55: Chapter 55: Sacrifice the Candle Dragon? Alright, come on...

"Honored?"

Lin Ye looked down at the skeletons kneeling toward the altar beneath his feet, then raised his head to look at the source of the ceaseless babbling in the darkness.

The zhulong seal on his wrist was burning hot.

Ever since stepping into this altar, the zhulong seal had been vibrating wildly.

This altar had existed for thousands of years, absorbing the essence blood and souls of countless living people, and had been tainted and nourished by the evil Qi of demons revived in modern times, condensing a massive amount of resentment energy.

And deep within this resentment energy, there was still buried a trace of an extremely weak but truly existing Time Origin.

It was enough to let the zhulong seal complete its Breakthrough to the third stage.

The Temporal Power would also usher in a qualitative leap.

"Lin Ye, don't believe him!"

Seeing that he remained silent for a long time, Xu Zhiwei thought he was hesitating, and her voice became distorted with anxiety, "Not a single word of this heretical cultivator's ghost talk can be trusted! All he can give you is..."

Before she could finish her sentence, Lin Ye had already moved.

The zhulong staff flipped half a circle in his hand, and the scarlet-golden Zhulong crimson fire spread from the shaft to the entire tip of the staff, dragging a dazzling tail of fire in the darkness.

With a stomp of his feet, his entire body transformed into a golden thread shooting straight into the depths of the altar, so fast that Xu Zhiwei's retina only captured a blur of afterimages.

Boom!!

He smashed into a stone pillar, which shattered instantly. Amidst the flying debris, a translucent black figure was revealed behind the pillar.

Swept by the wind of the staff, that figure let out a sharp hiss and violently retreated backward, its body twisting into various eerie shapes in mid-air to barely discharge the force of this staff strike.

"You—!"

The heretical cultivator's Remnant Soul recondensed into a humanoid shape, the madness in his voice diminishing slightly, "You attacked without even listening to me finish?!"

Lin Ye's answer was the second staff strike.

Wrapped in the earth-yellow light of the Origin of Houtu, this strike smashed onto the ground beneath the heretical cultivator's Remnant Soul, causing the entire altar to shake.

The shockwave spread in all directions along the bluestone slabs of the ground, and the scattered bones on the ground were shaken up and down, colliding against the stone slabs with a dense cracking sound.

The heretical cultivator's Remnant Soul retreated violently once more. This time, he no longer attempted to bewitch with words, but instead uttered a few bizarre spell incantations that were extremely low.

"Hum hum hum..."

On the stone walls surrounding the altar, the runes that had solidified for thousands of years simultaneously lit up with a dark green light.

Every single rune was writhing, peeling off from the stone wall to transform into physical entities, condensing into blurry human figures in the air.

Wearing ancient coarse linen clothes, some missing half a face, some with a huge hole in their chests, and some with limbs twisted into impossible angles.

They were all Resentful Spirits sacrificed in ancient times.

Dozens of Resentful Spirits pounced toward Lin Ye simultaneously, letting out indistinct, hoarse screams from their mouths.

These were by no means ordinary Resentful Spirits; each of them was injected with time-attribute evil Qi, and their pouncing speed flickered between fast and slow.

Some were drawn into a slow-motion afterimage in mid-air, while others were as fast as if the fast-forward button had been pressed.

At the same time, the heretical cultivator's Remnant Soul formed a distorted Dharma seal with both hands in front of his chest, and the flow of time within the altar suddenly became disordered.

The bluestone slabs within a radius of several zhang under Lin Ye's feet instantly weathered into sand, and the dome stone beams above his head cracked and peeled off under the accelerated time, with gravel and dust pouring down like rain.

Swept by the aftermath of this time turbulence, Xu Zhiwei was pushed like by an invisible hand, stumbling several steps before stabilizing her footing.

She looked down at the back of her hand; the wrinkles generated earlier by the extraction of time were appearing again.

She gritted her teeth and raised her head to look at Lin Ye.

"Careful, Lin Ye!"

Lin Ye stood at the center of the time turbulence, like a reef in a torrent.

Dozens of Resentful Spirits pounced on him from all directions, with fast and slow time flows, stretching their attack rhythm into a messy net.

Time Stop!

The zhulong staff transformed into a golden thread, tracing an arc in the stillness of time and space.

With a horizontal sweep, the cores of all Resentful Spirits were shattered simultaneously, and dozens of figures froze into solidified black smoke in mid-air.

Time Stop ended.

All Resentful Spirits disintegrated at the same time, turning into black powder all over the sky that fell with rustling sounds.

"What else?"

Lin Ye carried the staff, the flames burning quietly at the tip of the staff.

The expression on the face of the heretical cultivator's Remnant Soul changed repeatedly.

From madness to gloominess, and from gloominess into something deeper and more dangerous.

He no longer summoned Resentful Spirits, nor did he release time turbulence.

He raised his hand and pressed emptily toward Lin Ye.

"You think the old man only has those tricks?"

An attack completely different from before descended.

