37: Chapter 37 The Vengeful Spirits Unleash, A Sea of ​​Blood Falls! Is it impossible for anyone to survive?

Then.

Bright golden light burst forth at the front section of the zhulong staff, and the power of fire and thunder crazily conducted along every single fiber of the vascular network, burning the dark red blood vessels into charcoal.

Amidst the screams, the vascular network turned into ashes and drifted down.

Lin Ye's left hand moved even faster.

With a backhand grab, he seized the sharp claw shooting out from the wall, his five fingers tightening as the power of yellow emperors essence blood poured into the interior of the sharp claw along his palm.

The moment the sharp claw was gripped by him, it began to smoke, and the light burned all the way from the tip of the claw to the wrist, arm, and deep into the wall, a muffled grunt coming from inside the wall.

The sharp claw went limp like a marionette with its strings cut, and with a casual tug, he pulled it out of the wall and threw it on the ground, where it turned into a puddle of black water.

As for the flesh membranes under his feet and the blood needles above his head...

Lin Ye raised his foot and stomped fiercely on the ground.

A golden shockwave burst forth with him at the center, and the Human Emperors Coercion was as heavy as mountains and ridges.

The moment the flesh membranes were swept by the shockwave, they stopped writhing, and then quickly melted like wax burned by fire.

The blood needles were shattered by the shockwave in mid-air, turning into a bloody mist; even the bloody mist was evaporated cleanly, and along with that layer of blood beads still oozing from the ceiling, they were baked by the shockwave into a dry, grayish-white trace.

A stomp.

A three-sided pincer attack, completely shattered!

Seeing this,

the heart at the end of the hollow also faded away at the same time, as if it had been hidden.

"Is that all the tricks you have?"

Lin Ye's gaze penetrated through layers of walls, locking onto the aura lurking in some shadow, "You offered me such a high price just now, I thought you could last at least two more rounds."

Hongxiu's voice came from all directions simultaneously, making it impossible to distinguish the direction: "Lin Ye, I can give you another chance. The conditions from just now remain unchanged, as long as you..."

Lin Ye smashed a staff strike onto the wall in front of him, smashing that cement wall along with the source blood vessel speaking inside the wall into pieces.

"Too much talk."

His figure began to move within this underground hollow.

No, it should be called a hunt!

It's just that what he was chasing was not Hongxiu's avatar, but her true body tentacles hidden in every inch of the structure of the walls, floor, and ceiling.

Every time the zhulong staff came down, it precisely smashed onto the nodes where the fluctuation of resentful power was most concentrated.

With a strike of the staff, the walls cracked, and the dark red vascular network inside the walls spurted foul-smelling juice. Hongxiu's screams came from deep within the walls, carrying a distorted sharpness.

Her true body was dispersed throughout the entire villa, making it extremely difficult for her to be completely killed, but it also meant that every time Lin Ye smashed a section of the wall and destroyed a piece of the vascular network, she would suffer a fraction of substantive damage.

The wider she dispersed, the larger the injured area.

Hongxiu began to get serious.

The hollow ground suddenly surged, and a large amount of dark red viscous liquid poured out from the cracks, submerging the entire ground within a few seconds.

In the blink of an eye,

Lin Ye was plunged into a sea of blood.

Countless bubbles swelled on the surface of the sea of blood, and inside each bubble curled a distorted human face—men, women, old, and young, all with a unified expression.

Despair to the absolute point of agony.

They opened their mouths at the same time, letting out a silent scream.

That scream transcended hearing, piercing directly into the depths of the soul and shaking one's will and mind.

Fierce Ghost-class divine ability...

Sea of Blood Sinks!

This sea of blood was not only a physical threat, but also a spiritual contamination.

Anyone standing on the sea of blood would simultaneously bear the painful memories of thousands of departed souls at the exact moment before their death.

That kind of mental impact was enough to make a high-tier willpower challenger collapse on the spot.

Not to mention the terrifying consequences of being contaminated and becoming a part of the sea of blood.

"What is this?"

Lin Ye lowered his head to look at the sea of blood rising to his feet, his facial expression dazed for a split second.

Because those shattered painful memories tried to pour into his sea of consciousness, but the moment they contacted his spiritual barrier tempered by yellow emperors essence blood, they were scorched and evaporated.

The zhulong seal on his chest grew slightly warm, releasing a wisp of aura of an ancient giant dragon...

The lingering power of the Zhulong's eyes illuminating the Nine Netherworlds in the Classic of Mountains and Seas caused the painful babbling of these low-level Resentful Spirits to be crushed into ashes before they even had time to unfold.

"Your sea of blood,"

Lin Ye's tone was like evaluating the heat of a dish, "is still not deep enough!"

He raised the zhulong staff, and lightning burst forth on the staff body.

