The surface.
On the black earth, beams of light from the sky fell one by one, crashing into the ground.
Where it shone, the ground slowly began to redden, melting, forming magma.
The land was filled with undulating hills and mounds.
Among a few of these hills, within a town ruin.
Two wandering Evil Spirit Vehicles were slowly patrolling around. They flapped their wings, the dark red vertical pupils in their chests glowing faint red light.
"These Evil Spirit Vehicles were originally powerful deities and gods from different regions, transformed into these mindless monsters after being corrupted by Evil Spirits.
In essence, very few of them will gain consciousness, but according to the information we have gathered, only the Ancestral Essence Blood has ever encountered one so far."
Outside the ruins, a team of fifteen black armored figures silently encircled the two Evil Spirit Vehicles from afar.
They were fully covered in black armor, with no gaps even on their faces, only two red crystals embedded in their eye sockets.
The armor had a bone-like luster, with a blood lotus emblem on the shoulders, representing the national flower of the current Great Spirit, also the mark of the Blood Immortal Dao.
At this moment, the leader, standing three meters tall, muscular, also clad in armor, was holding a serrated black blade.
"Everyone, quickly eliminate them, we need a clear path, no obstacles allowed."
The leader raised the black blade, pointing it at the two Evil Spirit Vehicles.
"Yes!"
Those dispatched for the cleanup mission were the most elite warriors in the Spirit Empire’s army.
As Super Grades, they were not chosen for the Human Character Institute. After all, the Super Grades there are carefully selected and have various potential talents.
But even without being selected, after undergoing Bloodline transformation, their strength increased significantly.
The captain’s voice fell.
Instantly, the team divided into four groups, with two people in each group charging towards the two Evil Spirit Vehicles.
The speed of the Evil Spirit Vehicles far surpassed theirs.
But for the Great Spirit, which had conducted detailed research on such monsters, now had a comprehensive set of countermeasures.
One Evil Spirit Vehicle shook its wings, turning into a dark red blood shadow and pounced on one of the attackers.
The man did not dodge, letting out a low growl, entering an Extreme State as his body swelled significantly.
He gripped his sword tightly, blocking in front of himself.
Clang!!
With a loud noise, he was forcibly knocked flying, the black blade in his hands dented inward.
After attacking, the Evil Spirit Vehicle would always pause on the spot, using its chaotic consciousness to decide whether to continue attacking.
Their instinct was to plunder the Spiritual Line of living beings, devouring their lives.
But against the Bloodline like these, they seemed to lack much enthusiasm.
Taking advantage of this moment of pause.
Another person took the opportunity, activating Extreme State, and burst into action from behind, unleashing a Limit-Breaking Skill, punching heavily at the back of the Evil Spirit Vehicle.
Boom!!
With a loud explosion, the Evil Spirit Vehicle staggered, with its back punched with several holes by sharp knuckles.
Although due to the effect of the Evil Spirit Line, these holes quickly disappeared.
But similarly, the knocked down soldier also stood up, his vibration injuries improved.
Just like that, with one attracting firepower and the other launching sneak attacks, the two cooperated seamlessly.
With the terrifying self-healing power and speed of the Bloodline, as long as their reactions could barely keep up with the Evil Spirit Vehicle’s attack speed.
The outcome was already determined.
Before long, one soldier spotted an opportunity. With a punch, he hit the large vertical pupil between the chest and abdomen of the Evil Spirit Vehicle.
The dark red eyeball was hit by the strong force, instantly exploding, spilling fluid.
Two soldiers quickly retreated, but it was a step too late.
Boom!!
The Evil Spirit Vehicle exploded completely, turning into a mass of dark red flames, sending shockwaves in all directions.
The flames covered a range of dozens of meters, moving incredibly fast, leaving the others no time to react.
The two soldiers who encircled it were hit first. With speed enhanced by the Bloodline, they only had enough time to raise their hands to protect their heads.
Soon, as the light dissipated, everything below the two was penetrated by the flames, riddled with holes.
