When Shen Xian entered the Godfiend Battlefield, the teleportation scattered everyone to random locations.

He surveyed his surroundings.

The sky above was a congealed scab of blood, casting a dim, crimson glow over the desolate landscape. The ground beneath his feet was riddled with cracks, each one oozing thick, scarlet mist as if the land itself were bleeding.

In the distance, jagged mountain peaks, twisted and serrated, looked as if they had been clawed apart by a giant god.

The air reeked of decay and rust. Each breath stung the lungs. Half-buried in the scorched earth, fragments of shattered magical artifacts flickered with the last vestiges of their spiritual light, like the dying gasps of the fallen.

Further away, skeletal puppets staggered through the bloody mist, their hollow eye sockets glowing with ghostly green flames.

This was the Godfiend Battlefield. It opened only once every five hundred years—a place of utter desolation.

“First, the jade slip.”

Shen Xian retrieved the ink-black jade slip and channeled a wisp of spiritual power into it. The surface glowed faintly, then the energy flowed into his body like a living thing. A strange, magnetic sensation pulled at his senses.

“This must be the guidance the Tenth Elder mentioned.”

Shen Xian pondered briefly before deciding to follow the pull. Regrouping with the Shen Family was the logical move in such a perilous environment.

In the distance, blinding flashes of light erupted.

A cultivator had triggered the remnants of an ancient restrictive formation. Their screams were cut short as a tornado of blood swallowed them whole.

Three miles to the left, three rogue cultivators attacked a bronze puppet, completely unaware that black qi was seeping from the ground beneath their feet, silently forming the patterns of a Soul-Binding Array.

Even more terrifying, in the northwestern sky, a streak of escaping light exploded mid-air. The mangled remains of a cultivator drifted down like tattered cloth, only to be shredded by ghostly hands condensed from the lurking blood mist.

Shen Xian watched coldly, his steps never faltering.

His Profound Heaven Golden Silk Armor shimmered with purple-gold radiance, scorching the resentful black threads attempting to coil around his ankles into harmless green smoke.

Several days later.

The sensation from the jade slip grew intense. Following its pull, Shen Xian arrived before a bottomless abyss.

It was a hideous scar stretching across the end of the bloody wasteland.

The cliff walls were an eerie dark purple, covered in honeycomb-like pores that periodically spewed foul, turbid air. Looking down, one could only see layers of churning blood mist.

Shrill shrieks occasionally rose from the depths, shaking loose fragments of rock.

Suspended above the abyss were massive bronze chains, each as thick as a bucket and carved with twisted runes. They emitted a grating creak as they swayed, their ends vanishing deep into the mist as if restraining some terrifying existence.

According to the guidance, Shen Zhimo had already entered the abyss to scout.

Shen Xian attempted to contact the Elder using the jade slip but received no reply.

His gaze darkened.

What mysteries lay beneath this abyss that could block the Shen Family’s secret communication method?

However, such a minor obstacle wasn’t worth dwelling on. Bearing the Heavenly Abyss Snow Illumination Sword Scripture and numerous life-saving trump cards, a mere hole in the ground wouldn’t stop him.

Shen Xian took a step forward, plummeting into the abyss like a bolt of lightning.

The surrounding blood mist churned and coiled, only to be cleaved apart by a brilliant sweep of sword light. As he fell, the bronze chains trembled violently, screeching like twisting metal.

Foul air spewed from the pores in the cliff walls, condensing into ferocious ghostly faces.

From the depths came the thunderous snap of a chain. A shadowy figure, ten zhang long, slithered up along the bronze links, crystallizing the rock wherever it touched.

The blood mist boiled, coalescing into countless ghostly hands clawing toward Shen Xian.

He raised the Traceless Sword.

A brilliant arc of light shot forth, shattering the ghostly hands instantly.

As he descended, he spotted fresh signs of battle—scars left by Golden Core experts. But the deeper he went, the thicker the mist became. His perception shrank, and the signal from the jade slip grew faint.

