Primordial Era: Starting with slaughtering all the gods and Buddhas in the sky

The charred, blackened rocky slope was still emitting smoke.

The wind swept out from the ruins of the border garrison, carrying the smells of burnt flesh, charred bones, and the bitter, fishy odor of blood dried by fire. In the distance, a few broken camp pillars had not yet completely collapsed; flames clung to the wooden frame, crackling and popping like a group of teeth slowly clenching in the darkness.

Huang Chen sat on a cracked rock halfway up the slope, with the soil behind him blasted open by the Exploding Flame Talisman, and a large area of ​​black mud soaked in demon blood and then burned into a hard shell under his feet.

He didn't move.

It's not that I don't want to move, it's that the qi and blood in my body are churning too violent

That night, he fought his way from the outer city to the border army camp, and finally tore apart the Fang Demon General with his bare hands, repeatedly activating the Karmic Fire Red Lotus, the Humanity Prison-Suppressing Stele, and the Pulse Fire Battle Domain. His physical body felt as if it had been thrown into a furnace and refined.

Every meridian was burning hot, and there were occasional soft "clicks" in the joints, as if fire was seeping into the cracks.

Huang Chen spat out a mouthful of blood and pressed his hand to his chest.

The skin beneath my palms was burning hot, and my heart was pounding heavily.

"Oh shit.

'

He muttered a curse under his breath and flipped his hand to hand over the imitation of the Twelve-Grade Karmic Fire Red Lotus.

A crimson lotus platform hung before his knees, its petals slowly unfurling like a still fire compressed to its extreme.

The firelight didn't leap around wildly; it simply spread outwards layer by layer, illuminating the bloodstains on Huang Chen's face and gradually forcing back the remaining demonic energy within a few feet around him.

The heatwave is coming.

Huang Chen closed his eyes and began to circulate the "Ancient God and Demon Technique" and the "Ancient Body Forging Scripture" together, first suppressing the blood and qi that were about to break out of control.

Take a breath.

Two breaths.

After a dozen or so breaths, the taut, trembling tendon on his back finally relaxed a little, and his breathing stopped spewing out fire like before.

Half an hour is neither a long nor a short time.

The wind blows, the fire burns, and the occasional sound of collapse can be heard in the distance.

Huang Chen remained seated, like a piece of iron nailed to the black slope.

Only when the surging urge within him was suppressed to a controllable level did he open his eyes, his gaze passing over the burned-out camp gate and landing on the corpse below the slope.

The Frosty Fang Demon General is not completely dead yet.

Half of the black-haired giant monster's body was charred, its chest and abdomen had been pierced by Huang Chen, its skull had cracked open with a large gap, and its fangs were protruding. Its death was terrifyingly ferocious.

It lay beside a pile of burnt-out military flags, its massive demonic claws still gripping the ground, as if it were trying to get up even in death.

Huang Chen stared at that face, his eyes hard with coldness.

The name pieced together from the complete coordinate ledger in the previous chapter finally matched perfectly with the split head before my eyes.

that's it.

That demon general who slaughtered his original tribe, tore through the elders' protective line, drove jackals to set fires, and dragged the living away like livestock.

It's not a guess.

It's not a doubt.

That's the face.

Huang Chen slowly stood up. As soon as he moved, a tearing pain shot through his back and arms. But he seemed oblivious, carrying the Asura Blood Blade, and walked down the stone slope step by step.

The soles of the boots crushed the charred bones with a crisp sound.

The fanged demon general stared with eyes that refused to close in death.

Huang Chen stopped in front of it, bent down, grabbed its messy hair, and pulled its head up a little.

The demon blood stuck to my palm, it was hot and smelled fishy.

"Do you remember?"

Huang Chen spoke, his voice hoarse.

"In that ravine, the old man stood in front, and behind him were all children."

"You laughed quite loudly."

'

The wind swept past the corpse, and the charred, curled skin trembled slightly.

No one answered.

Huang Chen didn't want to hear a reply.

He threw the corpse back to the ground, and with a slight thought, summoned the system panel.

A scarlet light curtain spread out before my eyes, like a thin layer of blood floating in the night.

[Host: Huang Chen]

[Realm Level: Late-stage Earth Immortal]

[Battle Body: Intermediate Witch Clan Battle Body (Perfect)]

[Current convertible karma value: Significantly increased]

[Exchangeable items: Cultivation techniques, bloodlines, battle physique, and one-time use items]

Below the light screen, the karma value was accumulating and flashing at an astonishing rate.

