Chapter 29: The Ancestor of Blood Slaughter

At this very moment, fragments of the bone altar sizzled within the flames, while the blood-red mist at the base of the cliff surged like boiling water.

A malevolent force surged upward, coalescing into a spinning vortex of blood in the center of the ruins. Countless distorted human faces drifted and wailed within it—a power a hundred times more terrifying than the Nine Heavens Underworld Formation!

Suddenly, a figure stepped out from the blood, his entire body radiating a sinister aura.

This was the Blood-Slaughter Ancestor, a malevolent demon from the ancient era who fed upon living beings. Three thousand years ago, during his advancement to the Spirit Severing stage, he was besieged by the righteous factions and had to cast his remnant soul into the essence and blood of one hundred thousand vengeful spirits to lie dormant.

Today, he had used the Blood Shadow Hall’s sacrifice to reconstruct his physical body!

"Hehehe... After three thousand years of slumber, I have finally returned!" The Blood-Slaughter Ancestor’s voice sounded like steel needles scraping against eardrums. With a single grasp, he tore off an entire section of the cliff wall, swallowing the hiding Blood Shadow Hall cultivators along with it as they transformed into blood mist. "You two little ones possess decent skills; you shall serve as the offerings for my awakening!"

Xiao Yi’s Heaven-Burning Emperor Flame suddenly surged, forming a shield of crimson-gold fire before him. He shouted in a low voice, "What kind of evil spirit are you?"

The Blood-Slaughter Ancestor tilted his head to study him, the blood crystal between his brows glowing red. "Kid, looking at your Fire Spirit Sacred Body, you will make a fine appetizer. Remember, I am the Blood-Slaughter Ancestor." He licked his lips, and the malevolent energy around him erupted.

Before the words had even faded, he lunged with a claw, the barbed blood-stained hand carrying enough power to tear through space itself.

"Don't even think about it!" Xiao Yi roared, driving his Fire Spirit Sacred Body to its limit. The Heaven-Burning Emperor Flame expanded into a ten-foot pillar of fire, crashing down toward the Blood-Slaughter Ancestor.

Yet, as soon as the flames touched the blood-stained claw, they were extinguished with a *puff*, leaving not even a scorch mark behind!

"How is this possible?!" Xiao Yi’s heart trembled violently. The Heaven-Burning Emperor Flame was a rare celestial fire capable of reducing even Void-Refining stage evil cultivators to ash. How could it fail to leave a scratch on this monster’s scales? The strength of the Blood-Slaughter Ancestor was terrifying!

"Die!" Seeing the situation turn dire, Su Wan opened her Sword Domain instantly, her Purple Lightning Heavenly Dragon Sword transforming into thousands of purple lightning bolts that descended like a torrential downpour.

However, the sword energy was swallowed by the blood mist surrounding the Ancestor the moment it drew near; it wasn't even enough to make him raise an eyelid.

The Blood-Slaughter Ancestor glanced at Su Wan and flicked a line of blood from his fingertip.

Though the thread of blood appeared slender, it carried the power to rend space. It pierced through the Sword Domain in an instant, grazing Su Wan’s shoulder—blood blossomed across her white robes, and the spiritual energy at the wound dissipated rapidly as if in a receding tide!

The Blood-Slaughter Ancestor licked his lips, greed flashing in the crystal between his brows. "You are too weak! Three thousand years, and the cultivators of this world have fallen so low! Let me devour your souls." He stomped his foot, and the cliff floor cracked instantly. Countless blood-stained hands reached out from the fissures, grabbing tightly at their ankles!

Xiao Yi pushed with both palms, turning the ground beneath them into a sea of fire, but those blood hands were like indestructible ghost claws; for every one burned away, another appeared, and within a blink, they were wrapped around his shins.

Su Wan swung her sword to sever the hands grasping her legs, but for every one she cut, another emerged.

"Give up! You are far too weak!" The Blood-Slaughter Ancestor pressed forward, each step causing the cliff base to quake. The malevolent energy squeezed in like a tidal wave; Xiao Yi’s Heaven-Burning Emperor Flame was crushed into a tiny flicker, and Su Wan’s Sword Domain rippled with instability.

"Want us to give up? Dream on!" Xiao Yi gritted his teeth, thrusting his left hand into his robes to pull out a communication talisman glowing with purple-gold light.

This was a gift personally bestowed by his master, Ye Chentian, before their departure, to be crushed only in the face of an insurmountable threat. He had wanted to resolve this on his own, but facing the Blood-Slaughter Ancestor, he and Su Wan would surely be defeated!

*Snap!*

The communication talisman was ignited by spiritual energy, transforming into a streak of purple-gold light that shot into the sky, exploding into a brilliant, sword-shaped glow.

Back at the Xuantian Sect, Ye Chentian was leaning against a bamboo chair in the Moon-Watching Pavilion, holding a chess piece between his fingers and smiling at the game on the stone table.

Beside him, the incense burner curled with smoke, and a gentle breeze brought the scent of bamboo—a scene of perfect tranquility.

Suddenly, the jade pendant at his waist glowed red, and a sharp, urgent ringing of a sword resounded in his consciousness.

The chess piece fell from Ye Chentian’s fingers with a *clatter*. The smile on his face vanished instantly, his eyes turning as sharp as blades.

"It is Yi'er's communication talisman."

Before the words were even out, his figure vanished from the bamboo chair, leaving behind only a pale green afterimage.

