Chapter 2022: Blood-Colored Fireworks

At that instant, countless eyes turned towards them. As the bloody light dissipated, the face of a young man became faintly visible. His expression was incredibly twisted and terrifying, as if he had been profoundly disturbed. Without the concealment of the blood-red glow, a layer of black aura permeated the young man's body, twisting and dancing around him like a living entity.

Even from a distance, that black aura exuded an extremely ominous feeling, as if it were the embodiment of all the world's impurities.

If that were the only issue, it might have been acceptable. However, the critical aspect was the Deer Demon Venerable's state. His cultivation was undoubtedly a notch above the young man's in the bloody light, yet in their recent collision, he had gained no advantage; in fact, he appeared to have suffered a minor loss.

His robust body tumbled backward through the starry sky, taking several breaths to regain balance. His face was filled with astonishment; he clearly hadn't expected to be knocked back by an opponent weaker than himself.

It was important to note that he had held nothing back in that last strike!

The other Demon Venerables, observing from inside their battleships, did not perceive the situation as clearly. However, having directly clashed with the assailant, he immediately sensed that something was amiss.

The opponent's condition... was abnormal.

He seemed to have lost his mind, yet also seemed to retain it. In all his years of cultivation, the Deer Demon Venerable had truly never encountered anything so bizarre. "Manic yet calm" was undoubtedly the most fitting, albeit highly contradictory, description for his state.

He had no time for further thought, because after that collision, the seemingly abnormal young man was once again enveloped in bloody light and aggressively charged straight towards the largest battleship in the center of the Violet Jade fleet.

No one knew what he intended to do, but the Deer Demon Venerable could not ignore him and immediately flashed forward to intercept.

But this momentary delay had already created a significant distance between them, making interception impossible.

Fortunately, the battleship was not a mere target. Seeing the enemy approach, a beam of light immediately erupted from it, its fierce power comparable to a Sun Gazer's direct attack.

The bloody light was forced to retreat, then circled around, but was repeatedly blocked by the battleship's unleashed power. As the Deer Demon Venerable approached, the bloody light suddenly changed direction, streaking towards a battleship on the left.

Clearly, it had been forced to change its target out of necessity.

The targeted battleship immediately counterattacked to block, but it was ultimately not as powerful as the largest one, and the attacks it unleashed were simply insufficient to stop the assailant.

In a fleeting moment, the bloody light attached itself to the battleship's surface.

Simultaneously, the battleship's defensive array was pushed to its limit, emitting a dense light that made the entire vessel appear covered by a bright shield.

No one knew what the bloody light intended, but with a Sun Gazer so close, pushing the defensive array to its maximum was undoubtedly the best and most correct response.

The Deer Demon Venerable roared and closed in, intending to drive the bloody light away.

As his magic power surged, a spirit pattern manifested in mid-air beneath the bloody light.

Inside the largest battleship, the two Great Demon Venerables had been continuously monitoring the bloody light's movements. The moment they saw the spirit pattern, both Bi Chen and Mo Xuan couldn't help but freeze in surprise.

Immediately, Bi Chen's expression changed: "A Void Spirit Pattern!"

Having lived for so many years, he also had some knowledge of spirit patterns. Although he possessed no particular talent in this area, his long life allowed him to compensate for many deficiencies, enabling him to recognize at a glance that this was an extremely complex Void Spirit Pattern.

"No!" Mo Xuan exclaimed softly, then hastily sent a telepathic message to the Deer Demon Venerable, who was rapidly approaching the bloody light: "Retreat quickly!"

Although they didn't know why the opponent had suddenly constructed such a Void Spirit Pattern, Void Spirit Patterns were generally associated with teleportation and displacement.

Almost simultaneously with his words, the spirit pattern trembled slightly, and in the next instant, several figures abruptly appeared beside the bloody light.

Each of these figures was similar to the original bloody light, enveloped in a blood-red glow that obscured their true forms, yet they all exuded an extremely wild and chaotic sensation.

A total of eight bloody lights were teleported via the Void Spirit Pattern, making nine in total, including the original one!

All nine bloody lights exuded the aura of a Sun Gazer, and appeared to originate from the same source. The moment they appeared, they quickly dispersed in all directions.

Meanwhile, on a distant asteroid, Lu Ye stood quietly, his aura suppressed, gazing intently in the direction of the Violet Jade fleet.

The nine bloody figures were none other than his nine Blood Treasure clones.

However, these nine Blood Treasure clones were different from normal ones because each carried a portion of the black fruit from the Talent Tree.

Previously, in the Myriad Manifestation Sea, Lu Ye had been trying to remove the black fruit from the Talent Tree. After some experimentation, he discovered that the Talent Tree clone could absorb half of the black fruit, but since the Talent Tree clone itself could not be discarded, this method was meaningless.

Then he considered his Blood Treasure clones. Both were types of clones; if the Talent Tree clone could absorb the black fruit, there was no reason the Blood Treasure clones couldn't.

Initial attempts were unsatisfactory, but with Lu Ye's sustained effort and persistence, he finally achieved results.

The Blood Treasures within his body could absorb and carry a portion of the black fruit's essence. This meant that by discarding the Blood Treasure clones, he could gradually remove the black fruit.

Before returning to the Nine Provinces, all nine drops of his Blood Treasure were prepared, each carrying a portion of the black fruit's essence.

