234: Horrible speculation

“Boom!”

The Azure Jade Immortal Sword plunged into the river of blood, unleashing an earth-shattering roar.

The foul river of blood seemed to be alive; countless vengeful spirits frantically pounced and bit at the sword light, while the defiling Death Qi, like maggots clinging to bone, wrapped around and corroded the sword body. The azure jade glow instantly dimmed by several points, and its forward momentum was abruptly halted and twisted.

A figure, treading on the churning blood waves, slowly emerged from the spatial rift.

His physique was as burly as a mountain, also clad in blood-red armor, his face chiseled and resolute like it was carved by a knife and axe. Most striking were his crimson vertical pupils, identical to the woman’s, cold and domineering!

He held no weapon in his hand; he merely clenched his fist in the Void Realm, and the foul river of blood roared and surged according to his will.

“Such a temper.” The burly man’s voice was low, like muffled thunder rolling across the earth, carrying a chill originating from the Nine Heavens.

He raised a hand and pointed. The foul river of blood suddenly split, one part forming an indestructible barrier to protect the woman whose aura was in disarray, while the other part condensed into billions of ferocious, roaring blood-colored Dragons, carrying a netherworld Death Qi that devoured vitality, pouncing on Immortal Venerable Changqing from all directions!

Given this respite, the ferocity in the woman’s eyes intensified. Disregarding her injuries, she shook her blood spear, and the incomparably domineering spear shadow condensed once more, forming a pincer attack with the myriad blood Dragons!

Two domineering Dao Principles, originating from the same source yet subtly different—one for fierce penetration, the other for defiling corrosion—actually produced a strange resonance in an instant. Their power layered upon layer, firmly locking down the space around Immortal Venerable Changqing, intending to drag him into the bottomless abyss of the river of blood!

“Hmph! Another one? Golden Immortal Late Stage?” Immortal Venerable Changqing, though surprised, remained unperturbed. The Azure Jade Immortal Sword erupted with blinding light, its blade vibrating rapidly. Each vibration unleashed billions of Sword Qi, clear as water.

These Sword Qi no longer pursued grandeur; instead, they were refined to the extreme, like the most precise surgical blades, accurately cutting into the weak points where the blood Dragons and spear shadows connected, slicing, dividing, and disintegrating!

Wherever the azure jade sword light passed, foul blood was evaporated and purified, and the domineering spear shadows were severed inch by inch.

He fought one against two, his sword light like a wheel, defending flawlessly, even finding opportunities to counterattack, forcing the woman and the burly man to defend. The scene momentarily devolved into a furious stalemate.

But anyone with a discerning eye could see that even with the two Blood Cultivator Golden Immortals working together, they were merely barely holding on, like walking on a thin rope over a ten-thousand-foot abyss; one slight misstep would mean utter destruction.

Immortal Venerable Changqing’s sword momentum became faster and heavier. With each collision, the blood-red glow on the woman and the burly man flickered violently, and their Qi became unstable.

A hint of impatience and cold mockery flashed in Immortal Venerable Changqing’s eyes.

He suddenly withdrew his sword, his figure standing still in the Void Realm. A pressure even more terrifying and despair-inducing than before spread out like a tangible entity, stifling the entire battlefield.

The Azure Jade Immortal Sword in his hand emitted a long, clear Dragon roar. At the tip of the sword, a tiny but blindingly brilliant azure glow began to condense.

That was not light, but the collapse of the Dao Principle, the nascent form of destruction!

It seemed as if it would suck the entire outer region of the Blood Demon Realm into itself, completely transforming it into a singularity of Chaos!

“This is the end.” Immortal Venerable Changqing’s voice was devoid of emotion, like a decree from heaven.

That point of azure light flickered slightly, about to erupt. The aura of destruction made Ye Kongwu, at the top of Youquan Pass in the distance, feel his Divine Soul about to shatter, almost forcing him to prostrate himself.

The crimson vertical pupils in the eyes of the woman and the burly man simultaneously erupted with resolute light, their whole bodies burning with blood flames, clearly preparing for a desperate, final struggle.

