A day flashed past in the blink of an eye.
Inside the hotel room.
"Hoo... hah..."
The slow, heavy sound of breathing spread through the air like low rolls of thunder.
Huang Tian's chest rose and fell. With every breath, scalding air shot from his nostrils, forming plumes of scorching white vapor.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
From within his ribcage came muffled booms like a giant pounding on an ox-hide drum. The heavy thumping of his heart steadily resonated as he slowly stretched his back and arms. Vertebra after vertebra straightened, his muscles twanging like fully drawn bowstrings.
As his heartbeat grew ever heavier, his skin took on a dark golden luster, as though cast from bronze and iron.
Drip, drop...
Fine beads of blood squeezed from his pores and pitter-pattered onto the floor, instantly vaporizing into wisps of faint crimson mist.
The breakthrough is imminent—
The thought flashed through his mind, and he immediately settled into a stance, channeling his qi and blood to surge through the meridian barrier. The rushing sound of qi and blood coursing within him echoed out like a roaring river.
Boom!
At a certain moment, as if a levee had burst, the torrent surged unchecked with a deafening roar.
Simultaneously, the bones and sinews throughout his body cracked violently like bamboo shoots shooting up in a growth spurt.
Crack, crack!
With each pop, his stature shot up higher.
Rip!
His clothes were pulled taut by swelling muscles, tighter and tighter, until they burst apart, shredded fabric fluttering away like butterflies.
His shoulder blades swelled like two miniature mounds, veins twisting dark and thick across his bulging muscles.
Simply standing there motionless, he resembled an ancient, majestic statue of a deity. Beneath his dark golden skin, his qi and blood churned like molten magma, faintly radiating a crimson glow.
"Finally, the breakthrough succeeded! Combat Master!"
He looked down and raised his hand, staring at palms as large as cattail leaf fans, then glanced at the shredded remnants of his shirt, rather speechless.
"The martial path of qi and blood in this world doesn't generate internal qi or true qi; it's purely about stacking muscle and body size. Well, that's not entirely accurate either—agile-type martial artists probably wouldn't look as ridiculous as me...
"This is likely the result of allocating attribute points. The golden finger bestowed by this world's Heavenly Dao is useful, sure, but it really loves piling on muscles."
He sighed in amusement. "Right now, I'm more than half again as tall as an ordinary person. If I walked outside like this, I'd scare the daylights out of a huge crowd. Fortunately, I can 'compress' it."
With a slight shake of his frame, his bones popped and his muscles undulated like waves. Within seconds, he reverted to his original appearance.
"This is much better. At least my clothes won't burst..."
After muttering the complaint, he gave a wave of his hand, stirring a gust of wind that swept the shredded cloth off the floor and into the room's trash can.
"A day has passed. I wonder if the Flesh Society folks have arrived?"
As the thought crossed his mind, he expanded his intent, and right on cue, a stark black line cut through the void.
Focusing his gaze, a scene appeared before his eyes: the Bishop of the Flesh Society, accompanied by eight trusted subordinates, had entered Talin State by car and was now only seven or eight kilometers away from Baidi City.
They're almost here...
Huang Tian retracted his gaze and pondered, That ritual to open a void passage and summon the Feast Lord's kin—what rank of monsters can it actually summon? Combat Master? Or Martial Grandmaster?
After a moment's thought, he unlocked his phone and opened the "Baidi Youth Martial Artists Fellowship" group chat to see if there was any detailed information in the group files. To his surprise, the chat was buzzing with lively discussion.
"Group Owner He Zhengtong: Great news, everyone! I just heard from my teacher that almost all the Flesh Society infiltrators have been wiped out, including two Sub-Deacons! We don't have to walk on eggshells anymore...
"By the way, I confirmed the news on the Everlasting Dawnlight app—the mission to purge the Flesh Society cultists is already marked as completed!"
"Steamed Cake Laughs: Holy crap! Which expert is that fierce? Someone from Dawnlight? That shouldn't be—even if Yuan Gang and Chen Mengzhu teamed up, they might not be able to defeat two Flesh Society Sub-Deacons in a direct fight, let alone kill both of them!"
"Liu Xuexue: @Group Owner He Zhengtong, big boss, do you know who made the move? Did the Dawnlight state branch send down an expert?"
"Group Owner He Zhengtong: It's not someone from Dawnlight. With the current tense situation, neither the state branch nor headquarters can easily spare manpower to help Baidi City. Unless the situation here gets catastrophically bad, everyone just sweeps the snow from their own doorsteps.
"As for who this powerhouse is, my teacher isn't too sure either. After asking around, he only learned that the person is quite young—about our age, in fact."
"Hermit in the Duvet: !! Holy crap! About our age, meaning only in their twenties? That's insane!"
"Group Owner He Zhengtong: Around that age, yes... Sigh, comparisons really are infuriating. I consider my talent neither great nor terrible, yet I'm still only at the second transformation of qi and blood. Who knows how long it will take me to step into the third transformation..."
