Volume 4: Super-Tier Awakening & The Ancient Capital Calamity
Chapter 370
Sharlock Initiates the Final Blood Sacrifice Ritual
The sound of boiling blood surging through the subterranean drainage channels echoed like the joyous cheers of starving ghouls from the netherworld, emitting a hair-raising sloshing gurgle deep from within the earth. The vast, ancient hall was completely submerged in a sea of crimson light—a radiance carrying the thick, sickening stench of corpses and hatred that pierced the very heavens. High above on the vaulted ceiling, drops of blood-rain from the outside still seeped through the cracks, pattering down onto the mosaic granite floor to form rippling pools of gore.
The network of blood channels carved across the main hall’s floor followed the ancient magic array pattern of the “Nine Nether Blood Soul Grand Array.” These intricate yet vicious lines had been chiseled millennia ago, only to be reactivated now by the foulest, most turbid energy. Fresh crimson blood from thousands of sacrificed souls, mingled with the resentment accumulated over forty-nine days of historic blood rain, surged turbulently toward the center stone platform like gigantic, writhing earthworms crawling back to their nest.
Standing towering at the center of the grand array, where the sacred stone platform guarded, Red Cardinal Sharlock abandoned himself entirely to madness in the void. He wore a dark robe embroidered with golden threads that had been torn in several places after the fierce battle just moments before, and his wrinkled face, resembling ancient tree bark, was now contorted in an indescribable grimace. His sunken eyes flashed with an evil emerald light, and his mouth stretched wide in a hideous laugh, baring repulsive, yellowed teeth.
In Sharlock’s hand, the skull scepter crafted from the cranium of an archaic Demon Dragon emitted a muffled, roaring sound. The eye sockets of the skull suddenly blazed fiercely with dual streams of dark purple flames. He raised the scepter high into the air, tilted his head back, and began chanting ancient, depraved incantations in a bizarre dark tongue—a language issuing from his throat like the growl of a starved beast that threatened to burst the eardrums of anyone who heard it, drawing fresh blood from their ear canals.
Hum... hum... hum!
The space surrounding the stone platform began to distort and warp under the terrifying pressure of the dark incantation. Wisps of foul, turbid black smoke rose billowing from the surging blood beneath the platform’s base. Instead of dissipating into the air, they instantly coalesced into ghostly threads, interweaving into a dense, venomous web that frantically entangled the millennia-old crystal protective barrier of the Ancient Emperor’s coffin resting at the center.
The protective membrane of golden runes—a pure energy sustained by the essence of ancient sages over tens of thousands of years—was struggling desperately at that moment. Yet, facing the corrosion of tens of thousands of sacrificed souls and overwhelming resentment, that sturdy barrier began to sprout tiny, fine cracks. Immediately afterward, pitch-black streaks like India ink began to spread, eating away the glowing golden runes into rough, rusty patches.
Sizzle... sizzle... sizzle!
The piercing screech of corrosion echoed sharply, akin to concentrated acid being poured directly onto flesh. The golden light flickered incessantly, growing as dim and weak as a candle caught in a raging storm.
In the corner of the grand hall, Professor Zhang Yuanming suffered severe injuries; his chest was stained with fresh blood, and his legs buckled onto the cold stone floor. Seeing the horrifying spectacle before him, he opened his turbid eyes wide, his entire body trembling uncontrollably. Helplessness and despair rose, choking his throat and transforming into a heart-rending scream:
“No... You cannot let the blood touch the Ancient Emperor’s remains! Stop! Stop this instant, you beast bereft of conscience!”
Zhang Yuanming’s scream cracked, laden with tears and utter fury. He dragged his battered body forward, digging his bleeding fingers into the stone floor to crawl toward the platform, choking out further cries:
“If he is invaded by dark malevolence and the seal is broken forever, he will transform into the Frenzied Demon Emperor! By then... by then, the entire human civilization, billions of living souls upon this earth, will be flattened to dust! Not a single soul will survive! Sharlock, you are destroying your own kind! You are a sinner of the ages!”
Hearing the old professor’s desperate cries, Sharlock did not even deign to turn his head. He merely tilted it slightly, the corners of his mouth curling into an extreme, ruthless smile, his hoarse voice ringing out with defiant, frenzied arrogance across the hall:
“A sinner of the ages? Hahaha... Little peppercorn, history has always been written solely by the victors! The strong are the absolute truth, and those who wield supreme power hold the right to dictate the life and death of all creation!”