Carrying no resentment energy, no evil Qi, and not even any fluctuations of time attributes.

But Lin Ye's body suddenly sank, and the crimson fire on the zhulong staff shortened by half in the exact same instant.

Even the zhulong seal on his wrist trembled slightly.

"Karma?"

During his lifetime, the heretical cultivator used living people as sacrifices to refine heretical arts, and ultimately died from the backlash of his own sacrifices.

His death itself constituted a closed loop, forming a self-cycling curse between cause and effect.

Awakened by the Ghost Domain after death, this curse was also activated along with it, becoming his ultimate trump card at the bottom of the box.

"Felt it?"

The voice of the heretical cultivator's Remnant Soul resumed its manic smile, "Back then, this old man died because of sacrifice, and after death, this Karma was engraved upon my soul. You cannot kill me, because my cause of death has already been used up by someone. As long as you make a move against me, the power of Karma will rebound onto you. For every fraction you injure me, you will damage yourself by a fraction..."

Lin Ye looked down at his own hand.

The power of Karma pressing down on his body was indeed heavier than other attacks, like a blunt knife slowly grinding against the bones.

But that was all.

The Physical Body refined by the Yellow Emperor's Essence Blood, the Physique nourished daily by the Origin of Houtu—this bit of karmic backlash wasn't even enough to scratch him.

"So much nonsense."

He gripped the zhulong staff tightly, taking a step forward head-on against the oppression of the power of Karma.

The shaft of the staff lit up with intertwined scarlet-golden and earth-yellow light, two pressures converging into one at the tip of the staff, and a single strike smashed into the chest of the heretical cultivator's Remnant Soul.

The heretical cultivator flew backward, smashing a corner of the altar to pieces.

As his figure tumbled in mid-air, he let out an incredulous hiss; the power of Karma had indeed rebounded.

But Lin Ye stubbornly withstood the backlash and batted him flying first!

"Are you crazy?!"

The heretical cultivator's Remnant Soul crawled out from the pile of rubble.

Never had he imagined that Lin Ye could even endure the power of Karma!

Exactly what kind of terrifying thing existed inside this guy's body?

His soul had already begun to show unstable cracks, but the smile on his face grew even thicker, "Fine, since Karma cannot hurt you, then go stay somewhere else!"

He abruptly brought his hands together, his ten fingers crossing to form a bizarre Dharma seal.

The moment the seal took form, the space of the entire altar began to distort violently.

Rings of visible spacetime wrinkles appeared beneath Lin Ye's feet, expanding outward from the soles of his feet and forming a collapsed void all around him.

Spacetime Banishment!

This was the result of the heretical cultivator pouring all the Time Origin accumulated by the altar over thousands of years into a single point, forcibly tearing open a spacetime gap right at Lin Ye's location.

The opening of the gap was expanding rapidly, spreading from the soles of Lin Ye's feet all the way to his waist. The spacetime wrinkles in the air were so dense they were visible to the naked eye, with every single wrinkle representing a section of distorted time.

Swallowed into this gap, one second outside could mean several years inside.

He wouldn't die, but he would be trapped to death in the crevices of time, waiting until his Physical Body aged, his spiritual power was exhausted, and his mind collapsed.

"If I can't trap you to death, then I'll trap you until you die!"

The heretical cultivator's laughter echoed in the altar, mixed with fractured echoes.

Hearing these sounds coming out from the darkness, Xu Zhiwei was about to rush up, "Lin Ye! I'm coming..."

But she didn't even have time to take a second step.

A scarlet-golden light flame like never before lit up at the tip of the zhulong staff, the flames gushing out from the shaft like solar prominences, carrying the power of Houtu to smash fiercely onto the center point of the spacetime wrinkles.

Those rapidly expanding spacetime wrinkles were forcibly smashed apart by external force, fracturing layer by layer, and the exploding spacetime fragments were evaporated into white mist by the Zhulong crimson fire before they could even scatter.

"This one doesn't work, change another."

Lin Ye said.

The smile on the face of the heretical cultivator's Remnant Soul completely froze.

His three strongest trump cards.

The Resentful Spirit summoning was swept away, the power of Karma was stubbornly endured, and the Spacetime Banishment was smashed to pieces with a single staff strike.

The cracks in his soul were already expanding continuously, spreading from his chest to his shoulders and then to his back, with black smoke oozing out from his entire body.

"You... You!!!"

He had no way out.

However, a moment later, he put away his anger and revealed another even gloomier smile carrying a certain certainty.

Step by step, he retreated toward the black-red stone pillar in the center of the altar. The hands of the Remnant Soul pressed onto the rusted iron chains on the stone pillar, the chain links emitting a harsh friction sound.

"Good, very good, very good... This old man underestimated you."

He raised his head, his voice suddenly becoming resounding, as if he had changed into a different person, "Don't you want the power condensed by this altar? Come, come onto the altar, and this old man will fight you fairly!"

Xu Zhiwei looked toward the altar.

