Chu Tian hadn't even had time to examine his body closely.
He heard Hai Yue and the others call out, "Zu Tian, what are you doing?"
Their voices were filled with extreme panic.
At this moment, Chu Tian also noticed something was amiss.
Extremely dense blood qi fluctuations surrounded his body.
The blood qi fluctuations were like boiling water,
constantly churning.
Chu Tian was greatly alarmed in his heart.
He turned his gaze and saw the creature that had transformed from a block and the skinny monkey. Beneath their feet,
many formations, like tokens, had appeared.
To be precise, they were formation talismans.
However, these items were haphazard.
Some were made of wood, some of stone,
and there were even a few yellow talismans,
and some made from leaves.
In this place where materials were scarce,
it was evident that many things had been gathered together.
When Chu Tian looked, he found that the surging blood qi
was indeed flowing towards the formation.
And this blood qi was from all the people he had killed.
Many of the people he had killed had directly turned into blood mist,
while others remained whole or in broken pieces,
their bodies shriveled, all resembling mummies.
They had clearly been drained by the formation.
As Chu Tian watched, the monkey-like creature was taking out various weapons, armor, and other items one by one.
The styles of these weapons and armor looked extremely ancient, not like modern objects.
"Not enough, kill them all!"
The monkey's face was grim.
He had also noticed that Chu Tian was no longer killing anyone but was watching them.
He said this to Zu Tian,
but the latter hadn't moved at all.
"Hurry up and go... ugh..."
The monkey roared at Zu Tian, but he had only uttered three words before
a dagger plunged into his chest.
"Killing you should be enough, right?"
The owner of the dagger was Zu Tian.
"You..." The monkey's face showed unwillingness.
"What 'you'? I've waited for this day for a long time. If it weren't for you using the blood refining technique on me while I was still in my mother's womb, how could I have become like this?
How much suffering have I endured over the years? How much disdain and ridicule have I faced?
I even had to listen to you, this old fellow, bossing me around and criticizing me every day. If it weren't for the spirit-calling formation you spoke of, how could I have let you live until today?"
Zu Tian twisted the dagger in the creature's heart.
"Pfft..." The monkey spat out a mouthful of blood,
but he grinned.
"Without my blood refining technique, how could you have been born with such a powerful physique?
You must know that it was I who completed you.
And... hehe... you are the most crucial part of this illusion formation!
But..."
As he spoke, Zu Tian's eyes widened in surprise.
And the monkey-like creature before him tilted his head and died.
"But... you were too impatient! Still too young!"
The moment the creature fell,
a voice slowly came from behind Zu Tian.
He was startled; this voice was too familiar.
His blood qi immediately surged.
He turned around and swept his arm out.
However, his arm swept through empty air.
A hand, a semi-transparent hand,
directly gripped his square head.
"I forgot to tell you, that body could only limit my strength, and... physical attacks are ineffective against me!"
It was a semi-transparent figure.
Clearly, it was a ghost.
Its appearance was quite handsome.
"Damn it, Abu, this guy is more of a pretty boy than you!"
At this moment, Hu Biao had just regained consciousness.
His weak voice slowly came from his mouth.
This guy was truly thick-skinned,
joking even at this moment.
It made Bu Shi Yi roll his eyes repeatedly,
but he ignored him.
Instead, he looked warily in Zu Tian's direction.
The semi-transparent ghost, upon grabbing Zu Tian's face, caused the latter to stiffen completely.
Only his square eyes showed disbelief and terror.
"Six hundred years ago, your ancestor abandoned me on this third level, but you never expected that I, Zu Yun Xi... would abandon my physical body and leave here too!
I will use the blood of your descendants to awaken the valiant spirits of those who died in this land, to help me... leave this divine sea prison!"
Bang...
The creature laughed maniacally, and the once arrogant Zu Tian turned into a mist of blood at this moment.
The blood qi released by his body's explosion was even denser than the blood qi from Chu Tian killing a dozen people.
...
What happened here took only an instant.
From Zu Tian killing the monkey to being killed in return was a matter of a few words.
"Zu Yun Xi... No... it's him!" Hai Yue was initially confused, then her eyes sharpened, and she froze.
"Chu Tian, stop him quickly... otherwise, we will all die here!" A Li, at this moment, rushed to Chu Tian's side.
A soul shot out from her brow,
transforming into a pink arrow that flew towards the semi-transparent Zu Yun Xi.
"Petty trick. If your grandfather were here, perhaps I would have to put in some effort!"
Zu Yun Xi looked at A Li's attack with disdain.
He merely waved his hand, directly countering A Li's soul arrow.
Pfft...
The pink arrow, with such a casual gesture, exploded.
"Huh?"
However, A Li's move seemed to be more than met the eye.
Zu Yun Xi's expression froze, then he became furious.
Chu Tian and the others watched all of this, but the creature seemed unable to find his direction, shouting,
"I almost forgot...! You little girl likes to play these flashy tricks!"
