The five groups had only retreated a few steps when a series of eerie, cackling laughs drifted over. The sound hit their ears and sent a chill crawling up every scalp, making them feel wretched beyond measure.
"Did this old man say you could leave?" The middle-aged man's eyes gleamed with a dangerous cold light, his voice low and sinister, the aura of dread spreading outward until everyone felt frozen to the bone.
The faces of the assembled fighters changed in unison, turning ghastly pale. None of them dared make another move.
"What further instruction does this honored sir have?" the man who had spoken before asked with a frown, secretly circulating his strength.
"Originally, this old man was in a fine mood today and couldn't be bothered to slaughter anyone." The middle-aged man smiled with an air of leisurely amusement, looking perfectly relaxed. "But you people are blind as bats and short-sighted as mice. You pledged yourselves to the wrong master and made enemies of those you should never have crossed, so this old man simply can't look the other way."
Hearing the meaning behind his words, the faces of the five groups grew even uglier. The Shenyou Realm expert let out a cold snort. "What we do is none of this honored sir's concern. You may be powerful, but there are so many of us here — surely you don't think you can wipe us all out?"
As he spoke, the five groups gradually drew together, all staring at the middle-aged man with grim expressions. They made their stance unmistakable: they would advance together and face death as one.
Faced with such a powerful expert, they had no choice but to hope that he would take what advantage he could and withdraw.
Instead, the middle-aged man not only showed no sign of finding the situation troublesome — his expression grew increasingly excited and ferocious. He nodded repeatedly. "Good, good! So many people. At last, a chance for a proper killing!"
As he spoke, his expression turned savage. He spread his arms wide, slowly raised them, and grinned hideously. "Blood Sea Sealing the Heavens!"
From behind his back, a flash of blood-red light suddenly erupted. The vivid crimson blazed like an arrow loosed from a bow, shooting straight toward the spot where the five groups had converged.
No one had time to react. Caught completely off guard, they were engulfed by the blood-red radiance.
What met their eyes was a world drenched in scarlet. The sky above had turned a blinding red, and the ground beneath their feet seemed forged from liquid blood. Enormous blood blisters the size of washbasins kept surging to the surface and bursting, splattering everyone with gore. The sight was horrifying.
The wet gurgling sound never ceased.
It was like a slaughterhouse of the netherworld!
"What is this?!" The five groups fell into instant panic. Never before had they encountered such a bizarre and sinister martial technique — a single move that had altered the very environment around them. In their terror, they all activated their True Yuan, deployed their movement techniques, and empowered themselves with Artifacts, desperate to break free of this blood-red world's prison.
Yet the blood-soaked ground beneath them seemed to possess an immense suction force, pinning them fast. They could not move a single inch.
The terrain underfoot had transformed into a swamp — the harder they struggled, the faster they sank.
"Heh heh heh heh…" The middle-aged man cackled again, watching with undisguised pleasure as the group thrashed and writhed helplessly in the sea of blood. His narrow eyes even took on a strange, luminous glow, betraying his wild excitement and manic delight.
The disciples of Ghost King Valley and the Treasure Artifact Sect were equally stunned, all staring at the blood sea with violently trembling gazes.
Everyone knew this middle-aged man who had appeared out of nowhere was powerful — but no one had imagined he was powerful to this degree.
A single move had already driven five groups of fighters into absolute desperation. And judging by his demeanor, he hadn't even used his full strength. It seemed he had simply struck out on a whim.
Ghost King Valley was itself a heterodox sect. The martial techniques and cultivation methods they practiced were dark and eerie by nature, but when Leng Shan and the others compared their own sect's arts to what they were witnessing now, it felt like a child's game beside a grown man's war. Staring at the vast expanse of crimson, every Ghost King Valley disciple felt their bodies go cold and their souls tremble.
The Artifact Refiners of the Treasure Artifact Sect had gone pale, every one of them. Only Wu Yan, suppressing the tremor in his heart, managed to glance at the middle-aged man — once, deliberately, then casually.
What he discovered shocked him: this middle-aged man didn't seem to be a good person either!
In the span of roughly ten breaths, those trapped within the sea of blood began to change. Regardless of their strength or cultivation level, every last one of them twisted into hideous masks of savagery. Bloodshot veins burst through their bulging eyes, the look of panic vanishing from their faces, replaced by boundless madness and an aura of bloodlust.
It was as though the cruelty and evil concealed within the blood sea had infected their very minds.
"Kill!" someone roared, unleashing his martial technique and Artifact's radiance upon the companion standing next to him, blasting the man into a headless corpse.
Kill! Kill! Kill!
All five groups had gone mad, each one feral and unrecognizing. Shouting and screaming, they threw themselves into a death struggle with everyone around them.
One body after another crumpled to the ground. The fresh blood they spilled made the crimson sea burn even brighter.
The stench of blood soared into the sky.
The middle-aged man, meanwhile, watched as if enjoying the spectacle of a lifetime. Joy and delight radiated from every line of his face.
Severed limbs and torn flesh flew through the air. Corpses piled into mountains, and blood flowed like rivers.
Several female disciples of the Treasure Artifact Sect and Ghost King Valley could no longer bear it. They pulled out handkerchiefs, rushed to the side, and retched until only bile remained.
Never in their lives had they witnessed such a bloody, terrifying scene. It had long since surpassed the limits of what their minds could endure.