Immortality: Grinding Experience Starting as a Paper Craftsman

Chapter 178 Bloodbath at Fengling, Transcending Rank Battle Infant

The main street of Fengling City is straight, with closed shops and residences on both sides.

Thick bloodstains covered the bluestone path, and a cold wind blew, stirring up scraps of paper and fallen leaves.

The city lord's mansion is located at the end of the long street. Outside the tall red-lacquered gate, two white marble lions are splattered with black and red blood.

Above the mansion, a blood-red beam of light, as thick as a water vat, dyed the sky crimson.

Around the pillar of light, countless phantom images of mortals struggling in agony swirled, their mournful howls echoing like a tide throughout the entire city of Fengling.

The Blood Swordsman, dressed in a dark red robe and carrying a blood-red sword without a guard, walked slowly down the long street.

He seemed to walk very slowly, but with each step he took, his figure covered a distance of tens of feet.

The blood beneath his feet seemed to come alive, receding to both sides with his steps, forming a clean stone path.

Beside the two stone lions stood a dozen or so Blood Fiend Sect Foundation Establishment disciples responsible for guarding the area.

They had just felt the terrifying pressure coming from the direction of the mass grave, and were still in shock and uncertainty, when they saw the red-robed man, who looked like a demon, walking towards them from the end of the long street as if shrinking the distance between them.

Before anyone could speak, the Blood Swordsman simply looked up at them.

An invisible, bloodthirsty sword intent swept across the gate of the city lord's mansion in an instant.

The heads of more than a dozen Foundation Establishment disciples shot into the sky at the same time. Before the blood from their necks could even spurt out, it was shredded into fine blood mist by the sword intent in mid-air and absorbed into the blood sword without any resistance.

The dark red longsword emitted a satisfied hum, and a layer of eerie blood-red light flowed across its surface.

The Blood Swordsman walked to the tightly closed red-lacquered gate, and an invisible protective aura suddenly slammed forward.

The thick, copper-nailed gate of the city lord's mansion shattered with a deafening roar, transforming into countless sharp wooden spikes that shot back into the mansion.

On the spacious training ground of the mansion, dozens of Golden Core stage evil cultivators who were sitting cross-legged, practicing their internal energy to maintain the Blood Pool Formation were startled by the sudden loud noise.

They all opened their eyes and summoned their magical treasures. Before these Foundation Establishment evil cultivators could even see who it was, a terrifying pressure belonging to the Nascent Soul stage surged up from the depths of the City Lord's Mansion. A tangible gale blew the weapon racks on the training ground to pieces.

In mid-air, a gray-black figure appeared like a ghost.

This was an old man wearing a gray robe with a withered face.

His hands were as withered as chicken claws, and he held a black cane with a pale white skull embedded at the top. His eyes were sunken, and his pupils, the size of mung beans, emitted a cold, eerie light.

The gray-robed old man hovered in mid-air, his cold gaze fixed on the red-robed man below who was slowly stepping into the mansion.

Upon first contact, the pure and domineering aura of bloodline emanating from the other party caused him to feel a natural sense of submission as he circulated his cultivation technique.

The old man felt a chill run down his spine and immediately concluded that the person in front of him was definitely not one of those low-level demonic cultivators from Dongzhou.

Such power and such pure demonic skill must belong to an unparalleled villain at the Nascent Soul level.

He gripped the skull cane tightly, forcibly suppressing the churning blood and qi within him, and spoke in a cold voice: "Fellow Daoist, I am a Dharma Protector Elder under the Central Plains Holy Sect, ordered by the Envoy to oversee the construction of the Blood Pool Array here. All the blood offerings in Fengling City are prepared for the Envoy."

The old man deliberately emphasized the words "Envoy of Zhongzhou," his tone carrying a clear warning: "No matter who you are, please leave quickly for the sake of the Zhongzhou Holy Sect. If you also need blood food for cultivation, I can certainly share one-tenth of the profits with you once the Blood Pool Formation is completed. Otherwise, if you disturb the Envoy, there may be no place for you to stay in this Eastern Continent."

The old man's words echoed in the night sky, employing both soft and hard tactics, invoking the background of Zhongzhou, intending to make this mysterious blood-clad sword cultivator back down.

However, the Blood Swordsman did not pause in his advance.

The pair of scarlet eyes without whites slowly rose, looking at the gray-robed old man in mid-air as if he were looking at an inanimate object.

"Central Plains?"

The Blood Swordsman's hoarse, grating voice rang out, "Even if your Central Continent's sect leader came here in person, he would still have to leave his head today, let alone you, you old dog guarding the gate."

Before he could finish speaking, the Blood Swordsman vanished from his spot.

The bluestone pavement beneath his feet exploded into a large crater, and the surrounding stones cracked inch by inch.

The next instant, the Blood Swordsman appeared above the gray-robed old man's head.

The Blood Sword, with its piercing shriek tearing through the void and accompanied by a monstrous sea of ​​blood, cleaved straight for the old man's crown.

