Chapter 47 Blood Fiend! Oppression

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“You’d better not try anything clever. Just hand over your clan’s Cloud Sacred Flame, and I’ll let you go back. But if you dare to play tricks, you’ll see what I do to you,” Soul Ghost said slowly.

Yufan had calmed down. For him, finding a way to escape this place was the wisest course of action.

“Why don’t I take him to the tower in the Otherworld and have that expert help me? He was the one who sent me there, after all. Surely he won’t blame me,” Yufan thought.

A measure of confidence returned to Yufan’s face.

An almost imperceptible smile curled at the corners of his lips, and a sly glint flickered in his eyes.

He slowly rose and looked toward Soul Ghost, pretending to remain calm. His voice carried a barely detectable tremor, yet also a note of resolve.

“Lord Soul Ghost, I naturally would not dare defy you. But the Cloud Sacred Flame is the holy relic of my clan, and its hiding place is extraordinarily well concealed. I hid it inside a tower in the Otherworld. Come with me, and I will certainly lead you to it.”

With that, Yufan began walking, apparently without a care, guiding Soul Ghost through a dark and gloomy forest. Mist coiled between the trees, making it seem as though every step landed upon the void itself.

As they ventured deeper, the surrounding scenery gradually twisted, and layer upon layer of ripples spread through space.

The sly smile at Yufan’s lips became increasingly difficult to conceal. In secret, he gathered a thread of weak yet steadfast spiritual energy, preparing to activate his escape plan at the crucial moment.

The air around them seemed to solidify in accordance with his will. Each step felt strangely heavy, yet filled with unshakable determination.

When they neared the edge of the gate leading to the Otherworld, Yufan suddenly stopped and turned to face Soul Ghost. A complex emotion flashed through his eyes.

“Lord Soul Ghost, the gate ahead leads to the realm where the sacred relic is kept. But before we proceed, I must warn you: there is more than a guardian beyond the gate. Unknown dangers await as well. If you insist on going forward, you must be careful.”

He raised a hand gently. A faint blue glow danced at his fingertip, seeming to possess the power of guidance, and slowly pushed open the invisible gate to the Otherworld.

The invisible gate vanished…

Beyond it, brilliant starlight poured down like a waterfall. The sinister forest retained a hint of its primitive wildness, and even the wind carried a terrifying presence.

Yet behind that beauty lay secrets and dangers unknown to all. A look of determination flashed through Yufan’s eyes. He knew this was his only chance.

Soul Ghost’s cold laughter echoed through the shadowy forest like a chill wind passing through dead branches, carrying an unquestionable authority.

He advanced step by step, his figure appearing and disappearing among the mottled light and shadows. His sinister eyes seemed capable of seeing straight into the deepest secrets of the human heart.

“Hmph. Do you really think a little trick like this can fool me?” Soul Ghost’s voice was low and powerful. He reached out, his withered fingers nearly touching Yufan’s trembling chin. An invisible pressure made it almost impossible for Yufan to breathe.

Fine beads of sweat appeared on Yufan’s forehead. His eyes darted uncertainly, yet he still struggled to maintain an outward calm.

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“Lord Soul Ghost, you misunderstand. I truly only want to lead you to the Cloud Sacred Flame. It’s just that my clan’s sacred flame really is hidden inside the tower. To retrieve it, we have to pass through here. Only then can I sneak into the tower and take it…”

A barely perceptible plea colored his words. His body leaned back involuntarily, trying to escape the suffocating pressure.

“You little brat, are you making a fool of me? Are you trying to send me in there to die?” Soul Ghost asked with a sinister laugh.

“No—how could I? My life is still in your hands. How would I dare deceive you? Besides, aren’t I going in too?” Yufan replied with a faint tremor, his eyes filled with a trace of insincerity.

Yufan took a deep breath and, steeling himself, entered the forest first.

The trees towered into the heavens, their dense branches and leaves almost completely blocking out the sky. Only a few scattered beams of light pierced the canopy, casting a patchwork of shifting shadows.

The air was damp and rotten, as though every breath drew in the dust of history along with an unknown terror.

The forest was so quiet that the only sounds were their footsteps rustling over fallen leaves and the occasional low growl of some nameless beast in the distance. The noise sent chills through the body. Yufan pretended to remain calm, but his tightly clenched fists betrayed his tension.

He prayed silently that his plan would succeed, or at least allow him to break free of Soul Ghost’s control for a little while within this strange forest.

Yufan’s cry shattered the forest’s silence. He spun around, and his legs seemed driven by an invisible force as he fled wildly along the tangled woodland paths.

Fear and the desire to survive intertwined within him, forming a powerful force that drove him to run without regard for anything else. Sweat mixed with the scent of damp earth and streamed freely down his cheeks, blurring his vision but not the desperate longing in his heart to escape.

“Lord Blood Demon, save me!”

Yufan shouted as loudly as he could, racing away from Soul Ghost.

