Yu Tong stood in the middle of the pile of dried up bones, holding the Blood Bead in her hand, casting her spell silently. A thick blood mist wreathed her curvaceous body.
Blood strings shot out in every direction from beneath her feet, spreading out into the blood mist around her, causing scarlet-colored ancient scripts to appear within the aura that had been enveloping her.
Moments ago, ten wooden barrels had flown out of her bracelet of holding, and had already been emptied onto the ground.
The fresh blood within those wooden barrels was from second grade spirit beasts, and had also been meticulously refined through the use of the Blood sect’s secret magics.
Yu Tong used the Blood Bead to control the movement of the blood she had sent underground, compelling the blood streams to flow through the deepest part of the earth, towards the location of the Secret Dimension Gate.
Face serious, Mo Xi, together with five disciples of the Blood sect and Ghost sect, were waiting for her to fully form the Earth Web.
PUFF!
All of a sudden, Yu Tong, who was in the midst of casting her spell, spit out a mouthful of fresh blood.
The moment the blood made contact with the blood mist that had been swirling around her, it seemed to have become weightless, floating in the midst of the blood mist.
One after another, the bloody characters were like shoals of flesh-eating fish that had sniffed out an bloody smell, converging and boring their way to the mouthful of fresh blood.
In a second, the blood became translucent and sparkling, like a blood diamond, emanating deadly but beautiful lights.
“Don’t push yourself too far, Yu Tong!” Mo Xi exclaimed anxiously.
Eyes narrowed, Yu Tong glanced coldly at Mo Xi with her devilish, bloody pupils, but didn’t open her mouth to speak.
WHOOSH!
The Blood Searching Compass suddenly flew out of her bracelet of holding, landing on the palm of her unoccupied hand.
A blood-colored aura emerged from the tips of her slender fingers, pouring into the Blood Searching Compass, lighting up its dark-red surface.
The blood spots, which represented the fluctuations of the flesh of living beings, were like stars in the night sky, sparkling into appearance on the compass one after the other.
Yu Tong’s eyes gradually lay on the compass. Instantly, the expression on her incomparably gorgeous face changed drastically.
“They’re coming towards us!”
Hearing her words, every one of the Blood sect and Ghost sect disciples were seized with nervousness, and immediately looked towards the surface of the Blood Searching Compass.
Numerous blood spots were like tiny stars, slowly advancing on where they were standing.
“How did they find us?” Mo Xi asked angrily in a low voice.
A Blood sect disciple said anxiously, “Dammit! Senior martial sister is casting the spell, and now she’s reached the most crucial moment. She definitely cannot be disturbed!”
“I’m afraid there isn’t enough time for the Earth Web to fully form.”
Begrudging hatred could be seen in Yu Tong’s eyes.
After a moment of hesitation, she took out three thumb-sized medicinal pills from her bracelet of holding.
The color of the pills was dark-red, just like the Blood Searching Compass. The moment they showed up, the bloody scent surrounding Yu Tong became even more pronounced.
“Blood Strengthening Pills!” Mo Xi was shocked.
“No!” Other Blood sect disciples yelled to stop her.
However, before they could do anything about it, Yu Tong had already swallowed them with lightning speed.
Suddenly, something sinister could be seen on her beautiful face.
At that moment, the Blood Bead she held tightly in her hand, as well as the blood she had spat out, simultaneously released an astonishing, bright, blood-colored light.
“We can only strike in advance!” Yu Tong bellowed, wrath filling her voice.
…
Also at this moment, Nie Tian retracted his psychic awareness and quietly pointed in a direction for Pan Tao. “They’re over there. I can’t be wrong.”
Pan Tao felt assured before asking in a low voice, “No need to hide it from the others?”
Nie Tian briefly nodded his head.
Pan Tao stopped for a moment, as he turned his head around, facing Zheng Bin, Jiang Lingzhu, and the others, and then pointed towards the direction that Nie Tian had indicated, shouting at the top of his lungs, “I’m certain that they are over there!”
“Hurry!”
“Go stop the witch’s spell!”
“We can’t let her finish the Earth Web!”
Everyone shouted out together, with the loudest being Zheng Bin, who couldn’t wait any longer and suddenly surpassed Pan Tao and Nie Tian. He was the first to dash towards the location of Yu Tong.
Li Xi from the Mystic Mist sect called out energetically, “Kill the witch while she’s casting the spell! As long as she’s dead, the others won’t be a threat!”
After Yu Tong’s location had been pinpointed, everyone grew excited, believing that as long as they could seize the opportunity to kill Yu Tong, they would then be able to eliminate the other Ghost sect and Blood sect disciples.
As of this moment, the trial had already lost its priority. As long as they could kill Yu Tong, Mo Xi, and the others, they would definitely receive handsome rewards from the four sects.
With bloodshot eyes, everyone shouted, “Kill them! Kill them all!”
FIZZ! FIZZ!
All of a sudden, strange sounds resounded from the depths of the ground.
In the next moment, countless blood strings, each one as thin as a hair, pierced out of the ground.
It seemed as if rivers of blood were flowing out from under their feet. The pungent smell of blood suddenly pervaded the air.
