626: Tooth 62 is trapped in a cage.

Upon hearing this, Blood Butcher opened his mouth, wanting to say something.

But the words reached his lips and were swallowed back; only a faint, almost self-deprecating sigh rolled out from his throat.

Before the sigh could even fade, it was shredded to pieces by the surging killing intent all around.

He tugged at the corners of his mouth, ultimately able to reveal only an almost powerless, helpless smile—a smile only a ferocious tiger would have when defanged and caged, mixed with humiliation, unwillingness, and a trace of secret awe that even he was unwilling to delve into.

Luo Xiaojiu did not look at him again.

Not even a glance from the corner of her eye swept over him.

As if he, along with all his complex emotions at this moment, were nothing more than a speck of insignificant dust by her feet.

She simply turned around slowly.

In this instant, time seemed to be stretched and frozen by some invisible force.

Above the firmament was a storm of destruction that had long since brewed to its limit.

The torrent of Divine Ability unleashed by the joint efforts of a dozen or so Prodigies did not cease.

The golden light that had just appeared stunningly, solely to deflect the danger striking at Blood Butcher, was merely an insignificant variation in this violent prelude.

The true symphony of destruction had only just begun to play its most terrifying climax.

Sword light hung like an inverted galaxy, bone-chillingly cold, slicing through space and emitting a teeth-grinding hiss.

Saber Qi resembled an ancient demonic mountain pushing horizontally, heavy and domineering, causing the Void Realm to collapse inch by inch wherever it ground past.

Spells evolved into earth, water, fire, and wind, with Chaos churning.

Talismans summoned the Evil Qi of the Nine Heavens, with purple lightning dancing wildly.

Demonic Qi transformed into the phantom of a ferocious giant beast, roaring at the sky.

Buddha light shone everywhere but contained hidden, immense power to subdue demons, solemn and murderous.

Demonic mist rolled, permeating with bone-eroding, soul-stealing filth and coldness...

They intertwined, collided, and underwent Fusion, finally converging into an endless, incomparably thick blanket of leaden clouds.

This was not a real cloud, but a sea of death compressed and condensed from the purest, most violent Spiritual Qi and Dao rules.

It pressed low over the hills, blotting out the sky and sun, devouring all light, causing the surrounding dozens of miles to fall into a twilight-like gloom prematurely.

Within the clouds, countless Divine Abilities flickered on and off, like billions of violent eyes blinking simultaneously, locking firmly onto the tiny figure below.

The aura of destruction was as thick as substance, pressing down until people's bone marrow turned cold and their Divine Souls threatened to shatter, and even mountain rocks turned to dust in silence.

And Luo Xiaojiu stood directly beneath this cloud of destruction.

Turbulent, incomparably wild Spiritual Qi poured down from above, turning into visible gale winds that roared, wanting to tear her apart.

Her clothes danced wildly, like a battle flag struggling against the wind.

Her full head of black hair broke free from the restraints of her hairband, flying wantonly in the violent airflow like a mass of burning black flames.

However, her figure remained as steady as a pine tree rooted in an ancient sacred mountain.

She even clasped her hands behind her back.

This was not a posture of preparing for battle.

It was the composure of a leisurely stroll, the ease of looking out from a high peak.

She lifted her face slightly, gazing at that blanket of destructive leaden clouds that could swallow her completely at any moment, her expression so indifferent... just like on a spring afternoon, in her own backyard filled with blooming apricot blossoms, strolling and observing a wisp of flowing cloud drifting past the eaves.

This extreme indifference, compared with the extreme violence all around, formed a contrast so sharp it caused hearts to stop.

The Sword Tiger Clan Prodigy's brows were knitted tightly into a knot, the natural 'King' mark on his forehead almost crushed by his scowl.

His copper-bell-like eyes stared fixedly at the incredibly slender back in front of him, and a groundless chill was crawling up his spine, inch by inch, slowly and firmly.

Something was wrong.

Something was very wrong.

From the first moment he saw this young girl, that tentacle in his heart belonging to a beast's instinct, the most sensitive to crisis, had been trembling crazily and sounding alarms.

In appearance, she was no more than a Human Race girl of seventeen or eighteen years, her features not yet fully shedding their youthful greenness, exquisite as a beauty meticulously painted by a master artist.

Her frame was slender, like a willow branch in spring, her waist so slim it could be grasped in one hand, seemingly fragile enough to snap at any moment.

When standing there quietly, she was indeed like a soft willow in the wind, carrying a fragile, delicate beauty.

But it was precisely such a slender willow that looked like it would snap at a gust of wind—

Blood Butcher.

This name, which could stop the crying of children in the Central Divine Continent at night, and whose record of battles was enough to make ordinary Cultivators tremble with fear—towards her, he was respectful to the point of being almost servile.

This was not just superficial courtesy.

The Sword Tiger Clan Prodigy saw it clearly; that was awe branded into the depths of his eyes, carved into his very marrow, or even... fear.

Who was Blood Butcher?

One of the seven recognized Prodigies of the younger generation on the Taichu Continent!

The undisputed next Clan Chief successor of the super-power Blood Clan!

At thirteen, he had single-handedly, with only his sword, slaughtered all three hundred members of the 'Black Wind Stronghold' that plagued the region, leaving not even a chicken or dog alive—the reason being, "Their blood dirtied this Young Lord's eyes."

At eighteen, in search of the legendary "Blood God Crystal," he ventured alone into the Myriad Corpse Abyss, a place with no return and filled with corpse demons.

