Blood Sacrifice? The Thunder God's Incarnation

Fifteen days later, with Qie Qiong having finished consolidating his realm, it was time to settle accounts with the Thunder Imperial Family.

After all, at Qie Qiong's current realm, one more step would make him a Deity.

That would let Lei Wuji live for a few more years.

Perhaps he would even die only after his lifespan ran out. Qie Qiong found that hard to accept.

At the center of the Thunder Empire's capital, a Space Gate hovered above the ruins of the shattered palace.

Qie Qiong and Qie Yunzhou stood in the air, looking down at the place that had once been the heart of the Thunder Empire.

It had been only fifteen days since Langya Prefecture City fell. Just fifteen days.

On the way here, everywhere they looked, apart from Cloud Sea Prefecture City—

Cangyun Empire flags had claimed most of the Thunder Empire's cities.

"Twenty years of upheaval, and it's come to this." Qie Yunzhou sighed softly, a complicated look passing through his eyes.

The Qie Clan had once been part of the Thunder Empire, too. If that incident had never happened, and war had broken out, they would certainly have been among those fighting.

Of course, if not for that incident, this war would never have happened.

Qie Qiong's expression remained unchanged. As his Deity Heart of Space turned, he had already grasped the situation throughout the entire Cang Yun Material World. "This is nothing but the law of the jungle. Once we settle the score from back then, we can end this war, too. Let's go, Father."

As he spoke, the two of them disappeared into the Space Gate.

They returned once more to the mountaintop.

As far as the eye could see, everything was desolate.

By rights, although Qie Qiong had sealed off Lei Wuji and the Divine Realm War Soldiers back then, he had not sealed off every Saint Rank member of the Thunder Sacred Land.

According to the intelligence, over the years, the Demigods had left for the outside world because they could advance no further and were no longer bound by the imperial family, as well as because of the war.

Aside from those forced to return and take part in the fighting, people should still have been living here.

After all, no matter what, this was one of the only three large Transcendent Worlds in the Cang Yun Material World.

It should not have been like this.

Behind the gate, the land lay dead silent. The city's protective array had long since gone dark, and even the walls had collapsed.

This was the Thunder Sacred Land, after all—a place that could withstand every force in the Material World except Qie Qiong.

The streets were empty. The eleven main thoroughfares and the grand estates and palaces had all become ruins. A faint stench of blood lingered in the air. The entire Sacred Land seemed like one enormous grave.

"Something's wrong!" Qie Yunzhou's pupils contracted as his Peak Saint Rank spiritual power swept outward. "Except for there, all the auras have vanished?" He abruptly looked toward the central palace. That was where Qie Qiong had cast the Space Lockdown, but now the lockdown had vanished.

Silver light surged in Qie Qiong's eyes.

In an instant, his Deity Heart of Space spread across the entire Sacred Land.

"Lei Wuji... and those few iron lumps." Qie Qiong's gaze remained calm.

He slowly raised his right hand and flicked a finger toward the ruins of the central palace.

"Whoosh!"

A silver thread, formed from compressed Spatial Power, ignored the distance and appeared above the ruins in an instant.

It shot precisely toward the core of the aura—that was where Lei Wuji was hiding.

Faced with this deadly strike containing the Origin of Space, an earthen-yellow light suddenly erupted from deep within the ruins.

"Bzz—!"

The Divine Artifact War Soldier "Yang Earth" reacted extremely quickly. Before the silver thread could reach it, it manifested in an instant, transforming into a gigantic shield engraved with ancient divine patterns, and stood squarely in the thread's path.

Divine light flowed across the shield, forming an absolute defense.

Yang Earth was the most powerful defensive weapon among the Thunder Imperial Family's Divine Realm War Soldiers. According to the information passed down by the God of Thunder, it could even withstand a Deity's strike.

Yet this time—

"Crack!"

A crisp sound of shattering rang out.

The seemingly slender thread of space pierced through the thick divine light surging from the Yang Earth shield without the slightest resistance.

The divine patterns on the shield itself, which should have been indestructible, shattered the instant the silver thread touched them.

The Divine Realm War Soldier that Qie Qiong once could not even leave a mark on—

Before Lei Wuji's disbelieving eyes,

the giant shield formed by Yang Earth broke apart like fragile glass.

"Boom!" It shattered into pieces.

Before the fragments of the Divine Realm War Soldier could fly in every direction, the Spatial Power that followed swallowed them, reducing them to their most primordial particles until they vanished without a trace.

What surprised Lei Wuji even more was that, at the moment the shield was completely destroyed, he clearly sensed the already faint spiritual connection between himself and the Divine Realm War Soldier snap.

That meant the Divine Realm War Soldier, which theoretically no one in the Material World could destroy, had been destroyed by a finger pointed from afar.

