BXBX NOVEL Chapter 245: Blood Sacrifice Swallowing God Array, Activate!
This base had no defenses at all and was engulfed by the flames, followed by a smell of charred flesh wafting through the air…
It seemed like there were heavy casualties inside.
"Wait? What\'s going on here?"
"This doesn\'t feel right!"
...
The players rushed into the base, only to find that all the members of the Blood Cult had been wiped out by that lucky guy who had previously taken over 30 heads in one go!
From the looks of it, it seemed they were preparing to relocate; just as they had shut down the protective array, they were hit by a skill. Caught off guard, not a single one managed to escape.
???
Everyone wore expressions of disbelief.
Wait a minute, how is this fair? Why is all the luck concentrated on one person?
Sterl\'s main body could easily sense the envy radiating from those around him.
At that moment, someone couldn\'t hold back any longer and exclaimed, "Dude, isn\'t this a bit excessive?"
"You took all the kills! We didn\'t get any rewards! The team leader didn\'t get any rewards either!"
"Why can\'t we all share the rewards? Is it really fair for you to hoard everything?"
...
The players were increasingly hostile in their tone.
Meanwhile, Sterl\'s main body merely smiled and nodded, "Alright, I won\'t take any more kills from now on."
So agreeable?
The other players were still trying to process what was happening.
Just then, Bionic Tear walked over directly, "Alright, today\'s mission ends here."
"Huh?"
"Wait, what?"
"We\'re not continuing?"
The group looked utterly confused. Didn\'t we just finish threatening each other? And now we\'re not going on??
What was the point of offending someone?
However, Bionic Tear shot an annoyed look at his own body.
Sterl was multitasking and acting!
"Not fighting? What\'s the point of that…"
He put on an expression of extreme displeasure from not getting any kills.
Then, Bionic Tear turned to leave alone, leaving the players with just his back. From his body language, it was clear that the team leader seemed to be planning to solo the Blood Cult\'s base.
And indeed, that was Sterl\'s plan all along. Initially, he had no idea that farming these monsters yielded such high rewards, which was why he brought the other players along. Now, he had a valid reason to go solo after taking too many heads himself.
...
With the complete departure of the team leader, Sterl\'s main body also put on an awkward expression and chose to leave.
"So… what do we do now?"
"Are we really going to search for areas that can\'t be detected?"
"Won\'t that anger the team leader?"
...
The players were in a state of panic.
They definitely didn\'t dare to compete with Sterl for resources; otherwise, they might find themselves with a hole in their rainbow ship on the way back, sending them all to their doom.
In contrast, Sterl was feeling quite relaxed.
He thought to himself, "I just need to leave 10 bases intact; I\'ll farm the rest myself!"
However…
Before Sterl could take action, and while the players were still adjusting their mindset, the situation changed dramatically!
Just as Sterl was heading to the next Blood Cult base, a total of sixteen blood-colored energy beams shot up into the sky from the royal city of Florence!
"Finally… can\'t hold back any longer?" Sterl paused in his tracks and smiled.
He led the players to destroy the bases not only to give the king of Florence a report but also to pressure the Blood Cult, signaling that it was time to take action.
Otherwise, given the Blood Cult\'s nature, they would likely find a way to capture some citizens of Florence to use as materials for their backup arrays.
While Sterl didn\'t have a saintly heart, he was still willing to do a good deed as long as it didn\'t affect his interests.
"Everyone, gather at the palace gates," he quickly messaged the other players.
As for Sterl himself, he got busy. Among the arrays he had previously destroyed, one was the core of the sub-array.
Currently, there were two sub-arrays left that could serve as cores: one was guarded by the Blood Cult\'s pope within the palace, and the other was located in the warehouse in the south of the city as a backup.
Activating Shadow Stealth, Sterl infused himself with Stardust to extend his movement time.
He shot through the shadow world, racing to the southern part of the city, consuming only about 10 seconds in total.
Then…
He swallowed three [Glory Potions], recklessly exhausting his energy to activate Moon Law.
In an instant, countless Blood Cult followers around him fell into a dazed state, losing all awareness.
In a silvery domain, Sterl quickly approached the array, ready to begin his operations.
He distorted each spatial node, extracting crimson materials and refining them with even more intricate patterns.
Before long, although the appearance of the entire sub-array didn\'t change, it operated with an inexplicable smoothness.
Once he completed all of this, Sterl activated Shadow Stealth to leave once more.
