Chapter 280: Blood-colored Forbidden Land, Countless Exotic Treasures! One Strike Repels the Enemy! Stone

Chapter 280: Blood Forbidden Zone, Countless Treasures! One Strike Repels the Enemy! The Stone Emperor’s Son Flees in Defeat!

There was no doubt—that Buddha statue was none other than the Stone Buddha, the second on the Hidden Dragon List, whom the Thirteenth Prince Yue Xuan had spoken of: one who had already shattered the barriers of rules, possessed combat power rivaling a Domain Lord at the Black Hole level, and set foot in the “Divine Forbidden” realm.

Qin Feng did not rush to reveal himself.

He wore the most ordinary black robe, completely concealing all his aura and spiritual fluctuations.

With absolute mastery over his spiritual power and psychic energy, as long as he did not strike, no one could recognize his identity.

Like a ghost, Qin Feng silently merged into the crowd of countless wandering cultivators who had come to try their luck at the periphery, quietly observing the situation.

He opened the task panel of the Universal Will.

[Hostile Task Acceptors: 72 people]

On the list were still the same seventy-two familiar names, unchanged.

Ye Luo, Neil, Death Knell, and others were prominently listed, but the Stone Buddha’s name did not appear.

“Could it be that the Stone Buddha was not sent by the Stone Clan to hunt me down?”

A flicker of doubt crossed Qin Feng’s mind.

On the surface, the discord between the Stone Buddha and the Lion God Statue, which represented the official power of the Stone Clan, seemed to support this.

“No.”

This thought lasted only an instant before Qin Feng completely extinguished it.

“The mere fact that he is at odds with the Lion God Statue proves nothing. Among alien prodigies, competition often outweighs cooperation. Those not of my race are bound to have different hearts. When it comes to facing humanity, their internal conflicts can be set aside at any time. I must not harbor any illusions.”

Qin Feng’s heart was as cold as a block of ice.

Whether or not the Stone Buddha was a mission target, he had already been classified as a threat of the highest order by Qin Feng.

At this moment, the atmosphere on the scene grew increasingly tense.

Of the twelve keyholes on the Blood Skull Gate, eleven had already been filled with keys of various dazzling colors.

Each insertion of a key caused the entire giant gate to emit a dull rumble, and the soul flames in the eye sockets of the billions of skulls on it surged by another notch.

Now, only one hole remained.

Everyone knew who held the twelfth key.

“Eleven keys have been gathered—still no news of the twelfth?”

A limit-level Black Hole powerhouse from the Crystal Clan spoke, his voice grating like crystal friction, his divine sense sweeping across the entire scene without concealment, trying to find any suspicious target.

“Heh, who else could have it?”

A great demon from the Demon Clan sneered nearby. “Besides that coward Qin Feng, who else? This is just a setup by the humans.”

“Mm, correct. They hand the most crucial opportunity clues to their target, lure the myriad races to besiege him, and at the same time turn this place into a trial ground for him. Classic human tactics—too familiar.”

“The last one to offer the key will definitely be Qin Feng.”

“Everyone, pay attention! Whoever steps forward with the last key, strike immediately without any hesitation—annihilate them in an instant!”

Countless beings murmured among themselves, and divine thoughts laden with killing intent intertwined and collided in the void, forming an invisible net of death that locked onto the final empty hole.

They had reached a consensus: no matter who came—whether Qin Feng himself or an envoy he sent—the moment they appeared, they would face a thunderous strike from hundreds of Black Hole-level powerhouses from all directions.

Hidden among the crowd, Qin Feng listened to these discussions, a faint, imperceptible smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

His gaze fell on the blood-colored key in his storage ring.

The key itself was unimportant. What truly mattered was the internal treasure map that the Thirteenth Prince had given him, personally annotated by the Heavenly Xuan Kingdom’s ruler.

Without the map’s guidance, even a limit-level Black Hole powerhouse would likely lose their way and ultimately fall in this Blood Forbidden Zone, filled with extreme danger.

In that case…

With a thought, the blood-colored key appeared silently in Qin Feng’s hand.

He infused no psychic energy or spiritual power, using only pure physical force, and flicked it gently toward the most densely crowded and chaotic central area.