Just one finger. A casual strike.

The most defensive Divine Artifact War Soldier, "Yang Earth," along with its core, had been utterly reduced to nothing by Qie Qiong's light flick.

Lei Wuji knew this was a Divine Realm War Soldier. Although it was the lowest grade, this was still not the Divine Realm.

However, though Lei Wuji was shocked, he had already prepared his trump card. He believed that this time, Qie Qiong would not escape.

"Qie Qiong!" Lei Wuji roared hysterically, no longer showing any of the dignity of a Demigod powerhouse.

He abruptly raised his head and stared at the silver-robed figure in the distance, his eyes filled with overwhelming hatred and the thrill of being on the verge of avenging his great grudge.

"Did you think you'd won? I should thank you. If you hadn't suddenly dispersed your Space Phantom, I wouldn't have opened the Space Lockdown. Every living being in this entire Sacred Land died because of you." Lei Wuji's roar echoed across the ruins of the Sacred Land. "Prepare to face the fury of my Lei Clan's patriarch!"

Qie Qiong finally understood why the Thunder Sacred Land was now like this.

It must have happened on the day he broke through to the Deity Heart Realm, when his "Space Phantom" suddenly disappeared. The Phantom Body that had been trapped here vanished with it.

Then Lei Wuji and the other four broke through the Space Lockdown he had set.

And it just so happened that, during those twenty years, every Demigod had left the Thunder Sacred Land because of the war.

With no resistance at all, Lei Wuji had blood-sacrificed every life in this world.

Under normal circumstances, cultivating a divine incarnation required resources and time far beyond what the Thunder Empire could afford.

As soon as he finished speaking, Lei Wuji's eyes blazed with fervor.

He bit the tip of his tongue and spat out a mouthful of vital blood containing the Life Origin of a Demigod.

"Using the direct bloodline of the Lei Clan as a guide."

"Offering the flesh and blood of the Sacred Land's countless living beings as a sacrifice."

"I respectfully invite our ancestor, the God of Thunder."

"Descend here and slay the traitor."

"Ancestor, bring down divine punishment!"

Rumble—!!!

As Lei Wuji spoke, the ruins of the entire Thunder Sacred Land shook violently.

Qie Qiong and Qie Yunzhou's pupils contracted.

Beneath the broken earth, countless crimson array patterns suddenly lit up with scarlet light.

The patterns crisscrossed, covering the entire Sacred Land.

It was an evil array of unimaginable scale.

"The Blood Sacrifice Grand Array!" Qie Yunzhou's expression changed drastically. He had never expected that a Blood Sacrifice Grand Array would be hidden beneath the Thunder Sacred Land's original array.

The Thunder Sacred Land had been established ten thousand years ago. He had never imagined that, even then, the lives of the people filling the city had been the Thunder Imperial Family's final trump card.

In just fifteen days, the array could produce a vessel capable of bearing a Deity's incarnation.

Blinding blood-red light shot into the sky. It first gathered into a thick pillar of light, then poured into the center of the ruins, where Lei Wuji stood.

The instant the blood-red light poured in, space in that area shattered inch by inch, like thin ice on the surface of a river.

"Gurgle, gurgle~~~"

A creepy, strange sound—as if the lingering resentment of countless dead had gathered together—came from the center of the blood-red light.

At its center, the phantom of a vast lake formed from viscous blood appeared. In the middle of the lake, a human-shaped body lay motionless.

Its chest rose and fell faintly, radiating a mighty vitality at odds with the deathly silence around it. This vitality did not seem like that of an ordinary person; it was more like that of an ancient giant in slumber.

The face of the body looked seven parts like Lei Wuji's!

This was the "vessel" Lei Wuji had cultivated using those fifteen days and the Blood Sacrifice Grand Array.

He had used his own bloodline as the foundation, merging it with the flesh-and-blood essence of the Sacred Land's countless living beings, all to bear the descent of his ancestor, the God of Thunder.

"Hahahaha, at last, success." A vast, majestic voice seemed to descend from the highest heavens, exploding directly in Qie Qiong and Qie Yunzhou's Seas of Consciousness.

Beside the phantom blood lake, a blurry golden figure of thunder slowly condensed. Though indistinct, the pressure it emanated had already surpassed the limits of the Material World, carrying the boundless aura unique to a Deity.

It was the projection of the will of the Thunder Empire's Deity ancestor in the Divine Realm.

"Wuji, my grandson, well done!" The golden thunderous phantom spoke with a hint of approval. "The vessel is ready, and the passage is open. Now wait for this seat's soul fragment to descend, and then we'll settle things with him."

"I've been waiting for you, Ancestor." Lei Wuji's voice was filled with fervor.

