Chapter 228: Difficult Challenge, Lord of Flesh and Blood

"Another peaceful day has arrived!"

Early in the morning, Deacon Luo walked out of his courtyard and looked at the pavilions and towers that were already taking shape on his side of the mountain peak.

This Deacon Luo, who had traveled far and wide for over a hundred years, sighed with a mix of relief and emotion.

Then, he took out a piece of candy—which would be considered sickeningly sweet to anyone on Water Blue Star—placed it in his mouth, and savored it slowly.

Not long after leaving his home, Deacon Luo greeted many Daoists who had also risen early.

The least cultivated among these Daoists who came to greet him were at the Qi Refining Late Stage.

One of them, who left a deep impression on Deacon Luo, was an alchemist at the Foundation Establishment Early Stage.

This alchemist came from a small family in Nanhuang and had once served a major sect.

Originally, he should have retired long ago to return to his family and enjoy his twilight years.

Yet, unexpectedly, under the great changes, for the sake of his children, grandchildren, and family legacy, this elderly alchemist had to return to his old trade, and while opening his furnace to refine pills again,

he also responded to the call of Xueshen Laozu, cast aside sectarian prejudices, and in his spare time from alchemy, began teaching over a dozen alchemy apprentices.

Deacon Luo noticed that this elderly alchemist had developed a liking for the same sweets as he did, and he couldn't help but feel that they were even more kindred spirits.

Deacon Luo entered the warehouse and began to apply his skills, sorting various supplies into categories and distributing them according to need.

His work was well-received by all parties, and because of this, he gained increasing trust from a certain hands-off Shopkeeper.

Some supplies from Water Blue Star were also directly piled in the warehouse to be arranged by the other party.

And regarding these supplies from Water Blue Star.

Although there were no labels or packaging, experienced Cultivators like Deacon Luo actually realized at first glance that these were likely not items from the main world of the Cultivation World.

However, they were not overly surprised by this; instead, they felt a sense of relief, as if it were expected.

Weren't these just products from mortals in other large Secret Realm Cave Heavens?

After guessing that Xueshen Laozu was in all likelihood just a long-famous Old Ancestor using a pseudonym.

They believed that Xueshen Laozu certainly did not only control the Blood God Secret Realm.

These supplies now were merely corroboration of this guess.

Although large Secret Realms were rare, in the long history of the Cultivation World, which so-called Immortal Sect didn't have a few large Secret Realms at their disposal?

It was not surprising that Xueshen Laozu was suspected to be an Old Ancestor of a hidden Immortal Sect, controlling one or two large Secret Realms.

Furthermore, in some large Secret Realms that had run into trouble and had thin Spirit Qi, it was already common in various legends or storybooks that Immortal Sects used them to keep mortals in captivity.

And judging from the fact that these supplies had almost no trace of Spirit Qi.

Deacon Luo was even more inclined to believe that these were products from a large Secret Realm with thin Spirit Qi that an Immortal Sect used to keep mortals in captivity.

"Sigh, these mortals in the large Secret Realms are much happier than those in the Cultivation World!"

Deacon Luo thought of the miserable conditions throughout Nanhuang, shook his head slightly, and after adjusting his mindset, busied himself again.

He stayed busy until noon.

Just as Deacon Luo poured himself a cup of hot tea, preparing to rest for a quarter of an hour before continuing his work,

he suddenly noticed that the Barrier outside the mountain peak had suddenly erupted with a blinding blood-red light.

Just as he thought this was merely a change in the Secret Realm brought about by Xueshen Laozu summoning the Blood God's true body.

Suddenly, a chill that made one's entire body freeze swept through him.

The dozens of Foundation Establishment Cultivators in the Blood God Secret Realm all shook, stopped their work, and appeared on the great formation at the highest mountain peak to be prepared for any eventuality.

Deacon Luo also appeared on the mountain peak, looking up with the other Foundation Establishment Cultivators at a strange and Evil force that had infiltrated this Secret Realm world under the blood-colored sky.

That was a polluting force brought in by a large iron ship that had been taken into the Secret Realm.

After a dark red pollution was forced out of that iron ship by the blood light, it hovered in the sky.

Under the suppression of the Blood God Secret Realm's power, this dark red force transformed into the phantom of a chubby meatball.

Deacon Luo had seen Evil Spirits and vaguely felt that this power was somewhat similar to those Evil Spirits, yet it seemed to have a fundamental difference.

And judging from the intuition his Divine Soul felt just by looking at it.

This power, like the Evil Spirits, was extremely dangerous to Cultivators like them!

