Chapter 232: Pale Worm! (Happy National Day)

Artifact Heart Sect, outskirts of the Immortal Palace.

More than ten Artifact Heart Sect disciples had just flown out of the sinkhole area where the Immortal Palace was located in a group.

Before they could even catch their breath, they let out a cry of alarm as they were seized by a beam of green light, and in the next instant, they appeared on the deck of a large Immortal Boat high in the sky.

This large Immortal Boat came from the Heavenly Sword Sect and had deployed a highly sophisticated Hidden Array to conceal its form.

On the deck, besides several Elders from the Heavenly Sword Sect, there were also several old men wearing Daoist robes of different colors.

Among them, in addition to reinforcements from other sects, were two Guest Elders of the Artifact Heart Sect.

Both of these men were sharp-witted; the moment they sensed something was wrong, they, just like Xiao Mu Zhenren, immediately found an excuse to run outside.

The Artifact Heart Sect disciples, who had been dazed after landing on the deck, saw the surrounding scenery and immediately knelt down in a crowd, faces full of joy.

Then, under the questioning of a gentle female cultivator, they explained the recent anomalies in the Immortal Palace one by one.

"Neither the Warding Evil Talismans nor the Dharma Artifacts reacted?"

"Hmm... Could it be that this is not the work of an Evil Spirit, but some other technique of ghosts and monsters?"

The Heavenly Sword Sect Elder in full charge of this matter flashed a strange look in his eyes and whispered.

"However, what kind of Evil Art could accomplish all this under the protection of so many experts and Spirit Treasures of the Artifact Heart Sect!"

"This shouldn't be!"

"Unless... the ones who took action are the high-level members of the Artifact Heart Sect themselves!"

"As long as it is not an Evil Spirit, let us all go and take a look at what exactly this Artifact Heart Sect is doing."

Although surprised in their hearts, after these Elders confirmed through various means that this matter had nothing to do with Evil Spirits.

They could not help but feel a bit more composed.

Their Heavenly Sword Sect was at the top level in Nanhuang when it came to spell combat!

The sky on the outskirts of the Immortal Palace suddenly erupted with Golden Light.

Immediately, one large Immortal Boat after another deactivated their concealment status and descended from the high altitude.

Surging Divine Sense was released from the Immortal Boats, forcibly scanning toward the Immortal Palace.

Upon this scan, they immediately discovered that the entire Immortal Palace had actually shut down even its most basic Array.

Under their Divine Sense, except for a few Cave Abodes in the deepest parts, every other place in the Immortal Palace was laid bare.

The rare Spirit Herbs and special Spirit Beasts in the Spirit Garden, the massive amount of precious materials stored in the storehouse, and even various Dharma Artifacts and semi-finished Spirit Tools.

Among these precious items, even Golden Core Elders could not help but feel moved.

After all, this was the foundation accumulated by a large sect over a thousand years.

How could there not be good things?

And these things were also one of the important reasons why they were so eager to come and help.

"There is indeed something strange!"

The Heavenly Sword Sect Elder drew a wide-bladed sword flashing with Golden Light.

The aura on his body also became sharp as a result.

"I ask you all to strike with me to break open that Cave Abode and investigate what has happened!"

These Elders from various parties did not care whether a long-range attack would destroy this important building.

Being the cunning old foxes they were, they would never run into the interior of the Immortal Palace to investigate, even if it killed them.

In an instant, every one of those large Immortal Boats erupted with brilliant rays of light, which then struck the Immortal Palace.

Boom!

Under the loud noise, the entire Immortal Palace trembled slightly from the shockwave of the explosion.

The Heavenly Sword Sect Elder who had attacked suddenly let out a cold snort, flew out of the Immortal Boat, and raised his great sword with a grim laugh:

"I knew there was a problem, but I didn't expect it to be you bunch of demon brats causing trouble!"

At the gate of the Immortal Palace, three black-robed figures suddenly appeared, throwing out a black pagoda to block the previous attack.

It was also with this move that the Demon Heart Sect identity of the black-robed figures was completely exposed.

The leading black-robed figure chuckled, looked at the large Immortal Boats in the air, and said indifferently:

"We were also invited here; if you want to know the answer, why don't you and I wait here for a while?"

"Just wait a little longer, and the result should be out soon."

"Hmph! Don't think you can disturb our minds with a few words of nonsense."

"Regardless of what happened to the Artifact Heart Sect, everyone! It will never be wrong for us to capture them now!"

The Heavenly Sword Sect Elder waved his great sword and took the position of the main attacker.

The other Elders also followed suit and took action.

