The Cold and Aloof Palace Master's Daily Demon-Slaying Life

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The world changed color.

The winds and clouds are turning upside down.

The autumn rain, which had been drizzling, was completely dispersed and evaporated by an invisible force at this moment.

The gray-black miasma clouds above surged wildly, as if a colossal creature was stirring within them.

The crimson array covering the entire Yanfu Mountain, under Cui Guzhai's urging and the frenzied infusion of a large amount of earth vein spiritual energy, suddenly erupted with a terrifying suction force that seemed to devour the heavens and the earth.

"Aaaaaah—!"

"No! Elder, spare me! Spare me!"

"My body! My soul! Ahh!"

"Sect Master, save me! I don't want to die!"

The first to suffer were the Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment demonic cultivators who had collapsed and fled in the square and had not yet completely left the mountain peak area.

The moment the crimson array lit up, everyone, regardless of their cultivation level or distance, felt as if their bodies were being gripped tightly by an invisible giant hand, nailed to the spot.

Then, to their horror, they discovered that their blood, magic power, and even life force were uncontrollably and frantically gushing and flowing out of every pore and orifice.

Their skin quickly dried up and cracked, their flesh melted away like ice and snow under the scorching sun, and their bones groaned under the unbearable burden.

In just a few breaths, a living demonic cultivator was transformed into a pool of thick, foul-smelling, bubbling blood.

Then, the blood was instantly evaporated and refined by the power of the great formation, turning into streams of incomparably pure, yet filled with resentment and evil energy, crimson blood energy. Like rivers flowing into the sea, it frantically converged towards the core of the great formation—the throne in front of the Hall of Ten Thousand Souls.

Not just living people.

Even the eight headless corpses of the Purple Mansion Demon Lords who had just been killed by Zuo Qingqiu and were still warm, as well as the corpses of the demon cultivators who had died in the chaos earlier, were not spared.

Under the power of the crimson array, these corpses melted rapidly, like candles thrown into a furnace, transforming into even larger and higher-quality scarlet blood energy, which merged into the surging torrent of blood energy.

Tens of thousands of Qi Refiners, hundreds of Foundation Establishment cultivators, eight mid-stage Purple Mansion cultivators... all the power, essence, blood, and soul fragments they had painstakingly accumulated during their lives have now become fuel for this ancient blood sacrifice array, ruthlessly plundered, devoured, and transformed.

The entire summit of Yanfu Mountain was instantly transformed into a living hell.

Screams, wails, pleas for mercy, curses... all intertwined, but were quickly drowned out by the roar of the array in operation and the howling of surging blood energy.

The pungent, overwhelming stench of blood, mixed with the acrid smell of pure magical power being forcibly extracted and burned, and the despair and resentment released when countless souls were instantly annihilated, formed a nauseating, evil storm that seemed to freeze even the soul, sweeping across all directions.

However, the crimson blood energy, surging and converging like a blood-red river and containing terrifying power, ultimately flowed not towards Cui Guqi, who had activated the great formation, but rather…

Behind him, on the throne, sat the figure who had maintained an eerie calm from the very beginning, seemingly unmoved even by the horrific scene of his fellow disciples being sacrificed at his feet…

Witch, Xia Zhu.

All the blood and energy surged wildly into that slender, stunningly beautiful figure.

Her body seemed to transform into a bottomless black hole, greedily devouring this "gift" formed from the lives and power of tens of thousands of fellow disciples.

As for Cui Guzhai himself, after fully activating the great formation and pushing its operation to its limit, his already withered body became even more hunched and shriveled at a visible speed.

His skin clung tightly to his bones, his eye sockets were sunken like a skull, and the two eerie green lights quickly dimmed.

But there was no pain or resentment on his face; instead, there was a kind of almost pious, crazy yet rational determination.

"Zhu'er..." he spoke hoarsely, his voice weak but clearly reaching Xia Zhu's ears behind him, "This old man... can only do this much for you..."

"Let this old body of mine... lend you one last helping hand..."

"From now on... you'll have to walk your own path..."

Before he could finish speaking, Cui Guqi suddenly raised his hand, which was as thin as a withered branch, and with his last bit of strength, slammed it hard against his own chest.

