Overdraw the future and become a peerless martial god

Chapter 138 Nighttime Investigation and Conspiracy
Night falls.

The storm howled, and from the far north came a series of low roars, like the wailing of ten thousand ghosts or the howling of a herd of beasts.

Chu Ning changed into tattered armor, covered his white hair, activated the Spirit Bell to conceal his aura, and transformed into a city defense night patrolman.

He walked through the snow, quietly slipping into the shadow of the city tower.

At the summit of the Great Wall, the wind and snow are like knives, and the night is as dark as if cast in stone. The flames of war have long since died out, and only crossbow bolts and the lingering spirits of warriors remain, their echoes fading between the ramparts.

Chu Ning, draped in the garrison's standard cloak, concealed himself under the cover of night and skillfully moved among the patrol squads. Following the fragmented map drawn by Zhao Tianyu from his memory, he chose the ancient patrol corridor path and approached the west side of the main building.

Soon, he arrived at the hidden stone platform behind the beacon tower. The bronze side door was half-open, and a wisp of cold wind escaped from the crack, mixed with muffled whispers.

Chu Ning held his breath, pressed himself against the wall, and pressed his ear against the bronze door, hearing it all the more clearly.

"...The Blood Eyes are about to awaken, and the seal beneath Cangque Mountain has been broken."

The speaker's voice was low and chilling; it was none other than Li Wujiu.

“Do you remember the prince’s order?” he continued, “One hundred thousand souls must be gathered before the Blood Eye fully opens. One soul, one guide; one blood, one key; not a single one can be missing.”

“The people of the northern frontier have already harvested three rounds of crops,” he said, his tone turning cold. “Unfortunately, it’s far from enough. Next… it’s time for the people in this city to take their turn.”

Another voice followed, venomous and shrill, carrying the twisted tone unique to the Blood Refining Hall:

“We have planted blood gu in the city. Once the barrier is broken, the soul array will activate automatically.”

"At that time, everyone's soul will return to the Blood Cauldron... The Hundred-Year Blood Pill will be completed."

"Your Highness, with this pill, you can possess a 'divine body' and attain immortality."

Chu Ning felt a thunderous roar in his heart, as if struck by lightning.

He slowly raised his eyes, and through the dim light from the crack in the door, he saw an ancient animal hide scroll unfolded on a stone shelf deep within the secret chamber, depicting terrifying scenes:
A sea of ​​blood surged, mountains crumbled and the earth split open, and a gigantic blood-red eye opened from the crack in Cangque Mountain, devouring heaven and earth and sweeping away countless souls and shadows.

A line of fragmented characters is noted beside the text, the ink seeming to weep:

"The Blood Eye was not divinely revealed, but rather the core of the pupil left behind in the remains of an ancient god. It was sealed by the Pavilion Master of the First-Rank Pavilion three hundred years ago at the foot of Cangque Mountain. If it is reopened, the gods will not descend, only calamity will be reborn."

"With the guidance of countless souls, the divine body is formed."

Chu Ning's knuckles tightened slightly, and his palms were soaked with cold sweat.

"Slaughtering the city to refine souls, sacrificing 100,000 people... Do they want to use the Blood Eye to forge an immortal divine body?"

His throat tightened slightly, and his anger surged like thunder in his heart.

This is no general guarding the northern frontier; he's a bloodthirsty butcher.

He is a madman who would burn down an entire city for his own selfish desires.

He stepped back an inch, his gaze as cold as a blade.

Suddenly, a loud noise came from afar.

"Bam—"

With the flanks in the distance breached, hordes of ferocious beasts swept in.

The alarm bells rang loudly along the Great Wall, patrols were in disarray, and shouts of killing filled the air.

Blood-red snow, as dark as ink, and thousands of ice wolves, boars, and snow spiders roared and charged, their eyes burning with an eerie red light.

Chu Ning's gaze sharpened, and he drew his sword, slicing open a snow wolf. A dark, blood-red nail was clearly embedded in the wolf's skull.

The runes were ferocious, and they were identical to the black nail patterns in the skull of the boar in Cliff Fang Village.

