50: Chapter 50 Sacrifice

The blood moon hung in the sky, and the Heavenly Demon Blood Sacrifice Grand Array, like a giant mouth devouring heaven and earth, pressed down slowly and firmly.

On that scarlet light curtain, countless twisted soul shadows wailed and collided; every wisp of dissipated demonic energy was enough to shatter the spirit of a Qi Refining cultivator.

The earth was scarred and ravaged.

The defensive line once jokingly referred to by players as the "Pot Lid Army Fortress" was now reduced to broken door panels and melted iron pots stuck in the scorched earth.

The "Divine Wind Battalion," hailed as the sharpest spear, had launched over a dozen suicide charges, yet apart from leaving insignificant ripples on the protective demonic light of Demon Lord Night Radiance, not a single person remained standing.

The World Channel was dead silent.

Everyone had been sent back to the respawn point, but the respawn countdown had turned into an astronomical figure, shrouded in an inescapable gray blood mist, coldly prompting: [The current area is suppressed by the "Heavenly Demon Blood Sacrifice Grand Array," souls cannot return, and the resurrection channel is interrupted.]

This was a true desperate situation.

The corpse of Immovable as a Mountain still maintained its final posture; he knelt halfway on the ground, using his broken body and a charred pot lid to block a fatal blow for the last healer-class player behind him.

His eyes were wide open, reflecting that desperate blood-colored firmament.

In the last second before he died, he didn't look at the enemy, but instead gazed in the direction where Charge to the End had disappeared during his final charge, a helpless wry smile seemingly still lingering on the corners of his mouth.

High above, Demon Lord Night Radiance's black robes billowed, looking like a god or a demon.

He was not unscathed; the suicide attacks of that group of lunatics, especially several special explosives concocted by Liver Emperor V87 specifically to dirty people's magical treasures, had indeed consumed a significant amount of his demonic essence.

But he was the victor, after all.

He overlooked this completely silent battlefield, but there was no ecstasy of a victor in his eyes; instead, there was a long-suppressed exhaustion and a sorrow of impending liberation.

He slowly raised his hand, and above his palm, a strange stone that was cold to the touch and radiated faint moonlight hovered quietly.

"Yue'er," his voice was low and hoarse, filled with a tenderness only he could understand, "Wait a little longer, soon... we will be able to see each other again very soon."

His gaze pierced through the blood clouds and landed on the precarious Lu Family Ancestral Hall.

That was the destination of his journey, the only hope for him to defy the heavens and change his fate.

Inside the ancestral hall, Lu Bei, serving as the array eye and the source of everything, felt that terrifying pressure capable of crushing his primordial spirit; his spiritual body was flickering, like a candle in the wind.

Lost.

Exhausting all the wisdom, courage, and unscrupulous means of the players, they still lost miserably.

In the face of absolute suppression of cultivation realms, any tactic seemed pale and weak.

Lu Bei's consciousness sank into that torrent of data connected to the players, a place only he could see.

There, every point of light represented a loyal (and trouble-making) "Filial Son and Virtuous Grandchild." At this moment, these points of light were imprisoned by blood color, dim and lusterless.

Really... is there no other way?

Just as Lu Bei's consciousness was about to be swallowed by that despair, in the deepest part of the data torrent, a permission he had never touched, and even instinctively feared, quietly lit up.

It was a protocol, a final protocol based on the lowest-level link between him and the players.

Without the slightest hesitation.

"Hum—"

In an instant, every player, whether waiting bitterly at the respawn point or wailing on the official forum, suddenly saw a huge, solemn interface radiating tragic golden light pop up before their eyes.

In the center of the interface, there was only one blood-red character, as if engraved with a soul—

[Sacrifice]

Below it, lines of small text, as if weeping blood, clearly appeared on everyone's retinas.

[Epic Ultimate Quest: With My Broken Body, Invite the Ancestor to Ascend!]

