Chương 70: A Blood Sea Billows to the Heavens - Lu County Cannot Escape Its Doom!

Were Su Zhe present here at this moment, he would likely have had his jaw drop, his face filled with astonishment and alarm.

'Twas truly hard to imagine that this Martial Uncle Yushen of whom Li Shanyun spoke was in fact a little girl.

"A thousand years… Martial Uncle, what meaneth this?" Hearing Yushen's words, Li Shanyun showed doubt upon her face.

"Old matters of bygone years, nothing more…"

"Yet this wild god hath broken free; starved for a thousand years, I fear it hath lost its reason. We must make haste." Yushen's childish face, paired with that hoarse throat, sent chills through the heart. She licked her lips, and within her eyes there seemed a trace of excitement.

"I have slain so many men, yet this is the first time I shall slay a wild god…"

"Somewhat stirring, is it not!" Amid her murmured words, Yushen's eyes, black and white so distinct, actually began to turn crimson. Li Shanyun felt her scalp go numb. Just now she had been drawn away by the so-called "thousand-year wild god," and had almost forgotten. The one at her side was none other than the famed "Asura Child-Granny" of Tang Prefecture. If one were marked by the Asura Child-Granny, to have tendons drawn and skin flayed would be counted light punishment.

"We must be swift, oh—else we shall not arrive in time…"

"Since this old mother hath come, if he be allowed to slaughter too many folk of Lu County, where shall this old mother place her face?" Yushen gazed toward Lu County in the distance. The earth's trembling grew ever more fierce. At the same time, strand after strand of blood qi began to appear above the sky, until red clouds filled the firmament. Yushen knit her brows, her cheeks puffing out. With some disdain she swept a glance over the warhorse demon-beast beneath her.

Vile beast; it might serve for travel, but at true speed it was far too slow.

"Shanyun, come with this old mother!" Yushen seized Li Shanyun in one hand.

"Martial Uncle! Wait— I… I am not yet ready…" Li Shanyun cried out again and again, Wishing to stop Yushen. Yet ere her words were finished, Yushen moved like a ghostly wraith, grasping Li Shanyun in one hand and bearing her upward into the air.

"Roar!" A roar that shook heaven and earth resounded. The world turned vast and dim; wind and cloud changed color. In an instant, fierce gales howled all around, like mad dragons roaring, like vicious tigers bellowing. The wind screamed, as though a thousand armies beat their drums and ten thousand horses thundered forth. Light blazed about Yushen's body. From the Niwan Palace, a point of radiance shot forth, transforming into an illusory barbaric dragon that abruptly manifested.

Its bearing was wild and arrogant; its dragon scales burned bright, its dragon might boundless. Its form was mighty; its dragon scales shone, its dragon claws savage. Lightning flashed, like silver serpents dancing in chaos, like violet flood-dragons churning through the void.

"Yang Spirit! A Martial Dao Yang Spirit!" Li Shanyun's heart trembled with shock. A sixth-grade martial artist refined the false into the true, transforming illusory inner force into qi. A seventh-grade martial artist, however, could temper the martial soul, fusing one's own soul with the intent of the Martial Dao to form a Yang Spirit. This was a realm Li Shanyun could yearn for, yet never reach.

"Dragon-form Yang Spirit… so this is Martial Uncle's dragon form…" Li Shanyun murmured to herself. Being so close to Yushen, she naturally could sense the extraordinary nature of that heaven-startling barbaric dragon. This barbaric dragon was Yushen's Yang Spirit, verily like unto "a dragon traversing heaven and earth, startling the cosmos; its might suppressing the eight desolations, proud beneath the vault of heaven." The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The barbaric dragon lifted its head and chest, scorning all beneath it, as though it would smash through the Nine Heavens. Its vast momentum made stars lose their luster and mountains and rivers tremble.

"Black Cavalry, advance upon Lu County with all your strength!"

"We shall go on ahead!" The barbaric dragon's figure flashed, swaying in the void, then vanished within the clouds.

"We obey Manor Lord Yushen's command!" More than a hundred black riders roared as one, lowered their bodies, lashed their steeds, and galloped toward Lu County. … Elsewhere. Lu County, Tiejiang Gang (Blacksmith Gang), Jiangxin Hall (Hall of Craftsmanship). Su Zhe was truly in miserable straits. Heaven collapsed and earth caved in. The entire secret chamber crumbled. At the very last second, Su Zhe performed an "evil dog pouncing upon food" and escaped from the secret chamber.

The next instant, smoke and dust surged up on all sides, and a great pit sank beneath the whole of Jiangxin Hall. The pride of Sun Tiexin's Jiangxin Hall lineage— The Blacksmith Ancestor's secret chamber—was thereby formally declared to have reached the end of its allotted span.

"What is happening? Hath the Mountain God grown wroth?"

"Flee quickly! Why forge iron now?" … The disciples of Jiangxin Hall flung down their hammers one after another and ran toward the open spaces outside. Su Zhe also deployed the Flood-Dragon Method to escape.

"Ah!" A crossbeam of Jiangxin Hall suddenly snapped. A huge timber one meter in diameter came crashing down, Straight toward one disciple of Jiangxin Hall. That disciple was named Zhang Tao. Apart from Sun Tiexin's three direct disciples, he was among those whose cultivation and talent were exceedingly outstanding. Yet he had not stepped into the third-grade realm. How could he withstand a crossbeam of tens of thousands of jin crashing down upon him?

"It is over! My life ends here!" Zhang Tao's face was ashen, despair beyond measure.

