Lordi Payne stood shrouded in a crimson gauze of blood mist, the bone-white Blade of Life Hater glowing malevolently in his grip, its jagged bone edge drinking in the slaughter, exhaling a blood-red haze. A relentless aura coiling around Lordi’s body like a living shroud.
As Lordi channeled the Blood Fiend Blade Art, a torrent of killing intent surged through his veins, flooding every cell with primal fury, yet his mind remained an icy bastion of calm. When the Ninth Layer girl wraith’s hollow, blood-weeping sockets locked onto him with palpable malice, Lordi felt no fear. His cold gaze met hers unflinchingly. With a flick of his wrist, Lordi slashed sideways without looking, the blade’s blood mist reducing a lunging wraith to ashes in a heartbeat.
The girl wraith tilted her head back and unleashed a shriek like breaking hundred of bones, the sound clawing at the squad’s sanity. Then, with unnatural speed, her tar-like, child-sized body stretched, distorted, a blur of rotting flesh and weeping tar, hurtled toward Lordi, a blur of spectral horror radiating Ninth Layer power.
"Watch out!" Ruru Rosa cried, her leather whip cracking through the air, desperate to intercept the attack.
The girl wraith’s speed outmatched her—Ruru’s whip had barely moved when the girl closed the distance, her claw-like fingers inches from Lordi’s skull.
Carl Murphy, Alena Newman, and the rest of Thorn Squad braced themselves, hearts sinking as they anticipated Lordi’s gruesome end, the wraith’s toxic claws poised to rend his flesh.
The wraith’s claw throbbed into Lordi’s skull and shattered it—
In the instant before impact, Lordi’s body dissolved into a crimson mist, a blood shadow streaking through the air. Next instant, he reformed his body behind the girl wraith in a blur of blood and malice, the Blade of Life Hater blazing with scarlet mist, fresh blood dripping from its bone-white edge. Lordi’s killing aura erupted, a torrent of malice, and he slashed with ruthless precision, the blade a crimson lightning bolt aimed at her tar-dripping ghost form.
The blade bit into her, but just as it threatened to cleave deep, the girl wraith melted into a pitch-black, toxic vapor, slithering along the bone edge toward Lordi’s arm, coiling like a serpent to consume him. A soul-freezing chill radiated from the vapor, its freezing malevolence seeping into Lordi’s flesh, threatening to shatter his spirit.
Instinct surged—Ice Pith Fire was channelled through Lordi’s meridians without guiding, azure flames bursting from the pores of his palm to coat the Blade of Life Hater. The tarry mist recoiled immediately, hissing as if burned, terrified of the Dao Flame. It retreated swiftly, morphing back into the girl wraith, her blood-weeping sockets glaring with renewed fury.
She swiped a vicious claw at Lordi’s eyes, her Ninth Layer speed a blur. Outmatched by two cultivation layers, Lordi couldn’t evade with his Blood Spectre Footwork Art at such close range. He raised his Life Hater to block, the bone edge meeting her talons with a deafening CLANG! The impact rattled his bones, a massive force shoving him back, his boots skidding on the tar-slick wood floor.
The surrounding vengeful wraiths, sensing weakness, surged forward in a writhing tide. Dozens of wraiths—rotting hands, gnashing teeth, hollow screams—engulfed Lordi entirely, burying him beneath a churning mass of the dead.
"Junior Brother Payne?!" Carl Murphy gasped, the Thorn Squad frozen in disbelief. They had braced for Lordi Payne’s death when the Ninth Layer girl wraith lunged, certain their Seventh Layer sect comrade was doomed. Yet, Lordi had matched the fierce girl wraith blow for blow, his Blade of Life Hater blazing against her otherworldly might.
But the tide turned with brutal suddenness. A writhing mass of hundreds of Seventh Layer wraiths engulfed and buried Lordi, their ghostly claws tearing at his blood-soaked form, his fate in their ghost grasp.
Ruru Rosa’s eyes blazed with fury and frustration. "Damn it! How am I supposed to explain this to Junior Sister Kim...?" she muttered, her voice tight with dread.
"Senior Brother Riggs, how much longer?" Alena Newman shouted, flipping her hand to unleash her bronze mirror. Its radiant beams scorched and sliced through the darkness, forcing wraiths to scream and scatter. But her face was grim, showed no relief as the horde’s numbers seemed endless. "We’ve lost Captain Blackthorn! Shit! With his peak Ninth Layer cultivation, he was taken down instantly. This place is a fucking death trap. We need to leave—now! If we delay longer, we’re done for!"
"Almost!" Drake Rourke didn’t look up, his voice strained but focused. His green ghost-hand array compass’s snake needle spun wildly, hovering before him. "Hold on! Just a few more breaths!"
Before he could finish,
A deafening explosion rocked the hall nearby. The squad’s heads snapped toward the source.
A detonation of azure fire erupted where Lordi had fallen. The wraiths screamed, their bodies vaporizing in the blast.
At the blast’s heart, Lordi Payne stood, unharmed.
His eyes burned with icy blue flame, his expression an unyielding mask of calm. His hair billowed, floating in the azure glow of flaring Ice Pith Fire as if suspended in water. His grip on the Blade of Life Hater radiated crimson malice, its blood mist coiling like a death razor, intertwining with the azure blue flames like two serpents locked in a deadly dance.
Lordi slashed through, sent out a whirlwind of destruction, incinerating every wraith within ten steps, their spectral forms dissolving into ash under the intertwined azure Dao flames and baleful Blade Art aura.
"Lordi!" Ruru Rosa cried, relief flooding her voice, stunned and joyous. Before she could say more, Drake Rourke exhaled sharply, his ghost-hand compass steadying. His hands wove a flurry of seals, imprinting them onto the sealed gate. "I’ve found the life path! Done—let’s move!"
Drake Riggs was first to bolt through the widening gap, Alena Newman a half-step behind, their breaths ragged with desperation. Carl Murphy spun to follow, but a flicker in his peripheral vision froze his blood.
A pale, skeletal finger, too long to be human, emerging from behind the main hall’s pearl-bead curtain, poised to part it as if heralding an unspeakable horror.
The moment it touched the beads, the gate’s slow movement stuttered—then stopped dead.
"FUCK! RUN!" Carl Murphy’s voice cracked with terror. Without hesitation, he ignited his essence blood, the Blood-Burning Technique surging through him. His body dissolved into a streak of crimson light, blazing toward the stalled exit in a frantic bid for escape.
Ruru Rosa lagged a step behind as she lunged for the partially open gate, following Carl Murphy’s crimson streak. Just as she neared escape, the pearl-bead curtain behind the altar twitched open, a sinister rustle cutting through the chaos.