A deafening roar ripped through the mountain path. Lei Yushan and his demons staggered, faces twisted in agony.
Two generals, already shredded by the fire-lotus, bled from every orifice and dropped like sacks.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
The entire trail convulsed. Crimson mud sloughed away in wet sheets, revealing the living horror beneath.
“What in the nine hells?”
Lei Yushan shot skyward, spear crackling. The survivors followed, staring down in white-eyed terror.
The “path” was rising.
A mile-long scarlet centipede uncoiled, each segment a tumour the size of a house. From every tumour gaped a vertical maw lined with writhing blood-cocoons, thousands of lidless eyes blinking in unison.
Mo Fan, still cloaked in ghost domain, felt his gorge rise.
“Dense-phobia patients would puke their souls out.”
Sapphire Eyes flared.
Dragon-blood Worm Mother
Realm: Peak Core Formation (suppressed to late Core Formation by Dragon Ruins laws)
Vitality: 1.7 million units
Threat: Comparable to the titan lizard
“Strong enough to solo a sect.”
Up above, Lei Yushan’s face was green.
Outside, the spear would have skewered it in one thrust. Inside the Ruins, sealed at early Core Formation, he was no longer sure.
“So this was your card, Phoenix Twin!”
“Retreat!” he bellowed.
“SKREEEEE!”
A shrill whistle pierced their skulls. Minds blurred; vision swam.
Lei Yushan bit his tongue, triggered the Lei God Spear. Lightning armour snapped around him, shattering the sonic stun.
CRIMSON PINCERS, each thirty zhang long, scythed through the air.
“Filth!”
Spear met claw. Thunder clapped. The pincer recoiled, but a second later another general was snipped in half, entrails raining.
Black feelers erupted from the maw, hundreds of them, each tipped with barbed suckers. They lassoed the remaining demons and reeled them in like fish.
“PATRIARCH!”
Screams, spells, claws, nothing severed the tendrils. One by one they vanished down the gullet.
Lei Yushan roared. Three wind-thunder rings ignited above his crown. Storm lances rained, blasting craters across the worm’s back.
He became lightning, spear first, drilling straight into the forehead.
PFF!
Scalp pierced, bone halted the thrust.
The worm screeched. Feelers whipped out, cocooned him.
BOOM! He detonated his armour, burst free, but a pincer sheared his left leg at the thigh.
“ARRGH!”
Essence blood ignited. He streaked away, a comet of violet fire, fleeing Blood Dragon Mountain entirely.
Ten li out, safe.
Then the earth split.
A black banner unfurled into a dragon of shadow, coiling the sky.
“WHO DARES!”
“Long time no see, uncle.”
Bai Shuang stepped from the dark, moonlight wheels orbiting her like cold suns.
Lei Yushan’s pupils shrank to slits. “You mongrel bitch!”
“Call it family mercy. End yourself. Keep the last shred of dignity.”
“Dignity? HAHAHA! The little whore who warmed the Ancestor’s bed now lectures me?”
He licked cracked lips. “Fine. I’ll take you alive, sample what kept the old monster so… indulgent.”
Wind-thunder wheels clashed. Mountain-splitting shockwaves rolled outward.
Bai Shuang’s nine moons spun faster, edges keening.
Lei Yushan’s three rings bled lightning, spear reborn in his remaining hand.
Inside the ghost domain, Mo Fan cracked his knuckles.
“Two minutes. Then I collect the spear and the leg.”
He vanished deeper into shadow, smile sharp as a scalpel.
The real hunt had just begun.
