On a certain mountain within the southern region of the Vermilion Bird Trial Grounds, there were thousands of mutant beasts on their knees.

They all seemed to be kneeling in a massive circle around a black sacrificial altar.

A series of strange red symbols floated in the air around the altar, emanating scorching energy.

At the center of the sacrificial altar was a young boy who appeared to around fifteen or sixteen years of age that had been bound and suspended high into the air by a black vine.

Five cylindrical rods each an inch in diameter punctured his limbs and his chest, but there was no blood flowing out from the lacerations. However, a series of veined patterns in the form of blood vessels had appeared on the black rods, giving them an extremely peculiar appearance.

An extremely handsome man with a pair of black wings was looking up into the sky with a slight smile on his face. "It's almost time…"

A series of semi-transparent chains bound his body and ran through his heart before sinking into the ground.

The boundless power of the earth became an unbreakable seal for the man.

The shrill cry of a phoenix rang out through heaven and earth, and a bright white flame lit up the dark skies above.

A white phoenix of around a hundred feet in size circled the air above the sacrificial altar, and the vast power of divine flames emanating from its body had all the mutant beasts gathered below trembling with fear.

The phoenix descended down to the ground like a holy beast, wiping away all the impurities of the world.

Its feathers were pristinely white with not a single speck of dust to be seen and supreme divine might radiated from its eyes, giving it the appearance of a godly creature. However, when it drew closer to the man with the black wings, it revealed an extremely affectionate side of itself as it rubbed its head against the man's arm in an intimate gesture.

"Don't be impatient, White Phoenix, we'll be able to initiate the ritual once the demonic moon emerges," the man said with a soothing smile.

The phoenix let loose another cry before nodding in an extremely personified gesture.

The man suddenly turned his gaze upon a certain spot in the distance, and his expression immediately darkened.

At that moment, the wind and clouds surged violently between heaven and earth and earsplitting thunderclaps could be heard booming in the sky, as if the very heavens were venting their rage.

However, the man's expression soon lightened as if he had already lost forgotten the cause for his rage. He turned to the mutant beasts gathered around the altar with a smile. "So be it, we're missing the Black Emperor Weed and that makes the ritual somewhat imperfect… Still, it's always a joyous event when guests come to join in on the festivities.

"Phoenix army, go welcome our guests!"

The mutant beasts kneeling around the altar roared in unison at the man's command, and their collective auras exploded forth as they turned to look up into the sky.

An Lin, Mo Hai, and Shangguan Yi could see the sacrificial altar from several kilometers away, and rage burst forth in their eyes when they caught sight of the young boy who had been suspended in the air with black rods puncturing his body.

At the same time, an army of mutant beasts had already set forth toward them, and the three of them welcomed the army with extremely cold expressions.

Over three hundred spirit flame mutant birds swept toward them first and blasted flames from their beaks.

The small plumes of flames converged to form a massive wave of flames several thousand feet in height before crashing down with crushing force.

"Piss off!" Mo Hai roared and a "vanquish" character appeared on the Divine Phoenix Disc in his left hand as a towering plume of crimson flames burst forth from the crimson saber in his right hand.

He slashed his crimson saber toward the oncoming wave of flames, and a flaming crimson sword projection burst forth before instantly vanquishing the wave of flames.

The sword projection continued onward and shredded all of the Flying Flame Birds behind the wave of flames into ribbons.

The three of them continued moving forward; their speed barely decreased in the face of the Flying Flame Birds.

At this moment, over four hundred mutant beasts running on the ground below were already upon them.

All of them then turned to look up into the sky before flames began to shoot out of their mouths and converge in the air.

Boom boom boom…

All of the over four hundred mutant beasts blasted forth fireballs from their mouths, creating a spectacle akin to hundred of cannons going off at once, making ground tremor violently below them.

The fireballs were as dense as rain and completely enveloped the three people above to allow no chance for escape, and the devastating temperature created a massive heatwave which radiated forth from all directions.

Shangguan Yi drew ahead of An Lin and Mo Hai, and she pointed her sword in a downward direction, thereby instantly materializing a six-pointed snowflake of around a thousand feet in size below her feet. The massive snowflake began to rotate at high speed, and the power of extreme frost seemed to threaten to freeze the entire space solid.

Several hundred scorching fireballs suddenly began to shrink in size as they approached the massive snowflake in the sky before completely fizzling out even before they reached the massive snowflake.

Just one snowflake managed to dispel the collective attacks of over four hundred mutant beasts!

"Vanquish!"

Shangguan Yi's eyes were like two blocks of ice as she pointed her longsword down toward the ground and the water droplet pendant around her neck suddenly glowed with an extremely bright blue light.

Crack…

The massive snowflakes began to disintegrate into thousands of ice swords which swept down toward the mutant beasts on the ground below like streaks of blue light imbued with powerful killing intent.

The ground below instantly transformed into a frosty abattoir, and the mutant beasts wailed in anguish as their blood gushed forth before instantly being frozen solid.

When the three of them finally flew past overhead, all four hundred mutant beasts below had been buried under snow and ice, with not one remaining survivor.

Around half a kilometer away from the sacrificial altar, over three hundred powerful spirit fire mutant beasts gathered together with ferocious bloodlust on their faces. Some of them were flying in the air with flames enveloping their bodies, while others remained on the ground, building up their powerful spell techniques.

Wings of Wind materialized on An Lin's back, and he tore through the air like an almost untraceable white streak.

The mutant beasts were all caught by surprise and just when they were about to initiate their attacks, a golden light flashed in An Lin's eyes while a golden ripple imbued with boundless might spread forth for over a kilometer in all directions.

Most of the mutant beasts instantly began frothing at the mouth and fainted on the spot, while the remaining more powerful mutant beasts all sank to their knees feebly, as if they were kneeling to their monarch.

An Lin walked among them and the projection of the sun appeared in the air before instantly burning the mutant beasts into ashes with its boundless, scorching flames.

"Trash!"

An Lin spoke expressionlessly as he made his way toward the sacrificial altar.

The man on the sacrificial altar was a little intrigued when the first two people sprang into action, but his expression faltered slightly after seeing An Lin's techniques, and he looked on with amusement at the approaching An Lin.

The man was not bothered in the slightest by the collective demise of his phoenix army.

On the contrary, he was extremely glad to see three more worthy humans for him to feast on!

This was like having food delivered straight to his doorstep!

"Well done, White-Scaled Wolf God."

The man looked at the humanoid wolf accompanying An Lin and the others with an expression of approval.

The humanoid wolf almost sh*t itself after hearing these words of praise.

He didn't think even for a single moment that these were genuine words of praise.

They were instead a declaration of his death!

The man then turned his gaze upon the three people approaching the sacrificial altar with a slight smile on his face. "It's such a pleasure to be welcoming guests, but I don't have much in the way of hospitality. I can only provide you a choice between whether you'd like to braise by the white phoenix or sliced into sashimi by the black phoenix."

Yang Yuan looked down at the three of them and a hint of clarity returned to his eyes as he frantically yelled for them to run away in a hoarse voice.

The veined patterns on the black rods puncturing his body pulsed like a heartbeat, and Yang Yuan's expression distorted along with the rhythm of the pulsation as if he was enduring extreme agony.

An Lin glanced at Yang Yuan and replied in a cold voice, "Braise the white phoenix and slice the black phoenix into sashimi, that sounds good to me."

"Hehe, since when did ants become so foolishly brave?" The black phoenix chuckled lightly and he extended a finger as he looked at the three people before him.

"I can crush you all with just one finger!"