144: A bloodline curse! The long river is once again agitated!
The Male Corpse, dressed in plain clothes, sat inside the coffin, turning his head to look at Xu Qing, letting the firelight and lightning fall upon him.
Pa... pa...
With a faint smile on his face, he raised his hand and clapped gently.
"Not bad tricks."
He pointed a finger at Xu Qing, and beneath his grey-white skin, black curse markings suddenly emerged.
"However, your little act should stop here. The Offspring of Nine Changes wants to shake off the curse? Ridiculous, it's just one more unfortunate soul added to the pile."
The corners of the Male Corpse's mouth curled up, his smile instantly turning ferocious as he said, "Since you want to meddle in this matter, you must pay the price..."
Xu Qing's heart was filled with alarm. With a thought, he immediately prepared to activate the Great Evolution Void Flash to escape this place directly.
However, he was still one step too slow.
The Male Corpse pointed a finger, and the entire Small Courtyard shook. Countless pitch-black curse runes drilled out from every corner of the courtyard, instantly coalescing into a gigantic curse seal.
"No need to dodge, everything is useless. My curse is rooted deep within the Bloodline; as long as there is a Bloodline connection to you, all must bear my curse!"
Hysterical laughter echoed in the courtyard. The Male Corpse laughed maniacally, his eye corners splitting as a stream of black blood trickled down his face.
Black mist surged forth, enveloping Xu Qing just before he could activate his Divine Ability.
In an instant, a cold chill swept through his entire body.
It was a chill originating from the depths of his Bloodline. In the darkness, it seemed as though a force was using Xu Qing as a medium, spreading out in all directions!
Xu Qing inwardly cursed, realizing things were dire. Curses were an incredibly eerie power, impossible to defend against; even Light Generation could only hinder it for a fleeting moment.
Most crucially, the Male Corpse himself possessed astonishing strength, and the gap in Realm and mana was simply too vast. Even though Xu Qing's combat power approached the Fourth Rank, he was no match.
What to do!?
While driving his mana to desperately expel the chill invading his body, Xu Qing forced himself to calm down, attempting to find a countermeasure.
Meanwhile, outside the Small Courtyard, several figures with withered auras appeared.
They were the Demon Alliance demonic cultivators who had entered the Hundred Beasts Tomb this time.
At this moment, their numbers had dwindled by more than sixty percent compared to when they first started. Every surviving demonic cultivator was injured, and some had auras that had weakened to the extreme. Only a few powerful Elders still maintained basic combat capabilities.
"We... we've arrived!!!" A demonic cultivator widened his eyes, pointing tremblingly at the Small Courtyard nearby, overcome with excitement.
All the demonic cultivators were invigorated. The sacrifices made along the way were all for this moment. As long as they uncovered the final secret, then all losses would be acceptable.
However, unlike before, the demonic cultivators did not swarm forward.
Instead, they all turned to look at Jade Moon.
"Jade Moon, how is it? Are there any Restrictions in this courtyard?" Bronze Bull asked in a low voice.
Jade Moon's face was deathly pale, her figure swaying as if about to collapse; both her spirit and mana were overdrawn.
She gazed at the courtyard ahead, a deeply hidden trace of pain flashing in her eyes, though she dared not express it easily.
She shook her head, just about to speak.
"Boom!"
A low, rumbling vibration emanated from the Small Courtyard. Boundless black mist surged from the four corners of the courtyard, obscuring everything within. Faintly, it seemed as though a sharp, crazed laughter drifted out.
"What is happening!" Bronze Bull and the other Elders retreated repeatedly, staring at the Small Courtyard in terror, not daring to act rashly at all.
Jade Moon and the other Disciples of the alliance leader turned even paler, and they looked at the courtyard in astonishment.
The turn of events before them exceeded their expectations.
According to what their Revered Master had said, the Demon King's remains had undergone a change, but as long as they didn't disturb the remains, there would be no danger. Thus, they had only come to investigate the situation this time, so they could take action later.
But now...
"Retreat for now, regulate your breathing and heal!" Jade Moon said.
Bronze Bull, Red Maiden, and the others nodded in agreement. Their mana consumption was great, so if they could have a chance to catch their breath, that would naturally be good.
The group of demonic cultivators immediately began to retreat. After withdrawing for some distance, they each began to heal, while simultaneously keeping a close watch on the situation at the Small Courtyard.
The chill was gradually intensifying, and his body was becoming rigid.
Xu Qing looked down to see that both his legs were already covered in ugly black curse markings.
He exhaled a burst of intense flames, slightly alleviating the chill for a moment, but immediately afterwards, an even stronger chill swept over him.
How to escape?
How to expel these curses from his body?
This was a question Xu Qing had pondered a thousand times.
He raised his head, a bright light flashing in his vertical pupils, and saw strands of black thread radiating from his own body, penetrating into the surrounding Void Realm, spreading toward an unknown land.
Xu Qing did not understand curse arts, yet he could vaguely understand that the targets of those black threads were the living beings connected to him by Bloodline.
Most of them were likely his Offspring.
When his body was completely occupied by the curse markings, he would thoroughly become the source of the curse. The curse would use him as a medium and spread to every one of his Offspring!
By that time, not a single one of his thousands of Offspring would be spared.
Just as Xu Qing was deep in thought, a wisp of black thread probed into the boundless Void Realm.
The black thread was wreathed in black mist, twisting in the Void Realm as if it possessed sentience.
A moment later, this black thread found its direction and shot off into the distance, moving at extreme speed; in the blink of an eye, it had traversed an unknown distance.
A moment later, a magnificent, vast Bloodline River, of unknown width, stretching across the two ends of the Void Realm, appeared.
This wisp of black thread plunged into the river, tracing back along the upstream...
Very soon, the black thread passed over the phantom image of a True Dragon and continued further upstream. It was trembling violently, as if it had almost found its target.
Just at this moment, within the surging Bloodline River, a pair of cold eyes suddenly opened. Within them was a clear trace of impatience, just like a beast whose slumber had been disturbed.
And it was the kind that had been disturbed time and time again.
This made It exceptionally filled with Life Qi.
"Boom!" The Bloodline River roared and thundered, giant waves ten thousand zhang high rose up, and a massive black shadow slowly ascended.
It stood towering between heaven and earth, its whole body exuding an indescribable aura, like a massive mountain, like a natural chasm, guarding this place, severing the bonds between the immortal and the mortal.
"What is the meaning of this! Where did so many ignorant juniors come from!" It looked down, opening its mouth, preparing to reprimand them.
However, the next moment, its expression froze, and then, the coldness in its eyes entirely transformed into monstrous rage.
"Filthy thing, how dare you defile the Bloodline River of my clan! You are courting death!!!"
The roar shook up giant waves of blood, and the wisp of black thread in the Bloodline River instantly turned into nothingness.
However, the black shadow in the blood water did not intend to stop.
Hualala.
A black finger, resembling an isolated peak, reached out from the Bloodline River, slowly pointing in the direction from which the black thread had come!
For this finger, distance was no longer an obstacle.
It took only a fleeting moment.
Inside the Hundred Beasts Tomb, above the blood-colored sky, a black finger covered this expanse of heaven and earth, pressing down with a destructive aura!