Huang Chen's eyelids twitched.

The karmic burden on the Cracked Fang Demon General is thicker than that on most of the demon generals he has killed during this period.

It's not simply because of its high cultivation level, but because this thing has consumed too many people and incurred too much blood debt. Even the system's scarlet font seems to have been nourished by it to a deeper degree.

Huang Chen's gaze swept downwards.

Soon, the two redemption options lit up on their own.

【The Ancient Body Forging Scripture (Volume 5)】: Available for exchange

[Superior Witch Clan Battle Body (Fragmented Pack): Available for exchange]

He didn't hesitate.

"exchange."

The light screen trembled violently the next moment.

A massive, almost violent, flow of information suddenly poured into his mind, like molten iron being poured directly down the cracks in his soul. Huang Chen groaned, veins bulging on his forehead, and he half-knelt down, his hands gripping the ground tightly.

He scratched cracks into the stone surface with his five fingers.

At the same time, the flesh and blood inside the body also changed.

The blood and qi that had been forcibly suppressed surged back as if on command. The heartbeat suddenly amplified, pounding in the chest cavity, making the eardrums ring.

Huang Chen gritted his teeth and forcibly circulated his Qi according to the newly acquired Volume Five method.

My back feels hot.

My arms are burning hot.

Leg bones, shoulder bones, ribs, and even knuckles felt as if they were being smashed from the inside out by a giant sledgehammer, and then reassembled.

"Ugh—"

A low growl escaped from his throat.

The karmic fire lotus in front of his knees seemed to be affected by this transformation. The flames suddenly intensified, and crimson flames spread outwards along Huang Chen's body, directly burning the remaining demon blood on the slope into a layer of rolling black shell.

heat.

It's not just ordinary heat.

It's the kind of heat that's so intense it's burning right to the bone marrow.

The sweat that had just appeared on Huang Chen's forehead was evaporated by his body.

His clothes first tightened, then with a "rip," they tore open in large sections from his shoulders and back, revealing the outline of his bulging, undulating muscles.

The old witch marks shone under the skin.

One, two, more than a dozen.

Dark gold patterns climbed up the arms, passed through the shoulders and neck, merged into the spine, and then spread from the midline of the spine to the ribs, like a net that had just awakened from ancient battle blood.

They weren't painted on; they looked more like they grew out of the bones.

Huang Chen braced himself on the ground with both hands, his knuckles turning white.

He could clearly feel that his already perfected intermediate-level witch race battle body was being forcibly pushed to its limits. His skin was tougher, his muscles were tighter, his bones were getting heavier, and his internal organs felt as if they were being re-wrapped in a layer of iron.

The threshold of the late-stage Earth Immortal realm is also beginning to loosen under this frenzied erosion.

boom!

At one moment, it felt as if a muffled thunderclap exploded inside Huang Chen's body.

Qi and blood flow through the entire body, and the meridians resonate.

He suddenly looked up, his eyes bloodshot, yet a layer of almost tangible dark gold pressed beneath his pupils. The scattered pebbles around him were jolted up by the invisible shockwave, then tumbled back down to the ground with a clatter.

[Realm Advancement: Late-stage Earth Immortal → Early-stage Celestial Immortal]

[Battle Body Upgrade: Intermediate Witch Clan Battle Body (Perfect) → Advanced Witch Clan Battle Body (Incomplete)]

[Significantly Enhanced Overall Combat Capability]

The system notification flashed by quickly.

Huang Chen stood up.

This movement is not fast.

But the moment he stood up, the entire scorched rocky slope seemed to sink.

A gust of wind blew, ruffling the torn hem of his clothes and revealing the newly formed dark gold sorcerer markings on his arms. The markings gleamed like buried metal in the firelight, not flashy, but exuding an overwhelming aura of ferocity.

He clenched his fist.

The joints cracked.

The air in my palm felt stuffy from being squeezed.

Huang Chen narrowed his eyes and casually punched the half-person-high scorched stone next to him.

Bang!

The sintered rock, as hard as iron, shattered, sending stone fragments flying seven or eight feet away. Even the remaining force cracked half of the camp wall behind it.

He looked down at his fist.

The skin wasn't even broken.

