The Abyssal Bone Marsh did not welcome visitors.
It devoured them.
Thick crimson mist swirled above the rotting swamplands, carrying the stench of decay and the cold bite of resentment accumulated over countless ages. Beneath the blood-colored fog, the earth writhed—sometimes pulsing like a living organ, sometimes cracking open to reveal bleached bones, sharpened like fangs.
And into this cursed domain stepped the Blood Demon.
His boots sank into the mire with a sickening shluk, the soil clinging to him like hungry hands. Each breath he took drew in not air, but whispers—whispers of those who had died here, swirling like ghostly silk around his ears.
He ignored them.
His crimson pupils glowed faintly as he peered into the mist.
"So… this is the Abyssal Bone Marsh," he muttered. "The resting ground of ancient calamities."
According to surviving fragments of history, this place was once a battlefield where primordial beasts and early cultivators waged war. Their corpses—too powerful to decompose—fused with the land, giving birth to a marsh of eternal death and monstrous evolution.
The Blood Demon exhaled slowly.
"I have stepped into the peak of Spirit-Shattering… yet that masked one crushed the Lian Emperor like an insect."
He clenched his fist.
"I cannot be next."
He pushed forward.
The marsh responded instantly.
A ground-shaking crack echoed.
Suddenly—crunch—
A skeletal arm burst from beneath the swamp, grabbing at his ankle. Then another. And another. Within breaths, dozens of bone-white limbs erupted around him like a field of pale serpents.
The Blood Demon narrowed his eyes.
"Begone."
A wave of blood-essence exploded from him, shredding the skeletal arms into dust. But the marsh did not relent. From the fog ahead, shapes began to coalesce—half-formed skeletons, warriors with broken skulls, beasts with hollow ribcages and horns curving like sickles.
All of them charged.
Tremble… tremble…
The Blood Demon's killing intent surged.
"Still not enough."
With a flick of his sleeve, crimson tendrils of demonic qi lashed outward. They wrapped around the undead, crushing bone, draining essence, weaving it into his own cultivation. Every scream of the Bone Echoes made his blood pulse hotter.
But as the last skeleton collapsed—
The marsh itself screamed.
The red fog thickened into a vortex, condensing into a towering figure of overlapping bones, each etched with runes older than empires.
A Bone Warden.
A guardian formed from thousands of corpses, towering like a mountain, raising a massive blade forged from femurs and spines.
Even the Blood Demon's pupils shrank.
"So the marsh births such things…"
The giant swung down.
BOOOOOOM—!!!
The earth shattered. Mire shot into the air. The ground where the Blood Demon stood was obliterated.
But—
A streak of crimson light shot upward.
The Blood Demon reappeared above the Warden, hand raised, blood qi swirling like a scarlet sun.
"Devour."
A blood vortex exploded downward, colliding with the Warden's skull.
For a heartbeat, nothing moved.
Then the Warden's body began to shrink—bones peeling apart, essence sucked away like water down a whirlpool. The giant collapsed, dissolving into dust and ash.
The Blood Demon landed lightly on the ruined swamp.
His chest rose and fell slowly.
"Peak Spirit-Shattering… and even so, the marsh forces me to exert seventy percent of my strength."
His fingers trembled imperceptibly.
"If that masked figure surpasses this realm… then I must reach even higher."
He continued deeper.
The deeper he ventured, the darker the mist became, until even the Blood Demon felt his senses warping. Shadows slithered through the haze—some shaped like beasts, others like humans, and some like nothing that should exist in the mortal world.
Whispers drifted.
"…turn back…"
"…your fate will rot here…"
"…even gods drowned in these swamps…"
But the Blood Demon sneered.
"Even gods? Good. Then their remnants will serve me."
Ahead, the land opened into a massive clearing of cracked ivory ground, as if thousands of bones had melted into a single pale field. Black rivers trickled through it—liquid resentment, condensed over millennia.
And at the far end stood an ancient monolith of bone, towering like a divine pillar.
The Abyssal Spine—the rib of a forgotten beast, rumored to contain a relic of immeasurable power.
As he approached—
Step.
Step.
Footsteps echoed behind him.
The Blood Demon froze.
This marsh should kill anyone below late Spirit-Shattering. So who—
From the haze stepped four silhouettes.
Yang Jian
Tall, calm-faced, with eyes like sharpened steel. A bladesman whose techniques were said to sever fate itself.
Wang Qiu
Cold, scholarly, bearing talismans that glowed faintly. His clan specialized in calamity predictions—and they had told him his destiny lay here.
Lan Yuer
Blue-haired, ethereal, her robes fluttering unnaturally as icy qi coiled around her. She gazed at the marsh with a mixture of awe and fear.
Shi Feng
Burly, battle-hungry, a warhammer slung over his shoulder, grinning as though he walked into a festival rather than a graveyard.
Their expressions shifted when they saw him.
"Blood Demon…" Yang Jian muttered, tightening his grip on his blade.
"We didn't expect you," Wang Qiu said cautiously. "But… we cannot leave. Our path demands we enter."
The Blood Demon's gaze was cold.
"These lands are fatal even for you. Turn back if you value your lives."
Shi Feng laughed. "Please. If you can enter, why can't we?"
Lan Yuer frowned. "The marsh called to us. We each received a sign—something here is tied to our futures."
"There is no fortune here," the Blood Demon said flatly. "Only death."
"Death brings transformation," Wang Qiu countered. "There is no breakthrough without risk."
The Blood Demon paused.
A faint smile curled on his lips—one of dark amusement.
"So be it. March into the jaws of death if you wish. Your corpses may at least feed the marsh."
He turned toward the Abyssal Spine.
The four exchanged glances.
Fear battled with determination.
Then—
They followed.
The ground trembled.
Cracks snaked across the boneyard floor.
Black rivers bubbled violently, as if something stirred beneath them.
The sky itself dimmed—clouds turning into writhing silhouettes.
Lan Yuer shivered.
"I feel… something ancient waking."
Yang Jian's jaw tightened.
"Prepare yourselves."
Wang Qiu's talismans ignited in golden fire.
"This place… it's reacting to us."
Shi Feng slammed his warhammer into the ground, grinning wildly.
"Finally! Something big!"
The Blood Demon's eyes narrowed.
He could feel it too.
Something old.
Something vast.
Something watching them from beneath the swamp—like a deity with hollow eyes.
"Whatever lies here…" he whispered, "is far beyond the legends."
From the cracks emerged a pulse—
A heartbeat.
Slow.
Titanic.
Echoing through the marsh like the drum of an awakening god.
The mist surged.
The abyss roared.
And fate began to twist.