"What kind of enemy has Xueshen Laozu gone up against?"

"What is this power? So cold and dark..."

"The Blood God's true body is an incense god at the Nascent Soul Realm, yet it can only suppress this invading force for now and cannot decompose it..."

Deacon Luo and the others looked at the anomaly in the sky, once again feeling their own fragility, insignificance, and ignorance...

Just as this strange force and the blood light were entangled in the sky, to the point of affecting the construction projects of the Blood God Secret Realm.

Suddenly, a clattering sound of chains rang out between heaven and earth.

Deacon Luo and the others noticed that the force suddenly disappeared.

It seemed to have been taken away from the Blood God Secret Realm.

"It must be that Xueshen Laozu transferred that strange force away!"

"There can be no other possibility besides the Old Ancestor!"

"However, the Old Ancestor dared to directly transfer a strange force that even the Blood God's true body found difficult to clear... As expected, the Old Ancestor is a top-tier powerhouse far stronger than the Blood God's true body!"

…………

Water Blue Star, an uninhabited island in the waters near Baixiang Guo.

Although it was called an uninhabited island, in fact, there were man-made structures on it.

Not only were there wooden houses and gardens, but there were also solar panels on the roofs.

Beach buggies and some tools were also parked next to the courtyard.

It was just that, as the waters where this uninhabited island was located were confirmed to be an area where an Abyss Rift had appeared.

The original owner of this island, who did not wish to reveal themselves, immediately issued a statement relinquishing ownership of the island.

The military of the nearby Flower Flag Country also hurriedly dispatched troops to carry out a rapid deployment at this maritime outpost.

In particular, they installed the newest and best batch of observation equipment on the island.

As Su Ping felt he was prepared, he notified the major powers of Water Blue Star that he was about to go all out.

Then, after waiting for a while, he chose to challenge the Difficult Challenge Abyss.

Outside the uninhabited island, the Flower Flag Country officers and soldiers who had finished the final deployment felt the sky begin to turn a dark red.

Knowing the situation, their expressions changed slightly, and they hurriedly had the pilot increase the ship's speed to the maximum.

Along with this supply ship, they quickly slipped away and moved far from the uninhabited island.

Standing in the ship's cabin corridor, the captain and the Captain of the special operations team in charge of this matter both looked at each other, smiled, and quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

According to the data they had obtained previously.

At this distance, even if an Abyss monster appeared, it should not be able to affect their supply ship.

As for whether the enemy would pursue them... they still had confidence in those mysterious transcendent beings.

Since the other party did not ask them to participate in the battle during this Abyss event, only asking them to evacuate, they only needed to watch the show.

Thinking this, the bold Captain of the special operations team, a two-meter-tall, gray-haired middle-aged man, even bit down on a lollipop laced with a stimulant, put on a special helmet, and used the long-range vision function to look over.

Above the uninhabited island, the expected Abyss Rift did not appear.

Instead, it was suddenly calm and tranquil, with the entire world appearing like a still painting.

Suddenly!

This still painting suddenly developed cracks from the very center, turning into a spider web.

The next second!

The space with the cracks seemed to have been smashed, scattering and disappearing... immediately revealing a city that seemed to have forcibly squeezed into this world.

It was an ancient, uninhabited stone city shining with an ominous dark red light.

This stone city was constructed from over three thousand stone buildings of various sizes.

Upon completely entering this Dahai and the city base coming into contact with the seawater, the entire stone city seemed to suddenly come alive.

Every stone house began to grow flesh and blood from its crevices, and soon this flesh and blood began to cover the entire building.

The Captain of the special operations team could see those stone houses, which were no less than the height of skyscrapers, gradually transforming into individual flesh-and-blood giants.

The Captain, who was watching this incredible scene with a tingling scalp, soon discovered that it was not just the ancient stone city.

Even that uninhabited island, regardless of the buildings, plants, or various machines they had brought onto it,

actually began to sprout flesh and blood, and then, as the flesh and blood wrapped around most of their bodies, they also came to life, emitting a strange and Evil aura.

"What kind of monster is this!"

After the special operations Captain realized that the observation instrument he had personally installed had actually turned into a one-eyed monster, and as if it had noticed his peeping, it jumped up and looked at him.

No matter how bold he was, the Captain couldn't help but be shocked, took a big step back, leaned his back against the railing, and then gasped for air as he hurriedly took off his helmet.

Then, this Captain discovered that the captain who had been chatting and laughing with him just a moment ago was looking at him with a face full of terror.

"You..."

