All of this... for Lordi Payne?!
The realization struck Miu Tyanh like a blade to the gut. His heart lurched, his blood running cold.
No wonder Kinson Wexford had gone to such lengths to secure the Ice Pith Fire for that runt.
No wonder a lowborn, weakling disciple had been able to slaughter his kin brother, Lee Sagwon, and Chou Ease without consequence.
This whole time, the true power behind Lordi Payne was never Kinson Wexford—
—it was Sect Successor Lith, her highness.
The revelation shuddered through him, his Dao Heart quaking on the verge of collapse. If Kinson Wexford had been the mastermind, he might have still clawed his way to vengeance, consequences be damned.
But that's Successor Lith?
Even if he burned with rage, even if he threw away his life in reckless fury—he was nothing before a single Phantom Maid. Less than nothing before Fairy Lith, her highness.
His face twisted, his breath coming in ragged, soundless gasps. His fingers dug into his palms hard enough to draw blood, the pain the only thing grounding him.
Joanie paid him no mind.
Her needle continued its meticulous work, each stitch pulling another muffled scream from the skin stretched across her frame. The ghouls in her embroidery feasted beneath the moon, their needlework mouths now slick with fresh, glistening red.
She did not fear his defiance.
She did not even acknowledge it.
But he did not leave.
Instead, his voice came out low, dark, trembling with barely restrained fury.
"Lady Joanie... what if... I must kill Lordi Payne?"
Joanie's head lifted slowly, her hollow black eyes locking onto his.
No anger. No surprise.
Her floral crown fell.
It hit the ground with a sound like breaking bone.
And her hair exploded.
Silently, violently, her ink-black tresses surged like a living tide, unraveling into a writhing storm of darkness. Strands coiled and twisted, spreading through the air like the roots of some ancient, cursed tree, filling the gazebo with a whispering, hungry blackness.
At this moment, in the Bone Crane Swamp, within the tight narrow cage surrounded by bone chains, the azure flame was still burning slowly and steadily on his skin. Lordi Payne was anxious, he said inwardly. "AllFullOS System, can't you hurry?"
He was in agony at this moment, intense agony.
After all, the remnant Ice Pith Fire was burning and scorching his flesh.
However, the situation was critical, the danger loomed larger. and Lordi Payne could no longer care about this pain. He hurriedly urged the system in his mind. "System chan! Faster! Hurry up! End it quickly! Listen, I will grant you a five-star rating if you finish now! Always five-star ratings in the future! Deal?"
The AllFullOS system was indifferent, as ever, ignored him, just like every one-click-cultivation session before. It controlled Lordi Payne, allowing the Ice Pith Fire to burn his body, and only commanding the Dao Flame within his body to slowly circulate along his bone marrow and blood veins to resist the dispelled Ice Pith Fire burning outside on his flesh and prevent the host from dying.
Lordi Payne. "Shit! Fuck me."
He knew that he could not rely on this AwfulOS artificial idiot, so he focused on the outward situation.
Through layers of defense bone chains, a scream pierced in.
Through the gaps of defense chains, Sharky Ink was seen with a horrified face. half body drenched in blood, he clutched an arm, retreating fast.
As an array cultivator, Sharky Ink was weak in close combat.
Besides, his array compass was taken away by Oen Shinae and he had just been tortured by Bone Bloom Curse. At this moment, his vitality was seriously damaged and he had lost his main cultivation method. Eight-tenths of his strength gone. Even with Fang Jit's combat aid, he soon fell into a disadvantage.
However, Fang Jit fared little better at this moment.
He'd already unleashed his ace: a three legged bronze censer with fortune cloud-carved, color gem-studded.
Vivid green smoke billowed out of the censer, and wherever it went, the grass and trees withered instantly, and even the swamp mire under beneth quickly showed signs of burnt, which showed how fierce the toxicity was.
However, Oen Shinae gave a low battle cry, and the bone chains on her back twitched like living serpents, and absorbed the overflowing green smoke dry completely, and swallow the green energy through the china all back into the black coffin, like feeding it.
"Where's Bloodline Lord Miu?" Lordi Payne's gut clenched. The absence of Miu Tyanh stretched—too long, even for a cat toying with mice. Something was off.
A chill slithered through Sharky Ink and Fang Jit, their faces twisting as dread seeped in—panic pooling in their eyes like ink bleeding into the Skeletal Roost Mire's haunted gloom.
Sharky Ink's gaze snapped to Fang Jit, his voice a raw, guttural snarl ripping from the darkness. "Forget this bitch—snag Lordi Payne! Move, damn it!"