Huang Chen's lips twitched slightly, the smile not strong, but carrying an uncontrollable ruthlessness.

"Celestial being".

'

As he uttered those two words, the pent-up anger that had been churning in his chest all night finally subsided.

However, he didn't dwell on it for long.

In this place, the fire is still burning, and demon soldiers could arrive from elsewhere at any moment. Even after the breakthrough is complete, there are still things to do.

Huang Chen put away the Red Lotus, walked back to the corpse of the Rift Fang Demon General, and began to search him.

The black armor on the fanged demon general's body had long been torn apart. Huang Chen ripped off the broken armor and rummaged through the hidden pockets on its waist, chest, and back of its neck.

All the demon clan military leaders are the same; they never keep important items in one place, for fear that they will die too quickly and not have time to spread the word.

The first item was a palm-sized black iron military token.

The talisman was cast with fanged beast heads and three patrol patterns, and the three ancient demon characters "Ten Thousand Demon City" were pressed on its back. It was heavy to the touch and still had a faint aura of city defense restrictions.

Huang Chen's eyes narrowed.

"The city patrol warrant".

This isn't some trinket for border troops stationed in their camps.

With it, he could avoid a lot of trouble, at least in the outer streets, at side checkpoints, and during night patrols. Some of the array-patterned guard posts even only recognized the military token, not the face.

Huang Chen put away the military tally and continued flipping through it.

The second item was a booklet made from half an animal hide.

There were tears along the edges, and the leather was marked with many black and red marks. At the top were four crooked demonic characters: Blood Food Army Register.

Huang Chen spread the half-page out in the firelight and looked at it; his expression slowly turned cold.

The information recorded above is not about food or fodder at all.

are people.

Men, women, young children, remnants of cultivators, mine slaves, leftover goods from sacrificial pits, materials suitable for soul refining... all were categorized, with each category indicating its origin, destination, and the unit from which it was handed over. The numbers were incomplete, only half a book, but even this small section contained records of 376 people.

One of the columns reads, "The border troops will be temporarily stored in the garrison and will be incorporated into the main city's Blood Banquet General Depot in three days."

Huang Chen's hand, gripping the animal hide, tightened little by little.

The firelight reflected in his eyes, making them glow red.

He was used to the fact that the border army battalion was eating people.

But this half-volume military register clearly states that this wasn't some demon general indulging in a private act of debauchery, nor was it a few demon soldiers secretly selling meat. It's a system, a distribution, a transfer, an accounting, a list and numbering system used by the entire Demon City to treat humans like livestock.

They devoured people, and they even developed a method to it.

Huang Chen remained silent for a few moments, then folded the Blood Food Army Register and stuffed it into his robes.

The third item is a bone slip.

The bone tablet was small, yellowish in color, and had its edges worn shiny, suggesting it was frequently taken out for inspection.

What was engraved on it was not a general catalog, but a series of more detailed transport routes, including which gate it passed through on which day and at what time, which neighborhood it was being transported to, and which underground canal was used for additional transport.

What was engraved on it was not a general catalog, but a series of more detailed transport routes, including which gate it passed through on which day and at what time, which neighborhood it was being transported to, and which underground canal was used for additional transport.

The more Huang Chen looked, the deeper his brows furrowed.

Besides several common place names like Wan Yao City, the bone slip also repeatedly contained the phrase: "Blood Feast of Ten Thousand Races".

Not once, not twice.

There are a total of seventeen escort records, all of which show people being piled up in this place.

Some were labeled "live feast", some were labeled "offerings", and a few had "for distinguished guests to choose first".

A metallic taste of blood rose in Huang Chen's throat. He pressed his tongue against his teeth, forcing down the fire in his throat, and continued reading.

Then, his gaze paused.

Next to the very last line of the bone tablet, there was a small but striking gold mark.

The markings did not belong to the demon army's seals, nor did they belong to the city defense system of the Ten Thousand Demon City.

It resembles a finely wound hook, passing through a crescent-shaped mark in the middle, with cold, sinister patterns, and a barbed loop at the end, a common feature in soul-binding mystical arts.

Huang Chen's eyelids twitched slightly.

The Soul-Binding Golden Pattern of the Passing Immortal lineage.

This wasn't the first time he'd seen this mark.

He had seen similar traces on the human corpses that had been refined, sold, or had their names cut off. But in the past, they were only fragmentary, peripheral, or uncertain points.

