The two surrounded individuals were tall, yet shrouded in black robes, as if they had been trying to hide. The eight surrounding them, meanwhile, were middle-aged people wearing law enforcement uniforms alongside several of the teachers from school, including Pang Long.
The pursuing armored vehicles stopped a hundred meters away, their headlights illuminating the area as bright as day. On their roofs, soldiers with sniper rifles took aim at the two individuals.
Lin Xiong stepped forward and held up one hand, signaling to the soldiers to hold their fire. He spoke in a deep voice, "You demon cult dogs. Causing trouble in Kyrola is one thing, but daring to come to my East Xia is another. Speak, who is supporting you?"
One of the individuals in black robes said with a hoarse voice, “I don't understand what you're saying. We came here to promote the will of the great god Akunus.”
"Hmph! So you’re refusing to admit it." Lin Xiong's gaze was cold. "Do you think we can't find out if you don't speak? You wouldn’t have been able to hide for so long without help.
"Let me guess. You couldn't come by land, air was not an option, so you had to take the water route. And there’s only a few organizations who regularly interact with our water routes and can bypass several inspections...”
The two cultists suddenly shouted fanatically, "For the great Akunus!"
In an instant, a red light exploded from both individuals, writhing and transforming into two even larger blood python phantoms, each several meters long. A strong aura of malevolence pervaded the surroundings.
Pang Long and the others involuntarily took a step back. "Be careful, use your true power to protect yourselves. Don't let that tainted blood touch you."
From the armored vehicles a hundred meters away, two of the snipers suddenly opened fire, and a large burst of red light exploded in front of the two cultists.
Two bullets, powerful enough to penetrate armored vehicles, tore through the bodies of the blood pythons, creating large holes the size of washbasins as they passed through, but hit an invisible force before they could reach the cultists.
"Stand down. Block the surroundings and intercept any potential backup."
As Lin Xiong spoke, a tremendous force burst forth from him, and a heavy aura permeated his surroundings. Slowly, a black giant ape phantom, towering almost seven meters[1] in height, began to take shape behind him.
Lin Xiong's aura surged several times, his willpower and true power almost seeming tangible. The pressure was so intense that the surrounding air seemed to faintly solidify, becoming heavy and oppressive.
"He’s in the Seventh Heavenly Realm! And he has a True Martial Phantom!" The cultists’ demeanors changed drastically. They had been told that high-level cultivators weren’t present here.
As the phantom roared, Lin Xiong leaped high into the air, rising dozens of meters. True power radiated from his body in a brilliant black color, and he brought down a palm strike in mid-air.
The phantom behind Lin Xiong also brought down a palm, the two layers stacking together. In an instant, they condensed into a black palm print covering a range of ten meters.
The moment the palm print appeared, a wave of massive pressure descended from the sky onto the two cultists. It pressed down on them, causing the bones in their bodies to creak and crack. The ground within a ten-meter radius around them suddenly sank, forming a deep imprint several centimeters in depth. The power was terrifying.
The two cultists suddenly raised their heads, revealing two dark and rugged faces. Their expressions were fanatical, showing no signs of fear.
"Great Akunus, we are willing to offer everything for the manifestation of your presence in this world. Show yourself, Nine-Headed God!"
As the mad cultists chanted their eerie prayer, the bloodlight on their bodies became even more intense, and a powerful force erupted from within them.
In the blink of an eye, python heads emerged from the burning bloodlight, transforming into a nine-headed blood python that roared towards the sky.
Nine python heads, each as thick as a water bucket, emitted hissing sounds. Their bloody, pillar-like bodies were entwined together, and they lunged towards Lin Xiong in the sky. They fiercely collided with the ape phantom’s descending palm.
Red and black light exploded in the air, the violent force like hundreds of kilograms of high explosives detonating. The shockwave lifted a cloud of soil and dust into the sky, sweeping out in a radius of several dozen meters.
The explosion shook the earth, and a series of nearby streetlights were crushed by the shockwave, bursting one after another. Such terrifying destructive power made the armored beast, still submerged in the river a good distance away, tense up.
A few minutes later, the smoke and dust settled, revealing a large crater with a diameter of eight meters. At the bottom of the crater, only remnants of the black-robed cultists remained.
Pang Long and the others dissipated their true power, their expressions serious as they walked over and stood by the crater. "These people are completely mad. They self-destruct at the drop of a hat."
A middle-aged man in law enforcement attire said in a deep voice, "That is what’s so terrifying about them. Before joining the demon cults, these individuals were just ordinary cultivators in the Third Heavenly Realm. But after joining the demon cults and obtaining something called 'Divine Blood,' they and other members broke through to the Fourth and Fifth Realms, gaining a tremendous increase in their strength."
"And when the situation turns unfavorable, these lunatics will ignite that Divine Blood and self-destruct. The power from that can severely injure or even kill experts stronger than themselves. That’s how so many experts from the Kyrola royal family had been taken out, which has just made the situation there worse."
Lin Xiong walked over, his expression also somewhat grave. "Indeed, it's troublesome. After burning their so-called Divine Blood, their strength increases by almost a major tier. At first, they only had the strength of someone newly entering the Sixth Heavenly Realm. But when they self-destructed, it was almost equivalent to one of my attacks."
Pang Long rolled his eyes. "Old Lin, don't pretend. We know how formidable your strength is after you broke through to the Seventh Heavenly Realm. Self-destructing like that nowhere near matches one of your attacks."
The other teachers had expressions of envy and discontent, as if witnessing Lin Xiong showing off had made them uncomfortable.
"Do you all feel dissatisfied? If you do, just break through like me." Lin Xiong grinned.
Pang Long’s own envy was audible as he said, "We do want to, but the problem is we're still a bit short. But Old Lin, now that you've broken through, shouldn't you be heading back out to the front?"
Lin Xiong nodded. "Yes, I've already applied to be transferred. I'll leave after finishing this semester. But the demon cults have become more rampant recently. They’re spreading among more of the small countries now, not just Kyrola. I don't know how the higher-ups will handle this."
During the conversation, the armored vehicles approached, and some soldiers disembarked to collect the remains of the two cultists, preparing to take them back for research.
After finishing the cleanup, everyone boarded their respective vehicles and departed. The riverbank once again fell into tranquility.
It was only then that the grass along the river’s edge swayed slightly. The head of the armored beast emerged from the water, staring in awe at the large crater in the distance.
Through its eyes, Chen Chu had observed the entire scene. He hadn’t expected true martial arts at that high of a level to be so formidable. Just at the Seventh Heavenly Realm, one strike could unleash such destructive power.
Much more formidable than the martial artists in those videos.
And then there was the conversation he was vaguely able to overhear. Terms like True Martial Phantom, Demon God, and Divine Blood were all things that he was hearing for the first time.
It seemed that this world was far more dangerous than he had imagined.
With one last look at the giant crater in front of it, the armored beast sank back down into the water, starting to hunt for a mutated fish to eat and calm itself down. This world was too dangerous.
1. The original novel uses "two zhang," which is an old, uncommonly used unit of length; this was converted for consistency. ☜