"Abandon the body!" the leading captain said coldly.
A soldier behind him immediately stepped forward, raising his knife and cutting it down.
Splash!
The blade swiftly decapitated the two soldiers who had been pierced.
Their heads flew high, rolling on the ground.
Quickly, the captain stepped forward, taking out a water bag from behind, opening it, pouring it over the two heads.
Gurgling blood water flowed from the bag.
Within seconds, numerous blood tendrils grew from the bottom of the two heads.
These tendrils, like roots, buried into the blood water, greedily absorbing swiftly.
At the same time, new necks, shoulders, chests, torsos grew from beneath the two heads...
In just a dozen seconds, their bodies fully regenerated.
"Thank you, my lord." The two soldiers, not minding their nakedness, cupped their fists in salute.
The tendrils at their feet absorbed all the blood water, retracting into their skin, disappearing.
Another prepared soldier beside handed over clothing for them to dress again.
"Go back and get new armor. These Evil Spirit Vehicles aren’t difficult to kill, just a bit wasteful on armor."
The captain sighed.
"I just had mine maintained yesterday... Such hassle," one soldier muttered.
"I’ve told you before, don’t bother with useless work. Every time we go out, it’s one set, then it takes a long time to restore," another raised an eyebrow.
"It’s a pity without the armor for protection, the sky light is too strong, consuming too much energy on us. If only we could wear whatever we want, it would be great."
Meanwhile, the other pair of attackers also finished their battle.
After a burst of red light, they, being much quicker, had already anticipated the self-detonation timing in advance, retreating right away.
These two ended the fight unharmed, though their armor and weapons were dented.
The captain stepped forward, observing the two soldier bodies covered by the flame explosion.
The flesh beneath their armor, part purple, the other normal red.
Purple signifies the pollution of the Spiritual Line. At this moment, the two colors are continuously clashing, with purple evidently stronger, persistently eroding the red flesh area.
"Both of you soaked in the new Ghost Spring the day before yesterday, and indeed it seems effective now.
In the past, our flesh couldn’t resist such pollution to this extent." The captain praised admiringly.
"The Empire’s Celestial Calculation Pavilion is indeed somewhat useful." A surprised soldier leaned over to check.
In the Great Spirit, Zhang Rongfang established an institution named the Celestial Calculation Pavilion to divert attention. Any alterations concerning his new abilities could be attributed to the pavilion.
This also allowed for the legitimate and rapid enhancement of the bloodline strength of the Great Spirit Bloodline.
"And the regeneration speed seems noticeably faster than before." A soldier laughed in agreement.
As the vanguard paving the way, they were tasked with the daunting mission of connecting the Great Spirit and another deity gathering site - Baisu.
Thus, they were extremely experienced in dealing with Evil Spirits.
"Alright, keep moving forward."
The captain raised his hand, signaling to stop.
"Yes!" The group ignored the left-behind polluted bodies, which would soon deplete all their nutrients in the battle against pollution, turning into clusters of proliferating polluted flesh.
The flesh would then become some squirming purple grotesque bugs, which would be cleared by the cleaning squad behind.
Just as the team was preparing to advance forward.
Suddenly, a plume of black smoke rose in the distance, accompanied by faint hissing sounds drifting slowly.
"Watch out!!" The captain’s eyes suddenly sharpened, and he shouted loudly.
All soldiers rapidly went on alert, looking towards the direction from which the sound was coming.
"It’s locating through sound! This is;...." The captain clearly recognized the source of the sound.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, a horse-headed humanoid monster shrouded in black smoke leaped from the top of the distant hill.
Its enormous body over four meters long, casting an increasingly large shadow, quickly pressed towards the crowd.
"It’s a horse!" The captain instantly drew the curved sword from behind, his body size also rapidly expanded, growing taller and bigger.
Boom!!
The shadow in mid-air landed steadily, hitting right in the middle of the scattered group of soldiers.
