Su Chen continued to fly through the air.

White clouds calmly drifted by him. The entire mountain range was extremely peaceful, and there were no Astrals in sight.

However, Su Chen knew for a fact that they were right there, concealed somewhere down there.

Unfortunately, the Astral that he had killed was merely a low-tier Astral responsible for maintaining a single observation point. He had no idea where the central hub in the Sky Magnetic Mountains was. It turns out that the Astrals were quite good at keeping secrets after all.

Even from a height of two hundred thousand feet, it was still impossible for Su Chen to locate the hidden central hub.

He knew that the Astrals had hidden themselves quite meticulously, and that they would be very difficult to find. After a moment’s thought, he chuckled, and then activated his Seven Bloodline Microcosm Aspect.

Once his Aspect was activated, the heavens and the earth seemed to tremble as the surroundings were bathed in the glory of Su Chen’s full might.

Su Chen then pushed his strength to its utmost extent, and the resulting gargantuan pressure wave disrupted everything nearby. But because of how desolate this land was, there were no obvious, perceivable effects from Su Chen’s action.

However, Su Chen quickly sensed that something was off.

Within the area that his Aspect’s power had rippled across, there was a small region that seemed to have been completely unaffected.

More specifically, the energy he had emitted appeared to either be absorbed or redirected whenever it touched that area’s boundaries.

After sensing the initial mismatch, Su Chen quickly focused his attention there and pinpointed the exact location of the anomaly. The area seemed exceptionally quiet and empty, with nothing but a singular cloud floating in the air above it.

That cloud was extremely plain and unassuming, completely identical to the ones around it. However, Su Chen had nonetheless noticed that something was off about it.

The cloud was completely motionless.

Not only was it not moving, but it also remained immobile even after Su Chen’s immense pressure wave had washed over it.

And the other issue was that this cloud was too small.

It was roughly the size of an ordinary house.

And Su Chen couldn’t find anything on that cloud either.

What was going on?

Su Chen pondered his available options, then chose to carefully scan the cloud from top to bottom. He even had to use his microscopic eye before he finally noticed something special about it.

A small speck of dust.

There was a small speck of dust carefully hidden at the center of the cloud. The speck was impossible to notice without examining the cloud.

But once Su Chen saw the speck of dust, he chuckled.

“I’ve got you now!” he muttered to himself in delight as he reached out to touch the speck of dust.

Even though it was merely a miniscule speck of dust, Su Chen felt the world around him whirl and distort as soon as he touched it.

When his surroundings stabilized, Su Chen discovered that he was now standing in the middle of a vast, arching hall.

At the base of the hall, there stood a giant stone tablet. The tablet was covered in all kinds of profound inscriptions, and countless Astrals were huddled around it, performing some kind of mysterious ritual.

Su Chen’s sudden appearance stunned all of the Astrals, who immediately whirled around to face him.

At the same time, a consciousness alarm began to ring out.

“Intruder!”

A powerful wave of consciousness power washed over Su Chen like an ocean tide.

“Hey, that’s not how you treat a guest!” Su Chen laughed loudly. His laugh was imbued with formidable might, which stopped the oncoming wave of consciousness power in its tracks.

This attack contained the combined strength of dozens of Astrals. Even if the effects weren’t necessarily completely additive, the fact that Su Chen could still withstand it all on his own was clearly demonstrative of just how powerful his consciousness was.

The other Astrals were also noticeably taken aback for a moment before they finally reacted.

“It’s Su Chen! The Boundless Sect’s Sect Master, Su Chen!”

Their voices at first were filled with panic, but that fear quickly gave way to excitement.

“If we kill Su Chen, the danger to the Astrals will have resolved itself!”

“If we kill Su Chen, the Astrals will rise to supremacy!”

All of the Astrals began to cry out simultaneously.

Streaks of consciousness energy shot towards Su Chen as all of the Astrals simultaneously appeared to go mad, even ignoring the hub.

“Wow, not holding back at all, huh?” Su Chen chuckled. “Unfortunately, that’s not enough!”

As he spoke, he clapped his hands. The Seven Bloodline Microcosm Aspect reappeared once again, filling the entire space.

The Seven Bloodline Microcosm Aspect was strong both offensively and defensively. All attacks would be weakened by at least thirty percent, including consciousness attacks. A giant dragon coiled its body as it flew into the air. The head of the dragon, however, was that of a beautiful woman - the Dream Beauty Bloodline. As it exerted its power, a giant dream realm came into being, and all of the consciousness attacks disappeared with nary a ripple into the realm.

Su Chen laughed loudly. “Seems like it’s my turn now.”

He raised his hand, then slammed it down onto the ground. Inscriptions rapidly snaked across the surface of the ground, beginning to glow with shocking intensity.

Suddenly, a violent wave of flames burst forth from out of thin air, gathering into the form of a giant dragon.

The Shining Dragon!

Su Chen’s study of the Gu Clan’s bloodline had advanced yet again, allowing him to replicate the might of the Shining Dragon to a certain degree. When he merged it with his own toolbox, the Flaming Phoenix was upgraded to the Flaming Dragon Theurgy Art.

Obviously, however, this Flaming Dragon was not yet the Shining Dragon. The gap between the two was still far too great at that moment.

It was still stronger, however, than the former Flaming Phoenix. As soon as it appeared, the entire hall was filled with fiercely burning flames, forcing all of the Astrals onto their back foot.

“Su Chen, you will die here today even if we must sacrifice ourselves!”

An Astral roared ferociously as he charged towards Su Chen, opening his mouth wide.

A phantom-like, ghostly figure appeared, hissing and biting at Su Chen.

“Soul Ripskull?” Su Chen felt a shiver run up his spine.

