Chapter 1782: Monsters and the Nine Netherworlds

Xiao Wencheng gave a slight sneer. He crushed the root ball in his hand, pointed to the sand table, and told it, "Go in."

The sand table, having been further upgraded and modified by Qianhuan, clearly also possessed some of the original functions of the Haoyuan Golden Mirror.

Instead of immediately entering, the red mist drifted towards He Lingchuan, circled him a few times, and then let out a surprised "Oh?"

He Lingchuan sensed its malicious intent.

True to his suspicion, the red mist hissed again, "Fragrant, so fragrant! Can I eat this one too?"

Xiao Wencheng frowned. "You just swallowed the crop stone of a Five-headed Ghost Falcon. Why do you want to eat a cultivator?"

"Full of vital energy, powerful essence!" The red mist's voice betrayed its drooling desire. "If this person were presented to the Heavenly Devils, they would surely fight over him to use as a skin. He seems to have many other auras on him; I could savor them slowly if I ate him!"

Xiao Wencheng glanced at He Lingchuan, who noticed that he didn't immediately intervene.

Xiao Wencheng actually had many questions about this Island Master He. Should he use the red mist to test him?

However, he immediately dismissed the thought, deciding not to cause any further complications.

Meanwhile, the Soul-Capturing Mirror in He Lingchuan's arms exclaimed, "Oh, it got everything right! This thing has good taste."

Its master was indeed the Netherworld Heaven's favorite divine vessel.

The Ghost Ape, however, bared its teeth at the red mist, its shoulders hunched slightly, ready to pounce.

As the red mist drifted a little closer, the Fleeting Life Saber appeared on its own, letting out a soft hum.

He Lingchuan propped his saber on the ground and said calmly, "It's not certain who will eat whom. Shall we test it?"

His saber specialized in cleaving the formless and bodiless.

And he, himself, specialized in collecting wandering spirits.

The red mist didn't merely perceive people with its eyes. In its perception, as soon as He Lingchuan finished speaking, his living aura suddenly vanished, leaving behind only an enormous black hole in his place!

It was deep, dark, and bottomless, seemingly capable of sucking in anything, even distorting the light around its edges.

The black hole itself was intensely oppressive, yet something else seemed to lurk deep within it, malevolent and poised to strike.

That thing was even more terrifying!

The red mist stopped, suspiciously asking, "What exactly are you?"

It had actually sensed significant danger. What was this young human, like a glowing lure on an anglerfish's huge mouth?

The red mist felt that if it pounced and bit him, something very bad would likely happen.

Xiao Wencheng, standing by, grew impatient. "If you drag this out any longer, the agreed-upon punishment will take effect."

No sooner had he spoken than the chains around the red mist's neck automatically tightened.

"What's the rush?" The red mist was no longer greedy or insolent. It swished over to the sand table. "It won't be an instant too soon, nor a moment too late."

Then, it leaped in.

This time, everything went smoothly.

After entering the sand table, the red mist didn't expand like the previous black fish. It remained a thin wisp of red, quickly dissipating within the sand table.

Soon after, Dong Rui suddenly pointed and exclaimed, "Look at the lakeside of the Inverted Lake!"

After the lakeside of the Inverted Lake was abandoned, both the Heavenly Palace and the Illusion Sect had departed, leaving dead bodies strewn across the battlefield, too numerous to clear away. Now, the lakeside was covered in a mournful red hue.

Then came Companion Hill, Yu Village... The more densely corpses lay, the thicker and more eerily vibrant the red mist became!

Dong Rui stared intently. "What exactly is this thing?"

"A Blood Demon, also known as a Wangliang," Xiao Wencheng said gravely. "Three thousand years ago, the War Between Immortals and Devils caused the heavens to collapse and the earth to crack, devastating all life. Billions perished. From their flesh and blood, this type of monster was born."

"They only appear amidst mountains of corpses and seas of blood, whether on an Asura battlefield or during a great catastrophe or plague. The more flesh and blood they collect, the stronger they become." He looked at the scene in the mirror. "They also cannibalize their own kind, with larger monsters consuming smaller ones. This particular Blood Demon possessed immense power, creating horrific carnage in the early Middle Ages. It was later captured by a Celestial Venerable, but couldn't be destroyed immediately, so it was suppressed and slowly refined."

The more flesh and blood collected, the stronger it becomes? Xiao Wencheng spoke subtly, but He Lingchuan understood. This trump card, indeed, couldn't have been deployed earlier, because—

Not enough people had died.

He Lingchuan glanced at the sand table.

The spatial rift that Miaozhan Heaven had just opened could even suck in immortals. Nearby forests, landscapes, villages, and towns had all suffered catastrophic destruction. Especially within ten li directly opposite the spatial rift, there were almost no intact buildings, and several mountaintops had been sheared off.

Even Silver Pearl City was a quarter destroyed.

If the spatial rift hadn't been open for such a short time, the entire Silver Pearl Island might have been sucked into it.

How could any egg remain unbroken when the nest is overturned? The distance from Companion Hill to Silver Pearl City wasn't far, but due to the habitable environment, there were thousands of residents.

Now, however, hardly any living people remained.

The number of civilian casualties had far exceeded the losses of both combatant parties.

It could be said that only when Silver Pearl Island ran red with blood, and even several high-ranking figures from the Heavenly Palace and Illusion Sect perished on the front lines, did the basic conditions for the Blood Demon to act become met.

Even Qianhuan himself couldn't destroy it when he captured it back then, showing how troublesome this creature was. Now, it was time for the Heavenly Palace to experience its power.

Of course, the Blood Demon was not in its prime now, so it needed to first collect flesh and blood from the battlefield to nourish and strengthen itself before it could truly contend with the Heavenly Devils.

The red mist spreading across various parts of the sand table lasted for only about two *kechengs* (approximately thirty minutes) before suddenly receding and vanishing from sight.

Dong Rui's eyes widened, but he couldn't see where the Blood Demon had gone.

Xiao Wencheng suddenly pointed to a spot in Silver Pearl City. "On the rooftop, that three-eyed crow."

Dong Rui nearly pressed his nose against the sand table before he spotted a small black dot resting on the roof of an intact red-brick civilian house.

This was hard on his eyes, but after all, the sand table wasn't the Haoyuan Golden Mirror and couldn't directly zoom in on localized details.

He Lingchuan took out the Soul-Capturing Mirror from his embrace and whispered, "Magnify!"

The single-sided mirror transformed into a biconvex lens, and when shone onto the sand table, the scene instantly magnified.

The Soul-Capturing Mirror had recently gained significant power by absorbing Emperor's Dew, seizing the opportunity to develop some practical minor functions, such as acting as a magnifying glass.

Dong Rui grabbed the mirror to look at the sand table, and instantly, the black dot on the rooftop became clear.

Outwardly, it looked like a large, ordinary crow, jet black and particularly inconspicuous at night, with slick, glossy feathers. But its eyes glowed with an ominous red light, and a third eye had opened on its forehead.

"It's the form of a Ghost Falcon. Normally, it appears as a crow, only revealing its true form in combat. The third eye on its forehead can cause any prey that sees it to become confused," Xiao Wencheng explained. "Blood Demons are inherently sinister and sneaky. They prefer to work covertly, rarely engaging in direct attacks. When we tried to capture it before, it repeatedly escaped even under my master's watchful eye, and it killed two of my junior brothers."