300: What's the difference between this and sending someone to their death?

The deepest part of the valley, the core of the altar.

Unlike the bloody purgatory and earth-shaking chaos outside.

The atmosphere here was oppressive and eerie, yet it carried a morbid fanaticism.

The surface of the massive altar was covered in countless twisted, writhing Abyss Runes that seemed to possess a life of their own.

Several incredibly thick, dark-red crystal pillars, wrapped in pitch-black chains, stood in a circular formation.

Countless shadow energies, as thin as hair but as condensed as solid matter, extended from the crystal pillars like living tentacles.

They interlaced and wound together in the air, finally converging at the center.

They formed a constantly rotating and contracting Dark-Purple Energy Vortex.

At the center of the vortex, an extremely complex three-dimensional seal was slowly taking shape.

The seal emitted a terrifying aura that could imprison all things, annihilate life, and even freeze time and space!

At this moment, nearly a hundred Demonic Evils with powerful auras surrounded the altar.

They were all the core elites of this operation.

Their hands formed strange hand seals, and they channeled their pure Evil Energy at an extremely precise and synchronized frequency.

They injected it into the crystal pillars, maintaining and strengthening the seal that was currently forming.

The entire ritual site surged with Evil Energy, yet it remained restrained.

The space was shrouded by an invisible force of imprisonment, and even the light seemed to become thick and dim.

On the high platform directly in front of the altar stood a massive figure nearly three meters tall, covered in dark gold bone armor with three scorpion tails growing from his back—the Curse Devouring Demon Marshal.

His cold compound eyes stared intently at the slowly rotating seal in the center of the altar.

Feeling the increasingly powerful Law of Binding within it, the muscles under his bone armor tightened slightly.

However, completely out of place with this seemingly orderly and focused ritual atmosphere—

Heart-pounding and terrifying sounds were constantly coming from outside the Barrier!

"BOOM—!!!!"

That was the earth-shattering roar of the Barrier being forcibly blasted apart!

"Aaaah—! No! A devil! He's a devil!"

That was the shrill, wretched scream of a companion before death, filled with extreme fear and despair!

"Help! Lord Demon Marshal, save us!" Those were cries and wails of despair.

"I surrender! Don't kill me! I'll do anything!"

That was the humble begging for mercy after a total psychological breakdown.

All sorts of sounds mixed together, penetrating the remaining Barrier fluctuations and the valley's obstructions, clearly reaching the ears of every core Demonic Evil at the altar!

Every loud explosion caused the bodies of these core Demonic Evils to tremble slightly!

Every wretched scream caused a flash of undisguisable terror in their eyes!

They could clearly feel that the life signatures of their companions outside were being extinguished and vanishing in large swaths at an unprecedented speed!

That intruder was slaughtering all their kin outside with the force of a hot knife through butter!

"De... Demon Marshal... the sounds outside... seem to be getting closer..." a Demonic Evil Commander near the outer edge said with a trembling voice.

"The Barrier... seems to have been broken... our people... are also being slaughtered en masse..." Another Demonic Evil's teeth were chattering.

"What kind of monster is this?! How can he be so strong?! Not even the 'Ten Thousand Shadows Covering the Sky' grand array could stop him?!"

Panic spread through the core area of the altar like a silent plague.

Even those Demonic Evils who were putting all their effort into maintaining the energy output of the crystal pillars showed slight disturbances in their hand seals.

This caused the rotation speed of the seal at the center of the altar to stagnate for a brief moment!

"STAY STEADY, ALL OF YOU!!!"

The Curse Devouring Demon Marshal suddenly let out a low roar that sounded like a thunderclap.

A powerful mental pressure hammered down on the Soul of every Demonic Evil like a heavy mallet!

He turned abruptly, his scorpion tails flared in anger, and his compound eyes shot out bone-chilling light as he swept his gaze across the scene:

"Look at yourselves! How disgraceful!"

"If the trash outside is dead, then they're dead! Their sacrifice is to buy the final moments for the ritual!"

