124: It turned out to be a trap, but it was really disappointing.

Upon the rooftop.

The thick scent of blood had almost congealed into substance; minced flesh and broken bones covered the ground, while fresh blood pooled into small streams.

Protector Wang knelt in the center of this bloody Hell.

His entire body trembled violently; the shuddering welling up from the depths of his Soul caused him to lose even the most basic capacity for thought.

Companions who were vibrant just moments ago had now become a blurred sludge of flesh and blood beneath his feet. Warm liquid splattered across his face, sliding down his distorted features and dripping into the dust.

And the man who had created all of this—Chen Nian—remained standing indifferently, his expression composed.

He didn't even spare a second glance at the tragic scene on the ground, as if he had merely brushed away a few specks of bothersome dust.

That posture of extreme indifference and that gaze which looked upon him as if he were a dead object caused Protector Wang to shudder. His last sliver of hope completely collapsed.

He was despondent, as if all his spirit and energy had been drained, leaving only the most primitive instinct for survival.

Thump!

He kowtowed heavily once more, his forehead striking the ground mixed with blood, producing a dull thud.

"I was wrong, Great One, I was truly wrong. I beg you to spare my life, I am willing to serve you like an ox or a horse..."

However, what his pleading earned him was a foot accompanied by a fierce wind.

Bang—!

Chen Nian’s expression was emotionless as he kicked Protector Wang squarely in the face.

The massive force sent Protector Wang flying backward, rolling several times over the rough ground before coming to a stop.

Crack...

Half of his cheek collapsed at a bizarre angle, and a mouthful of teeth gushed out along with fresh blood.

Only wheezing sounds could escape his mouth, and the intense pain nearly caused him to faint.

Chen Nian's impatience was written all over his face.

"Don't make me ask a second time."

"Where is the headquarters of the Eternal Life Cult?"

The cold words were like an awl, stabbing fiercely into Protector Wang's mind. The intense pain and fear forcibly pulled back his scattered consciousness.

He didn't dare delay for a moment, struggling to prop up his upper body with his still-movable arms, nodding repeatedly and screaming indistinctly.

"I'll tell you! I'll tell you! Don't kill me! Don't kill me!"

He gasped for breath, saliva mixed with blood foam constantly overflowing from the corners of his mouth.

"The... headquarters... isn't in an ordinary place. It's... it's in a Secret Realm space personally opened by the Cult Leader!"

"To enter, one must use special means."

Chen Nian looked down at him and asked calmly, "Special means? What means?"

Protector Wang didn't dare be negligent and hurried to continue: "One needs... needs the 'Eternal Life Token' personally bestowed by the Cult Leader as a token, combined with a specific spatial Formation to open the passage!"

"However, we have already set up a Formation here in advance. As long as it is activated, one can be teleported directly there!"

As he spoke, he with difficulty raised a trembling hand and pointed to a complex red Formation drawn with crimson liquid on the ground not far away.

The patterns of the Formation were intricate and eerie; even before being activated, it faintly emitted an aura of spatial fluctuations.

This was indeed something their group had prepared in advance.

After all, Chen Nian's reputation preceded him—he was ruthless, his methods were sharp, and he would often kill everyone down to the last man.

They had also anticipated that if the recruitment failed and Chen Nian attacked boldly, they could immediately activate this array and flee.

Who would have thought that Chen Nian would be unwilling to join the Eternal Life Cult? They had guessed right about that.

That Chen Nian would act to kill them all—they had guessed right about that too.

But they never imagined that Chen Nian's strength would be powerful to such an inconceivable degree.

His methods were so swift that they didn't even have the chance to circulate their spiritual power.

If they dared to move even a shred of spiritual power, they would be directly obliterated by Chen Nian.

As a result, they didn't have even a single opportunity to activate the Formation.

The escape route they had meticulously prepared had become a complete joke.

Naturally, Chen Nian had no interest in the mental journey of these losers.

He only cared about one thing.

To charge into the Eternal Life Cult's nest and uproot this evil cultivator organization that treated human life like grass.

After all, those were all shiny points.

"Then activate it."

Chen Nian commanded succinctly.

"Yes! Yes!"

Hearing this, Protector Wang didn't dare to disobey. Enduring the intense pain throughout his body, he struggled to crawl over to that red Formation.

He muttered incantations, and his remaining spiritual power surged from his palm, injecting into the core of the Formation.

Buzz—!

With the injection of spiritual power, the bright red runes on the ground suddenly lit up, emitting a demonic light.

The entire Formation began to operate rapidly, and a strong sense of spatial displacement instantly enveloped the two of them.

The scene of the rooftop before their eyes began to distort and blur, eventually turning into a Chaos of flowing light.

