The blood mist seethed, connecting to the dome of heaven for no less than 500 kilometers. Lightning crackled within it like writhing crimson snakes. Rumbling thunder sounded like heavenly daos roaring to shake the cosmos. The lands beneath the blood mist were under insurmountable pressure, which caused boulders to tremble and start floating up into the air. It was almost as if there was some horrific evil in the clouds that was exerting influence over all living beings.

Even the low-lying mountain where Xu Qing and the Captain waited was affected by the power of the blood mist, and started trembling. It was truly an astonishing sight.

The man and woman that walked out of the blood mist seemed like rulers of all heaven and earth. They abounded with power, and they pulsed with sky-obfuscating, land-enshrouding auras.

The man was like a mountain. He was tall and burly, with an oppressive pressure that radiated off of him and a facial expression that was both cold and filled with unswerving determination. At the same time, his eyes shone with grim and unfeeling brutality.

The woman was as beautiful as an immortal, with hair that swayed in the wind, a waist as supple as a willow tree, and enticing curves that would cause anyone who looked at her to palpitate with desire.

These two weren’t human. Though they were both extremely good-looking, both had wings on their backs and natural third eyes. They were dressed exactly the same. Both wore black robes embroidered with golden thread. And the golden thread flickered with light that created spatial rifts around them as they moved! It was horrendous to say the least!

They were none other than Feng Lintao and Lan Yao.

Once out in the open, Lan Yao flashed an enigmatic smile as she looked down at Xu Qing and the Captain. Her gaze seemed to linger a bit longer on Xu Qing.

As for Feng Lintao, his expression was placid as he hovered overhead. “Why aren’t you two pieces of trash running away?”

Xu Qing and the Captain both looked up grimly, their hearts pounding with the desire to do battle. This person was obviously intent on chasing them down. And despite the fact that they had never met before, much less had any reason for a grudge, he… still wanted to kill them! They intended to return that favor! There was no hesitation on their part. They lived in brutal times in which killing wasn’t just the result of grudges or conflicts.

What was more, it was obvious this person wanted to kill them because they had encroached on his blood sacrifice. In response to this person’s rather extreme behavior, Xu Qing didn’t say a single word. That was just his personality. He wasn’t the type of person to quibble. He was the type of person who took action, and when he did take action, he killed!

He looked at the two nonhumans, first to confirm that they were a different species, and second to try to identify any weaknesses they might have. As far as he could tell, their biggest weak spot was their throat.

In contrast, there was no way the Captain could hold back from offering some sharp words. Laughing derisively, he said, “What, you think having chicken wings makes you bird people or something? Listen up, you three-eyed little chickens, watch your tongue when you speak to your superiors!”

In response to the Captain’s words, Lan Yao frowned, and her gaze turned colder. Feng Lintao’s expression turned grim, and he suddenly looked at the area surrounding Xu Qing and the Captain.

“So,” Feng Lintao said coolly, “you entrenched yourself and even set up some crude warding spells. No wonder you dare to use such language when addressing an important person like myself. Sadly, it doesn’t matter what methods some trifling Void Returning cultivators use. You’re still frogs in a well who clearly don’t know the height of the heavens or the depths of the earth.”

Feng Lintao took a step in their direction, and it caused the blood mist to rumble and weigh down with greater pressure. The ground quaked, and the boulders floating in the air shattered. It seemed that, in the blink of an eye, the entire area was locked down, making all natural and magical laws conform to his will.

When that will settled onto Xu Qing and the Captain, their expressions flickered, and they rotated their cultivation bases as if they were fighting back with everything they had to muster.

Feng Lintao’s expression was cool and apathetic as he took a second step. A great cracking sound echoed through the dome of heaven, as if the sky had split open. The ground shook even harder. The low-lying mountain couldn’t stand the pressure anymore and started crumbling beneath Xu Qing and the Captain.

As the rubble of the rocks floated higher into the air, Feng Lintao lifted his right hand and then pushed it down. An immense force gathered, crushing down on everything, like a gale force wind sweeping onto a pile of leaves to crush them out of existence.

The shattered rubble of the low-lying mountain became ash, and even the air began to crumple so that it looked like a wrinkled piece of cloth. And it was all gathering around Xu Qing and the Captain. Rumbling sounds echoed out as Xu Qing and the Captain were ripped to shreds, causing blood to spray everywhere.

Feng Lintao’s expression didn’t change. Apparently, he didn’t think killing a couple of Void Returning cultivators was worth reacting to. Then, just as he was about to turn and leave, his expression flickered, and he looked back at the spot he had just attacked.

The moment he did, the air filled with hundreds of thousands of magical symbols. Specifically, they didn’t come out of nowhere. They came out of the crushed rubble of the boulders, and they instantly spread out to fill the area.

They were the result of the warding spells Xu Qing had set up. After they appeared, the hundreds of thousands of magical symbols flashed three times, then erupted.

A deafening rumbling sound could be heard as the power of hundreds of thousands of warding spells created a huge tempest that swept over Feng Lintao. His facial expression still didn’t change. The golden embroidery on his black robe suddenly expanded, forming a shocking defensive spell that blocked all external attacks. Eyes derisive, he prepared to fight back.