And the Foundation Establishment cultivators inside the large Immortal Boats were not idle either, manipulating the Array to provide assistance.

While the great battle raged outside.

In the deepest part of the Immortal Palace.

In the Cave Abode where the Sect Master originally resided.

It had now been arranged into an Altar.

The scent of incense filled every space of the Cave Abode.

The Sect Master, who had suffered a mental breakdown and gone insane because of the Blood God incident, was sitting cross-legged around the Altar with other Elders and Deacons.

They all kept their eyes tightly closed, and objects could be vaguely seen wriggling and moving beneath their pale skin.

Rustling sounds appeared on the ground.

It was ant-sized strange insects crawling rapidly.

"Hehehe, finally gathered enough."

"Cough, cough, cough!"

On the Altar, the Artifact Heart Sect Golden Core Elder, who was originally the Sect Master's True Disciple, stood hunched over with a strange smile on his face.

A shocking, large bulge had risen on his back.

Something was wriggling inside the large bulge.

"Master... look!"

"What you could not achieve before, I am now going to complete for you."

"I will create an existence no less than that Blood God!"

"And with such an existence, the Artifact Heart Sect... will surely continue through the great changes to come!"

"So, if you must sacrifice yourself for this, Master, you would surely be willing, right?"

"You will also be immensely gratified by my respect for my teacher and the Dao, won't you!"

This True Disciple looked at the Artifact Heart Sect Master, coughing and laughing strangely at the same time.

Then, after he took three sticks of Sandalwood Incense from his Storage Spirit Tool, bowed to the four directions, and inserted them into the Altar.

The Daoists sitting cross-legged all around opened their eyes, which no longer had any pupils.

Afterwards, they opened their mouths and spat out pale Worm Eggs one by one.

After these Worm Eggs slowly landed on the ground, they cracked open with a *splat*, and somewhat illusory worms crawled out.

As soon as these worms appeared, the Daoists acting as hosts immediately turned into dried corpses and collapsed to the ground.

The pale worms crawled onto the Altar in unison, bit through the True Disciple's bare feet, and burrowed inside.

With every worm that entered.

This True Disciple's aura grew stronger by a fraction.

His aura began to swell rapidly.

Golden Core Late Stage, Golden Core Perfection...

Then, suddenly, as his pupils vanished, this True Disciple burst into wild laughter.

Along with the Sect Master's worms, he also entered his own body.

This True Disciple's aura stepped into the Nascent Soul realm in an instant!

Above his head, an illusory figure the size of an infant emerged.

But just as this Nascent Soul appeared.

*Puff! *

A large mouth suddenly opened on the large bulge on the True Disciple's back, and a pale tongue shot out, wrapping around the Nascent Soul and pulling it inside.

Accompanied by the sound of chewing.

The True Disciple's body stiffened, then blood flowed from his seven orifices, and he collapsed to the ground all at once.

*Thump! Thump! *

Dozens of seconds later.

A strange sound echoed in the Cave Abode.

This sound quickly penetrated the Cave Abode and penetrated the Immortal Palace.

Allowing both sides fighting outside to hear it.

Then, the Heavenly Sword Sect Elder, who had been startled by this heartbeat,

suddenly discovered that the two Guest Elders who were helping out had suddenly let out a miserable shriek.

And then, their entire bodies turned into dried corpses and fell from the sky.

The Heavenly Sword Sect Elder could vaguely see that when these two Elders fell, something seemed to appear on their bodies and suddenly vanish into the Immortal Palace.

"Hiss!"

"What on earth happened?"

"I remember those two Guest Elders had both used a Secret Technique to sacrifice their Dao path, possessing the strength of a Pseudo-Golden Core at the Golden Core Initial Stage!"

"How could they have been struck so suddenly?"

On the deck of the large Immortal Boat, those Artifact Heart Sect disciples who had escaped all had their expressions change drastically, and terror grew in their hearts.

But before these disciples could do anything else.

Another heartbeat sound reached their ears.

These Artifact Heart Sect disciples who had gathered the courage to escape all screamed as they turned into dried corpses.

However, because their cultivation was low, the worms in the eggs they cultivated were also of a low grade.

After breaking out of the eggs, they were immediately blocked by the Array activated by the Heavenly Sword Sect Foundation Establishment cultivators on the large Immortal Boat.

But as soon as these worms encountered resistance, they actually self-destructed instantly.

In the blink of an eye, the deck of this large Immortal Boat bloomed with over a dozen huge fireballs, as if it had been hit by over a dozen heavy bombs.

Fortunately, this large Immortal Boat was an Elder's transport, so even with the explosion inside, only the deck was slightly damaged.

