415: Chapter 415 Blood Moon Demon Child

Chu Zhanxiao's eyes suddenly darkened, as if a bottomless abyss had swallowed all light in that instant.

The next moment—he stopped.

This was not a pause in the ordinary sense.

There was no trajectory of speed decay, no lingering momentum of physical buffering—one moment he was a streak of lightning splitting the firmament, the next he was a reef standing through the ages.

It was as if the threads of time had been precisely severed by an invisible blade; between absolute motion and absolute stillness, there was no room for any transition, not even a disturbance in the airflow.

Luo Xiaojiu only felt her internal organs being gripped and violently tugged by an invisible giant hand, almost as if they were about to burst forth through her throat.

She tumbled forward uncontrollably, but at the moment before hitting the ground, she was firmly clamped in place by an arm cast like black iron.

She felt dizzy, a ceaseless buzzing in her ears, and she struggled to lift her heavy eyelids—a wasteland.

A boundless, crimson wasteland, silent as the Eternal Graveyard, like a vast scab solidified after being burned away by eternal karmic fire, stretching endlessly toward the horizon where heaven and earth met.

The sky hung low, a sickly and viscous dark red, like the visceral dome of a dying giant beast, ready to ooze turbid blood at any moment.

In the distance, several bare, jagged rocky peaks, like the uneven fangs of a decayed primordial beast, pierced menacingly into that oppressive firmament.

"Third... Third Senior Brother?"

Her breathing was chaotic, her consciousness still immersed in the aftermath of that speed which transcended perception, and she asked blankly, "Wh-what..."

Li Jiuyou propped himself up with his sword, one knee nearly kneeling into the hard red earth, his complexion paler than fresh snow.

He pressed one hand firmly against his convulsing stomach, his knuckles turning pale from the exertion, and every breath carried a heavy scent of blood, as if his internal organs had been torn apart by that violent sprint just moments ago.

The most miserable of all was the Golden Lion.

Its originally majestic and imposing body was now slumped on the ground like mud, its ten heads, which had just been raised, drooping crookedly, tongues lolling out, and golden beast eyes rolled back—a truly miserable sight, like a Soul that had left its body only to be forcibly stuffed back in.

"Blech—! I-I..."

Its four hooves twitched slightly, and it squeezed out intermittent, slurred wails from deep in its throat, "This damn thing is flying... it's clearly... shoving me alive into a Void Realm crack... using the Dao Laws of heaven and earth as a whip to lash me back and forth... Blech—! My Soul... my Soul chased after me for eight hundred miles before it could catch up..."

No one paid attention to its miserable state.

Luo Xiaojiu's gaze, as if nailed in place, was locked tightly onto Chu Zhanxiao's face.

That face remained as cold and hard as ten-thousand-year cold iron, without a ripple.

But his eyes—

These deep eyes were gazing in the direction from which they had come, the glint in them more desolate and hollow than this boundless red wasteland, deeper and more unfathomable than that blood-colored firmament.

Deep within them churned a kind of absolute silence that had almost condensed into substance, a silence that made the Soul tremble.

"Third Senior Brother...?"

She called out again, her voice unconsciously carrying a tightly strung tension.

Chu Zhanxiao did not answer.

He simply stood there quietly, like a bronze statue suddenly cooled and solidified in time, frozen in the fishy wind of the silent wasteland, gazing into the distance at the firmament that had already been left far behind.

He was waiting.

Then—

"Boom—!!!!!!!!!!"

The distant horizon suddenly shattered!

It was not the roar of thunder, nor the howl of a storm, but the sound of space being torn asunder, something far more primal and violent!

A surge of Devilish Qi, thick as liquid and pitch-black like the eternal night itself, brazenly broke through the constraints of the firmament, instantly dyeing half the scarlet sky into a color of despairing ink!

Within the Devilish Qi, billions of hideous, twisted demonic shadows rose and fell, screaming, roaring, tearing at and devouring each other, emitting bone-chilling sounds of cracking bones and Soul-piercing shrieks—as if an entire Hell had been hollowed out and poured into this mortal realm!

