425: The Sixth Incarnation in the Mortal World, the Starry Empire!

Chapter 417: The Sixth Mortal World, Xinglan Empire!

Tianwu World!

Host: Lu Xuan

Realm: Fifth Red Dust Immortal (Early Stage)

Cultivation Technique: Burning Heaven Blade Technique 19/9, Close Distance to the Horizon 17/9, Undying and Unextinguished 17/9.

Points: 10 million

The Dragon Country Mortal World, for Lu Xuan, was merely a temporary stop, a trial ground with scarce resources.

When he left, he bestowed some Legacy upon the Lu Family, and also gave some Opportunity to Hong Fei and the Huang Family, among others, as a form of reciprocation.

In that Mortal World of the Dragon Country, which was in an era of declining Dao, the Heaven and Earth Origin that Lu Xuan could absorb and refine, and the System points he acquired, were pitifully few.

Even exhausting the Origin accumulated for eons in Kunlun Lake only yielded him 29 million points, 20 million of which were consumed to Breakthrough to the Void Realm.

Thus, upon returning to the Tianwu World, he had 9 million points remaining, which, combined with the original 1 million points, totaled exactly 10 million System points.

This meager accumulation was merely a drop in the bucket for him now.

It was not even enough to further deduce any one Cultivation Technique a single time.

That declining Dao world of the Dragon Country was too low-tier, its resources depleted, and its Laws incomplete.

It was already its limit to barely support Lu Xuan in completing his fifth Mortal World trial and pushing his cultivation to the 'Void Realm', opening the passage for departure.

With such a low-tier world, one could not expect to find the Incarnation of the World's Will and harvest its abundant World Origin, as he had in previous high-tier worlds.

He feared that as soon as the Incarnation of the World's Will showed its face, Lu Xuan, a mere National Art Cultivator in the Void Realm, would be extinguished by a single glance from it.

"Since the Dragon Country didn't provide enough, I shall continue to the next Mortal World."

Lu Xuan's Dao Heart was as firm as a rock, without the slightest discouragement.

As a Red Dust Immortal, he was destined to traverse all the myriad worlds, striving to cross through the vast Mortal World.

He refused to believe that in the boundless myriad worlds, he couldn't find a Mortal World where he could fully absorb nourishment until he grew to be utterly invincible!

When that time came, Lu Xuan swore that he would fiercely extract the Origin of that world, making up for the 'losses' he had vaguely endured in the 'impoverished backwater' of the Dragon Country, with both principal and interest!

With his mind set, Lu Xuan sensed the layers of Immortal Dao Restrictions he had placed around him, sufficient to isolate any external probing, and after confirming there were no flaws, he slowly closed his eyes.

The next moment, the Void Realm before Lu Xuan silently split open like fragile glass, revealing a deep, dark crack!

Beyond the rift was a bizarre, kaleidoscopic unknown space-time where Laws intertwined.

Lu Xuan's Divine Soul instantly transformed into an ineffable streak of light, leaping out from his Physical Body and plunging into the rift in an instant, vanishing from sight.

"Red Mountain! How dare you betray the Empire and fall into the Crimson... The Sun Moon Imperial Court will never let you go! The Regiment Commander... the Regiment Commander and the others will surely tear you to shreds!"

A hoarse and desperate roar echoed particularly hollowly in the dead silence of the endless sand sea.

Several old jeeps were tilted and stuck beside the dunes, wisps of white smoke rising from their scorching engine hoods, then torn to shreds by the hot wind.

This place was already a shattered purgatory.

The cracked earth was crisscrossed with ravines, as if savagely torn by the invisible giant claws of a terrifying beast.

Several men in crimson military uniforms lay on this scorched earth, their broken bodies a shocking sight—severed limbs, pierced chest armor, and pools of still-wet blood staining the sand dark brown.

The heavy scent of blood was almost palpable, suffocating everyone.

And before them, the being once known as "Red Mountain" stood silently.

It had long since transcended the human Realm.

Its mouth was torn to its ears in a way that defied physiological structure, revealing dense, shark-like fangs behind it.

A pair of crimson eyes held no emotion, only the purest madness and malice.

Most chilling were its ten fingers—the nails had mutated into dagger-sharp, pitch-black bone blades, with viscous blood slowly dripping from their tips.

"Hehehe..."

An inhuman laugh rang out again, grating against everyone's sanity.

"Sun Moon Imperial Court? Xinglan Empire? Those worms huddled on their thrones of power, their era... is over."

Red Mountain slowly raised its bone blade, pointing towards the blood-stained sky.

"Look at this sky, feel the earth beneath your feet! The arrival of the Crimson is no longer an illusion as it once was, but a reality unfolding!

It is the rebirth of civilization, the funeral of the old world!