In his carelessness, he had fallen for A Li's illusion.
"Chu Tian, I can't hold him for long, hurry and help me!" A Li urged Chu Tian.
"Too late!"
Chu Tian squinted and replied.
Boom...
A blood-red light shot up into the sky, the blood-colored pillar incredibly solid.
It soared towards the firmament, as if touching something, and then dispersed to the sides.
In that way, the blood-colored pillar instantly transformed into a blood-colored shield,
as if covering the entire world.
"Wuuuuu..."
The otherwise silent third level of the trial world suddenly echoed with ghostly cries.
An eerie wind swept through the land.
And A Li's illusion shattered at this moment.
Zu Yun Xi turned his gaze towards Chu Tian and the others,
and the other trembling clansmen.
At this moment, those people were filled with fear.
Zu Tian was dead just like that?
They didn't know what to do.
"Hurry and go..."
Chu Tian narrowed his eyes at this moment.
He exchanged a glance with the creature.
The latter gave Chu Tian a smile of unknown meaning.
It was this smile that sent a chill down Chu Tian's spine.
This creature didn't seem that strong,
but Chu Tian felt a chill in his heart.
So he said two words.
At this moment,
the scattered weapons on the ground,
all the ones the monkey had taken out and placed on the formation earlier,
they suddenly floated up.
Every weapon was glowing with a blood-red light.
In that instant, the weapons scattered and shot out.
Chu Tian pulled A Li and dodged a streak of blood-red light.
Hai Yue and the others did the same, dodging the paths of the weapons.
As for the weaker clansmen, they weren't so lucky.
Many, unable to dodge in time,
were pierced through.
The moment they were pierced, they instantly turned into withered bones.
But the weapons did not attack them further,
instead, they flew towards the surrounding land.
Closest to them, a few weapons streaked through the air and embedded themselves in the earth.
Humph...
After the weapons entered the ground,
the ground flashed with red light.
Then countless light projections surged out from the ground.
These projections were all blood-red.
Each projection was a semi-transparent spiritual body.
After they appeared,
each one held a weapon that had just been shot into the ground.
"Hahaha, with the bloodline of descendants, and using your former weapons as spirits, revive, ancient valiant spirits!
Hahaha, you should have appeared 600 years ago, but... this time I am even more confident!"
Zu Yun Xi laughed maniacally.
In the distance...
More blood-red souls appeared,
boundless.
The mountains of weapons and armor that had been piled on the formation tokens,
and even rings,
could awaken a valiant spirit.
However...
The aura of these so-called valiant spirits
was extremely unstable.
They were not the kind of valiant spirits that protected their descendants,
but rather carried aggression, rage, and various negative energies.
But after appearing, they remained motionless.
Each one had a vacant stare.
"Come... I will become your vessel... merge with me, your strength will reappear and even surpass the heavens' pride, achieving the rank of Venerable!
I will lead you away from this place where you perished, and bring you back home!"
Zu Yun Xi raised his arms high.
The spiritual bodies behind him soared into the sky,
and he chanted.
It was his words that
caused the vacant-eyed valiant spirits to look up at him.
The next second,
these valiant spirits transformed into blood-red streams of light,
and poured into his body.
Zu Yun Xi's originally milky-white transparent body slowly changed color,
but became more condensed.
Until finally,
under everyone's gaze,
his body turned a deep purple,
but he no longer resembled a spiritual body.
An indescribable aura erupted from him.
It was as if only he existed in the entire world.
"Trial-taker of Blue Star... your body is good, I hope you can withstand my powerful soul and spiritual body!"
Zu Yun Xi, his body burning with purple flames,
looked down at Chu Tian, offering that faint smile again.
"So that's how it is... no wonder I felt a chill!" Chu Tian thought to himself.
The soul power of the creature before him was unfathomable.
It was far beyond his.
No wonder the creature had smiled at him earlier.
He had such intentions.
"Old geezer, you want to possess me?"
Now that it had come to this, Chu Tian no longer felt the chill from his heart,
but instead looked calmly at the creature.
"Heh heh, such a sharp tongue, kid! I originally intended to give you a quick death and erase your consciousness.
Now I've changed my mind. I want to make your soul burn for three days and three nights!"
As Zu Yun Xi spoke, he swooped down from the sky, headfirst towards Chu Tian.
And Chu Tian was now alone; no one was by his side.
When he had said "hurry and go,"
he was telling Hai Yue and the others to leave quickly.
Otherwise, if he used his full strength, he might hurt his own people.
"Heh heh..."
Hearing the other party's words, Chu Tian also let out a dismissive smile.
Too many people had wanted him dead.
He wondered what good things he would get from destroying this creature.
Chu Tian no longer felt fear, but instead faced it optimistically,
even thinking about potential rewards.
Because... he had already become connected to the Heavenly Dao world.