The slaughter continued from the daylight until the night of the eighth day, and below that small hill, fresh blood gathered into a river.
The youth was still swinging his sword.
The tide of people was still charging.
The blood-colored pillar of light grew even thicker, lighting up the battlefield in the dark night.
On the floating leaderboard, the number for the first-place ranking had jumped from the previous thirty thousand to over fifty thousand...
Chi Ji wanted to help.
So she shrank back into the bone bowl to bind all those people Bai Mang had just thrown in...
Time reached the ninth day, and on that hillside, corpses had piled up into a mountain.
Subsequent beings continued to surge forward.
Those who were originally just watching the spectacle couldn't hold back any longer and joined in.
They thought to themselves that he had been killing for nearly a day.
Even if Bai Mang wasn't killed, he would surely be exhausted to death.
The killing shouts continued for another full day. When the dark night descended again, the stream of blood at the foot of the mountain became a river.
The charred wasteland was soaked into a muddy mess by the blood.
On the leaderboard, the points for the top spot were as high as over ninety thousand...
The beings deep within the tide of people perhaps didn't feel much, their hot blood still flowing with a burst of solitary courage.
Driven by desire, they charged forward one after another...
But those who chose to watch from the sidelines were completely numb, the shock in their eyes not dissipating for a long time.
From their perspective, they no longer saw just a sea of people or just the jumping numbers on the leaderboard.
There was also that mountain.
A mountain of corpses piled high. Even in the dark night, one could see that mountain emitting a blood-colored glow.
The blood river at the foot of the mountain grew wider, and the smell of blood in the wind grew stronger.
Is Bai Mang dead?
The answer was unknown.
Because they couldn't see the situation inside at all. The only thing they could see was a beam of blood-colored light shooting straight into the sky, with countless crowds swarming toward it.
Perhaps Bai Mang had long since died.
Perhaps the blood light had already changed hands.
And the first place on the leaderboard had long been constantly rotating.
Someone killed Bai Mang and inherited the points.
Then that person was killed by someone else, and another inherited the points.
Only, no matter who it was, even if they snatched it, they simply couldn't break out.
Of course, Bai Mang might also still be alive.
It was only a possibility.
It wasn't that they underestimated Bai Mang, but they couldn't imagine how a person could survive under such circumstances.
Perhaps only Lu Yuan could tell everyone with certainty that yes, Bai Mang was still alive.
The reason?
Because he himself wasn't dead.
Just like when Xia Chu Yi and the others asked if Xu Xian was also in that pile of people fighting, he only replied that he didn't know.
And when they asked if Xu Xian would be alright, he only said three words.
"Still alive."
The reason was because he himself wasn't dead.
It was the same logic.
...
Actually, those beings charging toward the mountaintop also didn't know if Bai Mang was still alive.
Maybe in their subconscious, they also assumed Bai Mang was dead.
The killing shouts up there were just a chaotic battle among the myriad beings.
No one is forever first, but there will always be someone in first place.
So they squeezed upward desperately, squeezed upward madly, with only the desire for the Emperor's Tomb inheritance and greed for that pillar of light in their eyes.
Charge up, get close to it, and then strike. It would belong to them.
This was their only chance, the only opportunity in their lives to change their destiny against the heavens.
Before, they might not have had a chance.
Now, they believed they had an opening...
Who cared about the mud beneath their feet or the blood flowing like a waterfall?
Who cared about the corpses beneath their feet, piled up like a mountain?
Even if they saw that person after charging up, they would still rush forward without hesitation.
Because what they saw was only a man covered in blood.
A man soaked in blood, covered in wounds.
That striking ten-colored long hair had turned a brownish-red, and that peerless face was hidden behind the gore.
In their eyes, he wasn't Bai Mang, but a dying man, a massive opportunity enough to change one's destiny.
And so...
The early arrivals fell, and the newcomers were unceasing.
Corpses piled upon corpses, and the mountain rose higher until, at a certain moment, it was nearly level with that bone bowl...
They were no longer climbing a mountain, but crawling up a peak made of bodies.
Until the blood sun reappeared, until the burial ground grew bright, until the first place points on that crimson leaderboard reached over a hundred thousand...
The corpses were piled up to that skull, and the fresh blood flowed backward into the bone.
The geniuses inside the bone no longer saw just the blood-colored light.
Instead, they saw a hazy figure standing there.
Tirelessly swinging the long sword in his hand, hacking and slashing down every figure that charged up one after another...
First, blood overflowed inside.
Then, corpses rolled in.
But that blood-colored figure swinging the sword never once fell...
Before, they couldn't see it.
Now, they did.
Their already numb nerves were stimulated once again. Staring at him, their sea of consciousness shook.
In a certain moment, they felt a silent sense of relief.
They thought to themselves, 'Losing to such a person was no disgrace.'
It was only natural.
They were completely convinced.
...
When the tenth day arrived, that high mountain of stacked corpses seemed to reach a certain tipping point.
Suddenly, the mountain of corpses collapsed!
The blood-colored mountain crashed down like a mudslide with a thunderous boom.
As the ground shook and the mountain swayed, countless corpses rolled in all directions, taking the living people climbing the mountainside with them.
Rolling down... being buried... sweeping away everything.
In that instant, the people charging felt fear for the first time and retreated for the first time...
"The mountain is collapsing!"
"Retreat quickly!"
"Save me..."
The collapse of the corpse mountain was like the power of nature, venting its anger upon the world. The beings who had lost their cultivation were instantly defeated before it.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The mourning wind howled, and blood rain splashed. When everything settled, what met the eye was a sea of corpses.
The world went silent.
The tide of people froze.
For the first time, they experienced what kind of spectacle a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood truly was.
The first reaction in their minds was to ask themselves: how could so many people have died?
Reason suppressed impulse once again, and fear replaced desire once more.
They either swallowed hard, their hands trembled, or they couldn't help but retreat.
Those in front stopped charging, and those behind also came to a halt.
After two days, the tide of people once again calmly observed the current situation.
Their gazes converged on one spot, looking at that blood-colored mound.
Below the mound were corpses that could no longer be piled up. Occasionally, one could see someone struggling to crawl out from the heap of bodies, letting out low groans and painful wails...
On the mound, Bai Mang's bone bowl was still there, but the snow-white bone was stained deep crimson.
Inside the bone, dozens of blood-colored lights shot into the sky.
Outside the bone, an even larger pillar of blood reached the clouds.
And in the center of that blackish-red blood pillar stood a man, a man soaked in blood.
His hair hung down, dripping wet.
The clothes at his cuffs and pant legs were in tatters. The blood-soaked armor and his skin were almost glued together.
He stood there with his head lowered, a sword in his hand, the blade pointing down at his side.
At the hilt, fresh blood slid down the length of the blade.
Finally... drip, drip, drip... it fell.
The world was silent, and all living beings held their breath...
Staring at him fixedly.
"He..."
"Who is he?"
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