Chapter 1584: Chapter 1584: Blood Pool
This valley was only a hundred miles away from the Ultimate Immortal City. It would only take Zen a single step to teleport there.
But out of caution, he decided to not directly teleport to his destination.
After he returned from the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land, Zen's strength had improved dramatically. However, this did not mean that he was skilled enough to deal with the reckless behavior of the Sacred race.
In fact, the closer he got to the Sacred race, the more cautious he became. He even slowed down and flew at a lower altitude.
Along the way, Zen discovered several groups of mortals. Their numbers ranging from over a hundred thousand to five hundred thousand per group, all escorted by Sacred martial artists. Clearly, they were being sent to the Ultimate Immortal City.
Zen didn't bother to intervene. They were already too close to the Ultimate Immortal City and any conflict would be easily detected by the warriors inside the city.
Moreover, the root of the problem was in the Ultimate Immortal City. As long as he could break in the Ultimate Immortal City and stop them from using the Blood Curse Technique, Zen believed the Sacred race would stop the reckless slaughter. After all, these mortals were weak. Just as humans didn't care to kill ants, surely the Sacred race wouldn't be so bored as to kill these insignificant mortals.
Soon, a golden city gleamed in Zen's field of vision: the Ultimate Immortal City, the largest city in the Seven Ultimate World.
Looking down, he saw a huge round plate the color of blood, looming over the city. Countless runes were rolling in it and four red pillars extended upwards from the city and connected to the bottom of the plate.
The plate was continuously absorbing dark red blood through the pillars and sprinkled it into the sky, forming blood-red clouds that spread throughout the whole Seven Ultimate World.
The closer Zen got to the city, the stronger the stench of blood became. It was as if what was ahead of him was a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. The once hustling and bustling city had become purgatory.
Zen quietly floated to the side as he observed the place. After he formed a plan in his head, the killing intent in his eyes died and his cinnabar field sealed up. He changed his appearance to that of a weak mortal and quietly landed in the center of the road leading to the Ultimate Immortal City.
Shortly after, a group of mortals walking along the road approached, several Sacred warriors escorting them. The closer they got to the Ultimate Immortal City, the more impatient the Internal Elixir Realm warriors became.
"Hurry up!
It's taken nine days to travel three hundred miles! It's too slow!"
a Sacred martial artist roared. He raised the whip in his hand and viciously lashed it into the air, making a cracking sound that was too much for some mortals.
The people were already exhausted from their journey. No matter how hard they tried, they still couldn't keep up with the speed the Sacred race had set. Nevertheless, they squeezed the last bit of their strength and dragged their feet.
A moment later, the Sacred martial artist leading the group found Zen lying on the ground.
“How did we miss this one?”
He muttered gruffly and lashed his whip at Zen.
Zen's eyes flashed with anger. He wasn't afraid of the whip; he knew the warrior wouldn't be able to hurt him even he lay there motionlessly, but if his whip really landed on him, his cover would surely be blown. ṛἈ₦ỌΒË𝓢
“Pah!”
The whip didn't hit Zen in the end. It landed beside him and left a large hole in the ground.
“You,” the warrior regarded him coldly. “Get back to the group!”
The Sacred race's goal was to acquire human blood. If the humans all followed their orders and got to the Ultimate Immortal City without a hitch, then there was no need to kill recklessly. And now that they were close, Zen was practically like lost sheep and wasn't worth killing.
Plus, Zen looked very weak. His entire body was covered in mud and he had concealed his cultivation level and soul. He even acted flustered as he shied into the crowd.
Zen frowned at the expressionless faces of the mortals around him. They didn't spare Zen a single glance as he joined their line and instead had continued to walk like zombies. They only thought about moving forward. Where they were heading and what fate awaited them did not matter anymore. They were too tired.
They were only about twenty miles away from the Ultimate Immortal City but it still took the exhausted mortals half a day to reach its gate.
On top of the grand city wall stood a garrison of Sacred warriors. Most of them were at the Soul Sea Realm while a few were at the Spirit Supreme Realm.
“Did you hear? Someone seemed to have killed the Freesia Squad!”
“The seven warriors in this squad were all Spirit Transformation Realm elites and someone managed to kill them all without anyone noticing. This person's strength must be that of a world lord!”
“World lord? Don't you know the Freesia Squad has killed world lords before?”
“If not a world lord, then is this person a Supreme Lord? Would a Supreme Lord really dare to come to the Seven Ultimate World?”
“I know! That's what's most baffling... There aren't many Supreme Lords in the Evolutionary Universe so they obviously won't do anything rash. If a Supreme Lord were to die here, it'll be a great loss for humankind. It's unlikely that they'll take such a risk for a borderline supreme world.”
“So strange...”
Even when the warriors were far away, Zen could hear them well.
As soon as he passed through the city gate with the others, he felt the perception from the martial artists sweep through their heads.
Although the Blood Curse Technique could help the Sacred race take over a supreme world instantly, it was quite troublesome to use. Moreover, the array laid out using this technique was extremely fragile. If they weren't careful enough and the array was destroyed, all their efforts would be for naught.
They had learned this the hard way when they had used the technique in another supreme world. So in order to prevent such incident from happening again, they began taking more care in screening the mortals.
Creatures sent to the blood pool would have to be screened three times. The first screening would be at the city gate and the second would be inside the city. The third screening would be by the blood pool.
Thankfully, the martial artists didn't find anything abnormal during the first screening.
Zen had successfully entered the Ultimate Immortal City and continued to follow the mortals to advance on the city's wide road.
After the Sacred race occupied the city, the martial artists living in it had been slaughtered. The previously bustling streets were now empty, and with the thick smell of blood, the city was now quite literally, a ghost town. Even the martial artists of the Sacred race felt uncomfortable staying there.
In order to use the Blood Curse Technique, the Sacred race had built four huge pools inside the city. Each pool was the size of a small lake, large enough to hold hundreds of thousands of people. On the main road leading to the blood pool in the south of the city, six Spirit Transformation Realm warriors were stationed.
These warriors had cold expressions and powerful auras. Compared to the Sacred martial artists at the city gate, they were much more vigilant.
Streams of strong perception continued to sweep over everyone's heads and one particular stream stopped on top of Zen.
Zen upped his acting and walked forward with wobbly legs, trying to look like he was about to fall down any moment.
The Spirit Transformation Realm martial artist glanced at Zen. However, seeing him covered in mud, the martial artist looked away boredly.
Martial artists at higher levels of cultivation had an advantage in concealing themselves from marital artists at lower cultivation levels. The Sacred warrior, while unable to find any flaw, could subconsciously feel that Zen was slightly different. However, since he couldn't tell exactly what was wrong, he decided to let it go.
Zen felt himself getting closer and closer as he passed through each screening process.
When they finally reached the blood pool, a commotion suddenly broke out.
Although the mortals were bone-tired from the long journey, their heads immediately cleared when they saw the unpleasant scene in front of them.
Broken limbs and other body parts floated in the pool and the metallic stench of blood was making the horrific scene a hundred times worse.
At the side of the blood pool, mortals were being lined up and were forced to jump into the blood pool.
The moment a mortal jumped into the pool, an invisible force appeared in the air, twisting the person into pretzels. Blood splashed out from their twisted bodies; it was a scene too horrible to behold.