“Countdown, five minutes. All personnel evacuate the launch silo.”
Engineers hurried out, and the lights in the launch silo began to flicker. Red warning lights rotated, and a piercing alarm echoed through the cavernous space.
“Countdown, one minute.
“Three, two, one...
“Ignition!”
The engines at the base suddenly flared to life. Blinding blue-white flames surged from the nozzles, illuminating the bottom of the launch silo as if it were broad daylight.
The deafening roar made the entire shelter tremble. Jiang Lin could feel the metal floor beneath his feet vibrating violently.
The rocket slowly ascended. At first, it was slow, like a clumsy giant struggling to break free from the earth's shackles.
Then it moved faster and faster, trailing a long plume of exhaust as it burst through the launch silo, pierced the clouds, and soared toward the dark red sky.
Jiang Lin looked up, watching the light grow smaller until it vanished from his sight, a strange feeling welling up in his heart.
The Shadow of Blood had left.
“First stage separation. Second stage ignition. Altitude eighty kilometers, velocity one point two kilometers per second.”
Zero's voice continued the broadcast, carrying a hint of imperceptible tension.
“Second stage separation. Third stage ignition. Altitude one hundred and fifty kilometers, velocity six kilometers per second. Breaking through the atmosphere.”
On the holographic screen, the rocket's trajectory became increasingly clear.
He could feel the contractual link with the Shadow of Blood weakening—not breaking, but being obstructed by something.
It was the world shackles.
“Third stage separation. Payload bay has entered the predetermined orbit. Altitude thirty-six thousand kilometers, velocity three point zero seven kilometers per second. Ark One space station has captured the payload bay. Docking successful.”
Muffled cheers broke out over the intercom.
Jiang Lin closed his eyes, sinking his entire mind into the contractual link with the Shadow of Blood.
It was an unprecedented sensation.
The Shadow of Blood was no longer suppressed by that invisible ceiling. Its power began to climb uncontrollably, like floodwaters bursting through a dam, surging frantically through the vacuum.
The limit of the 3rd-rank peak was easily broken. 4th-rank, mid 4th-rank, 4th-rank peak...
Only when the Shadow of Blood's power stabilized at the 4th-rank peak did Jiang Lin realize he had been holding his breath.
He exhaled a long breath and opened his eyes.
“It's a success.”
Hearing his words, Zero stood beside him, his aged eyes glistening with tears.
“For three hundred years, this is the first time anyone has broken through those shackles.”
“It's only the beginning.” Jiang Lin turned and walked out of the launch silo. “Next, it's time to make it even stronger.”
In the days that followed, Planet Teluofuto fell into a feverish rhythm.
Every day, new rockets launched from the Ark shelter's silos, sending shipment after shipment of Blood Demons into space.
Those 3rd-rank elite Blood Demons were packed tightly into the payload bays, their crimson eyes staring through the portholes at the shrinking planet. Waiting for them was the consumption by the Shadow of Blood within the space station.
The war on the ground continued as well.
Jiang Lin divided the 1.5 million Blood Demons into three routes, launching a simultaneous assault from the western edge of the Corrupted Plains, crossing the narrow strait to land on the West Continent.
The sights on the West Continent were even more horrifying than those on the East Continent.
The sky here was a congealed dark red, like a clotted scab.
The ground was covered in crystallized material several meters thick, and every step kicked up viscous, polluted liquid.
The air was thick with the stench of rot and the metallic sweetness of rust. One could feel the pollution energy crawling through their nasal passages, throat, and lungs with every breath.
But the Blood Demon Legion didn't care.
They advanced across the crystallized material, crimson claw-wings circling at low altitudes, Bloodblade Butchers marching in formation on the ground, and the curses of the cursed blood bone dolls detonating one after another among the enemy ranks.
Aberrants swarmed from all directions. While they were fewer in number than on the East Continent, their individual strength far surpassed them.
5th-rank Aggregates were common here, and 6th-rank ones were not rare.
They were as large as mountains, their bodies covered in ink-black crystallized carapaces, and the crystals on their backs emitted suffocating waves of pollution.
But before the sheer numbers of the Blood Demon Legion, everything was merely a matter of time.
1.5 million against 500,000—a three-to-one advantage.
Furthermore, the Blood Demon Legion was receiving supplies from the East Continent every moment. The remains of the Aggregates devoured by the Sea of Blood were continuously converted into new Blood Demons and thrown into the meat grinder of the West Continent.
The battle in space was proceeding simultaneously.
Inside the Ark One space station, the Shadow of Blood was frantically devouring the Blood Demons sent up to it.
Its power climbed at a staggering speed—from 4th-rank peak to 5th-rank, from 5th-rank to 5th-rank peak, and from 5th-rank peak to 6th-rank.
Every day, rockets launched, sending new Blood Demons into space.
