Nazario and Bastos roared in unison, their souls vibrating violently, giving the ominous impression that a single wrong move would cause them to shatter into dust.

Shi Yan remained perfectly composed, unaffected by the fluctuations emanating from the pair. He raised his left hand and pressed it against Nazario's chest.

In his palm, a patch of gloom flashed, and immediately, a shadowy black hole materialized. A suction force erupted instantly, reeling in the life force from within Nazario like a winch!

"I come from the Barren Domain. My inheritor... is named Bloodthirsty!" Shi Yan hissed.

Nazario and Bastos jolted violently, utter horror dawning in their eyes. "You are, you are that man's successor! The Barren Domain! All of you from the Barren Domain will be utterly destroyed! Hahaha, you will all perish horribly! Because our Devouring Clan's grand scheme has already been activated! Our Young Master has already been born! He will slaughter every last one of you from the Barren Domain!"

Nazario suddenly erupted into a ferocious, maniacal laugh.

Amidst the laughter, ignoring whatever Bastos was thinking, all the life fluctuations within him burst forth like a volcano, his Soul Altar shattering into pieces in that instant.

A chill ran through Shi Yan's heart. Without pausing to think, he instantly shifted.

"Whoosh!"

He vanished without a trace in a blink.

"Boom! Boom!"

Two massive shockwaves, one preceding the other, laced with fragments of flesh and raining blood, violently exploded from within the valley.

These were the final aftershocks of annihilated flesh and shattered Soul Altars!

After the explosions subsided, Shi Yan reappeared once more within the valley. Blood rained down like a deluge, coating everything in scarlet. Nazario and Bastos were gone without a trace, reduced to fragments scattered across the ground. Their wisps of vital essence and soul fluctuations were gradually dissipating, ready to return to the heavens and earth.

Shi Yan frowned. A black hole surfaced above his head, like a massive maw, sucking in the soul power that hadn't yet scattered.

His acupoints stirred, absorbing the residual death essence. His expression grew increasingly grim.

He hadn't expected Nazario to react so violently upon hearing the origins of the Barren Domain, choosing self-destruction of body and soul rather than offering more information.

It was clear that both of them knew of Bloodthirsty and were aware of events transpiring in the Barren Domain!

Nazario had even exploded his Soul Altar because he perceived Shi Yan’s mastery of the Profound Truth of Devouring, knowing that leaving the altar intact would only benefit Shi Yan in vain.

The talk of a Young Master being born, destined to wipe out everyone in the Barren Domain, cast a shadow over Shi Yan’s heart...

He suspected that this so-called Young Master was likely a soul drawn from beyond the Domain, lured by Xuan Shan’s machinations. After a series of grand schemes, this entity had quietly fled following the emergence of the Serpent, its current whereabouts unknown.

That person was a sharp weapon for the 'Devour' and the Devouring Clan, aimed squarely at the destruction of the Barren Domain, destined to bring unending catastrophe upon it in the future.

The Devouring Clan had never ceased their search and invasion of the Barren Domain. Unable to find the entrance, they had utilized some secret arts to transport that Young Master’s soul strangely. If that entity were given time to mature...

A cold dread crept into Shi Yan's heart.

"Whoosh! Whoosh!"

The sound of bone wings beating echoed. The Little Skeleton and Mei Ji, who had rushed over upon hearing the commotion, landed atop the Bone Dragon, staring blankly at the blood-drenched valley and the contemplative Shi Yan.

Neither the Little Skeleton nor Mei Ji dared to interrupt his thoughts.

Mei Ji’s bright eyes flickered with a peculiar light, and astonishment colored her alluring face.

Nazario and Bastos were both cultivators of the Immortal Triple Heaven Realm. Even with only a fraction of their strength remaining, defeating them was far beyond Shi Yan’s current capability.

—Judging by the residual aura in the valley, Nazario and Bastos had even shattered their Soul Altars. Their primary souls had dispersed; this was true death. How had Shi Yan achieved this?

She felt a secret shock.

Shi Yan offered no explanation. After a long period of thought, he looked up at the Little Skeleton. "Go to your parents' location."

The Little Skeleton nodded.

"Oh, right," Shi Yan said, frowning as he addressed Mei Ji. "You can understand the ancient language of the Bone Clan. Can you transfer that language comprehension to me?"

Without understanding the Bone Clan's language, communicating with the Little Skeleton relied purely on guesswork, which was quite troublesome. Since Mei Ji understood the language, Shi Yan thought she might be able to transfer the linguistic memory to him, similar to how the Heavenly Eye Clan could transfer memory imprints.

"I can't transfer it to you. The language he uses is distinct from the Bone Clan's usual tongue; it's too peculiar. My method... can only be used once. Unless I return to the Phantom Shadow Clan, I need a specific item to implant the language memory. It's impossible right now," Mei Ji replied, shaking her head.

"Truly impossible?"

"It is the absolute truth!"

Shi Yan fell silent. After a long pause, he instructed the Little Skeleton, "Take her along. She will help facilitate our communication."

The Little Skeleton nodded again. It understood Shi Yan’s words, but unfortunately, Shi Yan could not understand its meaning. This was indeed a problem, and having Mei Ji present would solve it, so he agreed.

The Little Skeleton mounted the Bone Dragon and soared away with a whoosh, a shout echoing from its mouth.

