<h4>Chapter 360: Ancient Fury</h4>
Zhao Changhe took a deep breath and stepped forward slowly.
The altar was not tall; it was low and wide. It was surrounded by a pool of blood filled with an unknown quantity of blood. The pool released a pungent metallic smell. Blood circled the altar, with strange blood-red patterns extending toward the central array te, seemingly nourishing it.
<i>This blood seems like it’s human blood. Who knows how many people have been killed just to get this amount of blood... But it doesn’t seem fresh. It seems that the Blood God Cult’s killings have reduced over the years. Most of this blood should have been collected a good while back.</i>
Whether such offerings worked, Zhao Changhe could not tell. He wondered if the sacred artifact could get angry.
Suppressing his disgust, Zhao Changhe stepped onto the narrow bridge over the blood.
The nature of the Blood God Cult had always been like this. Things had improved over the years, and criticizing it was rather pointless. If he could be the interpreter of the cult’s doctrines, then he could steer it toward a better path.
If they had to kill, then why not kill evil spirits or enemy forces? Why harm innocent and weak people to show off their prowess?
<i>This is something that can be changed over time.</i>
As he stepped past the blood and stood before the array te, its glow intensified. The desire of the token and bead to return “home” was apparent, and it almost led them to break out of the confines of his ring.
Zhao Changhe ignored them and carefully examined the te.
It was difficult to determine the material the te was made of, but it somewhat resembled bone. But where and from what kind of being could such arge piece of bone be acquired?
The main body was intact, with only minor cracks. The missing pieces were mainly iid elements, creating gaps that disrupted the array’s integrity. Many of these iys were bead-like, and it was unclear where his bead might fit.
At the center of the array te was a square slot, likely intended for the blood token. It seemed more like a key than a functional part of the array.
Despite the missing pieces, the main structure wasplete. It was clear that the creator had poured their everything into the creation of the artifact, embedding the philosophy of their martial arts into it. Anyone who spent enough time with it could likely develop aprehensive martial art from studying it.
As someone with the Heavenly Tome, Zhao Changhe did not need others’ interpretations. He could use the tome to understand everything clearly.
Closing his eyes, Zhao Changhe gently touched the array te, linking his mind and spirit with the Heavenly Tome.
He then found himself amid a chaotdscape, with the ground shaking, mountains copsing, and the sky aze. Distant screams echoed as unknown people perished. Amidst the chaos, a heavily injured man sat cross-legged, his legs partially submerged in blood as he calmly worked. He used a thick-ded saber resembling Xue Canghai’s Blood God Saber to carve the te.
Cult Leader Xue’s Blood God Saber likely was not the same saber, but rather a replica based on the design of the original.
The man carved the te and set in iys, his blood mixing with that of others, soaking into the te as if he was quite literally using his life toplete this final masterpiece.
The surrounding cataclysm did not affect him. The array te emitted an invisible barrier, keeping natural disasters at bay.
A loud crash sounded as the barrier broke, and someone stormed in, shouting, “Lie[1]! You stole the bone of the Blood Ao[2] from our tribe, and you still dare to sit here in the wilderness? Do you think our tribe is powerless?”
Zhao Changhe noted the name Lie. <i>Was it typical of the ancient era to use single-character names? Or was this man just unique?</i>
Before he could ponder further, several figures rushed in. Even before they arrived, the saber lights they sent out shed through space and near-instantly reached Lie’s neck.
Cold sweat broke out on Zhao Changhe’s forehead.
<i>Such fast and powerful saber qi! That strike isparable to the sword strike that Cui Wenjing made in the sky back then. Could it be that any random martial artist in the ancient era was on par with Cui Wenjing?</i>
A sh of blood light burst forth before his eyes.
The original Blood God Saber, which had been carving the array te, suddenly turned into a streak of blood. The iing saber qi was effortlessly neutralized, and the heads of several ck-d figures flew off, turning them into fountains of blood.
Lie, without turning his head, continued carving. “You’re asking why I’m carving this array te in the wilderness? It’s because I need some sacrifices, and I can’t be bothered looking for them.”
The blood from the fountains of blood quickly pooled into the ground and was absorbed by the array te. As it absorbed more and more blood, the bone-white te grew increasingly vibrant.
Such malevolence needed no menacing expression. Lie’s calm demeanor was frightening enough as his murderous intent surged high into the heavens.
