The talisman emitted a small round ball of energy which rapidly expanded and became an invisible gravitational field, trapping Lu Qianhuan.

The elder’s hysterical laughter became muffled then turned completely silent. His body was held in place with his mouth open. Being suddenly frozen by Ye Wei’s mysterious technique he was utterly shocked.

The energy inside Lu Qianhuan stopped flowing and the red mist around him quickly dispersed.

“Die!” Ye Wei yelled as he fired thirty-six Qi swords all at once, aimed at the elder’s chest.

Ye Wei used the talisman even knowing that charging it up again would be difficult and time consuming. However, the fearsome energy he felt in the blood mist made this an easy decision.

“Bang!”

The merged Qi swords explosively penetrated the elder’s body. Although frozen, Lu Qianhuan could still feel pain, and his face turned pale as the left side of his chest burst open.

‘B*stard!! You have no idea what you’ve done!...’ Lu Qianhuan thought to himself as the talisman’s effect start to fade.

“Hahaha! The whole city will now perish because of you, Ye Wei!” Lu Qianhuan screamed as he slowly stood up. His eyes were dim and lifeless, his rib cage empty.

Ye Wei gasped for air as he witnessed the terrifying sight. Shivering in fear, he took a few steps back.

The young Runemaster, was completely surprised, while Lu Qianhuan seemed to be at peace, welcomed his death.

After his breakthrough to the returned prime level, the elder decided to explore one of the three forbidden grounds. The royals had no policies stopping people from entering the three areas, but it was known to the dynasty that going to these areas was just asking for death. Regardless, many cultivators were still confident enough to dive into the danger zones in the hopes of finding rare treasures.

The Bloodtear Isles were a conglomeration of desert islands scattered within the inland sea, and this elder was one of the few who had managed to survive the savagery of those islands and lived to tell his tale.

On one of the islands, Lu Qianhuan caught a rare blood parasite. Driven crazy by the excruciating pain, he bore his own heart out hoping to stop the agony. Just when he was about to die from blood loss, a carnivorous demonic lotus took him by suprise and consumed his heart.

The blood lotus then settled into the elder’s body using him as a host to harvest his Qi. In return, it incorporated itself into his circulatory system and kept him alive.

Not only did Lu Qianhuan learn to use the demonic energy of the lotus to improve his cultivation speed, he was also inspired by it to create the Bloodshadow stance.

Before his travels, him and his brother had just broke through in a long duo cultivation training session. The Lu brothers were similar in every way, from appearance, cultivation talent, all they way to their temper. But since Lu Qianhuan’s return, he had lost weight and his cultivation speed improved drastically. While, on the other hand, his brother remained a one-star returned prime Warrior, he had broken through twice in just two years.

The elder’s achievement did not go unnoticed by the Lu’s council. The commanders position for the Drakehead mission was actually a reward. It was the patriarch’s way to show his appreciation and approval.

Lu Qianhuan never thought he would be pushed so far, and knowing he was passed the point of no return, he decided to use the destructive energy that had been accumulating in the lotus to destroy the young Runemaster and the city that ruined his future.

With his last breath he injected his remaining Qi into the lotus, releasing it from his chest.

“Is it over?” Ye Wei could no longer feel any signs of life from Lu Qianhuan but he hesitated to go closer and check as the blood mist was still lingering.

The lotus quietly levitated within the mist, and not even Ye Wei could sense its existence. But even so, Ye Wei did not let his guard down. He vigilantly stared at the red cloud expecting something to happen.

“Lu Qianhuan is dead.” Principal Gu said also looking at the red cloud. He was greatly shocked and standing still.

“How is this possible!?” The City Lord said doubting his senses. He could not believe the elder had died just like that. “Lu Qianhuan was a three-star returned prime Warrior!”

After coming to their senses, the audience also realized what had just happened, and they looked at Ye Wei in disbelief.

In a city where the top cultivators were not any stronger than the ten-star condensed prime level, the defeat of a three-star returned prime Warrior was something they could never fathom they would see. After a brief moment of shock, they started talking energetically.

