Paragon Of Sin

Chapter 1999 1991: Pack of Predators

A bloody scent permeated the Battlefield as the howl of apex savagery screeched through the air, land, and flesh of those still living and breathing.

”Stay alert!” Su Mei urgently warned with a solemn shout. She acted with decisive movements, yanking Tuo Bihan and Shui Fengbao into her hands via a strand of solidified light, then held both by the scruff of their collars, yet she didn’t care about their dignity in the slightest, nor could she afford to.

Yao Houyi’s response was silent and immediate. Not waiting for things to develop into an inescapable tragedy, faint silvery light surged across his skin and clothes, and without any fancy eruption of energy, his body faded into obscurity, becoming increasingly transparent until he vanished entirely.

Su Mei, with two in tow, flickered like an unstable light before the trio transformed into a blip of dusky light, disappearing entirely to the naked mortal eye like the final spark of a dying star.

The quartet of Prime Ascendants’ escaped.

And as they had, the danger rolled forth with savage ferocity. A dense flood of ghastly blood was released from the sanguine pillar, no longer contained as it crashed heavily into the earth, painting the ground a primal scarlet hue, while the ground rumbled as if countless heavy paws of predators stampeded through.

As the waves of ghastly blood flowed, surged, and splashed in every direction with reckless indifference, the cacophony of howls from numerous existences resounded as if it had replaced the sound of wind itself. At the center of this bloody chaos was a lone figure drenched in blood, forming a bloody silhouette that could shake the hearts of devils and demons.

The bloody figure was nude, lacking all semblance of clothes. Despite being covered in a thin layer of blood from crown to toe, their exquisitely tempered muscles were unmistakably perfect, containing a flawless mixture of elegance and savagery, seemingly sculpted by the divinity of hunters. With each step, the ghastly blood covering the ground vibrated in response, releasing the sonic frequency of a howl.

Standing there, eyes closed, hands clenched, and mouth closed, the bloody facial features of this man was undeniably good-looking carrying a masculine elegance, almost antithesis to savage looks, capable of bewitching the hearts of the fair, innocent maidens with ease.

Far away, the quartet of Prime Ascendants found their safety.

”WOAH!” Shui Fengbao stumbled as Su Mei released her hold on his collar, causing the Child of Fire to tumble onto his stomach, buttocks hanging in the air. ”Ouch...”

Tuo Bihan was unconscious.

Yao Houyi briefly glanced at Tuo Bihan’s condition, then glanced at Su Mei. The valiant woman gestured with her lone index finger at his sleeve while staring at the bloody man known as the Claws and Fangs of his Majesty. Yao Houyi’s ’gaze’ moved to his sleeve, only for his expression to pale immediately. A strand of ghastly blood energy lingered, eating at his innate defenses, attempting to devour him whole.

With a harsh slap, he squashed the strand with the flat of his hand, hurriedly clenching his fist, and exerting extraordinary strength. Despite his attempts to rely on his strength, the strand of ghastly blood energy released faint howls of defiance and resistance, refusing to disperse. Seeing its tenacity, Yao Houyi’s blindfold crunched slightly around his eyes, and a faint sound of a pull of a bowstring followed by a twang of a loose arrow resounded like muted thunder in his clenched fist.

A faint howl of pain originating from a hunted predator turned prey, resulting in the destruction of the strand of ghastly blood energy. Upon achieving this, a faint expression of relief settled on his lips.

”Move!” Su Mei kicked out. Yao Houyi reacted, suppressing his instincts to resist, and allowed the kick to strike his abdomen with precision. He was shot outwards like a cannonball, blasted across three miles in an instant, barely relying on his control of mana to decelerate. Upon looking back, his body already in the form of an archer’s stance, wielding an unseen bow as a faint illusory outline of an arrow’s tail settled on his finger tips, Yao Houyi aimed at a single figure!

The bloody man!

Where Yao Houyi once were, the spatial stability was rent by claw marks and shredded by fang holes, as if where he previously stood was the victim of a canine attack. The sight was disturbing to perceive, like looking at an unnatural hole in a beautiful painting.

Shui Fengbao’s body was entirely composed of flames. His innate self-preservation spell was automatically initiated despite only being affected by the fact of being in proximity and not its target. The fiery form lasted briefly before he regained his true form. The shock in his blazing eyes was apparent for the heavens to see.

Su Mei held Tuo Bihan on her shoulder, carrying him like a sack of potatoes, only a few feet away from the spatial carnage before her. She wasn’t its target, and the precision of the attack was indescribably accurate, not harming anything in the surroundings. This only amplified the disturbing quality of the attack in her mind.

