The atmosphere in the martial arena of the Dong Thanh branch office had frozen beneath a layer of icy mist. Lục Vô Thường's gaze was fixed on the bloodstained jade command token and the sealed letter bearing Zhao Hundred-Household Commander's seal. The fury of a powerful expert erupted, and the true qi radiating from his body formed raging gusts that swept dust into the air beneath the raised platform.
"Good! Very good!" Lục Vô Thường ground out each word, his voice echoing like rolling thunder. "A Hundred-Household Commander of the Nightwalker Bureau, paid by the imperial court, actually dared collude with those demonic heretics of the Blood Pool Cult to gut people, flay their skin, and practice evil arts! His death at Hong Tu Valley was far too easy!"
Below the platform, the Black-Clad Envoys all changed color when they heard the words "Blood Pool Cult," and many of them began trembling from head to toe. The Blood Pool Cult was no band of wandering malignant spirits. It was an unorthodox demonic sect that had existed for hundreds of years, specializing in cultivation through human blood and resentment. They were cruel, cunning, and possessed an extremely intricate organizational network.
Qin Yan stood near the front of the formation, carefully concealing every trace of his aura. He kept his head lowered, wearing a respectful expression, while the corner of his mouth curled into a deeply satisfied smile. His plan to lure the tiger from the mountain had succeeded brilliantly.
Last night, after cleaning up the aftermath at Hong Tu Valley, he had used **[Painted-Skin Illusory Garment]** to turn invisible and infiltrated the underground secret chamber of Zhao Hundred-Household Commander. He had swept up all the evidence and secret documents related to the offering of human skin to the so-called "Grand High Priest," then secretly hidden them at an insignificant Blood Pool Cult outpost in the western outskirts—the location that had been casually mentioned in the documents.
Finally, he had deliberately left behind a few minor fabricated traces for the investigators from Nightwalker Bureau headquarters to follow. The result was exactly as he had expected: Lục Vô Thường's attention and fury had been completely redirected from the murder of a Hundred-Household Commander to silence him toward a shocking conspiracy threatening the entire dynasty.
"Qin Yan!" Lục Vô Thường's voice suddenly rang out, cutting off his train of thought.
"At your command." Qin Yan immediately clasped his fists and stepped forward half a pace with steady composure.
Lục Vô Thường narrowed his eyes at him. The killing intent he had directed at Qin Yan earlier had faded considerably, but his sharp scrutiny remained undiminished. "The matter at the abandoned temple is on hold for now. Whether you escaped death through luck or by using some despicable trick, your life still belongs to the Nightwalker Bureau. You are the only person in this branch office who has directly encountered the vengeful spirits of the Blood Pool Cult at the abandoned temple. In this western sweep, you will lead the scouting party. Do you dare go?"
This was clearly not a reward for meritorious service, but a test of life and death. Lục Vô Thường wanted to throw him into the tiger's den and see whether he would reveal his fox's tail or truly lose his life.
"I obey! Even if my flesh is torn apart and my bones reduced to dust, I swear to wipe out the evil spirits and wash away the Nightwalker Bureau's shame!" Qin Yan shouted boldly, his eyes firm and shining with righteous conviction as he perfectly played the role of a loyal, devoted subordinate.
Lục Vô Thường snorted coldly and swept his brocade sleeve through the air. "All troops, hear my order! Mount up! Target: Blood Gate Cliff in the western outskirts!"
The rapid pounding of hooves tore through the hazy fog of the Imperial Capital. Nearly two hundred elite Black-Clad Envoys and dozens of iron-armored guards thundered westward like an iron hurricane.
When they reached Blood Gate Cliff, the treacherous terrain came into view. The vegetation was withered, and the drifting mist carried a faint red tint and stank of blood and rotting flesh. Standing before a colossal cave entrance concealed behind dark, thorny vines, Lục Vô Thường raised his hand and signaled the entire force to halt.
Qin Yan stood in the vanguard and silently circulated his true qi into his eyes.
