Chapter 1804: Ant Extermination

Gray Realm.

A village was situated in a corner of this desolate land.

There was no sign of life here; it would be more accurate to call it a tribe than a village. Bare stones were stacked into crude houses, like standing tombstones, and many believers draped in red Jiangtian robes moved among them.

And in the center of the village, a huge bonfire burned fiercely, the firelight seemingly possessing some kind of magic that repelled the nearby calamities.

“Tell me, why have the rituals suddenly become so frequent lately? They used to happen every few days, but now they happen once a day…” A few ordinary believers gathered together, one of them whispering.

“I don’t know… I feel like the archbishops have been moving more frequently lately too. Is ‘it’ coming back?”

“It’s possible. Maybe the archbishops are preparing to welcome ‘it’?”

“Are we finally going to wait for this day…”

“They’re here, the archbishops are coming out.”

“Looks like the ritual is about to start again. Hurry and get ready.”

“……”

At this moment, the village was like a large machine that was gradually becoming busy. More and more ordinary believers walked out of their houses, gathering and walking toward the bonfire in the center.

The scale of this village was not small; there were over a hundred Jiangtian believers living here. Looking from afar, they looked like streams of red…

And in the house closest to the bonfire, four wild men with red leaves wrapped around their waists walked out one by one.

These figures gathered and sat down beside the bonfire, like rings nested one layer after another. The archbishops and bishops were on the inside, and the ordinary believers were on the outside. At this moment, they all knelt respectfully facing the bonfire, kowtowing heavily.

The four archbishops on the innermost side let out a few awkward, beast-like roars;

Immediately after, the Jiangtian believers on the outside shouted in unison:

“Respectfully invite the Supreme Jiangtian Savior to return!”

“Respectfully invite the Supreme Jiangtian Savior to return!!”

“……”

Amidst the shouts of the many Jiangtian believers, a faint red color ignited from the bonfire, and strange power spread in the void, as if it could span infinite space and resonate directly with a certain existence in the deep space of the universe.

“Respectfully invite the Supreme Jiangtian Savior to return!!!”

As the shouting reached its peak, a cold snort of disdain rang out from the air.

The next second, endless red clouds instantly shrouded the sky, and a massive pupil opened within them, like a strange and enormous sun, staring down at the entire village!

All the Jiangtian believers were stunned. They remained in their kneeling positions, looking at the strange red clouds and the eerie sun, falling into a daze for a moment…

It was the four archbishops who first realized something was wrong and let out terrified roars!

Swish, swish, swish—

Scarlet tentacles dropped from the red clouds, as if possessing self-awareness, grabbing toward the crowd!

These scarlet tentacles were so fast that the ordinary believers couldn’t react at all. Several figures were directly wrapped around the waist by the tentacles and then forcibly dragged up like fish on a line, flying toward the red clouds amidst terrified wails.

This hair-raising scene turned the faces of all the other believers pale. Dominated by fear, they stood up screaming and fled in all directions.

“Fleeing?” In the red clouds, a figure in a theatrical robe slowly narrowed his scarlet pupils.

“Can you escape?”

Dense red paper tentacles dropped from the firmament, chasing the running believers at an astonishing speed. No matter if the believers hid in houses or ran out of the village, they would be caught by the red paper, then bound mercilessly like fish waiting to be slaughtered, and dragged toward the red clouds.

At the same time, a disc unfolded among the red clouds, and all the captured Jiangtian believers were dragged into it, disappearing without a trace.

“Roar——!!”

Watching a village of a hundred people so easily become someone else’s plaything, the four archbishops roared in anger.

Four red shadows soared into the air with tremendous force, compressing the air into ear-piercing sonic booms, intending to fight to the death with the figure in the red clouds!

But the next moment, a giant palm that could almost cover the entire firmament pressed down from the red clouds.

“Overestimating yourselves.”

A faint voice sounded from above the clouds.

Hum——!!

The moment the giant hand appeared, a mighty pressure poured down, and the momentum the four archbishops had accumulated vanished instantly.

Their expressions changed drastically. They felt as if the power they possessed, which could make all civilization regress, had been negated. Their bodies felt empty, leaving only brute force… Only then did they realize the severity of the situation and wanted to flee, but it was already too late.

The giant hand slowly clenched in the air, as if to grab all four archbishops in its palm. The faces of the four archbishops grew uglier; they roared in frustration like beasts, using all their strength to attack the palm.

But no matter how frantically the bone clubs in their hands hammered, they couldn’t cause the slightest damage to the palm. In the end, they could only watch helplessly as the five fingers, like giant pillars, slowly closed, completely sealing off all paths of survival…

The giant hand clenched into a fist, like an inescapable cage, and finally grabbed the four archbishops like chicks, disappearing above the red clouds.

Woo, woo, woo—

From the appearance of the red clouds to the total annihilation of the branch, the whole process took less than a minute…

The village, which had just been lively and noisy, was now deathly silent, with only the wailing cold wind whistling through the empty houses.

From beginning to end, these Jiangtian believers didn’t even see the shadow of their enemy.

The red-bottomed, black-patterned theatrical robe danced in the air;

Chen Ling raised his hand casually, and the giant hand directly dug into the earth, uprooting the bonfire of the Jiangtian Sect branch… along with the soil and scattered stone debris beneath it, swallowing it all into the red clouds.

After doing all this, the red clouds gradually dissipated.

Chen Ling brushed his sleeves, his expression indifferent and calm, as if he hadn’t just wiped out a Jiangtian Sect branch, but had casually crushed an ant nest.

“This should be the last one.” Chen Ling recalled Teacher Ye’s map and muttered to himself.

Along the way, Chen Ling had already exterminated all the Jiangtian Sect branches marked on the map, and at the same time uprooted their bonfires… This stage of the mission could be considered complete.

Chen Ling looked down at his palm. As light and shadow flickered, the space absorbing the many Jiangtian believers constantly folded, finally converging into the outline of a disc, gradually solidifying in his hand.

“This quantity should be enough.”

Chen Ling tucked the disc into his bosom, a faint light flashing in his eyes, wondering what he was thinking, and then slowly looked toward the direction of the Ancient Theater of Arts…

“Almost time… I should go back too.”

Chen Ling took a step, his figure once again transforming into a dimension-reducing black shadow, disappearing at the end of the horizon at an astonishing speed.