You cannot kill them all; as long as there is a trace of grievance, a bit of pain, a wisp of greed and desire in this world... the Crimson will devour all false order!"

"Release your pathetic resistance, embrace it, let the Crimson flow into your Bloodline, and grant you... true power."

It leaned down, its voice filled with deadly temptation.

"Look at me, I was once nothing more than an obedient hound under the Empire.

But now, I possess the power to tear apart shackles; this, this is the most thorough revenge for us ordinary people... against an unjust world!"

Suddenly, Red Mountain's voice abruptly ceased, drowned out by a curse.

"I'll 'Crimson' your mother!!!"

The man with the severed leg, veins bulging on his neck, roared hoarsely, almost tearing the scorching air.

The intense pain and the sight of his companions' gruesome deaths had burned away his last shred of sanity.

From the broken body of the one-legged man, countless starlight points surged from every pore, brilliant streaks of light encircling him, forming a miniature galaxy in this desolate desert.

As a 'Star-Splendor Realm' Transcendent of the Xinglan Empire, he knew this was a moth flying into a flame.

But the one-legged man also knew that some things were more important than life and death.

The next moment, he frantically activated the 'Star Vortex' within his body, that spinning energy core roaring at an unprecedented speed.

The one-legged man poured all his vitality, all his will and defiance, into this final strike.

"Blazing Star—Pojun!"

He roared the name of his Family's inherited battle technique, stomping his sole leg, crushing the rock layer beneath, and using the recoil to launch himself into the air.

A star-fist print, several zhang high, then slammed out, overflowing with light, dazzling with starlight. The pure Star power contained in the fist wind even caused the surrounding Crimson aura to recede.

In this dead silent desert under the blazing sun, this fist print sought to contend with the sun and moon.

However, Red Mountain, who had transformed into a monster, merely grinned with its mouth split to its ears, its sharp, interlocking teeth glinting with a chilling, eerie light.

In its crimson eyes, there was no solemnity, only pure mockery, like watching an insect struggle.

It didn't even bother to move its feet.

Red Mountain merely casually raised its ten dagger-like, grotesque finger-claws, and casually slashed at the surging star-fist print in the Void Realm.

"Hiss—!"

Ten eerie red lights flashed and disappeared, moving too fast for the eye to catch.

The brilliant fist print, which had condensed all the one-legged man's vitality, completely disintegrated the moment it touched the red lights, forming countless scattered points of light in mid-air, failing to even stir a ripple.

The red lights' momentum did not diminish in the slightest, instantly sweeping past the one-legged man's body suspended in the air.

"No! Laibili—!"

Amidst the heart-wrenching roars of his companions, time seemed to stretch infinitely.

They watched helplessly as Laibili's body abruptly decomposed in mid-air, along with the unyielding expression on his face, all cut into several pieces.

As blood splattered into the Void Realm, it was instantly evaporated into dark red blood mist by the scorching red light.

Finally, Laibili's shattered body, along with the ten bottomless ravines carved into the ground, was buried beneath this desolate land.

Red Mountain in the distance slowly retracted its claws, contemptuously blowing away a wisp of starlight that drifted before it.

The next moment, Red Mountain shook the blood from its fingertips, feigning annoyance as it tilted its head, yet its crimson eyes gleamed with the cruel playfulness of a cat toying with a mouse.

"Oh dear, oh dear, I got carried away and lost my sense of proportion again... Now what? I've ruined Lord Black Tiger's 'snack'."

Saying this, its gaze slowly swept over the three remaining individuals—these teammates who had once fought alongside it, belonging to the Ninth Guard Regiment of the Sun Moon Imperial Court.

"My dear old friends," Red Mountain's voice carried a false intimacy.

"You wouldn't want to see me punished by Lord Black Tiger, would you? How about... you three trouble yourselves to 'appease' his anger for me?"

"Hehehe..." The inhuman laughter echoed across the desert, more chilling than the cold wind.

"Beast!"

Among the three, only the female team member could still squeeze out a curse through gritted teeth.

She was about thirty-five years old, and even with her face covered in sand and blood, one could still discern her resilient beauty, weathered by hardship.

Her dark hair, though somewhat disheveled, was still neatly coiled with a shimmering light blue hairpin—a married woman's adornment.

At this moment, the female team member's eyes, burning with rage, stared fixedly at the traitor, now beyond human form, as if to pierce his twisted Soul.

"Changwei, I'm coming for you..."

She looked at Red Mountain's distorted face, but her gaze seemed to penetrate him, looking towards a distant shore.

Her husband's resolute back as he sacrificed himself years ago, her son's tender yet firm eyes when he first donned his military uniform, her daughter's furrowed brow as she pondered before the academy's star map... Scene after scene flashed through the middle-aged woman's mind, finally culminating in an almost inaudible sigh.