Without the slip’s guidance, he would have been blind.

Several hours later, Shen Xian’s boots finally touched solid ground. The dense blood mist made it impossible to see, and the signal from the jade slip had vanished completely.

He tried contacting the Tenth Elder again. Nothing.

“Have they encountered danger… or is the mist blocking it?” Shen Xian murmured, his eyes narrowing.

Fortunately, although communication was dead, the faint ink threads connecting the jade slips remained. Following these threads, he advanced deeper into the mist.

The golden light of his Heart Shield dimmed under the pressure of the corrupted air, but Shen Xian paid it no mind.

In this battlefield, the entities that could threaten him were few. What was mere mist?

Boom—

Suddenly, evil power erupted!

Caught off guard, five shadowy figures attacked from all directions like ghosts.

“Heheh… another one comes to die!”

The leader, a black-robed evil cultivator, let out a piercing laugh. His withered, stick-like fingers formed a bizarre hand seal.

The five instantly formed a pentagram array, trapping Shen Xian.

Shen Xian’s pupils contracted. The Traceless Sword was already in his hand.

As the cold gleam of the blade flashed, the five enemies simultaneously bit their tongues, spraying essence blood into the air.

Dense clusters of scarlet runes materialized, weaving a vast, sky-covering net.

“Blood Fiend Soul-Locking Array!” The leader sneered viciously. “Brat, it’s your honor to become an offering to Lord Bloodfiend!”

The array completed. Five beams of bloody light shot into the sky, coalescing into a ferocious claw that slammed down with the oppressive might of the Golden Core Perfection Realm.

A cold glint flashed in Shen Xian’s eyes.

The Nine Orifices Exquisite Needle appeared in his hand.

The moment the blood claw struck, he hurled the spiritual needle. Fine as an ox hair, it traced a profound trajectory through the air, piercing five critical nodes of the array with absolute precision.

“Break.”

With a soft command, the Blood Fiend Array shattered.

The five evil cultivators coughed up blood and staggered back, disbelief written on their faces.

“How is this possible?!” The leader screamed, horrified. “This array can trap and kill Golden Core Perfection cultivators…”

Before he could finish, a streak of brilliant sword light filled his vision.

Shen Xian moved like lightning. The Traceless Sword, carrying the might of the Snow Illumination Scripture, swept out horizontally.

Where the edge passed, the blood mist froze, and space congealed.

The sword light split into five strands, targeting five throats simultaneously.

The leader hastily summoned his life-bound Blood Banner to block, only to see the light change direction mid-air, piercing straight through his temple.

“You…”

His eyes widened in death.

The remaining four were terrified out of their wits. They turned to flee.

Shen Xian pointed a finger. The Traceless Sword became a stream of light, giving chase.

The fat cultivator took three steps before sword qi pierced his chest. The tall, skinny one tried a Blood Escape Technique but was frozen into an ice sculpture. The final two stood back-to-back in defense, only for Shen Xian to form a seal with his left hand.

A Li Fire True Seal erupted, reducing them to ashes.

From start to finish, the battle lasted three breaths.

Shen Xian sheathed his sword, his brow furrowed. The few words these men had uttered before dying troubled him.

He walked over to the fat cultivator, who was clinging to his last breath.

Raising his right hand, a blood lotus mark appeared on Shen Xian’s palm. Countless blood threads shot out, latching onto the dying man.

The cultivator’s eyes widened in terror as he rapidly withered into a corpse.

Through the blood art, Shen Xian ripped the memories from his fading soul.

“Lord Bloodfiend?”

So, at the bottom of this abyss resided a powerful fiendish beast. It devoured essence blood, launched spiritual assaults, and released endless baleful qi.

This group’s goal was to awaken the creature and help it escape the battlefield. The Shen Family elders had fallen into their trap and been sacrificed to this “Lord Bloodfiend.”

Shen Xian’s expression turned grave.

“I hope I’m not too late.”