Chu Ning's eyes narrowed sharply, her heart tightened, and she uttered a low, chilling sentence, almost filled with disbelief:
"...They are refining beasts."

Before he could finish speaking, a man suddenly fell to the ground in the snow on the front line.

He was a garrison soldier, covered in blood, his weapon long gone, but he lay on the edge of the beast tide, clinging tightly to a strange-looking beast.

The beast was entirely black, with twisted bones, a blood nail embedded in its forehead, and eyes like ghostly fire, roaring ferociously.

But he just held it tightly, ignoring the bloodstains left on his back by the beast's claws, and cried out hoarsely:

"Ayan... wake up... it's me, your brother! Do you remember me?"

"You're not like this...you're not like this!" The beast roared, and for a moment a glimmer of struggling humanity seemed to flash in its blood-red eyes, but it was instantly swallowed up by madness.

It opened its mouth and bit, the stench of blood filling the air.

The defender trembled, tears streaming down his face, and he drew his sword with trembling hands.

"……sorry."

"Brother can't take you home."

"Sorry……"

As he swung his long sword down, blood splattered everywhere. He tightly embraced the decapitated beast, knelt on the ground, and his voice was low and hoarse, like a candle flickering in the wind.

"Ayan...don't be afraid, brother is with you."

On the battlefield, the sounds of swords clashing, beasts roaring, and people wailing intertwined in the wind and snow to create a white inferno.

Chu Ning stood quietly in the snow, her knuckles clenched, and the fox head pendant on her chest suddenly felt slightly warm, as if sensing some kind of painful collapse.

The Great Wall barrier trembled, and black mist-like beast blood and putrid liquid seeped out from the cracks in the barrier.

Several defenders worked together to reinforce the formation with their true energy, and the runes briefly regained their brightness, but then immediately shattered.

They coughed up blood, their bodies corroded by the black mist, their skin cracking and burning.

"The barrier... can't hold it down anymore!"

"If we keep going like this, the entire barrier will collapse."

Chu Ning's eyes were bloodshot as he stared at the desperate figures of the defending soldiers, and he roared like thunder:
"This is not a natural disaster!"

"This is a man-made disaster!"

At this moment, only the Blood Refining Hall envoy remained standing alone in the secret chamber. He was looking down, organizing scrolls, seemingly checking the progress of the formation, completely unsuspecting.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning pierced the sky.

"Bam—"

The bronze door shattered, and a cold light, accompanied by thunder, rushed in.

Before the Blood Refining Hall envoy could even turn around, a bolt of lightning cleaved his neck.

Blood flashed, a head rolled off, and as it fell to the ground, its eyes remained wide open, filled with resentment and terror.

Chu Ning stepped in, his white hair disheveled, lightning still crackling on the blade. His expression was cold and stern. Without hesitation, he turned over the bone sac in the corpse's chest and pulled out a scarlet bone key.

It was a key that resembled an animal bone but radiated a cold metallic aura. Engraved on it were the unique blood curse runes of the Blood Refining Hall, faintly pulsating like a heartbeat.

"This is... the key to the Obsidian Gate."

He murmured to himself, turned and sped away, leaping over the ruins of the secret passage and heading straight for a sealed stone gate behind the Great Wall.

That was the "abandoned secret pass" recorded in the old records of Zhenwu Division—a hidden door that truly led to the northernmost Cangque.

He stood before the door, inserted the bone key into the groove in the door's center, and a deep click resounded, as if the entire Great Wall's veins trembled slightly.

The crack slowly opened, and an ancient aura mixed with blood and decay rose from the ground, as if an altar sealed for thousands of years had been forcibly awakened.

Behind the door, darkness reigned, yet the wind seemed to whisper.

At that moment, the talismans on the wall began to glow and fade on their own, as if some dormant will had been awakened.

Chu Ning frowned slightly, about to take a step.

In the sea of ​​consciousness, Tun Yuan's sneer suddenly rang out, low and mocking:
"Three hundred years ago, I sealed this blood-red eye with my own hands."

"Now, do we need to use your human race to open it again?"

Chu Ning did not respond, her gaze piercing through the slowly opening door.

That was a road colder than wind and snow, and deeper than fate itself.

(End of this chapter)