It was a thunder seed that he had repeatedly tempered with the azure thunder of mountains and seas, possessing a natural restraining power against demonic and ghost-like entities.

Coupled with the blessing of yellow emperors essence blood, the thunder transformed from searing white to intense golden, condensing into a thick pillar of light on the staff body.

The staff fell.

The thunder cleaved into the center of the sea of blood, like a red-hot knife cutting through solidified lard.

The thunder light crazily spread along every inch of the surface of the sea of blood; wherever it passed, the bloody water evaporated, bubbles burst, and painful screams rose and fell one after another.

Those distorted human faces were burned into blue smoke one by one in the thunder light, and the sea of blood was forcibly evaporated by half within a few seconds, leaving the ground covered with scorched tortoise-shell cracks.

Above the hollow, the darkness where Hongxiu's true body resided trembled slightly.

Her sea of blood was not an ordinary means; it was her natal divine ability refined for two years after she promoted to a Fierce Ghost, which ordinary challengers could not even touch.

Yet this man evaporated half of it with a single staff strike.

"Where... does this power of yours come from?"

Hongxiu asked in surprise.

Soon, she discovered that things were even more wrong.

Not just evaporation...

Those resentful powers of hers, she could no longer perceive them.

They completely vanished, without even a trace of residual resentment left behind.

This meant that his attack not only harmed her body, but also fundamentally destroyed the power she had stored.

But she hadn't lost yet!

She was a Fierce Ghost; her greatest trump card was not the sea of blood, nor her avatars, nor those fancy illusions.

But this villa itself!

This was the core of her Ghost Domain, her absolute home turf refined bit by bit over two years!

Here, her power could regenerate infinitely!

As long as this villa was still here, she was undying!

"Lin Ye,"

Hongxiu's voice came from the ceiling, her tone recovering some of her previous composure, "You can fight very well, I admit, but no matter how well you can fight, how long can you last? Your spiritual power will eventually be exhausted, and I... the entire villa is my true body, can you break it?"

Drag it out like this, the winner would sooner or later be her!

She would devour Lin Ye, making him a part of the nutrients, a stepping stone for her to transform from a Fierce Ghost into a Crimson-Clad Fierce Ghost!

However, what responded to her was a golden light drawing closer and closer!

Lin Ye did not reply.

He answered with actions.

A staff strike smashed through the ceiling, and his entire body broke through the floor slab to rush to the upper floor, finding the thickest dark red main blood vessel trunk, and then he punched down.

The light of yellow emperors essence blood burst forth, blasting that main blood vessel trunk into fine dust.

The walls trembled violently, and the vascular network around the hollow emitted a sharp wails amid this violent vibration, like an injured giant beast struggling on its deathbed.

Hongxiu's entire Ghost Domain made a harsh tearing sound due to the chain reaction produced by this strike.

The walls cracked, the floor collapsed, chunks of cement on the ceiling crashed down in rustling sounds, and the entire villa made a muffled tearing sound, like a broken ship about to snap in half.

...

At the foot of the mountain,

several black off-road vehicles painted with the emblem of the Demon Suppression Division parked at the end of the highway.

A bespectacled scout of the Demon Suppression Division stared fixedly at the spiritual energy detector in his hand, the instrument's pointer swinging wildly, exceeding the maximum range.

He raised his head to look in the direction of the mountain peak, his breathing rapid.

A dark red cloud mass as thick as ink was pressing directly above the villa, slowly rotating, with bloody light occasionally flashing in the clouds.

Every time the bloody light lit up, a muffled loud noise would come from the ground, like someone beating drums deep underground.

Suddenly, a dark golden pillar of light burst out from inside the villa, piercing through the roof and soaring straight into the sky, tearing a huge gap in the dark red cloud mass.

The clouds emitted a sound similar to the roar of a living creature, attempting to re-aggregate, but immediately followed by another pillar of light, thicker and brighter, completely piercing through the cloud mass.

The clouds began to churn violently, their color rapidly fading from dark red to grayish-white, like flesh and blood drained of life.

Another loud crash!

The entire mountain body shook along with it.

A thin crack split open on the road surface under the scout's feet, and gravel rolled down from the edge of the crack, making a rustling sound.

He held onto the car door to barely steady himself, his glasses tilted to one side of the bridge of his nose.

Several Demon Suppression Division soldiers behind him simultaneously gasped.

They felt it—the concentration and intensity of that resentful power pressing down from the mountain peak far exceeded their previous estimations!

"Th-This... what level of ghost entity is this?"

A young soldier's voice trembled, his hand involuntarily resting on the tactical knife at his waist.

Even though he was very clear that this knife wasn't even enough to scratch that thing on the mountain peak.

The scout did not answer him.

He took off his glasses, wiped the cold sweat condensed on the lenses with his sleeve, put them back on, and then looked down at the data on the detector that had already maxed out.

His complexion turned pale bit by bit.