[Quest Description: The Demon has arrived, we shall perish together. You Heavenly Chosen Filial Grandsons, are you willing to offer all that you have to the spirit of your ancestor, burn your souls, and forge the great power to exterminate the demon?]

[Sacrifice Content: All cultivation levels, equipment props, contribution points, family reputation... everything you have under your current account will turn into the purest incense wish power and be injected into the ancestor's spirit tablet.]

[Quest Reward: ???]

[Failure Penalty: The Lu Family is completely wiped out, all family member accounts are permanently deleted, and in this world, there will be no place for you to stand.]

[Are you willing?]

[Yes / No]

The entire game world fell into an eerie silence at this moment.

On the official forum, the posts that were just frantically refreshing and cursing the Demon Lord for being too buggy instantly stopped.

Dead silence.

A full ten seconds of dead silence.

Suddenly, on the World Channel, a blood-red name lit up.

[Charge to the End]: "Hahaha hahaha! It's just deleting the account and starting over, what's there to be afraid of! I've been hacking and slashing from a level one alt until today, what haven't I seen? I've never seen such a spectacular scene of account deletion! Brothers, today, let this damn NPC see what the hell is called the fourth calamity!"

"Bang!"

It was as if the first domino had fallen.

In the field of vision of all players, that point of light representing "Charge to the End" exploded with a roar, turning into a dazzling golden stream of light, tearing through the blood mist covering the respawn point, and with a resolute posture, fiercely shot toward the direction of the Lu Family Ancestral Hall!

This stream of light ignited everyone's hot blood.

[Demolition Office Director]: "Grass! There's such a good thing? I've long wanted to change my demolition gear! Everyone, listen up, let's demolish this sky!"

[Infrastructure Maniac]: "Traps, arrow towers, fortresses... if they're gone, we'll just build them again! My craft, I haven't forgotten it! Ancestor, give him a hard one for me!"

[Liver Emperor V87]: "My liver... it was worth it! For the next generation of more advanced war puppets! For the industrial revolution! Comrades, farewell!"

[Skillful Hands Mending]: "Wuwuwu... my fashion... forget it! Ancestor, you must win!"

[Gossip Reporter Little Trumpet]: "Holy shit! Ultimate plot! Exclusive! Even if I die, it's worth it! Chen Kang! Did you see it! This is our... our way!"

Far away at the defected branch, Chen Kang stared blankly through a water mirror at those golden streams of light shooting into the sky, watching those "mad demons" who were joking with him just a moment ago, choosing self-annihilation without hesitation.

His lips trembled, his worldview receiving an unprecedented shock.

He couldn't understand.

That wasn't death, that was complete erasure.

For a... ethereal NPC ancestor?

"Lunatics... a group of true lunatics..."

Among all the lights, one of the heaviest radiances came from the place where "Immovable as a Mountain" finally dissipated.

At the last moment before pressing the [Sacrifice] button, he just looked calmly at the trajectory where "Charge to the End"'s light had disappeared, and whispered to himself:

"Reckless fool... in the next life, let me be the one to charge."

Thousands of golden streams of light, like rivers returning to the sea, like ten thousand stars coming to court, converged into an unprecedented majestic torrent, tearing the sky, piercing the demonic array, and all surged into the seemingly fragile Lu Family Ancestral Hall!

Inside the ancestral hall, Lu Bei's spiritual body was submerged by this torrent.

He no longer felt cold data, but countless vivid wills.

There was the wild unruliness of "Charge to the End," the calm firmness of "Immovable as a Mountain," the endless trolling of "Keyboard Warrior Governing the Nation," the ultimate obsession of "Appearance is Justice" for the "Golden Coffin"...

These wills, these emotions, these "spirits" unique to players, at this moment, turned into the most primordial fuel.

"Crack..."

On the offering table, that unremarkable "Spirit Tablet of Lu Family Ancestor Lu Bei" made a crisp sound.

