Chapter 261: King of the World (30) — Blood Lake

The three ventured deeper along the chaotic passage. Before long, a suffocating stench of blood washed over them. It was followed by a monstrous, sky-piercing bloody malice that rolled through the air, lingering stubbornly. The overwhelming hostility blanketed the area, pressing down until the very air seemed to stagnate.

Jiuyou willed his divine sense forward to investigate. With the majestic power of his Deity Transformation stage divine sense, ordinary restrictions and mists could be pierced in an instant. Yet as his perception entered the blood fog ahead, it met strange, layered resistance, making its advance painfully sluggish. Frowning, he pushed his divine sense to its limits to sweep the area. As the thick layers of bloody mist slowly parted, a terrifying, gruesome scene appeared before the three of them.

The path ahead was gone, replaced by a boundless crimson lake. Scarlet stained everything. The blood was as thick as paste—not a shallow puddle left from an ordinary slaughter, but a vast expanse condensed from the lifeblood of countless creatures. The pungent stench mixed with steaming bloody mist to shroud the wilderness. The entire world brimmed with this sinister malice, thick enough to stifle a man's breathing.

Jiuyou stared out over the vast lake of blood, inwardly shaken.

He had fought countless battles, survived ancient secret realms and world-shattering wars, and slaughtered more lives than he could tally. He thought he was long accustomed to mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Yet this dead zone of bloody malice stretching across the horizon was horrifying in scale. Compared to this, all the carnage he had wrought in his life was a mere drop in the ocean, entirely unworthy of mention.

The three kept their expressions perfectly calm, moving in tacit agreement as they channeled their spiritual energy to thicken their protective barriers. The scarlet lake blocked their path; if they wanted to delve deeper into the secret realm, their only choice was to cross it. No one knew what lethal dangers lurked beneath the bizarre crimson waters. They composed themselves, raising their guard to the absolute limit.

Taking to the sky, the three skimmed through the air toward the lake's depths. They flew faster than before, looking entirely at ease, though their divine sense was cast out as wide as possible. They locked onto every direction—above, below, and all around—refusing to relax for even a second.

Just as they reached the middle of the lake, the surface abruptly boiled. A massive pillar of blood ten thousand zhang thick erupted from the water. Carrying a foul, howling gale, it crashed toward the three with apocalyptic force.

Jiuyou's gaze remained perfectly calm, his expression not showing a single ripple of emotion. With a light point of his finger, a brilliant golden sword shadow tore through the air. It moved with blinding speed, slicing the pillar clean in half in an instant. With a deafening boom, the ferocious torrent of blood snapped, collapsing into a fine mist that was completely deflected by their protective barriers.

But this was only the beginning.

The moment the first pillar collapsed, the entire lake went into a frenzy. Deafening roars erupted from every direction as countless colossal blood pillars shot up from the depths. They twisted and spiraled, crisscrossing into the heavens. Crimson light flickered across the sky as a foul wind swept through the air. The entire lake had transformed into an absolute purgatory.

As the blood pillars soared upward, the lake's water level plummeted. The viscous fluid receded, slowly revealing pale, chilling silhouettes beneath. Only when the blood had mostly drained did the three finally see the whole picture. The lakebed was not made of dirt or rock, but densely packed, overlapping layers of endless bones.

Skeletons of every kind of monster beast and human were piled in chaotic heaps, forming rolling hills of white bone that stretched as far as the eye could see. Bathed in the crimson light, the stark white remains were a horrifying sight.

"There really are hidden mysteries here. Fellow Daoists, be careful," Bai Xuanyi said, his voice heavy.

Before his words could fade, a flash of spiritual light burst from his palm, and the ancient Nine Dragon Gourd appeared in the air. Nine majestic lunar water dragons broke free from the magic treasure, spiraling upward to instantly weave a dense curtain of water. It securely shielded the three in the center, fending off the overflowing bloody malice.

Jiuyou remained perfectly silent, his eyes slightly lowered. His immense divine sense pierced the residual bloody mist to carefully probe the depths of the lakebed. He could clearly feel countless obscure, bizarre fluctuations hiding beneath the layers of bones and blood. These auras were scattered and strange, merging seamlessly with the entire blood lake. He couldn't pinpoint their exact locations at all—it was as if the lake itself were a living, vicious entity.

Suddenly, the entire lakebed trembled violently. A boundless, bloody maw spanning dozens of li tore open. Pulling hundreds of millions of jin of blood along with a terrifying, world-devouring suction, it lunged and clamped down on them from above, aiming to swallow the three whole into the sea of blood.

