Detecting the dense death aura and a strong smell of rusty blood, Huang Xiaolong slowed down. As he got closer, the stench of death in the air became denser and the smell of blood suffocating.
'What a thick death aura!' Huang Xiaolong's heart tightened warily.
This density of dead aura could only form from several hundreds of thousands of people dying in the same place, perhaps even millions.
As such, there was only one possibility, the area in front was a battlefield! The suffocating smell of blood meant there was a war going on up ahead.
Huang Xiaolong spread his spiritual sense out, and ten minutes later, he landed atop a small hill. Looking out from a higher point, Huang Xiaolong indeed found people fighting in the wide plains some distance ahead.
Differentiated by the color red and yellow, two armies, armed to the teeth with swords and spears, engaged in an intense battle, stallions roaring from hundreds of miles, blood-curdling screams weaved amongst raging bellows. War cries shook the sky, death aura and heavy blood scent gathered above the battlefield into pillows of dark red cloudsㅡdead spirits cloud.
Although the nearby empires did not set their minds to conquer the Bedlam Lands, on the Bedlam Lands were at least ten thousand cities controlled by different forces or sects. Small powers controlled one city, bigger forces controlled two or more cities, and the more tyrannical hegemonies had ten or more cities under their rule.
War was common between these cities. Today, the master of a city could be a certain family, but when the sun shines tomorrow or the next month, the master could have been replaced.
Therefore, the battle scene in front of him didn't surprise Huang Xiaolong. Watching the rich dark red clouds of death aura and blood energy in the sky, an idea flashed through Huang Xiaolong's mind. All these dead spirits clouds, in essence, were formed from blood soul qi, which was the most favorable for Huang Xiaolong to practice the Asura Demon Claw.
All these years, Huang Xiaolong had mostly sidelined this battle skill due to its blood soul qi requirement. But the Asura Demon Claw's power was undeniable. There were five moves to the Asura Demon Claw, and each one had an earth-shaking effect, any one of them reaching major completion would carry more destructive power than the Asura Sword Skill.
Huang Xiaolong immediately diverted his energy in accordance to the Asura Demon Claw technique. Ten fingers bent into claws and a suction force aimed towards the groups of dark red clouds in the sky. Instantly, strands of dark energy floated down toward Huang Xiaolong's hands.
Strands of dark energy continued to flow to Huang Xiaolong's hands, being absorbed into his body, circulating along the veins. In the next moment, Huang Xiaolong slashed the void with both claw-shaped hands.
Horrifying cries reverberated as two dark palms flew out, tearing space straight onto the cliff wall some distance away. The surrounding sky darkened, shadows spiraled within the dark fog, no less than fifteen wraith heads issued wails that raised goosebumps down the neck.
Watching this result made Huang Xiaolong ecstatic. Practicing the Asura Demon Claw using the soul blood qi from the dead spirits cloud gathered above this battlefield exceeded his expectations by many folds over! Based on this result, if Huang Xiaolong practiced here for three to four months, he would be able to reach major completion in Asura Demon Claw's first move.
Not wasting time, Huang Xiaolong continued to absorb the soul blood qi coming from the dead spirits cloud above time and again as he practiced the first move of Asura Demon Claw, Laments of Thousands of Demons.
More than two hours passed. Huang Xiaolong immersed himself in practice, entering a state of selflessness.
Although it was a mere two hours, the attack power the first move, Lament of Thousands of Demons experienced a great leap. When attacking, the dark claw imprints doubled in size, the dark fog around them was more condensed, and the wraiths' cries sounded the air akin to thousands of demons struggling to break free from a cage.
At the same time, dark black fog enshrouded Huang Xiaolong akin to a supreme wraith, forming a protective barrier around him. This was one of the terrifying points of the Asura Demon Claw, while attacking, it also protected the user, a powerful and unpredictable offensive and defensive skill.
And while Huang Xiaolong was in a state of selflessness, from afar, sounds of piercing winds trailed behind two figures clad in deep amethyst robes. Two middle-aged men landed on another peak, on the edge of the battlefield.
One of them had a slanting sword scar on his forehead and the other had a long horse-like face. From a higher point, both watched the maelstrom of chaos and blood on the battlefield below and nodded appreciatively.
"Kill, kill more, the more dead the better, haha… The more dead spirit blood qi the faster the undead corpse we refined will advance to Earth rank grade six." The scar-faced middle-aged man laughed in a boisterous manner.
The long horse-faced middle-aged man followed laughing, "Five years later, us brothers' undead corpse would be able to advance to Earth rank grade seven. At that time, joining our strength together, no disciples in Sky Magi Sect would be our opponents, other than Master!"
The scar-faced man looked up towards the rolling dark red dead spirits cloud above. His brows knitted together all of a sudden, "Something's wrong! How come the dead spirit blood qi is so much lesser than usual?!"
Hearing the scar-faced man's exclamation, the long horse-faced man hurried to look at the sky above the wide plains. Just one glance and he knew, indeed, the dead spirit blood qi was much lesser.
Both of them came to collect dead spirit blood qi yesterday as well. When they left, the dark red clouds above were much more abundant than this, and today, the two armies continued to battle, the dead spirits blood qi should have accumulated much more. There was something fishy going on.
On this ongoing battlefield, the death aura was strong, and in general dead spirit blood qi could last for a long period of time at high altitudes.
"Eh, there's actually someone absorbing the dead spirits blood qi?!" In the next moment, the horse-faced middle-aged man saw that within the clouds above some blood qi was being absorbed, flowing towards another peak.
Seeing this, the scar-faced middle-aged man sneered coldly, "There's actually someone unafraid of death, they dare to come here to this Specter Battlefield trying to snatch dead spirits blood qi from us! Since someone's looking for death, then we shall fulfill their wish!" He flew up without another word, transforming into a wisp of black smoke, floating towards the peak where Huang Xiaolong was.
The horse-faced man quickly caught up.
From far away, both men watched Huang Xiaolong practicing the Asura Demon Claw. His hands waved out, tearing space, manifesting many wailing wraiths. They exchanged a glance and saw shock mirrored on each other's face.
"So powerful, what battle skill is this kid practicing?!" Seconds later, the scar-faced man couldn't help blurting, "This, this is probably even stronger than our Sect's Sky Magi Palm?!"
The horse-faced middle-aged man exclaimed: "Could it be a Heaven rank battle skill?!"
Heaven rank battle skill! Their eyes lit up brightly.
The scar-faced man broke out in a hearty laughter, "I didn't expect, ah, that we would run into such a good thing. Brother, even the Heavens are looking after us! With this Heaven rank battle skill, once we both made progress in its cultivation, not even Chen Xiaotian, that old fogey, will our opponent. At that time, the Sky Magi Sect can only be ours!"
The horse-faced man laughed agreeably.
"Come, capture that kid alive, we must not let him escape!"
"Capture this kid, make him tell us about this battle skill, then we'll 'entertain' him a little, let him know the consequences of snatching dead spirits blood qi from us!"
The two men sped up, whistling past the wind, arriving on the peak where Huang Xiaolong was training on in the blink of an eye. One in front and one at the back, blocking all of Huang Xiaolong's escape routes, preventing him from running away.
Landing on the ground, both men slowly approached Huang Xiaolong.