"He says for you to come with me," Mei Ji replied, her delicate brows knitting slightly.

Without a word, Shi Yan suddenly shot into the sky and landed smoothly behind Mei Ji, taking a seat on the back of the snow-white Bone Dragon. He even extended an arm, wrapping it around Mei Ji's voluptuous waist.

Mei Ji’s body instantly stiffened. She suddenly recalled Shi Yan being behind her before, bringing back memories of humiliating incidents...

She felt extremely awkward, furrowing her brow deeply, and let out a soft gasp, "Can you keep a little distance? This Bone Dragon isn't that small; why must you be so close to me?"

Shi Yan grinned mischievously, his hand still lightly stroking her waist. "What are you afraid of? Didn't you say before that you would meticulously serve me once? Although our deal has changed, letting me take a small advantage now can count as part of what you owe me!"

"You are shameless!" Mei Ji spat, her expression turning frigid, even her divine body seeming to radiate coldness.

"Your divine body is in a critical state. If you rashly exert force again, recovery will be difficult, perhaps even causing irreparable damage to your physique. What do you think?" Shi Yan suddenly leaned close to her ear, exhaling softly with a strange, mocking tone.

Mei Ji shuddered, retorting angrily, "What exactly do you intend to do?"

"Help you stabilize your injuries slightly," Shi Yan's tone abruptly turned cold.

As he uttered these words, that unruly hand settled precisely over the location of Mei Ji's lower abdomen, her Dantian and Sea of Qi.

While Mei Ji was still confused, a warm current quietly surged in. This warmth carried mysterious energy, like a nurturing hot spring, coursing through her Dantian and meridians. The wounds on her meridians and flesh, and the depletion of her power, began to miraculously recover!

As the warm currents flowed, Mei Ji’s delicate body flushed with an enchanting, lustrous crimson, and her cheeks also glowed red, as if bathed in a supremely comfortable pool, experiencing an ineffable joy.

She was momentarily dazed. At this moment, she didn't overthink things, nor did she mind that Shi Yan's hand was lingering in a rather intimate spot; she simply focused on absorbing the comfort, hoping to capture the warmth to heal her internal trauma faster.

The pleasant interlude was short-lived. Soon, the Bone Dragon stopped, landing at the stone chamber within the mountain where the Little Skeleton’s parents were interred. Shi Yan naturally withdrew his hand then.

The exquisite comfort in Mei Ji’s body vanished the moment that hand left, and the soreness of her flesh returned, the warmth in her Dantian and wounds disappearing, replaced by stabbing pains.

She suddenly looked at Shi Yan’s hand as it withdrew from her lower abdomen, her bright eyes filled with an indescribable longing. It seemed she wished that hand could remain there forever, momentarily forgetting even the shame associated with that location.

Shi Yan didn't look at her again. Taking a deep breath, he instructed the Little Skeleton, "Move your parents' skeletal remains out."

The Little Skeleton immediately set to work, handling the bone remains with extreme care, terrified of damaging them. It cautiously lifted the two sets of bones from the stone sarcophagi and placed them on the cold, hard stone floor.

Shi Yan frowned, then solemnly extended his hands, pressing his left and right hands respectively onto the chest area of the two skeletal forms.

The death essence refined from Nazario and Bastos was being rapidly purified. Part of it had already benefited Mei Ji, and now it was being slowly infused into the two heart cores, which, having been removed from the stone coffins, were no longer losing life energy once the vital essence was injected.

The two heart cores absorbed the life force Shi Yan injected like sponges. To Shi Yan, these two cores felt like infinite oceans; the vitality he injected was barely a drop in the bucket, far from reaching saturation.

He was deeply shaken. He estimated internally that if the heart cores of the Little Skeleton's parents were fully saturated with energy, their power would likely be thousands of times denser than Nazario and Bastos at their peak combined!

They were absolutely beings of the Domain Ancestor level!

He instinctively glanced at the Little Skeleton, musing that this little fellow was truly lucky. Two Domain Ancestor-level parents had painstakingly 'refined' him; perhaps only Bone Clan parents of that stature could 'birth' such a miraculous and terrifying little being.

Time passed quickly.

After an unknown duration, the power Shi Yan had refined from Nazario and Bastos, transformed into concentrated life essence, was completely injected into the two heart cores and was now exhausted.

He released his hands and examined the heart cores, finding no visible change. However, the two grayish-brown skeletal bodies now possessed a faint glimmer of light...

"Crack-clack..."

The Little Skeleton was visibly overjoyed, gesturing wildly and chirping something as it watched the subtle changes in its parents' remains.

"He's asking if his parents can awaken," Mei Ji explained.

Shi Yan remained silent for a moment before looking at the eagerly awaiting Little Skeleton. "Theoretically, yes, this method could awaken your parents. However, it requires an immensely vast amount of life fluctuation. What I injected... is far from enough, still very distant from reaching the level required for their awakening."

"Katakata..."

The Little Skeleton's eyes filled with sorrow. After a while, it spoke again.

"He asks if there is a faster way," Mei Ji translated once more.

Shi Yan fell silent again.

What would be a faster method?

There was one way...

But this method would need to be built upon bloody slaughter, at the cost of countless living beings being buried.

...(To be continued)RQ