381: escape

The Blood Demon Venerable’s aura surged violently, and the dark red river of blood churned and roared like a malevolent Dragon, its power threatening to tear apart the boundary realm!

His blood-red eyes locked onto Hao Tian, and the desperate, crazy will in them made the solidified Void Realm emit a mournful wail, unable to bear the strain.

"Hao Tian! You want my boundary realm? Then exchange your life for it!" the Blood Demon Venerable roared, shaking the heavens. Behind him, the three layers of Karma golden wheels, which had appeared due to his Fusion with Xue Tian, shattered inch by inch!

A destructive radiance erupted from the collapsing golden wheels, making him appear like a world-ending Demon God.

He suddenly clapped his hands together, and the vast river of blood, covering hundreds of millions of miles, instantly collapsed inward!

Boom—!!!

A destructive wave, enough to make even an Initial Stage Quasi-Saint tremble with fear, erupted violently!

At the core of the river of blood, space silently annihilated like fragile glass, and a terrifying black hole that swallowed all light instantly formed!

It wasn't a self-detonation! He actually detonated all the endless blood fiends, the Law of Blood, and even a portion of his forcibly elevated Origin contained within the river of blood!

The target—was precisely the constrained Void Realm in front of Hao Tian!

"Hm?!" For the first time, a clear look of astonishment appeared on Emperor Hao Tian's eternally indifferent face.

He had anticipated that the Blood Demon Venerable would retaliate violently, burn his Great Dao Origin, or even detonate the Blood Demon Realm to injure him and create an escape opportunity.

But he had never expected that the opponent would so decisively detonate his own Blood Great Dao Origin, manifesting as that river of blood spanning hundreds of millions of miles!

What caught him even more off guard was that this desperate strike was not aimed at him personally, but rather at the spatial and temporal confinement, the light of creation, and the nascent river of time phantom he had gathered in front of him, forcibly blasting open a huge gap leading to the unknown depths of the boundary realm!

Just as the world-destroying blast of light swallowed everything, the Blood Demon Venerable's figure suddenly etherealized!

"Blood stains the heavens, flee!"

A low, yet time-piercing demonic sound rang out.

The Blood Demon Venerable's aura, which had expanded to its limit, instantly withered and decayed like a punctured skin, becoming even weaker than before his Fusion with Xue Tian!

But he had transformed into a crimson stream of light, so pure and swift that it was almost impossible to capture with Divine Sense!

The stream of light, without the slightest hesitation, used the energy surge from the river of blood's explosion as cover, and at a speed beyond the concept of time, instantly swept past the enormous Blood Demon Realm below!

An incredible scene unfolded!

That colossal entity, comparable to a quarter of the Immortal-Demon Realm, upon contact with the crimson stream of light, rapidly contracted and collapsed like ice and snow entering a furnace!

Mountains and rivers, earth and sky, billions of living beings... the entire Blood Demon Realm was forcibly compressed and refined within a thousandth of a breath, ultimately transforming into a crystal-clear world sand particle, within which endless stars revolved!

As soon as the world sand formed, it was swallowed by the desperate crimson stream of light fleeing for its life!

Xiao Zhuo, who had been hidden in the Void Realm and motionless since Hao Tian appeared, only felt a flash of blood-red light, and he himself was swept up by the stream of light, carried along into the unknown darkness!

"Trying to leave?!" Emperor Hao Tian's furious voice, like a thunderclap from the Nine Heavens, echoed throughout the boundary realm!

After all, he was a Peak existence, the first in line below the Saint, and his astonishment lasted only a moment.

The instant the Blood Demon Venerable detonated the river of blood, his aura plummeted, and he transformed into light to flee, Hao Tian had already activated his power over space and time, pointing a finger out!

"Time—Solidify!"

Buzz!

An invisible, formless power, transcending the Laws of all heavens and myriad worlds, instantly spread!

Centered on Emperor Hao Tian, the flow of time in the hundreds of millions of miles of the boundary realm suddenly became viscous and sluggish!

That desperate crimson stream of light, its extreme speed seemingly trapped in invisible amber, clearly and slowly manifested in the solidified space and time, its speed forcibly suppressed a hundredfold!

Emperor Hao Tian's eyes glinted with a cold light like ten thousand years of ice, and with his other hand, he formed a sword-finger, its tip entwined with terrifying energy that could end all things and annihilate creation. He was about to deliver a fatal blow to the delayed stream of light!

"Hao Tian! You can't stop me!" The Blood Demon Venerable's weak, yet infinitely crazed voice, emanated from the core of the stream of light, "Great Dao Sacrifice!!!"

Poof—!

The crimson stream of light violently trembled!

It was as if some terrifying Origin, supporting heaven and earth, was burning and disintegrating within its core!

A destructive energy, violent to the extreme, exploded with a roar!

"Swoosh—!"

The time confinement shattered like fragile thin ice, instantly broken by this sacrificial power!

The speed of that crimson stream of light, in Emperor Hao Tian's disbelieving gaze, not only instantly returned to its Peak, but also reached an incredibly astonishing level!

It completely transformed into a perception-transcending entity, ignoring spatial distance, ignoring temporal sluggishness, and with just a flash, it fiercely plunged into the collapsing black hole formed by the river of blood's collapse!

Emperor Hao Tian's gaze was slightly cold, but he did not give up. His Sword Finger of Annihilation still pointed out!

Rip—!

A terrifying sword mark, spanning hundreds of millions of miles of Void Realm, was imprinted!

It not only completely shattered and dispersed the river of blood's black hole, but along its path, countless dead stars, spatial fragments, and even Chaos turbulence were all reduced to nothingness!

