326: Chapter 326 Blood River Envelops, Crisis Descends

The alarm sound still echoed in the wind of the South Mine, and the cannon barrel of the earth dragon was emitting blue smoke. Chen Tiezhu punched the console: "Again?! I just finished repairing the hydraulic valve!"

He looked up at the sky; the night sky, which had originally been illuminated blue by the Spiritual Qi tower, suddenly darkened.

It was not clouds, nor was it fog—it was as if the entire sky had been splashed with blood, pressing down layer by layer. The air became viscous, and breathing felt like inhaling a ball of wet cotton.

"East Cliff! Xiao Dao!" Chen Tiezhu grabbed the communicator violently. "What's the situation on your end? My Spiritual Qi readings here are dropping like a cliff!"

The communication channel crackled with static first, followed by Chen Xiaodao's heavy panting: "...I'm here. The sword is a bit heavy, as if something is pulling it... Blood River, Blood Butcher is summoning a Blood River."

At the top of the West Tower, Chen Wuwang's Mechanical Prosthetic Eye scrolled through data streams crazily. At the edge of his pupil, blood-colored spiritual patterns flashed by.

"It's not a Spell," he said in a low voice. "It's a sacrificial ritual contamination, a distortion of rules built upon the resentment of the dead."

His fingers tapped the railing unconsciously, once, twice, as if typing code.

In the center of the battlefield in the distance, Blood Butcher spread his arms, and the ground beneath his feet cracked open, revealing a deep fissure. Dark red liquid gushed out from underground, spreading along the sandy ground and making a "hissing" corrosive sound.

The blood did not fall to the ground; instead, it flowed backward into the sky, circling and gathering in mid-air to form a huge blood ring that rotated slowly.

"Hahaha—!" Blood Butcher looked up and laughed, his voice tearing through the night sky. "Chen Wuwang! You said technology could break all Spells, so tell me now—with what will you block this Blood River?!"

Before the words faded, the blood ring pressed down violently, like a giant mouth, swallowing the entire Qiming Plain position.

"Boom!"

The moment the blood curtain fell, Bai Ling knelt at the core of the North Forest Formation, her hands pressed to the ground, cold sweat dripping from her forehead.

"The Formation... can't hold..." she whispered through gritted teeth, her Elf Race ears trembling violently. "The forest is wailing... those grievances... they aren't illusions... they have truly been refined into it..."

She coughed up a mouthful of blood, and the vines under her palms withered instantly.

On the East Cliff, Chen Xiaodao knelt on one knee, his sword tip supporting him on the ground, veins bulging on his forehead.

"This blood... is absorbing Spiritual Qi..." He panted, raising his hand to wipe his face; his fingertips were covered in blood—nosebleeds wouldn't stop flowing. "Damn it, even breathing is consuming true essence..."

He wanted to stand up, but his legs went weak, and he almost collapsed. The magic-tech core on the sword hilt flickered on and off, as if it would go out at any moment.

"Xiao Dao! Are you still alive?" Chen Tiezhu's roar exploded from the communicator.

"I'm not dead yet." Chen Xiaodao sneered, wiping away his nosebleed. "It's just that this Blood River is too disgusting, making me feel like I'm soaking in a bathhouse."

"Stop messing around!" Chen Tiezhu's voice trembled. "The earth dragon's energy core only has forty percent left! The cooling System is sounding an alarm! If this continues, I'm going to be roasted alive by the mecha I built myself!"

He slapped the control panel violently, but the screen was full of garbled characters, and the rune shield flickered a few times before going black.

"Damn! Since when did the circuits I welded become so fragile!"

On the West Tower, Chen Wuwang's Mechanical Prosthetic Eye constantly scanned the structure of the Blood River, data rolling across his vision like a waterfall.

"Density anomaly, non-Newtonian fluid characteristics... high-frequency oscillation inside... it's not naturally generated."

He muttered to himself, "It's using incantations to forcibly distort spatial rules, extracting the resentment of the dead within a hundred miles to condense it into a barrier... Blood Butcher is betting his life on this."

He paused suddenly, his pupils narrowing.

"Wait... the source of the resentment... it's not just those who died in battle tonight... there's even earlier ones... the time the insect race slaughtered the village three years ago... He even hooked those dead souls out..."

He gripped the railing tightly, his knuckles turning white.

"He is using my past to suppress my present."

Blood Butcher hovered in the center of the Blood River, his cloak flapping, his blood blade held high, muttering incantations. Every syllable caused the Blood River to churn.

"Chen Wuwang!" He sneered. "You build factories, make mechas, and engage in Cyber Cultivation—but tell me, can you block the crying of the dead?!"

He slashed down violently.

The Blood River shook violently, and countless ghosts appeared from the blood light, baring their fangs and brandishing claws, letting out shrill roars.

