The Great Ruler

The precious red stone fell into Mu Chen’s hand. It still felt warm, as if a fire was burning within it.

A miniature and exquisite Undying Bird was flying freely within the stone. As Mu Chen looked at the Inherited Blood Essence of the Undying Bird in his hand, his excitement was written all over his face. After all, the entire purpose of this arduous trip to the Land of Divine Beast was for this Inherited Blood Essence.

Now that he had finally completed his task perfectly, the elders in the Nine Netherbird Clan could no longer make any disparaging comments about Nine Nether’s and his bloodline bonding.

“Here, Nine Nether… Catch it!”

Mu Chen tossed the precious stone into the air gently and gave a smile. The blood essence then flew towards Nine Nether in a light ray.

Nine Nether reached out to receive the Inherited Blood Essence, excitement showing on her pretty face. This precious stone was extremely important to her. As long as she could refine and absorb it, her Undying Bird Bloodline would reach its peak. If her luck was good enough, she could even evolve into a real Primordial Undying Bird!

Once she reached that stage, all eyes in the Great Thousand World would be on her. After all, each Primordial Undying Bird possessed a daunting strength that could counter even a Heavenly Sovereign!

The rest of the top powers on the altar were shocked to see Mu Chen giving his precious stone to Nine Nether, especially since it was something that he had fought so hard for it. After seeing this, they looked at Mu Chen in an entirely new light. The generosity of his giving away such a treasure made them all respect him greatly.

However, Mu Chen simply ignored their shocked and admiring looks. After all, the purpose of his coming to this Land of the Divine Beasts was to obtain the Inherited Blood Essence of Undying Bird for Nine Nether. In the past, Nine Nether had helped and taken care of him, so in his mind, even this valuable blood essence as a token of appreciation was not adequately sufficient to repay her.

After Mu Chen gave the precious stone to Nine Nether, Zong Qingfeng and Lu Hou were able to obtain the Inherited Blood Essence of the Myriad Spiritual Bird and the Desolated Beast. Both of them were delighted by the precious stones. They jumped with joy and kept the stones in their pouches. This trip was now complete for them, as they had gleaned such an abundant harvest!

Just as they were overwhelmed with joy, Mu Chen noticed that the three stone statues were turning dark. The spiritual light, which was being emitted from them, was beginning to dissipate.

Weng!

As the stone statues turned darker and darker, the land began to vibrate slightly. The vibration was not noticeable, but since Mu Chen was so keen, he was able to sense it.

Mu Chen frowned immediately, then looked around, his eyes stopping to focus on the spot where Bai Ming had lain when he had been severely injured. The pool of blood that had been there previously had now seeped into the ground, and the entire area was glowing with a dark red light.

Mu Chen stared at the land. For some reason, the mysterious dark cave he had seen at the bottom of the Lake of Treasures suddenly flashed across his mind. With it, his uneasiness escalated.

He then made a quick decision, immediately sending his voice softly to Nine Nether and the rest, whispering, “We need to leave now…”

Before he could make a move, the vibration of the land intensified. Then, as its rumbling continued, the altar started to shake.

This time, everyone could feel the vibration. They cast doubtful looks at the dark land outside of the altar. Then, they saw the ground start to ripple like a lake, while an evil aura started to rise from the ground, darkening the sky.

“There’s something wrong with this place. Let’s go!” Mu Chen said.

Everyone hardened their expressions. They all knew that Mu Chen was right, as even a moron recognized that something was amiss in this place!

Shoo!

One team, who was close to the edge of the altar, was the fastest to react. They tried to leave this eerie region by transforming into numerous light figures and charging out immediately.

Bang!

But, just as they tried to leave the altar, the surface of the dark land rippled out, revealing a hideous and evil face. The face immediately opened its big mouth, emitting clouds of black smoke that encircled those light figures.

Numerous painful screams were heard, as the figures exploded into red smoke, which then lingered in the air. Eventually, the evil face opened its mouth again and swallowed up the red smoke.

After the red smoke had been swallowed, the face grew even more sinister, letting out an evil high-pitched laugher. The laughter was so disturbing, it completely imbalanced one’s spiritual energy. An evil aura then exploded, turning the entire land into a demon’s cave.

“Blood! I need blood!” The face was wriggling on the ground. It looked at the countless figures on the altar and let out another shriek of laughter. The gigantic mouth spurted another cloud of black smoke, which swept towards the people on the altar.

