In the blood-red abyss, the air suddenly froze.
Huo Yuhao suddenly stopped, his Golden Pupils slightly narrowed.
Less than a hundred meters ahead of them, beneath a narrow stone bridge, a colossal creature stood upside down. Its dark golden carapace gleamed with a metallic sheen under the blood-red light, and its six scarlet eyes lit up one after another in the darkness, like six blood-stained lanterns.
"This is..." Hu Liena's breath hitched.
The monster slowly stretched out its body, its four-meter-long form covered in dark golden bone armor, each scale engraved with eerie blood-red patterns. It released its giant claws from the stone bridge—those claws, over a meter in diameter, had left several-inch-deep grooves in the hard rock!
"Boom--"
With a deafening shriek, a pair of colossal wings, blotting out the sky, suddenly unfurled. The ten-meter-wide wing membrane whipped up a storm of blood and gore, countless tiny blood vessels clearly visible beneath. As it took full flight, three ferocious heads simultaneously rose, revealing gleaming white fangs.
" The Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King." Huo Yuhao's voice was as cold as ice. "So this is the gatekeeper of Hell Road."
The swarm of Blood Bat circling in the sky suddenly let out a frenzied shriek, gathering behind the Three-Headed Bat King as if on a pilgrimage. In the blink of an eye, the entire sky was covered by the scarlet bat swarm, as if a blood-red blizzard was about to descend.
Hu Liena unconsciously gripped Huo Yuhao's clothes, only to see a cold smile curl up at the corner of his mouth.
"How dare a mere bat be so insolent before a true dragon?"
A black dragon phantom suddenly appeared behind Huo Yuhao, its ancient dragon might sweeping out like a tsunami. It was the purest Dragon Clan bloodline pressure, an absolute suppression from the top of the food chain!
The three faces of the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King twisted simultaneously. It frantically flapped its giant wings, trying to retreat, but Huo Yuhao raised his hand and waved—
"Boom!"
A jet-black dragon breath erupted forth—not ordinary flames, but the breath of the Dragon Clan containing the Ultimate Fire! The Dark Gold Bat King hastily dodged, but the dragon breath still grazed its left wing. Its supposedly invulnerable dark gold shell melted like wax, and its wing membrane instantly vaporized, revealing stark white bones.
"Squeak--!"
A piercing scream echoed through Hell Road. The Bat King's remaining two heads frantically spewed out blood-red poisonous mist, but then a crystalline, ice-blue light shield appeared around Huo Yuhao. The Ultimate Ice froze the poisonous mist into scarlet ice crystals, which then plummeted into the abyss.
"It's over."
Huo Yuhao's Golden Pupils blazed with crimson light, and he made a grasping motion with his right hand. A spear formed from Ultimate Fire appeared out of thin air, with a black dragon phantom Entanglement around its shaft.
"Go."
The musket shot through the air, tracing a dazzling crimson-gold path. The Dark Gold Bat King's three heads simultaneously opened their blood-red maws, but just as the musket was about to strike—
"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"
The three heads exploded one after another! The massive body burned fiercely in the Ultimate Fire, eventually turning into a huge fireball that crashed into the blood pool below, stirring up a towering wave of blood.
The remaining Blood Bat scattered and fled in all directions. Some crashed into the rock walls in their panic, some tore at each other, and many more exploded and died under the suppression of the dragon's might.
Hu Liena stared blankly at this scene, her red lips slightly parted. She had known that Huo Yuhao was strong, but she hadn't expected him to be this strong—the guardian of Hell Road, who struck fear into the hearts of the Slaughter City, didn't even have a chance to fight back!
"Let's go." Huo Yuhao withdrew his dragon aura, his tone as calm as if he had just swatted a mosquito. "From now on, nothing foolish enough to bother us."
Sure enough, the journey that followed went surprisingly smoothly. A few Blood Bat that managed to escape fled in panic the moment they sensed the Dragon Clan's aura. Those legendary traps and trials that had claimed the lives of countless powerful warriors were all a joke in the face of true dragon might.
As the white light of the exit appeared at the edge of her vision, Hu Liena couldn't help but chuckle, "So this is what they call the Hell Road? No, I should say, with you here, it's not so scary after all."
Huo Yuhao gazed at the light that symbolized freedom and said calmly, "Before absolute power, there is never any difficulty."
His figure stood out exceptionally tall amidst the blood-red light, like a drawn sword, its sharpness causing all things to scatter.
As the morning light pierced through the thin mist, it gilded the area outside the Slaughter City with a pale gold hue. The moment Huo Yuhao and Hu Liena stepped out of Hell Road, two familiar figures had been waiting for them for a long time.
"Your Majesty, congratulations on your triumphant return."
Yue Guan gently touched the golden chrysanthemum at his temple, his eerie eyes flashing with astonishment. The Gui Mei beside him remained silent, but the slightly trembling fingers beneath his black robe betrayed his inner shock— the Divine Slaughter's Domain emanating from these two young men was so solid it was almost tangible!
Huo Yuhao nodded slightly, a faint smile curving his lips. Half a year of bloody killings had made his temperament more reserved. With a slight tremor of his fingertips, a wisp of dark red killing intent Entanglement up like a snake, then instantly transformed into a crystal-clear ice blue.
(The transformation of murderous intent has finally been completed smoothly; it's time to start crafting that item...)
"Elder Yue Guan!" Hu Liena exclaimed excitedly, lifting her skirt as golden sunlight danced in her hair. "You'd never guess what Huo Lai did in the Slaughter City!"
The girl's clear voice startled the birds in the forest. She gestured as she described how Huo Yuhao swept through the Hell Slaughter Arena and how he made the King of Slaughter admit defeat. When she got excited, a blush rose to her snow-white neck, and her eyes were full of undisguised pride.
Gui Mei, hoarse voice suddenly interrupted, " Your Saintess Hall, your tone..." A low chuckle came from beneath the black robe, "... like a young wife showing off her husband."
"I... I just like him, so what!" Hu Liena stamped her foot and retorted, her ears turning bright red. "Be honest and straightforward, if you like someone, just say you like them, there's no need to hide it!"
Huo Yuhao, who was walking ahead, paused almost imperceptibly.
Because they were quite far apart, Hu Liena assumed he couldn't hear her. But Huo Yuhao was actually hearing everything perfectly well. However, he didn't care and continued to ponder how to successfully refine that item. Also, the time to leave was approaching.
There are only two days left before we leave this time and space.
He looked up at the azure sky and, in a daze, seemed to see a rift in spacetime. The sun in this world was no different from the one ten thousand years later, but certain quietly growing emotions made the return date complicated.
"Holy Son?" Yue Guan suddenly approached, handing over a lustrous jade slip. " His Holiness the Pope has instructed that if you emerge from seclusion, immediately..."
The young man turned to look at Hu Liena, a flash of red light from his Divine Slaughter's Domain appearing in his eyes:
"Let's go back to the Spirit Hall first."
The wind swept across the wilderness, scattering the unfinished words. Hu Liena stared blankly at his backlit figure, suddenly feeling that this boy she had spent every day with was now as distant as if separated by an entire time and space.