The battle was at a stand still. The pink ribbon of energy was spiraling and trying to drill through the blood shield of Gu Yao and Gu Yao was trying to resist it.

He couldn't afford to lose even a moment's time as he fully focused his efforts on the blood shield. The stalemate lasted for five seconds after which a change fully occurred.

~Crack~

"NOO!!!!

" Gu Yao shouted.

A crack had finally appeared on the blood shield even after all that he had done and it only kept on expanding.

Gu Yao's eyes shined in red as more blood essence traveled from the ground to his body and then to his arms. His right hand was placed at the back of the blood shield and his left arm was supporting it.

But even after all that, the end result was disappointing.

~Shatter~

~Rip~

The pink ribbon of energy broke through the blood shield and directly met the right hand of Gu Yao. The flesh of his palm was ripped apart as the pink ribbon continued onwards. Gu Yao gritted his teeth as he made up his mind.

"BLOOD ESSENCE IGNITE!

" He shouted.

~Boom~

Another loud explosion happened that knocked away Lin Mu, Yi Deng, and the supreme elder.

~Thud~

~thud~

~Thud~

All three of them slammed into the Walls of the chamber and left cracks on it. Lin Mu coughed out blood as he was already tired from using the third form of the Boulder collapsing fist and was reeling from the impact.

The chamber was covered in a red mist now, and the pink energy ribbon could no longer be seen. After a few seconds of silence, Lin Mu and the rest finally saw the aftermath.

~drip~drip~drip~

In the center of the site of the explosion was standing Gu Yao. His right arm was completely destroyed and only some remnants of flesh were left attached to his shoulder. The rest of his body had injuries as well, and blood was seeping out of his seven orifices too.

"YOU! I WILL KILL YOU!

" Gu Yao yelled with pure rage.

~grunt~

Blood essence stream floated up from the surroundings as they formed into thousands of runes. The runes that he had made previously combined with these runes and now they could be seen everywhere.

"I didn't want to waste my progress by using this right now, but you left me no choice!

" Gu Yao said.

~Shua~

~Tremble~

The ground started trembling as the blood essence streams turned into threads. The threads went up to the roof and easily broke through it.

~rumble~

~crack~

The roof started to fall apart and the chamber began collapsing. The supreme elder and Yi Deng were under the protection of the barrier and thus were able to withstand it. Lin Mu on the other hand simply used Phase and stood there.

He couldn't fully move yet as his spirit qi was in disharmony. He was chanting the severing heart sutra to control it, but still needed some time.

"Seems like we've run out of options…

" Lin Mu said in an unwilling tone.

"Indeed… time for the final gambit?

" Xukong asked.

"I want to see what his aim is, besides I can't move yet.

" Lin Mu said in a nervous voice.

He then pulled out a bunch of healing pills and stuffed them in his mouth, not caring which ones they were. He had plenty of them and had to be ready for anything now. The pills took effect rather quickly as their medical properties spread across his body.

The internal injuries and the flesh wound on his hand healed, leaving behind scabs. The small cuts and bruises he had suffered also healed.

Lin Mu quickly checked his spirit qi and saw that he now had less than fifty percent of it left. He had used a lot of due to how many times he used his skills and then he had also used the Boulder collapsing fist, which was at a higher power level.

Lin Mu had kept fifty percent of his spirit qi as the absolute limit and had decided that he would escape if that level was reached. He knew that the others may likely be dying, but there wasn't much he could do now. If he successfully escaped, he would have plenty of time to get his revenge.

Lin Mu looked up and saw that the blood essence threads had opened up a hole all the way to the surface now. His vision was getting blocked by all the boulders that had fallen, and he barely saw it between the gaps. He didn't know if the supreme elder and the others were fine or not, but there wasn't much he could do for now.

"This should be enough…

" Lin Mu muttered to himself before moving a bit.

Confirming that he could move better now, he started moving to the top using blink and eventually reached the surface of the ground.

Lin Mu was now standing right beside the ancestral temple. The hole that had been opened up was halfway under the temple and half outside the temple near the surrounding ground. There were people running all around in terror as the blood essence threads spread around.

They went to the sky along with Gu Yao, and he was now visible to everyone in the city.

"People of Wu Lim City…

" Gu Yao spoke and everyone watched him, frozen in terror.

"PREPARE TO BECOME MY SERVANTS!

" Gu Yao declared.

~SCREAM~

Absolute chaos broke, and people started ruining everywhere. The cultivators that were among them sensed the cultivation base of Gu Yao and knew that they were not his match. The head priest of the temple was lying on the ground to the side, his legs ripped off.

He had been injured when Gu Yao broke the ground and a few of the other priests were also lying on the ground, some dead, some close to it.

It was now that the blood essence thread swooped towards the people.

"Human controlling blood curse: Absolute puppet!

"