Chapter 351 - 342: Exploring the Depths

Chapter 351: Chapter 342: Exploring the Depths

The Two-tailed Giant Crocodile struggled to flip itself over. Its six legs clawed at the earth, plowing six deep grooves into the ground.

Its two giant tails swept about restlessly. The horny spines on its left tail scraped against the ground, creating a piercing, metallic screech. The hammer on its right tail slammed into the ground, each impact a muffled thunderclap that sent rock fragments flying.

Fu Juemin’s gaze fell on the Giant Crocodile’s flank, the spot he had just struck. A large section was caved in, the pig-iron-colored scales shattered in a spiderweb pattern. From the depths of the cracks, blood slowly seeped out.

"ROAR—"

With a sudden, low roar, the two figures on the field vanished almost simultaneously.

The next instant, an immense blast of air exploded from between them!

"BOOM!"

The shockwave, carrying both intense heat and freezing cold, crushed everything in its path. The two extreme forces strangled and tore at each other in the air, forming a roiling white mist, like a giant, grayish-white flower suddenly blooming in a confined space!

Deep within the white mist.

In his Flame Monarch form, Fu Juemin’s pure black hair, which had grown to his waist, whipped up high behind his head, like a black banner torn aloft by a gale!

At this moment, his arms were spread apart, one high and one low, his ten fingers like hooks, firmly holding back the Giant Crocodile’s wide-open upper and lower jaws!

"KRRKKK..."

Amidst the sound of muscle and bone grinding and compressing, the orange-red light patterns covering Fu Juemin’s arms lit up one by one, spreading from his shoulders to his fingertips. His dark-golden eyes, however, showed no emotion.

This was a contest of strength between Demon Fiends, primitive and savage.

The four-meter-tall Fu Juemin seemed a bit "frail" before the Two-tailed Giant Crocodile, which was over ten meters long. It was like a leopard trying to pin down a rampaging rhinoceros with its claws.

But as he gradually exerted more force with his arms, the Giant Crocodile’s savage mouth was pried open, inch by inch.

A resentful whimper came from deep within the Giant Crocodile’s throat. Saliva dribbled from the corners of its mouth, only to be instantly vaporized into white steam by the intense heat radiating from Fu Juemin.

The haze and distortion created by the high temperature was like an invisible behemoth, devouring the cold aura emanating from the Giant Crocodile, crushing forward, bit by bit, irreversibly...

Slowly, the four Fire Centipede Steps on Fu Juemin’s back began to unfurl. The reddish-gold patterns at their joints lit up one by one, like four bows being drawn taut.

Spreading, gathering power, aiming—

"TWANG!—"

The four thunderous sounds of metal striking metal merged into one, shaking the very air. The tips of the four steps simultaneously stabbed into the Giant Crocodile’s back, erupting in a shower of sparks!

A large chunk of a transparent ice shell was chiseled off. The four steps stopped, unmoving on the Giant Crocodile’s back armor. At the point of impact for each step, there was only a small, shallow dent—even the deepest one had only pierced a little way in.

Fu Juemin’s eyes flickered.

The next second.

"SWOOSH!"

The two giant tails whipped out abruptly from the left and right, wrapped in a piercing shriek that tore through the air and trailing long ripples behind them!

"KABOOM!!"

A massive crater several yards across blew open in the Earth Palace floor, sending shattered rock and dirt flying in all directions like a fountain.

Fu Juemin’s figure appeared twenty meters behind the Two-tailed Giant Crocodile. The afterimage he left behind was swept into fragments by the giant tails.

The Giant Crocodile spun around abruptly, but Fu Juemin didn’t even raise his head. He simply threw a punch that seemed slow yet was incredibly fast, solidly planting it on the ground beneath his feet.

"VMMMM—"

In an instant, his punching right arm turned a piercing, incandescent red, like an iron ingot fresh from a forge. Every single crack-like pattern on his arm lit up simultaneously as flames erupted from the light patterns, engulfing half his body in a sea of surging red flames.