"Qu Xiao (Buy pills and potions from me!~): @Group Owner He Zhengtong, you're being too modest, big boss. You're already at the peak of the second transformation. At most, it'll take another two or three years to break through, and you'll still only be in your early thirties by then. For noobs like us, the martial path is truly hopeless."
"Hermit in the Duvet: Weak, pitiful, and helpless, I tremble in fear~"
"Liu Xuexue: +1~"
"+1~"
Watching the chain of "+1"s, Huang Tian's eyelid twitched slightly. He went straight to the group files and browsed through them carefully.
Moments later, he shook his head. "No information on void passages... Looks like I'll have to ask Yuan Gang or Chen Mengzhu."
He opened his contacts, found Chen Mengzhu's number, which he had added previously, and dialed. A few seconds later, the call connected.
"Mr. Huang?" Chen Mengzhu asked.
"It's me," Huang Tian said. "Consultant Chen, I'd like to learn some information regarding the evil god cults. Would that be convenient?"
Chen Mengzhu answered immediately, "Nothing inconvenient about it. I'll send it to you right away. However, some of the materials aren't suitable for outside circulation, so..."
"I understand."
After the brief conversation, Chen Mengzhu quickly sent over a document. Such materials were considered confidential to the general public, but to a Limit Break martial artist, they were nothing extraordinary, provided they were not spread around indiscriminately.
Downloading and opening the document, Huang Tian quickly skimmed through it. Sure enough, he found information regarding void passages and evil god kin.
"...The existence of evil gods beyond the heavens has been confirmed. Beneath the evil gods are many kin of tremendous strength, some of whom may even be stronger than Martial Grandmasters!
"Fortunately, due to special reasons, they are all barred outside the planet, allowing humanity to live in relative peace.
"However, certain evil god cults will set up special rituals to open void passages and summon the kin of evil gods to descend.
"For instance, the Destiny Society, which worships the Weaver Lord, opened a void passage in the Feiqiu Federation half a year ago.
"On that occasion, two kin equivalent to Martial Grandmasters descended, alongside over a dozen Combat Master-level monsters and hundreds of ordinary monsters. They slaughtered humans frenziedly. Within half a day, the casualties were beyond count. Had other nations not urgently dispatched Martial Grandmasters and military forces to assist, the consequences would have been unimaginable..."
After reading through the material, Huang Tian grew thoughtful. Summoning rituals are divided into large-scale and small-scale. No one has ever seen a large-scale ritual, no one knows what rank of monsters it could summon, and no one can even confirm if a large-scale summoning ritual truly exists.
Small-scale ones are like the Destiny Society's ritual, and the one the Flesh Society is about to set up now.
Once the ritual succeeds, the void passage will remain open for roughly half an hour. During that half-hour, Martial Grandmaster-level monsters will descend—as few as two, or as many as five or six. The threat isn't particularly immense.
Even if an unexpected situation occurs and a monster beyond Martial Grandmaster descends, I can still handle it.
It would only be crossing two mere realms—even though spiritual qi in this world was sparse and the mysterious Dao did not flourish, with his realm of comprehension and vision, fighting across two tiers did not intimidate him in the slightest.
"So I can totally consider camping their spawn to harvest as many potential points as possible..."
His eyes brightened slightly as he made up his mind. "I want the heads of the Flesh Society cultists, and I want the lives of the evil god's kin too!"
He stood up, tidied up quickly, and changed into a fresh set of clothes. He then headed downstairs to hail a cab while turning on his consciousness switch once more. The black line was still present. Following along the voice line, his gaze swept forward:
On an open ground within an abandoned factory on the city's outskirts, the Flesh Society Bishop said, "Begin setting up the ritual."
"Yes!" The eight subordinates who had accompanied him sprang into action.
The Bishop gazed into the distance and gave a soft, cold sneer. "Huang Tian, Dawnlight, the Yuanzhen Sect—all of them must die! Baidi City will become a playground for our Lord's kin! A flesh feast of hundreds of thousands of people... how wondrous and magnificent that will truly be!"
He remained intoxicated in his reverie for quite a while until more than an hour later, as night fell hazy and dim, the ritual's preparations were completed.
"Begin opening the void passage to usher in the descent of our Lord's kin!"
At his command, everyone swiftly formed a circle. Inside the circle, a massive, twisted flame symbol had been drawn on the concrete floor with blood, its lines twisting and winding like tentacles, with a vertical eye sketched right at its center.
Fwoosh! One cultist retrieved a handful of grayish-white and dark crimson powder from a pouch and tossed it entirely onto the vertical eye. In the next instant, the vertical eye flared with blazing fire, igniting the powder.
The others followed suit, throwing down several black feathers, glowing green liquids, bizarre eyeballs...
The flames burned brighter and fiercer, rising two people high, the scorching heat waves rippling the air.
"We hunger! We crave!"
"We pray to the supreme Feast Lord—grant us abundance! Grant us revelry!"
"The Endless Feast, eternal and unending!"
Low chants arose. The nine of them looked solemn, their eyes burning with fanaticism.
