Chapter 438: Dao of Slaughter, Who Are You?

*Boom!*

The instant Su Yanlan crossed the final threshold, the heavens seemed to boil over.

A vast blood colored phenomenon suddenly appeared behind her.

It was the vision produced by her breakthrough, countless Dao rhymes gathering around it.

The vision was of a sea, a boundless sea of blood stretching across the firmament, its waves silently surging between heaven and earth.

Countless corpses could vaguely be seen floating within it. Some of them were humanoid while resembled monstrous beasts and others possessed enormous bodies that seemed capable of spanning entire worlds.

Yet, all of them had one thing in common.

They were all dead.

Their blood dyed the heavens red, and their bones sank into the endless sea.

At the center of that blood colored phenomenon was a throne made of countless white bones.

Merely looking at that throne caused countless cultivators to feel an inexplicable chill, and some below the Immortal Ascension Realm even had blood flowing out of their eyes.

The entire battlefield became quiet for a moment, and even the Upper Realm cultivators who had been fighting arrogantly could not help but look towards the phenomenon.

"What is that?"

"An Immortal Ascension phenomenon?"

"How can an Immortal Ascension phenomenon be like this?"

A Half Immortal from the Upper Realm swallowed with difficulty.

"Why does it feel... so terrifying?"

The blood colored sea continued spreading, expanding to tens of thousands of miles, its crimson light illuminating the entire battlefield.

And at the center of it all, Su Yanlan slowly opened her eyes.

*Boom!*

A terrifying aura at the Immortal Ascension Realm erupted from her body.

She had truly entered the Immortal Ascension Realm.

Yet, the moment she broke through, instead of the aura surrounding her stabilizing, it continued to rise even more as the blood colored sea behind her became increasingly vast.

Her killing intent was growing, and so was her cultivation alongside it.

Zhao Ye stared at her, his expression slowly changing as a few pages from the Records of the Ancient Sword Emperor flashed through his mind.

The Records of the Ancient Sword Emperor were his greatest opportunity, and it was because of them that he recognized Tian Yongheng’s true potential, submitting to the Eternal Peak at an opportune moment.

Without those records, or rather, the legacy, even achieving the Nascent Soul Realm would have been incomparably difficult for him, much less his current later stages Tribulation Transcendence Realm cultivation.

Although much of it was thanks to Tian Yongheng himself, the Records of the Ancient Sword Emperor definitely had a hand in it as well.

Ever since he came into contact with Tian Yongheng, he could feel that the Records of the Ancient Sword Emperor were beginning to recognize him as its master, and his aptitude was also being enhanced.

However, he had never thought that he would actually witness something described within those pages once again after Tian Yongheng, and that too in the same Mortal World.

His lips moved slightly as he incredulously uttered a few words.

"The Dao of Slaughter..."

Tian Yunchen turned towards him.

"What?"

Zhao Ye remained silent for several breaths before sending a voice transmission, his gaze fixed upon Su Yanlan as his beard fluttered in the wind.

"The Dao of Slaughter, it is one of the most terrifying Daos in existence."

Tian Yunchen frowned slightly.

"How terrifying?"

Zhao Ye’s expression was solemn, the Sword Intent around him calming down briefly.

"It grows through killing. The more one kills, the stronger their Dao becomes, and the stronger their Dao becomes, the more feedback the Immortal Cultivator or Immortal Deity gets."

Tian Yunchen’s pupils contracted sharply.

"In other words..."

Zhao Ye nodded seriously.

"That’s right. For someone who walks this Dao, the more they kill, the stronger they get, and this battlefield is their greatest opportunity."

His eyes swept across the endless Upper Realm army.

Hundreds of thousands of Tribulation Transcendence cultivators, tens of thousands of Immortal Ascension cultivators, thousands of Half Immortals, and hundreds of Vagrant Immortals, an almost endless number of lives.

For an ordinary cultivator, this was a catastrophe, but for Su Yanlan, it was nourishment.

Tian Yunchen’s expression became complicated.

"Then isn’t this... extremely powerful?"

Zhao Ye did not immediately answer, but after a moment, he shook his head faintly.

"Powerful indeed, but every powerful shortcut has a price, especially the ones involving Great Daos. The Dao of Slaughter is naturally no exception."

Tian Yunchen listened attentively as Zhao Ye continued.

"If you kill too much, the killing intent and the heavy karma of countless lives will gradually accumulate within your body. It will slowly enter your soul, then your consciousness, and eventually, it will become a part of your very existence."

Tian Yunchen’s expression changed drastically.

"Dao Assimilation!?"

Zhao Ye nodded seriously, looking towards Su Yanlan in the distance.

"If the cultivator cannot control the killing intent, they will be controlled by it. The Dao of Slaughter will gradually replace their original Dao. Their emotions will disappear, their memories will fade, and even their very true self will be devoured until eventually they know nothing except killing."