The skull scepter in Sharlock’s hand raised higher, the black smoke billowing thicker to obscure the vaulted ceiling of the hall. He threw his head back and laughed maniacally, the laughter echoing off the stone walls into piercing, repetitive reverberations:
“It’s too late! Everything is already too late! Did you think sending people to stop me could change this outcome? Fools! Utter fools! In just thirty seconds—merely thirty short seconds—this primordial blood sacrifice current will completely shatter the final defense line and pour straight into the coffin!”
He glared down at the massive cracking plates of golden runes, his eyes flashing with the fanatic fever of a zealot:
“When that blood fuses with the immortal flesh of the Ancient Emperor, a magnificent entity surpassing both gods and demons shall officially descend! I shall be the high priest serving him, trampling this world beneath our feet alongside him! Witness the absolute destruction of this world! Hahahahaha!”
“30... 29... 28...”
Sharlock began counting down the time himself in supreme ecstasy. Every single number uttered from his lips felt like a sledgehammer slamming heavily against the chests of everyone present.
The human powerhouses still trapped within the grand hall—those who had just survived the bloody battle with the Black Vatican’s subordinates—turned pale as sheets. Severely wounded, their dantian spiritual energy exhausted after unleashing desperate attacks, they could now only watch helplessly as the crimson flood crawled toward the edge of the coffin.
“Could it be... could it be that humanity truly must share the fate of extinction right here?”
“Impossible... The Ancient Emperor is our final hope... If he falls to darkness, what does humanity have left to fight this great calamity?”
“Damnable... beyond our strength... I refuse to accept this! I refuse to die in such a dark place!”
Groans and desperate curses echoed everywhere. The air was thick with the scent of death. Helplessness blanketed everyone’s hearts. They had fought to the last drop of blood, exhausting their full potential, yet the gap between life and death, between hope and destruction, now boiled down to a mere heartbeat.
“15... 14... 13...”
Sharlock’s countdown sharpened, carrying cold ruthlessness.
The golden rune protective membrane on the surface of the crystal coffin had now completely dissolved into tiny specks of light scattering into the void. Nothing shielded it anymore! The transparent crystal coffin now fully exposed the magnificent body of the great Ancient Emperor lying within—possessing a natural majesty and an overwhelming aura that, even after a thousand years, compelled all creation to tremble in awe.
Yet at that exact moment, the crimson flood brimming with resentment and dark malice surged from the subterranean channels, leaping over the edge of the stone platform, preparing to devour the transparent crystal.
“5... 4... 3...”
The crimson current was merely three yards away from the crystal coffin! A mere three yards! A distance that ordinarily vanished in the blink of an eye now signified eternal doom—the boundary between the world continuing to exist or plunging into a fiery purgatory!
Sharlock gaped wide, eyes bulging, his hand holding the scepter trembling with extreme excitement. He roared the final number with the full force of a madman:
“TWO... ONE! COMPLETE THE...”
BOOM!
Amidst that moment when life hung by a thread, just as the first droplet of blood touched the side of the crystal coffin with a piercing sizzle and began corroding the transparent glass, a thunderous roar like heavenly lightning suddenly erupted across the stormy night sky!
“Right before my Lin Feng, you foreign demons can never dream of touching a single inch of the Divine Land!!”
That roar was not merely sound; it carried the terrifying might of Lightning Laws and boundless, surging true essence. It echoed like the roar of dragons and tigers, piercing straight through the sturdy vaulted ceiling of the hall, vibrating so violently that tens of thousands of tons of rock and soil overhead shook fiercely while stone dust rained down like a downpour.
CRACK-BOOM!
A brilliant sapphire thunderbolt from the ninth heavens pierced straight through the thick stone ceiling of the hall, carrying world-destroying power as it crashed directly into the center of the grand array! The blinding radiance of the lightning completely tore through the gloomy night and the chilling crimson of the blood sea, illuminating Sharlock’s and the dark cultists’ horrified, shifting faces.
At the epicenter of that lightning bolt, a tall, imposing figure strode proudly out from the churning smoke and dust.
It was Lin Feng!
He wore a weathered battle robe brimming with the majestic aura of a descending war god. His chiseled facial features were as cold as if carved from stone, and his deep, sharp black eyes swept across the entire grand hall like sharpened blades, emanating spiritual pressure that froze the surrounding air solid. Across his body, tens of thousands of shimmering sapphire electrical arcs still danced and crackled, forming a magnificent lightning armor shroud around him.
This sudden appearance, carrying an unstoppable, formidable aura, acted like a bucket of icy water dumped straight over Sharlock’s frenzied jubilation, while reigniting the flame of hope that had seemed thoroughly extinguished within the hearts of all the human powerhouses present!