170: Even facing certain death, they still dare to be arrogant.

Zhang Xuan leaned against a pillar, his face pale; the fireball Spell had exhausted his True Qi.

After all, he was only at the Transcendent Sixth Layer, relying on special methods to compress and convert his True Qi into energy similar to spiritual power to cast Spells.

He would need at least a minute to rest before he could cast Spells again.

"You won't succeed!" Li Qingyao's Frostbloom Sword carved an elegant arc, the ice crystals condensed on its blade leaving a fine mist of ice in the air.

Her swordplay flowed like water, each strike carrying a biting chill, freezing the incoming starlight in mid-air.

Long Ju roared, his bronze spear thrusting out, its tip blooming with an earthy yellow light.

He Cultivated the Five Elements Earth system and the twelve zodiac signs Snake system.

His defense was watertight, and his spear danced like a python, locking onto and entangling enemy attacks.

Heng Chu wielded twin blades like a butterfly flitting through flowers, green wind blades coiling around their edges;

Ji Bu's heavy sword was mighty and powerful, each chop accompanied by a thunderous explosion;

Yu Ziqi's soft sword was unpredictable and ever-changing, its tip always striking from incredible angles;

Zhongli Mo, on the other hand, provided long-range harassment, his arrows never missing their mark, each one precisely interrupting the wolf demon's assault.

The four great wolf demons exchanged glances, not expecting to find not just one Genius in a thousand years, but ten!! Can you believe it, ten!!!

Oh my Heavenly Dao! This world is too crazy!

If they could devour all ten, they would definitely achieve Immortal Ascension in one step!!

Kill!

The four Kui wolves no longer concealed their strength.

Four golden lights exploded simultaneously! Their monk robes instantly turned to dust.

Their skulls creaked as they deformed and reformed, grey-black wolf fur erupted from their pores, and their four human faces simultaneously ripped open, revealing stark white fangs, their four pairs of crimson demonic eyes like eight bloodthirsty lanterns.

"Screech—" Four barbed wolf tails burst from their bodies, their limbs twisted and deformed, revealing mutated wolf claws.

As the bloody mist dispersed, four ten-zhang-tall wolf demons stood in its place.

The ten great Geniuses were also more serious than ever before; they all seemed to understand that this would be their battle of life and death! A battle of destiny!!

Kill!!

Ten individuals against four wolves, they plunged into a fierce melee!!

...Lu Chen and Chu Yu fought their way through layers of personal guards, treading on the blood-stained bluestone ground to reach the City Lord's main hall.

The once resplendent decorations within the hall were now in ruins, sandalwood tables overturned, and precious calligraphy and paintings torn to shreds, clearly indicating a thorough ransacking.

A peculiar medicinal fragrance permeated the air, and following this unique scent, the two passed through winding secret passages, finally discovering a hidden treasury behind a wall adorned with an Eight Trigrams pattern.

The moment they pushed open the secret door, a suffocating energy fluctuation assailed them.

They saw City Lord Ge Hong frantically packing various treasures.

blood fiend pills glowed red in jade bottles, stripped Spiritual Roots floated and trembled slightly in crystal caskets, and various Magical Artifacts emitting different colored lights were scattered across the floor.

For the past thirty years, Ge Hong had performed blood sacrifices, Alchemy, and captured living people for the Cihang Sect, secretly hoarding many treasures for himself to aid his Cultivation to become an Immortal.

"Two heroes!" Ge Hong suddenly looked up, his face plastered with a fawning smile, "Let's split these treasures evenly among the three of us! To be honest, I was forced into this! My daughter, Juan'er... my poor Juan'er was snatched away by them when she was seven, forcing me to do these heinous things for them..." As he spoke, he even squeezed out a few murky tears.

Chu Yu sneered, "Since you're so helpless, then I'll help you find liberation!!"

Ge Hong's face drastically changed, his facade of kindness instantly shattering, veins bulging on his forehead: "To hell with you, you ungrateful brats! You two snot-nosed kids! I advise you to quit while you're ahead! Don't push me!"

Seeing this, Chu Yu laughed heartily, "Haha, you're getting desperate!!"

Ge Hong, at the Great Perfection of the Transcendent Ninth Layer, was truly only one step away from becoming a Qi Refining Immortal.

He could have broken through earlier, but he deliberately didn't, because a Breakthrough would force him to go to Tianwu City to meet Great Emperor Tianwu.