He hadn't discarded those nine drops of Blood Treasure at the time, knowing that doing so would require re-condensing them, which would cost time and effort. He had been saving them, intending to put them to good use at a opportune moment.

After all, these were nine Sun Gazer-level clones. Used appropriately, they could play a significant role.

Just like now!

His initial target was the largest battleship. Its power was too immense, so it naturally had to be dealt with first.

If he had enough time, getting the Blood Treasure clones close to the largest battleship should have been no problem, but... man proposes, God disposes. The plan encountered a slight hitch.

Lu Ye hadn't expected that after absorbing a portion of the black fruit's essence, his Blood Treasure clones would undergo such subtle changes.

Each of these clones, belonging to him, seemed to develop their own thoughts and ideas after being condensed...

This was truly incredible. Blood Treasure clones were formed from his Blood Treasure; they were a part of him. Logically, he should have been able to control them effortlessly, just like moving his own fingers.

But the current situation was that his "fingers" had developed their own ideas, and this phenomenon was becoming increasingly apparent over time!

Lu Ye pondered for a moment and then understood what was happening.

The black fruit was a condensation of the emotions and desires of the cultivators he had devoured. When the Blood Treasure clones absorbed these, it was as if the thoughts of those deceased cultivators were reviving within his Blood Treasure clones.

Lu Ye wondered if, left unchecked, there would come a day when the deceased Yuan Du, Gu Xi, Chen Xuanba, and others might revive and return by means of his Blood Treasure clones.

Probably not, as the dead cannot truly be resurrected. Even if the Blood Treasure clones were to genuinely revive in this manner, they would most likely only become aberrant beings capable of nothing but slaughter and destruction.

The current problem was that, under the influence of the black fruit's essence, Lu Ye's control over the Blood Treasure clones would weaken over time.

He hadn't expected such a thing to happen, as this was his first time condensing Blood Treasure clones that had absorbed the black fruit's essence.

The plan had a slight deviation, but it was harmless.

"Explode!" Lu Ye gazed forward and spoke softly.

The moment his words fell, terrifying energy fluctuations erupted successively from the nine scattered Blood Treasure clones. A bloody light suddenly burst forth, rapidly spreading in all directions to envelop a vast expanse of the starry sky.

Lu Ye watched from afar, sighing. The nine Blood Treasure clones had shown some resistance to his command, so they hadn't exploded simultaneously, significantly reducing the resulting damage!

If all nine Blood Treasure clones had exploded at the same time, the resulting destruction would have been several times greater.

The bloody light lingered, dissipating slowly. Several figures scrambled out from within, looking dishevelled. Among them were the Deer Demon Venerable and two other Demon Venerable-level powerhouses, all covered in dust and clearly injured.

As the bloody light gradually dissipated, the scene in that area was revealed.

Of the five incoming Violet Jade battleships, only four remained. The smaller one had been reduced to countless fragments; this was the very battleship the Blood Treasure clone had attached itself to. Inside that battleship, apart from the two Demon Venerables who managed to escape, all other Violet Jade demon cultivators, whether Moon Radiance or Star Constellation, were utterly annihilated.

The self-detonation of nine Sun Gazer-level clones, even with their power significantly reduced due to unforeseen circumstances, was still something ordinary cultivators could not withstand. Even with its defensive capabilities pushed to the limit, the battleship was easily torn apart.

When the three Demon Venerables appeared, they hastily converged towards their largest battleship, looking flustered as if they had seen ghosts.

Although the other three smaller battleships were not destroyed, they had all been affected to some extent, each showing signs of damage.

In the central control hall of the largest battleship, both Bi Chen and Mo Xuan's eyelids twitched uncontrollably. They had just witnessed a truly shocking scene with their own eyes. Even after living for countless years, they could hardly believe what they had seen.

"Blood Detonation Art!" Bi Chen spoke in a deep voice, recognizing it as the Blood Race's Blood Detonation Art, a secret technique used by the Blood Race to perish with their enemies.

"What's going on?" Mo Xuan exclaimed.

They had just arrived in the Jade Snail star system. It was one thing for nine Blood Race Sun Gazers to suddenly appear, but why had these nine Sun Gazers performed the Blood Detonation Art without a word?

What on earth was going on?

Those were Sun Gazers, and nine of them had been deployed at once.

This was the Jade Snail star system, wasn't it? Not the Blood Race's main base, right? Mo Xuan was filled with unanswered questions.

Even if this truly were the Blood Race's main base, no Blood Race faction would have the audacity to directly sacrifice nine Sun Gazers in a self-detonation to intercept the Violet Jade fleet. What kind of immense hatred or grievance would provoke such a grand gesture?

Sun Gazers were pillars of strength wherever they were. Deploying nine of them for a simultaneous self-detonation to intercept—which faction possessed such immense reserves that they could be squandered so freely?

The self-detonation of nine Sun Gazers utterly bewildered the Violet Jade side. Not only were the Violet Jade forces stunned, but even the Sun Gazers from various races observing this scene from within Fangcun Mountain were somewhat bewildered.

Lu Ye had previously stated he would lead the charge, and naturally, no one had any objections. After all, this was an affair concerning Jade Snail, and it was only right for Lu Ye to take the lead.

But... was this truly how he was supposed to lead the charge? Nine Sun Gazers, gone in a massive bloody firework. Such a display was utterly unprecedented throughout history!