This sword strike had no fancy moves, only extreme speed and a killing intent as heavy as a mountain.

The old man in the gray robe's expression changed drastically.

He did not expect that after hearing the name of the Central Plains Holy Sect, the other party would not only show no fear, but would become even more murderous.

"Arrogant."

The old man roared and suddenly raised his skull cane upwards.

Two beams of intense black light burst forth from the empty eyes of the white bone skull at the top of the cane, transforming into a black bone shield that blocked the way.

The sword blade and the bone shield collided violently.

The muffled explosion was like a thunderclap from a clear sky, deafeningly loud.

A visible hemispherical shockwave suddenly rippled out from the center of their fight.

The aftershocks of destruction swept outwards like wheat being harvested.

More than a dozen ancient trees around the training ground were uprooted and shredded into wood chips in mid-air.

The main hall of the city lord's mansion, the tall building constructed of solid bluestone, was closest to the two of them. The black tiles on the roof flew out like a torrential rain the moment the shockwave hit, and the walls of the entire hall collapsed, turning into ruins.

As for the dozens of Foundation Establishment stage evil cultivators below...

Although they were prepared and used their respective protective magic treasures, the Foundation Establishment level protection was useless in the face of the aftershocks of a collision at the Nascent Soul level.

A dozen or so weaker evil cultivators were directly hit by the aftershocks, their protective aura shattered, and their bodies instantly exploded into clouds of blood mist under the powerful wind pressure.

The remaining evil cultivators were terrified and fled desperately towards the outskirts of the city lord's mansion.

In mid-air, the old man in the gray robe felt his arms go numb.

The power emanating from that blood-red sword without a hilt was not only incredibly heavy, but also carried an extremely strange devouring force, frantically drawing upon his primordial demonic energy along the skull cane.

"What an overbearing technique."

The old man was terrified and dared not resist directly. He used the force to retreat dozens of feet backward, while simultaneously tapping his cane in the air: "Netherworld Ghost Claw".

As the old man cast his spell, the surrounding temperature plummeted, and grayish-white yin energy surged.

Five enormous, dark blue ghostly hands emerged from the void, accompanied by piercing ghostly howls, reaching out towards the Blood Swordsman from five different directions.

Each ghost's hand was covered in green corpse poison, enough to corrode refined iron into water.

The Blood Swordsman remained expressionless, his crimson eyes devoid of any emotion.

He did not back down, and the pure Blood Demon Technique within his body was pushed to its limit.

The Blood Swordsman formed a strange hand seal with his left hand, while his right hand drew a perfect blood-red circle around his body with his longsword: "Blood Sea Raging."

With a loud bang, an extremely thick and viscous blood-red light erupted from his body.

This blood-red light is not ordinary spiritual power, but the true source of blood evil.

The blood-red light transformed into a giant blood-red lotus flower, enveloping his entire body within it.

Five dark blue ghost hands gripped the petals of the blood lotus tightly. The green corpse poison, upon contact with the blood lotus, was like snow meeting a raging fire, hissing and instantly purified into nothingness by the blood lotus's high temperature and malevolent energy.

Immediately afterwards, the blood lotus suddenly spun and opened.

Sharp, blood-red sword energy burst outwards like a rain of pear blossoms.

The five ghostly hands were sliced ​​into countless pieces by the sword energy and instantly collapsed and dissipated.

The sword energy, undiminished in its momentum, enveloped the space where the gray-robed old man was located.

The gray-robed old man was terrified and frantically waved his cane, creating layers of black, yin-energy barriers.

The sword energy struck the barrier, producing a dense clanging sound.

With each strike of sword energy, the barrier dimmed a little.

The old man was forced to retreat continuously by this unreasonable and violent attack.

With each step he took back, a visible white wave of air would be created in the void beneath his feet.

The two fought their way from the training ground of the city lord's mansion all the way to the backyard.

There used to be a huge artificial hill in the backyard, and at the foot of the hill was a pond of koi for viewing.

The Blood Swordsman's sword energy missed its mark, slashing diagonally at the artificial hill.

The ten-zhang-high Taihu stone rockery was cut in half like tofu, with the cut surface as smooth as a mirror.

The remaining force of the sword energy slashed into the pool, splitting the water in two. The silt at the bottom and the shattered carp corpses surged out, and the entire pool was instantly evaporated.

The older man in the gray robe grew increasingly terrified as the fight progressed.

The red-robed swordsman's attacks were completely haphazard, relying entirely on brute force.

That overwhelming bloodline suppression meant that the old man could only unleash 70% of his full cultivation.

"This is outrageous! Do they really think I'm made of clay?"

The gray-robed old man was cornered, a resolute ferocity flashing in his eyes.

He suddenly bit his tongue, spitting a mouthful of Nascent Soul essence blood onto the skull cane.

The pale skull instantly turned an eerie dark red, and its empty mouth opened, letting out a shrill roar: "Domain of Corpse Mountain and Blood Sea, open!"

The old man shouted loudly.

The space within a radius of a hundred feet was instantly enveloped by a layer of gray-red barrier.