"Pale worms?"

The Heavenly Sword Sect Elder retreated back to the Immortal Boat upon encountering this change, while the Secret Language of a trusted disciple rang in his ears.

"This is the Demon Heart Sect's Secret Technique, the Demon Heart Strange Worm!"

"But the conditions for performing this technique are extremely harsh, and the host will also turn into an insect puppet; there are many risks during the process, and one careless mistake will lead to failure and death... How could any Cultivator be willing to perform this Secret Technique! This is clearly a case of the loss outweighing the gain!"

"Could it be that the one from the Artifact Heart Sect who defected to the Demon Heart Sect has gone mad!"

Vaguely, this Heavenly Sword Sect Elder guessed the truth of the matter.

It was not just one person in the upper echelons of the Artifact Heart Sect who had gone mad; in fact, that Sect Master and his True Disciple had both already gone mad after leaving the Blood God Secret Realm.

It was just that one was a madman from the inside out, while the other was a calm madman who maintained an outward appearance.

Boom!

A loud noise erupted once again from within the Immortal Palace.

Then, a sudden mutation occurred!

A pale, worm-like phantom, roughly a thousand meters tall, suddenly appeared above the Immortal Palace.

On the face of this worm phantom were only two eyes resembling black holes and a single mouth; its long, strip-like body was covered in pairs of human-like hands that constantly waved about.

Not long after it appeared, its body began to shift from illusory to real.

Yet during this process, whether it was inside the Immortal Palace or the dried corpses outside,

threads were actually pulling at these corpses, causing their Divine Soul to be ripped out and then surge into the pale human-like figure.

Clearly, under this arrangement, not only were the physical bodies not spared, but even the Divine Soul would not be spared.

As the Divine Soul submerged into its body,

the pale worm phantom seemed to gain a physical form; because of this, human faces—those who had become hosts and had their Divine Soul devoured—appeared on the skin of its chest and shoulders.

And at the center of the pale worm's brow, the face of the Artifact Heart Sect True Disciple emerged.

With a strange laugh, feeling quite pleased with himself, he even lifted the worm's head to look at the sky.

"Are you fellow Daoists here to congratulate the birth of our sect's guardian deity?"

"It is a pity that the Elders and disciples of this place have all sacrificed themselves for the birth of our sect's guardian deity; I can only neglect you all..."

"Eh, why are you all leaving already?"

"Please, stay and have a meal together!"

The massive pale worm had already begun to move before the human face had even finished speaking.

Although it had only just been born, its movements had already stirred up the surrounding Spirit Qi.

This gave everyone present the feeling that a heavy stone had fallen upon their shoulders.

Several Elders from other sects made a prompt decision to retreat and regroup first.

However, before their Immortal Boat could even turn, the opponent appeared behind them, having arrived later but reaching first.

At the same time, they did not know when the airspace around them had become filled with white threads and Worm Eggs floating in all directions.

In the distance, three black-robed figures had been prepared; the moment they stopped their actions, they used a rare Talisman to teleport here to observe the battle.

"Tsk tsk tsk, who would have thought the Demon Heart Strange Worm would have such power once grown; it is worthy of being the foundation left behind by our Ancient Holy Sect!"

"But, does doing this seem to have any benefit for our Demon Heart Sect?"

"Heh! What benefit compares to being able to watch such a good show!"

"The more chaotic this region is, the better!"

"It would be best if that thing eats all the high-level Cultivators in this region and then goes to cause a scene over at the Zhenshou Xiancheng."

"If that truly happens, that would be the greatest benefit for our sect!"

Saying this, they continued to look into the distance.

The pale worm displayed combat power no less than that of an early-stage Nascent Soul Cultivator.

Furthermore, it possessed various bizarre methods and terrifying recovery abilities.

An Elder of the Heavenly Sword Sect risked injury to use a Secret Technique to strengthen his offensive power, splitting the pale worm's head in two with a single sword strike.

Yet such an injury was restored by the opponent in less than three seconds.

And on the body of the Heavenly Sword Sect Elder, Worm Eggs had already invaded, and hundreds of small bumps appeared on him.

His Essence Spirit and Qi were being devoured rapidly.

"How can it be so difficult to deal with!"

An Elder from an ordinary sect had his expression change drastically; after attacking several times and losing his fighting spirit, he actually abandoned his own Immortal Boat, wanting to escape alone.

Yet, having just flown a thousand meters, his body was entangled by countless threads, and then he was dragged screaming before the pale worm.

He was swallowed in one gulp by the opponent's black-hole-like mouth!

Several minutes later.

The three black-robed figures shook their heads lightly.