"If you don't want to become shredded meat like them, then focus your minds and complete the final ritual!"

The Curse Devouring Demon Marshal's voice was hoarse and full of ferocity, forcibly suppressing the commotion on site:

"Once the ritual is complete, no matter if he has the power to reach the heavens or move the earth, his Soul and his power will be the best offerings for the Lord!"

"Now, if anyone dares to get distracted and disrupt my ritual again, you won't have to wait for the monster outside to act; I will personally send you on your way!"

Under the death threats and forceful orders of the Curse Devouring Demon Marshal, the Demonic Evils barely suppressed the stormy waves in their hearts.

They grit their teeth and desperately channeled Evil Energy, restabilizing their hand seals and injecting energy into the crystal pillars even more frantically.

The light of the seal at the center of the altar stabilized once again.

Its rotation speed even increased slightly, and the binding fluctuations it emitted became increasingly terrifying.

However, while the Curse Devouring Demon Marshal appeared as steady as Mount Tai on the surface, a storm had already been stirred in his heart.

He knew better than any other Demonic Evil how bad the situation outside was.

Through his powerful Divine Sense, he could roughly perceive the state of the battlefield.

That wasn't a battle at all; it was a crushing! A harvesting! A one-sided slaughter!

That intruder was like a god of destruction walking among mortals.

Wherever he went, no Demonic Evil could stop him for even a second!

What made him most terrified was that the other party's aura remained as steady as an abyss, deep and unfathomable.

From breaking the Barrier until now, he had utilized so many terrifying methods.

He had slaughtered over a thousand Demonic Evils, yet there wasn't even a hint of energy depletion!

This was not a human at all!

Even a Cadre from the abyss...

...might not be able to carry out such a large-scale slaughter with such efficiency in such a short amount of time!

Thinking of this, a flash of ruthlessness crossed the Curse Devouring Demon Marshal's eyes, and he shouted sternly again:

"You few, take your teams out of the formation immediately!"

"Stop the intruder from approaching the altar at all costs!"

"Even if you have to use your lives to fill the gap, you must buy more time for me to complete the ritual!"

The several Cadres who were pointed out instantly lost all color in their faces, their expressions filled with despair.

Go out to stop that monster?

What difference was this from seeking death?!

But under the Curse Devouring Demon Marshal's bone-chilling, murderous gaze, they didn't dare to resist at all.

"Ye... Yes! Lord Demon Marshal!" Those abyss Cadres accepted the order with trembling voices.

They took their deathly-pale team members and stumbled out of the altar's range, rushing toward the direction where the sounds of death were coming from.

However, this tiny bit of resistance was like a snowflake thrown into boiling water; it failed to stir even a single ripple.

The booming sounds and screams from outside did not weaken.

Instead, they approached the core of the altar at an alarming speed!

One could even clearly hear the explosions of energy collisions and the 'squelch' of sharp blades cutting through flesh!

Just then.

"BOOM—!!!"

An exceptionally violent explosion rang out at the entrance of the altar!

The wild energy shockwave, mixed with the smell of blood...

...swept in like a hurricane, blowing so hard that some Demonic Evils could barely stand!

Immediately afterward, all sound came to an abrupt halt.

Dead silence.

A suffocating dead silence, mixed with extreme fear, shrouded the entire altar core.

All the Demonic Evils, including the Curse Devouring Demon Marshal, subconsciously stopped their movements.

Their pupils shrunk to the limit as they stared fixedly at the dust-filled entrance that had been blasted open.

Step, step, step...

Slight but clear footsteps rang out from far to near, unhurriedly.

The dust slowly dispersed.

A figure wearing clean, casual clothes stepped in slowly.

It was Chen Nian.

His gaze swept across this eerie altar and the binding seal forming in the center.

A look of realization appeared on his face, which then turned into undisguised contempt.

"Heh, making such a big scene, I thought you were performing some kind of powerful ritual."

"In the end, this is it?"

His tone was full of disappointment, as if he had made a special trip only to see a clumsy farce.