Within the barrier, heaven and earth were upside down, and countless rotting corpses crawled out of the void, transforming into a tireless army of undead, baring their fangs and claws as they pounced on the Blood Swordsman.

At the same time, the space within the barrier became incredibly viscous, as if one were in a deep-sea swamp, greatly limiting the Blood Swordsman's speed.

Faced with a Nascent Soul domain capable of instantly annihilating a Golden Core cultivator, the Blood Swordsman no longer acted arrogantly. He stopped, gripped the hilt of the Blood Sword with both hands, and raised it high above his head.

Faced with a Nascent Soul domain capable of instantly annihilating a Golden Core cultivator, the Blood Swordsman no longer acted arrogantly. He stopped, gripped the hilt of the Blood Sword with both hands, and raised it high above his head.

The power belonging to the ultimate demonic path in his dantian was poured into the sword without reservation.

The longsword burst forth with a blinding crimson light, like a blood-red sun fallen to earth.

"cut."

The Blood Swordsman slashed down with his sword.

The red line floated lightly down into the oncoming army of undead, then moved forward without hindrance, traversing the gray-robed elder's proud domain barrier.

Immediately afterwards, those ferocious, rotting corpses, starting from the point of contact with the red line, silently turned into dust.

The gray-red barrier that had confined the space for hundreds of feet collapsed completely, as if it were a piece of cloth being cut by an unparalleled sharp blade, with a sharp tearing sound.

The domain was forcibly broken open, and the gray-robed elder suffered a severe backlash.

He groaned, blood flowing from his seven orifices, and dense cracks appeared on the surface of his skull cane. His body flew backward and crashed heavily into a white marble array pillar on the outer edge of the blood pool array.

The massive pillars were smashed open, leaving several cracks, and the old man slid to the ground like a lump of mud.

The Blood Swordsman sheathed his sword and stood up, slowly walking towards the old man who had fallen to the ground.

Although he broke through the opponent's domain, he was also seriously injured, and his right hand holding the sword was trembling slightly.

To directly confront a Nascent Soul cultivator with the Golden Core cultivation level, even with the most powerful techniques, would consume a tremendous amount of energy.

The old man in the gray robe slumped to the ground, vomiting large amounts of blood.

He stared intently at the relentlessly closing in Blood Swordsman, his fear gradually replaced by an incredulous astonishment.

When that sword strike broke through the domain, the spiritual energies of both sides collided and merged directly.

In that life-or-death moment, the old man's keen senses, typical of a Nascent Soul cultivator, finally detected a fact that he found utterly absurd.

He did not sense the perfect aura of the primordial spirit leaving the body in the other party's spiritual power, nor did he sense any fluctuations of laws belonging to a Nascent Soul cultivator.

The vast, domineering power within the opponent's body was actually still at the Golden Core stage.

"You haven't formed your nascent soul."

The gray-robed old man, ignoring the blood at the corner of his mouth, pointed at the Blood Swordsman, his voice sharp and distorted with shock.

"You're not a Nascent Soul cultivator; your dantian only contains a Golden Core... How could someone at the mere Golden Core stage possess such terrifying spiritual power? Who... exactly are you?!"

The old man's pupils dilated in shock, he clutched his chest, his face filled with disbelief.

In the ironclad rules of the cultivation world, there is an insurmountable chasm between the Nascent Soul stage and the Golden Core stage.

Nascent Soul cultivators possess an absolute crushing power over Golden Core cultivators; this is common knowledge among all cultivators.

For a Golden Core cultivator to defeat a Nascent Soul cultivator who has unleashed a domain head-on is a pipe dream.

But now, this unbreakable common sense has been trampled underfoot by the red-robed swordsman in front of him.

The Blood Swordsman stopped three steps away from the old man, his scarlet eyes coldly fixed on him.

"Dead people don't need to know that much."

The Blood Swordsman slowly raised his longsword, the tip pointing directly at the old man's throat.

The old man trembled violently; he knew the other party had a real intention to kill him.

He didn't want to die. How could he, a dignified elder of the Central Plains Holy Sect, die in such a desolate place as the Eastern Plains?

"Save me, Your Majesty!"

Just as the Blood Swordsman was about to end the old man's life with a single strike, the old man suddenly raised his head and let out a mournful roar towards the blood-red pillar of light that stretched straight to the sky in the deepest part of the City Lord's Mansion.

The sound, imbued with his last nascent soul power, pierced through layers of array barriers and reached the core of the underground blood pool.

As the old man's cries for help faded, a deep, thunderous thud suddenly echoed from the depths of the city lord's mansion.

"Thump. Thump."

The sound was like the beating of an enormous heart.

Immediately afterwards, the towering crimson pillar of light suddenly contracted, and the ground of the city lord's mansion began to shake violently.

A terrifying aura, more than ten times stronger than that of the gray-robed old man, slowly emanated from the depths of the earth.

The Blood Swordsman frowned, his raised sword halting in mid-air.

He could sense that the real deal was finally about to appear.