"At least Fierce Ghost-class,"

his voice dry, "No... not an ordinary Fierce Ghost, mid-stage and above, possibly even peak-stage. How could a ghost entity of this level appear in a place like Qingzhou?"

The most outrageous part was:

The evaluation given to her by the Demon Suppression Division previously was actually just a Resentful Spirit...

If the opponent was merely a Resentful Spirit, then the challengers who went up, seizing the opportunity to slay one or two wandering souls inside and evacuate, although difficult, would still be acceptable.

After all, this was Qingzhou University, the best batch of challengers in their initial assessment.

However...

If the opponent was a Fierce Ghost, it meant that at least every single subordinate of hers was a Resentful Spirit; wanting to slay them was as difficult as ascending to heaven for them at their current stage.

It went almost from walking a tightrope to a dead-certain-death situation!

"She hid herself too well."

The several soldiers behind him looked at each other in dismay.

They were challengers from the previous batch and had only been out for a year.

Fierce Ghost.

These two words they had currently only seen in training textbooks and had not yet fought against; the definition of it in the textbooks was...

Conventional tactical equipment is ineffective; it requires a three-star-and-above challenger squad to intervene, with a casualty rate of no less than seventy percent.

And here, there wasn't even a single three-star challenger.

On the mountain were only a group of newcomers who had just completed their initial assessment.

The scout was silent for a few seconds, then slowly pulled his mobile phone out of his pocket.

He found the number marked "Qingzhou Demon Suppression Division Command Center" in his contacts list and pressed the dial button.

Connected.

"Northern suburbs of Qingzhou, Ghost Domain serial number T-0317."

The scout's voice tried hard to maintain professional stability, "Spiritual energy detector out of range, visual confirmation, at least mid-stage Fierce Ghost, peak possibility not ruled out. Requesting emergency support. Repeat, requesting emergency support."

The other end of the phone was silent for a few seconds.

A deep voice sounded, carrying obvious shock and solemnity: "Peak-stage Fierce Ghost? Are you sure?"

"Sure, the concentration of resentful power at the mountain peak has exceeded the second-level warning line, reaching the energy response of a third-level Ghost Domain."

Another silence. Longer than before.

"What about Director Tian's side?" The scout lowered his voice, "Can people be transferred over from the provincial capital?"

A heavy sigh came from the phone.

"The provincial capital is even harder than us right now. Last night, four fourth and fifth-level Ghost Domains broke out simultaneously around the provincial capital. Just dealing with those has already thrown all deployable squads in. Traces of ferocious fiend activities have also appeared in the East District one after another. The command headquarters is applying to the headquarters for five-star challenger support, but at the fastest it will take three days, at least three days."

The scout's voice suddenly rose, "Sir, I can afford to wait, but those people on the mountain cannot afford to wait! Not to mention if that thing..."

He paused, not daring to speak the rest of the words out loud, but that image uncontrollably surfaced in his mind.

If that Fierce Ghost entered the city.

Qingzhou City governs hundreds of towns of all sizes, and the nearest one is less than three kilometers away from this mountain.

Once the Fierce Ghost's resentful power contamination spreads, it can cover it within a few hours.

What a town of tens of thousands of people would become, he had seen pictures in textbooks.

Those pictures, he swore he never wanted to see a second time.

"I know."

The voice on the other end of the phone was heavy and muffled, "But reality is like this. All teams that can be dispatched nearby have been sent out, and at the fastest it will take three days. If..."

He paused for a moment, as if deliberating his wording, and finally spoke the words out.

"If the challengers on the mountain have already... then prepare for the worst. This time is our serious misjudgment. I'm sorry, tell the evacuation team to be ready at any time to initiate the emergency evacuation plan for the residents of the North District of Qingzhou City."

The scout's hand holding the phone slowly lowered.

He raised his head to look at the mountain peak, where bright golden light and dark red Fierce Ghost resentful power were crazily intertwining in the sky above.

That movement looked like someone was fighting.

But how could a group of newcomers who had just completed their initial assessment fight a Fierce Ghost to this extent?

It was impossible for them to still be alive.

He felt more that this looked like a precursor to that Fierce Ghost breaking through towards the direction of a Crimson-Clad Fierce Ghost.

The scout took off his glasses, closed his eyes tightly for a moment, then put them back on, and said to the soldiers behind him in a tone as if he had already died once, "Maintain position vigilance, and be ready at any time to receive the people coming down from the mountain!"

"If..." a soldier hesitated to speak, "If what comes down is that ghost?"

The scout did not answer.

He simply drew his tactical pistol from his waist and released the safety.

The bullets of that pistol were silver-plated, which was still somewhat useful against Resentful Spirit-class ghost entities.

Against a Fierce Ghost... he knew it was useless.

Holding it in his hand, at least it felt like he could still do something.

Atop the mountain peak, the battle was still continuing.