Ground cracked, with the magma below splattering everywhere. It splattered onto the surface of several men’s armors, emitting faint black smoke.
The shadow’s full form was now completely revealed to everyone.
It was a deformed purple-black monster over three meters high and four meters long.
Horse head, human body, its hands had bear-like claws, and there was a purple vertical pupil eye on its chest and abdomen, nervously rotating, scanning the crowd.
"This is a big one....." The captain’s palms sweated; he was only at the Three Emptiness Level Super Grade, capable of handling slightly stronger Evil Spirit Vehicles solo.
But this thing before him.... was clearly beyond his expectations.
"Step aside." Suddenly, a voice came into his ear.
The captain hadn’t had time to react before a phantom flashed past him.
Clang!!
In an instant, a silver light suddenly lit up from the center of the Evil Spirit Horse’s body.
The silver light slanted from the shoulder, slicing through the purple pupil, splitting the entire Evil Spirit Horse in two.
The phantom retreated with a single strike, with speed far surpassing that of the crowd, continuously flickering, reaching a hundred meters away in an eye’s blink.
Boom!!
The Evil Spirit Horse stiffened and exploded on the spot.
The captain and others, sensing danger, had long fled far away.
The purple light flame exploded, and this Evil Spirit Horse hadn’t even exerted its powers before being killed in an instant.
Under the intense firelight, the shadow that killed the Evil Spirit Horse stood still.
"You all fall back." The shadow raised its head, revealing a somewhat pale male face.
"There’s an outbreak of Evil Spirits ahead. It’s not something you can handle."
"Thank you, sir." The squad recognized the man’s attire, identifying him as an expert from the Blood Immortal Dao Human Character Institute.
These experts from the Four Institutes received Ancestral Essence Blood, their speed and reaction, strength, and self-healing abilities were on a different level.
But... Evil Spirits can still erupt?
The squad was curious and perplexed.
The pale man shook the longsword in his hand, the blade covered in a layer of squirming flesh.
It was a special weapon pieced together using deity statue materials.
For such weapons, which are incredibly hard, once covered with Bloodline flesh, if you hit the vital points upon cutting an Evil Spirit Body, it causes extremely terrifying fatal damage.
This was why he could kill the Evil Spirit Horse in a single strike.
The man took out a red cylinder and gently pulled off the lid towards the top.
Whoosh!!
In an instant, a firework shot into the sky.
At this moment, in the distance ahead, a plume of black smoke rapidly moved to envelop the area between two hills.
Numerous Evil Spirit Vehicles flapped their wings, plunging towards this place.
The black smoke also contained the source, Evil Spirit Horses.
The man gripped the longsword tightly.
"End解...." His gaze suddenly transformed into a void.
Boom!!
In an instant, his speed increased even more than before, almost leaving only a gray line, abruptly darting into the Evil Spirit group.
Not just him, behind him, a figure transformed into gray lines, continuously dashing past the squad.
Just in an instant.
Each Evil Spirit Vehicle, upon contact, was effortlessly cut at the vital spot.
With Extreme Realm masters combined with Super Grade Bloodline transformed powerful bodies, and additional 临解, facing these mindless monsters was essentially crushing.
Even though their speed was extremely fast, the current Zhang Rongfang was far beyond his past self, with the Ghost Spring he manufactured with his essence blood increasing the physical abilities of all Four Institute experts who soaked in it immensely.
This Ghost Spring, outwardly similar in function to the Blood Pool, was actually a cover for Zhang Rongfang’s bloodline amplifier.
Within five hundred meters of the Ghost Spring, all Bloodlines could obtain a strong enhancement.
And everyone soaked in the Ghost Spring received a brand-new bloodline transformation. Bearing the attributes of Zhang Rongfang’s latest bloodline.
This means, at this moment, all Bloodlines soaked in the Ghost Spring were equivalent to a weakened, mobile Ghost Spring.
Wherever Zhang Rongfang’s flesh was, the Ghost Spring could take effect; this was the key.