The next moment, a beam of green light pierced through the heavens from the direction of the Xuantian Sect gate, moving so fast that it tore a whistle into the air—it was Ye Chentian, pushing his movement technique to the limit, traveling a thousand miles in an instant!

At the base of the Cliff of Severed Souls, the Blood-Slaughter Ancestor laughed wildly upon seeing Xiao Yi crush the talisman. "Trying to call for help? Too late! In this Eastern Region, no one can save those whom I have targeted!"

Just as the Blood-Slaughter Ancestor’s claws were about to seize Su Wan’s throat, a clear, resonant sword hum echoed from the horizon, like shattering jade or the roar of a dragon from the Nine Heavens!

A figure stepped through the air. Wherever the longsword beneath his feet passed, the blood mist melted like snow, and even the evil energy that blotted out the sun was forcibly torn open!

"Master!" Su Wan’s tears welled up the moment she saw him.

Ye Chentian did not even glance at the two of them. He stared at the Blood-Slaughter Ancestor with eyes as calm as a deep lake, as if the half-step Spirit Severing evil creature before him were nothing more than an ant waiting to be crushed.

Seeing Ye Chentian step through the air, the Blood-Slaughter Ancestor instinctively tried to probe his cultivation, but his spiritual sense sank into the man as if into a bottomless sea.

The white-robed man before him was like an abyss; he could detect no fluctuations of spiritual energy, yet he radiated a heart-stopping pressure!

The Blood-Slaughter Ancestor felt a sudden, inexplicable tightness in his chest. "Who are you?! Why can I not detect your cultivation?"

Ye Chentian toyed with the Purple Lightning Heavenly Dragon Sword, arcs of lightning dancing along the blade. He sneered, "You old piece of trash, you’re about to die; why bother asking such things?"

"You seek death!" The Blood-Slaughter Ancestor felt unnerved by that indifferent gaze and, in a fit of shame and rage, struck the blood crystal on his forehead. "Ten Thousand Souls Consume the Heavens!" he shrieked. "This is a forbidden technique I forged from one hundred thousand vengeful souls. Even those in the early Spirit Severing stage had to retreat before it back then! Today, I will grind your soul into dust!"

Billions of blood threads coalesced into a ghost mask that covered the sky, the shrieks of the vengeful spirits causing the rocks at the cliff base to roll in chaos.

Su Wan gasped, and Xiao Yi’s Heaven-Burning Emperor Flame shrank back; this power was ten times greater than before!

"You call this pathetic, sinister trick 'Consume the Heavens'? How laughable!" Ye Chentian scoffed.

He pointed his sword, and the Purple Lightning Heavenly Dragon Sword erupted with a pillar of purple light.

The beam, wreathed in the Divine Lightning of the Purple Heavens, collided with the ghost mask. With a *hiss*, the mask—capable of tearing through the defenses of a Spirit Severing expert—melted like ice, the vengeful spirits screaming as they were reduced to ash.

The Blood-Slaughter Ancestor’s eyes bulged, a rattling, inhuman sound escaping his throat as he shrieked, "Impossible! How could 'Ten Thousand Souls Consume the Heavens' be broken by a single sword strike? My three thousand years of cultivation—am I really no match for a nobody like you?!"

Ye Chentian flashed before the Blood-Slaughter Ancestor, the tip of his sword resting against his brow, lightning crackling against his skin. He said faintly, "Did you waste three thousand years living like a dog? You dare call yourself an Ancestor with only this level of the Ninth Layer of the Integration stage?"

"Impudent!" The Blood-Slaughter Ancestor, panicked, summoned his life-bound evil weapon. "Blood Prison Soul-Devourer!" As soon as the pitch-black vortex appeared, it radiated a power that threatened to swallow everything. He roared frantically, "This is a killing tool I forged with thirty thousand living souls; it has even refined top-tier mountain-protecting formations! Today, I will devour your soul and make you taste eternal ruin!"

The Purple Lightning Heavenly Dragon Sword gave a light tap, and the Blood Prison Soul-Devourer shattered with a *crack*, the trapped souls turning into white light and soaring into the sky.

The Blood-Slaughter Ancestor panicked completely, his legs trembling uncontrollably as he roared incoherently, "That was my bottom-line life-saving technique! How could it... how could it not last even a single breath?! Who are you?! Since when did such a person appear in the Eastern Region?!"

"Xuantian Sect, Ye Chentian." Ye Chentian flicked his wrist, the Purple Lightning Heavenly Dragon Sword carving an arc of purple electricity. His tone was as cold as frost: "Enough talk. It is time to send you on your way, old thing."

He gave a low shout.

"One Sword to the Afterlife!"

The sword light flashed, and the Blood-Slaughter Ancestor’s head soared into the sky, the neck wound scorched black by purple lightning.

His eyes remained wide open in the air. Before his consciousness vanished, he was still roaring in madness: "I am the Blood-Slaughter Ancestor, a half-step Spirit Severing master... how could I be killed in one strike by you?! This is impossible... the Heavenly Dao is unfair..."

The base of the cliff fell into a deathly silence.

Xiao Yi’s face was filled with astonishment. The Blood-Slaughter Ancestor, who had driven them to the edge of ruin just moments ago, could not even withstand a single strike from his master?

Su Wan looked at her master with eyes full of awe.

Her master, as expected, was invincible!