Almost at the same instant—

Outside the Secret Realm.

On that magnificent viewing platform suspended deep within the endless Void Realm.

A deathly silence.

Immediately following was the crisp sound of an object shattering—the ink-jade teacup that an ancient ancestor of the Demon Race had played with for ten thousand years turned to dust in an instant.

He slowly stood up, his aged body, hunched for endless years, suddenly straightening as straight as a spear.

Deepest within his turbid pupils, two miniature, burning blood-colored demon moons suddenly ignited!

"Blood... Moon..."

His voice was dry and hoarse, yet it scraped against everyone's Divine Soul like a rusted, blunt knife, "It is my Demon Race's... hidden away for thirty thousand years... sealed with the heart blood essence of thirteen Demon Emperors... sacrificed with the Origin of the Jiuyou Demon Vein... only then nurtured and nourished... Blood Moon Demon Prince!"

"How could he appear in this world at this moment?! How dare he appear in this world at this time?!!"

The last sentence was a roar, carrying disbelief, shock, and... a trace of undisguisable terror!

An uproar like an apocalyptic tsunami instantly swept across the entire viewing platform!

"Blood Moon Demon Prince?! That taboo existence who, on the day of his birth, triggered a backflow of the Jiuyou Blood Moon tide and was prophesied to restart the era of the Demonic Path?!"

"Wasn't it rumored that his true spirit had long since dissipated and he had perished in the 'Ten Thousand Demons Devouring Heart Death Trial'?!"

"The Seal has not been broken, the heavenly secret has not been revealed, how could he step out of that Eternal Demon Abyss?!"

Before the exclamations had even died down—

A second figure had already shattered the Void Realm and descended into the world.

Hum—!!!

The boundless sound of tides surged out of thin air, sweeping and scouring everyone's Sea of Consciousness!

A figure clad in armor as deep blue as the deepest ocean, holding a trident wreathed in ancient sea Souls and endless resentment, stepped out step by step from the ripples in the Void Realm.

What he stepped on was not solid ground, but an endless, roaring, churning phantom of a ten-thousand-mile tsunami!

The giant waves towered, and the long chanting of deep-sea behemoths pierced through the Void Realm—he was the walking deep-sea kingdom, the very apocalypse myth that submerged continents!

"Deep Sea... Trident Emperor!!"

Amidst the Sea Race's seats, an elder with brilliant Dragon scales on his forehead shook violently, even shedding tears of an old man, "The Trident Soul has completely awakened, the Divine Artifact has fully recognized its master... It is my Sea Race's supreme Divine Artifact, silent for seven thousand eight hundred years!! He has entered... He has truly stepped into this battlefield!!"

A third figure appeared.

It had no fixed form, only a mass of dark, twisted light and shadow that constantly squirmed and shifted.

At times it condensed into a vague human silhouette, at other times it exploded into billions of tiny demonic insects buzzing and flapping their wings, capable of gnawing on Divine Souls.

Wherever it passed, space emitted a "sizzling" wail as it was continuously corroded and annihilated, leaving behind dense, tiny spatial black holes that made one's true spirit tremble at the sight—exuding an aura of extinction that swallowed light and sucked up all spiritual energy and Dao rhyme.

"Mother Emperor... It is the Soul-Devouring Mother Emperor herself descending into the world!!"

In the Insect Race's viewing area, all Insect Race Cultivators, regardless of their cultivation level, prostrated themselves in unison, their heads pressed tightly against the cold ground, their Souls trembling violently, "The Source of Ten Thousand Insects... the supreme Dominator who has survived a thousand calamities without perishing... has actually set foot in such a dangerous place herself!"

A fourth figure followed close behind.

Starlight, pure to the extreme, brazenly tore through the churning Devilish Qi and the roaring tsunami phantom, descending powerfully.

As the starlight faded, an elder whose hair and beard were all woven from flowing starlight appeared.

