Chapter 443: Blood Washed
Qudong City was a medium-sized city in the eastern part of the Lushan Kingdom. The population numbered about 200,000.
Due to the traffic and the river back to the mountains, the weather was smooth. People in the city had been living and working in peace. No matter what, it always seemed to be lively.
However, at this time, several of the original busy streets seemed quiet. Only a few of the shops were open.
At the gates of the city were two defenders. They were old, guarding the gates with two spears in their hands and an uneasy look on their faces.
"Elder Huang, have you heard about the rumour? Four cities recently have suddenly become ghost towns. In just one night, the residents all disappeared..." a hunchbacked guard said to his partner.
"That's impossible! Elder Lee, I heard from others that the people of the four cities were eaten by the demon!" Elder Huang looked over his shoulder in horror as he spoke.
Elder Lee was beyond shocked and replied, "Devil? Are you sure...? It's no surprise. A lot of people from richer families took their families out of the city yesterday. So many of them have left. Do you think maybe we should leave, or..."
"Hey, enough with the nonsense," Elder Huang quickly interrupted.
"Should we go back and pack up...? I'd like to go back and pack up..."
"Oh... To be honest, if the demon is really coming, there isn't any place I could even hide. If we hide at the towns nearby, there wouldn't be any difference. Look at what happened to them. I think it's best if I just surrender myself to fate," Elder Huang said as he shook his head.
Just when the two were conversing, clouds suddenly covered the clear sky. It was unknown when but it had now appeared in the sky above Qudong City.
This cloud was surprisingly large and at first glance, it was almost impossible to see the end of it. In the blink of an eye, all of Qudong City became gloomy and dark.
"This weather sure does changed abruptly when it wants to, huh?"
Elder Lee's mouth showed a dissatisfied expression as he kept a tight grip on his spear and walked a few steps. When he looked up at the sky, he was left stunned and could not speak for a long time.
The huge cloud covering Qudong City quickly became red and bloody, like a large group of fire clouds.
The strange red light made the originally dark and faint Qudong City look like it was soaked in blood, giving off a very eerie feeling.
"Elder Huang, you... you better come take a look at this..." Elder Lee finally reacted and called upon Elder Huang.
His words were not finished when somewhere in the middle of the overcast cloud...
Whoosh!
Two lantern-sized golden lights suddenly brightened, the clouds reflecting their light.
Blood-like mist emerged from the red clouds, blown by the wind. It turned into countless thin wisps of smoke, scattering with the spring breeze.
At the gate of the city, the red mist quickly plunged into the nose of Elder Lee and his body began to flinch as if possessed. His entire body instantly became red and his skin festered, turning into fuzzy flesh separated from his skeleton. It rose above, leaving only a pair of white bones on the ground.
"Elder Lee, you..."
The hunchbacked Elder Huang screamed and accidentally inhaled the mist into his nose. His body crumpled like Elder Lee, and he too was soon reduced to bones.
As the bloody mist fell upon the city, groups of flesh and blood fluttered about in the thousands.
In the middle of the mist that swayed Qudong City, a violent rumble could be heard as a huge bloody vortex emerged. The middle of the vortex was incomparably dark.
The vague flesh and blood over the floating pool of the group was drawn into the black hole in the center of the vortex and disappeared silently.
"Who is doing this?"
Not far from the city, several flying red boats roared. An old man in a brown robe who was on the first boat shouted loudly.
On each red-colored flying boat were seven or eight young Taoist priests. Looking at the situation ahead, they looked slightly different.
They were the largest Taoist order, Qinglin Sect of Qudong City. They were a side branch of the Transcending Heaven Immortal Cult. After witnessing a strange appearance in the air and quickly rushed over in time to catch a glimpse of the horror.
The whole city was now filled with a disgusting bloody mist. The white bones piled up in the city and there was still a vague mass of flesh and blood rising from the sky into the dark clouds.
"Prisoner of the demon!"
The old man in the brown robe smashed his eyes and screamed. The figure flew from the red flying boat and his fingers pointed like a sword within the clouds.
