That was blood mist—the thick, nauseating stench of blood was identical to the smell he had picked up in the forest earlier.
A scream rang out, making it clear that someone else had fallen victim. Immediately after, a startled cry that Tang San found somewhat familiar drifted out of the blood mist.
Even though he had not heard this voice in years, Tang San recognized its owner the instant it reached his ears. Hu Liena? Was it really her? What was she doing here?
The crimson blood mist before him was something akin to a domain. Tang San naturally would not charge in recklessly. The dense aura of slaughter bore some resemblance to his own Slaughter God Domain, but it was far more sinister. Moreover, the heavy scent of blood itself carried a potent, corrosive poison—the plants at the edge of the mist had already been severely eroded.
With a cold snort, a ring of blue light radiated from Tang San's body as he activated Blue Silver Emperor. At the same time, he unleashed his own Blue Silver Domain. As the King of Plants, he could hardly stand by and watch so many plants be slaughtered.
The blue luminescence spread rapidly, blanketing not only the area enveloped by the blood mist but also the forest he had passed through earlier. Surging life force was almost instantly stimulated. Provoked by the aura of Blue Silver Emperor, the great forest launched its counterattack. Every plant began growing at a frenzied pace. The corrosive toxins carried by the blood mist clashed with the exuberant vitality of the vegetation. Each plant, as it grew, released a layer of blue-gold radiance that defied the encroaching blood light.
At the same time, the surging life force and the malevolent aura of blood collided violently, continuously filtering out the lethal toxins. The blue glow, saturated with the breath of life, began spreading through the forest. With the support of Tang San's Blue Silver Domain, the plants erupted with a staggeringly powerful life aura.
Life and death were two opposing extremes. As the aura of life suddenly surged, it naturally affected the death energy cloaked in crimson. Before long, the scenery before Tang San's eyes grew clear. The blood light still persisted, but the fog that had previously obstructed his vision was gradually dissipating.
A few hundred meters ahead in the forest, three figures were locked in fierce combat, attacking one another ceaselessly. In the corner lay a mangled corpse. Bizarrely, crimson blood mist was continuously wafting from the body, as though its very blood were evaporating.
One of the three combatants was none other than Hu Liena. At this moment, her six Soul Rings flickered incessantly, and the massive fox tail behind her surged with a torrent of energy every time it swept through the air. A white halo of light enveloped her and an elderly man beside her, shielding them from the blood light's assault. The one relentlessly attacking them was a figure cloaked in red. Tang San squinted—and was stunned. He could not help but gasp. So it was him.
A blood-red robe, a high-collared cape, and a ghastly pale complexion—Tang San had seen this person before. It was unmistakably the ruler of the Slaughter City whom he and Hu Liena had encountered during their trial of slaughter: the King of Slaughter.
The King of Slaughter had changed considerably since those days. Mysterious blood-red patterns now crawled across his pale skin, and between his brows glowed a demonic mark shaped like a sword. Behind him, a pair of enormous crimson wings were spread wide—offensive and defensive at once, capable of serving as both weapons and shields. His speed was terrifying. With each flicker of movement, he drove Hu Liena and the old man into increasingly desperate straits.
The elderly man fighting alongside Hu Liena bore no fewer than eight Soul Rings, and their color distribution was quite respectable. Yet the King of Slaughter did not display a single Soul Ring. And yet, every one of his attacks forced Hu Liena and the old man into further disarray—they were on the verge of collapse.
"So you've finally come? I've been waiting for a long time. It was only for your sake that I let them live this long." The King of Slaughter's voice held not a trace of human warmth—only endless cold and malevolence.
The crimson figure blurred past. The old man with eight rings let out a blood-curdling scream as his entire body was drenched in a layer of blood-red light. With a deafening boom, his body shattered into pieces, reduced to the same ghastly state as the corpse Tang San had seen earlier. His blood boiled outward, continuously merging into the blood light radiating from the King of Slaughter. Yet the crimson trail left by the King's pass had only managed to press Hu Liena's Slaughter God Domain back against her body, exposing the eight-ringed elder without actually wounding Hu Liena herself.
