Alert! The Dragon Lord has emerged from seclusion!

Ye Qingcheng gritted her teeth, "Still only 70% of his true form... how can we fight this?"

Su Qingxue looked at Lin Chen: "How confident are you?"

Lin Chen did not answer directly.

He put away the three items and looked into the depths of the Blood Plains.

There, a throne made of piled bones could be vaguely seen, and a figure sat on the throne.

Even though they were dozens of miles apart, the terrifying pressure still pressed down on them as if it were a tangible force.

"The bookworm left clues, which means he thinks we have a chance," Lin Chen said slowly. "Although the peak of the Nascent Soul stage is strong, since he is a 'Shadow,' he must have flaws."

He looked at the two women: "I need time to observe. You two cover me."

Ye Qingcheng grinned and twirled her Frost Soul Sword: "It's about time I stretched my muscles."

Su Qingxue lightly vibrated her ice sword, and the chill spread across the ground, leaving icy paths: "Go."

The three of them trudged through mountains of corpses and seas of blood toward the throne of bones.

With each step they took, the corpses beneath their feet would wriggle, some even reaching out their mutilated arms to grab them.

Ye Qingcheng's sword flashed repeatedly, severing those corpse hands.

Su Qingxue's cold aura caused frost to form on the surface of the corpse, making its movements sluggish.

Lin Chen walked in the middle, and the chaotic energy formed a domain three feet around him, silently swallowing and decomposing all the corpses that came near.

The closer to the throne, the more "active" the corpse becomes.

At first, it was just reaching out and scratching; then it was shakily standing up; and then... the entire mountain of corpses and sea of ​​blood were churning!

Countless corpses combined and pieced together, transforming into giant skeletons ten feet tall, their eye sockets burning with eerie green flames, as they approached with heavy steps.

"Troublesome." Ye Qingcheng leaped up, and the Frost Soul Sword transformed into a hundred-foot-long ice-blue sword light, splitting a skeletal giant in two from head to toe.

But after the giant shattered, the fragments quickly reformed, transforming into three smaller giants that continued to pounce.

Su Qingxue formed hand seals, unleashing a burst of profound Yin energy: "Ice Seal - Ten Thousand Miles of Snowfall!"

Centered on her, a biting cold wave swept through, and the movements of the skeletal giants visibly slowed down, their surfaces covered with a thick layer of ice.

But more giants rose from the sea of ​​blood, one after another.

"He's wearing us down," Lin Chen calmly assessed. "These corpses are endless; a direct confrontation will only lead to our exhaustion."

His gaze remained fixed on the figure on the bone throne.

It was a man wearing blood-red armor, his face blurred, one hand supporting his chin, the other casually resting on his knee, seemingly indifferent to the battle before him.

But Lin Chen could feel that gaze was coldly fixed on him from dozens of miles away.

Suddenly, the man in blood armor moved.

He simply raised his hand slightly.

The next moment, the sea of ​​blood beneath Lin Chen's feet suddenly exploded!

A giant hand made entirely of bones burst from the ground, its five fingers closing like a cage, trying to hold him in its palm!

too fast!

It was so fast that even Su Qingxue and Ye Qingcheng didn't have time to react!

Lin Chen only had time to condense the chaotic energy in his palm and strike the bone hand with it.

boom--!

The shockwave from the collision shattered all the corpses within a radius of tens of feet.

Lin Chen was sent flying backward, tumbling several times in the air before regaining his balance. When he landed, a trickle of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.

The bone hand also cracked inch by inch, but it was quickly repaired by the bones that surged out of the sea of ​​blood.

The man in blood-red armor slowly stood up.

He finally spoke, his voice hoarse, like two rusty pieces of iron rubbing together:

"The Chaotic Dao Body... unfortunately, it's too weak."

He took a step forward.

This step covered dozens of miles, and he appeared directly ten feet in front of Lin Chen.

Dark red light flowed across the blood-red armor; it was blood that had been congealed over countless years.

He now held a knife.

A knife made entirely from white bone, with blood-red patterns flowing across its blade.

"The shadow of Jiang Wuyai?" Lin Chen wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and the Chaos Nascent Soul appeared faintly between his eyebrows.

"You can call me 'Blood Shadow'," the blood-armored man—Blood Shadow—said calmly. "My killing face has guarded the seventh level for a thousand years."

He pointed the tip of his knife at Lin Chen: "Hand over the Chaos Seed, sever your meridians, and I may allow your soul to be reincarnated."

"Otherwise, your soul will be scattered."

Ye Qingcheng and Su Qingxue had arrived at Lin Chen's side and protected him on either side.

"You talk too much." Ye Qingcheng sneered, her Frost Soul Sword aimed straight at Blood Shadow's throat.

Blood Shadow didn't even look at her.

He simply waved his left hand casually.

An invisible force slammed into Ye Qingcheng, sending her flying backward like a cannonball. She crashed through three mountains of corpses before coming to a stop, spitting out mouthfuls of blood.

"Alluring Beauty!" Su Qingxue slashed wildly with her ice sword, the Xuan Yin sword energy transforming into an ice storm that swept across the land.

Blood Shadow finally glanced at her.

Then, he opened his mouth.

One inhale.

He swallowed all the ice storms and all the sword energy in one gulp!

"Mysterious Yin Body? Not bad for tonics." Blood Shadow licked his lips, his eyes turning even bloodshot.

Su Qingxue's face turned deathly pale, and her hand holding the sword trembled.

The gap in strength is too large.

Even if a peak Nascent Soul cultivator only possesses 70% of their True Body strength, they are still beyond the reach of those in the Nascent Soul stage.

Lin Chen pressed down on Su Qingxue's shoulder.

He stepped forward and met Blood Shadow's gaze.

"You want the Chaos Seed?" Lin Chen slowly raised his right hand, palm facing up.

As the chaotic energy gathered, the illusory image of the seed, neither black nor white, slowly emerged.

Greed flashed in Blood Shadow's eyes.

But the next moment, Lin Chen made a move that surprised everyone.

He suddenly clenched his five fingers together!

Instead of crushing the seed, he pressed the illusory image of the seed hard against his own chest!

"With my own body, I absorb the primordial chaos—"

"Awesome!"

boom--!!!

A chaotic light, ten times stronger than before, erupted from Lin Chen's body!

That was no ordinary light, but flame—the flame of chaos!

Grayish-white flames burst forth from every pore of his body, distorting and melting the space in their wake.

Blood Shadow's expression changed drastically: "Are you insane?! Forcibly burning the source of chaos will annihilate you, body and soul!"

"So what?" Lin Chen raised his head amidst the flames, his eyes eerily calm. "There was a sentence on the bookworm's note that you didn't see."

He said—the seed of chaos is both a shackle and a key.

"Since it's a key, it can open some... things that shouldn't be opened."

The Chaos Flame suddenly surged, transforming into a pillar of fire that shot into the sky, piercing through the dark red sky of the Blood Plains.

The sky has cracked open.

Behind the crack, there was not nothingness, but... a pair of eyes.

A pair of eyes so huge they defied description, so cold they froze the soul.

It looked down at the Blood Plains, its gaze falling on Lin Chen, then sweeping over the Blood Shadow.

Then, a voice beyond words resounded deep within everyone's soul: "The old shackles... have been loosened."

The voice was devoid of emotion and fluctuation, yet it contained a supreme power of rules.

Blood Shadow—Jiang Wuyai's killing shadow—froze visibly the moment the voice rang out, beneath his blood-red armor.