Meanwhile, the adherents of the Blood Cult were completely unaware that anything had happened.
They were indeed quite vigilant, with someone watching the array every moment. At that time, someone remarked, "Does it feel like the array is operating more smoothly? Truly, our lord\'s Divine Power is unparalleled!"
...
"Wow!"
Sterl had just burst into an empty room in an inn, coughing up a mouthful of blood and feeling quite miserable.
His previous operation had severely depleted his Divine Power.
He quickly took out the Fire of Ten Thousand Souls to absorb some energy, barely managing to return to a normal state.
Moreover, after this absorption, Sterl\'s soul experience was maxed out, and he directly leveled up to six.
Once he caught his breath, Sterl lay on the ground, blood oozing from his seven orifices…
"Ha ha ha!"
Yet he couldn\'t help but smile, blood staining his gums, making him look quite terrifying.
Sterl\'s plan had succeeded!
At this moment, the sub-array in the southern warehouse, once used to form the Blood Sacrifice Swallowing God Array, would upgrade to the Blood Sacrifice Array.
Its refining effect would be superior to the original!
The only problem was that even the Archduke of Blood himself would likely struggle to control this grand array!
Moreover, within this great formation, Sterl had the highest authority!
With just a thought, he could change the array\'s target from refining all the citizens of Florence to refining all demons instead.
"What I need to do next is ensure that the Blood Cult can fully activate the array…"
"But actually, I just need to do nothing."
"They can at least summon over 200 legendary demons, and even if we add in the players from the Hall of Valor, Florence wouldn\'t be able to handle it."
Sterl thought rapidly.
That left only one thing to do.
How to ensure that the core of the sub-array in the south would definitely be activated? It was simple: just dismantle all the other sub-array cores!
Sterl quickly returned to the palace.
At that moment, a group of players was already waiting in the square in front of the palace.
"Team leader, you\'re here?"
"What are your plans next? We\'ll follow your orders!"
"Team leader, it seems Virrus has gone missing. Should we go look for him?"
...
Seeing Sterl felt like seeing their backbone.
Just a few minutes ago, when the entire city was engulfed in a surge of bloodlight, the players weren\'t panicking; instead, they thought that the bigger the event, the more rewards they would receive!
What a good thing!
However, as the bloodlight gradually expanded, encasing the entire city in a translucent blood-red shield, the players finally began to feel that something was off.
They felt weak all over and were in extreme pain. When they opened their status, they were met with a flurry of effects: poison, frenzy, weakness, plague…
Each effect was marked with an "indisposable" and "uncleanable" label.
Some stubborn players, not wanting to believe it, used their precious healing items.
As a result, their debuffs disappeared for less than 10 seconds…
Although legendary players had immense power, under the effects of ten different debuffs, they felt utterly powerless, transforming from the genius players of the Hall of Valor into ordinary legendaries.
On top of that, with the blood-red shield rising, all communication was cut off, and all teleportation skills and scrolls were disabled.
The city echoed with the roars of demons.
How could these players not panic?
They quickly stopped caring about how few kills they had gotten prior.
These players, with their exceptional talents, were able to accurately assess how dire the situation was. A moment\'s hesitation could lead to death; this incident in Florence was far too serious!
At the same time, a few of them keenly noticed that Sterl, who had impersonated that player, had vanished, and they rushed to report it.
Bionic Tear hesitated for half a second before immediately launching into his explanation: "That missing player is likely a member of the Blood Cult."
"That\'s why he managed to get so many kills earlier; the cult didn\'t want us to earn the Hall of Valor\'s rewards."
As soon as these words were spoken, the players present looked enlightened.
Then Sterl quickened his speech.
"Based on my investigations, the blood-red shield in the city is composed of ten arrays."
As he spoke, he displayed his consumption record: [Myriad Arts of Heaven exchange: Arrays].
"However, the core energy gathering points of all the arrays aren\'t located within the city. According to my analysis, the energy exchange points for all the arrays are actually within the palace!"
"If we can destroy the arrays in the palace, we might be able to break the blood-red shield!"
As soon as Sterl finished speaking, the players present were slightly surprised, but it didn\'t seem entirely unexpected.
After all, such plot developments were quite typical; in some related demon novels within [Transcendence], it was common to find that the ultimate villain turned out to be the king or a noble.
"Everyone, follow me!" Sterl shouted.
Though he could handle the arrays in the palace alone, Sterl preferred to keep a low profile. He could only act as a leader slightly stronger than an ordinary legendary player.