Chapter 139: The Demon Dao Prodigy, Nie Renchou!

That's true!

With all four of them working together, Foundation Establishment stage isn't a problem.

……

Chen Mu focused his gaze on the southwestern sky, painted with auroras, feeling the vast, ancient aura—his internal Qi seemed to stir slightly.

"Three elder brothers, shall we go take a look?" Chen Mu asked.

"Let's go!"

Shen Ge let out a sharp cry and shot forward first.

Chen Mu and the other three followed close behind, four figures like arrows released from a bow, slicing through the chaotic streets, riding the surging tide of people toward the place where the three-colored auroras blazed into the sky.

The green, yellow, and red auroras, covering several li in diameter, acted like giant guiding beacons, illuminating the direction for everyone.

……

Ten li, for Chen Mu and the others, took only a moment.

When they arrived at the site of the anomaly, the place was already packed with people.

It lay between two towering mountains, forming a relatively open valley.

Outside the valley, no fewer than three or four hundred martial artists, drawn by the news, had gathered in dense clusters, and more kept pouring in continuously from Wulong Fucheng.

Voices roared, noise thundered.

"What an astonishing anomaly! It must be an incredible treasure!"

"Bai Chi, this is a precursor to an ancient ruin opening—the treasure will be inside the ruin."

"Right, right—look at the scale of these auroras, this ruin won't be small."

"Don't push! Wait until the anomaly stabilizes!"

"……"

Speculations and murmurs never ceased; everyone's eyes burned with greed and anticipation as they fixed on the region at the valley's center still shrouded in green, yellow, and red auroras.

After half an hour, the three-colored auroras in the sky began to fade gradually, their coverage shrinking visibly by more than half, as if signaling that the true treasure or entrance was about to appear.

Chen Mu and the other three stood on a slightly elevated slope, calmly observing the chaotic crowd below and the gradually contracting anomaly.

Qin Liangjing whispered, "The anomaly is receding—the ruin's entrance will open at most in three days. In the coming days, more people will come. Chen brother, Shen brother, Pang brother—should we return to the city, or wait here?"

"Let's return to the city first," Shen Ge replied. "We can come back in a couple of days."

"Waiting before the ruin opens is just wasting time," Pang Yunrui agreed.

"……Right." Chen Mu nodded.

In truth, Chen Mu preferred to wait here.

With so many people gathered, conflict was inevitable.

Just in the past half-hour, three groups had nearly come to blows.

But since Shen Ge and Pang Yunrui wanted to return to the city, then let them.

As long as someone dies within three days, they can still retrieve their card upon returning.

……

So.

The four turned and left the slope.

Yet, just then, another change erupted.

Not from the valley's center—but from the restless, crowded crowd itself!

"Wum~~~"

A terrifying, brutal, bloodthirsty sword momentum suddenly exploded in the midst of the crowd!

Immediately after, a massive blood-red blade shadow, a hundred meters long, impossibly dense, formed entirely of viscous, blood-like energy, erupted without warning from somewhere in the crowd, then slashed downward with a force meant to obliterate everything.

"Puch—!"

"Aaah~!!"

Screams instantly tore through the noise.

Over a hundred martial artists within the blade's range had no time to react—they were instantly torn apart by the terrifying aura, limbs and blood spraying everywhere.

Thick, reeking bloodlust rose into the air!

But this was only the beginning.

The blood-red blade shadow did not dissipate after its first strike—it grew even denser.

"Again!"

A wild, ecstatic voice rang out in the crowd.

The blade shadow swept horizontally!

"Puh~ puh~ puh~"

Another hundred martial artists, unable to dodge, were cut cleanly in half, dying instantly.

"Again! Again!"

The wild, ecstatic voice sounded like a death god's proclamation.

The blade shadow shifted again, swirling like a whirlwind through the densest parts of the crowd!

Three strikes!

Only three strikes!

So fast no one could react!

Over four hundred martial artists died instantly in this sudden, horrifying attack—the once-crowded outer edge of the valley now held a vast, blood-soaked empty space.

Even more horrifying: the blood sprayed into the air did not fall to the ground—it was drawn by some invisible force, transforming into streams that swiftly surged toward a figure who had appeared somewhere in the midst of the chaos.

This figure was wrapped in thick, unyielding blood qi, barely discernible as a human form—a man.

He greedily swallowed the converging essence blood, his aura surging at a terrifying pace, unleashing a chilling, wild laugh.

"Jie jie jie~! Thrilling! Thrilling! Thank you, blood offerings, for helping my divine art advance further!"

"It's him!" Shen Ge stopped, turned, his countenance changing, voice trembling slightly.

"Blood Shadow Knife Madman, Nie Renchou!" Pang Yunrui also drew a sharp breath, instinctively gripping his twin halberds.

Qin Liangjing's solemn countenance hardened as he spoke slowly, "Nie Renchou, sixty-third on the Potential Dragon List, true disciple of the Xuemo Sect… how did this madman end up here?"

Chen Mu's grave demeanor deepened as he stared at the figure shrouded in bloodlight.

Xuemo Sect!

Another infamous demonic sect, one of the Wudamo Sects, with a lineage spanning over a thousand years, cultivating through slaughter and blood consumption, reviled by the orthodox path.

Members of the Xuemo Sect act with the greatest audacity; wherever they pass, they bring storms of blood and carnage.

Before this, Chen Mu had only read reports about them—he never expected to encounter one today, and not just any disciple, but a true disciple of the Xuemo Sect, ranked sixty-third on the Potential Dragon List, higher than Shen Ge.

Most importantly, this fellow named Nie Renchou dared appear so brazenly, slaughtering hundreds in an instant!

…

Having absorbed vast quantities of blood, Nie Renchou's blood qi grew even denser. Satisfied, he let out a wild laugh, his form dissolving into a blood shadow that shot skyward, fleeing swiftly toward the distant mountains, leaving behind a scene of chaos and countless warriors pale-faced and trembling with terror.

Outside the valley, a deathly silence fell, broken only by the cloying, nauseating stench of blood and silent dread spreading through the air.

The crowd moments ago clamoring for opportunity now stood utterly cowed by the three bloody slashes and the Xuemo Sect's fearsome reputation.

Chen Mu stared at the direction Nie Renchou had vanished, then at the corpses littering the ground, his eyes flickering.

"I'll check if any of the dead are from the Zhenwu Bureau."

Many lay dead in the field; many more were wounded or fallen unconscious.

The Jing'an Prefecture Zhenwu Bureau had sent many personnel here.

As a member of the Zhenwu Bureau, Chen Mu had a duty to see to them.

With that, he spoke one sentence, then his form blurred, skimming low across the ground.

As he entered the looting range—

【Corpse detected. Loot?】

"Yes!"

【Corpse detected. Loot?】