Three months later, he walked out covered in Evil Qi, carrying the head of a Corpse King.

At twenty-five, the three major Sects of the Northern Wasteland joined forces to invade the Blood Clan's borders due to interests.

It was he who, single-handedly, snuck into the enemy's heartland, breaking through seventeen defensive lines in one night, slaying three of their Elders in battle, and forcefully slaughtering the tens of thousands of coalition forces until their hearts and courage were lost, causing them to retreat a thousand miles, thereby establishing his illustrious and ferocious reputation.

At thirty, he was officially recognized as one of the seven most dazzling stars of this generation on the Taichu Continent.

His father, the contemporary Blood Clan God Lord, declared in public at the Ancestor Worship Ceremony: This son is "the Bloodline not seen in the Blood Clan for ten thousand years."

Such a person, is a servant?

What kind of Nine Heavens and Ten Earths Reincarnation-reversing joke is this!

The Sword Tiger Clan Prodigy did not believe it.

He looked around, and from the eyes of the other dozen or so Prodigies, and from the faces of the two hundred elite Cultivators on the outer perimeter, he saw the same suspicion, speculation, and cold calculation.

A direct descendant of the Blood Clan, serving someone as a servant?

It could only be a few possibilities: afflicted by an unsolvable strange poison or a bizarre Restriction, controlled by others; harboring malicious intent, feigning submission to plot something greater; or perhaps... behind this young girl stood a behemoth even more terrifying and unfathomable than the Blood Clan, which had dominated the Taichu Continent for many years.

But regardless—

"I can't beat her, so I submit" this option was unanimously excluded by everyone from the very beginning.

How could the dignified Blood Butcher, one of the seven Prodigies and a terror to the Northern Wasteland, possibly be unable to defeat a little girl who looked wet behind the ears and could be blown away by a gust of wind?

This was not just a consensus. This was practically the truth.

It was the foundation of their confidence to dare to join forces and apply pressure, and even faintly harbor killing intent at this moment.

Then, they heard her voice.

"Beating a dog..."

The voice was not loud, even carrying a hint of the clear, cold texture unique to a young girl, yet it was like an ice needle, precisely piercing through the noise of the sky-filling Divine Abilities, clearly drilling into the depths of everyone's ear canals—exploding directly at the level of the Divine Soul.

"Also requires looking at the owner."

The tone was flat, as if stating a commonplace fact like "The weather is nice today."

"But..."

Her voice paused here for an extremely brief moment.

It was this pause that made everyone's heart skip a beat for no reason.

Only to see this slender back seem to move ever so slightly—or perhaps it didn't move at all.

Then, the corners of her mouth slowly curved upward into a tiny, distinct arc.

That was a smile.

But there was not a shred of warmth in this smile.

No mockery, no anger, no killing intent, not even anything belonging to emotion.

It was hollow, indifferent, like a trace of ice patterns condensed at the core of an eternal glacier.

It was also like a high and mighty deity, glancing down and seeing an ant trying to shake a mountain, naturally revealing a trace... of pure, non-human, and intrigued scrutiny.

"Beating them in front of me, their owner..."

She finally turned around slowly.

On her exquisitely beautiful face, there was a cold, hollow smile. Her gaze swept calmly over the blanket of destructive leaden clouds in the sky, and over the powerful figures behind the leaden clouds.

Where her gaze passed, those with slightly weaker cultivation actually had their pupils involuntarily contract, and their Spiritual Qi slightly stagnated.

Her voice was still not loud, but every word was like a meteorite crashing to the ground, smashing into everyone's heart:

"You all are..."

"Slapping this young lady's face."

The lingering sound of the word "face" had not yet dissipated in the air—

BOOM!!!!!!

A terrifying power of blood and Qi, impossible to describe in words, erupted without warning from the deepest part of Luo Xiaojiu's seemingly slender and delicate body!

This was not True Qi cultivated through practice.

Not magic power comprehended.

It was the power originating from the most fundamental, most savage, and most ancient source of life!

It was an ancient Vicious Beast sleeping in the depths of Chaos, opening its scarlet eyes completely at this moment!

It was an ancient volcano suppressed for billions of years, the rage accumulated over countless epochs, erupting in one morning!

No Divine Ability light and shadow.

No Spell Talismans and runes.

No embellishment of any technique or Dao rules.

It was simply the most pure, most primitive, most barbaric, and most domineering—

Power of Blood and Qi!

Her body seemed to instantly transform into the hottest, most violent core of the sun in the world!

"Desolate Ancient Sacred Body..."

Someone whispered in a loss of voice, their voice trembling uncontrollably.

"Unprovoked... spontaneous...?!"

Hum—!

Golden blood and Qi, brilliant to the extreme and thick to the point of substance, like lava erupting from billions of volcanoes simultaneously, and like an ancient Golden Crow looking down on the universe, unfolding its wings that blotted out the firmament, surged into the sky from within Luo Xiaojiu's body!

This was not light.

It was burning, boiling, and possessed supreme weight and texture of power!

It was the brilliant flame of life, the manifested totem of power!

The golden blood and Qi turned into a pillar of light connecting heaven and earth, instantly tearing apart the thick and oppressive destructive leaden clouds, dyeing the surrounding hundred zhang, thousand zhang... and even the entire sky within sight, into a burning, flowing, and endlessly glorious gold!

The sky turned into a golden furnace.

And she was, within this furnace—

The only Dominator.