The heavy iron burial chamber was entirely consumed by the suffocating stench of scorched meat and boiling blood. The massive thermal explosion from City Lord Hai Kuo's Eighth-Grade talisman had reduced the outer barricades into a glowing, viscous slag of molten metal. Puddles of liquid iron dripped from the ceiling, hissing as they struck the uneven floorboards, yet the absolute destructive heat had completely failed to penetrate the core of the room.
Behind the ruined, molten iron, the corpse of Daoist Xue Ren stood perfectly still.
The physical changes were gruesome and immediate. Thick, pitch-black veins bulged against the pale skin of the dead blood-cultivator's neck and face, pulsating with a rhythmic, heavy thrum. The dark, ancient entity possessing the vessel was actively forcing its own Demonic Qi into the foreign internal channels, violently fusing its ancient power with the lingering remnants of Xue Ren's blood-arts.