Whoosh—

A barely visible streak of blood-red light, carrying no spatial fluctuations, like a phantom, silently cut through the void and abruptly appeared in the central zone where several limit-level Black Hole powerhouses were confronting each other.

“What’s that?!”

“It’s the key!”

“The twelfth key has appeared!”

The moment the key materialized, its unique blood-red glow and the aura of the forbidden zone instantly ignited the entire scene!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

In an instant, hundreds of vast spiritual forces, enough to tear apart stars, spread out like a bursting flood, sweeping through every inch of space in an attempt to find the hidden hand that had thrown the key.

The violent energy shockwaves caused the surrounding void to ripple intensely.

A terrifying commotion erupted without warning.

Countless beings immediately fell into fierce combat over the key that was now within reach.

The radiance of divine abilities and secret treasures illuminated this dark universe in an instant.

Yet, no matter how many times their spiritual forces plowed through the void, they still could not detect Qin Feng’s presence.

In their eyes, the key seemed to have appeared out of thin air.

Qin Feng stood still, his body beneath the black robe motionless, as if none of this concerned him.

His strength was too great; these ordinary Black Hole-level beings could never find him.

But amid this chaos, Qin Feng sensed a gaze.

An intangible gaze, surpassing both vision and divine sense perception.

That gaze did not come from any particular direction; rather, it seemed to fall upon him from all directions, from the past and the future, all at once.

There was no scrutiny, no killing intent—only a pure, indifferent “seeing.”

Qin Feng did not even need to seek its source; he knew whose gaze it was.

The Stone Buddha.

That Buddha sitting cross-legged in the void, majestic and solemn, like a true sculpture.

He still had his eyes closed, motionless, as if utterly uninterested in the chaos the key had caused.

But Qin Feng was one hundred percent certain that in that instant just now, the Stone Buddha had “seen” him.

And after seeing him, he chose to ignore him.

He pretended to feel nothing, letting the key stir up greater chaos, letting Qin Feng continue to hide in the shadows.

This insight, this composure, stirred in Qin Feng’s heart a true sense of gravity for the first time.

“What does he want?”

A great doubt arose in Qin Feng’s mind.

“He has already discovered my presence, yet he does not attack me, nor does he expose me.”

He knows I threw out the key, yet he doesn't strike at me—does that mean he knows the treasure map is on me?

"So... he's waiting for me to go in, then tail me, letting me find the treasure for him?"

Qin Feng's mind raced, instantly deducing countless possibilities.

This was an opponent more cunning and more dangerous than Neil.

He remained expressionless, yet had already taken in everything, and might have secretly laid out his own chessboard.

Alarm bells clanged in Qin Feng's heart; he was certain that the Stone Buddha had seen through his identity.

This silent adversary would be his most fearsome enemy within the Blood Forbidden Land, and perhaps on his path ahead.

...

Among the many top prodigies, Neil of the Light Clan was neither the most imposing in stature nor the most intimidating in aura, yet his process of seizing the final key was fluid and filled with a convincing rhythm.

He did not employ any earth-shattering killing moves; instead, at precisely the right moment, with an exquisite footwork, he evaded the crisscrossing blockade of several psychic torrents, and with a light flick of his finger, he plucked the ancient key that had been changing hands amidst the chaos.

For an instant, all the raging psychic forces came to a halt.

Dozens of gazes, each bearing a different will, converged on Neil like solid searchlights.

The air thickened with a pre-storm tension, as if the next moment would ignite a bloody battle to decide the key's final owner.

Yet Neil merely looked around calmly, a warm but distant smile on his face, showing no intention of storing the key in his spatial ring.

His posture clearly conveyed a message: he had seized the key not to monopolize it, but to advance everyone's common goal—opening the gate.

This unspoken understanding was instantly grasped by all the top experts present.

The point of contending for the key was to open the gate; if endless fighting led to the key's destruction or loss, everyone would have come for nothing.

Neil's action was undoubtedly the most rational choice at the moment.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if you please."

Neil's voice was clear; with a flick of his finger, the key that bore everyone's hopes turned into a streak of light and shot with pinpoint accuracy into the last cavity on the giant blood-colored skull gate.