But then his face fell as the tempest formed from warding spells revealed over a hundred gruish faces within it. The vicious faces looked extremely greedy as they smiled eerily and bared their teeth, which were long and pointed. All of them pulsed with terrifying auras.

They had been hiding in that wind, but Feng Lintao didn’t realize it until now. With mouths gaping, they lunged toward Feng Lintao. They moved with incredible speed, and at the same time, glowed with blue light that allowed them to pass right through the fluctuations emitted by Feng Lintao’s robe. As they pounced, they started biting into him.

“What the hell are these things?” Feng Lintao blurted, shaken. He immediately went into a double-handed incantation gesture, causing his Smoldering God cultivation base to erupt. Something like mercury swept out, covering him and fighting back against the faces.

However, that was when Xu Qing appeared, hovering in midair outside the tempest. Instantly, the seven lamps within him flickered. They were none other than the Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse, which targeted the enemy’s soul. The moment the lamps flickered, they all simultaneously went out.

Extinguish the lamp, extinguish the enemy.

The curse instantly swept over Feng Lintao. He was first inhibited by the warding spell tempest and then got tangled up with the Captain’s gruish faces. He was terrifyingly strong, and was already in the process of exterminating the faces. But Xu Qing attacked with extreme precision, and cooperated perfectly with the Captain.

As the underworld curse erupted, Feng Lintao’s expression flickered dramatically. A power of extermination stabbed into him, piercing to his soul. As the pain filled him, he was overwhelmed by a sensation of withering. As a result, his effort of dealing with the gruish faces slowed.

Taking advantage of the moment, the Captain’s gruish faces looked even crazier as they started self-detonating.

Huge booms rang out, shaking heaven and earth. Immense force struck Feng Lintao in both his soul and his fleshly body, immediately putting him into a very bad state. That said, he came from the holy lands, and had a lot of techniques at his disposal. A blow that might have been fatal to others simply wasn’t capable of killing him.

He was preparing to launch his counter attack, but there was no way that a killing move from Xu Qing and the Captain would be as simple as this.

The next moment, Xu Qing closed in, surrounded by glittering light and terrifying might as he clenched his right hand into a fist. Then he launched a blow that could shatter the air and pierce through the land. It formed an undying body and an indestructible will, something domineering and completely extraordinary.

It was none other than Sir Firedark’s Undying Emperor’s Fist!

Were Sir Firedark here to witness this happening, he would be completely astonished. Back during the fight with Sir Firedark, Xu Qing had been paying very close attention, and had already begun to make an imitation of the technique in his mind and heart. After the battle, he gained further enlightenment, and was now able to use it in a magnificent way.

As the fist descended, Feng Lintao’s expression flickered again. And yet, the true killing move from Xu Qing and the Captain had yet to appear.

The Captain had taught Xu Qing how to act in a truly crazy manner. But the Captain had also learned some things from Xu Qing. He had learned from Xu Qing that it was fine not to launch an attack. But if you did launch an attack, you should go all out, and not hold anything back. That was Xu Qing’s style.

Therefore, the moment Xu Qing unleashed the Undying Emperor’s Fist, a blue, skeletal hand appeared out of nowhere and snatched viciously toward Feng Lintao’s heart from behind.

The blue skeletal hand was extremely eerie, as if it was from another world. And the piercing howl it emitted could shake the mind and cause the emotions to reel. It would cause someone to feel terror and fear that couldn’t be blocked, and would make one tremble both in soul and fleshly body. A will of decay erupted, as if this skeletal hand were from a dead god, and could infect anything and everything with something incredibly inauspicious.

In the blink of an eye, the blue skeletal hand pierced through everything to join Xu Qing and unleash the power to destroy souls.

All of this takes some time to describe, but in reality, it happened in an instant. From Feng Lintao’s perspective, he had been just about to seize victory, only to suddenly find himself in a truly deadly crisis. That sudden change caused him to gasp. That was especially true of the skeletal hand behind him, which caused his hair to stand up on end.

That said, he had abundant experience in battle. And to be a part of this mission launched by the holy lands, it was a given that he was considered an extraordinary person there. Therefore, in that moment of crisis, he didn’t hesitate to open his mouth and spit something out. It started out only about an inch long, but as it flew out, it grew bigger, until it was fully three meters.

It was a black shield!

It was sturdy and ancient, and didn’t have any sort of magical symbols or designs on it. It looked ordinary in nature. However, it emanated an ancient sensation that made it seem like it had been steeping in a river of time for endless years. The moment it appeared, it created defenses all around Feng Lintao.

And it immediately pushed back against Xu Qing’s Undying Emperor’s Fist, the Captain’s blue skeletal hand, the tempest, the exploding faces, and the power of the underworld curse. Deafening booms echoed out and wild colors flashed in heaven and earth.

Xu Qing and the Captain both shivered as they tumbled backward several dozen meters before lurching to a halt.

At the same time, a dazzling red light flickered around Feng Lintao as a blood-colored form charged out and raced to a position some 300 meters away. Countless red streams of light shot out of the black shield to prevent anyone from chasing after the blood-colored form.

Xu Qing’s face darkened, and a crazy look gleamed in the Captain’s eyes. They were both looking at that blood-colored light as it came to a stop 300 meters away. It was Feng Lintao.