This special operations Captain was just about to ask what was wrong, when he suddenly realized why he suddenly needed to look up at the other person?

His own two-meter-tall frame was much taller than this short captain...

Soon, he realized why.

His entire lower body had actually turned into a soft mass of flesh and blood at some unknown time.

Even his hands had turned into octopus-like fleshy tentacles.

The special operations Captain closed his eyes in despair; he had thought that he would soon be killed by his panicked colleagues firing all their bullets.

However, there was no sound of fighting on this supply ship.

The crew members who had not seen the arrival of the Xuerou Zhi Cheng with their own eyes also mutated, just a few seconds later.

Even because of the appearance of the trigger.

Everyone on the entire supply ship lost their ability to act and experienced mutations in different parts of their bodies.

Further away, in the military base of the Flower Flag Country.

The generals, with ashen faces, were on one hand terrified that the scale of the pollution from this Abyss monster was unexpectedly large, and on the other hand, they were very worried that their connection with the frontline supply ship would cause them to suffer from the pollution as well.

In addition, they also learned a piece of news that made their teeth ache.

The Nuclear Warhead deployed at the uninhabited island for testing had also lost contact, and it was suspected that it had also turned into a monster!

"God!"

"Generals, please be sure to look at this intelligence!"

"Or, you can also see this scene if you walk out of the room and look up at the sky!"

"This... is truly too terrifying!"

Before they had finished digesting the news that their weapons and ammunition had also mutated, the generals learned of another shocking situation with great impact.

Above that sea area where the obvious Abyss creation had appeared.

A huge phantom was rapidly taking shape.

After just a few short seconds.

More than half of the humans on Water Blue Star, as long as they looked up, could see the huge, somewhat illusory and blurry, yet clearly visible, giant meatball monster in the sky.

It was a dark red meatball projection that experts measured to be at least the size of the Moon!

It opened the thousands of blood-red eyes on its body, pressed against the atmosphere, and curiously watched the humans living on Water Blue Star.

"This guy..."

After Su Ping started the challenge, he discovered that the entry mode for the Difficult Challenge Abyss had changed.

In Difficult mode, there are no First or Second Tier stages; one only needs to repel or destroy the Abyss invading object.

At the same time, a great deal of information appeared in his mind, allowing him to know the origins of these Abyss monsters before him in advance:

"That is Xuerou Zhi Cheng, a high-level monster from the Abyss!"

"And the projection above is the pollution and assimilation of the new world that high-level Abyss monsters like Xuerou Zhi Cheng almost always attempt after successfully entering a new world!"

"The projection it summoned..."

"Should be a projection of one of the Abyss Seven Monarchs, the Lord of Flesh and Blood, right?"

"If this were not an Abyss Challenge, but rather the opponent had arrived due to an accident."

"Just those few seconds of the Lord of Flesh and Blood's projection appearing would be enough to completely pollute a world into a world of flesh and blood, and then slowly drag it into the Abyss, right!"

"Instead of how it is now, where the actual pollution area only involves that challenge zone."

"Outside the zone, it's just about the same as some scary special effects."

"Furthermore... including these powers involving innate divine abilities, they have all been suppressed to the third stage, which is the Golden Core realm."

Su Ping was just about to make a move.

Seemingly frightened by the projection of the Lord of Flesh and Blood overhead.

The nearest military bases of various major powers launched their missiles in full force at Xuerou Zhi Cheng.

Clearly, they also realized that the focus was that strange and terrifying city.

It was just that these weapons and equipment, which lacked extraordinary resistance, couldn't even get within a thousand meters of Xuerou Zhi Cheng.

Flesh and blood grew on their bodies, and after they stalled and turned into monsters baring fangs and brandishing claws, they fell plop, plop into the Dahai.

Within Baixiang Guo, the entire population was in a state of shock at this moment.

At an array deployment site near the coast, the Temple Master of Qingmu Temple and Zhang Qiuzhen were the first to react, shouting out in unison.

This voice woke the other sword envoys who had been chosen to come.

At the very least, they all had Qi Refining in their bodies, and with the start of the Abyss Challenge, the Sword Array in this place also began to operate.

These four hundred or so Taoist practitioners all woke up in unison and began to stand in their respective positions as planned.

Afterward, they performed sword arts, with the black crow ghost soldiers or paper-man Dao soldiers in the array serving as Dharma Power batteries.

One after another, the Zhuxie Sword Shadows of the Evil-Slaying Ten Thousand Sword Array began to slowly take shape above the array.

As the Evil-Slaying Ten Thousand Sword Array erupted with ripples of sword Qi.

