Chapter 673  : Caught in the Moat

Chen Fei’s face darkened, his elemental force flashing, enveloping the entire fleet. In the next moment, the elemental energy of heaven and earth roared, and the speed of the entire fleet suddenly increased, accelerating towards the front.

Sensing the abnormality of the fleet, Tong Linyun and several others appeared in mid-air, looking at Chen Fei with confusion.

“There’s a battle between Mountain Sea Realm experts and Monster Kings,” Chen Fei said to the others.

For a battle of this level, even if it’s just the aftermath, if the distance is a bit closer, it could cause heavy losses to the fleet.

Upon hearing Chen Fei’s words, the faces of Tong Linyun and the others changed slightly. Without saying anything else, they all began to use their elemental force to accelerate the entire fleet away.

Hundreds of miles away.

Tu Zaichuan’s expression was cold, surrounded by thousands of blood-colored lights. In each of these blood-colored lights, a twisted and resentful face could be seen.

Each of these blood-colored lights represented a martial artist of at least the Aperture Tempering realm, all of whom Tu Zaichuan had captured alive, oppressed, tortured, and forcibly refined.

Silent howls resounded in all directions, with thousands of curses mixed together. In the Aperture Tempering realm, if one stays here for even a short while, their mind will be contaminated and then they’ll sink into despair.

Thousands of blood-colored lights formed into formations, with every five lights forming a small formation, and then gathering into a sinful blood source formation.

If the Mountain Sea Realm was not investigated for a while, even the physical body would be corroded, and the spirituality of spiritual treasures would be tainted.

Tu Zaichuan was notorious. Once he appeared near a city, it would make the people inside the city tremble with fear. The massacre of cities was something Tu Zaichuan had done a lot.

However, at that moment, Tu Zaichuan’s sinful blood source formation had little effect on the Monster King in front of him.

With a red and black tortoiseshell, a rooster’s head, and a snake’s tail, sharp claws grew on its four feet. Every claw it struck down caused hundreds of blood spirits to disperse.

Although those blood spirits would quickly regenerate under the sinful blood source formation, it required Tu Zaichuan to consume his own strength.

The sinful blood source formation was originally able to sustain itself in battle by devouring the vitality of enemies, becoming the source of power for the formation.

Even opponents evenly matched would eventually be worn down to death.

However, the tortoiseshell of that Monster King deflected most of the damage from the sinful blood source formation, and its attacks caused great damage to the formation. After a prolonged battle, Tu Zaichuan’s breath started to fluctuate.

However, while Tu Zaichuan was having a hard time, the situation of the Monster King was only slightly better. No matter how strong its defense was, every time it touched a blood spirit, it still lost a portion of its vitality.

“Nie Li, this prolonged stalemate benefits no one!” Tu Zaichuan’s voice echoed sternly within the blood-red shroud.

The battle had been raging for nearly an hour, and Tu Zaichuan was more injured than the Monster King Nie Li. Continuing like this would lead to unpredictable consequences.

Tu Zaichuan didn’t want to die here in vain. After finally reaching the Mountain Sea Realm, he hadn’t enjoyed enough yet.

“When you slaughtered my clan, did you ever think about the possible consequences?”

Nie Li’s voice sounded extremely dry, like the creaking of wood being twisted.

“When I killed them, I thought they were just ordinary clansmen. Their souls, I can return them all to you,” Tu Zaichuan said as nearly a hundred blood spirits rushed towards Nie Li.

Among these blood spirits, there were also twisted faces, resembling tortoise bodies with rooster heads.

Seeing the souls of his clan members, Nie Li’s eyes flashed with cold light. The tail end of his snake tail turned into a phantom, wrapping around these souls.

Seeing this scene, a hint of cunning flashed in Tu Zaichuan’s eyes as he secretly manipulated a seal with his left hand hidden in his sleeve.

The next moment, the souls on Nie Li’s snake tail suddenly burst into bright red light. The serene faces among the blood spirits suddenly turned ferocious, then in the blink of an eye, they crawled all over Nie Li’s body.

“Seal!”

Tu Zaichuan shouted lowly, and the blood spirits on the Monster King Nie Li began to crazily tear at his body.

Perhaps due to being of the same clan, Nie Li’s body, which was originally nearly indestructible, showed signs of damage under the tearing of these blood spirits.

Under the sinful blood source formation, a large amount of blood energy surged from Nie Li’s body.

In just a moment, Nie Li’s aura decreased significantly.

“Roar!”

Nie Li didn’t expect such a turn of events. A thunderous roar erupted from his mouth, instantly dispersing the blood spirits covering his body.

A look of joy appeared on Tu Zaichuan’s face as thousands of blood spirits rushed towards Nie Li.

Tu Zaichuan didn’t have many principles when it came to seizing opportunities to take someone’s life. Just like how he had done many things to improve his own strength, such as massacring and refining martial artists in cities.

If it weren’t for Tu Zaichuan’s breakthrough to the Mountain Sea Realm and his massacres being limited to remote border towns, he might have been killed by other Mountain Sea Realm experts long ago.

Nie Li looked up at Tu Zaichuan, his eyes filled with coldness. The comb atop his rooster head was originally red, but at some point, it had turned pure black.

A sense of desolate silence began to envelop the surroundings. Before thousands of blood spirits could tear much flesh, a fluctuation suddenly emanated from Nie Li’s body.

Wherever the fluctuation passed, the blood spirits dissipated silently. Unlike before, these dispersed blood spirits were no longer within Tu Zaichuan’s sensing range, unable to be restored by the sinful blood source formation.