Every living being present, including Qin Feng hidden in the void fold, held their breath, their eyes fixed on it.

"Wuum—"

The moment the key fit perfectly into the slot, a distant hum, as if from primordial chaos, resounded through the dead universe.

It was not a sound transmitted through a medium, but a tremor that directly struck the soul's essence.

Then, in the billions of skulls forming the giant gate—regardless of their race—from their hollow eye sockets, clusters of blood-red flames ignited without warning!

At first the flames were faint, like flickering ghost fires, but in less than a ten-thousandth of an instant, they swelled abruptly, turning into blazing infernos.

Billions of flames shot into the sky, setting the entire gate, millions of miles high, ablaze.

Terrifying heat and pure soul energy interwove, forming an irresistible pressure that made every Black Hole-level expert present feel a sense of insignificance and trembling from the depths of their souls.

At the heart of the flames, the twelve keys melted simultaneously, turning into twelve streams of molten golden liquid that flowed swiftly along the gaps between the skulls, like drawing array patterns, and finally converged at the gate's core.

In an instant, all the flames collapsed inward, condensed into a single point, then burst forth violently.

A colossal blood-colored vortex appeared out of nowhere, slowly rotating, its interior deep and bottomless, as if connecting to another dimension of spacetime, exuding an ancient aura both alluring and fearsome.

"The Blood Forbidden Land... is open!"

Someone let out a low roar, barely suppressing excitement, instantly igniting the atmosphere.

"Hurry! Opportunities wait for no one!"

"The legendary Blood Jade Crystal can directly enhance life essence and talent—I am determined to obtain such a divine object!"

"Not just Blood Jade Crystal! This is the forbidden land where the ancient Blood God fell; it is rumored that more than one sealed imperial-level treasure is left behind!"

"A battlefield of gods—even picking up a fragment would be enough to benefit us endlessly!"

"Charge!"

The brief silence was shattered, reason replaced by primal greed and desire.

One figure after another could no longer hold back; their bodies burst with brilliant light, turning into streaks of various colors, like fish crossing a river, vying to throw themselves into the huge blood-colored vortex.

Their speed was fierce, their momentum overwhelming, as if a single step slower would let the world's opportunities be snatched by others.

In the void, Qin Feng's figure quietly emerged.

He did not join the first wave of charges, merely watching this feverish tableau with cold detachment.

To him, such disorderly scrambling was meaningless and would only lead to unnecessary chaos upon entry.

He waited patiently until the most eager beings had all plunged into the vortex, and the later cultivators began to thin out, before unhurriedly urging his body forward.

Qin Feng's movement did not create any startling momentum; it was just an inconspicuous dark streak, silently crossing the void, smoothly and swiftly merging into the edge of the blood-colored vortex. The entire process was like a hornless dragon's trail, drawing no one's attention.

After Qin Feng and the other pioneers had completely vanished, this star region did not return to calm.

From deeper reaches of the universe, new streaks of light continued to pierce the darkness, arriving here.

They were cultivators who had heard the news and rushed from dozens of surrounding cosmic nations, among them even members of the Tianxuan Ancient Kingdom's royal family.

Feng Zhiyu's figure was also among them; he cast a complex glance at the enormous vortex, then his eyes grew resolute, and he plunged in without hesitation.

This grand feast, gathering countless prodigies and ambitious souls, had only just begun.

...

A violent sensation of dizziness and disorientation struck, as if his entire soul had been thrown into a rapidly spinning kaleidoscope; the laws of time and space here became chaotic and disordered.

Even with the stability of Qin Feng's [Eternal Singularity] foundation, he felt a slight vertigo.

This feeling did not last long. When he opened his eyes again, solid touch beneath his feet, the scene before him made his pupils contract slightly.

This was a world of utter desolation.

The sky was gray-white, heavy leaden clouds pressing tightly against the dome, revealing no stars or light sources—only a depressing, dim illumination pervading the entire space.

The earth was dominated by dark red and scorched black; dried magma, like the coagulated veins of a giant beast, coiled across the cracked ground.

Broad rivers of blood flowed slowly, carrying no trace of life, only thick, unyielding resentment and malevolence.

As far as the eye could see, dead giant trees stood, their twisted branches pointing to the sky as if making silent accusations before death.