The courage to slay demons and eliminate devils between heaven and earth gradually welled up in the hearts of those sword envoys performing the sword arts!

On the sea.

Su Ping did not continue to stay invisible and watch the show.

After all, this thing was, in a sense, the type that gets stronger the more you fight it.

To prevent any changes, it was better to fight and resolve it early!

Su Ping revealed the image of the Immortal Yunlai.

And summoned the black flood dragon Ao Li to appear in the sky.

Immediately, the coastal residents and tourists of Baixiang Guo, who were terrified because of the phantom of the Lord of Flesh and Blood in the sky, opened their mouths wide and saw a sight they would never forget in their lives.

They actually saw with their own eyes a black divine dragon nearly a thousand meters long appear in the sky!

And as a dragon roar was emitted, while countless people felt their bodies go numb, no expression of fear appeared on their faces; instead, excitement and agitation were mixed within.

"A divine dragon! That must be a divine dragon!"

"I knew that divine dragons must truly exist!"

Looking from afar, these tourists and local residents could not distinguish the difference between a flood dragon and a divine dragon at all.

However, this did not hinder their feelings of reverence for Ao Li.

Although the worship and mythological stories of dragon gods like the divine dragon, which involve the Dahai, seemed incomparable to the mainstream in modern society.

Their spread in these coastal areas was still extensive and deeply rooted in people's hearts.

Su Ping stepped on Ao Li's head, and then, under the gaze of countless people, rode the dragon and traveled, reaching the area of the uninhabited island in the blink of an eye.

And while passing that unlucky supply ship.

After Su Ping scanned it with his Divine Sense and sighed with compassion, he swept it up with a flash of blood light and rolled the large ship into the Blood God Secret Realm.

Just waiting for after the great battle, once the pollution on those people was removed, he would throw it back to them.

Of course, the ship and equipment and such would naturally not be returned.

Xuerou Zhi Cheng sensed Su Ping's arrival.

Especially the aura of Ao Li, this black flood dragon, which made it smell the scent of a strong enemy.

Accompanied by strange whispering sounds rising on the sea surface.

Thousands of flesh-and-blood tentacles emerged and intertwined on the sea, all piercing toward the sky to form a spiked shell.

Looking from afar, it looked like a black long snake attempting to charge at a hedgehog covered in spikes.

Ao!

Ao Li also activated his own divine abilities.

After obtaining the False Dragon Blood, his affinity for the Dahai had also increased to a level near that of a true dragon.

At the very least, a thousand-meter-high tsunami rose from the flat ground, glowing with a ghostly light as it was imbued with Ao Li's power, and under Ao Li's urging, it crashed like a copper wall and iron bastion toward the flesh-and-blood spiked city wall.

The wall of the sea and the spiked shell collided together.

In the blink of an eye, the tsunami completely collapsed and shattered.

And the spiked shell only looked like it had shed a little bit of its outer skin.

Furthermore, for the flesh and blood that fell off, new tentacles quickly crawled up to attempt to replenish it.

A flash of surprise crossed Ao Li's eyes; he had never seen the monster before him.

Even though its aura looked a little worse than his own, it made him feel a sense of crisis as if he had encountered a life-or-death enemy.

So much so that, faced with the hostility of this monster, after being summoned, he had to stare at the opponent with his full attention, not even daring to spare a sliver of his mind to look at this strange world.

Having failed with one strike, Ao Li was not discouraged.

With a thought, tsunamis formed one after another.

In an instant, they crashed wave after wave against the opponent's spiked shell.

Each air blast and scattered water curtain formed by the impacts, when viewed from high above, was no less impressive than the special effects of a Hudan explosion in a movie.

After ten, twenty, thirty tsunami impacts.

At the same time that Ao Li's Divine Power was nearly exhausted, the spikes on the spiked shell were finally reduced to less than one in ten.

And seemingly thoroughly enraged, Xuerou Zhi Cheng no longer maintained that layer of shell, instead, its entire body began to assemble, transforming into a worm-shaped head, and after opening its massive mouth.

Even though they were still ten thousand meters apart, Ao Li saw the opponent's open mouth.

A flash of inspiration struck, and she immediately sent a message to Su Ping:

"Master, save me!"

However, Ao Li was overthinking it; she had just sent the message.

Su Ping had already summoned his Blood God avatar, directly causing a massive hole to tear open in the space behind him.

Then he reached out a Blood God hand, instantly using absolute strength to shatter the protective light on the wriggling Xuerou Zhi Cheng, and crushed the opponent's entire upper body!