Every single step of the altar was engraved with inscriptions, but these inscriptions were currently emitting an extremely dim, ghostly green light.

The light was very weak and could hardly be noticed without careful looking, but she had previously scanned the format of these inscriptions; they were the array patterns of an ancient sacrificial Formation!

"Don't go up!"

She grabbed Lin Ye's sleeve, "The array patterns on the altar are alive! He wants to sacrifice you as well!"

Lin Ye didn't move, seemingly hesitating for a moment.

Seeing him hesitate, the heretical cultivator's laughter grew louder, "What? Scared? Aren't you fearless of heaven and earth? Come up!"

"Come then."

Lin Ye moved, shaking off Xu Zhiwei's hand, "Rest assured, leave it to me."

Then he stepped on the stairs, walking up the altar step by step, and stood still in front of the stone pillar.

The zhulong staff was held horizontally at his side, the scarlet-golden firelight reflecting off his face, making his expression indistinct.

Xu Zhiwei's heart plummeted straight to the bottom of the valley.

She wanted to chase after him and drag Lin Ye back, but a ring of dark green light wall had risen around the altar at some unknown point; when she bumped into it, she was bounced back.

The place where her palm contacted the light wall was charred black.

"Hahaha... Hahahaha hahaha!!!!"

The heretical cultivator's Remnant Soul laughed wildly toward the sky, his laughter hoarse and harsh, like gravel scraping across an iron plate.

He no longer retreated; instead, he spread his arms wide and strode toward Lin Ye. The cracks on the surface of the Remnant Soul constantly healed amidst the laughter, as if some power that had been suppressed for a long time was being re-injected into his body.

"There is a certain very powerful power within your body; this old man has sensed it from the very beginning! From the very step you stepped into the Ghost Domain! That power emits an aura older than ancient gods, a coercion more noble than immortals!"

His eyes lit up in the darkness like two ghostly green ghost fires, his voice changing from madness to a nearly pious murmur, "As long as this body of yours and the power within it are sacrificed together, this old man can come back to life! Achieving true immortality and indestructibility! Making up for the regrets of thousands of years ago!"

"A thousand years... thousands of years...!!!"

His eye sockets actually turned slightly red, and a line of old tears slid down the corner of his eyes.

Raising both hands high above his head, all the runes on the altar lit up simultaneously in the very same instant.

The ghostly green light spread upward layer by layer from the bottom of the steps, surging onto the altar like a tide, forming a huge, rotating sacrificial Formation around the stone pillar.

Dense chains emerged at the edge of the Formation, the tip of every single chain connected to a rusted iron hook, and all the hook tips were aimed directly at Lin Ye.

Like crazy, Xu Zhiwei fiercely hacked at the light wall with her short blade, not stopping even when the blade chipped, her palms bleeding profusely from the counter-shock of the light wall.

"Lin Ye! Come out! Did you hear me?! He is using your life as a primer! If you die here, nobody in the Demon Suppression Division will truly be able to block the upcoming Ghost Domain merger! I can die, but you cannot die! Get out! You still have time..."

She took a deep breath, her voice suddenly becoming extremely out of breath.

"Lin Ye! You fucking harden up for me!! Weren't you very strong before?! Don't fucking go soft in front of such trash!"

On the altar, Lin Ye stood in place, motionless.

A greed light like never before burst from the heretical cultivator's eyes.

He was coming back to life.

He was going to win.

He was going to achieve Immortal Ascension!

"Just give up! Give it up! Your sacrifice will be this old man's greatest ritual in thousands of years! No one can stop—"

"Rise! Formation!"

In the darkness, an extremely faint light surfaced in the heretical cultivator's perception.

That was the Origin of that power within Lin Ye's body, being guided by the sacrificial Formation and slowly surfacing.

The heretical cultivator stared fixedly at that light, greedily licking his non-existent lips, and reached out to grab it.

Then...

"Huh?"

His entire person stiffened, his pupils contracting again and again, as if... he had sensed something was wrong.

However, there was no reason...

This Formation of his came from the Legacy of a certain ancient Great Wizard clan.

Back then, when he was five years old, he became an apprentice and studied it his whole life, until reaching an advanced age of nearly a hundred before barely mastering it...

It could sacrifice all things!

Suddenly...

At the other end of the sacrificial Formation, in that dark space that should have welcomed the sacrifice's Origin, he saw a pair of eyes.

Those eyes were neither human nor divine...

They were an existence he had never seen, heard of, or read about in countless years of cultivation.

Those were two suns burning with eternal crimson flames. Between the opening and closing of the Vertical Pupils, the alternation of day and night, the turning of the four seasons, and the cycle of life and death were all entirely within a single thought of it.

A giant Dragon coiled at the end of time, its dragon scales shimmering with the dim light of primordial antiquity.

The giant Dragon slowly lowered its head, and the heretical cultivator's face, twisted with extreme fear, was reflected within the Vertical Pupils.

As if looking at an ant.

No, not even an ant, as if looking at something even more insignificant than dust.