God Emperor

A blood red skull, ten meters wide with spear-like canine teeth and demonic flame burning in the eye sockets.

If the owner was alive, how gigantic would the body be?

And what would it look like?

Zhang Ruochen did not chase after the skull. He knew it would require much strength and power to defeat the skull, let alone with the injuries he had.

Looking worried, the Saint Lady commented, “That skull probably belongs to the Blood Demon.”

“Blood Demon?”

The name did ring a bell. Other than the time when King Xianlan mentioned it, Zhang Ruochen had heard of the name some time before.

The blood red skull went further and further, to the point where Zhang Ruochen and the Saint Lady could only see a small dot of red light glowing in the dark.

The surroundings returned to their cold state.

It was then that Zhang Ruochen noticed the King’s body was already a dried up carcass. It was like all of his Blood Qi had been sucked dry.

The Saint Lady threw a glance at the desiccated corpse, and continued, “A thousand years ago, the Blood Demon was the leader of the Motian Tribe, one of the competing tribes for succession to the Throne of the Immortal Vampires. He was the main rival to the Blood Empress.”

It all came back to Zhang Ruochen after the Saint Lady mentioned the dynastic conflict of the Immortal Vampires.

Eight hundred years ago, he had heard from his father and Blood Emperor Qingtian about their encounter with the Blood Demon when the two Kings were much younger.

However, he was too young to remember the content in detail. Furthermore, he had never done any research and had very little knowledge about the Blood Demon.

He said, “Eight hundred years ago, the world was ruled by nine emperors and three empresses, the twelve most powerful beings at that time. The Blood Empress was ranked the third in terms of strength. Only the two eldest emperors, Emperor Tao and Emperor Wu could defeat her. The Sword Emperor, Xue Hongchen, is perhaps on par with her, now that he’s a grown man. How could the Blood Demon compete with the Blood Empress when she’s already so powerful?”

The Saint Lady shook her head, “Many of the ancient books recorded that the Blood Demon had always had the upper hand. If there wasn’t any accident, the Blood Demon should have been the Emperor of the Immortal Vampires.”

“How’s that possible?” Zhang Ruochen could not believe it.

When the Blood Empress was at the acme of her cultivation, she defeated both Emperor Ming and Emperor Qing jointly. It was quite unlikely even to the most powerful Emperor Tao.

“It is the fact.”

The Saint Lady further commented, “The Blood Demon was a prodigy in his day. At that time, many worried that he would be the second Lord Pluto. You should have heard of the “Heavenly Devil Stone Inscription?” One of the six Extraordinary Books in the Kunlun’s Field.”

Zhang Ruochen nodded, then said, “There are thirty-six engravings in the “Heavenly Devil Stone Inscription.” Legend has it that they belonged to a God in the ancient time and each engraving distills the secret teachings on demonic combat techniques. Acquiring one of them is sufficient to elevate an ordinary monk into becoming the Field’s top master.”

The Saint Lady added on, “And the Blood Demon had mastered nine of the engravings, even creating nine Saint Spells out of them.”

Zhang Ruochen inhaled sharply, struggling to believe it. “This is too shocking. It is extremely rare to find a monk who has mastered two engravings, let alone nine.”

The Young Master of Black Market Excellence Hall, Emperor One, was another prodigy like the Blood Demon. Yet he had only mastered one of the engravings.

Because mastering one engraving had helped him to achieve the Supreme Saint level.

“The young Blood Demon was far too intelligent for his age and soon people became afraid of him, including the Blood Empress,” said the Saint Lady.

“If he was that powerful, why did he have to die? Instead, the Blood Empress became the ruler of the Immortal Vampires. Why so?”

The Saint Lady sighed. “I am not sure what happened those days. But there are rumors saying that the Blood Empress had been plotting with the leader of the human race against the Blood Demon, which had stopped him from becoming a Supreme Saint. Otherwise, the Kunlun’s field would have been doomed.”

Zhang Ruochen was confused. He asked, “If the leader had ability to stop the Blood Demon, why didn’t he kill the Blood Empress before she got too powerful? This would have saved us a lot of trouble.”

“I don’t know. These are all rumors after all. No one knows if any of this is true.”

The Saint Lady then added, “The Blood Demon was presumed dead, but he had his skull left with King Xianlan, hadn’t he? It is possible that he’s not dead, not completely.”

