Volume 4: Super-Tier Awakening & The Ancient Capital Calamity
Chapter 326
The Anomaly of the Blood Rain: Traces of the Dark Church
The pale blue magic-crystal light inside the classified laboratory beneath the Ancient Capital’s bell tower cast eerie glows across the tense, sweat-beaked faces of the continent’s top alchemical grandmasters. The air was thick and freezing, so suffocating that every breath from their chests felt like the scraping of ice against steel. Having spent three days and nights shrouded by a thick, blood-viscous curtain of rain, the Ancient Capital—the towering super-city guarding the northern frontier—was now plunged into an abyss of extreme unease. Outside, the endless drizzle pattered against the defensive barrier seals with dull, ghostly thuds, resembling the hooves of death’s chargers echoing from the netherworld.
On a long table carved with intricate purification arrays forged from pure white silver, a quartz test tube containing a dark red rainwater sample rested beneath a multi-layered magical spectrum lens. Lin Feng stood silently in the corner, arms crossed over his chest, his gaze piercing and deep as an abyss, locked onto the magic crystal monitor displaying complex energy structure diagrams. Right beside him, Tang Yue wore the skin-tight Supreme Judgment Court Inquisitor battle robe, accentuating her alluring curves yet highlighting her resolute and cold demeanor. Her delicate face was deathly pale at this moment, her phoenix brows knitted tightly into a sharp blade, and her lips pressed together so hard they had lost all trace of blood.
“Grandmaster Lu, what are the results of the seventh-stage separation?” Tang Yue’s voice broke the suffocatingly heavy silence in the chamber.
Lu BanKun—the renowned alchemical grandmaster with snow-white hair and trembling hands—lifted his head from the observation device. He swallowed hard, his throat emitting a dry, rattling sound, his eyes filled with unprecedented terror as he looked at Tang Yue and Lin Feng:
“Respected... respected Inquisitor-大人, the spectral analysis results are absolute and completely accurate. We employed three tiers of purification arrays to filter out impurities from ordinary dust and soil, but the results obtained... truly exceed every imaginable limit of human comprehension.”
Lin Feng stepped forward, his voice deep and warm yet carrying an invisible oppressive weight that seemed to freeze the surrounding space: “Stop beating around the bush. Get straight to the point. What on earth is this rainwater?”
Lu BanKun tremblingly pressed a command button on the control panel, instantly causing a fierce crimson beam of light to project into mid-air, vividly displaying complex magical molecular chains violently tearing at one another within a droplet:
“Within... within the rainwater, there are components of ‘Frenzied Blood Crystal’ at a purity reaching ninety-eight percent! Furthermore, it is perfectly blended with an extremely toxic pollen known as ‘Dark Grievous Blossom’—a flora that only thrives in graveyards overflowing with the resentment and fresh blood of tens of thousands of living souls!”
As those words fell, all the high-ranking officials of the Ancient Capital and military generals stationed in the room turned pale, their limbs trembling. A few faint-hearted alchemical grandmasters even staggered backward, collapsing onto the cold stone floor. To the continent’s upper echelons of magic, the name ‘Dark Grievous Blossom’ was far from unfamiliar. It was the hallmark, the exclusive signature written in blood and tears by a notorious cult that had been hunted down and eradicated multiple times throughout history: the Dark Church!
Tang Yue took a deep breath, her hand gripping her sword handle involuntarily tightening until her knuckles turned ghostly white. A flash of extreme fury blazed in her eyes: “The Dark Church... As expected, those rats that can never be completely cleansed from the shadows! How dare they extend their filthy claws all the way to the Ancient Capital?”
“It’s not just a simple extension of claws, Tang Yue.” Lin Feng spoke slowly, his voice preternaturally calm, yet within that very calmness brewed a terrifying tempest ready to erupt. He raised a hand to lightly touch the floating magical light, staring fixedly at the wicked runic chains dancing across the screen: “They aren’t merely poisoning water sources or triggering a routine plague. Look at the diffusion speed and falling trajectory of these raindrops... They aren’t falling randomly with the wind. They are adhering to the absolute geometric trajectory of a massive artificial blood-sacrifice grand array.”
Lu BanKun widened his eyes in shock, blurting out: “A... an artificial blood-sacrifice grand array?! You mean... the entire sky above the Ancient Capital, and even a vast territory spanning tens of thousands of square miles surrounding the Western Capital, has somehow been converted into a colossal sacrificial altar?”
“Precisely.” Lin Feng turned around, his razor-sharp gaze sweeping across the ashen faces of everyone in the room. “Every single day, millions of tons of rainwater containing Frenzied Blood Crystal and Dark Grievous Blossom seep into every inch of soil, penetrating deep into the subterranean vascular veins of the earth. Their objective from start to finish has never been merely to poison or panic the populace. They intend to use the blood and panic of the twenty million souls living within the Ancient Capital as the ultimate sacrificial offering to awaken an ancient, taboo entity sealed deep underground!”
Twenty million souls! Uttering that number instantly turned the air in the room into a frigid crypt of death. The Ancient Capital was one of humanity’s most heavily fortified, densely populated bastions. If these twenty million people were turned into offerings for an evil deity, the consequences would be an extinction-level catastrophe unprecedented in human history, far surpassing any magical beast warfare ever recorded in ancient texts.
