As the smell of blood came caressing his face, Wu Qi snorted coldly and shot out a ball of pitch-black Nine Nether Ghost Flame, which quickly caught and ignited the blood flag. The flag looked sticky and filthy, as a sea of blood was vaguely visible, rocking violently in it. Countless vengeful souls could be seen bobbing and tumbling in that sea of blood, letting out miserable shrieks and howls. It turned out that such shrieks and howls came with an evil power capable of shaking and pulling one's soul out of the fleshly body, repeatedly attacking Wu Qi's divine soul.
However, as soon as the Nine Nether Ghost Flame was unleashed, the blood flag was enveloped by a raging flame. In just a few moments, all the restrictive spells on the flag were burned off. Accompanied by a piercing roar, the ghost flame rushed into the sea of blood within the flag. Immediately, a towering flame spread across the seemingly boundless sea of blood. The blood in the sea began to rapidly evaporate while the black, sticky flame burned the vengeful souls, turning them into wisps of green smoke that dissipated into the air.
The Nine Nether Ghost Flame was a vicious mystic art specially created by those mighty Supreme Oracles for geniuses who were cultivating both fleshly body and magic. If their nature were to be compared, the ghost flame could be described as the sewage while the sea of blood was a pool of clear water. As one of the trump cards that came with the Dragon Kill, it was too evil, filthy, and malicious. Compared with it, Patriarch Yuan Hua's Blood Sea Grand Magic appeared to be an honorable and upright technique.
Standing beside Lu Buwei, Patriarch Yuan Hua's blood and energy were rocking violently. As he had fused his soul with the blood flag, the attack it was currently suffering caused a great amount of dirty blood to spew out from all over his body while a faint layer of black flame spread across his skin. Hastily, Lu Buwei backed up a few steps as he stared at Patriarch Yuan Hua in shock. He could not understand what was happening.
Amidst a loud roar, Wu Qi's body quickly grew to a height of fifty feet. Then, he reached out his claws that were covered in dragon scales, and grabbed the blood flag that had transformed into a wave of blood and was trying to flee from the scene. "Lei Meng, quickly come here and claim your blood food!" He cried out at the top of his lungs. "This is your reward for assisting me in the killing of the Sovereign!"
A dull thunderclap echoed out in the sky as a patch of the void, about a hundred miles wide, suddenly cracked and shattered. In the next moment, the massive projection of Lei Meng struggled out of the shattered void. As soon as he appeared, he chuckled happily while reaching his giant hand down from the sky and grabbing the blood flag with one swift motion. A blinding blood-red light suddenly erupted out of the flag, which materialized into countless sharp weapons such as blades, swords, spears, and halberds, slashing toward Lei Meng's giant hand. But, they were met with countless bolts of lightning snaking out of his hand like flood dragons, and in just the blink of an eye, were ripped into pieces.
"What an excellent treasure! It's at least an innate chaos-grade artifact! But, why is it in such a bad shape? What a pity! It is now nothing but a fragment of a once mighty artifact, which is not even a hundredth of its complete form!" With his enormously powerful divine sense, Lei Meng immediately perceived the vague information hidden in the blood flag when he got hold of it. As he sighed emotionally, a huge electric vortex appeared in his palm and began to wildly devour the blood and vengeful souls in the blood flag.
Blood essence and souls were both nutrients needed by Ghost Gods from the outer domains like Lei Meng. Even though they had been refined into a sea of blood and vengeful souls by Patriarch Yuan Hua with malicious magic, they were in essence, still blood and souls. Therefore, Lei Meng was able to digest and turn them into his own power. Joyful laughter could be heard coming out of his mouth, and as the huge amount of blood and souls kept pouring into his palm, his projection became clearer and clearer.
Patriarch Yuan Hua let out a furious howl. Severe pain was washing through his body as the Nine Nether Ghost Flame blazed across his skin, corroding and melting off his limbs. Meanwhile, with Lei Meng's constantly extraction of his sea of blood in the flag, his overall strength was dropping at an incredible rate. In just a few short breaths of time, the level of his cultivation base had reduced by three tiers. With his current overall strength, he could not last for too long. In the heat of the moment, he did not hesitate to use his strongest trump card, which he had cultivated over the year with the help of Lu Buwei's Heavenly Ghost Grand Magic.