An indescribably terrifying heat was channeled by the punch and brutally injected into the ground. The earth beneath Fu Juemin’s feet began to tremble violently. Several of the Magic Channels behind him exploded, as if something was awakening deep underground...

Massive cracks spread rapidly outward from the point where Fu Juemin’s fist landed.

Wherever the cracks passed, the ground bulged, collapsed, and overturned...

The dense network of cracking light sketched out a totem on the vast ground resembling an ancient, divine mountain. The peak of this mountain coincided perfectly with the Two-tailed Giant Crocodile’s position!

"Sumeru Incline!"

"BOOM!!!—"

Terrifying fiery power erupted from beneath the ground. Flames surged, and a dreadful upward blast sent the entire Two-tailed Giant Crocodile flying high into the air!

The Giant Crocodile let out a low roar as its massive, ten-meter-long body was lifted into the air by the pillar of fire, its six legs kicking wildly.

By now, Fu Juemin had already risen with a calm expression. The four Fire Centipede Steps on his back converged above his head.

On his chest, a red Star Map quietly lit up...

"Celestial Star. Xiushu Yi!"

A red star flashed in mid-air and vanished, so fast it didn’t even leave an afterglow. It was immediately followed by a terrifyingly loud explosion!

"BOOM!"

A raging heatwave ravaged the Earth Palace for a long while before slowly dissipating. When all the commotion subsided, only a few massive, blackened chunks of a charred corpse remained where the Two-tailed Giant Crocodile had been, glowing faintly red amidst the embers.

Fu Juemin stood his ground, feeling the Giant Crocodile’s Demon Soul enter his body, along with an infusion of formless energy from afar.

If he recalled correctly, this Two-tailed Giant Crocodile was supposed to be the Sacrificial Demon Official of Yar Clan, the Gray Banner Lord.

’A sub-Third Grade. As for its strength...’

Fu Juemin thought for a moment and came to a conclusion: ’About the same as Luo Zhengxiong when he was in his True Dragon Giant Lizard state.’

He had been able to thrash Luo Zhengxiong back in Shenghai. Now, in his Five Souls in One Body Flame Monarch form, it was only natural that he could crush a Demon Fiend of this level.

It was just that the Two-tailed Giant Crocodile’s back armor had astonishing Defense, which had caused him a slight bit of trouble.

Without bothering to check his panel for his gains, Fu Juemin continued to search for his next hunting target.

He had infiltrated this Grand Sacrifice with the intention of "feasting" to his heart’s content in one go.

He had been worried that the Demon-Trapping Array within the Grand Sacrifice would hinder him. Unexpectedly, the Array separating the Demon Officials had somehow deactivated on its own. Then, before he could even start searching, a group of Demon Officials found him first.

’Six in total... I crippled one and killed two, so there are three left...’

Fu Juemin scanned his surroundings. Two of the Demons, whose strength was clearly a notch below the others, had disappeared somewhere. The Human-Faced Demon Python belonging to the Shu Family, the Blue Banner Lord, was groaning on the ground. As for the last one...

Fu Juemin raised his eyes and looked at the silhouette of an eagle circling near the ceiling of the Earth Palace, his brow furrowing slightly.

The Sacrificial Demon Official of the Cyan Banner Lord’s family—also a sub-Third Grade, a Golden-eyed Giant Eagle Demon Bird.

Avian Demon Fiends were the most troublesome. They could fly!

At that moment, the Golden-eyed Giant Eagle was soaring around the ceiling of the Earth Palace with its wings spread wide. It would occasionally shoot a wary, fearful glance at Fu Juemin, stubbornly refusing to descend in the slightest.

"HSSS—"

Fu Juemin thought for a moment, then took a deep breath.

"BOOM!!"

The next second, rock and dirt exploded beneath his feet, forming a small, grayish-brown mushroom cloud.

His entire body shot into the air like a super-sized cannonball, his figure drawing a straight, red line of fire through the air as he rocketed dozens of meters high in a single breath.

