Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Six: The Demon Child

Blood poured down like rain!

Monster blood splashed across the heavens, resembling a torrential downpour of blood that drenched the ground and stained it crimson.

Amidst the bloody rain, a figure with white hair, possessing the presence of a god and a demon, stood bathed in blood. Beneath the white-haired figure's feet lay a mutilated, giant python hundreds of feet long with severed wings, and the exploded carcass of a colossal monster. Large patches of purple bloody sludge still lingered a few hundred meters away.

Dead silence gripped the entire region. As a chill wind blew, Ling Mo, the maiden of the Heavenly Python Clan, trembled uncontrollably in her delicate body. The figure ahead, drenched in the blood of her kin, resembled an eternal divine peak that inspired despair, pressing down upon her chest so heavily that she could barely breathe.

Clasping the Heavenly Demon Qin to her chest, Ling Mo's eyes trembled violently. With a trembling jade finger, she pointed at Luo Hao and said in a shaky voice, "An—Ancient—Level—Combat—Strength!"

In the distance, Yu Qiongxue and the others looked somewhat puzzled, failing to understand what the Heavenly Python Clan's demoness meant by ancient-level combat strength. Yet from her horrified expression, they understood that even while holding a taboo artifact like the Heavenly Demon Qin, this demoness from the Heavenly Python Clan was still terrified of the War Fiend Luo Hao.

"Puff!"

Accompanied by a piercing sound, the void was abruptly pierced through, and the torrential blood rain instantly froze. Luo Hao's eyes were sharp as lightning, brimming with murderous intent. His white hair danced in the wind as a terrifying king-level killing intent swept forth like a tempest.

Everyone felt a suffocating restriction in their breathing. Under his feet, the corpse of the wing-severed heavenly python and the headless giant monster were ground into bloody mist by the terrifying killing intent in an instant.

"I said your lives are the best sacrifices! You cannot escape!"

A murderous radiance flickered as Luo Hao let out a low roar, resembling a possessed slaughtering Asura. With a single stride, his figure abruptly vanished from before their eyes.

"Hiss!"

Ling Mo's breathing hitched violently, a bone-chilling intent of slaughter sprouting deep within her heart. Then, she saw a palm etched with ancient markings striking viciously toward her chest.

"So fast!" Yu Qiongxue and the others cried out in alarm. Luo Hao's speed was so blindingly fast that they failed to catch even a glimpse of how he executed his attack.

"Even with ancient-level combat strength, human, you are pushing things too far. Heavenly Demon Qin, if you do not wish to be destroyed, assist me with all your might!"

Originally, seeing the ancient monsters and others perish one after another, Ling Mo had harbored intentions of retreating. But seeing Luo Hao's relentless pursuit with no intention of stopping, she too was provoked into anger.

"Human? Do not desecrate that word. This is a feud of life and death; either you die or I live!" Luo Hao's expression was ice-cold. Pushing things too far? When the monster race slaughtered humans, they never spoke of pushing things too far. Did the human race simply deserve to be massacred? Besides, I am only bullying monsters.

"Myriad Gods' Lament!"

Accompanied by Ling Mo's soft cry, ten jade fingers plucked the strings, causing the sixty-four-stringed ancient zither to vibrate. The music played sounded like a dragon roaring across the nine heavens. The song of slaughter echoed throughout heaven and earth, as if a heavenly demon had descended in person.

"Hum hum!"

The void hummed incessantly as patches of bloody demonic flowers manifested and bloomed in the space around them. Unlike dao flowers or golden lotuses, these bloody demonic flowers radiated an air of eerie temptation everywhere.

"Demon God Flowers!" Gazing at the bloody demonic flowers blooming across the sky, Yu Qiongxue's lovely eyes were filled with dazzling light before she gasped in involuntary shock.

Ancient legends spoke of powerful human sages capable of causing lotuses to spring from the void. Although these blooming bloody demonic flowers resembled dao flowers in shape, they were as crimson as blood, exuding a bizarre and bloody aura from every petal.

This reminded her of a flower recorded in an ancient tome—an eerie flower that existed only in ancient myths, known as the Demon God Flower. It was a terrifying demonic flower potent enough to cause ancient gods and demons to fall.

"I gaze up at heaven from within hell, the twilight of the gods!"

"Listening to my own funeral song in the end of days, sinking sands on the path of blood!"

As the Demon God Flowers continuously bloomed in the void, Yu Qiongxue and the others stared in horror, discovering that seated within the unfolding Demon God Flowers were the phantom silhouettes of gods and demons.

They took various forms: some possessed three heads and six arms, some had eyes that could pierce the heavens, and others bore a pair of silver pupils where twin silver runes flickered. Without exception, every single one of them was roaring.

"Ancient gods and demons!"

Gazing at the terrifying spectacle of roaring gods and demons before them, the hearts of the humans turned half-cold. It was a chill that originated from the soul—a majestic and domineering aura of gods and demons that seemed to drag everyone back to those terrifying, dark, and ancient years.

Ancient gods and demons were the most powerful living beings in the world following the primeval, ignorant era, once ruling over the myriad realms and shaking the tides of eternity.

"Human, prepare to die!" Flower after flower of the Demon God Flower bloomed, and thousands of gods and demons sat cross-legged around Ling Mo. She resembled a female god of war, gazing coldly at the approaching Luo Hao.

Her waist-length hair whipped wildly about as the sixty-four strings moved in unison. Then, under the horrified gazes of Yu Qiongxue and the others, the god and demon phantoms seated within the Demon God Flowers merged into a single entity.