Countless remains lay scattered across the vast land—decayed weapons and treasures beyond recognition, and colossal skeletons long turned to bone.

Qin Feng stepped forward slowly, approaching a giant axe stuck diagonally in the ground.

Even with only half its blade remaining, the axe still exuded a faint, overbearing pressure.

He could clearly sense that the source of this pressure was a Sealed Imperial-level powerhouse.

Yet the moment his fingertip touched the blade, the imperial majesty that had lingered for unknown millennia vanished like a bubble in sunlight, with a soft "pop," completely dissipating into the air.

And the axe blade, which had seemed fairly solid, turned into a handful of fine powder, sifting down.

"Time... truly is the most terrifying force in the universe."

Qin Feng withdrew his finger, his heart filled with myriad emotions.

A Sealed Imperial powerhouse, among humanity, was a pillar suppressing an entire star region; their exclusive treasures, forged from divine metals, could circulate in the universe for eons.

But here, in this ancient battlefield called the Blood Forbidden Land, even the traces left by beings of that level were fragile beyond endurance.

He closed his eyes, and his immense mental power spread out in all directions like an invisible tide.

"Hmm?" In a mere instant, Qin Feng detected an anomaly.

His mental power was subjected to an unprecedented suppression here.

Ordinarily, with his current cultivation, his mental power could easily cover a vast expanse of several hundred light-years, discerning the movements of stars with a single thought.

Yet in this place, an invisible and viscous force field filled every inch of space, and as his mental power extended outward, it felt as though it had fallen into a quagmire, rendering every step difficult.

Ultimately, the scope of his exploration was strictly confined to a region of several hundred kilometers with him at the center.

From several hundred light-years to several hundred kilometers, this precipitous drop was no different from changing from an eagle into an ant.

"The space is exceptionally stable, and the force field is extremely peculiar... It seems this place is not only a forbidden zone, but also a colossal cage."

Qin Feng immediately made his judgment.

However, he did not feel disheartened because of this.

The reduction in the range of mental detection was fair to all living beings that entered this place.

On this unimaginably vast ancient battlefield, a detection range of several hundred kilometers was akin to searching for a needle in the ocean; wanting to find a specific target would depend far more on maps and luck.

Qin Feng reconfirmed his own state, finding that the Eternal Singularity within his body was operating as usual and his strength was abundant, entirely unaffected by any suppression.

This allowed his heart to settle slightly.

As long as his absolute strength remained, no matter how the environment changed, he possessed the confidence to cope with everything.

Within the absolute limits of what his mental power could perceive, he found no traces of any other living beings; it appeared the teleportation upon entry was completely random.

However, he did discover several peculiar plants growing beside withered bones, their entire forms blood-red, emitting pure fluctuations of energy.

"Natural treasures that grow by absorbing the primordial essence of fallen powerhouses... It seems the resources here are indeed abundant."

Qin Feng hesitated no longer, and with a movement of his form, he transformed into an elusive stream of light, speeding toward the direction of those few rare treasures.

Since he could not find any trace of the Blood Jade Crystal for the time being, he would first collect all the resources he could see along the way.

Many a little makes a mickle, and it would likewise be a substantial harvest.

...

In the blink of an eye, three months quietly slipped away.

To Black Hole level powerhouses whose lifespans were measured in tens of thousands or millions of years, three months was but a fleeting instant.

Yet during these three months, Qin Feng's footprints had already traversed a vast area of this ancient battlefield.

He was like the most efficient scavenger, maintaining a faster-than-light cruise while multitasking perfectly.

One part of his mental power was highly concentrated, maintaining a fine scan of the surrounding hundreds of kilometers so that no resource of value could escape his detection; the other part of his mental power was immersed within the sea of his consciousness, continuously deducing the mysteries of the Nine Spiritual Primordial Chart.

This forbidden zone seemed like a treasury that had been forgotten for hundreds of millions of years.

Perhaps because the environment was too perilous, or perhaps because the conditions for opening it were too harsh, no one had set foot here for countless millennia.

Those natural treasures born from absorbing the flesh, blood, divine souls, and law fragments of ancient powerhouses could be seen everywhere here.