In the instant his momentum was about to fade, Fu Juemin abruptly raised a hand, aimed at the Golden-eyed Giant Eagle, and spread his five grim fingers!

"Burning Barrier Lock, Red Flame Shackles!"

"WHOOSH—"

All his fiery power flowed like water into his palm, then quickly solidified into reddish-gold chains. The chains shot into the air, extending nearly twenty meters further upwards.

The Golden-eyed Giant Eagle flapped its wings frantically as if startled, pulling its body sharply upward!

"BOOM!!"

Fu Juemin, having landed, slowly walked out from the rubble and dust, having completely given up the idea of capturing the giant eagle above.

Flying was truly a cheap tactic. In his Flame Monarch form, even if he called over his subordinate, the Human-faced Gu Carving, it probably wouldn’t be able to carry his weight.

’It would be great if I could get a flying Talent sometime,’ Fu Juemin thought, not minding the idea of having an extra pair of Demon Bird wings on his back.

Since he couldn’t catch the one that could fly, he decided to first eat what was right in front of him.

The Human-Faced Demon Python, whose long, coiling body was all for show, saw Fu Juemin striding towards it and scrambled in terror to crawl back into its stone chamber.

But halfway there, Fu Juemin pinned its tail with a foot and finished it off with two strikes of Fire Centipede Piercing.

After finishing off the Human-Faced Demon Python, Fu Juemin went to find the other two. Although their strength was lacking, they were still meat on the table. Since they were already here, there was no reason to let them go.

Fu Juemin checked the stone chambers one by one. Along the way, through the red glow of the Array, he saw the "obedient" Demon Officials inside the chambers actively biting their own bodies, bleeding themselves onto the altars within.

Before entering the formation, Fu Juemin had already scouted it out with Yao Ling.

This so-called Trapped Dragon Array of the Demon Capital Nine Banners was much larger than he had imagined—

The Array was practically integrated with the entire underground sewer system of Yingjing. It was divided into inner and outer layers. The outer layer connected to the Demon-Trapping Arrays of each of the Nine Banners’ families, while the inner layer was the true Trapped Dragon Array used for the Grand Sacrifice.

The massive amount of blood flowing through countless secret channels, combined with the electricity supplied by several power plants in the Western Suburbs, provided enough energy to power the Array.

The blood in the Magic Channels wasn’t necessarily all human blood; it was most likely from livestock.

After so many years of Magic Sacrifices, the Nine Banners probably couldn’t even find that many livestock anymore, which was why they’d thought to replace part of the power supply with electricity.

It sounded utterly unbelievable, but it was indeed functioning.

The principles of the Esoteric Sect’s Profound metaphysics involved—such as feng shui, geomancy, and array formations—left even Fu Juemin in awe.

’It’s probably another remnant from Emperor Qianming’s time,’ he thought. ’With the power of an entire nation, even the most incredible things can seem reasonable...’

Fu Juemin’s eyes glinted as he followed the flow of the Magic Channels carrying the Demon Blood shed by the Demon Officials, venturing deeper and deeper into the massive Earth Palace altar.

The blood channel beneath his feet grew wider and wider, from one chi wide at first, to three chi, to five chi, until it was almost a small river.

The blood in the channel also grew deeper, its color changing from dark red to deep black. It flowed faster and faster, making a RUSHING sound...

"RATTLE—"

Suddenly, Fu Juemin thought he heard the sound of chains rattling in the Earth Palace.

Following the sound, he looked into the darkness ahead, which was unlit by ever-burning lamps. There stood strange Crystal Pillars, each one covered in Profound and complex patterns and symbols.

By the faint, eerie light flickering from the Crystal Pillars, the darkness was slowly dispelled, revealing several particularly massive and terrifying Demon Bodies.

Fu Juemin took a few steps forward, his gaze falling on the nearest Demon.

When he got a clear look at the Demon’s appearance, his steps came to a sudden halt, and an expression of deep shock unconsciously filled his eyes.