124: Chapter 124 Lord of the Altar

The red mist suddenly thickened.

Captain Wu Ao had just turned around to make a run for it when his knees went weak, and he collapsed to the ground.

"Ah!"

The members of the Raven Squad following behind him fared even worse, rolling on the ground as their eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

Just in that second.

A wave of tangible Mental Energy pressure slammed down from the altar directly in front of them.

Li Zhengyang stood less than ten meters ahead of Captain Wu Ao, completely unharmed.

The Prison Dragon Asura Armor responded automatically.

The pressure that had forced the Raven Squad to vomit blood on the spot slammed solidly into the Asura Armor.

Clang.

A muffled sound rang out.

Only a barely visible ripple spread across the surface of the armor, not even leaving a white mark.

Li Zhengyang brushed the black ash off his shoulder armor.

"Is that it?"

Captain Wu Ao lay in the mud, staring at Li Zhengyang's relaxed back.

What kind of monster is this? He took a Martial Saint-Grade Mental Energy pressure head-on with his Physical Body without even assuming a defensive stance?

At the top of the altar, a mass of black blood slowly writhed and gathered upward.

In the blink of an eye, a figure assembled itself out of thin air on the altar.

Unlike the previous Soul Demons, this figure looked more like a human.

He wore a long robe, his face as pale as wall plaster, exuding an indescribable evil aura.

Most terrifying of all, his eyes were completely black, without a trace of whites.

Captain Wu Ao struggled to lift his neck, and the moment he saw that face, his heart stopped for several seconds.

"Soul Prince..."

Captain Wu Ao's teeth chattered, and his voice was completely distorted.

He had seen a fragmented portrait of this thing in the classified archives of the Raven Association.

Over a hundred years ago, there was an uprising in the Soul Demon Abyss that nearly destroyed the world, and it was led by a Soul Prince.

At that time, the Great Xia military directly dispatched a Martial Saint along with several Martial Venerables to suppress it, and only by sacrificing the Martial Saint's life were they barely able to Seal this thing back to the bottom of the valley.

This is a living ancestor capable of going head-to-head with the top combat power of Great Xia.

"It's over... It's all over."

Captain Wu Ao collapsed completely on the ground, his eyes losing their focus.

On the altar.

The Soul Prince slowly twisted his neck; the long-lost freedom brought him great pleasure.

He didn't even bother to look at the Raven Squad members on the ground who were about to be crushed into pulp; his pitch-black eyes were locked directly onto Li Zhengyang.

"A perfect vessel."

The voice was not loud, but it carried a seductive power that made one unable to resist the urge to kneel and worship.

He raised his hand and pointed at Li Zhengyang: "You are far more interesting than all the sacrifices prepared below combined."

Captain Wu Ao struggled desperately on the ground, digging his hands into the dirt, trying to crawl backward.

The team member next to him, who had previously been beaten to a pulp by Li Zhengyang's gun butt, could no longer endure the Mental Energy pressure that struck directly at his brain stem and let out a dry howl at the top of his lungs.

The Soul Prince frowned slightly.

He casually extended a finger, pointed it in the direction of that team member, and flicked it lightly through the air.

Bang!

In an instant, the person's entire body caved inward at a speed visible to the naked eye, and all his essence, blood, and Mental Energy were instantly drained.

In less than a second, a grown man weighing over two hundred jin turned directly into a twisted, skin-and-bones corpse.

A breeze blew.

With a thud, the corpse fell onto the stones and shattered into pieces.

The remaining four Raven Squad members were so scared they wet their pants, scrambling frantically to huddle next to Captain Wu Ao.

Li Zhengyang ignored the corpse.

He took half a step forward, the visor of the Asura Armor retracted, revealing a face full of interest.

He sized up the Soul Prince on the altar, smacking his lips.

"A Martial Saint-Grade Soul Demon."

"The soul crystal dropped by the previous Grade 8 Soul Demon was already pure enough. With your Rank, is the soul crystal you drop gold-rimmed? It should fetch a sky-high price, right?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the vast valley floor fell into a deathly silence.

The Soul Prince was clearly stunned.

For how many years had it been? The number of human Martial Artists who had died at his hands was at least eight or nine thousand.

Which one of them didn't kneel and beg for mercy or run for their lives in terror upon seeing him?

Today, a reckless fool actually popped up?

"Hehehe..."

The Soul Prince let out a scoffing laugh.

His laughter grew louder and louder, and the surrounding mist began to spin crazily along with his laughter, forming massive whirlpools.

The surrounding space began to twist and deform as well, and the stones on the ground floated up uncontrollably, only to be crushed into powder by an invisible force.

Captain Wu Ao was going insane.

He thought Li Zhengyang's brain must be filled with nothing but water; what time was it, and he was still provoking the enemy?

"Li Zhengyang! Are you f*cking crazy?!"

Captain Wu Ao lay on the ground, screaming at the top of his lungs: "That's a Soul Prince! Even a Great Xia Martial Saint would be terrified! All of us combined aren't enough for him to crush with a single finger! Run! Cover us while we run!"

Li Zhengyang turned his head and glanced at Captain Wu Ao as if looking at an idiot.

"Shut up."

He slammed his dragon spear into the ground, and the ground cracked open with several fissures in response.

"If you howl one more time, I'll twist your head off and stuff it in his mouth first."

After saying that, he turned back around, counting with his fingers in mid-air, calculating rapidly.

"A Grade 8 soul crystal can sell for ten million outside. A thing like you at the Martial Saint-Grade, even with a twenty percent discount, should be worth at least the ten-billion level, right?"

Li Zhengyang muttered to himself, his eyes growing brighter and brighter.

The Soul Prince's laughter came to an abrupt halt.

The mockery on his face vanished completely, leaving only endless, icy killing intent.

"Ignorant human."

"Before you become a sacrifice for my master's resurrection, I will make you experience true despair."

He slowly raised his right hand.

Scarlet mist swirled frantically toward his palm, and in the blink of an eye, it compressed into a ball of Mental Energy the size of a fist.

As soon as the energy ball took shape, the surrounding air was instantly drained away.

Captain Wu Ao and the others couldn't even breathe; they gripped their own throats tightly, eyes bloodshot, ready to drop dead at any moment.

Li Zhengyang still hadn't assumed any defensive stance.

"Enough nonsense."

He gripped the shaft of his spear with both hands, his muscles tensed.

The dragon spear was raised abruptly, its tip erupting with a cold glint, pointing straight at the Soul Prince on the altar.

"I'll take your head."

...