In the Blood Demon Realm below, countless Blood Palace Cultivators turned ashen, and an aura of despair permeated the air.

Just as that destructive azure glow was about to erupt—

“Screech—!”

A sound like tearing silk, even more crisp, more brutal, and more heart-stopping than when the burly man tore space, suddenly resounded across the entire battlefield!

Less than a hundred zhang above Immortal Venerable Changqing’s head, space was forcibly ripped open into a huge, mirror-smooth rift by a slender hand covered in dark red scales!

There were no violent energy turbulences, no dazzling light, only a pure, terrifying pressure that solidified time and space, descending with the force of the Nine Heavens collapsing!

The intensity of that pressure instantly caused the destructive azure glow condensed at the tip of Immortal Venerable Changqing’s sword to pause!

A handsome young man, clad in a loose, dark red robe, stepped out from the rift.

His face was handsome, with a crimson diamond-shaped mark between his brows. His figure was slender, and his eyes still conveyed a domineering aura of being the sole sovereign between heaven and earth.

His Qi was as solid as a mountain, as vast as the sea. As soon as he appeared, the terrifying pressure on the woman and the burly man instantly lightened.

His gaze swept across the battlefield, finally landing on Immortal Venerable Changqing, with a domineering indifference, as if looking down at ants.

“Will you roll away yourself, or shall this Venerable one cut you down?” The young man spoke, his voice not loud, yet it was like billions of thunderclaps exploding directly in the depths of every living being’s Divine Soul, causing ripples to spread through the Void Realm.

In the Blood Demon Realm below, some Blood Palace Elders, who were highly cultivated and had lived long enough, upon seeing the young man’s face, especially his handsome features, suddenly trembled violently, and their eyes erupted with an incredulous, horrified light.

“It’s Lu Lingtian! Saint Lingtian?! Didn’t he disappear seventy thousand years ago? How is this possible? The other two are Bai Changkong and Xue Nishang, both former Saints who disappeared countless tens of thousands of years ago,” an old demon with entirely red hair and beard cried out in alarm, his voice sharp and distorted by extreme shock. But his voice was like a giant stone thrown into still water, stirring up countless turbulent waves!

Countless Blood Palace Cultivators looked at the three figures radiating supreme power, their eyes filled with unprecedented awe and fanaticism.

These were their former Saints, whose stories had long been written into the palace history, legends saying they had either perished or undergone Ascension!

At the top of Youquan Pass, Ye Kongwu’s face was ashen, and cold sweat had already soaked through his heavy armor.

His gaze was fixed on an unassuming dark red jade pendant hanging from Lu Lingtian’s waist, and his pupils suddenly contracted to pinpricks!

The style of that jade pendant was nine-tenths similar to the one he wore on his own waist!

“A Blood Palace Saint I’ve never seen before! All of them are now Golden Immortal Realm!? All comprehending domineering Dao Principles? And the Old Ancestor has always been in the Blood Demon Realm!” A preposterous yet chilling thought, like a venomous snake, suddenly bit into his heart.

At the same time, Immortal Venerable Changqing’s heart also leaped, and an unprecedented chill ran up his spine to the top of his head!

These three Blood Cultivator Golden Immortals before him, though distinctly different in appearance and with subtle differences in their Qi due to the varying emphasis of the domineering Dao Principles they cultivated, yet deep within their crimson vertical pupils, each contained a cold, dead essence that made him extremely uncomfortable, as if they were carved from the same mold!

This high degree of similarity at the Divine Soul Origin level could not be explained by mere fellow disciples cultivating the same Cultivation Technique or similar Dao Principles!

Especially when Lu Lingtian’s lifeless vertical pupils fell upon him, Immortal Venerable Changqing felt as if he saw a cold will, seated high upon a throne of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, casting an indifferent glance at him simultaneously through three different bodies.

The destructive azure glow he had condensed at the tip of his sword showed a noticeable delay for the first time.

A horrifying conjecture, like a lightning bolt, struck his Sea of Consciousness: “Could it be that these three, and that junior who controls domineering Dao Principles in the Myriad Ages Evergreen Realm, all originate from the same source?!”