**[Netherworld Eye—Sin-Gazing activated!]**
In an instant, the reality before him made his pupils contract violently. The cave entrance appeared dark and still on the outside, but under the Judge's gaze, it was actually the gaping maw of a colossal monster waiting for prey. Thick, scarlet mist steeped in resentment poured out like a spring, while the wretched cries of thousands of aggrieved souls echoed from deep underground, stabbing painfully at his eardrums.
Inside the cave, murderous karma hung as densely as a spiderweb, so vicious that even the protective golden light around Lục Vô Thường flickered faintly.
"Qin Yan, take five men inside and scout." A Chief Banner Officer standing beside him slapped Qin Yan hard on the shoulder and coldly ordered him into the jaws of death.
Qin Yan nodded without objection and drew the **[Soul-Severing Blade]** from its sheath. A hazy layer of mist immediately spread from its pitch-black edge. He and five other Black-Clad Envoys cautiously stepped into the cave's pitch-dark depths.
The moment they crossed the cave's mouth, the temperature suddenly plunged to freezing. The trickle of running water echoed through the narrow space, but it was not spring water. It was a viscous liquid that reeked of blood and rot.
"Stop." Qin Yan abruptly raised a hand, signaling the formation to halt. Through the [Netherworld Eye], he saw that the moss-covered rocks clinging to the cave ceiling were... moving. The aura of karmic sin radiating from them blackened the air, carrying the faint, faltering pulse of malignant spirits.
"What is it? Getting scared?" The Black-Clad Envoy directly behind Qin Yan sneered contemptuously and deliberately stepped past him.
But the instant his foot touched a pool of red water on the ground, a sharp *Crack!* ripped through the silent cavern.
From the cave ceiling, a hideous creature shot downward with the speed of thunder. It was neither a ghost bat nor a beast, but a monster stitched together from numerous pieces of human corpses. Four elongated limbs extended from the arms and legs of burly men, while its head belonged to a wild dog whose eye sockets gushed blood.
**[Warning! Enemy: Blood Puppet (Blood Doll)—Level 6. They have no souls and are merely vessels of murderous energy under manipulation!]**
The Blood Puppet opened its jagged maw and bit off the head of the Black-Clad Envoy who had just mocked it in a single breath. Fresh blood gushed like a fountain, staining an entire section of the rock wall red. The crisp crunch of bones being chewed sent chills down the spine.
"Aah! A demon! It's a trap!" The four remaining Black-Clad Envoys retreated in panic, hurriedly drawing their blades and hacking wildly at the air. But their mundane blades merely scraped across the monster's iron-hard hide, throwing off harmless sparks.
*Scrape... scrape... scrape!*
Crawling sounds reverberated from all directions. Dozens of other Blood Puppets began emerging from the cave ceiling and from cracks splitting through the muddy floor, lunging at the tiny vanguard and tearing into them like a pack of hungry hyenas ripping apart their prey.
Qin Yan was not frightened in the slightest. Instead, the depths of his eyes gleamed with the extreme excitement of a butcher. These puppets had no souls, so killing them would not release true-spirit memories. In exchange, however, their murderous energy contained a great many Judge Points.
He deftly retreated into a hidden corner, leaving the Black-Clad Envoys to scream and serve as sandbags that held back the monsters. The [Netherworld Eye] swept across the area, locking onto the hidden yin-energy junction at the fifth cervical vertebra of each Blood Puppet.
"Shing!"
Qin Yan burst from the darkness. The Soul-Severing Blade drew a breathtaking arc of black light through the blood mist. Carrying the explosive power of **[Netherworld Golden Body]**, the blade cleanly severed the neck of the nearest Blood Puppet and crushed the tiny Blood Core controlling its body.
**[Successfully killed Blood Puppet. Received: 150 Judge Points.]** **[Successfully killed Blood Puppet. Received: 150 Judge Points.]**
The system's chime rang out repeatedly in his sea of consciousness. Qin Yan slipped and spun as gracefully as a dancer on a blade amid the swarm of monsters, using the chaos to deliver lethal finishing blows and steal the last hits. He was extremely careful not to reveal too much of his strength, swinging his blade only enough to finish off monsters that had already been gravely wounded or left exposed by their companions.