Tu Zaichuan’s complexion changed slightly, but seeing Nie Li’s aura once again decreasing, a hint of cruelty flashed in Tu Zaichuan’s eyes.

If he could kill a Monster King, no matter how great the losses, they could be compensated for.

Having just plotted and ambushed Nie Li, Tu Zaichuan undoubtedly had the upper hand now.

Tu Zaichuan was cautious by nature, but at critical moments, he could risk everything. Just like when he broke through to the Mountain Sea Realm, he ruthlessly turned everyone around him into blood spirits.

Whether they were relatives, friends, or mere acquaintances, he refined them all.

“Attack!”

Tu Zaichuan shouted sharply, and the remaining blood spirits once again pounced towards Nie Li.

Boom!

The elemental energy of heaven and earth was already boiling like hot water, and now it was like the earth splitting apart. The sea surface below the two combatants had long been depressed by hundreds of meters, spanning a range of several miles.

The seawater continued to pour in from several miles away, but it was crushed into mist by the immense force.

As the mist rose, it looked like a fairyland from afar, but the savage and violent atmosphere in the air was as terrifying as hell, making people tremble with fear.

In less than a quarter of an hour, a figure rushed out from the mist and sped away into the distance, looking disheveled—it was Tu Zaichuan.

Compared to his ambitious attempt just now to kill the Monster King Nie Li, Tu Zaichuan now appeared utterly miserable.

His right arm was missing, the flesh around his shoulder was blurred, revealing white bone fragments, and a black-red demonic force surrounded it, constantly trying to corrode it.

Clearly, these injuries were inflicted by the Monster King Nie Li.

With a rooster head, tortoise body, and snake tail, Nie Li himself was highly poisonous, something even a Mountain Sea Realm expert couldn’t easily withstand.

Tu Zaichuan’s aura had plummeted to a low level, indicating that he was in a severely injured state.

The thousands of blood spirits that were formidable just moments ago had now diminished to only a few hundred surrounding him.

“You can’t escape!”

Nie Li’s hoarse voice echoed from behind, breaking through the mist as he chased after Tu Zaichuan.

Compared to Tu Zaichuan, Nie Li was also in a bad state. Blood was dripping from his four limbs, and his snake tail had been directly severed.

The comb atop Nie Li’s rooster head was also mostly damaged, with torrents of demonic blood continuously flowing from it, and no matter what method Nie Li used, he couldn’t stop the bleeding.

Despite being equally injured, the biggest advantage of a Monster King compared to a Mountain Sea Realm expert was its physique.

In this bloodbath, the advantages of the Monster King in tempering its own physique and nurturing its bloodline were immediately apparent.

While Tu Zaichuan’s injuries weren’t worsening, they also weren’t improving. He needed to find a secluded place to recuperate.

On the other hand, Nie Li’s aura was slowly recovering, albeit very slowly. If Tu Zaichuan continued to fight Nie Li, he would definitely be the one to perish in the end.

Seeing this, Tu Zaichuan didn’t hesitate to flee.

Upon hearing Nie Li’s words, Tu Zaichuan’s face darkened. He had lost both his wife and his soldiers. The blood spirits he had refined by slaughtering Nie Li’s clan had already been used up.

After this major battle, nearly ninety percent of the blood spirits he had painstakingly accumulated had dissipated.

These blood spirits ranged from Aperture Tempering realm martial artists at the lowest to nearly a hundred in the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, all of which had been Tu Zaichuan’s accumulation over many years.

Reacquiring such a large number of blood spirits would not be as simple as it was initially, especially since many Mountain Sea Realm experts were now keeping an eye on him.

Moreover, refining blood spirits was not as simple as just killing people; it also involved a considerable amount of time for refinement.

In the blink of an eye, the distance between Tu Zaichuan and Nie Li had already spanned over a hundred miles. Despite initially being pulled apart, Nie Li had firmly caught up to Tu Zaichuan.

Tu Zaichuan’s gaze flickered as various methods flashed through his mind. Suddenly, he looked towards the side and sensed a considerable amount of vitality hundreds of miles away.

Tu Zaichuan’s cultivation technique made him extremely sensitive to vitality. Even if separated by hundreds of miles, as long as there was enough vitality, Tu Zaichuan could perceive it clearly.

Glancing back at the relentless pursuit of the Monster King Nie Li, Tu Zaichuan’s figure turned and headed straight towards the location he sensed the vitality.

Hundreds of miles away.

Chen Fei and the others were manipulating the elemental energy of heaven and earth, propelling the fleet forward.

With the assistance of several Combined Aperture Tempering realm experts, the fleet had already traveled over a hundred miles in a short time. Chen Fei’s perception indicated that the fleet had deviated significantly from the location where the Monster King was engaged in battle.

Chen Fei felt somewhat relieved, but still didn’t stop manipulating the elemental energy of heaven and earth. As long as they were not thousands of miles away, Chen Fei wouldn’t feel completely at ease.

Tong Linyun and the others saw Chen Fei’s expression relax, and they couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. This was the first time in several months that they had encountered a Monster King-level opponent in battle.

Against opponents of that caliber, they were all too fragile.

Suddenly, Chen Fei’s expression changed slightly, and his physical body, mind, and soul began to tremble once again.

Chen Fei turned to look behind him, and a beam of light radiated from his forehead.

In his black-and-white vision, the previously faintly sensed aura of Mountain Sea Realm experts and Monster Kings once again appeared, and this aura was rapidly approaching them at an astonishing speed..