"Tang San?" Hu Liena's eyes widened at his appearance, and for reasons she could not explain, a weight lifted from her heart. The strange blood light had failed to kill her, but the King of Slaughter's wing-sweep sent her body hurtling backward—she crashed through two massive trees before finally falling.
When the blood light descended once more, Hu Liena's body had already vanished. A Blue Silver Emperor vine was coiled around her waist, pulling her to Tang San's side.
If there was anyone within Spirit Hall capable of earning Tang San's goodwill, it was most likely Hu Liena. He had never forgotten the way they had weathered the Road to Hell together. Even when Xiao Wu had been ambushed in the Star Dou Great Forest later on, Hu Liena had never stood against him.
His left hand seized Hu Liena's shoulder, and he channeled a rich stream of Mysterious Heaven Skill internal energy into her body.
Hu Liena coughed up a mouthful of blood with a retching sound. Her face had turned deathly pale, but she could at least catch her breath now.
"What's going on?" Tang San asked in a low voice.
Leaning against his shoulder, Hu Liena gasped out her reply. "I don't know either. This monster simply appeared and started attacking me and my people. His blood light is extremely bizarre—within its range, nobody except those who possess a Slaughter God Domain can use any Soul Skills. Of the twenty-plus people I brought, five were Soul Douluo-level powerhouses, and the rest were all Soul Saints. Yet within his strange blood light, their strength was drastically reduced, and he cut them down one after another. This monster is terrifying. He said he was here to exact his revenge."
Hearing this, Tang San finally understood the origin of that faint spiritual lock he had sensed on the Slaughter God Domain. It was not Hu Liena—it was this King of Slaughter standing before him.
"Revenge? You two wretched creatures destroyed my Slaughter City. Even tearing you apart a thousand times over could not compensate for that loss. Tell me—which of you poisoned the great River of Blood? What exactly was that poison? Hand over the antidote, and I'll grant you a swift death."
The King of Slaughter walked toward Tang San and Hu Liena one deliberate step at a time. He moved slowly, yet each advance brought with it an oppressive force that made breathing difficult.
Facing the King of Slaughter, Tang San's expression remained utterly composed. During the first Seagod Trial—Crossing! Seagod's Light—the pressure he had endured had been ten times, a hundred times greater than this, and he had passed all the same. The current situation hardly compared.
Tang San replied calmly, "Was the Slaughter City truly destroyed?"
The King of Slaughter's icy crimson eyes blazed with hatred. "It was you. You destroyed my Slaughter City. You made my people perish in the backlash of the great blood! It was you, wasn't it? It was you…"
Tang San smiled. "Good—then it wasn't wasted on a single stalk of spirit herb. That's right, I was the one who poisoned it. I poisoned that river of blood. In truth, it wasn't exactly a poison. It was a Snowy Swan Kiss—a rare spirit herb whose only effect is catalysis. The Bloody Mary of the Slaughter City contained a slow-acting toxin that could make one more powerful through killing, while gradually altering one's temperament and physique. So I added this spirit herb to the river, amplifying the slow-release toxin a thousandfold. It seems my judgment of medicinal properties was spot-on. I'm honored to have been the one to bring about the Slaughter City's demise."
"Damn you—where is the antidote?!" The King of Slaughter was struggling to contain himself, but in order to obtain the antidote, he forced down the impulse to charge.
"Tell me first—what symptoms are you experiencing?" Tang San asked mildly.
The King of Slaughter roared impatiently, "I'm burning up! The great blood within me keeps evaporating—no matter how much blood I drink, I can't stop it! But I've also become more powerful. My body seems to be mutating, but I can't control it. The antidote—give me the antidote now!"
"Antidote? There is no antidote. A beneficial spirit herb doesn't come with an antidote. What a pity you didn't perish along with your wretched world. The Slaughter City was a depraved kingdom that should never have existed. Destroying it was an act of justice. And since you happen to be here today, let's settle this once and for all. Once I erase you from this world completely, that fallen realm will truly cease to exist."
