unerringly at the scarlet tiger's newly opened vertical eye.

Squelch.

The fragile eyeball could not possibly stop the penetrating force of a supreme-grade martial art at major accomplishment.

The finger radiance pierced the eyeball and stabbed straight into the surface of the scarlet tiger's skull.

"Roar!"

The Three-Eyed Scarlet Tiger erupted in an utterly agonized howl, and an incomparably savage presence burst from him.

Su Yu felt an irresistible force strike him, sending his entire body flying backward at tremendous speed.

Using the force of the recoil, Su Yu swiftly turned and sprinted into the distance.