A strange, bloody magnetic field enveloped everyone as soon as those scarlet blood strings shot out from the earth.
It was at that moment that Nie Tian sensed that his blood seemed to have stopped flowing.
A strange, indescribably painful feeling burst out of every part of his body, making him feel as though he had sustained a heavy blow and couldn’t move a bit.
Astonished, he looked over towards An Ying, Jiang Lingzhu, Pan Tao, and the others. Their faces all changed drastically as panic filled their eyes.
He instantly realized that everyone on his side was just like him, influenced by the bloody magnetic field and held down by a strange force!
FIZZ! FIZZ!
One after another, numerous blood strings pierced towards everyone, like sharp steel needles.
Li Xi was the one who yelled the loudest. Nie Tian looked over and saw him staring at the approaching blood strings with wide eyes and a flushed face, yet completely incapable of moving.
PUFF! PUFF! PUFF!
Three strands of blood penetrated into his chest, and shot out of his back.
Li Xi’s wide eyes lost their radiance as he died instantly.
FIZZ! FIZZ! FIZZ!
A dozen more blood strings shot out from the earth, jabbing towards Nie Tian’s abdomen.
“NO!”
Nie Tian let out an explosive roar, like a wild beast, and his heart, which had previously seemed to stop beating, finally began to pump violently again.
Moments later, he discovered that his previously stopped blood flow had returned to normal.
SHEW!
With a swift shift of his body, he narrowly dodged the blood strings that were piercing towards him.
PUFF! PUFF! PUFF!
After his narrow escape from death, Nie Tian glanced around and saw three more disciples of the Mystic Mist sect pierced through the torso by the blood strings.
“The witch has unleashed the Blood Constraint in advance!”
Eyes extremely wide and red, Zheng Bin roared out as though he had gone mad, while tears seemed to be splashing out from his eyes.
After breaking free from the strange forces that had been affecting his blood, Nie Tian suddenly heard Jiang Miao’s cry. He turned to his side and saw four strands of scarlet light stabbing towards the back of Jiang Miao’s neck.
“S-save me!”
Without thinking, Nie Tian dashed to Jiang Miao’s side at the fastest speed possible, and pulled her away before the strands of scarlet light could pierce into her neck.
“Save those around you!” Jiang Lingzhu cried out.
An Ying, Pan Tao, and Zheng Bin, who had also recovered their ability to move, rushed through the battlefield to help their fellow fighters to break free from the Blood Constraint.
After saving Jiang Miao, Nie Tian studied the battlefield with rapt attention and a grim face, and found that everyone who had reached the ninth level of Qi Refining had already managed to break free from the Blood Constraint.
He was the only one who was at the eighth level that managed to struggle free.
In a flash, Li Xi and three other trial takers from the Mystic Mist sect had died by the countless blood strings.
Only five of the Mystic Mist sect disciples were lucky enough to survive with Zheng Bin, An Ying, and Jiang Lingzhu’s help.
With a gaze filled with praise, An Ying looked deeply at Pan Tao, and said, “Pan Tao! Your judgment was correct! This really is the Blood sect’s forbidden technique: Earth Web! We’re lucky you detected it beforehand! Otherwise, if the Earth Web was fully formed, none of us would be able to escape from the Blood Constraint!”
It was exactly because the Earth Web was not yet fully condensed that Nie Tian, Jiang Lingzhu, and others had only been affected by it for a moment.
Once it was fully formed, everyone who was enveloped within it would be bound by it permanently, except those whose cultivation level was higher than the person who had cast the spell.
However, the one who had cast this spell was the witch, Yu Tong, a Qi warrior at the Lesser Heaven stage!
In the entire Green Illusion dimension, she possessed the highest cultivation base. Not a single person was a match for her, let alone higher than her.
This meant that once the Earth Web was completely formed, everyone enveloped within would die tragically by her hands!
“Thank you for saving me again,” Jiang Miao said timidly.
Just as Nie Tian was about to reply, An Ying yelled, “Those who have escaped from the Blood Constraint, help people around you. The steel-needle-like blood strings haven’t disappeared!”
FIZZ! FIZZ!
Just as she had expected, the strands of blood-colored light, after missing their targets, circled back and locked onto new targets, stabbing once more towards the crowd.
The sky was filled with the interweaving scarlet strings. They took the shape of a blood net in one second, and then spread out, turning into countless blood needles in the next second.
“Yee?!”
All their attention concentrated, everyone was preparing to defend against the attacks of the blood strings, when their expressions suddenly flickered.
FIZZ! FIZZ! FIZZ! FIZZ! FIZZ!
To their surprise, all of the countless blood strings took a sudden turned and headed towards Nie Tian.
At this moment, it seemed that Nie Tian had become their one and only target.
Everyone was still poised and uptight, only to be flabbergasted by the scene in front of their eyes.
They didn’t understand why Nie Tian was such a big threat to the extent that he had actually attracted the raging attacks of the all the blood strings to himself.
“What… What did he do to Yu Tong?”
Knowing that Yu Tong was the controller of the scarlet blood strings, the same question simultaneously surfaced in the hearts of everyone present.