Whoosh!
The flames surged upward once more, reaching five to six meters high, blazing clearly and brightly against the night sky.
The Bishop took a deep breath and drew a bottle filled with blood from his pocket—the Ten-Thousand-Heart Water refined from the gathered heart blood of ten thousand people.
He popped the cork and slowly poured the thick, viscous blood into the bonfire.
BOOM!
The flames thrashed wildly like serpents, shooting upward in a frantic surge, soaring dozens of meters into the air within an instant as hissing sounds crackled through the sky.
The nine halted their movements, looking up tensely at the soaring flames.
Buzz...
Accompanied by a strange ripple, a blood-red "passage" spanning sky and earth slowly took shape midair.
"What... is that?" Within Baidi City, many looked up at the red pillar of light against the night sky, a faint sense of oppression weighing on their chests.
"A mirage?"
"Is it aliens, or some special technological weapon?"
While countless people wondered what on earth the pillar of light was, inside the Dawnlight branch building, Yuan Gang and Chen Mengzhu, who were just getting ready to leave work, suddenly turned pale.
"A void passage?!"
Both cried out in horror, their scalps tingling as if electrified and their hands and feet going cold.
"Quick—report this immediately! Request backup!" After two seconds of stunned stupor, Yuan Gang roared at the branch members inside the building, "Everyone in the operations team, with me! We must destroy the ritual before the passage finishes forming!"
The moment the words left his mouth, Chen Mengzhu had already bolted out of the building, leapt into a car, and sped toward the pillar of light. Yuan Gang and the others quickly grabbed their gear and pursued.
Every face was grave and grim, their eyes harboring fear, despair, and grim resolve.
Meanwhile, in the abandoned factory.
"It worked!"
Smiles broke out across the faces of the Flesh Society cultists.
"In five minutes, the passage will completely form. Neither Dawnlight nor the Yuanzhen Sect will have time to interfere..."
The Bishop smiled. "What's more, even if they mobilized in full force, I could slaughter them all by myself."
The descent of the kin was a foregone conclusion!
"Hahaha..." He began laughing neurotically, his laughter sounding chillingly eerie in the night air.
Tap! Tap!
Suddenly, steady footsteps rang out, causing his smile to freeze. Everyone turned toward the sound, only to see a tall, upright young man strolling through the factory's rusted gate.
"Good evening, everyone." The young man came to a stop, smiling warmly.
An inexplicable sense of unease crept into the Bishop's heart. He narrowed his eyes to inspect the young man's features. The more he looked, the more familiar they seemed. Abruptly, he recalled the description of Huang Tian that Sub-Deacon Xu had given him over the phone. "You're... Huang Tian?!"
"That's me," Huang Tian nodded.
"You dare show your face before me?" Rage flared in the Bishop's chest. "Have you come to die?"
Several subordinates behind him surged forward. One even leapt into the air, lunging viciously at Huang Tian, his fist trailing a white wave of air like a hurtling cannonball!
Gale-force winds whipped against his face. Huang Tian twisted his waist, stepped forward, and drove out a punch with blistering speed. Striking second but landing first, his fist planted solidly into the lunging man's chest.
Bang!
With a resounding crash, the attacker's body flew backward at an even greater speed and slammed heavily into a wall.
Rumble!
The dull impact of flesh slamming into brick and concrete sent a tremor through the entire factory floor!
The wall fractured on impact, webbing outward in massive fissures. The man remained embedded in the center of the cracks for two full seconds before sliding limply down the wall in a smear of blood. He collapsed onto the floor, his chest completely caved in, lifeless.
Having killed one man with casual ease, Huang Tian kicked off with his right foot and plowed into the crowd like a heavy truck. With a lift of his hand, bones shattered; with a kick of his leg, blood mist and screams erupted together.
In just a few seconds, the remaining seven lay sprawled across the ground in grotesque contortions, blood pooling everywhere. Some died on the spot; others wailed in hopeless agony.
"Combat Master?!"
The Bishop's heart shuddered. "You're actually a Combat Master! Damn you!"
Cursing furiously, he stepped forward, air currents blasting outward as he charged Huang Tian like a savage primeval beast, his fist shrouded in suffocating wind pressure.
Facing the roaring Bishop, Huang Tian's expression remained unchanged. Drawing back his right arm, his muscles and bones produced a low, resonant thrum, like a great bow drawn to its limit.
Fist against fist!
BOOM!
With an explosive detonation, the Bishop's right arm—from fist to elbow to shoulder—blew apart in an instant!
Shattered bone fragments and minced flesh erupted in a dense cloud of blood mist, splattering violently and staining nearly half his body and the ground behind him in vivid crimson.
"Ugh... aagh..."
The ferocity on the Bishop's face drained away, replaced by blank shock. As if drained of all strength, he fell backward toward the sky and slammed heavily onto the ground, kicking up a plume of dust.
Sprawled on the dirt with eyes bulging wide, blood bubbling from his mouth, he gasped in utter disbelief, "How... how is this possible?!"
Chapter 214