He quickly stretched into his robe pouch, reluctance twitching in his blood-streaked fingers, and yanked out a black array banner—its edges frayed, etched with runes that pulsed faintly like dying embers. With a snarl, he hurled it skyward. The banner snapped taut midair, and the mire shuddered—a translucent cage bloomed, a shimmering dome of warped light that swallowed Oen Shinae and her black coffin whole. The Blood-Bind Array took shape, its translucent walls rippling with crimson veins that throbbed like a living heart, tendrils of blood qi coiling through the haze, binding the space with a spectral hum that rattled the bones beneath.
Oen Shinae's fury ignited. Her ten fingernails stretched—claws of jagged obsidian slashing through the gloom. She raked the array's walls with a vicious shriek of tearing air. The translucent barrier quaked, fissures spidering where her black talons gouged, the crimson veins flickering as if bleeding out.
"Now—seize Lordi Payne!" Sharky Ink roared, slamming his palm against his chest. A gout of dark blood sprayed from his mouth, splattering on the array banner. The array drank it greedily, the crimson glow flaring bright, veins pulsing steady—a heartbeat sealing the cage. "This Blood Bind Formation won't chain her long—catch that runt, or we're fucking dead!"
Fang Jit didn't need the nudge—his hands were already moving. He hoisted the three-legged bronze censer, its fortune clouds glinting sickly under the mire's gray pallor. With a grimace, he slashed both wrists—blood gushing in twin torrents, pooling into the censer's maw. Then, from his sleeve, he drew a bronze dagger, its blade etched with cryptic grooves, and pressed it to his forehead. Slowly, deliberately, he carved downward—a wet, deliberate slice splitting his brow. No blood oozed. Instead, between the parted flesh, a gworm squirmed free—a fat, white horror, glistening like a spring silkworm bloated on carrion, its eyeless head wriggling as it birthed itself from his skull.
Fang Jit's face twisted—half anguish, half resolve—as he plucked the gworm and flung it into the censer. A shrill, unearthly screech erupted, piercing the mire's stillness. Green smoke churned, thick and venomous, and from its depths buzzed a ghost-faced locust—an infant's head in size, its carapace a mottled gray streaked with crimson veins. Its eyes glowed a dull, hateful red, mandibles clicking with feral intent. But its ferocity flickered—unsteady, a flame starved of fuel, its wings trembling with the frailty of a half-ripe fruit forced to bloom too soon.
Fang Jit's gaze lingered on it, a pang of grief cutting through his sneer. This Nether Locust Gworm—his painstaking treasure, nursed with years of blood and qi—was meant to molt into a Nether Locust Gworm Queen, his ace for the Great Dao. Now? Rushed into this frail, stunted form, its future was ash. But survival trumped regret—time was a noose tightening.
Under Fang Jit's command, the Nether Locust Gworm's wings a buzzing blur as it shot from the censer, a spectral missile streaking straight for Lordi Payne—red eyes locked, venom dripping from its jaws.
Oen Shinae and her black coffin was both trapped in the Blood Bind Formation. Although she attacked the array frantically, as her claws raked heavily against the array's glowing sigils, each strike sending up sprays of corrupted spiritual energy—yet the formation held, reinforced by the desperate sacrifices of Sharky Ink. This array cultivator and Fang Jit had the same idea of fighting feral desperately, and they didn't care about wasting how much of theirs essence blood.
Oen Shinae stunningly found she was unable to break through the array for a while. With no time to break free, Oen Shinae twisted her fingers in a spell-seal, channeling her power through the formation's gaps. The bone chains that had once shielded Lordi Payne now lashed out like serpents, whipping toward the Nether Locust Gworm in a lethal arc.
Out of Oen Shinae's expectation, the Nether Locust Gworm did not dodge.
The gworm form rippled, dissolving into a ghostly haze—a shifting, intangible blur of smoke and malice. The bone chain passed through its body without any obstacles, as if slicing through mist. The chain attack couldn't hinder its movements at all.
"How dare you?!" Oen Shinae's shriek echoed through the mire as the chain block was ineffective, and the Nether Locust Gworm drove straight in, unhindered, unstoppable, and its jagged mouthparts gleaming like cursed blades, aimed straight for Lordi Payne's eyes.
Inside the formation, desperation turned to fury. With a roar, Oen Shinae wrenched all remaining chains and Dao Talismans from her black coffin, tearing them free in a storm of splintered bone and shredded parchment.
Inside the Blood Bind Formation, Oen Shinae was furious and desperately tore off all the chains and Dao Fulus off from the black coffin!