That wasn't a sound; it was a shriek that drilled directly into the brain, like thousands of needles stabbing into the temples.

A young clansman standing below the West Tower, just about to rush into the shelter, suddenly clutched his head and screamed, bleeding from his seven orifices, and fell to his knees on the spot.

"A-Qiang!" Someone next to him pounced on him, but the person had already lost his breath, with a look of terror still on his face.

"Don't touch him!" Chen Wuwang's voice boomed through the amplification Formation. "The corpse has already been contaminated by the Blood River; if you touch it, you will be assimilated too!"

The person froze, his hand suspended in mid-air, tears streaming down his face.

Chen Wuwang stared at the corpse, his Mechanical Prosthetic Eye analyzing continuously: "Blood activity is enhanced, cells are beginning to mutate... This is not death, it is transformation... Blood Butcher wants to turn us all into his blood slaves."

He looked up violently, looking at Blood Butcher in the center of the Blood River.

"You damn bastard, you aren't here to kill me at all... You want to turn Qiming Plain into your blood sacrifice ground!"

Blood Butcher laughed loudly: "Smart! But it's too late! This Blood River will tighten more and more, and your Spiritual Qi, Divine Sense, and flesh and blood will all be sucked dry bit by bit! Until everyone becomes a walking corpse, kneeling at my feet!"

He spread his arms, and the Blood River suddenly contracted, like a python strangling its prey.

"Ah—!" A muffled groan came from the direction of the North Forest.

Bai Ling knelt on the ground, her hands supporting her firmly, but the Formation had already begun to crack. Blood seeped from the corners of her mouth, and her face was as pale as paper.

"It's no good... I can't hold on..." she whispered, "The Elf Race's magic... cannot resist this kind of... pure malice..."

She wanted to look up at the West Tower, but her neck went weak, and she fell forward.

"Bai Ling!" Chen Xiaodao roared on the East Cliff, wanting to rush over, but just as he took a step, his knees went weak, and he almost knelt down.

"Don't move!" Chen Wuwang's voice sounded again. "Nobody do anything rash! The Blood River is inducing us to consume Spiritual Qi! Whoever moves now will be the first to die!"

He stood on the edge of the West Tower, the wind blowing his silver hair, and the insect race claw marks on his right cheek shimmering with a dark blue color under the blood light.

The Mechanical Prosthetic Eye was still calculating crazily, but the data had no pattern. The structure of the Blood River was like Chaos code, with no logic, no starting point, only endless resentment circulating.

"Conventional means can't break it... must use resonance to counter... but it needs time..." He gritted his teeth, "At least ten minutes... to calculate the frequency node..."

He looked down at the timer on his wrist.

Three minutes had passed.

The Blood River had shrunk another circle.

The earth dragon's alarm became more and more urgent. Chen Tiezhu cursed in the cockpit: "Damn it! There's only thirty percent energy left! If this continues, I'm going to be stewed along with this piece of junk iron!"

On the East Cliff, Chen Xiaodao's sword tip had been inserted into the ground, relying entirely on it to support his body. He looked up at the West Tower, his voice hoarse: "Boss... how much longer can we hold on?"

Chen Wuwang didn't answer.

He just stared at the Blood River, his fingers still tapping the railing, once, once, as if waiting for something.

Blood Butcher sneered in the air: "What? The cyber mad dog also has times when he can't speak? Aren't you best at calculating? Now calculate, how much time do you have left?!"

He waved his hand violently, and the Blood River shook again.

Countless ghosts rushed toward the Chen family position, crashing into the remaining rune shield, making a harsh scraping sound.

The shield flickered a few times, and a crack appeared.

"Damn!" Chen Tiezhu punched the console, "My shield! Who the hell changed my parameters?!"

Chen Wuwang finally spoke, his voice low: "No one moved it. It's the Blood River eroding the rules themselves... Our technology relies on Spiritual Qi to run, but now the Spiritual Qi is contaminated... It's like a computer with a virus, no matter how strong the CPU is, it can't run the program."

He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the blood-colored spiritual patterns were deeper.

"But now... we can only wait."

"Wait for what?" Chen Xiaodao asked, panting.

"Wait for the System." Chen Wuwang said in a low voice, "The daily midnight heavenly secret instruction... seven more minutes... until midnight."

He looked up at the sky; the Blood River had obscured the stars, but he knew time was almost up.

As long as there is an instruction—any instruction—it might become the key to breaking the situation.

Blood Butcher seemed to have sensed something, and his laughter paused: "What are you waiting for? Waiting for reinforcements? Waiting for a miracle? Or waiting for your damn machine to give you an answer?!"

He dove down violently, his blood blade pointing directly at the West Tower: "I won't give you that chance!"

The Blood River pressed down with a roar, like a mountain, smashing toward Chen Wuwang.