Zhang Ruochen listened in silence, and his gaze fixed on the dead King Xianlan who had been sucked dry. Suddenly, a terrifying thought hit him.

Was it by choice that King Xianlan’s Saint Soul entered the skull?

Or was it being absorbed by the soul residing in the skull, along with his blood?

Of course it would be better if it was the first.

If King Xianlan’s Saint Soul had control over the skull, it would be less trouble.

If it was the latter, that would be terrifying.

It would mean the Blood Demon did not die a thousand years ago. The skull was the only remnant of his, and it had been living within King Xianlan’s body.

There was an explosion heard from a thousand miles away.

Following the eruption, a bright red light soared up and spread across the sky for hundreds of miles.

The explosion alerted Zhang Ruochen. He leapt from the boulder to boulder up to the peak of the canyon, overlooking the range of red light.

It was the abnormal red light again. The surrounding area was painted in red, adding an eerie charm to it.

He then noticed a dot glowing somewhere above the trench.

It was …

The skull that had just flown away.

Could it be the skull that had activated the abnormal light?

The abnormal red light continued to flare, and thick blood fog emanating from the skull orbited the trench for a while. Then everything settled into the trench, and the surroundings were covered in darkness again.

Zhang Ruochen described everything he saw to the Saint Lady when he was back to the ground.

The Saint Lady gave it a thought, and the gloomy expression on her face worsened. “If I have guessed it correctly, the Blood Demon has come back to live. He must have felt the remnant of the Blood Empress’ Blood Qi at the trench, which explains why he flew over immediately.”

“That sounds logical,” Zhang Ruochen commented.

The Saint Lady sighed, “This is beyond our limit already. We should not go over. Something horrific is there and if we go over by force, we will die.”

Zhang Ruochen and the Saint Lady were no match for the Blood Demon. They might encounter other dangers if they were to continue their journey there.

“Whether this is about the secret of the Bottomless Abyss, or the rebirth of the Blood Demon, I have to report everything to the Empress and urge the Imperial Court to remove these threats as soon as possible.”

The Saint Lady lifted her head to look at Zhang Ruochen. “I will report everything to the Empress. Everything that you have done, including the time when you obstructed the dead souls from entering our world with the stone rune brought over from the netherworld. I am sure your crimes will be atoned for after this.”

Zhang Ruochen’s face stiffened. He said, “I didn’t do any of it for the Imperial Court. I do what I think is right. Do not tell her about me. She is in no place to judge what is right and what is wrong of me.”

“Zhang Ruochen.”

The Saint Lady snapped. Her tone softened when she saw his unyielding expression, and said, “Do you want to be a fugitive forever? And live your life as someone else, always on the run and never able to gather with your family? Is this what you want? Who are you exactly? Lin Yue? Zhang Ruochen? Or your current identity in the Blood God Sect? Don’t you want to live as yourself?”

He stared into the emptiness, and muttered to himself: I want to…

It was only for a second and he was back to the cold and emotionless face again. He shook his head and said, “Don’t lay your finger on this matter ever again!”

Then, he walked away from her.

The Saint Lady extended her hand trying to pull him back. But the white in his eyes was covered in tiny red veins as if he was in deep thought. He shrugged off her grip, not realizing the yank had made her fall.

The Saint Lady coughed up more blood, her face as white as a sheet. Her coughing sound brought him back to reality. It was then he remembered that the Saint Lady was badly wounded. As powerful as her Spiritual Power could be, she was a weak, feeble woman after all.

“I’m sorry, I was…”

Zhang Ruochen attempted to explain while helping her up but he did not know how to begin.

The Saint Lady shook her head lightly, then said, “Everyone has a choice to make. You can reject my suggestion, but I will do what I insist on doing. I may not be able to help out, but I have no regrets.”

Zhang Ruochen seemed anxious and replied, “I am worried that you will be dragged into this mess, and eventually you will be the one being hurt.”

“I’ve said, no regrets.”

The Saint Lady stared at Zhang Ruochen in the eyes, determined with her stand.

His eyes met hers, and saw something that was beyond friendship.

For an unknown reason, he panicked, then avoided her stare. He said, “Let’s leave and go back up to the ground. The rest…let’s not talk about it now!”