Within Qin Feng's storage ring, his collection enriched at an astonishing speed.

There were rare alloys that could be directly used to forge peak Black Hole level secret treasures, which were often refined from the skeletons of certain colossal gods and demons; there were peculiar flowers capable of nurturing the soul and increasing total mental power, blooming at the centers of energy fields where ancient divine souls had dissipated;

There were even some broken array diagrams and stone tablets recording scattered secret techniques; though they were no longer of much benefit to Qin Feng's current realm, their unique concepts could still provide him with some inspiration through analogy.

The accumulation of resources was gratifying, and the cultivation progress of the Nine Spiritual Primordial Chart made him even more satisfied.

With the assistance of massive resources and continuous deduction, he was only one final step away from condensing the fourth primordial spirit.

Once successful, his comprehensive strength would once again usher in a massive leap.

"The resource reserves here are indeed immense, and the quality is extremely high. If I could cultivate here for a century, my strength could probably multiply several times over."

Qin Feng silently calculated in his heart while tucking a blood-colored ginseng shaped like a dragon's claw into his pocket.

"A pity..."

He sighed softly, his gaze sweeping across the boundless crimson wasteland, "I still haven't found any trace of the Blood Jade Crystal."

This was the primary objective of his journey.

Divine items like the Whirling Flower and Blood Jade Crystal, which could directly elevate the essence of life and the quality of mental power, possessed a value far beyond that of ordinary natural treasures.

With the former, Qin Feng had already experienced its wonder, elevating the quality of his mental power from a pure gold to a higher level of golden-red.

This meant that every wisp of mental power he cultivated was more condensed and potent than the golden-quality mental power of those at the same level.

Items like the Blood Jade Crystal and Whirling Flower could elevate the essence of the physical body and the essence of mental power; for instance, when Qin Feng previously consumed the Whirling Flower to elevate his mental power to golden-red, compared to living beings of golden quality afterwards, Qin Feng would increase his total mental power slightly less when consuming the same resources, but everything Qin Feng increased was the higher-quality golden-red mental power!

It was a direct elevation of potential and talent.

As for the Blood Jade Crystal, according to the description on the map, its effect was even more overbearing than that of the Whirling Flower.

"The Blood Jade Crystals marked on the map are scattered in various places; as long as I search patiently, I will find them eventually."

Qin Feng discerned the direction and continued his journey.

It was another three days of tedious sailing.

The scenery of this world seemed as though it would never change, its monotonous colors and deathly still atmosphere enough to drive those with weak wills insane.

Just then, as he was flying at high speed, his figure halted without any warning, instantly hovering mid-air.

"Oh?"

A soft exclamation escaped his mouth, his deep gaze turning toward a cratered valley several hundred kilometers away to his front-left.

Within his mental perception, an extremely surging fluctuation of life, pure to the ultimate degree, was abruptly bursting forth from the center of that valley.

The intensity of that fluctuation far exceeded any natural treasure he had encountered over the past three months, having firmly stepped into the level of a Limit Black Hole!

"A Limit Black Hole level spiritual fruit?"

Qin Feng's heart stirred, and his treasure-hunting heart, suppressed for three months, was ignited once more.

Although it was not a Blood Jade Crystal, a spiritual fruit of this caliber was absolutely a rare treasure that could be encountered but not sought.

Without the slightest hesitation, his figure left a faint afterimage in place, while he himself transformed into a straight line imperceptible to the naked eye, shooting toward the direction of the valley.

...

When Qin Feng's figure appeared like a phantom on the edge of the cratered valley, the battle within the valley was already drawing to a close.

On the ground lay a dozen or so corpses of various shapes crisscrossing one another, with shattered secret treasures and congealed divine blood visible everywhere; clearly, a fierce and tragic melee of considerable scale had just erupted here.

And at this moment, in the center of the valley, two figures were confronting each other intensely, their gazes both locked tightly upon a peculiar little tree between them that was barely half a meter tall, translucent throughout, and bearing a golden fruit the size of a fist.

One of the living beings came from the One-Eyed Race.

His appearance was quite peculiar, with only a single giant eye in the middle of his face that grew horizontally, occupying half the width of his face. There was no white in the pupil, only concentric rings of complex golden patterns rotating slowly, as if containing the ultimate truths of the universe.

