Chapter 199: The Two-Headed Bone Demon (Happy New Year)

The middle-aged man, skeletal in appearance, then pulled from his bosom a white bone disc, tossed it into the air, and it instantly transformed into a beam of white light soaring straight upward, hovering motionless at a height of forty to fifty zhang.

"Rise."

The middle-aged man uttered a low command and swiftly formed hand seals with both hands.

From the piles of bones surrounding the altar came a thunderous roar; crimson spiritual runes emerged one after another, and countless bones rolled into these crimson patterns, coalescing and reshaping into towering bone pillars—over a dozen in total—that encircled the altar in a vast ring.

The middle-aged man flipped his palm, and suddenly a gleaming dagger appeared; without hesitation, he slashed it across his other wrist, leaving a deep gash from which blood gushed forth violently.

He swung his wrist hard, splattering a torrent of blood onto the bone altar.

The next instant, an unbelievable sight appeared.

Beneath the altar, the ground began to tremble; from the center of the altar, thick crimson spiritual runes emerged on the earth, connecting with the towering bone pillars around it, faintly forming a much larger crimson array.

The animal corpses surrounding the altar mysteriously dissolved and decomposed within the crimson array, turning into unknown viscous red liquids that sank into the ground, causing the entire great array to flare with blinding crimson light.

Seeing this, the middle-aged man on the altar drew a deep breath and pulled another bone disc from his bosom, tossing it into the empty air before him, where it hung motionless.

Then, carefully, he withdrew a black wooden box, opened it, and revealed a dried, half-severed finger inside.

The middle-aged man reverently placed the finger atop the floating bone disc, then drew the dagger across his wrist once more, letting drops of blood fall into the disc, while murmuring incantations and circling the disc, striking it with wave after wave of spiritual seals.

Moments later, a layer of crimson light glowed across the disc's surface; the dried finger rapidly dissolved within the light, liquefying and sinking into the disc.

"Rise."

The skeletal middle-aged man halted his steps and uttered a low command.

The entire altar shuddered slightly, then erupted in rolling crimson mist, from which a pillar of crimson light shot skyward, directly piercing the bone disc above.

Directly above the altar, the air hummed loudly; the space around the bone disc blurred and twisted, becoming as clear and crystalline as a mirror.

Not only that, but dense crimson spiritual runes appeared on the other dozen or so bone pillars; with a flash of crimson light, each emitted a pillar of crimson light that struck the twisted, crystalline void above.

"Boom."

A continuous roar echoed from the sky; the previously indistinct void began to violently warp around the bone disc, its surface cracking with white fissures—as if heaven itself were being forcibly torn apart.

Moreover, on the towering bone pillars surrounding the altar, black-robed disciples of the Black Soul Sect had mysteriously appeared, each holding a white bone banner, which they plunged directly into the bone pillar beneath them, muttering incantations as they poured their spiritual power furiously into the banners.

The crimson light pillars spewing from the tops of the bone pillars instantly thickened, and the entire crimson array beneath the altar flickered wildly, causing the entire valley to tremble.

Under this furious assault of crimson light, the white fissures in the sky multiplied rapidly.

At that moment, from within the bone disc on the altar, a slender tendril of crimson mist responded, shooting skyward and vanishing instantly into the cracked void.

"Boom."

The next instant, the bone disc in the sky suddenly exploded into a blinding burst of white light, revealing a gaping black hole in the void.

The black hole twisted, and two enormous white bone hands reached out from within, their fingers entwined with threads of crystalline light, desperately gripping the edges of the hole as if trying to pry it open.

One of these massive bone hands bore only four fingers.

Seeing this, the middle-aged man on the altar rejoiced wildly, slashing his own body with the dagger to create more wounds, spilling greater quantities of essence blood into the altar beneath him, making the crimson light pillar erupting from the altar shine even brighter.

The black-robed disciples atop the bone pillars also spat out clumps of essence blood onto their banners, pouring their final reserves of spiritual power into the banners before them.

With the aid of the dozen crimson light pillars, the black hole expanded further, and from within it, a massive white bone body was forcibly squeezed out—a colossal two-headed bone demon.

The bone demon stood seven or eight zhang tall; one head bore a single horn and a mouth full of fangs, the other head was pure white and crystalline, with a single luminous eye embedded between its brows. Both heads and half its torso had already squeezed through the hole, still straining to force the rest of its body out.

But as more of the bone demon's body emerged, the black hole seemed to react violently, its edges beginning to contract; no matter how hard the crimson light pillars from the altar and bone pillars struck it, the hole continued shrinking.

Seeing this, the two-headed bone demon flashed crystalline light from its hands, desperately tearing at the hole's edges—but could not stretch it open by even a fraction.

Moreover, the middle-aged man below and the dozen black-robed disciples began to stagger, their spiritual fluctuations weakening, causing the crimson light pillars from the entire array to grow thinner.

The bone demon within the black hole saw this, and both faces twisted with desperation; after struggling for a moment, it could not resist the hole's contraction, and even half its torso was cleanly severed by the shrinking portal.

The two heads of the bone demon suddenly chattered rapidly to each other; the arm already outside suddenly swung and slashed across its own body.

"Crack."

The bone demon's body split cleanly in two; the horned head swiftly retracted into the black hole, while the remaining half of its body plummeted from the sky, crashing heavily onto the ground below and sending a shockwave rippling outward in all directions.

The middle-aged man on the altar was startled, but could no longer sustain the entire array; after spitting out a mouthful of blood, he collapsed helplessly onto the altar.

The crimson array in the valley dimmed instantly; all crimson spiritual rune shadows dissolved and vanished.

The black-robed disciples atop the bone pillars fared no better—some toppled backward, others turned pale as death, and still others collapsed directly onto the bone pillars…

At that moment, a dense swarm of Black Soul Sect disciples flew into the valley—nearly a hundred in total—who immediately knelt en masse on the ground nearby, bowing in unison toward the array and chanting:

"We humbly welcome the Ancestor's descent."