Reaching out one hand, he pointed a finger at the blood flag. Immediately, the sea of blood in it began to rock and tumble violently, and soon, a massive yet invisible whirlpool was taking its shape. Eerie ghost howls could be heard coming out of the whirlpool; accompanied by splashing sounds, numerous 100-feet-tall heavenly ghosts leaped out of the spinning whirlpool in the next moment.
Each of these heavenly ghosts had a pointed horn sticking out of its forehead, having a slimy and smooth skin and a long tail. As soon as they jumped out of the whirlpool, they began to fly back and forth over the sea of blood at a speed that was as fast as lightning, while occasionally disappearing and shuttling through the void, then reappearing anywhere they desired. Judging from the thick layer of blood wrapping them, and the fact that their bodies existed between the state of corporeal and incorporeal, they were no longer pure heavenly ghosts, but 'Blood-draining Fiends' refined by Patriarch Yuan Hua with evil magic.
Hundreds of Blood-draining Fiends flew in the air over the sea of blood, letting out shrill howls and attacking their own kind frantically from time to time. They were summoned by Lu Buwei from the domain of Ghosts, and were controlled by Patriarch Yuan Hua with his evil magic later on, then refined with the blood essence taken from hundreds of millions of living beings. According to his original plan, Patriarch Yuan Hua was to collect tens of thousands of such fiends and have them kill and devour each other until there were only eighteen left. They, ultimately, would be the ones he would cultivate with his own life force.
But clearly, he was far from achieving his goal, because he had only collected a few hundreds of Blood-draining Fiends by now. However, with their ability to shuttle through the void and become invisible at will, their incredibly strong physical strength, ferocious and savage nature, and the various divine abilities they possessed, these fiends were still very powerful. As Patriarch Yuan Hua let out another furious roar, they flew out of the sea of blood and wheeled rapidly in the sky above Greenwood Pass before shooting down toward Lei Meng and Wu Qi.
Paying no heed to the hundreds of fierce and savage fiends, Lei Meng continued to extract the blood essence and souls from the sea of blood like crazy. Meanwhile, more and more lightning appeared around him, which transformed into a thick armor that had him protected within. If any attack wished to touch his body, it would have to first pierce through this one-mile-thick layer of lightning.
Wu Qi, too, acted as if he did not notice the hundreds of fiends. With the Dark Yin Celestial Tower hovering above him, he slowly flew up into the air, hands flashing in incantation gestures and mouth murmuring various spells. Even as he was ascending, a strange energy ripple spread out of his hands. In the next instant, the air rang with shrill and ear-splitting ghost howls as thousands of tiny needles of light burst out of his fingertips, piercing through the air and flying toward the immortals and itinerant cultivators who were swarming in from all directions.
It was too bad that the information Immortal Gourd provided these immortals and itinerant cultivators was no longer accurate. According to him, the level of Wu Qi's cultivation base was equivalent to a Heaven Immortal. However, little did they know that with the blessing of the Virtues of the Heavenly Dao, his cultivation base had reached the realm of a fifth-grade Gold Immortal. No matter it was his fleshly body or the level of his power, both had reached the realm that was considered very high even among the immortals! He now possessed the terrifying power to destroy an entire outer heavenly realm with just a single strike, which could make a Heaven Immortal look like a baby when standing in front of him; let alone those itinerant cultivators who came along, trying to take advantage of the messy situation.
The needles of light, conjured from complex runes and spells, ripped through the void in fine rays of light and accurately pierced the foreheads of all immortals and itinerant cultivators, freezing their souls in an instant. Then, Wu Qi waved his large palm in their direction, pulling them toward him as they wailed and screamed miserably. Flying swords and magical items could be seen floating around them, but they had already lost the power to control them.