For a time, the might of gods and demons surged overwhelmingly as a painting of gods and demons, shrouding the heavens and earth, moved to suppress the cosmos.

"Endless reincarnation, Myriad Gods' Lament!" The terrifying god and demon painting instantly met Luo Hao head-on. Behind the painting echoed Ling Mo's furious shout, accompanied by the clanging tones of the Heavenly Demon Qin.

"This is bad!"

Yu Qiongxue's lovely face changed color, the three women of Sunset Mountain behind her turned deathly pale, and several human martial artists had already collapsed limply to the ground under the vast might of the gods and demons.

Yet Luo Hao, engulfed within the god and demon painting, stood tall like an ancient divine tablet, unmoved by the crushing pressure. Along his meridians—hidden from the sight of outsiders—countless god and demon runes flickered.

Luo Hao lifted eyes filled with chaos, gazing at the god and demon painting suppressing the firmament from above, and a cold smile touched the corner of his mouth, "A bunch of lifeless things. Die!"

With that, his spine shuddered like a great dragon, and earth-shaking killing intent surged into the sky alongside pitch-black dragon-demon power. Viewed from afar, it resembled a black pillar of light propping up the god and demon painting from beneath, refusing to let it fall.

"How is this possible? So terrifying!" As thousands of gods and demons roared, Yu Qiongxue and the others felt their hearts pounding frantically, but what terrified them even more was Luo Hao himself.

If the killing intent surging from Luo Hao's body moments ago resembled a river, it was now a boundless ocean. It was hard to imagine how a single person could bear such terrifying killing intent. What was even more bizarre was that this killing intent lacked the usual icy malice, carrying instead a majestic and kingly demeanor.

"Suppression by thousands of gods and demons!"

Ling Mo's fingertips reddened as a drop of vital blood fell upon the Heavenly Demon Qin. The terrifying might of the gods and demons surged, and the thousands of figures within the painting seemed to awaken from ancient time and space.

"Boom!"

The firmament shook violently. A ten-thousand-li stretch of the heavens was instantly shrouded in thunder clouds, thunder dragons roared, heavenly tribulations brewed, and streaks of golden dao marks manifested across the dark sky.

"What is happening?" Within the small world, a woman gazed at the golden dao marks revealed across the firmament, uttering a voice of astonishment.

Her face was veiled in light gauze, her jade feet never touching the ground, and she was followed by two handsome men. This was a beautiful yet mysterious woman; had Luo Hao been present, he would surely have recognized her as Xin Lan, the maiden of the Spirit Clan.

"Fairy, it would seem someone has employed taboo power, triggering a reaction from the small world's laws. Judging by the situation, it should not be far from us. Shall we go over and check out what is happening?" One of the men sensed the anomaly slightly and spoke to Xin Lan.

"Mn!"

Xin Lan gave a slight nod of her graceful head, and her lotus steps shifted lightly in a particular direction. The two men closely shadowed her footsteps like inseparable reflections.

At the very same moment, beneath a pitch-black cliff face, a slender figure paused, gazing intently at the cliff in a trance, before a curve suddenly tugged at the corner of his mouth.

This was a man dressed in gold-trimmed white robes that fluttered without wind. A head of unusual white hair obscured his face as a light chuckle escaped his lips, "The Heavenly Demon Qin has sounded. It seems it is time to go out for a walk!"

As he spoke, the man's figure vanished from the spot. No one knew how he had disappeared, as if he had never existed at all.

"Puff!"

High in the firmament, Luo Hao shattered a god and demon with a single punch, instantly causing a Demon God Flower to explode. Its petals scattered like falling blood, drifting downward as if actual gore were raining.

At this moment, the skin on Luo Hao's fist had been peeled away, exposing bare, white bones. Ling Mo's face was equally devoid of color, her heart trembling as the god and demon painting was already more than half destroyed.

Beneath the painting, that figure was simply too terrifying. He was beaten back time and again by the might of the gods and demons, only to counterattack repeatedly, resembling an untiring combat machine that felt no pain. With every single assault, the aura of slaughter upon him grew a fraction heavier.

"Ah, ah, ah..."

Suddenly, Luo Hao let out a wild roar, his white hair dancing wildly. As his blood energy roared, countless god and demon runes flickered across his skin. In that instant, his body seemed to transform into the most formidable divine weapon in existence.

"Bang!"

With a ferocious stamp of his foot, the earth split open for hundreds of feet and underground springs surged upward. Luo Hao soared straight up into the nine heavens like an ancient roc.

"Slaughter Fist!"

The cold, icy low roar sounded like the death knell of hell. Accompanied by sounds of ghosts weeping and spirits wailing, no one could describe the brilliance of this single punch. They only saw an indescribable fist radiance pierce straight through the god and demon painting. Immediately afterward, boundless true intent of slaughter erupted; the painting shattered, and thousands of gods and demons vanished within the fist radiance amid sounds of lingering reluctance.

"Crack, crack, crack, crack!"

The instant the painting shattered, Ling Mo let out a miserable shriek as all ten of her jade fingers exploded simultaneously, mangled and bloody. The Heavenly Demon Qin in her arms was flung high into the air, its sixty-four strings snapping all at once.

"Die!"

Just as the zither strings snapped, a killing tone more terrifying than the Grim Reaper himself rang instantly in Ling Mo's ear. Immediately following that, Luo Hao's terrifying, god-of-slaughter-like figure rapidly expanded within her pupils.

With death descending upon her, Ling Mo's face turned completely bloodless and filled with extreme terror. She screamed toward the heavens, "Lord Son of Monsters, save me!"