Outside the cave entrance, hearing the anguished screams and catching the thick stench of fresh blood pouring out, Lục Vô Thường's expression sank into an icy abyss.
"You Blood Pool Cult rats! How dare you set up a Blood Formation at the gates of the Imperial Capital! Get out of my way!"
He shouted and gripped the hilt of the Demon-Subduing Ancient Sword at his waist with his right hand. A clear *clang!* rang out like a dragon's roar, tearing through the nine layers of heaven. The treasured sword left its sheath, instantly releasing a brilliant golden sword light filled with blazing yang energy that burned the surrounding resentment mist with sizzling sounds.
Lục Vô Thường transformed into a golden meteor and shot straight into the heart of the cave.
With one simple horizontal slash, surging sword energy swept forth like a tsunami and cleaved apart more than a dozen Blood Puppets that had been viciously tearing into their prey. The monsters' corpses exploded, spraying black blood everywhere, yet not a single filthy drop touched the hem of Lục Vô Thường's brocade robe. The might of one of the four Commanding Envoys was truly unrivaled!
Qin Yan swiftly threw himself to the ground, pretending to clutch his chest and gasp violently as though he were a lowly soldier who had barely escaped death. His fingers, however, lightly caressed the hilt of his blade. His accumulated points had just shot up by nearly two thousand in the brief minutes he had spent "clearing weeds."
"You Blood Pool Cult scum! If you're here, come out and face me. Don't use these cheap toys to test my patience!" Lục Vô Thường planted the Demon-Subduing Ancient Sword into the ground. His explosive true qi formed rippling shock waves that shook the entire cavern.
From the deepest reaches of the dark cave came a sharp, shrill, eerie laugh, sounding partly like a woman's voice and partly like the unnerving caw of a raven.
"Heh heh heh... Lục Vô Thường of the Nightwalker Bureau truly is a sharp sword. But today, that sword will be shattered here at Blood Gate!"
Following the eerie laughter, a pool of thick, crimson blood suddenly surged up from the uneven stone floor in the center of the cave. From the steaming, roiling sea of blood, a figure in a dark-red blood robe slowly rose. The old man was as gaunt as a dry skeleton wrapped in skin, with deep-set eye sockets blazing with eerie blue ghost-fire phosphorescence. In his hand was a staff set with dozens of stark-white children's skulls. Each time he drifted forward, the ground split open, exhaling suffocating waves of resentment that took the shape of shrieking demons.
**[Extreme danger warning! Rank SSS!]** **[Enemy: Blood Pool Cult Elder—Level 15. Domain: Boundless Sea of Blood.]**
The system blared a shrill alarm in Qin Yan's sea of consciousness, loud enough to make his ears ache. A wary glint flashed in his eyes. Level 15! Six whole levels above him, and it even possessed its own domain. Against a monster of this caliber, if he fought it head-on right now, ten lives would not be enough to pay the price.
"Lục Vô Thường, let me see how many vengeful souls your Demon-Subduing Ancient Sword can cut down in my Sea of Blood!" The elder swung his staff. The pool of blood surged high above it and transformed into dozens of enormous Blood Dragons that roared and charged straight at the Commanding Envoy, their jaws bristling with fangs.
Lục Vô Thường did not waver in the slightest. The golden light around his sword grew ever more dazzling, brilliant as the midday sun. He stamped hard on the ground, transformed into a streak of light, and charged straight into the Sea of Blood, opening a world-shaking battle between two powerful experts.
As rocks collapsed and blasts of force scattered in every direction, sending the frail Black-Clad Envoys flying, no one noticed the lowly soldier Qin Yan curled up in a concealed dark corner. A sly, vicious smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, while a faint stream of black qi began gathering in his palm in the form of a gloomy iron chain—**[Soul-Locking Bone Chain]**.
Fight on. Tear each other to pieces. Let's see who gets to swing the blade and claim the final kill from this Level 15 Boss!