Chapter 368: Advent of the Demon Lord

The sky bled crimson as the void itself fractured. The entire world seemed submerged in a sea of blood. A boundless crimson ocean intertwined with saber light that pierced heaven and earth like constellations. A colossal palm, vast as the ocean, crushed down from above while a terrifying, shadowy dragon lunged forth. The scene was one of immense, world-shaking power.

“You bastards… Every last one of you wants me dead!” Blood Nether Celestial hovered within the sea of blood, his robes stirring without a breeze, his blood-red hair whipping wildly. A vicious glint flashed in the crimson pupils on his handsome, otherworldly face as he snarled, “Is that so? Well, I refuse to grant your wish!”

“I will not only live, I will become even more powerful!” As his voice fell, a terrifying demonic aura surged from Blood Nether Celestial. The surrounding blood-colored Demon Qi coiled and writhed like dragons and snakes, radiating a fearsome presence.

“Boundless is the Blood Sea, dragons leap to the nine heavens.”

A glint flashed in Blood Nether Celestial’s eyes as his robes danced wildly. He formed a profound Seal with his hands, and the sky-spanning Demon Qi stirred the very energy of the world. Upon the boundless sea of blood,

it began to churn, GURGLE, GURGLE, and then dozens of Blood Evil Flood Dragons, each hundreds of miles vast with incomparably ferocious heads, rose from its depths.

“Kill!!”

With a furious roar from Blood Nether Celestial, the dozens of Blood Evil Flood Dragons soared into the air. They pierced the firmament, surging with tyrannical Demon Power as they charged ferociously toward Gu Yun and his two companions!

“Hmm?”

Du Yuan watched as dozens of Blood Evil Flood Dragons, brimming with tyrannical power and sky-high Demon Qi, surged forward to devour them. An incredibly powerful sense of oppression washed over him.

‘If we can’t block this attack,’ he thought, his heart sinking instantly, ‘we’re going to die!’

At this thought, his heart sank.

“This power…” At his side, Qin Xiao’s dark pupils watched the dozens of draconic monstrosities—wreathed in Demon Qi and born of the blood sea—charge toward them, and his expression grew grim.

‘Against such a powerful Demon Technique,’ Qin Xiao thought, secretly alarmed, ‘even if you survived, you’d be grievously wounded.’ His gaze was heavy with apprehension.

“Everyone, please step back. They are nothing but a few mud eels. Watch how I dispose of them with a single blow.”

At that moment, Gu Yun stepped forward, hovering in midair. His white robes and long hair whipped in the wind. His deep eyes watched the dozens of colossal, hundred-mile-long Blood Sea Flood Dragons charge toward them, their attack seemingly Devouring Heaven and Earth and blanketing the sky, yet there was not a trace of fear in his gaze.

BANG!

The next moment, the vast Magical Power within Gu Yun’s body erupted. A Thunder Dao Rhythm revolved around him, crackling with astonishing bolts of lightning. A deep sea of thunder roiled within his very eyes, making him appear terrifying beyond measure. The mere aura leaking from him was enough to make heaven and earth tremble and shatter.

RUMBLE!

A crimson bolt of thunder suddenly split the sky, its roar echoing through the world as it cast a dazzling, scarlet light.

RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

In an instant, an area thousands of miles wide transformed into a Thunder Domain. Countless crimson bolts of lightning, each radiating an aura of Divine Power, churned within it, creating an immense sense of pressure.

Gu Yun reached out a hand, his expression impassive. With Thunder Arcs flashing in his eyes, he pressed down slightly and uttered a chilling command that made the very world tremble:

“Myriad Manifestations Celestial Thunder Attraction!”

The myriad crimson thunderbolts within the thousands-of-miles-wide Thunder Domain instantly streaked across the firmament. Wielding vast Divine Power, they descended like a Thunder Punishment from heaven and earth, a sky-blotting torrent that surged toward the dozens of terrifying Blood Sea Flood Dragons!

“This aura… This… This is the Vermilion Bird Heaven-Burning Thunder!” Hovering in the void, Du Yuan looked as if he had just sensed something impossible. An expression of utter shock appeared on his aged face, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks as he stared in disbelief.

“Yes, it really is the Vermilion Bird Heaven-Burning Thunder—one of the legendary Heaven and Earth Divine Thunders,” Qin Xiao said, his own eyes wide with shock.

“Fellow Daoist Gu is truly a man of overwhelming fortune, to have subdued even the most violent and ferocious of all the Divine Thunders.” Du Yuan stroked his grizzled beard and sighed with awe.

This was a Heaven and Earth Divine Thunder, after all—an existence even rarer and more precious than any Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire. It was a miracle of nature, nigh impossible to find.

A Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire was something one could only encounter by chance, not seek out. To subdue and refine one, a person had to endure the agony of being incinerated from within.

A Heaven and Earth Divine Thunder, however, was on another level entirely. In thousands of years, the number of people who had even seen a Divine Thunder could be counted on one hand. And even if one were to find it, subduing it required first enduring a Body Tempering akin to a Celestial Punishment. Failure to resist meant certain death.

And yet, for thousands of years, almost no one in the entire Celestial Essence Realm had ever seen a Divine Thunder. But now, a man who had actually subdued one stood right before them—and his power was utterly terrifying!

Gu Yun, for his part, had no idea of the utterly shocked expressions on Du Yuan and Qin Xiao’s faces after he had summoned the Vermilion Bird Heaven-Burning Thunder. And even if he had known, he would have simply met their awe with a faint smile.

BOOM!!

In the next instant,

the myriad crimson thunderbolts, carrying vast Divine Power, slammed into the dozens of immense Blood Sea Demon Dragons charging through the sky. The collision produced a world-shaking explosion. The very void in a thousand-mile radius shattered into pieces, revealing terrifying, pitch-black abyssal rifts.

A terrifying torrent of endless darkness spilled from the rifts. The entire world trembled violently. The horrifying aftershocks swept out for thousands of miles; wherever they passed, great mountains crumbled, towering ancient trees shattered, and countless Demon Beasts fled in terror.

“Wh-what in the world is happening?”

Eight thousand miles away, a young Cultivator at the Spiritual Martial Realm Ninth Layer felt the terrifying tremors shaking the very ground beneath him. He was dressed in grey robes, with a sturdy build and a simple, honest face. His eyes were fixed on a crimson glow in the far distance, which shone like a rising blood moon.

“This… I fear it’s a battle between experts of the legendary True Monarch Level!” said a middle-aged man in a black robe standing beside him. He was at the True Martial Realm First Layer, and his deep voice was grave as he stared at the distant crimson light. “And they’re powerful ones, even among True Monarchs!”