The frantic laughter of the Dark Iron Masked Man echoed through the thick fog. The sound waves, laden with chilling malice, caused Shen Mingyue’s ears to ring as if countless tiny steel needles were churning within her ear canals. Suddenly, the bronze lamps around the altar erupted with a blinding, ghostly green light. Within this radiance, the twisted outlines of human faces faintly emerged—some snarling and roaring, others grinning eerily—casting the entire battlefield into the semblance of a hellish netherworld. The bodies of the children suspended in mid-air began to crack; the sickening sound of snapping bones was enough to set one’s teeth on edge. Black Gu Insects crawled out from their wounds, dense as a surging black tide. They piled upon one another, weaving into a massive, sky-blocking web of insects that descended upon the two warriors. The rustling sound of the insects’ movement was like the whisper of the Reaper himself.
Gu Jinghong’s long sword was already notched, the blade covered in dark, corrosive marks that spoke of the ferocity of the previous skirmishes. He slashed toward the insect web, and wherever his sword energy passed, the Gu Insects burst into foul-smelling, ink-green fluid. As the liquid dripped onto the ground, it instantly etched out small, smoking pits. Yet, the swarm was as relentless as the tide, seemingly impossible to kill. His arms trembled from overexertion, his muscles aching to the point of near-numbness. Every swing of his blade was a…
Chapter 143