The coffin itself had always been restless, its interior alive with muffled thumps and scratches.
The coffin lid exploded outward, a blackened slab of nightmare-wood hurtling like a meteor. It smashed into the formation's barrier with enough force to crack reality itself. The impact sent shockwaves through the array, and the main banner—drenched in Sharky Ink's essence blood—shattered in pieces of crimson fabric.
Sharky Ink didn't even have time to scream.
The backlash hit him like a mountain collapsing onto his soul. His vision exploded into blackened stars, his meridians rupturing as blood erupted from his mouth in a grotesque fountain. His body ragdolled through the air before crashing into the mire's rotten earth, limbs twisted, his chest rising once—then still.
Fang Ji's soul quailed, his courage died in that instant.
"TAKE HIM! NOW!" he screeched at the Nether Locust Gworm, his voice breaking. Take Lordi Payne as a hostage was the only way to live.
However, at this moment. From the smoke and ruin, Lordi Payne—his body charred black, his face skin still smoldering with burnt embers—suddenly turned his head around!
The system chime sound was still echoing in his ear.
~ Ding! *System Notification Chime*
[AllFullOS: Version 1.0.0]
> Cultivation session status: COMPLETE
> Host control: RESTORED
> Thank you for using the All-Smart Full-Host Cultivation System™ (AllFullOS v1.0.0)
- We value your opinion! (No, really, we do.)
- If you are satisfied with our service, please give us a five-star rating.
> Tap to Rate: [☆☆☆☆☆]
Lordi Payne's scorched face twisted—ignored the system prompt, he quickly threw himself into a roll, muck splattering as he barely dodged the dead strike of the front raptorial leg of the Nether Locust Gworm. Then he endured the great burning pain and drew out the Blade of Life Hater from behind.
However, the Blood of Life Hater fell on the ground immediately from his hand after it was pulled out.
Lordi Payne was startled, and after a closer look, he found that his scorched fingers on his right hand were severely burned with blackened ruin of peeling skin and oozing wounds. With hands trembled uselessly, he couldn't even hold the handle of the blade at all.
Inspiration struck—he roared inwardly, "I want to cultivate! Select the Blood Fiend Blade Art. Smart Duration! One-Click-Cultivation!"
~ Ding! *System Notification Chime*
[AllFullOS: Version 1.0.0]
> All-Smart Full-Host Cultivation System™ is at your service!
> [OCC] - One-Click-Cultivation activated.
> Features: Temporary practice, smart duration, and questionable decision-making.
The next moment, the system came back online, and Lordi Payne's hand quickly picked up the Blade of Life Hater that had not yet completely sank into the swamp. Then he surged towards Sharky Ink at an incredibly fast speed. In an instant, Lordi Payne's form blurred into a swirling blood mist, then a series of mud curtain walls rose sky high as Lordi Payne's boots pounding on the ground with monstrous speed which threw the swamp mire mud high in the mid air, the speed so fast that leaving the Nether Locust Gworm far behind.
~ Ding! *System Notification Chime*
[AllFullOS: Version 1.0.0]
> Detected lack of Cultivation Material: [Cultivator Essence Blood] (Error: 191)
- Host inventory: EMPTY
- Error: Insufficient materials for cultivation.
> Executing optimal solution...
~ Ding! *System Notification Chime*
[AllFullOS: Version 1.0.0]
> All-Smart Full-Host Cultivation System™ has decided to be *GENEROUS* today!
> Foundation Stage cultivators x3 will be gifted to the host for FREE.
Almost in just a heartbeat, Lordi Payne reappeared beside Sharky Ink's crumpled body. The Blade of Life Hater descended in a swift, unhesitating arc, meeting flesh with a dull, wet thud. For a fleeting moment, there's resistance—muscle and bone straining against the edge—before it gave way entirely. A geyser of crimson erupted high from the severed neck, hot and pulsing, spraying outward in chaotic arcs
However, the blood fountain only appeared in the mid air for a short moment, and was immediately devoured dry by the blood mist that swirling around the Blade's body.
Sharky Ink on the ground didn't even have time to groan, his flesh shriveled—skin cracking, eyes sinking—as it crumbled to gray dust, merging into the muddy water of Skeleton Roose Mire.
In the swirling blood mist around the Blade of iIfe Hater, Sharky Ink's face full of disbelief slowly emerged.
~ Ding! *System Notification Chime*
[AllFullOS: Version 1.0.0]
> Cultivation Material: [Cultivator Essence Blood]
- Quantity: 1/3 (First of three)
- Status: Gifted successfully.
> Resuming [Blood Fiend Sword Art] Cultivation process...