The next moment, the crimson array covering the entire mountain range suddenly shone brightly once more.

A dark red stream of energy, purer and more powerful than all the previous blood energy combined, containing a trace of the lifelong Daoist essence and origin of a cultivator at the Great Perfection of the Purple Mansion realm, rose from Cui Guqi's crown chakra and then, without hesitation, merged into the torrent of blood energy surging into Xia Zhu's body.

As for Cui Guzhai himself, after unleashing that palm strike and forcing out the last trace of his essence, his body seemed to have all its support drained away in an instant, and he completely collapsed.

"Thump."

A soft sound.

The jet-black robe that signified his status as the Grand Elder of the Diluo Sect, along with the white bone and skull cane that had accompanied him for countless years, lay limply on the ground.

Beneath the robes, there was nothing.

There was no body, no ashes.

Only a few wisps of ashes remained, which quickly dissipated.

This demonic tycoon, who lived for nearly 1,200 years, weathered countless storms, and held power in the Diluo Sect for almost a thousand years, chose in the most extreme, insane, and yet "rational" way to sacrifice himself and all the sect's disciples in the final moments of his life, all to place all his "bets" on the next sect leader...

Thus, both body and soul perished, completely disappearing from the world.

It's fair to say that he made an extremely rational, yet extremely crazy, decision.

His rationality lay in the fact that he knew his lifespan was coming to an end, his vital energy was depleted, and his true combat strength was less than one-tenth of what it used to be.

Facing a fully recovered Golden Core True Monarch, even if one were to risk their life, there would be no chance of victory, and it would be difficult to even delay for a moment.

Rather than dying a pointless death, it is better to gather all the remaining strength, along with the lives of all the disciples on the mountain, and the power accumulated by the mountain gate formation that the Diluo Sect has been building for tens of thousands of years, onto Xia Zhu.

Xia Zhu is young, exceptionally talented, and stubborn. She is the last hope of the Di Luo Sect and the only one who could potentially bear this power and deliver a blow that threatens a True Lord.

The madness lies in the fact that he did not hesitate to sacrifice the entire sect, including himself, using the tens of thousands of years of foundation of the Diluo Sect, the lives of tens of thousands of disciples, and his own path and existence as "fuel" and "stakes" on this high-stakes gamble against the True Lord with little hope.

This is no longer a simple matter of "protecting the sect".

This is a martyrdom that is obsessive to the point of distortion, insane to the extreme, yet coldly calculating to the bone.

Zuo Qingqiu watched all of this unfold quietly.

From Cui Guchao activating the grand formation, to tens of thousands of demonic cultivators turning into blood energy amidst their screams, to Cui Guchao's self-sacrifice, and finally all the blood energy surging into Xia Zhu's body...

The whole process took only a dozen or so breaths.

She stood still the whole time, one hand on her sword, her expression calm and undisturbed.

They were neither moved by the horrific scene of blood sacrifice nor did they try to stop it.

Firstly, these evil scoundrels kill each other and sacrifice themselves, saving her the trouble of cleaning them up.

Secondly, and most importantly—

She didn't think that a mere method of forcibly increasing power through blood sacrifice could pose any real threat to her, a Golden Core True Monarch.

If the power of a True Monarch is so easily shaken by the accumulation of "quantitative changes," then the "gold content" of a Golden Core True Monarch is far too low.

Throughout history, there have never been so many exceptionally talented individuals who have striven relentlessly, spending hundreds or even thousands of years at the Great Perfection of the Purple Mansion realm, just to glimpse that supreme opportunity of "Immortal Golden Nature".

Between the Purple Palace and the Golden Core lies a leap in the level of life, a transformation in the essence of power, and a distinction between "rules" and "brute force".

Even if there are many ants, can they overwhelm a dragon?

It might bite and hurt, but it could never kill.

Under Zuo Qingqiu's indifferent gaze, the crimson torrent of blood energy that swept across the entire Yanfu Mountain, devoured tens of thousands of lives, and finally gathered all the power was completely absorbed by Xia Zhu.

On the throne, the stunningly beautiful figure slowly rose to her feet.