Chapter 498 - 453: Blood Spirit Fruit

Chapter 498: Chapter 453: Blood Spirit Fruit

The great war... was coming!

An unspeakable, oppressive gloom seemed to descend upon the island. A grim readiness was etched on the face of every Cultivator.

At the window, Chu Mu watched this scene of a world on a war footing, his own brow furrowed in a deep frown.

Just as Chang Hongshan had said, the situation on the Demon Suppression Islands had grown tense over the past few months after a period of calm.

But in the one or two years he had been here, this was the first time he had ever seen a Beast Tide of this magnitude.

Suddenly, as if sensing something, Chu Mu whipped his head around to look toward the inner islands. Against a night sky as bright as day, several brilliant rays of light shot into the air and vanished into the firmament without a trace.

’Nascent Soul!’

Chu Mu’s pupils shrank. His gaze shifted back to the overwhelming tsunami of the Beast Tide. Faintly, within the boundless darkness, he could just make out several elusive Tunneling Lights streaking across the night sky, they too vanishing quickly and becoming impossible to detect.

Chu Mu looked up at the distant night sky. Although he couldn’t see a thing, nor were there any strange phenomena, it was clear that up there, several Nascent Soul Cultivators from the Chen Family and several Tier Four Great Demons were facing off.

At that moment, just as Chu Mu had guessed, several of the Chen Family’s Nascent Soul Cultivators stood suspended in the deep night sky, their robes fluttering as their expressions remained grim.

Across from them, gargantuan serpentine bodies, vast enough to blot out the sky, coiled and intertwined. Their inky black scales were so dark they nearly merged with the night. Only their crimson serpentine eyes stood out, like flickering candles in the darkness. But upon closer inspection, those cold, emotionless, vertical-slitted pupils were both conspicuous and terrifying.

"Enough with this mystifying act! You think I’m afraid of you?"

The speaker was a red-haired, middle-aged man. He had a powerful build, a pair of horns on his head, and pale gold pupils. Anger was visible on his majestic face.

Just then, another person spoke.

"Mo Lin, what in the world are you planning?"

The one who spoke was an old man. His body was stooped and withered like deadwood, yet his eyes were as deep as a starry sky. His gaze was fixed on the serpentine bodies, and his voice was ice-cold.

"Heh..."

A soft chuckle suddenly echoed through the night sky.

Then, one pair of serpentine eyes dimmed, and a phantom-like image slowly condensed into the form of a middle-aged man.

The man wore a profound black robe, upon which mystical, inky patterns crisscrossed. A faint black light flickered, reflecting on his somewhat sinister face and adding an extra touch of chilling coldness.

But soon, that chilling aura vanished. A taunting look appeared on the man’s face. "What do you think I want?"

"Hmph! A bunch of vermin from the gutter! Whatever you want to do, I’ll see you through to the end!"

This time, the speaker was another man with the twin horns of a Flood Dragon. His face was covered by a thick beard, and his body was as burly as an iron tower. His gaze toward Mo Lin was filled with undisguised, profound hatred.

"Is your Chen Family so lacking in decorum?"

Mo Lin glanced at the burly man, the taunting look on his face fading. He flicked a finger, and a baleful light appeared, then quickly vanished.

"You dare!"

The old man roared in anger. His robes billowed as terrifying Magical Power surged. A thunderous sound seemed to echo from the void, but with a sweep of the old man’s sleeve, the roar vanished. The terrifying fluctuation of Spiritual Qi that had just appeared was also gone without a trace.

The burly man’s face was pale, clearly shaken, but his gaze toward Mo Lin was still filled with undisguised hatred.

"Trash is trash. Just as useless as your father!"

Mo Lin snorted, the taunting look returning to his face as he looked at the burly man. "Oh, that’s right. I almost forgot to tell you something, you piece of trash."

"It shouldn’t be long now before you see your father again."

"A Tier Four Flood Dragon Corpse Puppet... across the entire Vast Sea, I imagine that would be one of a kind, wouldn’t it?"

Mo Lin’s smile widened, the taunting amusement in his eyes growing ever stronger.

"You..."

The burly man erupted in fury, but before he could say more, the old man stopped him.

The old man stared intently at Mo Lin. "Mo Lin, are you prepared for a fight to the death with my Flood Dragon Race?"

"A fight to the death?"

Mo Lin feigned confusion. "Aren’t we already?"

Then, the feigned confusion vanished. Mo Lin shot the old man a cold glance before shifting his gaze to the rampant bloodshed already unfolding on the sea’s surface.

"The Demon Suppression Islands... a fine name. I just wonder, in the end, which Demons will be the ones suppressed?"

The corners of the man’s mouth lifted slightly. He cast a meaningful glance at the Nascent Soul Cultivators of the Chen Family and the Flood Dragon Race, and his body dissolved into motes of light.

The colossal serpentine bodies that had occupied the night sky coiled one last time. With a series of wild hisses, they vanished into the night, leaving only the Nascent Soul Cultivators of the Chen Family standing in a heavy, oppressive silence.

After a moment, the red-haired, dragon-horned man finally spoke slowly. "Back with our race, the Blood Spirit Fruits are about to ripen, and the other clans are watching us like tigers. For the time being, I doubt we’ll have the spare capacity to support you."

The old man’s eyes flickered. He remained silent for a moment, not responding directly. Instead, he turned to another Nascent Soul Cultivator from the Chen Family. "What’s the situation in the Outer Sea?"

The man’s expression was grim. "There are quite a few who are kicking us while we’re down."

"Seeing our family in trouble, they all want to take advantage of the crisis..."

As he spoke, the man glanced at the red-haired, middle-aged man, a hint of dissatisfaction in his eyes.

The old man’s expression also grew somber. He glanced at the red-haired, dragon-horned man, the gloom on his face deepening.

"When the Blood Spirit Fruits ripen, you all will benefit as well..."

The red-haired man snorted. "If you lot hadn’t failed to keep a secret and let our race’s top-secret information leak, would things have come to this!"

"How can you blame us for that?"

A Chen Family Nascent Soul Cultivator grew angry. "The method for cultivating the Blood Spirit Fruit, if not for our family..."

"Hmph!"

The red-haired man snorted coldly.

"It’s all because you lot were incompetent and let the Secret Realm be snatched away by others! Otherwise..."

"Enough."

The old man snapped.

"Things have already come to this. What’s the point of arguing?"

"We are all in this together. Our best course of action is to unite our efforts and overcome this crisis!"

"Our race has stood in the Vast Sea for tens of thousands of years. What storms have we not weathered?"

"Today’s predicament is merely temporary. It cannot shake the foundation of our race!"

After a brief exchange via Divine Sense in the night sky, the towering figures dispersed one after another.

As for the rampant bloodshed beneath them, for these lofty beings, it clearly wasn’t a contest on their level.

It was merely a minor consequence of a game played on a much higher plane.

The night sky was brilliant. The original layout of the Xingluo Islands was now indiscernible, completely covered by a sky full of resplendent flashes of light.

Under the united effort of countless Cultivators, multicolored lights from Magic Techniques crisscrossed the sky, raining down upon the overwhelming Beast Tide.

The surging tsunami, one with the Beast Tide, crashed wave after wave, one following the other, against the shimmering, interwoven light of the Array Prohibitions.

In just a few short moments, the churning seawater was filled with countless severed limbs and mangled bodies. Rolling waves of crimson spread, and the overwhelming stench of blood once again dyed the sea red and stained the very sky...

...