Chapter 115: Blood Sacrifice of the Demon

Several figures moved under the watchful eyes of the demon crows, their pitch-black silhouettes hidden among the branches of the trees—too many to count.

Black Feather kicked something with his foot and looked down to see a skull. The ground was littered not only with the corpses of wild beasts but also human remains, likely villagers who had lost their way in the mountains.

Occasionally, a few more crows flew in from a distance, shedding several foot-long feathers from their wings as they peered out from the treetops, observing as if they had discovered new prey.

“They’re scattered now. Let’s take them down one by one,” Black Feather said.

Ling Xiaolei’s perception network outlined the shapes of the trees and the trembling silhouettes of the demon crows on the treetops. She closed her eyes, crossed her hands over her chest, and dozens of binding chains rose from the ground, converging from both sides. They scattered and rejoined, weaving through the intricate branches, each chain quickly wrapping around a startled crow as it took flight.

“Binding chains!”

Black Feather waved his staff, black flashes cleaving through the branches above. The wings of the demon crows pierced by the dark light instantly dissolved into twin clouds of black mist, and a single feather drifted downward.

Yet, simultaneously, the chains at Ling Xiaolei’s fingertips—though they had already ensnared several demon crows—suddenly exploded into a puff of smoke and vanished.

“Could they be illusions?” Black Feather scanned the numerous demon crows surrounding them, unsure where to strike next.

“We’ve entered the illusion zone created by the demon crows,” Ling Xiaolei said.

“Among them, the true form must be hiding,” Bai Shengye deduced.

“The demon crows’ camouflage is truly formidable. Not only can their illusions attack, but they’re imbued with millennia of cultivation. Even my demon’s eye couldn’t distinguish the real from the fake,” Black Feather explained.

Bai Shengye’s gaze swept across the treetops, searching for a flaw. Suddenly, he spotted a massive bird’s nest nestled among the branches of a tree piled high with bones. Faintly, he could make out several large eggs within it.

“There! That’s their old nest. Attack there!”

“Got it...” Black Feather gripped his staff tightly, condensing his magical power. The dark force spilling from his wound reconnected with the staff, forming a black hole once more.

“Demonic Blood Offering!”

The leader of the demon crows seemed to sense Black Feather’s intent to attack the nest. It hastily summoned the surrounding crows to protect the front of the nest. They swirled together into a storm of darkness and launched a fierce assault on Black Feather.

“Devouring Black Hole!”

At the instant the black hole opened, the demon crows did not flee. Instead, they surged in like a tidal wave, pouring into the black hole. The black hole grew continuously, its lower edge touching the ground and still expanding relentlessly.

Behind him, Bai Shengye sensed something amiss, his expression tightening with alarm. He quickly steadied Black Feather’s shoulder.

“Hey, hey, what’s going on, brother?”

Black Feather felt a wave of embarrassment and awkwardness.

“I can’t... pull it back...” The power in his hand kept accumulating, rapidly reaching the limit of what he could control. His expression turned serious and troubled. Suddenly, he furrowed his brow.

“This might backfire on me...”

Instinctively, Bai Shengye grabbed Ling Xiaolei’s arm, stepping back.

“If you die, you die alone! Don’t drag us down!”

Black Feather still held on, straining to retract the black hole. His arm muscles throbbed painfully from the effort, his shoulder joint felt as if it might dislocate, agony nearly unbearable. Worse, his blood was being relentlessly sucked from his left hand into the black hole, nearly drained dry.

The demon crows attacked from all directions, clawing at his back and flanks. They circled, launching relentless assaults to entangle his feet, preventing him from reaching their true body.

“They want me to expand the black hole beyond my limits so it’ll explode. When that happens, you all clear out!”

“My barriers can’t hold back his explosion,” Ling Xiaolei assessed through experience. “Use an ice wall to block it.”

Bai Shengye retreated as he spoke, “We’ll see how it goes.”

The black hole seemed fully charged, suddenly collapsing inward with a flash of black light. Black Feather struck the ground with the base of his staff.

“Demonic Form!”

A colossal demonic figure rose behind him, looming over the black hole. It clasped its massive claws together, tearing the black hole apart. Simultaneously, the demon crows flooding in abruptly scattered, their black light erupting in a thunderous explosion.

“Boom!”

Bai Shengye’s ice wall stood firm before him and Ling Xiaolei, bracing against the successive gusts and shockwaves from the blast. A heavy rumble echoed as the demonic phantom’s back bulged, bearing the brunt of the explosion’s force, exhaling twin streams of black smoke.

Black Feather coughed twice but remained unharmed. The demon vanished soon after.

Bai Shengye wiped sweat from his brow, finally exhaling in relief. It had been a close call.

“Don’t scare me like that again. I’m not ready to die young,” he grumbled.

“Black Feather, are you alright?” Ling Xiaolei asked, sensing the sudden disappearance of the dark power but unable to see what had transpired.

“I’m fine.” Black Feather stared at his now-dormant staff, streaked with dried, dark red blood.

“The demon crows’ attack was designed to fill the black hole with illusions until it exploded, exploiting my inability to absorb power beyond my own limits. But they must have lost a great deal of energy too.”

Indeed, as Black Feather predicted, the explosion shattered the illusions formed by the demon crows. The forest fell silent, with only a solitary demon crow circling above the bird’s nest.

“Could it be that there was only one demon crow all along? Those were all just its illusions?” Ling Xiaolei marveled.

“Only one left. Let’s finish it off!” Black Feather raised his staff again but suddenly felt dizzy, nearly stumbling.

“What’s wrong? Lost too much blood?”

Bai Shengye avoided his gaze nervously, casually replying, “Maybe... it’s because of the Demonic Blood Offering.”

The Demonic Blood Offering is a bridge linking the external world to one’s inner power. Using it calls forth hidden strength but risks severe blood loss if maintained too long, resembling the blood sacrifices of the Divine Dragon clan.

Black Feather’s face darkened. “They let me use it recklessly without warning about the side effects.”

Bai Shengye waved dismissively, speaking lightly, “Don’t sweat the small stuff. If we don’t kill that crow soon, it’ll escape.”

Summoning his last reserves, Black Feather spread his wings and soared into the air toward the demon crow’s nest. Feigning an attack on the nest, when the demon crow conjured another flock of illusions and recklessly lunged at him, he swung back with a slash of demonic light aimed at the single true demon crow he’d been tracking.

The targeted crow shrieked and flapped away, its trailing illusions dissolving in its wake.

“Catch it!”

As it fled, the demon crow cast a blindness spell, releasing a cloud of black ink like an octopus’s ink. The sky behind it was stained pitch black.