237: Ancestral bloodline, the best sacrifice

The morbid fanaticism froze instantly on that pale face.

Replacing it was a mixture of extreme shock and a terrifying, volcanic greed.

The Blood Shadow's voice was dry and shrill, every word distorted and twisted by excitement.

"Impossible..."

He stared fixedly at Lin Fan, his blood-colored pupils contracted to the limit, as if he were looking at a peerless treasure or gazing up at an ancient deity.

"On your body... you actually possess such a pure Progenitor Bloodline!"

He almost roared this sentence out.

So what if there are Dao Embryo Spirit Eyes.

So what if there is a proud daughter of heaven.

Before the Bloodline contained within the body before him, they all became dust not worth mentioning.

That is the most perfect key.

That is the one and only sacrifice that can allow the Saint Lord to descend in the most perfect form.

"You are... you are the best sacrifice to awaken the Saint Lord!"

The Blood Shadow suddenly raised his arm, pointing at Lin Fan, his voice filled with an unquestionable command.

"Capture him!"

"At all costs, I want him alive!"

The dozen or so black-robed figures from the Netherworld Palace beside him shuddered upon hearing this, immediately breaking free from their fanatical prayers.

They turned in unison, their cold and bloodthirsty gazes instantly locking onto Lin Fan.

Swish.

A pungent stench of blood shot into the sky.

Foul, filthy blood poured madly from the hems of their robes, transforming into rivers of blood churning with vengeful spirits, weaving into a massive Formation that descended upon Lin Fan and Yue Xi.

Blood River Formation.

Wherever it passed, even the space itself emitted a hissing sound of being corroded.

Yue Xi's expression became incomparably grave in an instant.

She took half a step forward, shielding Lin Fan's side, and the bright crescent moon behind her reappeared, cold Qi flowing as she prepared to strike at any moment.

But a hand pressed gently onto her shoulder.

Lin Fan's hand.

His movement was light, yet it carried an unquestionable strength, stopping Yue Xi's action.

A voice that only the two of them could hear reached Yue Xi's ears.

"No matter what happens later, protect yourself."

Yue Xi's body stiffened slightly, and she looked back at Lin Fan, her eyes filled with confusion and unease.

But Lin Fan gave her a reassuring look.

Then, amidst the utterly astonished gazes of Yue Xi, the Blood Shadow, and the others, he made a move that no one could understand.

Instead of retreating, he stepped forward.

He actively activated the Netherworld Bloodline Power within his body.

Hum.

An aura of Bloodline, older, purer, and more domineering than that on the Blood Shadow, erupted from Lin Fan's body.

This aura, like a giant boulder thrown into a calm lake, instantly ignited the entire cavern.

Thump! Thump! Thump-thump-thump-thump!

The heartbeat of the massive flesh altar in the center suddenly changed from gentle to violent.

The frequency of that heartbeat-like pulsation accelerated more than a hundredfold in an instant.

The twisted, blood-vessel-like patterns on the surface of the altar lit up with eerie blood-red light, and the entire altar, like an ancient Vicious Beast waking from slumber, radiated endless hunger.

A suction force, terrifying and irresistible, came from the blood-colored vortex at the very core of the altar.

Its target was none other than Lin Fan.

This sudden turn of events caused the Blood Shadow's expression to change wildly.

The greed on his face, which had been so certain of success, was instantly replaced by terror and rage.

"Fool!"

He let out a hysterical roar at Lin Fan.

"Do you have any idea what you are doing?!"

"Do you want to detonate the node early and let the Saint Lord's will descend incompletely?!"

The ritual was not yet complete; forcibly awakening the Saint Lord would not only lead to an incomplete descent of his will, but might even cause the entire world-destroying node to spin completely out of control.

Even he could not bear such consequences.

However, Lin Fan ignored his roar entirely.

He even felt that the powerful suction force was like a gentle hand, affectionately pulling him.

He smiled.

Leveraging that irresistible suction, his body transformed into a blood-colored afterimage.

Rip.

The space was easily torn open by the power he had newly mastered.

His figure, amidst the Blood Shadow's gaze that seemed ready to spew fire, instantly crossed a distance of hundreds of meters, appearing directly above the core of the altar.

Below, was the energy vortex, opening and closing madly like the gaping maw of an abyss.

An aura of world-destruction was constantly leaking from it.

Lin Fan looked down, gazing at that profound blood-red expanse, and a brilliant smile appeared on his face.

He opened his mouth, using all the magic power in his body, and issued the most arrogant and suicidal declaration since arriving in this world.

"Senior, quit sleeping, wake up and party!"

Before the words had even faded.

A faint, orange-red flame gathered at his fingertips.

It was the most basic, most inconspicuous Spell that every Cultivator learned upon entering the path.

Fireball Spell.

Then, he gently flicked this small fireball into the energy vortex below, which was capable of destroying the entire Myriad Realms Small World.

The entire underground cavern fell into a deathly silence at this moment.

Whether it was the members of the Netherworld Palace preparing to attack, the deeply worried Yue Xi, or the Blood Shadow, who was enraged to the point of madness.

Everyone's movements, everyone's thoughts, completely stalled at this moment.

They were all completely stunned by Lin Fan's shocking operation.

One second.

Two seconds.

After the deathly silence came the arrival of world destruction.

Boom—

A pure, destructive will, indescribable by any words, erupted from the center of the altar vortex like a singularity at the beginning of the Universe.

It was not energy, not Law, but an existence of a higher dimension.

It was the pure concept of "erasure" itself.

Crack.

The dome of the cavern instantly turned to dust.

Immediately after, the gloomy sky of the entire Myriad Realms Small World was ripped in half by a blood-red crack that pierced through heaven and earth.

Countless violent spatial storms, mixed with chaotic turbulence of Law, poured in madly from that crack like a burst dam.

The world was collapsing.

And Lin Fan, located at the very center of the eruption, bore the brunt of it.

He couldn't even let out a scream.

Under that supreme destructive will, his body, his Divine Soul, and every trace of his existence were completely erased within a thousandth of a second.

Evaporated.

Annihilated.

Turned into the purest nothingness.