This time, it appeared on the personal bone scroll of a demon general on the border of the City of Ten Thousand Demons.

I wasn't just passing by.

It's no coincidence.

It has already extended into the city, into this cannibalistic system.

Huang Chen held the bone tablet and slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air.

The wind carried embers that stung his face.

"Immortal, Demon."

"They're all from the same family."

'

His voice wasn't loud, but he enunciated each word clearly.

Not far away, another large beam collapsed in the camp with a loud crash, sending sparks flying into the sky.

Huang Chen put the bone slips, military registers, and military tally into his storage, and then rummaged through the remaining belongings of the Cracked Fang Demon General. There were some scattered demon cores, a few spirit stones, two bottles of rough healing ointment, and a broken fang token, which were not of much use.

After searching, he didn't leave immediately.

Instead, he stood beside the corpse, looking down at the ferocious face of the Rift Fang Demon General.

The fire is burning.

The wind is blowing.

The entire abandoned camp resembled a giant beast that was still convulsing after its death.

Huang Chen suddenly remembered the human elder who had shielded the children for a while.

The old man was thin, but his hands were steady. He didn't flinch even after taking the first blow to his back, only turning around and shouting "Run!" By then, the fire had already started, and the jackal demon rushed into the thatched hut, the cries and shouts mingling together.

Later, nothing was left.

Huang Chen squatted down and reached out to press down on the cracked skull of the Fang Demon General.

You can still feel bone fragments and half-congealed blood under your palm.

"This press was done for him."

'

He said.

Then the five fingers suddenly exerted force.

Click!

The fanged demon crushed the entire head on the spot, and bone fragments mixed with brain matter and black blood squeezed out from between his fingers, splattering onto the charred ground.

The two outward-facing fangs rolled out and hit a piece of charred wood, making two hollow sounds.

Just then, the system panel popped up again.

This time it's not a conventional light screen.

It was a bright, glaringly red pop-up window, as if someone had smeared blood directly into the night sky.

[Ding! Key mainline node detected]

[Main Quest Triggered: Stepping into the Core of the Primordial World]

【Task Details:】

【1. Sneak into the City of Ten Thousand Demons】

2. Seize the Blood Banquet Register

3. Disrupting the Blood Feast of All Races

[Task Reward: Unknown]

[Consequences of failure: The relevant causal relationship deteriorates significantly]

Huang Chen stared at those lines of text, his gaze slowly narrowing.

City of Ten Thousand Demons.

The list of names at the blood banquet.

Three days.

Each word is like a nail, making a resounding noise in one's heart.

He raised his hand and flicked it to close the system pop-up window, then turned to look into the distance.

The night was not yet over.

But on the distant horizon, a massive, dark shadow could already be seen. It was neither a mountain nor a cloud, but a colossal demon city lurking in the darkness.

The eerie flames on the city walls shone intermittently like stars, and the outer walls resembled a coiled ring of animal bones, making it difficult to breathe.

The wind blew from that direction, carrying a more mixed smell.

The smells of alcohol, blood, rotting flesh, spices, and the foul heat of countless living beings fermenting together.

Huang Chen stood for a moment, put the gray bone mask on his face, then covered half of his body with the black wind shield, and touched the patrol talisman of the Ten Thousand Demon City in his arms.

Icy.

Solid and substantial.

It works perfectly.

He took one last look at the burning ruins behind him, then pushed off with his feet and leaped off the charred rocky slope.

The Mountain and River Boots trod across the broken soil, leaving only a few shallow footprints, which were quickly buried by wind, sand and dust.

The night grew even darker.

The outline of the demon city in the distance grew larger and larger.

The wind outside the City of Ten Thousand Demons blew down from the barren slopes and into the abandoned beast bone ditch, carrying a musty, stale stench, as if countless pieces of rotting flesh were slowly fermenting in the soil. The bottom of the ditch was piled high with the cracked ribs of giant beasts, lying stark white in the black mud, with dark green rainwater accumulating between the bones. Occasionally, tiny insects would crawl out, only to be bitten off by larger beetles.

Huang Chen lay hidden behind a half-buried beast skull, his breathing extremely low.

The Ash Breath Constriction Technique layer by layer restrained his blood energy, even forcibly suppressing the surging heat of the witch runes beneath his skin.