"Whoosh!" Yet there appeared one man who, though moving later, arrived first. His body was like a wandering dragon. With one step, he appeared before Zhang Tao in an instant. He cast out a light and airy punch. The fist-wind tore through the air. Faintly, it stirred forth the roar of a flood-dragon. Su Zhe's waist and stance became one as he threw that punch. After leaving the secret chamber, Su Zhe's Flood-Dragon Method had formally entered the stage of Great Accomplishment.

His fleshly body had once again gained the strength of one flood-dragon. At this moment, Su Zhe's bodily strength had already reached two flood-dragons, three tigers, and fourteen oxen! Nearly one hundred and thirty thousand jin of force!

"Rumble!"

"Crack! Puff! Puff!" In Zhang Tao's horrified gaze, That crossbeam was struck by a savage force. In an instant, wave-like patterns swept over the surface of the crossbeam. Thereafter it was ceaselessly annihilated, shattered, collapsed, and turned into countless chips and powdery dust.

"Zhang shixiong, art thou unharmed?" Su Zhe smiled brightly and reached out his hand toward Zhang Tao, who had fallen to the ground in fright. This Zhang Tao was someone Su Zhe could be counted familiar with. Previously, when running errands for Sun Tiexin and Guo Ju, he had delivered many things to Su Zhe.

"Ah… unharmed… unharmed…" The thunderous noises from all around startled Zhang Tao awake. Zhang Tao grasped the hand Su Zhe offered and rose with borrowed strength.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

"Shixiong, there is no time to lose. Preserving our lives is most urgent!" Su Zhe's expression shifted, and he gave Zhang Tao a push. Zhang Tao awakened as from a dream and broke into a mad run. Compared with the others of Jiangxin Hall, Though Su Zhe too was fleeing for his life, he appeared much more composed. The disciples of Jiangxin Hall all cultivated the likes of the Barbaric Ox Skill. They had, indeed, learned no movement arts.

Yet, as it happened, Su Zhe possessed a precious movement art such as the Flood-Dragon Method. Though Su Zhe looked as if he were fleeing in panic, in truth he was at ease indeed. From time to time, he could even make a move to save a few shixiong.

"Old Sun is not here; I cannot let Jiangxin Hall scatter. Mm, how went that saying again…"

"Not one shall be left behind!" Su Zhe said inwardly. As for why the earth-shaking had been triggered, thus causing Jiangxin Hall, even the Tiejiang Gang, to be destroyed…

"What hath this matter to do with this Su?"

"It was that fellow Wang Shan who did it! Aye! Wolfish ambition, venomous beyond measure. This Su slew Wang Shan; this is cleansing the household!" Su Zhe's eyes brightened, denying it thrice in his heart. This matter surely had no relation to melting apart the golden lock. From another angle, it likewise had no relation to this Su. Not long after, The crowd gathered upon the martial drill ground of the Tiejiang Gang. This place was broad and open; even with the earth shaking, the threat was not too great.

Yet where their eyes looked, they discovered that all the buildings of the Tiejiang Gang had become a field of ruins. The ground was even more cracked, with crisscrossing fissures appearing one after another.

"Those cracks… there seems to be red light gathering toward the heavens!" Zhang Tao cried out in alarm, pointing at the ground as he spoke. Su Zhe looked. Countless fissures, savage and terrifying, crisscrossed the ground. Yet he saw within those earthly cracks countless streams of strange red aura slowly flowing forth, rising into the air like rosy mist, and hovering beneath the firmament. Before long, another strange change was born. The sky emitted bloody light, like the guiding radiance of the underworld.

This bloody light writhed and twisted, gathering in midair, and in a brief moment transformed into a surging sea of blood. This sea of blood stretched across the skies above the small county town, blotting out heaven and sun, darkening heaven and earth. Within the blood sea, countless wronged souls wailed and cried. Their voices were mournful and sharp, like weeping and lamentation, hoarse with anguish, as though the wrathful roars from beneath the Nine Netherworlds.

All the land was filled with lamentation; ghosts wept and gods howled; the misery was beyond mortal bearing. The people of Lu County were either stricken with terror, faces white as paper; Or frightened to the utmost, bodies trembling like sieves; Or kneeling upon the ground to beg for mercy, tears and snot streaming down together. At this moment, it was as though the end of days had descended. Calamity could not be escaped.

All living beings were plunged into desperate straits, life and death hanging upon a single instant. … Heaven and earth fell silent. Before such an eerie spectacle, even Su Zhe felt a deep sense of powerlessness. How could a martial artist compare with such mighty force? He suddenly recalled a scene. In the film Zu: Warriors From The Magic Mountain, the situation when the Blood Demon Youquan appeared was exceedingly similar to what lay before him now.

"Fortunately, though Lu County hath suffered earth-shaking, the force was strongest at the Tiejiang Gang. In other parts of Lu County, at least the houses have not collapsed. Uncle and Aunt, at most, have suffered some fright; their lives should be without concern."

"But this blood sea above the firmament—what exactly is it?" Su Zhe tightly furrowed his brows. He could sense that the blood sea seemed to possess consciousness. That kind of power… It was exactly like… The power Su Zhe had sensed when the Storehouse Clerk once used the God-Inviting Method.

"Blood-Refining Divine Venerable! Wild god!" Su Zhe's heart felt as though struck by an iron hammer. Within his sea of consciousness, countless threads seemed to bring forth sudden understanding. Blood-Refining Divine Venerable… wild god… Blacksmith Ancestor… melting apart the golden lock… All of this was like an invisible net, woven together, descending to envelop him.