The One-Eyed Race was not a peak race like the Humans or the Demons, but they were considered a powerful faction in the vast sea of stars.

Their innate talent—that single eye capable of analyzing knowledge—allowed every member of the One-Eyed Race to possess an extremely rapid rate of improvement at the Black Hole level.

Confronting him was an old rival whom Qin Feng was incomparably familiar with—the son of the Stone Emperor, Ye Luo.

Having not seen him for several centuries, Ye Luo's aura had become more condensed and far more dangerous than before.

His body, forged from obsidian, no longer burned with mere violet flames; instead, a deep, restrained golden radiance now edged the fire.

He stood there silently, like a volcano on the verge of eruption, exuding an overwhelming sense of pressure.

Qin Feng’s spiritual power swept over them, instantly granting him a precise assessment of their strength.

That one-eyed being, with its vigorous aura, had barely stepped onto the threshold of the Limit Black Hole.

As for Ye Luo, though not yet fully broken through, he stood at the pinnacle of the Peak Black Hole, merely a step away from the Limit Black Hole.

In conventional understanding, an insurmountable chasm lies between the Limit Black Hole and the Peak Black Hole.

But in truth, the so-called "Peak" and "Limit" levels are merely minor realms divided by the myriad races of the universe based on spiritual power index and total life force—not a monumental transformation in life hierarchy like the leap from Planetary to Stellar.

For a top-tier prodigy like Ye Luo, born of a peak race and bearing the bloodline of a sovereign, relying on powerful secret treasures, techniques, and bloodline talents, it was no great feat to challenge and overcome an ordinary strongman who had just stepped into the Limit threshold.

At this moment, the two had clearly settled a contest, ending in a stalemate where neither could best the other, thus forming a deadlock of confrontation.

Just then, Qin Feng’s aura, like a pebble dropped into a tranquil lake, silently appeared within the valley.

Almost the instant he emerged, Ye Luo and the one-eyed being, locked in fierce opposition, both stiffened simultaneously.

A heavier, more terrifying pressure, like an invisible mountain, suddenly descended.

Ye Luo reacted swiftly, almost instinctively sliding back several steps. The momentum he had directed against the one-eyed being instantly retracted, and all his energy was mobilized into pure vigilance and caution.

His eyes, burning with violet flames, fixed unwaveringly on the direction from which Qin Feng had appeared, his gaze heavy with extreme gravity.

After repeated defeats at Qin Feng’s hands and witnessing countless prodigies, Ye Luo had long since polished away the arrogance and unruliness that once defined him as the Son of the Stone Emperor.

Each failure—especially the two harrowing defeats at Twinborn River and outside Red Feather Pass, which still haunted him—had deeply impressed upon him the truth that "there is always a sky beyond the sky, and people beyond people."

Now, Ye Luo’s arrogance had transformed into a hidden pride, making him more composed.

He did not know who had arrived, but he could clearly sense that this aura was far more terrifying than that of the one-eyed being before him!

Unlike Ye Luo’s caution, the one-eyed being, after a brief start, flickered with irritation in its massive eye at being disturbed.

It gazed at the mysterious visitor cloaked in black robes, whose form and face were obscured by spiritual power, and spoke in a cold tone, brimming with unyielding dominance.

"This Heavenly Spirit Fruit here belongs to me."

Its massive eye narrowed slightly, the golden patterns spinning faster, as if analyzing Qin Feng’s true nature.

"Get lost, or die!"

It issued an ultimatum without courtesy, clearly confident in its Limit Black Hole strength, believing it could intimidate any petty intruder.

"A skulking, faceless wretch."

Faced with this blatant threat, a cold smirk curled at the corner of Qin Feng’s mouth beneath the black robe.

"Bold words."

A low response rang out, not loud, yet carrying the force of thunder, causing the very air in the valley to tremble.

"Today, you’re in luck—I won’t kill you!"

Before the words faded, a thunderous roar exploded!

Qin Feng’s figure vanished from the spot in an instant, and a dazzling divine radiance, condensed to the extreme and glowing with a golden-red light, blazed forth like the first dawn piercing eternal night.

[Inch Light]!