During those two hours, he barely moved, only turning his head slightly at the patrol and shift changes to look at the rows of slave escort convoys in front of the west side gate.

The city gate was not large, and the side gate was even narrower. The gate tower was made of three-zhang-high bone piers, and twelve blood lamps hung on the beam.

The fire in the lamp was not fire, but clusters of trapped human souls, sometimes bright and sometimes dim, making the defensive array patterns on the city wall look like red blood vessels, slowly writhing in the night.

Every fifteen minutes, a patrol of demon soldiers would walk past the city walls.

The sounds of armor plates clashing, chains dragging on the ground, and rough cursing filled the air.

"Push it faster!"

'

"This batch was for inspection at the West Workshop. If you're late, you'll be skinned alive!"

"Damn it, two more died?"

Even if he dies, drag him in there! His flesh and blood still have a price!

Huang Chen narrowed his eyes, his gaze following the bone carts forward.

There were people locked in the car.

Old and young, men and women, all had dirty cloths stuffed in their mouths and their hands and feet tied behind their backs.

The first car was piled high with seven or eight children, crammed together like livestock waiting to be slaughtered. The one on top was only seven or eight years old, pale-faced, with drooping eyelids, too weak even to cry.

Huang Chen pressed his fingers into the mud, slowly tightening them.

Muddy water squeezed out from between his fingers.

He didn't move.

Now is not the time to take action.

The western gate is guarded by three groups of demons: six on the outer group and four on the inner group. There are also at least two crossbowmen hiding in the shadows.

Embedded below the gate tower is a black bone array plate about half a person's height. Whenever a bone transport cart approaches, the array plate will light up once, verifying the military token and the transport pattern.

Of course, you can force your way in.

With his current cultivation level at the early stage of the Celestial Immortal realm, coupled with the Karmic Fire Red Lotus, the Humanity Prison-Suppressing Stele, and the Xuanhuang Armor, even if he forcefully smashed through this side gate, he might still be able to break through.

But what happens after you rush in?

The City of Ten Thousand Demons is not Bone Lamp Slope, nor Skeleton Moon Pool, nor even a remote stronghold like the Broken Pulse Camp. This is the outer defense line, the front line of the Blood Banquet, and a place where tens of thousands of demons reside.

If he makes a big move and doesn't gather all the intelligence, the captured humans will only die even faster.

Huang Chen exhaled a very thin breath and slowly took out the patrol soldier's token.

The military token of the Cracked Fang Demon General.

The bone is pure white with canine-tooth-like barbs along the edges, and the back of the talisman is engraved with a wolf pattern tearing its throat bone.

As his fingertips touched it, the old clues he had pieced together in Chapter 100 flashed through his mind again: the old village, the blood and fire, the people who had fled, and the old man lying in the mud.

His eye twitched slightly.

"Make a note of this."

Huang Chen uttered these three words in his mind, suppressing the rising killing intent once again.

A moment later, the second batch of slave wagons approached the side gate.

Accompanying the vehicle were three demon soldiers who looked like border troops, two tall and one short, all covered in mud and blood.

The last tall, thin demon soldier yawned, and as he walked past the edge of the bone gully, his foot slipped, and he turned into the shady area by himself, clearly wanting to take a break and relieve himself.

Huang Chen had been waiting for this moment.

He rose silently, like a wisp of black smoke drifting along the ground.

The demon soldier had just unbuckled his belt when he felt a chill on the back of his neck.

One hand covered its mouth from behind, while the other hand gave a quick twist.

Click.

The neck bone is broken.

The demon soldier couldn't even utter a whimper before his body went limp.

Huang Chen dragged the corpse deeper into the bone trench, stripped it of its outer armor and escort token, his movements swift and decisive.

The remaining illusions of the Ash Bone Mask, combined with the Ash Breath Concealing Meridian Technique, are enough to conceal both aura and physical form.

In addition, there's the patrol token of the Cracked Fang Demon General.

It's not difficult to sneak in.

The difficulty lies in how to get in and out with intelligence and people.

Huang Chen put on the blood-stained border army leather armor, his shoulders and back slightly hunched, and deliberately took heavier steps. Then, he picked up the bone whip left behind by the demon soldier and hurried towards the side gate convoy.

One of the demon soldiers guarding the cart at the back of the procession glanced back at him.

"Where the hell did you run off to?"