”Carnage, what a terrifying law...” Su Mei softly commented as Yao Houyi held the bloody man in his sights, ready to unleash his arrow. The tension in the air was rising.

Su Mei turned to the bloody man, her black eyes gleaming with spiritual light. ”Do not disappoint him,” she stated flatly. In the tense air, savage killing intent was clashing invisibly with a cold, piercing killing intent. Upon those words echoing out, the two clashing killing intents faded as if snow melting beneath the fiery blaze of a Solar Star.

Su Mei looked toward the incoming Soldiers of War in formation, readying to launch an offensive. They were observing, their formation shifting as they absorbed the qualities of that savage force that were making calculations in regards to how to combat it with lightning-like speed. She could sense how their spiritual auras were conjoined, using their Minor Law Aura to imbue itself into the three dimensions of space to restrict such a fast attack.

However, she found such preparations, while commendable, utterly useless in purpose. After all, Wei Wuyin was unaware of his Claws and Fangs true strength. All these years, he had provided all the necessary components for great, unrivaled success in cultivation, yet he rarely oversaw the intimate details of their various powers, and while this was only a recent development since his expedition across the stars, his former diligence of assisting them deeply only contained partial information.

This wasn’t negligence but freedom. After a certain point, the assistance that an alchemist can offer in shaping a cultivator’s path was limited, and they instead focused more on amplifying their good qualities of said path, minimizing the obstacles on its path, or eliminating the faults that their path generated as a result of impurities or imperfections.

An example of this could be retroactively bestowing a World-Bound Star Domain or assisting the creation of a Mystic Idol most compatible with their cultivation base.

The bloody man finally took a single breath. When that breath was inhaled, all the bloody aura of the world seemed to be following the commands of its alpha existence, directly moving toward him without resistance. The ghastly blood and its sanguine hue painting the skies was withdrawn in an instant.

The sight caused Yao Houyi, Shui Fengbao, and Su Mei’s eyes to widen. Tuo Bihan’s unconscious state was directly dispelled as his eyes opened, a primal fear existing within his gaze. That fear was immediately crushed by an overbearing light of berserking dominance, and he lifted his head to observe the cause of it all.

No longer was the man covered in blood. Instead, he was clean, garbed in loose, casually-worn white robes, bare-footed, with seemingly flawless skin and muscles. All of the sanguine color of the world seemed to be absorbed into his eyes, reflecting a pure primal presence that could shake the foundation of the mind.

From his long fingers and small toes were one-inch nails that resembled extended claws, a true representation of his identity, especially after he licked his lips lightly, exposing sharp, incisive fangs.

The Legion of War was observant yet proactive, never once holding back in formulating an offensive given the time afforded to them by their enemy.

Shui Fengbao’s eyes focused. Tuo Bihan and himself had to exert all their strength to claim victory, yet Su Mei had claimed victory in a single moment. Would this be a protracted fight testing his strength or a brief one?

However, what the man did next was entirely unexpected!

Exhaling out that breath, he lifted his head back and let loose a HOWL!!! The sound pierced through the sky and earth, causing mana to quiver, space to tremble, and time to distort. And then, from beneath his feet, as if coming to the call of a superior existence, bloody shadows extended from his feet and stretched for tens of thousands of miles.

The Legion of War acted decisively, establishing a segregating platform of mystic power between the ground and themselves. However, as the bloody shadows extended, an utterly unimaginable scene occurred as the sky contained reflections of these shadows!

It was as if the ground had become a light-bearing existence across the heavens! Tainting its presence with its will!!

And from these blood shadows, sanguine forms began to condense and protrude in what felt as if from every direction. Within an instant, the forms gained definitive shape, taking on the identity of canines of all breeds, big and small, and each one contained a predator’s heart that glowed like a star within them!

”What...the...” Shui Fengbao’s eyes widened as he saw the world change, feeling like a prey trapped in a cage. And this cage didn’t just exist from space or time, but the endless void itself!

The Legion of War’s commander shouted as they got into a defensive formation, already devising ways to shatter this domain-like existence.

However, Su Mei knew this wasn’t a domain. Her heart was, for the first time, pounding violently in her chest.

Countless eyes, potentially millions, no, perhaps billions across tens of thousands of miles were honed onto them from every direction, from the surface of the ground, to the canine shadows that extended from them, to the sky, the air, and even light itself! The endless eyes and forms of greedy predators descended upon them.

Then, Zuhei, the Fangs and Claws of the Neo-Dawn Ascendant Emperor, spoke out a single word that could send shivers down the spines of divinities:

”Hunt.”

HOWL!!!