Lu Xuan could hear a whisper coming from the boiling blood pool. If he concentrated, he could even hear what the voice was saying.
"Tell me your wish!!!"
This was the content of the whisper. Lu Xuan was suddenly startled. This bloodline curse spell was essentially a kind of transactional dark magic. Blood was transferred to some unknown entity, and then the other party would fulfill a certain wish.
This set off alarm bells in Lu Xuan's mind, and he instinctively prepared to end the spell. He was a cultivator and didn't reject so-called evil magic. To him, as long as it fulfilled his needs, magic had no distinction between good and evil. However, this kind of wish-granting magic was absolutely not something he considered.
Now he understood why this spell could be successfully cast without requiring much mana. It wasn't that it required no mana at all, but rather that it didn't require his own. The power was provided by the other party, while he offered a blood sacrifice. However, Lu Xuan didn't believe that such a thing could exist without a blood sacrifice as a price.
He guessed that the other party was from a fantasy world, something akin to an extraterrestrial demon. Such a thing would be absolutely taboo in any world. Lu Xuan had no intention of getting involved with it.
Unfortunately, when he tried to stop, he discovered the curse ritual was irreversible. He had already established a link with some being from beyond the realm. The words, "State your wish," echoed constantly in his ears.
Lu Xuan tried several times, but couldn't sever the connection. Moreover, as time passed, the whispers became clearer and clearer. Lu Xuan instinctively felt that if he delayed any longer, something unpleasant might happen. So, he could only make a wish in his heart.
"Kill the centipede demon!!"
There was a moment of silence after the whispers in his ear, and then Lu Xuan heard a clear reply.
"As you wish!"
"!!!!!" Lu Xuan was so shocked he almost cried out. The ritual indicated that a sacrifice of the same origin was required. But he had only used seven, and his wish had actually been granted? He felt he might have said something wrong. But at that moment, he felt the link had been severed.
On the long street of the capital, in broad daylight, the Imperial Preceptor floated in mid-air. His entire body shone with golden light, like a Buddha descending to earth. Even his evil cultivators, bathed in the golden light, appeared like Arhats descending to earth.
A sharp look flashed across Hongyu's face. The golden cicada flying above her head suddenly accelerated, transforming into a golden streak that streaked across the sky.
"Sword God Technique!"
She used her finger as a sword, and the sword energy in the sky shone even brighter. The golden sword energy that stretched across the sky struck the centipede demon's golden Buddha statue.
The centipede demon clasped its hands together, and a refined Dharma image appeared before it, blocking the earth-shattering sword strike. But the next second, something that left everyone dumbfounded happened. The refined image lasted less than a second before collapsing. The next second, the sword energy directly cleaved the Buddha's golden body in two.
After the Buddha's golden body disappeared, those heretical practitioners did not collapse. Because they knew that this was not their leader's true form at all.
Strangely, no matter how long they waited, the leader never revealed his true form or used his real abilities. Instead, a giant centipede, four or five meters in diameter and nearly a hundred meters long, fell out from the shattered golden Buddha statue. And... it was a dead centipede.
A moment of silence fell over the scene. Even Yan Chixia stared blankly at his colleague.
"This is... the Divine Sword Technique?"
Hongyu was stunned. The Divine Sword Technique was her trump card. But to be honest, she hadn't expected it to have such a powerful effect. This wasn't the first time she'd used the Divine Sword Technique; given the centipede demon's level of demonic energy, it shouldn't have died so easily, right?
The key point is that she felt she had struck her opponent with her sword. However, aside from a brief resistance from the first wave of lotus-shaped avatars, the centipede demon made no attempt to defend itself. It was as if the creature was already dead before she even landed her blow.
The centipede demon's subordinates felt utterly humiliated. They knew their leader's power—daring to seize the fate of the strongest dynasty in the mortal realm. His cultivation was unfathomable. Otherwise, how could these accomplished cultivators willingly be driven by a mere demon? It was because the centipede demon was too strong; they had no chance of resistance.
But now, how come their boss, who was so arrogant in front of them, is powerless against that woman? Hongyu is a cultivator of that level, and a sword cultivator at that. She has considerable renown among high-level cultivators. Many of the evil cultivators present know Hongyu and Yan Chixia, and some have even had conflicts with them. But they've never felt these two were this strong. Could it be that they were holding back before?
There was an even more serious problem: the Buddha's golden light had vanished. They revealed their true forms—various bizarre and evil cultivators, as well as demon cultivators, ghost cultivators, and the offspring of centipede demons. Monsters now roamed the capital city openly and brazenly.
However, it's not the people of the capital who are panicking now, but the monsters themselves. What should we do? Our leader is dead, and the woman opposite seems to still have the strength. Should we rush in to avenge our leader, or should we run away now?
Revenge was a joke, but escaping was also a problem. Everyone had seen the sword strike. They knew that even if they tried to run, they couldn't avoid it. So they waited for the first one to stick his neck out and draw the attention of the other two before starting to run. Unfortunately for them, everyone was a seasoned veteran. So, a bunch of people stared at each other, stuck in a stalemate.
Yan Chixia finally came to his senses.
"Is it from Brother Lu's side?"
"It's possible, but how could it have such a great effect if the offerings weren't enough?"
"Uh..." Yan Chixia was also stumped by the question.
"The curse succeeded. But in reality, it wasn't a curse at all. It was a deal made with some extraterrestrial demon."
"An extraterrestrial demon?" Yan Chixia's expression suddenly changed, as if he knew how powerful that thing was.
“That’s right, we’ll talk about that later. Now, let’s deal with the immediate issues.”
The battle started strong but ended weakly. Lu Xuan didn't even bother with the evil cultivators around him, simply telling them to get lost. He focused all his energy on the centipede demon's corpse in front of him.
"Although I don't know what that extraterrestrial demon did, I'm afraid we can't let it live."
As he spoke, Lu Xuan's heart bled. The entire centipede demon's corpse—what an enormous amount of rare and precious treasure it was! But Lu Xuan dared not gamble now. That thing, across dimensions, had directly cursed and killed a powerful demon whose cultivation surpassed Lu Xuan's, even with insufficient offerings. The profound meaning contained within sent chills down Lu Xuan's spine.
Therefore, the best way is to destroy the centipede demon's corpse completely, leaving not a trace.
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Chapter 384 Heavenly Thunder
The True Fire of the Sun burned for a full day and night before finally incinerating the centipede demon's corpse. This was highly unusual, as the True Fire of the Sun nearly went out several times. It was only through Lu Xuan's forceful efforts to keep it burning that the burning was finally completed.
Thus, the battle against the centipede demon came to a complete end.
Progress in the palace was slow; Xiahou hadn't obtained the emperor's edict of succession, as it had been forged beforehand by the centipede demon. Unfortunately, the one to pass the throne was the Grand Preceptor, who died a quarter of an hour later.
So Xiahou swiftly and decisively beheaded the emperor, passing the throne to the last prince.
The centipede demon's offspring were subjected to a full-scale siege by the capital's imperial guards. Because the imperial advisor was dead, no one was left to suppress their descendants, allowing their monstrous nature to be exposed. They were quickly identified and subjected to a large-scale extermination.
In an instant, the entire capital city, and even the entire Great Jin Dynasty, was plunged into chaos.
Amidst this chaos, figures like Fu Tianchou, Zhuge Wolong, and even Ning Caichen rose to power and began to gradually restore the Jin Dynasty.