Every day, the Shadow of Blood grew stronger.
Meanwhile, Jiang Lin commanded the steady advance of the Blood Demon Legion on the ground.
He no longer took to the field himself. Instead, he stood in the rear, controlling the entire situation through the mental link of the Bloodspeakers.
Every movement of the 1.5 million Blood Demons appeared clearly in his consciousness, and the outcome of every battle was within his calculations.
The campaign on the West Continent lasted for two full months.
The Blood Demon Legion pushed westward from their landing point, paying a heavy price for every step forward.
However, the remains of the fallen Blood Demons were quickly devoured by the Sea of Blood and converted into new combat forces.
The number of Blood Demons did not decrease but instead rose, growing from 1.5 million to 2 million, then to 2.5 million.
By the fourth week, the Blood Demon Legion had advanced to the center of the West Continent.
The pollution concentration here was so high that even the Blood Demons began to feel uncomfortable, and the number of 6th-rank Aggregates increased.
Yet, Jiang Lin's army of Blood Demons still managed to grind them down through sheer numerical superiority.
By the time the Shadow of Blood's power broke through to the 6th-rank peak, the campaign on the West Continent was nearing its end.
The 2.5 million Blood Demons had advanced to the westernmost tip of the West Continent, less than three hundred kilometers from the nest of the evil god Mozos.
That was the place where the pollution on the entire continent was most intense.
The dark red sky light turned into pure darkness here, and the pollution in the air was so thick it had almost solidified.
The ground was covered in a thick layer of crystallized material, with countless tentacles emerging from the earth, writhing slowly in the darkness.
Jiang Lin stood atop a derelict signal tower, his golden eyes gazing into that darkness.
He could feel an unimaginably massive existence slumbering in the deepest depths of the dark.
Its every breath made the entire continent tremble slightly, and its every heartbeat caused the pollution energy to ebb and flow like a tide.
That was the Life-Devouring Black Goat · Mozos.
The evil god that had been sucking the life out of this planet for three hundred years.
“It's time to end this.”
Jiang Lin leaped from the signal tower. The moment he landed, the Sea of Blood surged out from beneath his feet.
This time, he held nothing back.
The remains of all the fallen Blood Demons on the West Continent battlefield, all the shredded chunks of the Aberrants, and all the black pus and dark red blood flowing through the ruins were drawn by him, converging toward his feet.
That flesh-and-blood energy was like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea, surging into that crimson void before being reshaped.
One thousand, five thousand, ten thousand...
By the time the last batch of Blood Demons struggled out of the Sea of Blood, the legion's numbers had surpassed three million.
Furthermore, Jiang Lin, who was chugging magic restoration potions to recover his mental power, continued to summon Blood Demons at maximum speed.
Three million Blood Demons stood in formation outside the evil god's nest.
Crimson claw-wings blotted out half the sky, their bone wings spread like a boundless dark red cloud.
Bloodblade Butchers stood in ranks on the ground, their four arms hanging low, their bone blades gleaming coldly in the darkness.
Cursed blood bone dolls hovered in the center of the formation, their tiny bones trembling slightly in the wind, the blood-red runes on their bodies shimmering like stars.
Three hundred kilometers away, the evil god finally woke up.
The earth began to quake, and the tentacles reaching down from the sky began to writhe frantically. The pollution in the air became so thick it nearly turned solid.
Deep within the darkness of the distant sky, a pair of massive, dark golden eyes slowly opened.
Jiang Lin stood at the very front of the Blood Demon Legion, his long golden hair fluttering in the polluted wind.
He raised his right hand and pointed toward the darkness.
“Attack.”
Three million Blood Demons moved simultaneously.
From the ground to the sky, from east to west, the blood-colored torrent swept across the land and sky, tearing gap after gap into that eternal darkness.
Jiang Lin stood in the air, the Eight Extremities Holy Sword condensing in his palm, its white-gold blade wreathed in deep blue ice soul power.
He did not rush to the front. Instead, he hovered in mid-air, his golden eyes piercing the darkness to stare at the massive, dark golden eyes slowly opening in the sky.
The earth shook violently as the tentacles extending from the sky began to writhe madly.
Each tentacle was hundreds of meters thick, its surface covered in pitch-black crystallized carapace. Dark red, lava-like fluid flowed through the gaps in the carapace.
As the tentacles pulled up from the ground, they brought with them a storm of crystal dust and rubble, looking like the end of the world.
“Gnaw on the main roots.”
Jiang Lin's voice reached the depths of every Blood Demon's consciousness through the mental link of the Bloodspeakers.
Three million Blood Demons turned simultaneously, pouncing on the massive tentacles emerging from the darkness.
The crimson claw-wings were the first to arrive. They tucked their bone wings and dove like blood-colored meteors, slamming hard into the surface of the tentacles.