'

Huang Chen lowered his head, his voice hoarse.

"That kid threw up in the car, so I went to the back to get a rope."

'

The demon soldier spat.

"Hurry up, Xifang is pressing us hard. If we miss the appointed time, General Lieya will hold us accountable."

'

Huang Chen shook the military tally in his hand and said nothing more.

Once the other party saw the pattern on the military tally, their eyes immediately softened. Despite their cursing, they ultimately didn't question him further.

The convoy quickly arrived at the side gate.

The black bone array lights up, and red light sweeps from the wheels all the way to the feet of the escorts.

Huang Chen pressed the military talisman onto the array plate. The talisman made a soft "sizzle" sound as soon as it touched the array plate, like hot oil being poured into blood.

The red light paused for two breaths.

They were then allowed to pass.

A crack appeared inwards from the thick bone, and a rotten, sweet smell suddenly wafted out.

As Huang Chen followed the convoy into the city, the first thing he saw was not a street or a building, but a row of tall, suspended human bone lamp stands.

The lamp stands were planted one by one along the street, their joints polished to a shine, with blood sac-like lampshades hanging from their tops.

When the light shines down, the ground is not paved with bluestone, but with densely packed broken bricks. Stepping on them makes a slight "crunching" sound, like stepping on teeth.

Further ahead are the city's towers and pavilions.

The beams were huge white bones, the pillars were black wood wrapped in fascia, and dried human skin banners hung from the eaves. From the depths of the market, the sounds of chopping bones, sizzling oil cauldrons, and wailing could be heard intermittently, suppressed by the array, like bubbles rising from the bottom of the water.

Huang Chen's eyes turned cold, but his steps remained steady.

The slave escort caravan headed west, and he took advantage of a roadside checkpoint to slip into a side alley where the city's bone warehouse was located.

Along the way, he had already observed three nodes of the Soul-Binding Array.

They are all buried under the bone lamps at street corners. The array plates are extremely small and are specifically designed to lock people's souls. They are used to prevent prisoners from committing suicide or escaping, and also serve as early warning systems.

Once someone struggles on a large scale, the array patterns will shake several surrounding streets and alleys.

Huang Chen walked to the first node, seemingly casually adjusting his leg bindings, but in reality, his palm was already covered with the remnant of the Humanity Prison-Suppressing Stele from his storage artifact.

The meaning of the monument has faded.

There was no light, no sound.

The soul-binding array pattern underground seemed to be pressed down by an invisible boulder, and the flowing blood color paused for a moment before slowly dimming.

Huang Chen got up and continued forward.

The same applies to the second place.

Only after doing all this did he truly get close to the city's bone bank.

The bone storehouse was built like an inverted beast skull, with six dark blue bone tablets hanging above the entrance, inscribed with "Deposit", "Inspection", "Contract Transfer", "Sacrifice Preparation", "City Tax", and "Blood Register". Two emaciated demon servants from the Spirit Cooking Workshop sat at the entrance, their faces covered with fine black scales, engrossed in examining the bone slips.

One of them yawned and cursed, "These boys aren't up to par, and they're too soft-skinned. The workshop owner will be furious again."

The other one chuckled.

"Tender ones are valuable. The ones needed before the blood banquet are the ones who can cry out, wail, and have a strong soul fire."

"If it's too old, just throw it in the back of the pot."

Huang Chen lowered his eyelids and walked over, carrying the bone whip.

"General Lieya is urging me to review the order. A new truckload arrived at the west gate, and he wants me to check the roster first."

The black-scaled servant looked up, first at his waist tag, then at his military tally.

It was clearly somewhat wary of the reputation of the Fang-Cracking Demon General, wrinkling its nose and muttering, "Why are you rushing me in the middle of the night?"

Despite cursing, he still tossed a bone key over.

"Go inside, the third shelf on the left, the Blood Banquet Supplementary Register is on the upper level. Don't touch anything else, if you damage the tent bones, you won't be able to afford to pay for it even if you sell your possessions."

'

Huang Chen took the bone key, hummed in agreement, and pushed open the door to enter.

It's colder behind the door than outside.

Rows of skeletons stood upright to the roof, covered with bone slips, leather scrolls, soul-sealing jars, and contract plaques. The air was thick with the stench of blood, wax, and stale medicine, all mixed together, making one's throat bitter.

There were tiny scratches on the ground, as if someone had been dragged countless times.