The next second.

The feeling of solid ground returned.

The surrounding scene had completely changed.

Chen Nian looked around and found himself in the middle of a massive circular stone plaza.

The ground of the plaza was as black as ink, carved with a giant array diagram a hundred times more complex than the Formation on the rooftop.

Countless twisted runes flowed slowly within the array diagram, emitting a heart-palpitating evil aura.

The sky was a murky gray color, without sun, moon, or stars—only a blood-colored crescent moon emitting a ghastly white light hung high above.

The air was filled with a thick scent of sulfur and deathly stillness.

This indeed was not the real world.

But this also absolutely did not look like an organization's headquarters.

It looked more like a meticulously laid trap.

Because around the plaza, members of the Eternal Life Cult wearing uniform black cult robes stood in dense ranks.

At a rough glance, there were at least a hundred people.

Each of them emitted powerful energy fluctuations, their auras connecting into one like a deep abyss or a vast sea; they were clearly the elites within the cult.

At this moment, they were waiting in full battle array, everyone's movements directed toward the center of the plaza, their faces carrying a cold and cruel expectation.

Clearly, they had been waiting for a long time.

Right at that moment, the massive Formation beneath Chen Nian's feet roared into operation upon his arrival.

Streams of cold, viscous power that seemed capable of devouring the Soul surged from deep underground, converging through the Formation and turning into invisible shackles that wound toward him.

"Haha... Hahahaha!"

To the side, Protector Wang, who had been as humble as a dog just a moment ago, now suddenly stood up. The collapsed wound on his face appeared even more hideous and terrifying because of his wild laughter.

Looking like a mad demon, he shouted hysterically at his surrounding companions:

"Brothers, it's him! Don't let him go! He refused to join us, so suppress him here, refine his Divine Soul, and seize his Origin!"

However, his frenzied laughter and shouting came to an abrupt halt.

Because a hand had already gripped his neck, lifting his entire body into the air.

It was Chen Nian.

The smile on Protector Wang's face instantly froze, replaced by boundless terror.

He couldn't understand why, within this 'Soul-Suppressing Killing Array' that could suppress all outsiders, this man could still restrain him so easily.

"You..."

He only had time to spit out a single word.

Rip!

A horrifying sound of flesh being torn rang through the entire plaza.

Under the watchful eyes of over a hundred Eternal Life Cult elites.

Chen Nian was expressionless as he exerted force with both hands, actually tearing Protector Wang in half alive from the middle.

Warm organs and blood fell like a waterfall, drenching the ground.

But he didn't care at all, casually throwing the two broken halves of the corpse onto the ground as if discarding two pieces of useless trash.

"..."

The entire plaza instantly fell into a dead silence.

This sudden, almost provocative slaughter caused the surrounding Eternal Life Cult members who were waiting in Formation to be startled.

They subconsciously retreated half a step, and a hint of commotion appeared in their Formation.

The look of vigilance and fear in their eyes as they looked at Chen Nian grew even stronger.

Who could have imagined that while deep within such a killing array and suppressed by terrifying power, he could still so easily and casually kill someone in an instant?

"Calm down!"

A sudden shout rang out like thunder, forcibly suppressing all the turmoil.

A middle-aged man with a sinister face, wearing dark gold robes, stepped out from the crowd. His status was clearly far above that of Protector Wang.

He stared fixedly at the figure in the center of the plaza who was bathed in a rain of blood yet remained perfectly at ease. Although stormy waves were likewise surging within him, he still forced himself to stay calm and issue orders.

"Everyone, fully activate the great array! Don't give him any chance to breathe. Elevate the power of the Formation to its limit and grind his Divine Soul into dust!"

"Yes!"

With his command, all the cult members immediately snapped back to their senses, suppressed their inner fear, and frantically injected their spiritual power into the array diagram beneath their feet.

Rumble—!

The entire plaza shook violently, and the massive Formation beneath their feet shone brightly. Countless pitch-black runes soared into the sky, weaving into a giant net that blotted out the sun.

A terrifying power, more than ten times stronger than before, came crashing down!

Space seemed to freeze, and the air became heavy.

However, Chen Nian, who was at the center of the storm, remained calm.

He looked up, glancing contemptuously at the surrounding cult members with their hideous faces, as well as the dark-gold-robed man issuing the orders.

He smiled.

That smile carried a hint of faint mockery.

"Interesting."

"Is this the welcoming ceremony you, the Eternal Life Cult, have prepared for me?"

"If it's only to this extent..."

His gaze suddenly turned cold, and a destructive aura, even more terrifying and pure than the Ten Thousand Soul Devouring Array, began to slowly awaken and spread from within his body.

"Then it truly makes me disappointed."