Soul Ripskull was an incredibly sinister Arcana Technique, one that solely belonged to the Astrals. The phantom-like figure appeared to be intangible, as virtually no Origin Energy could influence it. Its attacks were relentless, and being bit by it would result in heavy damage to one’s consciousness. This was one of the extremely headache-inducing techniques that the Astrals had developed, one that only high-tier elders could use. Its “undying” characteristic made it relatively difficult to deal with.

However, this undying characteristic was merely relative.

Su Chen tried a few different things to dispel the phantom but failed each time. Even the Flaming Dragon Theurgy Art only caused it to dim faintly, while Su Chen was forced to take evasive action repeatedly. Even so, it continued to pursue after him, as if it had locked onto his location.

A cold light flashed across Su Chen’s eyes. “Do you really think that makes you invincible?”

Just as the Soul Ripskull was about to close the distance yet again, Su Chen’s figure suddenly flickered as it disappeared, taking the Soul Ripskull with it.

The Astrals were stunned. A moment later, Su Chen reappeared. The Soul Ripskull was nowhere to be found.

Su Chen curled his lip disdainfully. “That Soul Ripskull was nothing special. In the face of the void, everything is worthless.”

He had used the void to kill the Soul Ripskull.

The void was Su Chen’s most lethal weapon at this point. If there was anything that he couldn’t defeat, he could simply bring it along with him to the void and throw it there. The only things that Su Chen couldn’t kill were the ones that were too heavy for him to bring along.

Even though Soul Ripskull was quite tough to deal with, it was much easier to transport.

The high-tier Astral’s eyes turned bloodshot when he saw that the Soul Ripskull had served no purpose. “With my immortal life as a sacrifice, unleash your anger, universe. Heaven’s Blood!”

When Su Chen heard the words “Heaven’s Blood”, even his expression shifted slightly. “Damn, he’s really not holding back.”

He hurriedly retreated.

The hall suddenly was enveloped in blazing red light.

All of the Astrals began to howl bitterly at the same time.

Their spectral bodies twisted and contorted as they transformed, melting under the intense shining light. Even the high-tier Astral was beginning to liquify.

However, the high-tier Astral showed no fear, instead gazing at Su Chen with deep hatred. “We are all willing to sacrifice ourselves to kill you here. Come forth, Heaven’s Blood!”

The scarlet, bloody light filling the hall began to condense, contorting violently as it did so. Its destructive intent filled the surroundings.

Su Chen attempted to retreat by teleporting to the void, but he discovered in that moment that he was unable to do so.

The space around him had been locked down.

Specifically, this was due to the might of a certain strand of will.

According to what the old Astral had said, even the world itself possessed a will.

This will was the will of the Heavens.

The will of the gods.

Its source was primordial, perpetually silent and slumbering.

But under certain conditions, it could be awakened, and its will directed.

The ancient, stoic will originally had no channel, but the chant was able to temporarily direct the ancient will.

This was the where the name “Heaven’s Blood” came from.

The Astrals had offered themselves as sacrifices to the Heavens to awaken and enrage it, such that it would bleed.

This bleeding would enrage the Heavens, bringing its destructive wrath down to the earth.

This destructive power was on a completely different level than the void. Even Su Chen was not capable of withstanding an attack like that.

Yes, he was indeed incapable of withstanding it.

He could withstand the power of the void because of his comprehension of spatial Method Power. As such, he was not actually forcefully enduring it, but diverting its power via the use of his Method Power and avoiding all injury. If you asked him to actually withstand it, it was still impossible for him.

The might of Heaven’s Blood was on par with the power of the void, but Su Chen had no comprehension of heavenly will and had no choice but to dodge.

Su Chen felt his scalp tingle when he saw the blood.

Luckily, it appeared that the high-tier Astral had not unleashed a complete version of Heaven’s Blood.

This gave Su Chen a slim opportunity.

The red light around him intensified, only increasing the sense of crisis that he felt. Blood began to slowly seep out of Su Chen’s pores.

When Su Chen saw this, he sprang into action. Instead of retreating, he charged forwards, heading straight for the stone tablet.

That stone tablet had become the branch that was preventing Su Chen from falling off of the cliff entirely.

When the high-tier Astral saw this, he was given quite a bad surprise and instinctively reached out to try to stop Su Chen. However, he had already given his life over as the price for activating Heaven’s Blood, and more than half of his body had melted away at this point. He had no strength remaining to interfere.

Su Chen charged towards the stone tablet and placed his hand on it.

Boom!

A massive wave of energy exploded forth.

Chaotic Origin Energy flows!

This stone tablet was the mechanism controlling the gate to the Chaos Realm, connecting it with the Primordial Realm below. As Su Chen activated it to its fullest extent, turbulent Origin Energy surged into the room with reckless abandon. Even Su Chen was unable to fully resist the violent onslaught and felt as if the Origin Energy in his body was going to erupt, driving him crazy.

Even so, the power of Heaven’s Blood suddenly appeared to have been stopped in its tracks.

At this point, it was still in the process of fully forming, but instead of continuing to form, it actually began to regress and decay.

“NO!!!” the high-tier Astral cried out in despair. At this point, only his head remained.

He was able to personally witness Heaven’s Blood revert to its formerly calm state before disappearing under the effects of the turbulent Origin Energy.

The power from the turbulent Origin Energy was capable of disrupting the formation of Heaven’s Blood. At the same time, the turbulent Origin Energy itself appeared to be calmed down as a result.

At the same time.

Pu!

Su Chen released his grip on the tablet. He collapsed heavily onto the ground and spat out a mouthful of blood.

Heaven’s Blood hadn’t killed him, but the torrential Origin Energy, which he had always been able to ignore, had gravely wounded him.