Huang Chen tiptoed and quickly found the third car on the left.

On the top shelf was indeed a blood-red leather scroll, with silver-gray bone fragments nailed to the corners, and the words "Blood Feast Copy" printed on the seal. Below the scroll was a transfer slip, which recorded the number of sacrifices to be sent from each neighborhood three days later: thirty-six children, twenty-four girls, forty able-bodied men, and several "living bones".

Huang Chen turned to the first page.

Name, ID number, escort station, soul verification level, destination.

Scrolling down line by line, it's like a list of dead people.

When he reached the middle section, his movements suddenly stopped.

The top line of text on the album page was printed with red gold ink.

—Overall Director: Golden-Eyed Demon General.

Huang Chen's pupils contracted slightly.

Golden-eyed Demon General.

The weight of this name far surpasses that of the Fang-Cracking Demon General. Fang-Cracking is merely a weapon used for blood collection, escorting, and village massacres on the front lines, while the Golden-Eyed Demon Commander has already grasped the central axis of the entire Blood Feast operation in the City of Ten Thousand Demons.

What made Huang Chen feel even more uneasy was the brand at the bottom of the roster.

It is not a demon race mark.

It is the protective seal of the Xuantian Sect.

The sword was entwined with fiery clouds, with a small mysterious nail mark embedded in the middle, a mark commonly used by the lineage of the guardian elders of the Xuantian Sect.

Chapter 54 That night at Zushan, he smashed the protective hall and destroyed many things, originally thinking that the Xuantian Sect's remaining branch had been mostly broken. Unexpectedly, these bastards still had remnants, and even extended their reach into the Blood Banquet of Ten Thousand Demon City.

Huang Chen quickly memorized those pages, then took out the imprint stone and traced a faint image of the key pages.

Just then, a very soft cry suddenly came from deep within the bone bank.

It looks like a small animal.

It's like a child's choked sobs after their mouth has been stuffed shut.

Huang Chen turned his head and glanced at the innermost curtain.

The crying sounded again.

It's very light.

But it made his brow furrow.

That wasn't an accounting room or storage room; it was an internal inspection room.

Huang Chen quickly rolled up half of the Blood Banquet register, stuffed it into his arms, then concealed his aura and darted away behind the skeleton.

Behind the hanging curtain was a narrow stone chamber, with soul-binding nails embedded in the four walls and small arrays for cutting souls and inspecting goods drawn on the floor.

Four children were kneeling in the middle of the formation.

They were both around ten years old, two boys and two girls, with thin bone rings around their necks and pale lips. Beside them, a demon servant from the Spirit Cooking Workshop was holding a bone knife, preparing to cut a line between the eyebrows of one of the boys to examine the color of his soul fire.

The boy was trembling all over, his face covered in tears and snot.

"No...don't..."

The servant demon smacked his lips.

"Don't move it, or you'll damage the soul rune and the price will drop even lower."

The moment it raised its sword, Huang Chen was already behind it.

One palm strike.

Snapped.

The servant demon didn't even have time to turn around before its skull was slammed into its chest cavity, its body went limp, and it collapsed at the edge of the formation.

The four children were so frightened that they forgot to cry.

Huang Chen squatted down, his voice extremely low.

"Don't make a sound."

'

The youngest girl's eyes were filled with fear, and her lips trembled violently.

Huang Chen raised his hand and tore off the bone ring around her neck, then used the edge of a fragment of the Xuan Tian Soul Nail to pry open the nodes of the array pattern.

The Soul-Cutting Array on the ground lit up briefly, then went out.

The system panel trembled slightly in his mind.

[Detection indicates the host rescued four human children who were being sacrificed.]

[To receive a small amount of merit.]

】

Huang Chen didn't have time to look at the numbers carefully. He simply pulled the four children to a corner and gave the oldest boy a concealment talisman.

"Take it."

'

"Stick it to your body and lead them outside, but don't go through the main gate. Once outside, run along the left wall and stop when you see an extinguished bone lamp."

The boy took the talisman tremblingly, his voice changing.

"Uncle... Uncle..."

Huang Chen glanced at him.

"Can you run?"

'

The boy gritted his teeth and nodded.

Just as Huang Chen was about to lead them out, a sharp shriek suddenly came from outside.

Immediately following was the angry shouts and curses of the two servant demons at the entrance of the bone storehouse.

