"Run! The Patriarch has gone mad!" A member of the Yun family suddenly rushed out of the clan leader's mansion, shouting in panic.
At that very moment, a figure burst out from the mansion and grabbed hold of him.
The Yun family member slowly turned his head, only to see the pale blue face and crimson eyes of Yun Hu staring back at him. Black blood trickled from Yun Hu's eye sockets, his mouth smeared with fresh blood, and he grinned, his teeth showing remnants of flesh.
The Yun family member had witnessed Yun Hu devouring his own son, so he knew all too well what the flesh stuck between those teeth was.
A chill rose from the depths of the Yun family member's heart, tears streamed from his eyes as he saw Yun Hu open his mouth, moving closer to bite him. His eyes filled with despair.
"AAAAAHHHHH!!!"
The terrified scream echoed throughout the clan leader's mansion.
At the same time, the brutal battle continued on the Huaxia Empire's side. The imperial army and the beast soldiers surrounded the Yun family's territory, attacking from all directions with precision and efficiency.
The soul cannons stationed at the borders of the Yun family's lands, combined with the imperial army and the beast soldiers, ensured that no living creature could escape the Yun family's domain.
During the battle, perhaps due to the stimulation of bloodshed, many of those already cursed erupted early, transforming into zombies and attacking those around them.
Thwack! After slicing a zombie in half, one of the Blood Battle Generals saw the top half of the zombie's body, intestines spilling out, still crawling toward him.
Unfazed by the grotesque scene, the Blood Battle General coldly stomped on the zombie's head, crushing it underfoot.
The soldiers of the Huaxia Empire, like emotionless killing machines, were far more terrifying than the zombies. Half alive and half puppet-like, they executed their orders with ruthless efficiency.
From the vantage point aboard the Huaxia Emperor, Lin Qian and his family could see everything happening on the battlefield below.
"Black blood? These people are clearly human, so why do they look just like the Blackblood Clan?" Yun Fan, observing the battlefield from high above, frowned deeply.
Hearing Yun Fan's words, Lin Qian's expression also darkened as he stared at the battlefield. "In fact, from what I've seen, there's something strange about this black blood."
"What do you mean?" Yun Fan asked, his curiosity piqued by his grandson's observation.
Lin Qian continued to observe the battlefield, speaking slowly, "Over the years, I've had several encounters with the Blackblood Clan. One of my followers, Lei Qian, had a brother who was turned into a Blood Corpse by the Blackblood Clan. That happened in the Linhai Province."
"Linhai Province? A Blackblood managed to infiltrate Linhai Province?" Lin Di and Yun Yunyan exclaimed simultaneously. They had once eloped to Linhai Province, so they knew just how deep within the human territory it was.
Lin Qian nodded and began recounting his battles with the Blackblood Clan, the incident involving the Blackblood Royal Family, and the events that had unfolded in the Ancient Spirit Province deep underground.
After listening to Lin Qian's recounting, the group recalled that during the Ancient War, the Blackblood Clan had been at the forefront of the conflict, their strength terrifying, and their blood manipulation abilities even more so.
The more they killed, the more bodies they would use to create Blood Corpses and Walking Corpses, turning ordinary corpses into undead soldiers.
During key moments of battle, they would prioritize transforming corpses into these grotesque minions, even at the cost of their own lives.
"According to ancient texts, the biggest weakness of the Blackblood Clan was their obsession with turning bodies into Blood Corpses and Walking Corpses. No matter how good an opportunity they had to attack, they would always prioritize these two tasks first," Yun Yunyan said, drawing on her extensive knowledge from ancient books.
Upon hearing this, Lin Qian remembered a conversation he had with the Sword Array Emperor, Zhang Juncheng, who had mentioned this trait of the Blackblood Clan in passing.
"The Blackblood Clan's fixation on raising Blood Corpses and Walking Corpses caused them to miss many opportunities on the battlefield. And as more bodies piled up, their obsession with converting corpses only grew. They would even convert the corpses of their alien race allies, which eventually led to their downfall."
"As a result, some of their alien allies turned against them, and without that betrayal, the war would have ended with far greater losses," Lin Qian recalled, thinking back to Zhang Juncheng's words and the Emperor's lingering sense of fear and regret.
"The Blackblood Clan was an odd race, appearing suddenly in the Soul Martial Continent. At the time, humanity was incredibly powerful, and they emerged from a border region where no one had initially noticed them. It wasn't until they had grown significantly that people began to realize this new race had appeared out of nowhere," Lin Qian continued.
"At first, they didn't display their ability to raise Blood Corpses or Walking Corpses, so they didn't attract much attention. But that's the real issue. If their strange abilities had been discovered earlier, they might have been dealt with before causing so much destruction."
"Humanity suffered heavy losses in that war, but so did the alien races."
As Lin Qian reflected on the Sword Array Emperor's recollections, his mind churned with complex emotions.
"Wait a minute!" Lin Qian's eyes widened as a realization struck him. "The Sword Array Emperor said the Blackblood Clan appeared out of nowhere on the Soul Martial Continent?"
His mind raced like lightning, and he suddenly turned his gaze to the distant Yun family.
The Yun family had also appeared out of nowhere on the Soul Martial Continent, just like the Blackblood Clan. The two situations were identical.
The idea that two groups had emerged seemingly from thin air on the same continent was far too similar to be a mere coincidence.
Moreover, the cursed zombies now had black blood, which bore an uncanny resemblance to the Blackblood Clan. There had to be a deeper connection.
"There's no doubt—someone is pulling the strings behind the scenes," Lin Qian muttered, his expression darkening. He turned to his family. "The Sword Array Emperor said the Blackblood Clan appeared out of nowhere, just like the Yun family. Mother, have you ever seen anything like this in the ancient texts?"
"…No, never!" Yun Yunyan replied after thinking carefully and shaking her head.