The leader said indifferently:

"The Heavenly Sword Sect has exhausted all their trump cards, yet none can suppress the mature worm!"

"The outcome is decided; what follows is merely a death struggle."

Just as he finished saying this and intended to leave, so as not to be targeted by that worm,

the black-robed figure suddenly let out an 'eh' and looked behind him with a somewhat nervous expression.

The other two black-robed figures also saw this and hurriedly turned around.

Then, all three of them saw, with drastically changed expressions, the blood-red figure that had appeared in the sky above them.

That figure was enveloped in blood-colored light, making it impossible to see their face clearly.

But that aura of blood-colored pressure and the blood-colored light

made these three think in unison of that Xueshen Laozu who had slaughtered his way out from Nanhuang with a group of people!

"It's Xueshen Laozu!"

"This person cannot be fought! Run!"

The black-robed figures were decisive, immediately transforming into three black shadows, attempting to split into three directions to increase their chances of escape.

But Su Ping, who was already at the Golden Core stage, had also mastered the Blood God Power more smoothly and freely.

Coupled with the auxiliary bonus of the Array diagram.

As the Sun Moon Star Chart unfolded,

the three Demon Heart Sect black-robed figures all discovered they had been swept into the Array.

Snowy mountains, Dahai, and... a blood-colored sky and an even more blood-red Sun.

The moment they gazed at the Sun, the three figures in black robes turned pale, realizing something was wrong!

Boom, boom, boom!

There was no prelude or preparation time.

As Su Ping stirred his heart, a massive hand of the Blood God's true form reached out from the blood-colored sky and grabbed toward those figures in black robes.

Under the enhancement of the array diagram, these blood hands moved even faster.

The figures in black robes caught within it directly felt the power of the Cold Ice Heavy Water; their Dharma Power circulation slowed, and their movements became sluggish by more than ten percent.

As one side waned, the other waxed.

In just one round, Su Ping saw the three Golden Core cultivators of the Demon Heart Sect suppressed within the blood hands, and then thrown into the sky that represented the Blood Sea.

Su Ping put away the array diagram and looked toward the direction of the Artifact Heart Sect's Immortal Palace.

Looking at the appearance of that pale worm.

Su Ping recalled the content in the records of the Blood God Sect that brushed over this briefly.

It was not that they did not want to record it in detail; after all, in Nanhuang, the Blood God Sect also did not favor a Demonic Path like the Demon Heart Sect.

Rather, the Demon Heart Sect kept this extremely well-guarded.

To the extent that, in a sense, even the current high-level members of the Demon Heart Sect did not understand the true function and details of these things.

So even in the heyday of the Blood God Sect, they knew at most a name and some rumors of unknown veracity regarding the foundation of the Demon Heart Sect.

They could only guess at some of the situation by working backward from the results.

"Demon Heart Strange Worm, rumored to be a relic from the ancient era."

"It does indeed fit the characteristics of the Demonic Path's rapid cultivation."

"It's just that the state of the host using this method doesn't look right either; does this count as a success or a failure?"

After Su Ping observed for a while and felt there was no major problem.

Most importantly, after realizing he seemed to have the exact power to restrain the eerie ability of this pale worm.

He flashed to a higher altitude, then went all out to summon the Blood God's true form to descend from the high sky.

The large Immortal Boat of the Heavenly Sword Sect had already begun to emit billowing smoke and was falling.

Many disciples saw their own Elder defeated, and looks of despair appeared on their faces one after another.

Then, just as that pale worm opened its mouth, intending to swallow the Heavenly Sword Sect Elder who was heavily injured and beginning to fall from the high sky.

The Heavenly Sword Sect Elder, who was in a state of falling, suddenly discovered that behind the pale worm rushing toward him, a much larger figure had emerged!

Bang!

The pale worm, maintaining its charging posture and high speed.

Its downward momentum suddenly came to a violent halt, and it actually stopped dead in mid-air.

It was precisely its tail that had been tightly gripped by a blood-colored giant hand.

Then, this giant hand lifted it up to ten thousand meters above the sky.

The worm's head was able to stare face-to-face with the Blood God's massive head.

Then Su Ping gave his assessment: both are ugly as hell! A total villain aesthetic!

"It's you!"

The human face on the worm's brow suddenly shrieked:

"It's you who snatched away Master's opportunity! Snatched away my future!"

"For the sake of the sect's future, eat you, I must eat you!"

"Too much nonsense!"

Su Ping frowned slightly, and immediately a Blood God giant hand reached out and crushed the head of this pale worm with one squeeze.

Instantly!

The battlefield ten thousand meters above the sky became much quieter.