His entire body burst into flames, turning into the final force of sacrifice and merging with the blood-red pillar of light.

Boom—

Above the human-shaped body, space was torn open by a force that surpassed the Material World. A vortex formed, revealing a Golden Kingdom filled with endless thunder.

The commotion caused by the vortex spread across the entire Transcendent World.

The spatial fluctuations it created made Qie Qiong knit his brows slightly.

In Qie Qiong's view, the commotion caused by the God of Thunder's descent of a divine incarnation was far too great.

After all, the higher one's realm, the quieter one's descent. The lower one's realm, the louder it was.

It seemed that, after ten thousand years in the Divine Realm, the God of Thunder had made little progress. At least, by Qie Qiong's estimate, if he had been the one descending, he would never have made such a commotion.

Thinking this, Qie Qiong did not hurry. To deal with this minor nuisance, he simply watched in silence.

"Whoosh."

A hazy phantom formed of golden thunder suddenly burst out of the golden vortex and plunged into the physical body below.

"Ugh—ah!"

The body's eyes snapped open, and two dazzling golden bolts of thunder now shone in its human pupils.

A vast will, as if it commanded the destructive thunder between Heaven and Earth, instantly awakened and took control of the body.

The body rose into the air, thunderlight flickering across its surface as its form began to undergo subtle adjustments, becoming more perfect and better suited to the laws of destructive thunder.

At last, a figure covered from head to toe in fine golden lightning runes, like an incarnation of thunder, appeared above the ruins.

His aura had unmistakably reached the limit permitted by the Material World—the Demigod Limit.

"Whoo..." The God of Thunder's clone drew a deep breath. The vital energy of Heaven and Earth throughout the Thunder Sacred Land trembled, humming in response.

"The breath of the Material World... The suppression of its laws is every bit as loathsome as I expected."

He casually swung an arm. The air tore apart with ease, letting out a sharp boom, only to be bound tightly by the ever-present laws of the Material World. His power was suppressed to the limit, and his movements were far less nimble than in the Divine Realm.

"Shackles everywhere." The God of Thunder's clone furrowed his brow slightly, sensing the limitations of this "native body." Because of the laws governing Heaven and Earth in the Material World, he could not strengthen it any further.

"However..."

His eyes, like swirling vortices of thunder, instantly locked onto Qie Qiong and Qie Yunzhou high above. A pressure imbued with a Deity's will bore down on them like a solid force. Though his power was suppressed to the Demigod Limit, the pressure that came from his higher level of life and use of the laws was enough to make the souls of most demigods tremble.

Qie Qiong calmly took a step forward, his figure like an invisible spatial barrier. When the pressure, enough to turn Heaven and Earth upside down, bore down on him, it was as if it had struck a solid wall. It could not pass him at all and dissipated completely into nothingness.

He himself was not afraid of the pressure released by this mere Grade Three Deity, but his father still could not withstand it.

After all, he was only a Saint Rank Transcendent with a Grade Three True Meaning. If Qie Qiong did not block the pressure, Qie Yunzhou would likely have already lost the ability to fight.

Qie Qiong stood with his hands behind his back. He lightly traced a finger behind him, and a Space Gate appeared, sending Qie Yunzhou back to the Mortal World.

Seeing Qie Qiong send Qie Yunzhou back to the Mortal World, the God of Thunder made no move to stop him. After all, in his view, as long as he eliminated this Transcendent with a Grade Two True Meaning, he could rebuild the Thunder Empire.

"That's enough to deal with you." The God of Thunder's clone spoke with the rumble of a thousand bolts of thunder. "If you manage to become a Deity, I'm afraid things won't go well for me in the Divine Realm either. My useless junior offended you for his own selfish reasons, but I can only apologize. After all, right now, having you here matters a great deal to me."

The God of Thunder's clone lowered his eyes slightly, glancing over the ruins below, where Lei Wuji had sacrificed himself.

At the very center, a long spear wrapped in thunder stood planted at an angle in the rock.

It was the Divine Artifact Lei Wuji had possessed earlier—the [Heavenly Execution Thunder Spear].

Now, without anyone to control it, the Divine Artifact looked somewhat dim. But with the God of Thunder's clone appearing, the thunder origin power it contained was faintly resonating with him above.

The God of Thunder's clone merely stirred his thoughts, and the dormant divine spear seemed to heed his call. Blinding purple-gold thunderlight burst from it.

With a whoosh, it became a streak of purple thunder and instantly flew into the God of Thunder's clone's hand.

As soon as the spear entered his grasp, the ancient thunder runes on its shaft began to flow like living things. A surging force of destructive thunder divine power poured into it, unleashing power hundreds or even thousands of times greater than when Lei Wuji had wielded it.

The God of Thunder's clone pointed the spear straight at Qie Qiong in the distance.