A gray sword appeared from behind it, rising into the sky, bursting out a long, clear sound. Under the tremor, it turned into dozens of gray flying swords that rushed at the mist.
Behind them, the young disciples saw the situation. The flying red boats dispersed and opened up. They began to rush out of the flag array and started arranging it.
However, something had stunned them in their tracks.
The brown-robed old man shot hundreds of gray flying swords into the sky. As the swords touched the huge bloody cloud in the air, they fell into the sea.
He was so horrified that he did not dare to make another move. Suddenly, a buzzing sound began to whistle within the bloody of the cloud.
Two blood-colored fog arrows flew out of the dark clouds toward the old man at lightning speed. Almost like teleportation, it quickly pierced his body.
The old man suddenly became stiff and his face went from red to white. His body trembled and he could not move.
"Elder Mo Zhang!"
The other disciples of Qinglin Sect looked at each other.
"Hurry... Get away...!"
The old man in brown managed only those few words, to the point that his face became red. His whole body festered, turning into a sloppy mess of flesh and blood, smashing out from the neckline and flying toward the blood cloud vortex in midair. Only the bones wrapped in a brown robe fell from the air.
The scene left the disciples of the Qinglin Sect stunned and confused!
The old man may have looked ordinary, but he was in fact one the three elders of the sect. Their mastery earned every disciple's respect. Sadly, no matter how powerful and strong he was, he was no match for this bloody cloud.
Within the various cities and towns that the huge blood cloud passed by, there were some well-known families that could compete with it, but in the end there was only one result. Every single one of them would have ended up the same as the brown-robed elder, reduced to flesh and blood.
By the evening, there was no living creature in Qudong City. In addition to the numerous white bones of different sizes piled up inside the city, there were dozens of scattered brown bones wrapped around the city.
The bloody vortex had already disappeared but the huge cloud still remained. It was more red and dense than the first time. A pile of minced meat mixed with blood could be seen from a distance with the naked eye.
This blood-stained mist intertwined in the tumbling, twisting into a pair of blood-colored hemp ropes and then entangled with each other into a thicker blood rope.
As a strand of strong blood ropes entangled and constantly kinked, it eventually formed into a long snake with a thickness of more than ten feet.
From the appearance of the long snake, it was very similar to a giant python that has just peeled off its skin. The red blood beads condensed on the body seemed to be condensed into a line at any time but they never fell.
On the head of the snake, there were two golden eyes that were the size of a lantern. The golden light flew in but there was not much anger.
At this moment, in the pair of dead golden eyes, it suddenly brightened. The bloody red clouds gathered around the cage and it rapidly swayed like whales sucking in water.
With the fading of the fog, the body of the snake solidified slightly. Under its belly appeared four protrusions like claws.
The golden light in the eyes of the snake grew brighter as its eyelids lifted. The light formed into a golden scale.
As the golden light's range expanded, the fan-shaped gold scales lined up in a row, spreading like a wave to the tail of the long snake.
At the same time, the remaining blood cloud rotated faster, gradually enriching the snake.
Urg...
After a long while, a low draconic sound rang and the blood cloud on Qudong City finally collapsed. A golden dragon with a length of more than ten feet slid out of its center. After a while in the air, its whole body glowed with golden light.
When the golden light was collected, the original golden dragon disappeared and was replaced by a burly golden-robed man.
The man in the golden robe had a middle-aged appearance. He was none other than the master of the golden jiao serpent.
One of the ancestors took a shot and a huge golden light handprint flew out, slamming into the Qudong Tower.
Bang!
The dust from the gravel filled the entire city gate and Qudong tower collapsed.
"These flesh-and-blood remodelings can only be restored to such a degree," Ao Zu muttered to himself.
After the ancestors finished, they closed their eyes again and cursed silently. Their eyes began to roll sharply under his eyelids.
After a while, he opened his eyes and sneered.
"Hey, forcing one's body to exude an excessive amount of blood essence is a joke. I'll see what tricks you have up your sleeves!"
The man in the golden robe transformed into a ray of fold light and flew away in the direction of the East Sea.