Tian Yunchen fell silent at these words.

The blood colored sea behind Su Yanlan continued to expand, as she stood beneath it with a calm expression. However, her eyes were becoming increasingly distant.

Zhao Ye suddenly frowned.

"Wait, something is wrong with her."

Tian Yunchen immediately looked over.

Su Yanlan’s lips were moving very slightly, as if she was talking to someone, but there was no one beside her, and neither could anyone hear what she was saying.

At that moment, her expression suddenly changed, a trace of confusion appearing within her eyes.

"Where... am I?"

She whispered softly.

The surrounding battlefield seemed to become incredibly distant.

The sounds of explosions, the roars of cultivators, the clash of weapons, everything gradually faded away, leaving behind only one voice that seemed to emerge from somewhere deep within her consciousness.

"Kill."

It possessed a magnetic, almost ethereal charm, causing her fingers to tighten around the blood colored spear.

Fragments of memories suddenly erupted within her mind once again, except this time, they were clearer than ever before.

She saw a vast cosmos, countless worlds and endless stars the size of universes, Immortal Divine Blood falling like rain and an enormous figure collapsing from the heavens.

The sky split apart and the earth shattered in a battle between countless ancient existences.

Everything was covered in blood, and at the center of that battlefield, a woman stood alone. Her clothes were stained crimson, her purple hair fluttered in the wind, and her eyes were cold.

Each speck of Immortal Qi radiating off her was enough to annihilate the entire Lower Realm a hundred and eighty times over.

Behind her was a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

The memory flashed and then disappeared again.

Su Yanlan’s pupils constricted.

"Who..."

The voice came again, louder this time, reverberating in the depths of her consciousness, as if someone was standing directly beside her.

"Kill. Kill. Kill."

Su Yanlan’s breathing became slightly heavier, her eyes beginning to turn crimson.

Zhao Ye’s expression changed dramatically in reality.

"Supreme Su!"

When she gave no response, Tian Yunchen immediately moved.

*Whoosh!*

His figure appeared beside her in an instant.

"Wake up!"

He reached out towards her shoulder, looking at her in the eye as he activated a Divine Power, wanting to shake her consciousness back into reality.

However, the instant his hand approached...

*Boom!*

A terrifying killing intent erupted like a raging tide, causing Tian Yunchen’s eyes to narrow.

He retreated immediately, appearing tens of thousands of miles away.

*Bang!*

The surrounding void shattered, a blood colored spear having appeared where his hand had been.

Tian Yunchen stared at Su Yanlan, calculating rapidly in his heart on what to do.

She was still standing there, her face expressionless.

But her eyes were completely different from before.

Zhao Ye’s heart sank as he sent a voice transmission, "Don’t approach her."

Tian Yunchen frowned, having already guessed the reason but still asked anyways.

"What happened?"

Zhao Ye stared at Su Yanlan, his voice extremely solemn.

"I think... the Dao of Slaughter is beginning to influence her."

At that moment, Su Yanlan suddenly raised her head.

The blood colored sea behind her roared along with her movement.

*Boom!*

A terrifying killing intent swept across the battlefield. Countless cultivators felt their bodies become cold, and even some Half Immortals were forced to retreat.

An Upper Realm Immortal Ascension cultivator looked at her in fear.

"What kind of monster is that?"

Another person answered tremblingly.

"I don’t know... but don’t get too close."

But then, feeling something was wrong, he turned around only to find out that the cultivator beside him had suddenly disappeared.

*Pfft!*

The next moment, a blood colored spear pierced through his chest.

His body and soul exploded, his Dao scattering.

Su Yanlan stood in the distance, her expression indifferent as her hand slowly withdrew the spear.

A wisp of red Qi invisible to the naked eye surged towards her from the cultivator’s direction, causing the aura surrounding her to strengthen by a fraction.

Zhao Ye’s eyes widened slightly.

He had seen it happen again.

The moment she killed, her Dao became stronger, and the stronger her Dao became, the stronger she became.

It was an almost perfect cycle.

Kill, become stronger, use that strength to kill more, and become even stronger. There was almost no limit.

But Zhao Ye also knew that such a path had never truly been without limit.

There was always a price, and the price in this one was one’s own self.

"Supreme Su, Su Yanlan!"

Zhao Ye shouted from afar.

This time, her head finally turned, her eyes that had already turned crimson red locking onto him.

It was not the bright crimson red of Tian Yongheng’s eyes that looked mysterious and unfathomable, but a deep crimson red the color of blood, filled with an aura of slaughter.

For a moment, Zhao Ye felt an unfamiliar sensation.

It was as if he was not looking at Su Yanlan, but at an ancient existence he could not possibly comprehend.

His heart gave a fierce jolt at the thought.

"You are not Su Yanlan."

He asked with a solemn expression, Sword Intent already gathering around him.

"Who are you?"