“The times are changing! With a youngster like this, Green Moon City will be ran by the Ye’s from now on!”

“Interesting! Exactly a century ago the Ye’s were strong, and even the City Lord had to give them face I heard.”

“Ha, this is karma! Us, Mo’s, have always kept a good relationship with the Ye’s!”

As for the patriarchs that had poor relationship with the Ye family, they shared a devious look. They all wished that the Lu’s would not take the death of two elders and hundreds of their condensed prime Warriors lightly even if seeking revenge would mean angering the royals and the Runemaster Union. Some of them were already thinking about how they should send their quickest men to the state’s capital to explain the situation so the Lu’s would react immediately.

As the residual energy from the violent battle began to die down, the patriarchs all turned away, chatting. As the lotus was slowly absorbing the scattered runes and the Qi close by, it revealed itself, and Ye Wei was the only person who noticed its presence.

‘What is that?’ The young Runemaster said in his head while frowning and narrowing his eyes.

‘Kid, that is a demonic lotus...’ The sinister sounding, Black Scale Progenitor’s hoarse mutter echoed in Ye Wei’s mind.

‘And...?!’ The progenitor’s tone made Ye Wei feel extremely uncomfortable.

‘And... Hahaha! You will all be very dead soon! The lotus will explode when it is fully charged, and this one is by no means small! Lu Qianhuan must have fed it well!’ The progenitor replied laughing at Ye Wei’s bad luck. ‘You don’t stand a chance! You are nowhere near strong enough to stop it nor quick enough to outrun it! You will become dust, and I, my friend, will be quite safe inside this scale.’

‘Does it mean the explosion will affect the city?!’ A shiver of pure terror traveled down Ye Wei’s spine.

He could not just stand and watch. He could not just leave his family and the citizen of Green Moon City here to die. The hair on his back rose as he activated Starblink Steps and took a courageous step forward in the lotus’ direction.

The young Runemaster reached the demonic plant in less than a second and retrieved it with a chain made from Qi. He unloaded a vast amount of his amplified energy into the runes he was riding, and turned around flying away from the city.

‘Hahaha! Kid, you should be running away from it, not with it!’ The progenitor’s sadistic laugh sounded in Ye Wei’s mind. ‘I guess it doesn’t really matter, it’s too late! You will die either way and the city will be destroyed!’

“Crack!”

The lotus suddenly bloomed. The first layer of its nine patels fell, unleashing a terrifying energy wave.

“Whoop!” Ye Wei was just a meter away from the lotus and was immediately swept off his feet by the tsunami-like energy wave. He tasted rustiness in his mouth as he coughed up a mouthful of blood while flying backwards for miles like a stringless kite.

“Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!”

The lotus slowly began to spin. Its spinning was accelerating in time with the waves it was producing. Within a breath’s time, the lotus’ energy had engulfed the whole city within seconds.

“What’s going on!?” Gu Qing and Xiao Qingyun tried to activate the shield again but the red mist’s energy was pressuring them so much that their dantians were unable to flow with Qi.

“Argh!”

The pressure quickly escalated, and the City Lord and the Principal fell to the ground together with the rest of the citizens, shaking on the floor.

“No!” Ye Wei tried to get closer to the lotus. Gritting his teeth, he ignored his injuries and the pain he was enduring, but despite his effort, he could not move his body more than an inch.

‘Hahaha! Just relax! It won’t be long now.’ The progenitor was still laughing maniacally. ‘Be happy, at least you will not die alone!’

Every living sous in the city felt the impact, thinking it was a foreshock to an earthquake.

“That was not natural!” Master Yi could feel the Qi disturbance from the Ye’s mansion, and looked towards the City Lord’s castle with a flash of fear in his eyes.

Even over thirty miles away from the lotus, Master Yi’s breathing was becoming irregular as he was already being affected by it.

“No, definitely not!” The Runemaster’s three-star returned prime Warrior friend could also feel it. His Qi flow was drastically weakened.

The energy waves were growing stronger and stronger, the city was shaking more vigorously as houses and other building were beginning to fall apart!