Scenes from the past abruptly rushed back into Lin Feng’s mind like blood-soaked slow-motion footage. His pitch-black eyes instantly flared with the blazing crimson of raging fury. The nightmare of Bo City—where tens of thousands of innocent lives perished under the sinister plot of the White Moon Cult Master and hordes of black-robed fiends—manifested vividly once more. The agonizing shrieks, the pungent stench of blood assaulting the senses, innocent children collapsing into the cold mud... None of those painful memories had faded with time; instead, they had been tempered in the fires of vengeance, transforming into supreme strength that propelled Lin Feng to the pinnacle of magic today.
“Bo City...” Lin Feng whispered, his voice low yet reverberating like thunder in everyone’s ears. He clenched his fists, the space around his hands distorting and snapping open tiny, ink-black spatial fissures. “I haven’t even finished settling the blood debt of Bo City with you lot, yet today, right here in the Ancient Capital, you black-robed scum dare to repeat those despicable tactics once more!”
He raised his head, his gaze piercing straight through the reinforced dome of the laboratory, locking onto the churning black clouds and blood rain outside. The terrifying aura belonging to a supreme Archmage erupted without the slightest restraint, causing all surrounding alchemical devices to vibrate violently before instantly exploding into millions of glittering crystal shards.
“I swear...” Lin Feng gritted his teeth, every word carrying the weight of a thousand jun, shaking the hearts of all who listened: “...I will make every single member of the Dark Church, from the lowliest foot soldiers to the supreme leaders, pay with their blood! Every last one of them! Not a single one of you will escape!”
Watching Lin Feng now, Tang Yue felt a turbulent mix of heartache, awe, and burning battle intent rise within her. She stepped forward, standing close beside Lin Feng, her soft hand resting upon his arm where bulging magical veins throbbed, her voice unwavering and absolute:
“Lin Feng, our Judgment Court will stand with you to the death. These wretched villains of the Dark Church have committed too many heinous crimes; it is time we put an end to it all once more!”
“That’s right, Respected Lords!” The Ancient Capital’s chief military commander strode forward, slamming a mailed fist against his breastplate, his eyes flashing with the resolve to fight to the death. “Our Ancient Capital’s military swears to defend this fortress to our last breath! What are your orders, Lord Lin and Inquisitor-大人? What must we do right now to shatter this grand array?”
Lin Feng withdrew his terrifying aura, his gaze returning to its usual razor-sharp composure. He turned to look at the panoramic topographical map of the Ancient Capital and its surrounding regions projected via magic crystals on the wall, his slender finger pointing directly at the blinking red dots scattered across the desolate wilderness beyond the barrier:
“If they want to use a blood-sacrifice grand array, it means there must be relay altars for energy distributed around the city to harvest and transform the resentment and blood Qi from these bloody raindrops. Even though the Ancient Capital’s barrier currently blocks most external pressure, if these altars operate continuously for seven days and seven nights, the city’s final protective shell will completely disintegrate from within.”
Lu BanKun hurried forward, staring at the locations Lin Feng pointed out, his complexion turning deathly pale: “Good heavens! Those locations... they are all death zones shrouded in death Qi year-round, including the Grievous Soul Valley, the Bone Desert, and the Eternal Mist Forest! Those are perilous domains where demonic beasts run rampant; under normal circumstances, ordinary people stepping foot there would surely perish, let alone now when the blood rain is driving every demonic beast into a state of manifold madness and frenzy!”
“Precisely because they are perilous and hard to access, the Dark Church chose those places to hide their altars.” Lin Feng smiled coldly, a cruel smirk flickering across his handsome yet icy face. “Did they think that hiding behind a curtain of blood rain and frenzied beast hordes would conceal their tracks? How laughable.”
He paused for a beat, sweeping his gaze across the room and issuing a ringing command:
“To salvage the barrier and protect the twenty million souls within the city, the only option is not to sit here waiting for the defense to collapse on its own or wasting time with purification rituals. We must take the initiative, seek out, and eradicate every single blood-mist-radiating altar scattered outside the city!”
Hearing this, Tang Yue stepped forward, her eyes blazing with excitement and determination: “Let me lead troops with you to sweep through the Grievous Soul Valley sector!”
“No.” Lin Feng shook his head decisively, his tone allowing no room for argument. “The situation this time is exceedingly complex. The Dark Church has undoubtedly laid extremely treacherous traps and likely deployed Supreme or Forbidden Curse-tier powerhouses from their side to guard those altars. The Ancient Capital’s military forces must remain inside to maintain internal order, reinforce the central defensive barrier, and guard against any diversionary tactics aimed at a direct assault on the inner city.”
He stepped toward the laboratory exit, his robes fluttering in the cold subterranean draft, his upright silhouette standing like an unshakeable mountain:
“Tonight, I will personally lead an elite squad to directly infiltrate those death zones outside and uproot every single one of their altars!”
The entire room sank into absolute silence. Everyone gazed at Lin Feng’s retreating back, an infinite surge of reverence and unwavering faith rising in their chests. They knew that once Lin Feng set forth, whether it was a dragon’s pool, a tiger’s den, or the abyss of hell itself, it would tremble beneath his feet.
Outside the bell tower, the blood rain continued to pour like a torrential waterfall, staining a vast expanse of the Ancient Capital crimson. Streaks of purple lightning tore across the night sky, illuminating Lin Feng’s cold, resolute face. He looked up into the fathomless night where dark forces lurked, waiting for the right moment to sow death.
The bloodiest decisive battle in modern history was about to erupt this very night in the barren wilderness beyond the Ancient Capital!