Crown Prince of the Empire, I quit!

"Playing tricks!" Qin Ming's voice, covered by his mask, was filled with cold sarcasm! He suddenly squeezed the horse's belly! The inky black warhorse neighed loudly and rushed towards the altar like an arrow from a bow! The huge black iron sword slashed a cold and chilling light in the darkness!

"Stop him!" The high priest roared in despair! Several shadow pharmacists pounced on him like ghosts! The poisoned bone blades in their hands carried a fishy wind and went straight for Qin Ming's vital points!

"Get out of here!" Meng Zhi's roar was like thunder! Two giant wheel axes swept out with the force of splitting mountains and splitting rocks! The bone blades shattered! Shadow Pharmacist was smashed back like a broken sack! Blood and flesh flew everywhere!

Qin Ming's momentum was unstoppable! With the mighty, all-removing imperial power, he swung his huge black iron sword, ignoring the ghostly figures charging towards him, and slashed straight at the pitch-black sacred tree on the altar!

“No——!!!” The high priest let out a heartbreaking howl! His withered claws suddenly grabbed at his shriveled chest, as if trying to pull something out!

Just when the giant sword was about to chop down the sacred tree!

A sudden change occurred!

Liu Yueli's stretcher, carefully carried by two personal guards and following closely behind Qin Ming's horse, was carried! Her body, already frozen and stiff, as still as a corpse buried deep in the frozen earth, entered the depths of the cave filled with the strange scent of sulfur, corpses, and sacred trees.

Suddenly! Violently! A convulsion!

"Uh... huh..."

An extremely faint, yet clear, ghostly gasp was squeezed out from the depths of her throat, which had long since stopped breathing!

Next!

The moment the light comes on!

The pitch-black sacred tree on the altar! As if drawn by some kind of fatal attraction, all its twisted branches suddenly bent and stretched toward Liu Yueli's stretcher—madly, as if in a death throes!

The countless bone bells hanging from it instantly stopped their teeth-grinding screams! It was as if an invisible force had strangled their throats!

The entire cave fell into a dead silence!

The only sounds were the crackling sound of the pitch-black sacred tree's branches as they bent and stretched wildly, like the snapping of dry bones. And the humming sound like a faint heartbeat as the dark golden light pulsed deep within the beast-patterned iron block on Liu Yueli's stretcher.

Qin Ming's sword suddenly stopped in mid-air! His gaze, like two bolts of lightning tearing through the darkness, suddenly fixed on the flickering dark golden light on Liu Yueli's chest!

For the first time, the high priest's withered face and those dark, hole-like eye sockets revealed an expression of disbelief, as if he had seen a ghost! He pointed his withered claws in Liu Yueli's direction, his dry lips trembling violently, and he let out a meaningless, hissing sound like a broken bellows:

“Blood…blood…same origin…alive…alive?!”

The cave was dead silent.

The pitch-black sacred tree on the altar twisted and stretched wildly, like the twitching tentacles of a dying beast, frozen in mid-air. The countless bone bells hanging from it were silent and still, like withered bones frozen in time. Sulfur, corpses, decay, and an indescribable ancient chill, like a sticky gel, solidified every inch of the air.

The giant black iron sword that Qin Ming had chopped down hovered just inches away from the main trunk of the sacred tree! The cold light flickered from the sword's edge, illuminating the dark, twisted branches of the sacred tree and the look of disbelief and extreme horror on the withered face of the high priest beneath the altar, as if he had seen a ghost!

Everyone's eyes were as if pulled by invisible chains, nailed to the stretcher at the entrance of the cave!

Liu Yueli!

The body, which had long been cold and stiff, and as silent as a corpse buried deep in the frozen soil, seemed to be pierced by an invisible electric current after entering the depths of the cave filled with the strange aura of the sacred tree!

"Uh... huh..."

A faint, yet clear, hissing sound, like a ghost gasping in her ear, was squeezed out from the depths of her throat, which had long since stopped breathing! The sound was dry and broken, with an inhuman friction, as if rusty gears were forcibly turning!

Next!

On her chest! That piece of iron with animal patterns pressed against her heart, stained with her cold, dirty blood! Deep within those twisted, living animal patterns.

A faint, yet incredibly dazzling, dark golden light! Like a molten core awakened! Suddenly, it leaped and flickered!

The moment the light comes on!

“Buzz——!!!”

An invisible shockwave, carrying a mixed scent of sulfur, scorched earth, and ancient blood, suddenly spread out from the beast-patterned iron block! Like a stone dropped into a stagnant pool, it instantly shattered the cave's dead silence!

All the bent branches of the pitch-black sacred tree on the altar trembled violently, as if being grasped by an invisible giant hand! Then, an even more bizarre change occurred!

Near the roots of the sacred tree's trunk, buried deep among the piles of bones, a patch of bark covered in thick black moss sizzled under the glare of the beast-patterned iron block, as if corroded by strong acid. The moss quickly charred and peeled away, revealing beneath... a twisted, deeply indented pattern, as if branded—a beast-shaped pattern!

That pattern! The twisted outline! The ferocious angles! It was exactly the same as the pattern on the beast-patterned iron block on Liu Yueli's chest! As if they were carved from the same mold!

"Blood leads...same origin...alive...alive?!" The high priest's withered lips trembled violently, his black hole-like eye sockets stared at the dark golden light beating on Liu Yueli's chest, his hoarse voice carried unspeakable fear and...a hint of twisted fanaticism!

At the moment when the lines appear!

“Buzz——!!!”

The dark golden light pulsating deep within the beast-patterned iron block on Liu Yueli's chest suddenly burst into life! Like a volcano suppressed for eons finally erupting! An extremely subtle, yet condensed, dark golden beam, like a living venomous snake, suddenly shot out from the sharp corner of the beast-patterned iron block!

puff!

The beam ignored distance and pierced with incredible precision into the center of the homologous beast-shaped pattern revealed at the root of the altar tree!

“Sizzle!!!”

Like a red-hot iron pressed into grease! A sharp, corrosive sound instantly ripped through the dead silence! From the beast-shaped patterned area at the base of the sacred tree, where the dark golden beam had struck, a thick plume of black smoke, reeking of burnt sulfur and burning flesh, instantly rose! The hard, black wood seemed to be dissolved by a strong acid, rapidly collapsing inward and carbonizing!

“Ouch——!!!”

An inhuman scream of agony, as if emanating from the depths of Hell, erupted not from a single human mouth but from within the pitch-black sacred tree on the altar. The entire tree trembled violently!

All the still branches swung wildly! The hanging bone bells made a chaotic and harsh clanging sound! It was like the wailing of billions of dry bones!

A sticky, cold, dark purple liquid that exudes a strong smell of decay and despair, like pus and blood flowing from a punctured wound on a sacred tree, gurgled out from the collapsed hole at the root!