A crack appeared, followed by a second, a third...

But it didn't shatter; instead, it emitted a divine light from the cracks that one could not look directly at.

The antique wood grain peeled off inch by inch, replaced by a texture that seemed like glaze and divine metal.

Boom!!!

The roof of the ancestral hall was completely blown away by an invisible wave of air.

A huge Dharma form, whose greatness could not be described in words, slowly rose with the ancestral hall as its base.

It had no specific facial features, appearing to be an aggregate of billions of points of light; anyone who tried to see it clearly would see the face they were most familiar with or held in the most awe.

Its body was composed of the purest incense wish power, grand, majestic, compassionate, and carried a trace of... the playful, irreverent sense unique to players.

[Incense Dharma Form]!

"What... is this thing?!"

High above, Demon Lord Night Radiance lost his composure for the first time.

From that Dharma form, he felt a terrifying power that made his soul tremble, far exceeding the limits of this world.

That was not spiritual power, not demonic essence, but the manifestation of a higher-dimensional "rule"!

He wanted to activate the array to crush it.

However, the Incense Dharma Form just calmly raised its right hand and extended a finger.

That finger was unremarkable, without any flashy special effects, without any earth-shattering sound.

It just gently pointed at the Heavenly Demon Blood Sacrifice Grand Array that shrouded heaven and earth.

Time seemed to be elongated at this moment.

In Night Radiance's terrified gaze, wherever that finger passed, space silently annihilated.

The blood moon, demonic clouds, wailing souls, intricate array patterns... everything was wiped away like an invisible hand erasing a painting, so clean that not a trace remained.

The Heavenly Demon Blood Sacrifice Grand Array was broken.

The power of one finger was terrifying to this extent!

The finger of the Incense Dharma Form did not stop and continued to point toward Night Radiance.

"No!!!"

Night Radiance let out a desperate roar, and all the protective magical treasures and life-saving talismans on his body were instantly activated, turning into layers of light curtains to block in front of him.

However, in front of that finger, these defenses, which were enough to withstand a full-force blow from a Foundation Establishment cultivator, were as fragile as window paper and shattered at a touch.

The shadow of death had never been so clear.

In the last instant before being engulfed by the light of the fingertip, Night Radiance did not choose to run, but used his last strength to protect the "moon soul stone" tightly in his chest, using his own demonic body as the final barrier for his lover.

"Yue'er..."

Boom—

Heaven and earth were left with only a blinding white.

When the light dissipated, the sky was clear as if washed, as if everything just now was just a nightmare.

The Incense Dharma Form still stood between heaven and earth, but its body had become illusory, and its light was rapidly dimming.

Its power was only enough to unleash one strike.

Its "face" turned toward the center of the white light.

There, the figure of Night Radiance had disappeared, leaving only a wisp of a nearly shattered remnant soul, carrying the undamaged moon soul stone, turning into a weak black light, shooting desperately toward the horizon, and disappearing.

The Incense Dharma Form watched the direction of his escape in silence, and finally, it lowered its head, taking a deep look at the empty earth below, as if making a final farewell to those "offline" Filial Sons and Virtuous Grandchildren.

Immediately, it turned into billions of points of light, slowly dissipating, and returned to the spirit tablet that had turned into glazed divine metal.

The world returned to silence.

Lu Bei's spiritual body floated above the ruins of the ancestral hall, and massive fragments of information exploded in his mind; that was the impact brought by the fusion of all the players' data with him at the moment of the sacrifice.

He saw a broken key, a boundless dark prison, and deep in the prison, some unspeakable, terrifying existence suppressed by "ashes."

"key of the divine prison..."

He muttered to himself, and then, his gaze swept across this dead silent battlefield, feeling the faint, yet unbroken, links between him and them.

The corners of his mouth slowly curled into a smile, no longer weak, but filled with unprecedented firmness.

"Wait for me."

"Wait for me to call you all back, one by one."