"Who tampered with the examination room!"

'

"Guards! Guards!"

'

The next moment, all the blood-red lights on the street trembled simultaneously.

thump—

thump—

thump—

The city's bells and drums suddenly rang out in unison.

The sound was like a heavy hammer striking bone, one after another, causing fine ash to fall from the roof beams. Outside, chaos erupted instantly, with footsteps, shouts, and bone whistles all exploding out. The once relatively orderly streets and alleys suddenly tightened, like a net that was abruptly pulled in.

"Close the street!"

"Something happened at the Xifang Bone Bank!"

'

"Lock up all the side alleys! Don't let a single person escape!"

Huang Chen's face darkened slightly. He led the four children out of the inner room and saw a bright flash of blood outside the bone storage door.

A squad of patrolling demon soldiers had already blocked the entrance, their long forks raised horizontally.

Further down the street, a black bone palanquin carried by six powerful demons slowly came to a stop.

A semi-transparent human skin curtain hung in front of the palanquin, behind which sat a tall, thin demonic figure, holding a long, thin boning hook. Its face was pale to bluish, but a smile always played on its lips; it resembled a butcher, or perhaps an accountant.

Huang Chen only glanced at him before guessing his identity.

The owner of Cooking Lingfang.

The demon raised its hand and lifted the curtain, revealing half of its face covered with fine stitches. Its gaze first swept over the bone storehouse, then over the bloodstains on the ground, and its smile deepened.

"interesting."

Its sound wasn't loud, but it was as sharp as a bone scraper.

"In the middle of the night, someone actually dared to come to my shop to steal accounts and even rob goods."

It lifted the boning hook and gently tapped it.

"Seal off three streets and close six gates."

"Light up all the bone lamps."

'

"I want to see which life is so tough."

On both sides of the street intersection, rows of blood-red lights suddenly blazed on.

A crimson light surged through the threshold of the bone bank, turning the four children's faces deathly pale. Huang Chen pushed them behind him, his gaze already fixed on the unremarkable bone transfer groove in the corner on the right.

That was a secret passage for transporting goods.

narrow.

It was dirty. It was barely wide enough for someone to bend over and squeeze through.

Footsteps drew closer outside, the armor plates of the patrolling demon soldiers clanging rapidly and harshly, the tips of their long forks already protruding into the gate. The owner of the Cooking Spirit Workshop stood at the street corner, slowly twirling the boning hook in his hand, as if waiting for a piece of meat to jump onto the chopping board on its own.

Huang Chen suddenly raised his hand and flicked it.

Two Soul Ash Talismans exploded on the ground, and gray mist billowed up, instantly engulfing the area a foot in front of the door.

Several demon soldiers who rushed in the fastest were immediately covered in gray mist, their vision went black, and they crashed into each other in a chaotic mess, howling in pain.

"Back off!"

'

"There's something in the fog!"

Huang Chen grabbed the youngest girl and shouted.

"Stay close!"

He slammed into the right wall, and with a flash of his Xuan Tie sword, he shattered half of the bone fence.

Bones flew everywhere, revealing the dark, damp bone trough behind them, filled with a foul stench.

The oldest boy practically crawled in first, using both his hands and feet, followed by the other two children who tumbled and crawled after him.

Huang Chen turned around for one last look.

The gray fog is churning.

The blood-red light was blindingly bright.

The owner of the Cooking Spirit Workshop stood at the street corner, suddenly raised his eyes, and met his gaze through the mist.

Those eyes were long and narrow, shining like two poisoned needles.

The next instant, the boning hook pierced through the air.

Huang Chen suddenly looked down, the hook tip grazing his ear and embedding itself in the wall. The entire bone wall exploded with a "bang," cracks instantly spreading half a meter. Debris covered his shoulders, but he remained expressionless, pulled the hook out with his backhand, and threw it behind him.

The hook's shadow flew backwards.

A crisp sound came from the fog.

The owner of the Cooking Spirit Workshop chuckled.

"Grab him."

'

Huang Chen had already bent down and crawled into the bone groove, then slapped his palm heavily from behind.

boom.

The collapsed bones blocked most of the entrance.

In the darkness, several children, suppressing their sobs, struggled to crawl forward. Water dripped continuously from deep within their bone grooves, drip, drip, like someone slowly gritting their teeth at the bottom of the cave.