Stronger with Crimson Modifier

Chapter 163 - 161: Mother Earth

As time went on.

From time to time, black-robed figures would materialize out of thin air.

At a glance, these black-robed figures were of varying sizes.

Some stood several meters tall, like terrifying Giants that had crawled out of a dark abyss.

Their black robes fluttered faintly in the dim Gorge, as if stirred by an unseen, sinister wind, casting deep shadows upon the ground.

Others, however, were of normal human height.

Beneath their hoods, the faces of these black-robed individuals were either indistinct blurs or monstrously bizarre, no different from monsters.

The aura emanating from each black-robed figure was as vast as the sea, deep and unfathomable.

"Ao Lin, I hear you suffered quite a loss at the hands of those blood-provisions on the surface. Not only were two of your Middle Rank Black Blood Species subordinates killed, but you even got injured yourself. What a disgrace to us all."

Just then, one of the slightly taller black-robed figures spoke.

His voice was hoarse, like the grating screech of fingernails on metal—harsh and jarring, tinged with faint ridicule.

His face was covered in fine green scales, his features indistinct, with only two eyes that glowed with a Crimson light exposed.

From beneath the back of his robe, a dark green tail dragged on the ground.

As he spoke, he turned his head, his gaze falling upon a dark figure beside him.

Beneath this black robe was a Young Man with two horns, a full head of silver hair, and an otherworldly, handsome face. It was none other than the Food Master Ao Lin, the one who had previously invaded Anshan City.

Hearing this, the blood-red vertical pupils in Ao Lin’s eyes shifted. He withdrew his gaze from the lava and turned his head to look over.

"Heh, Qi Yu, you have the nerve to talk about me? Ten years ago, who was it that was beaten half to death, left with only a head, and took more than half a year to recover? I may have failed, but at least I escaped unscathed. I wasn’t nearly as pathetic as you!"

Qi Yu, the one with the fine green scales on his face who had spoken earlier, gave a cold look before immediately smirking.

"Fine, fine. It seems your injuries aren’t so bad after all, Ao Lin. You certainly have a talent for running away. It seems I was worrying for nothing. I’ll have to learn from you some day."

"No need to wait. If you want to learn, I can teach you right now. It would be a perfect chance to see if your strength has improved at all."

Ao Lin sneered.

"Enough! If you two want to fight, take it outside. Do you know where you are? If you disturb Mother Earth, can you bear the responsibility?"

Suddenly, another black-robed figure spoke, interrupting the escalating tension between the two.

Unlike the other two, this was a beautiful and alluring woman with long, blood-red hair. She had several painted marks on her face and wore a necklace made of crescent-shaped beast teeth of unknown origin.

The woman’s tone was indifferent, as if she were a block of ice, devoid of any emotion.

Among all the black-robed figures present, she was the most human-like in appearance. The others either had horns or scales, possessing merely a humanoid form.

Strangely, however, after she spoke, both Ao Lin and Qi Yu simultaneously fell silent.

For such powerful Food Masters to back down, there could only be one reason: her own power was great enough to make them wary.

This person was named Shu Ming, and she was the strongest of all the Food Masters.

Of course, aside from that, it was also just as she had said.

If they were to disturb that great existence, the consequences would be more than they wished to see.

This was also the reason the two had not immediately come to blows.

At this thought, Ao Lin and Qi Yu both simultaneously turned their gazes toward the endlessly churning lava below.

Deep within the unfathomable lava, a massive, indistinct black shadow seemed to be coiled.

"It’s about time. Everyone, let’s begin!"

Seeing that the two had stopped and said no more, Shu Ming’s gaze swept over the black-robed figures present. Once she saw that everyone had arrived, she spoke in an indifferent tone.

At that moment, in the depths of the Gorge, there were seventeen dark figures in total.

All who were able to come here were naturally comparable in strength to Ao Lin; they were all Black Blood Species of the Food Master level.

Seventeen Food Masters—this was an exceptionally terrifying force.

The fates of the hundreds of millions of living beings in the Inner Earth World were all in the hands of these seventeen existences.

At this moment, all these Food Masters had gathered here.

They had all come for one specific purpose.

Hearing Shu Ming’s words, everyone nodded.

They extended their hands, palms open.

The next moment, dark crimson spheres radiating an astonishing aura of blood and gore appeared in their palms.

Then, guided by an Invisible Power,

they descended into the fissure of lava below.

As they drew closer, the dark red blood spheres looked increasingly bizarre.

Within the spheres, translucent figures gradually became clear—men and women, old and young, all different.

These figures seemed to be trapped in a terrifying cage, unable to break free.

Their pale, bloodless faces were pressed tightly against the surface of the spheres, their features distorted from the pressure.

Their mouths were wide open, letting out shrill shrieks and wails. The sound was like the roaring of countless vengeful spirits and malevolent ghosts, enough to make one’s skin crawl.

Looking closely, each blood sphere was formed from the condensed bodies of millions of blood-provisions.

These bodies were squeezed tightly together, without a single gap between them.

Their faces and bodies were all filled with expressions of terror and agony.

A black miasma swirled around the spheres, seemingly formed from the resentment of these vengeful souls.

Set against the searing lava and the terrifying blood spheres, the entire scene resembled a scroll painting from Hell, filled with an air of despair and death.

These were all the "ascended" blood-provisions from the various regions under the jurisdiction of the Inner Earth World’s Black Blood Species.

These people had been crushed together into a single blood sphere by an unimaginably great power. Although dead, they still retained a sliver of their own will, but this was utterly useless and only served to deepen their despair.

The many black-robed figures watched indifferently as the blood spheres, each representing countless condensed blood-provisions, submerged into the lava, none of them moving a muscle.

After all the blood spheres had disappeared into the lava fissure,

CRACK!

the ground suddenly began to shake and crack.

The original lava fissure in the ground seemed to grow even larger, and the lava surged and swelled.

At the same time,

high above in the Gorge, rocks of varying sizes broke loose from the walls.

They fell into the lava, sending up showers of sparks and making heart-stopping sounds as they disappeared into the molten rock below.

When the falling rocks reached the black-robed figures, they were instantly pulverized into dust by an invisible force.

As the shaking continued, the fissure kept widening. After a few minutes, the commotion stopped.

Deep within the roiling lava, a black shadow flashed and was gone.

Faintly, a muffled, low roar echoed, ringing in everyone’s ears.

At the same time, several wisps of black miasma emerged from the lava and bored into the bodies of the Food Masters.

A look of pleasant relief flashed across everyone’s faces.

It might have been an illusion, but the auras of these Food Masters seemed to have grown stronger by a sliver at that very moment.