Soul Ghost’s figure followed close behind like a shadow, but his sinister laughter gradually faded as the distance between them widened.

Yufan’s heart pounded violently. Every breath felt like a race against death.

Suddenly, the ground vanished beneath his feet. He lost his balance and tumbled down the slope, instantly swallowed by the thick undergrowth.

Soul Ghost snorted coldly and casually turned his wrist. A ghostly green radiance spilled from his palm and transformed into an invisible giant hand that seized Yufan as he rolled downward.

Yufan’s body stopped abruptly, as if bound by invisible chains. In a posture that defied the laws of nature, he slowly flew backward through the air until he came to a steady halt several feet before Soul Ghost.

Their gazes met in midair. Despair and unwillingness filled Yufan’s face, and his pupils contracted sharply with terror.

A cruel smile curved Soul Ghost’s lips. At some point, the tray in his hand had transformed into a completely black staff covered in strange runes. With a slight wave, it seemed as though the surrounding air froze, and even the sound of the wind fell silent.

At that moment, the night sky appeared to be torn apart by an invisible force. An ominous crimson glow emerged along the horizon, then spread like a rising tide, swallowing the darkness around them.

The air filled with a thick, suffocating scent of blood.

At that terrifying instant, the ground seemed to come alive. Countless slender, blood-red tendrils burst from the earth in every direction like demonic claws. With shrill hissing cries, they surged toward Yufan.

Eerie red light flowed across their surfaces. Each tendril possessed enough force to tear through steel. Twisting together in the air, they formed an enormous crimson web that tightly enclosed Yufan.

His cry was quickly drowned out by the rustling sound of the tendrils winding around him. He struggled desperately, but could only watch helplessly as his body was gradually dragged toward an unknown abyss.

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The night sky had become a canvas soaked in blood, and every inch of space was filled with a heart-pounding dark crimson glow.

The blood-red tendrils were like demonic claws reaching up from the depths of hell. As they twisted and intertwined, they formed a gigantic crimson halo, at whose center stood Yufan, bound tightly and nearly consumed by despair.

His eyes were wide open. The apocalyptic scene was reflected in his pupils, and every breath carried the heavy stench of blood.

At that critical moment, a figure clad in a black robe appeared silently above the crimson halo, its face hidden beneath the shadow of a hood.

He stood upon empty air as though walking along the edge of an endless abyss. An indescribable mysterious power surrounded him, and the tendrils that had been raging wildly began to tremble involuntarily as they neared him, slowly retreating.

Yufan suddenly felt the pressure around him ease. The blood-red tendrils binding him seemed to be severed by invisible blades, breaking apart one after another and dissolving into wisps of blood mist.

To his astonishment, he found himself standing atop the enormous crimson halo. Beneath his feet lay a path of flesh formed from countless severed tendrils. Each step produced a faint tremor and a revolting, wet sensation.

He looked up. The black-robed figure stood at the summit of the halo, his robe stirring despite the absence of wind, as though even the night itself shied away from him.

Moonlight struggled through the heavy clouds and managed to cast down a few thin rays of silver, yet it could not illuminate the face beneath the hood. Only a profound shadow remained, along with a pair of eyes gleaming in the darkness, eyes that seemed capable of seeing everything.

Yufan’s voice carried a broken, desperate plea. His gaze remained fixed upon the black-robed figure, who was now his only hope.

The black-robed man raised a hand, his movement graceful yet filled with power, as though he controlled the life and death, the rebirth and destruction, of all things beneath the heavens.

With a slight curl of his finger, the blood-red tendrils surrounding Yufan reacted as though they had encountered their natural enemy. In an instant, they lost their former frenzy and ferocity. One by one, they twisted and withered, eventually becoming thin threads that drifted away in the air.

Most astonishing of all, the vines that had been wrapped tightly around Yufan’s body also began to crack beneath the influence of that mysterious power. They split with a succession of sharp snaps, as though cut apart by invisible blades. Pieces of wood fell away, revealing Yufan’s battered body as he gradually regained his freedom.

A warm force flowed from the black-robed man’s fingertips through Yufan’s entire body. The pain seemed to be soothed in that instant, and even his breathing became easier.

“Brother ahead, why did you save him? How about this—let us pass, and I’ll give you anything you want,” Soul Ghost said in a calm voice.

The black-robed man did not turn around. He merely raised a hand and slowly rotated his fingers, as though sketching some invisible pattern in the air.

His voice was deep and commanding, cutting through the surrounding chaos and unease.

“You, a mere nobody from the Lower Realm, dare negotiate with us of the Otherworld? If your Immortal Ancestors had not joined forces to seal off our realm, would your so-called Main Realm even exist?”

As his words fell, the black robe around him stirred without wind, sending out waves of dark ripples. Even the air seemed to grow heavy and oppressive.

The moonlight appeared to struggle harder to penetrate the clouds, but it could only trace the silhouette of the black-robed man, adding to his mystery and untouchable majesty.