"And also Ming'er, Yue'er... Mother... is taking a step ahead. You two siblings, from now on, must support each other and endure to the very end."

Her voice was very soft, yet it carried a strange calmness, as if she wasn't saying farewell, but completing a predetermined ritual.

The middle-aged woman did not look back, but merely tilted her head slightly, speaking clearly to the two remaining teammates behind her.

"We have lost, but please remember, Regiment Commander Gao Zheng and Deputy Regiment Commander Lu Xuan... will never let our blood be shed in vain. They will avenge this blood debt for us."

She paused, the radiant 'Moon Wheel' within her body already beginning to emit a mournful wail under the strain, violent energy surging and roaring through her Meridians.

This was a self-detonation method available only to Cultivators of the Bright Moon Realm and above in the Xinglan Empire.

"Everyone... are you ready?"

This seemingly ordinary question caused the last flicker of light to burst forth simultaneously in the eyes of the two dying men behind her.

They exchanged a smile, one devoid of fear, containing only relief and a nearly proud understanding.

At this very moment, Red Mountain's crimson eyes suddenly constricted, and the fear stemming from its life's instinct made it shriek.

"Bitch, what do you want to do? Stop—!"

Its monstrous body erupted with full power, transforming into a dark red, tearing rainbow that ripped through space, the sonic boom shattering the sand along its path.

Its ten sharp blades carried an aura of annihilation, frantically stabbing towards the woman—only ten meters! Five meters!

But it was too late.

There was no deafening explosion, only light.

A light of ultimate purity, ultimate coldness, moon-white in color, first erupted from her chest.

Then, her entire body seemed to transform into transparent glass, and within, a miniature, flawless full moon appeared and expanded.

"Bright Moon... Purify the World."

She softly uttered these four words, like a prayer.

The next moment, that full moon shattered silently, not in destruction, but in release.

The vast moon essence, like a broken silver river, swept out from her center, engulfing everything.

Wherever the light reached, sand, rocks, and even air were instantly purified and decomposed, turning into primordial particles.

There was no smoke, no wreckage, only a briefly existing, absolutely pure Void Realm, as if this area had been completely erased from the world.

The middle-aged woman chose the most extreme form of ending, at the cost of the complete collapse of her own Moon Wheel.

She transformed everything of herself—flesh, Soul, and cultivation—into this final, transcending light of purification.

The middle-aged woman would rather die than allow her body and those of her companions to be desecrated by the Crimson.

"Damn it! Damn it! These stubborn fools! Why are those worms of the Sun Moon Imperial Court, entrenched at the pinnacle of power, worth your loyalty unto death!"

Red Mountain's shattered half-head roared distortedly on the sand, its sole remaining eye burning with venomous resentment and incomprehension.

"They are the source of all evil, greed, and desire in the world! Only the Crimson... only the Crimson is the true savior! You simply don't understand!"

Amidst its furious curses, the scattered limbs and flesh on the scorching sand began to violently squirm, displaying a terrifying, heart-pounding vitality.

Countless tendrils of flesh, like crimson venomous snakes, madly sprouted, intertwined, and spread, emitting a grating, sticky sound.

In just a few breaths, a completely intact Red Mountain stood up again from this bed of flesh and blood.

It stretched its newly regenerated neck, emitting a chilling 'crack' sound, and then, the inhuman laughter once again echoed over the desert.

"Hehehe... Do you see? This is the undying power bestowed by the Crimson! Xinglan Empire... no, this entire world, will eventually become a breeding ground for the Crimson!"

It spread its arms, as if embracing the polluted sky, its face showing a twisted expression mixed with blind loyalty and fervent fanaticism, like a zealot who had witnessed a miracle.

At the core of a peculiar urban area that blended modern efficiency with classical charm, security was tight, and small military airships glided silently along low-altitude orbits like patrolling falcons.

In the center of this civilian Forbidden Ground, stood a magnificent complex of buildings that integrated modern structure with ancient aesthetics.

This was the true heart of power of the Xinglan Empire—the Sun Moon Imperial Court.

At this moment, within a towering spire in the outer palace, the hard-lined modernist palace doors were tightly shut.

In the center of the empty hall, a middle-aged man, about forty years old with a stern face, suddenly opened his eyes in absolute silence.

They were eyes that seemed to contain the entire star sea, noble and elegant.

He slightly raised his head, his gaze seemingly penetrating the sturdy palace roof, looking towards the infinitely distant beyond.

Host: Red Dust Immortal Lu Xuan (Sixth Generation)

Realm: Blazing Sun Realm (Perfection)

Cultivation Technique: Zhou Tian Star Eyes (6/9)

Points: 0

"A new Mortal World, how interesting!"