Great Emperor Tianwu had issued an Immortal Summons Order: all Immortals in the Tianwu Dynasty who reached the Qi Refining Layer must go to Tianwu City to meet Great Emperor Tianwu and receive his rewards!!

Those who dared to resist would be hunted down by General Bai Qi's Heavens Punishment Legion.

Ge Hong's weapon was a blood blade, and he fought two against one without falling behind.

It was Lu Chen's first time encountering such a powerful enemy.

"Dragon Aperture! Dragon Spine! Dragon Blood!" Lu Chen roared three times, and the True Qi within him frantically transformed into golden Dragon Essence.

The tip of his spear burst forth with dazzling golden light, and a lifelike Dragon shadow coiled out.

Spear Spits Dragon Light!!

Lu Chen's strongest attack was instantly swallowed by Ge Hong's blood blade, which unleashed a monstrous sea of blood.

Countless distorted human faces emerged in the blood waves, emitting mournful wails.

Lu Chen gave a bitter smile, "This is only a quasi-Qi Refining Layer? How terrifying would a true Qi Refining Cultivator be?"

"I am a match for ten thousand!"

Chu Yu's body erupted with dazzling golden light, his Heavenly God Hegemon Body fully activated.

He charged directly into the chaotic dance of blood blades, allowing the sharp edges to carve deep, bone-deep wounds on his body.

Those wounds healed at a visible rate, and he was like a moving mountain, his right fist, brimming with power, crashed towards Ge Hong's face with a whooshing sound.

"Bang!" Ge Hong's protective blood aura shattered, and he flew backward, crashing into a bronze pillar.

He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, staring at the healing wounds on Chu Yu's body, his eyes blazing with a morbid fanaticism: "Heavenly God Hegemon Body! Hahaha! Even more perfect than the Innate Dao Bodies of those Immortal Venerables! Haha, thirty years, thirty years, I've finally found the most perfect Physical Body, Heaven helps me, Heaven helps me!!"

Chu Yu sneered: "You're about to die, yet you still dare to be arrogant!!"

Lu Chen gathered his strength for an attack! Preparing to finish Ge Hong!

Suddenly!

Click! Click!

A series of metallic grinding sounds from interlocking gears exploded from the four walls of the treasury, and the green jade floor tiles beneath Lu Chen's feet suddenly cracked in a spiderweb pattern.

Boom—!

The entire treasury plunged downwards as if swallowed by a giant beast, and Ge Hong's wrinkled old face twisted into a bizarre, frenzied laugh.

It turned out that the entire treasury was a trap Ge Hong had designed long ago; he wasn't being chased by Lu Chen and Chu Yu, but rather he had deliberately led the two here.

Lu Chen and Chu Yu fell onto a massive blood temple, in the center of which stood a terrifyingly tall, white Blood Guanyin.

Eighty-one bronze pillars carved with suffering human faces supported the dome, and in the eye sockets of each pillar flickered ghostly green phosphorescent flames.

The surrounding blood pool was boiling, tens of thousands of corpses floated like dumplings in the blood plasma—there were children wearing longevity locks, pregnant women in shackles, and even Cultivators in Cihang Sect uniforms.

Even stranger was a crystal coffin suspended in mid-air, inside which was a seven-year-old girl's corpse, dressed in a crimson blood-robe adorned with soul- trấn bells, with seven golden needles piercing her heart—no, it shouldn't be a corpse, judging by her complexion, she was still alive!!

The crystal coffin was connected to twelve blood coffins, half submerged in the blood pool and half exposed. Eleven of them contained corpses, these were some of the most talented Geniuses born in Feiyun City over the decades, all secretly captured by Ge Hong and brought here.

Lu Chen suddenly realized: "What a hypocritical man, you even lied to us, saying your daughter was taken by the Cihang Sect and you were forced to work for them. Clearly, to achieve Immortal Ascension, you didn't hesitate to use your own daughter as your substitute, to absorb this continuous stream of energy for you, and then transfer it to your body. This way, you wouldn't bear any negative effects and could obtain the purest energy. You truly are the best father in the world!"

"Shut up!!" As if a raw nerve had been struck, Ge Hong roared: "You don't understand, none of you understand! My Juan'er has the Profound Yin Sacred Body; if I didn't nourish her with this fresh blood, she wouldn't survive at all. I am preserving her life."

Lu Chen laughed loudly: "What a magnificent paternal love, imprisoning your own daughter for thirty years, making her neither human nor ghost, and it was all for her own good, I'm so touched!!"

Ge Hong was hysterical: "You are not allowed to insult my daughter!! Die for me!!"