Around him slowly orbited twelve phantoms of real stars, each the size of a fist yet as heavy as an eternal mountain, each exhaling terrifying starlight of destruction and creation; as they revolved, one could faintly sense the vast Dao rhyme of galaxies being born and dying, and the long river of time flowing ceaselessly.

"Twelve Star Envoys!!"

In the deepest part of the Spirit Race's seats, an ancient ancestor who had been in seclusion for who knows how many eras, his body already more than half turned into star crystals, suddenly opened his eyes, a whole galaxy seeming to surge within them, filled with horror, "The 'Child of the Stars'... whom the Spirit Race exhausted the power of the entire clan to refine and polish for countless years by drawing upon the Star Power of the heavens... the supreme inheritor carrying the life's Dao fruit and expectations of twelve Grand Elders... He, he was actually sent into this Primordial Secret Realm too?!"

The fifth figure. The sixth figure. The seventh figure...

Figure after figure, existing only in the deepest parts of ancient scrolls and circulated in taboo legends, broke through the barriers of the Void Realm one after another, stepping onto the firmament above that crimson wasteland.

The appearance of each figure was like an invisible ten-thousand-jun heavy hammer, slamming fiercely into the hearts and minds of the thousands of Cultivators on the viewing platform, causing their blood to churn and their Divine Souls to sway.

The arrival of each figure triggered mountain-shaking, tsunami-like excited sobs, fanatical roars, and pious worship in the seats of their respective races.

Because in everyone's heart, it was as clear as a mirror—

These names were not supposed to belong to this era.

They were living taboo legends, walking racial legacies, the ultimate weapons that each race had staked infinite resources on, even splitting off parts of their clan's destiny to secretly cultivate and eternally Seal, only to be used when waiting for that ultimate moment that would decide the fate of their race...

They were the ultimate trump cards that would never be easily revealed or shown to others unless the race was facing a crisis of survival.

And at this moment—

They had come.

Without warning, unreasonably, defying common sense, they gathered here together.

A full thirteen of them!

Thirteen figures stood quietly above the wasteland, each with different forms—some with Devilish Qi covering the universe, some accompanied by roaring tsunamis, some with insect swarms blotting out the sky and sun, some with stars orbiting in birth and death...

But without exception, their bodies naturally rippled with a terrifying aura that made the Void Realm twist and wail, and caused the Dao Laws to retreat—

Deity Transformation Realm!

And they were by no means ordinary Deity Transformation Realm experts, but peerless Deity Transformation Realm experts with Foundations so profound it was unimaginable, capable of fighting against those stronger and battling across ranks!

Thirteen surges of monstrous pressure, any one of which would be enough to crush a Small World alone and make billions of living beings bow their heads, did not conflict or attack each other; instead, they intertwined, fused, and resonated with a terrifying, suffocating tacit understanding, eventually turning into a visible destructive energy pillar mixed with pitch-black Devilish Qi, deep blue sea light, dim insect shadows, and brilliant starlight, shooting up into the sky—churning the originally dark red, oppressive firmament until it tossed and turned like boiling water!

The vast and mighty pressure even pierced through the sturdy barriers of the Primordial Secret Realm, and through that huge water mirror that reflected everything, it permeated and crushed every inch of space on the entire viewing platform like a physical substance.

"Creak... crack..."

In the edge areas of the seats, some Cultivators with weaker cultivation had their body-protecting spiritual light flickering like a candle in the wind, their bones emitting faint sounds of unbearable pressure, their complexions pale as paper, cold sweat instantly soaking their robes, and even the most basic breathing became extremely difficult.

Deathly silence.

A deathly silence, heavier and more despairing than any moment before, like an invisible giant hand, tightly choking the throats of all living beings present.

"Th... thirteen..."

I don't know who it was, using all their strength to squeeze out a broken and trembling whisper from between their teeth, every word soaked in bone-chilling coldness and deep-seated disbelief.

"Thirteen... Deity Transformation Realm... peerless Prodigies..."

"They... are actually all here for these three people and one beast..."

"This game... how... ruthless!"