At the end of the sword mark, it was dark and profound, but there was no longer any trace of the crimson stream of light.

Silence.

A deathly silence, like a cold tide, engulfed this boundary realm that had just experienced a world-destroying battle.

The Immortal King in the Star Robe, the Dark Devil King, Immortal King Startling Bear... all the surviving Immortal Kings and Devil Kings, along with Emperor Emperor, who had just escaped and whose aura was weak, all stared blankly in the direction the stream of light had vanished, at the shocking, enormous sword mark that seemed to cleave the boundary realm in two, their faces filled with extreme shock and bewilderment.

The dignified Lord of the Heavenly Court, the strongest Quasi-Saint, the first in line below the Saint, personally arrived with majestic Heavenly Dao power... yet... he let someone escape?

Not only did he escape, but he also took away that newly advanced Great Thousand World?!

Emperor Hao Tian hung quietly in the Void Realm, his profound golden imperial robe fluttering without wind.

The eternal indifference on his face finally faded, revealing a rare trace of surprise.

He looked down at the finger with which he had just unleashed that sword strike, the annihilating sword light at its tip, a Fusion of three Great Dao, not yet fully retracted.

His Divine Thought swept across the boundary realm; the aura belonging to the Blood Demon Venerable had completely vanished, and even the most subtle traces of Karma had been forcibly erased by the power of the sacrificed Origin.

This old ghost... truly fought with his life! He didn't hesitate to sacrifice at least thirty percent of his Blood Great Dao Origin!

That dilapidated Great Thousand World, which had just been promoted, its potential exhausted, and possibly even fallen in rank, could almost certainly not condense a complete saint position.

With the Blood Demon Venerable's cunning and experience, he couldn't possibly not have thought of this.

Why? Why did he still pay such a heavy, almost self-destructive price, to forcibly take away that boundary realm?

Given his almost immortal and indestructible blood Dao characteristics, if he had abandoned the Blood Demon Realm and focused on escaping, even if he was as strong as Hao Tian, it would have been almost impossible to completely annihilate him. He originally had a more composed choice.

Yet... he chose the most tragic and extreme path.

Just now, if there had been the slightest delay, the slightest miscalculation, the backlash from the sacrifice would have been enough to collapse his Great Dao Foundation, or even cause him to perish on the spot!

This... was completely unlike the cunning, life-preserving, and calculating past style of that old blood ghost!

"Emperor..." Emperor Emperor flew closer with difficulty, his face as pale as paper, his aura weak and dispirited. He looked at the rare confusion and silence on Hao Tian's face, wanting to speak but hesitating.

He also couldn't understand why the Blood Demon Venerable would gamble everything for a Great Thousand Realm Domain that was almost crippled.

Emperor Hao Tian slowly lowered his hand, the light at his fingertips completely receding.

His gaze swept over the ravaged battlefield, over the countless corpses and shattered remains floating in the boundary realm.

Finally, his deep gaze once again turned towards the boundless, dark depths where the crimson stream of light had vanished.

After a brief silence, his voice returned to calm, yet it was colder than a ten-thousand-year-old abyss, like a Heavenly Dao decree, resounding deep within the Divine Souls of all survivors:

"Issue an order to all heavens, to hunt down the Blood Demon Venerable and the Great Thousand Realm Domain he carries. Whoever provides definite traces shall be rewarded with an Innate Spirit Treasure and three heavy treasures of their choice from the Heavenly Court's imperial treasury. Whoever captures, kills, or offers its world Origin..."

Emperor Hao Tian paused, his eyes piercing the Void Realm with cold light, speaking each word, heavy as ten thousand tons:

"...shall be bestowed... an Emperor position, and enjoy one-tenth of the Heavenly Court's... Luck!"

As soon as the bounty was announced, the hearts of all the Immortal Kings and Devil Kings who heard it fiercely clenched!

An Emperor position! One-tenth of the Heavenly Court's Luck!

Such a heavy reward was enough to drive any Quasi-Saint mad, stirring up a storm of blood!

Emperor Hao Tian took one last deep look at the darkness that swallowed everything, and his figure silently faded and disappeared.

Only that terrifying sword mark, spanning the boundary realm as if eternally indelible, remained, along with a group of Immortal and Devil beings whose hearts were surging, their shock unspent, and their greed gradually rising.

"Emperor..." Immortal King Startling Bear's voice was dry as he flew to Emperor's side.

Emperor Emperor looked at where Hao Tian had vanished, then at the direction the Blood Demon Venerable had fled, and shook his head bitterly, his voice filled with weariness and an indescribable sense of defeat: "Let's return to the Heavenly Court."

In the deepest, darkest part of the boundary realm, within that crimson stream of light that transcended the limits of perception.

A world sand particle, carrying an entire Great Thousand World, floated quietly, emitting a faint but exceptionally resilient light, like a candle flame flickering in a gale.

The Blood Demon Venerable's figure was as faint as smoke, his aura so weak that it seemed it would completely dissipate into nothingness in the next moment.

His evil and handsome face was now only extremely gaunt and pale, as if all his vitality had been drained.

However, in his sunken eye sockets, deep within his blood-red pupils, a nearly obsessive, reckless flame still burned.

Beside the world sand, Xiao Zhuo's figure was also enveloped by the stream of light.

His expression was extremely solemn as he looked at the utterly weak Blood Demon Old Ancestor before him. That breathtaking escape, that madness of sacrificing his Great Dao, that feat of facing Hao Tian and successfully fleeing... scene after scene stirred up monstrous waves in his heart.

"Old Ancestor?" Xiao Zhuo spoke, his voice low, with a hint of inquiry and solemnity.