Yet this earth-shattering strike targeted something completely unexpected by the one-eyed being!

Qin Feng paid no heed to its bluster; his attack was aimed squarely at the Son of the Stone Emperor, Ye Luo, who had retreated far away and was fully on guard.

In Qin Feng’s judgment, the one-eyed being, though arrogant, was ultimately just a passerby, an ordinary Limit Black Hole.

But Ye Luo was entirely different—he was one of the explicit adversaries in the mission issued by the cosmic will, a top-tier prodigy with limitless growth potential, a mortal enemy destined to fight Qin Feng to the death!

Between two evils, choose the lesser.

This was the perfect moment to eliminate this major threat!

This split-second decision in battle showcased Qin Feng’s absolute rationality and ruthlessness.

The moment that familiar, soul-shaking golden-red radiance flared, Ye Luo’s pupils contracted to pinpoints!

"Qin Feng!"

The name exploded in his mind like a nightmare.

He had no time to wonder why Qin Feng was here, nor to be shocked by his opponent’s further improvement in strength; the shadow of death had already enveloped him.

"Fortunately… I was prepared!"

Ye Luo roared inwardly.

Countless life-and-death trials had ingrained in him the habit of using every trump card.

The instant Qin Feng struck, he unhesitatingly crushed several life-saving talismans he had already clutched in his hand.

Hum!

Three light screens, each imbued with different spiritual powers, unfolded before him in an instant.

One was a thick, mountain-like shield of earthen yellow light; another was a silver ripple distorting space; the last was a guardian imprint!

Having done this, Ye Luo had no thought of fighting back. He turned and fled in a streak of purple light, madly escaping the valley.

He knew well that the Qin Feng of today was no longer someone he could face head-on.

Boom—!!!

Qin Feng’s [Inch Light] collided violently with the three defensive barriers.

A deafening explosion shook the heavens, and a terrifying energy shockwave, centered on the point of impact, spread outward like a tsunami.

The entire ring-shaped valley, fragile as paper before this force, was instantly leveled to the ground.

When the blinding light faded and the energy aftershocks gradually subsided, only a bottomless pit remained.

Ye Luo was nowhere to be seen, and the once-arrogant one-eyed being, at the moment Qin Feng attacked Ye Luo, had unhesitatingly chosen to flee; now even its aura had vanished without a trace.

Qin Feng hovered above the pit, expressionless.

He was not surprised that Ye Luo had escaped.

As the Son of the Stone Emperor, it would be abnormal if he didn’t have a few life-saving cards.

His gaze fell on the sole survivor at the explosion’s core—a small golden tree.

In the earlier blast, the tree’s leaves had all turned to ash, leaving only the golden "Heavenly Spirit Fruit," still glowing softly, unharmed.

Qin Feng reached out, and the fruit flew into his hand automatically.

Without delay, he sat cross-legged, activating the perfected state of [Ten Complete Hands].

The golden fruit melted visibly, turning into streams of pure life and spiritual essence, which Qin Feng devoured into his body, ultimately converging around the [Eternal Singularity] in his dantian.

The originally dazzling golden-red halo, infused with this new power, grew thicker and more solid.

After a moment, Qin Feng rose to his feet, feeling the increased strength within him, and nodded with satisfaction.

"Not bad. Even if I never find the Blood Jade Crystal, as long as I can push the [Nine Spirit Origin Diagram] to the fourth spirit realm within this Blood Forbidden Land and collect enough Limit Black Hole-level heavenly treasures, it will still be a massive improvement."

He lifted his head, gazing deeper into the forbidden land, his eyes growing more profound.

But he wondered: what exactly was the so-called 'Divine Seal'—what kind of realm was it?

Could one reach that legendary domain solely through the base values of physical strength and mental power?

With this question in mind, Qin Feng oriented himself, and his figure once again turned into a streak of light, vanishing on the crimson horizon.

He had not yet determined his location on the treasure map, so he could only move forward, searching for recognizable landmarks.

Once he found his position, he would follow the route on the map to the Blood God Tower. If he encountered Blood Jade Crystals along the way, so much the better; if not, it didn't matter—he would slowly explore the entire map and eventually harvest Blood Jade Crystals.

(End of this chapter)