Chapter 66: The Crimson Sacrifice
The core of the Black Tomb was a blazing inferno of sinister, otherworldly light. The scent of sulfur and demonic energy was now a choking miasma, and the thunderous, relentless pulse of Qorath's fragment hammered at the very stone, a rhythmic beat of pure, malevolent power. The crystalline entity had fully manifested, a towering, jagged monolith of black-and-crimson, its surface pulsating with a terrible, sentient fury befitting a being at the 7th Layer Profound Heavenly Realm.
The ground was a chaotic landscape of shattered stone and writhing shadows, the air alive with energy. Lin Xuan looked at the monstrous foe, his crimson eyes blazing with the unyielding, almost desperate fire of a duelist facing oblivion. This was the moment of his greatest gamble, a final, lethal calculation born of the Scriptures of Severed Unity and the knowledge of his demonic body.
I have the Severed Unity Body. It can sever pain. It can sever connections. And it can sever life itself—my own, if necessary.
He had achieved the 1st Layer Profound Heavenly Realm not through slow, stable meditation, but through a brutal, self-inflicted ritual of absorption. Using the core mechanics of his Crimson Blood Crystallization Art and the Gene Legacy Chant, he had forcibly devoured and refined a sealed portion of the Tomb's ambient demonic qi, risking instant backlash to achieve a breakthrough powerful enough to matter. His cultivation base was now fragile, but his power was real.
A tendril, thick as an ancient oak, lashed out—Crack!—splintering a massive boulder into dust. The ground shook with a low Rumble! as the fragment unleashed a barrage of qi tendrils, their dark energy coiling and striking with precise, terrifying speed.
"Now!" Lin Xuan roared, stepping into the absolute heart of the storm.
His Celestial Unity Crest pulsed, no longer a guide, but a siphon, pulling the demonic qi towards him. He channeled the Severed Crimson Unity Slash, but this was not the technique used in the past. This was a forbidden adaptation, fueled by his newly refined Profound Heavenly qi and his crystallized blood: The Crimson Sacrifice.
He drew his finger across his palm, a thin, deliberate stream of his unique, dark-red blood trailing down his arm. The pain was immediate and excruciating, a price he paid willingly, instantly severed by his mastery of the Scriptures of Severed Unity. The blood did not fall. It rose, coiling into a shimmering, crimson orb—a sacrificial nexus.
Boom! His attack, a true Severed Crimson Unity Slash of Profound Heavenly power, tore through the air with a resonant Whoosh!, colliding with a massive tendril in a blinding explosion that sent sparks and obsidian shards flying. But the slash was a distraction. The crimson orb, fueled by his vitality and sacrificial blood, shot out toward the fragment's core.
The Crimson Sacrifice was a lethal, suicidal ritual drawn from the Demonic Sovereign's deepest memories. It did not harm the fragment physically; instead, it used Lin Xuan's own life force as a supreme anchor to impose the concept of severance upon the fragment's chaotic qi flow, literally attempting to sever its connection to the ancient demonic source it was drawing from.
Lin Xuan immediately felt the backlash. His vision blurred, a faint trickle of blood weeping from his lips, his core qi violently rejecting the self-mutilation. He pressed on, his voice a hoarse, ragged whisper of command. "It's working—keep them away… just a bit longer!"
Liu Yue, still radiating the cold authority of her Half-step Profound Heavenly Realm breakthrough, knew the gravity of the moment. Her usual grace was replaced by a desperate, fierce focus. Her Frost Phoenix Cry surged, creating a barrier of hardened ice around Lin Xuan, the crystalline armor shimmering and absorbing the furious retaliatory strikes of the fragment. Snap! An ice shard cracked, and she instantly reinforced it with another, pouring her new power into the defense.
She knelt beside him, her hand gripping his shoulder so tightly her knuckles were white. Her voice, usually calm, was breaking with raw emotion. "You're not leaving us, Senior Brother—fight through it!" Her desperate plea was a prayer and a command, her fear for him pushing her technique past its normal limits.
Liu Yang, standing firm at the 9th Layer Qi Gathering, was a shield of unyielding loyalty. He wiped ichor and sweat from his face with the back of his hand, his teeth gritted, his blood-forged glaive flashing in a blur of crimson and steel. A tendril, a lethal whip of dark energy, slipped past Liu Yue's defense. Liu Yang met it head-on, his glaive cleaving through the demonic qi with a desperate, guttural shout. "We've got you—no demon's taking you down today!"
The crimson orb pulsed violently, mirroring the fragment's agony. As Lin Xuan's blood continued to fuel the severance, the massive crystalline entity began to falter. The orb was successfully imposing the concept of disconnection onto a celestial body. The fragment's pulsing light flickered, its energy wavering.
Crack! Crack!
A sharp, audible fracturing sound echoed through the chamber as the crystalline surface of Qorath's fragment began to fissure. The dark power it drew upon was being violently cut off, its connection to the Tomb's demonic qi severed, its terrible, god-like power draining away like water from a breached dam.
Meanwhile, back at the expedition camp, the tension was palpable. Ji Yunjing, overseeing the shields with the heavy burden of the 5th Layer Profound Heavenly Realm, barked orders, his voice raw. "Hold the shields—protect the camp at all costs!" He exchanged a glance with Bai Ningxue, his command softening with a rare, vulnerable concern.
Bai Ningxue, her 1st Layer Profound Heavenly Realm seals holding firm against the shockwaves, nodded, her voice steady but her heart heavy. The fate of the kingdom, and the fate of their friend, rested on a desperate ritual she couldn't even see. "They will," she said, her voice resolute. "They have to."
The crimson sacrifice stood as a pivotal, terrifying risk. But in the deepest, darkest core of the tomb, the team's unbreakable unity shone as a beacon. Their loyalty to each other, their willingness to risk life and limb for the ritual to succeed, outweighed the peril. Lin Xuan, collapsing but successful, felt the crimson orb detach and dissolve back into his body, its energy spent. The 7th Layer Profound Heavenly Realm fragment was defeated, for now, its power sapped, its terrible manifestation temporarily undone. The Crimson Sacrifice had saved them all.