"Little Black and you two little twin sisters, it's time to eat! Help yourself with plenty of fresh flesh!"
Upon hearing that, Ao Buzun stretched his upper body out of Wu Qi's left ear while the two dragon pythons did the same, but from his right ear. Then, all of a sudden, three gigantic mouths appeared next to him, swallowing all those itinerant immortals and cultivators, the strongest of whom was merely a twenty-seventh-tier Heaven Immortal. Amidst dreadful munching noises, the hundreds of immortals and cultivators had turned into a small plate of desserts for the three ferocious creatures.
When the three gigantic mouths disappeared, all the immortals and itinerant cultivators who came here to kill Wu Qi had been completely eliminated, except Patriarch Yuan Hua and Lu Buwei, who stood in a tall tower off in the distance as they stared at him with the look on their faces like they had just seen a ghost. They could not believe that Wu Qi had just killed nearly a thousand immortals and itinerant cultivators in such a short time.
"You vile punk, face your death!" Patriarch Yuan Hua cursed as his body trembled violently. His instinct told him to leave this place as soon as possible, and to stay as far as he could from Wu Qi. But at the same time, the part in his immortal soul which belonged to Lord Blood Ocean kept telling him to seize back the blood flag Lei Meng was holding now, for it was the artifact that had led Lord Blood Ocean to the corroboration of his Dao. If he had the blood flag, he would have a limitless future; without it, he would never have a chance to corroborate his Dao.
Silently, Lu Buwei took a few steps back as he looked at Wu Qi in horror while cursing Immortal Gourd in his mind.
The hundreds of Blood-draining Fiends rushed frantically toward Wu Qi, but with the Dark Yin Celestial Tower hovering over him, he was not worried at all. He had crafted and refined this tower with the mystic arts used by the Directorate of Celestials to craft a Supreme Tower, and also the techniques used by Gold Immortals to craft a Gold Immortal Artifact, granting it the characteristics of both a Supreme Tower and an immortal artifact. The most common feature of a Supreme Tower was the ability to shatter the void, serving as a Supreme Oracle's vehicle. And since it could shatter the void, it could naturally seal the void as well.
At that moment, a great amount of cold air and auroras suddenly burst out of the tower, freezing the void over Greenwood Pass. The hundreds of fiends, who had already exercised their divine abilities to try ripping through the void and reaching Wu Qi, could not even cause the reinforced void to shake. Left with no other choice, they could only fly toward Wu Qi using ordinary blood escape arts, hoping they could rip his body into pieces, crush his soul into shreds, and make him suffer for eternity.
However, Wu Qi was protected by a thick layer of cold air and aurora. When these fiends made contact with this layer of protection, they were immediately frozen solid and then ripped into pieces. It was even worse for those who went for Lei Meng, as when they were still quite far away from him when the bolts of lightning had already struck them into wisps of green smoke.
Lei Meng was laughing as he madly devoured the blood essence and souls in the blood flag, and before long, he had completely devoured the entire sea of blood. Then, he grasped the flag with both hands, sending an enormous power of thunder into it with all his might.
A loud boom rang out as the blood flag turned to ashes, leaving behind only a thread of pale red spirit light coiling up in Lei Meng's palm. It was the item spirit of the flag, which contained the flag's origin and all of the related information. Generously, Lei Meng threw the item spirit into Wu Qi's spiritual ocean, then turned and vanished from the scene. What he was offered this time was enormous; the amount of blood in that sea of blood was too great, so he had to quickly return and digest all of the blood essence and souls he had obtained.
As the blood flag was destroyed, Patriarch Yuan Hua let out a miserable shriek, and his body vanished into a wisp of green smoke in the blink of an eye. A few Gold Immortal Artifacts shot out of his body, turning into bright beams of light and speeding away into the sky.
Lu Buwei darted an angry look at Wu Qi, who was striding in his direction. Then, he heaved a long sigh, transformed into a wisp of green smoke, and vanished from the scene.
A few moments later, Wu Qi came to the tower where Lu Buwei was standing previously. As he glanced about the place, a cold grin crept up his face.