"Impudent!" Bai Xuanyi barked.

He rapidly brought his palms together, forming hand seals. The nine lunar water dragons spiraling in the sky instantly merged into one. It transformed into a massive water dragon, its size multiplying and its aura monstrous. With a roar that shook the wilderness, it crashed down with biting frost.

A deafening boom shook the heavens and earth. The massive bloody maw shattered on impact, spraying a torrential rain of blood across the wilderness.

But before they could even catch their breath, the scattered blood rapidly churned and gathered together. In the blink of an eye, it coalesced into a hideous blood-red flood dragon. Complete with scales and claws, it radiated a terrifying might as it coiled above the lake, glaring dead at the three in the air.

Jiuyou stared at the blood-red dragon phantom, a flash of shock and suspicion crossing his eyes. The longer he looked, the more familiar it felt.

'The Heaven Flood Dragon King...' he thought. 'A thousand years ago, Gu Xuanzhou used the might of a damaged spirit treasure to personally slay the rampaging Heaven Flood Dragon King. The beast's soul should have been obliterated and completely laid to rest. Could the Blood Demon of this secret realm have secretly intercepted a wisp of its remnant soul and nurtured it within the sea of blood to reshape it? If so, doesn't that mean the countless bones on the lakebed are suppressing the remnant souls of countless powerful creatures?'

Just as the thought crossed his mind, the entire lake completely boiled over. Countless hideous and bizarre blood-red monster beast heads broke the surface one after another. They came in every shape and size, shrieking miserably as their monstrous malice surged into the sky, locking layer upon layer of killing intent onto the three in the air. Even a Deity Transformation cultivator like Jiuyou could not help but feel this was a thorny situation when surrounded by so many remnant souls and bloody forms.

"Fellow Daoist Bai, Fellow Daoist Jiuyou, we can't get bogged down in a fight! Break away, quickly!" Hongce shouted, making a prompt decision.

Before his words even faded, his body had already transformed into a brilliant deep-blue streak of light. Tearing through the sky, he took the lead and sped toward the far end of the blood lake.

Jiuyou and Bai Xuanyi were both sharp-minded men. They knew how dangerously bizarre this place was and that nothing good would come from lingering. A streak of sword light wrapped around Jiuyou's feet as he darted close behind. Bai Xuanyi raised a hand to withdraw his Nine Dragon Gourd, moving with a fluid grace that easily kept pace with the other two.

Three dazzling streaks of divine light tore across the sky, weaving rapidly between the towering blood pillars and the crimson phantoms. In the blink of an eye, they left the countless bizarre monster beasts far behind.

After flying for over a thousand li, Hongce suddenly paused and called out, "Look down!"

Following his voice, the other two looked down from their vantage point, surveying the entire lake of blood and bone. Only now did they realize that the scattered bone hills on the lakebed hadn't formed naturally. They were meticulously arranged, faintly outlining ancient, obscure patterns. It was as if someone had used hundreds of millions of bleached bones to write ancient seal script across the lake—a sight both majestic and incredibly mysterious.

Several of the most massive bone mountains connected perfectly to form two massive, clearly defined ancient glyphs. They stretched across more than half the blood lake the three had just crossed, exuding an ancient, eerie aura.

"Could this anomaly of bones be the source of this bloody malice and sea of blood?" Bai Xuanyi asked, his brow tightly furrowed in confusion.

Jiuyou stared down at the ancient characters of bone in silent, calm thought. Having read countless ancient and modern texts, he naturally knew many ancient runes and secret scripts. Yet these characters were so profoundly old that they surpassed his understanding. No matter how he searched his vast memories, he couldn't find a single trace of resemblance. They were utterly unreadable.

"Do you recognize these runes, Fellow Daoist?" Jiuyou asked bluntly.

"These appear to be ancient characters from a long-forgotten era," Hongce said slowly, his gaze heavy as he studied them from above for a long while. "Flying so low earlier, we couldn't see the whole picture. Only from this height can we catch a glimpse. My knowledge is shallow; I can only barely make out a few scattered strokes."

With that, he raised a hand and brought out a communication jade slip. Spiritual light flowed from his fingertips as he rapidly imprinted and recorded the entire array of ancient bone patterns below.

Once every line was captured in the jade slip, he fell silent for a moment. With a grave, somewhat uncertain tone, he slowly spoke two words:

"From what I can tell, the ancient characters formed by those massive bone mountains should be—'Return Home'."