Everyone’s faces paled and their eyes were full of fear. They could tell that the horrid face possessed a power that was so daunting, none of them could match it.

“Darn it. This must be something that was left behind by the Extraterritorial Race!” someone screamed with fear, as no others could exude such an evil aura.

Also, this was the battlefield, where the Extraterritorial Race tried to invade the Land of the Divine Beasts. This was also the battlefield, where the most ferocious battle took place and countless strong powers perished. Even so, there might have been some who narrowly escaped.

Weng!

As the cloud of black smoke was sweeping in, just when it was about to hit the altar, a dazzling brilliance was suddenly released from the altar. The brilliance then turned into numerous mysterious runes, which squelched and dispersed the black smoke at once.

The people on the altar were delighted. They then quickly looked over to see that the three stone statues had suddenly revived. Three rays of lights gathered on the statues, then transformed into three different faint images.

A beautiful young woman, dressed in her palace attire, stood on the Primordial Undying Bird. She looked beautiful and elegant. With her delicate face and curvaceous body, her noble-born demeanor was obvious to all.

Another man, wearing technicolor clothes, stood on the Myriad Spiritual Bird. He looked incredibly handsome, studious, and calm.

Standing on the Desolated Beast was a sturdy, strong man with bare arms. He had dark skin and a muscular build.

As the three appeared, a strong gust of wind suddenly blew forth. At the same time, an indescribable oppression expanded throughout the space. Immediately, a sunray shone onto the land that had been turned into a demon’s cave.

“The three Sovereign Beasts from the Land of the Divine Beasts!” Nine Nether screamed. Now, even a fool would have known that the three figures were the remaining spiritual clones that had been left behind by the Sovereign Beasts from the Land of the Divine Beasts!

The three figures also appeared on the demonic face in the dark land far away. Numerous sharp cries were immediately heard, as countless ghosts seemed to be shouting, “All of you have trapped us for millions of years. You thought you could wipe us out, but we have a better strategy…”

As the pretty woman stared into the demonic face, she could not help but sigh, then say sadly, “Such evil beings… They never give up.”

The handsome man was watching the rest of the people on the altar. He then said, “What a pity! Who would have thought that the Inherited Blood Essence would be taken away so quickly? Because of this, the seal will loosen before the time is up.”

“Hmph, the evil was triggered by the blood with strong vitality. Who did this?!” The muscular man gave a low growl, which rumbled from his chest like a clap of heavy thunder. The low and intimidating growl rang in the ears of the people, its vibration causing many of them to become nauseous.

The various teams looked at each other, then all turned to gaze at Mu Chen and Bai Ming at the same time. Apparently, it must have been Bai Ming’s fresh blood that had triggered such an unexpected event.

The muscular man also locked his sharp gaze onto Mu Chen and Bai Ming. As he did so, Mu Chen felt a chill in his spine.

Bai Ming, who had just woken up from unconsciousness, was shivering. Although the muscular man was only a spiritual clone, he could still easily kill them.

While both of them were trembling in fear of him, the pretty woman shook her head and said, “You can’t blame them for this. The evil beings had all of this prepared since long ago. It was only a matter of time before this happened. Now, we need to think of ways to resolve this problem.”

“We are now left with our own spiritual clones. Maintaining the seal has already caused us to reach our limit. I don’t think we could clear those evil beings anymore,” the muscular man said in a deep voice, as he scanned around the people and gave a derisive snort. “Moreover, all of these people are useless, as not even one Grade Nine Sovereign can be seen! How dare they take our Inherited Blood Essence?”

His speech had embarrassed everyone, but none of them dared rebuke him. After all, to the three spiritual clones, Grade Seven and Grade Eight Sovereigns were just ants.

The pretty woman smiled and looked at everyone with her beautiful eyes, then asked, “I wonder if there’s anyone here, who is skilled in battle arrays? If so, I have an opportunity for him…”

Everyone looked at each other and shook their heads. Obviously, none of them specialized in battle arrays.

As he stood among the crowd, Mu Chen’s eyes narrowed, but he had no intention to step out. After all, he knew that he could not handle the current situation with his present ability.

So, he shook head to Nine Nether and was about to take a step back, when his expression suddenly froze. To his horror, he had lost control over his body, as if he was entirely frozen!

He then looked up to see the pretty woman looking at him with a smile…