A Compendium of One Hundred Demons: My Path to Immortality in a World of Demons and Monsters

Blood-red clouds surged, obscuring the sky and the moon.

The ancient shaman stood in the center of the altar, raising his bone staff with one arm, chanting ancient and eerie incantations.

The sound was not human speech, but rather like countless vengeful spirits wailing in unison in the abyss.

Around the altar, the three hundred Xiongnu wolf guards had already stopped pursuing the golden-eyed servant, and all knelt down, touching their heads to the ground, not daring to look up.

Tuotuo Buhua galloped over, reined in his horse outside the altar, and stared at the increasingly solidified blood-red giant shadow, his face turning deathly pale.

"Shaman... have you gone mad?! Forcibly summoning a god before the blood sacrifice is complete will backfire and kill you!"

But the Guza shaman turned a deaf ear.

His bloodshot eyes were fixed on Xu Yuan inside the altar, and a maniacal smile spread across his lips.

"Dead? From the moment I lost my arm, I was already half-dead." His voice was hoarse, revealing a resolute determination to perish together with the enemy. "But this little beast must be buried with me!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the blood cloud tore apart completely.

A phantom figure, ten feet tall, slowly descended from the sky.

It was an indescribable being—half-human, half-beast, clad in blood-red armor, with a blurred face, only a pair of empty eye sockets, within which burned an inextinguishable blood flame.

With each inch He descended, the air around the altar solidified, the ground cracked, and pebbles floated in the air, as if the entire world was trembling under His oppressive power.

The illusory image of the Eternal Heaven!

This was not a true divine descent, but merely a projection, a wisp of divine thought condensed over thousands of years of worship by the grassland tribes.

But for mortals who haven't even reached the Condensation Realm...

This is the awe-inspiring power of Heaven, which cannot be directly beholden!

On the city wall of Qingyang County, Shen Qingyi stared at the blood-red phantom that descended from the sky, and the compass in her hand shattered into pieces with a "crack".

"The Eternal Heaven..." she murmured, her voice trembling, "The blood sacrifice is truly complete..."

Below the city walls, Chen Hanchuan, who was about to launch an attack, shouted with bloodshot eyes, "Brother Xu is still inside! Quickly, beat the drums! All troops, attack and go to rescue Brother Xu!"

"General, you mustn't!" The lieutenant grabbed him tightly. "The area around the Xiongnu camp is filled with a chilling aura; any ordinary soldier who steps in will surely die! You'll only be throwing your life away!"

Chen Hanchuan shoved him aside and was about to take action himself when Shen Qingyi called out to him.

"Miss Shen, you—"

"Trust him." Shen Qingyi gazed at the figure in the Xiongnu camp, now completely engulfed in blood, her voice unwavering. "He never does anything he's not sure of."

Upon hearing this, Chen Hanchuan was stunned.

Yes, that boy, from the very first day he defended the city, has he ever disappointed anyone?

But... he's only at the Blood Refining Realm after all!

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Inside the Xiongnu camp, on the altar.

Xu Yuan looked up at the blood-red shadow that blotted out the sky.

It was ten zhang tall, like a small mountain pressing down on it.

Those blood-red, fiery eyes were fixed on him, like a cat playing with a mouse, not in a hurry to kill, but simply enjoying the fear of its prey's impending death.

But in reality, Xu Yuan was not afraid.

At that moment, he had only one thought in his mind—hunger, an extreme feeling of hunger!

The Hundred Ghosts Picture unfolded on its own, and the image of the starving ghost on the first page was now dancing wildly.

[High concentration of divine soul energy detected...]

[Progress of the Hungry Ghost event: 91% → 92%... 93%...]

[WARNING: Target level too high, risk of being devoured unknown!]

In my mind, warning messages about the Hundred Ghosts Picture kept popping up.

But... the hunger was uncontrollable.

Xu Yuan smiled.

He looked down at the Netherworld Guide in his arms. At this moment, it was emitting an unprecedentedly intense and eerie light, ancient and serene, as if responding to something.

"Are you hungry?" Xu Yuan asked softly.

It's not about asking the Netherworld Guide, nor is it about asking the Ancient Shaman.

He was asking about the insatiable, ever-present, starving ghost that had haunted him ever since he transmigrated.

In his mind, the image of the starving ghost on the first page of the encyclopedia was slowly curving upwards at the corners of its mouth.

Xu Yuan knew that it was laughing too.

"That's good." Xu Yuan pressed the Netherworld Guide to his chest, then looked up at the ten-foot-tall blood shadow.

"Then—swallow Him!"

The ancient shaman standing nearby heard it clearly. He was stunned for a moment, then looked up and laughed wildly.

"Devouring God? A mere ant in the Blood Refining Realm dares to utter such arrogant words—"

The words came to an abrupt halt.

Because Xu Yuan made a move.

He did not retreat or dodge, but instead stepped forward to meet the ten-foot-tall blood-red shadow.

The first step was to break a stone slab on the edge of the altar.

The second step involved a surge of blood-red light, which dissipated on its own as if encountering an invisible barrier within three feet of him.

Third, Xu Yuan raised his hand. This hand had no scales or demonic transformation; it was just an ordinary hand.

But in the instant he lifted up, within him—

Something has awakened!

On the city wall of Qingyang County, Shen Qingyi's pupils suddenly contracted.

She vaguely saw another phantom appear in the Xiongnu camp where Xu Yuan had stood earlier.

The phantom was initially blurry, just an outline, but it struck her soul as if it had been hit hard, almost making her lose her balance.

It's not intimidation.

It was... hunger!

A pure, extreme hunger that transcends space, seemingly insatiable.

As the illusory figure gradually solidified.

Shen Qingyi finally saw clearly that "person".

He was emaciated, skin and bones, but his abdomen was abnormally swollen.

Its mouth was agape, so large it could almost swallow its own head. Its eyes held no reason, no emotion, only an endless, insatiable hunger.

Starving ghost!

The sound effect of the Guza shaman's laughter was stuck in his throat.

He lived for sixty years and had seen countless evil spirits, demons, and monsters. In his youth, he even caught a glimpse of the calamity incarnate from afar, a legend of the grasslands.

But the pure hunger of the phantom of the starving ghost before him made even this shaman, whose soul was almost comparable to the peak of the Qi Condensation Realm, feel an instinctive fear.

That's not some kind of monster.

This feeling...is more ancient than demons, more ancient than evil spirits, and more indescribable than gods!

"No...this is impossible..." Guza Shaman's voice trembled, "What kind of monster are you?!"

Xu Yuan did not answer.

He stood in the center of the altar, with the ten-zhang-tall blood shadow of the Eternal Heaven in front of him and the half-zhang-tall phantom of the Hungry Ghost behind him.

One big and one small.

One god and one ghost.

One is majestic and dignified, the other is ugly and starving.

But at this moment, everyone who was watching the altar clearly saw—

The even taller illusory image of the Eternal Heaven was trembling!

Fear spread silently.

A divine projection is now terrified of a hungry ghost?

Xu Yuan raised his eyes and met the ten-foot-tall blood shadow.

"So you're called Changshengtian?" he asked calmly.

The ten-foot-tall blood shadow did not answer, but the blood flames around it began to fluctuate violently.

However, judging from its appearance, it didn't seem like the anger of a god provoked by ants, but rather more like... retreating?

Xu Yuan took all of this in and nodded indifferently.

"You're unlucky..." He raised his right hand, and the phantom of the starving ghost behind him raised his hand in sync.

"I'm so hungry!"