"You bastard—I'll kill you!" Even the King of Slaughter was not so dull as to miss the fact that Tang San was mocking him. His blood light erupted violently, and in a flash he was upon Tang San, his two claw-like hands—tipped with long, blood-red nails—lunge straight for Tang San's chest. Simultaneously, the dense blood light surging from his body surged forward like a tidal wave.
"Use your Slaughter God Domain—otherwise you won't be able to use any skills, and you'll die!" Hu Liena cried in alarm, desperately activating her own Slaughter God Domain to shield both herself and Tang San. But at that very moment, Tang San flung her body away, sending her flying dozens of meters to safety.
A blinding surge of blue light erupted from Tang San's body. In an instant, he was wreathed in a blue radiance like a luminous sphere. Then, the fierce blue brilliance bloomed outward, and Tang San's entire being was transformed—blue-gold from head to toe.
Blue Silver True Body—activated. Along with it, the domain evolution skill of Blue Silver Domain: Myriad Manifestations of the Forest.
The tyrannical blood light unleashed by the King of Slaughter was not something that only a Slaughter God Domain could withstand. Rather, it required the power of a domain to counter it, because the blood light itself was essentially a domain ability.
Through his earlier observation of Hu Liena's battle with the King, Tang San had noticed that while the Slaughter God Domain allowed Hu Liena to use her Soul Skills, the white light it emitted was thoroughly suppressed by the red light radiating from the King of Slaughter. That was domain suppression. In other words, the King's domain was of the same origin as the Slaughter God Domain, yet it stood above it—a perfect counter.
For precisely this reason, Tang San had not opted for his Slaughter God Domain and had instead chosen his Blue Silver Domain. This was a forest—the ideal battleground for the Blue Silver Domain.
The surrounding world transformed into a blue-gold hue. Hu Liena's eyes, however, remained locked on Tang San. When she saw the eight Soul Rings materialize around his body, she froze in utter disbelief.
They had been apart for nearly five years—and he had become this powerful? Eight Soul Rings. Soul Douluo-level strength. Four of them were one-hundred-thousand-year Soul Rings. Was this even something a human could achieve? What Tang San displayed utterly shattered everything Hu Liena thought she knew.
As the red and blue radiance began their violent clash in the air, each vying for control of the space, the King of Slaughter's attacks on Tang San visibly slowed. Tang San, for his part, swayed slightly, and a layer of blue mist unfurled across his entire body.
Facing his opponent's assault, Tang San did not dodge—nor had he ever intended to. The Sea God Trident in his hand swept horizontally to meet the King of Slaughter's strike head-on.
With a thunderous boom, the Sea God Trident emitted a faint hum. The King of Slaughter was hurled backward as though struck by lightning, his blood-red eyes wide with disbelief. The violent tremor ran through his arms, leaving his hands shaking.
Tang San was equally astonished. He could feel the vibration transmitted through the trident. Since obtaining this divine weapon, this was the first time anyone had caused it to tremble even slightly under a frontal clash. What fearsome strength. It seemed the King of Slaughter's power was at least on par with the Sea Dragon Douluo. But then—why did he not display any Soul Rings?
The King of Slaughter let out an unwilling roar. He raised both hands at his sides, and rings of crimson radiance rippled outward from within his body. The fierce blood light brimmed not only with corrosive energy but also with a peculiar fluctuation of power.
In an instant, a relentless barrage of explosions erupted along the boundary where the Blue Silver Domain and the blood-colored domain collided. Tang San's expression shifted rapidly. Even though the forest provided tremendous support for his Blue Silver Domain, he was shocked to discover that his domain was still being overpowered.
The King of Slaughter let out a cackling laugh. "How does my Slaughter Domain taste? Compared to the little Slaughter God Domain you acquired, my Slaughter Domain is the most formidable domain within the Slaughter City—a miniature version of its magic-suppression effect. Did you really think a plant-attribute domain could withstand it? The Slaughter Domain is the most domineering domain under heaven. Its magic-suppression property is absolute. You'd better use your Slaughter God Domain—otherwise, none of your Soul Ring skills will be of any use."