Amidst the apocalyptic scenery of lightning, fire, copsing mountains, and severed rivers... it looked like the world had truly been taken over by hell.
One of the disembodied heads was somehow still alive, and it somehow spoke without vocal cords, “Your blood... is flowing too... Are you also... a sacrifice?”
Lie replied indifferently, “With the heavens falling, does it matter whose blood it is? The world is a furnace, everyone is a sacrifice.”
The head fell silent.
“At this point, does it matter who the bone of the Blood Ao belonged to? Were you all just nning to take it to your graves? Fools. If I had the time, I’d kill all of you just to avoid the annoyance.”
The head retorted, “You’re not strong enough...”
Lie continued carving, “So what? I’m at least strong enough to kill you.”
The head fell silent once again.
“You say my strength is not enough, but a single sh still resulted in your death,” said Lie proudly. “This sh will be engraved in the essence of this array te. If someone ends up inheriting it in the future, they can derive an entire saber art from this sh and my engraved will... perhaps it could be called... the Vicious Blood Saber Art?”
As he spoke, the blood pool began to churn as if rejoicing.
The head said incredulously, “You... You’re still thinking of passing down your skills? Didn’t you always im to live only for this life?”
“People change,” Lie answered calmly. “I was a ve. Iprehended the Dao through countless life-and-death battles. No one helped me, no gods favored me. People wanted me to serve them, gods wanted me to kneel... so I killed them all, be they man or god.”
Zhao Changhe’s heart quivered.
<i>Incredible... A veprehending the Dao without a teacher? Was it because of the spirit qi of the previous era or was this person just that much of a genius?</i>
Lie continued, “I forged my own Asura Body, embodying my killing intent, striving to gain control of my life, allowing no one to obstruct me. What did it matter to me what happened after my death? Whether you called me Blood God or Blood Demon, I didn’t care about my reputation after my death?”
“...And now?”
“Back then, I wanted nobody to mess with me, but now, I have decided to mess with you.” Lie looked up at the blood-colored sky, his once-calm face finally showing the ferocity befitting of the title Blood God. “A sealed heaven, a game between gods and demons. If he dies, the world ends? Why should it?!”
The head blinked.
It could no longer understand what Lie was saying.
<i>Tchk!</i>
Lie made the final engraving, and the blood light of the array te red brightly. It seemed that it wasplete now.
He carefully embedded the various bits and pieces he carried into the te, saying, “The world does not need to depend on anyone... If he dies, he dies. At most, the era copses, but the world remains. If I survive the copse of the era, I will personally shatter this sky, and I shall scatter the gods and Buddhas.”
“And if you don’t survive?”
“Then I shall make it so that those whoe after me can use my blood to tear open the sky!”
<i>Snap!</i>
With that, Lie inserted a blood token into the te.
At that moment, the wilderness began to copse. The sky split open, lightning crashed and thunder boomed, and the fires of hell consumed the earth. The corpses, including the head, were instantly reduced to ash.
Simultaneously, a pir of blood light shot up from the array te, piercing the heavens.
“People call themselves Night Emperor or Sword Emperor, thinking they’re gods... yet the Heavenly Dao crumbles, and they all be dust.”
Within the blood light, a figure wielding a saber rose up, shing at the heavens, “Whatever lies beyond the Heavenly Dao... In this copsing era, why not sh it open and have a look?!”
<i>Boom!</i>
The entire world turned blood-red, and vision was lostpletely.
After an unknown length of time, the sky began to rain blood, softly drenching thend.
The array te cracked and scattered, its cracks bearing witness to a quixotic fury in an attempt to sh the heavens.
Zhao Changhe was speechless.
<i>Daoist Yuxu, is this what you meant when you said that this demonic god wasn’t very strong? Maybe he wasn’t that strong before, but at this moment, he clearly reached the pinnacle...</i>
<i>Oh right... while the people of the current era see them as demonic gods... but in Lie’s eyes, the gods and Buddhas he wanted to get lost were different beings altogether. Maybe they didn’t even exist... and this engraved sh merely records the struggles of ancient humans.</i>
Zhao Changhe looked at his own body.
Lie had said something earlier... <i>“I forged my own Asura Body.”</i>
<i>It looks like there’s no escaping being the saint now.</i>
1. This is the guy’s name, not the word “lie.” Lie here is written as 烈, which can trante to the following: strong, violent, intense, staunch. ?
2. This is referencing the giant sea turtle Ao from Chinese mythology. ?