Bone claws tore through the carapaces, and bone wings sliced through flesh. Dark red fluid erupted like fountains, freezing into eerie crystals in the vacuum.
The Bloodblade Butchers followed closely behind.
They climbed up the torn wounds, their four arms swinging like wheels as their bone blades plowed deep, bone-exposing furrows into the tentacles.
The bone spikes on their backs fired repeatedly, and blood crystals detonated deep within the wounds, blowing the internal tissues of the tentacles to shreds.
Cursed blood bone dolls hovered around the tentacles, their tiny skeletal fingers rising in unison as blood-red runes exploded one after another on the tentacles' surfaces.
Those runes marked the weakest nodes of the tentacles, guiding the crimson claw-wings and Bloodblade Butchers to concentrate their attacks.
The evil god finally launched its first active attack.
It was a shockwave that acted directly upon the soul.
An invisible ripple radiated outward from those massive dark golden eyes. Everywhere it passed, the air distorted and trembled.
Three million Blood Demons froze simultaneously, the blood-colored light on their bodies fluctuating violently. Hundreds of thousands of rank-2 Blood Demons lost consciousness in the impact and fell from the sky.
But even more Blood Demons surged forward from behind.
They knew no fear and no hesitation; they simply mechanically executed Jiang Lin's orders.
Gnaw on the tentacles, gnaw on the flesh, gnaw on every inch of the evil god's body.
The fragments of the shredded tentacles fell into the Sea of Blood, where they were quickly devoured, transformed, and turned into new Blood Demons to be thrown back into the battlefield.
Time passed slowly, and the number of the three-million-strong Blood Demon Legion did not decrease but rose during the battle.
3.5 million, 4 million, 4.5 million...
The evil god finally realized that these ants weren't just attacking it—they were eating it.
Its dark golden eyes turned toward Jiang Lin, and for the first time, anger appeared in its gaze.
More tentacles emerged from the darkness. This time, they were not thick main roots but countless fine tentacles as thin as hair, resembling blood vessels.
They swarmed from all directions, attempting to entwine the Blood Demons that were gnawing on the main roots.
The curses of the cursed blood bone dolls exploded among those fine tentacles, blasting them into a mist of blood.
But there were too many of them—dense and packed together like a rainstorm or a locust plague.
Jiang Lin frowned and raised his right hand, palm facing down.
The Sea of Blood surged.
This time, he wasn't just recycling remains. He actively drew upon the polluted flesh and blood that had accumulated deep within the West Continent for three hundred years.
The energy that the evil god had sucked for three centuries and converted into Aberrants, the oil-like dark red liquid deposited deep underground—everything was drawn by the Sea of Blood and converged beneath his feet.
Then, he released it all at once.
Five hundred thousand brand-new Blood Demons struggled out of the Sea of Blood and pounced on the fine tentacles.
They weren't there to fight; they were there for a suicidal interception.
Crimson claw-wings used their bodies to block the piercing tentacles, Bloodblade Butchers used their bone blades to sever one tentacle after another, and cursed blood bone dolls self-destructed in the middle of the swarms, blowing everything around them to pieces.
The defensive line stabilized once more.
However, Jiang Lin's face was now as pale as paper.
The continuous large-scale summoning had nearly exhausted his mental power. He took out several bottles of magic restoration potions and downed them. The bitter liquid went down his throat, turning into warm energy that flowed through his body.
It still wasn't enough.
He looked up toward the sky.
There, thirty-six thousand kilometers above, inside the Ark One space station, the Shadow of Blood was waiting.
Jiang Lin closed his eyes, sinking his mind into the contractual link with the Shadow of Blood.
It was a wondrous sensation, as if he could "see" the Shadow of Blood's current state.
It hovered silently in the center of the space station, its body wreathed in thick blood-colored mist. Its golden eyes were tightly closed, waiting for his command.
“It's your turn.”
With a thought from Jiang Lin.
Thirty-six thousand kilometers above, the Shadow of Blood snapped its eyes open.
It burst out of the space station. There was no rocket, no spaceship—it flew through the vacuum with its physical body alone.
The power of the 6th-rank peak surged within it, warping the surrounding vacuum into ripples.
Following a pre-calculated trajectory, it plummeted straight toward the physical body of the evil god Mozos in space.
Then, it smashed into Mozos's body.
Not a tentacle, not a clone, but the main body.
Those massive dark golden eyes widened suddenly, and the evil god let out its first true scream since its birth.
That scream was not one of pain, but of fury.
It had never expected such a vermin to actually enter its body.
Once the Shadow of Blood entered the main body, it began a frantic devouring.
It devoured from the inside, from the core, from the most fundamental source.
It turned into a blood-colored vortex, spinning and expanding within the evil god's body, pulling all surrounding flesh, energy, and even the soul into itself.
This was the method Jiang Lin used whenever he needed to copy other creatures.
...
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