When they reached the imperial city gates, a soldier called out, “Grand General!”
The Blood Demon waved a hand and urged his horse into a gallop. Not a single person dared stop him.
He quickly arrived before the Eastern Palace. Several eunuchs and guards hurried toward him, and one eunuch cried out in a daze, “Grand General, an-an immortal has come looking for trouble!”
Those eunuchs had been guarding the Crown Prince’s sleeping chamber that evening when they saw someone fly in from the horizon and descend without even seeming to change posture. With such an ethereal and transcendent bearing, how could that not look like a celestial descending from Heaven? They had been frightened senseless, afraid they had offended Heaven itself. Only when they saw the Blood Demon now did they feel as though they had finally found someone to rely on.
The Blood Demon’s eyes reddened, violence surging in his heart.
He had been on the verge of success. First Dongli Xi suddenly chose death over submission, and then an immortal cultivator’s spiritual power appeared above the imperial city. His luck could hardly have been worse!
He said in a low voice, “Withdraw beyond the Crown Prince’s palace. I will handle matters here.”
The Blood Demon had always killed without blinking and had accumulated tremendous authority. No one dared argue. They swallowed all their questions and withdrew.
Then the Blood Demon ordered, “Seal off everything within ten li. No matter what you hear, do not let a single person enter!”
Everyone answered, “Yes,” and went about carrying out the order.
Just as he was about to enter the Eastern Palace, the Blood Demon suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his chest. The skin there began to writhe, as though something were about to push its head out. He drew a deep breath and barked, “What are you squirming around for?”
The Blood Demon’s robes hung open. On the smooth skin over his chest, something about the size of a human head bulged outward. It seemed to have a mouth and nose and looked astonishingly like a human face.
That face spoke in a hoarse voice identical to the one coming from the Blood Demon’s mouth. “The Crown Prince is about to rest. Do not go trouble him.”
The Blood Demon snapped, “Jiao Tu, you dare threaten this old man?”
The face replied, “If you want to seize the fortune of an entire dynasty, you cannot do without my cooperation. I ask for nothing else, only the life of the one I love. If you refuse, you may as well erase my consciousness.”
The Blood Demon was so angry that his chest heaved. Decades ago he had been so formidable, yet now a mere Southerner dared threaten him like this. Rage seemed to pour from all seven apertures, but he had no choice except to endure it. His injuries had been too severe, and most of his original body had been destroyed. To nurture it back to completion, his primordial spirit had to return to it once every seven days. If he were not afraid Jiao Tu might seize the opportunity to kill himself, he would never have tolerated being restrained by him.
After finally suppressing his fury, the Blood Demon gave a cold snort and said through gritted teeth, “Rest assured. Once the fortune is seized and this old man has devoured your body, Dongli Xi can continue being his Crown Prince or emperor. I have no interest whatsoever in your petty mortal throne!”
Back then, while fleeing a Golden Core Perfected One, the Blood Demon had escaped to the Lower Nine Continents with his primordial spirit carrying his ruined physical body. He hid deep in the mountains to recuperate. After observing the fortune and circumstances of various kingdoms, he ultimately chose the Kingdom of Chenghuang and its Grand General, Jiao Tu, as the means by which he would seize a dynasty’s fortune.
Jiao Tu controlled military power, and his fortune took the form of a giant python that submitted to the golden dragon of the Eastern Palace. After finding Jiao Tu, the Blood Demon used a Dream-Entering Art, intending to tempt him with wealth, power, and similar things before devouring him once the plan was complete. Unexpectedly, Jiao Tu’s will was firm. Because of his love for Dongli Xi, his loyalty was unwavering. He coveted neither wealth nor power, was not frightened by threats, and in the end even began uncovering traces of the truth.
Humiliated and enraged, the Blood Demon possessed him outright. Jiao Tu knew how deeply demonic the man was and feared that if pushed too far he might choose mutual destruction and harm Dongli Xi. In the end, Jiao Tu could only feign compliance and strike a bargain with him, both to preserve Dongli Xi’s life and to restrain the Blood Demon’s rampant conduct to some extent.
Afterward, Jiao Tu was delighted that he had finally gained an opportunity to be close to Dongli Xi, yet he also suffered from the hatred in Dongli Xi’s eyes and from being unable to tell him the truth. The days that followed were torment.
Now that the black jiao was on the verge of transforming into a dragon, Jiao Tu knew he did not have much time left. He therefore restrained the Blood Demon even more firmly, determined that Dongli Xi remain safe and sound. To keep everything from collapsing at the final step, the Blood Demon also became somewhat more willing to tolerate Jiao Tu.
As the two exchanged a few words, Jiao Tu’s □□ horse never stopped and had already entered the courtyard.
Suddenly someone shouted, “Demon, surrender your life!”
A scarlet sword light, red as a streak of blood, cleaved straight down.
The Blood Demon slapped the □□ blood-red horse, forcing it several steps back. He saw a beautiful youth holding a red longsword descend from the air. A full moon hung behind him, silver moonlight spilling over his body and making his beauty even more striking.
Elio’s Notes: The current JJWXC source contains literal □□ censorship gaps in the two preceding horse-related phrases. FD preserves them as-is rather than guessing at missing wording.
A trace of ferocity gleamed in the youth’s eyes, and his strikes showed no hesitation. Heat rolled from the crisscrossing sword light, seemingly dyeing his broad sleeves red and making him look as though he had come through fire itself, overbearing and fierce.
The Blood Demon did not fear such a youth. From the fluctuations of spiritual power, he had already judged that this person was merely at the fifth layer of Qi Refinement. His young age made his talent exceptional, but in a battle of life and death, who cared how talented someone was? It was simply a matter of killing.
The Blood Demon’s primordial spirit was possessing Jiao Tu, and Jiao Tu’s body was mortal, so he could use only power roughly equivalent to the fourth or fifth layer of Qi Refinement. But his combat experience was extremely deep, and his cultivation realm was several great levels above Su Xin’s. He felt not the slightest fear.
Seeing Su Xin behave so arrogantly, the Blood Demon merely sneered. He thought, This old man’s body is in need of nourishment, and now this ignorant little immortal cultivator has come straight to me. He’ll do nicely as a morsel to fill the gaps between my teeth.
Without wasting words, he raised a hand and sent out a billowing layer of blood mist. The mist was extraordinarily poisonous and sinister, and it moved with startling speed. In the blink of an eye, it pounced on the fiery-red sword light and swallowed it whole.
Su Xin raised his sword-like brows but did not panic. He actually opened his mouth and spat out a ball of azure-blue flame.
The flame was truly formidable. Though no larger than a fist and making none of the usual crackling sounds of fire, the instant it collided with the blood mist, it rolled the mist into itself. The moment the blood mist touched it, countless screams suddenly erupted from within, shrill and ghastly, like wailing ghosts, enough to make one’s hair stand on end. Yet no matter how horribly it screamed, it was burned completely away and could no longer harm the scarlet flying sword in the slightest.
Seeing this, the Blood Demon’s gaze darkened. “…Azure Flame Treasure Fire.”
Su Xin laughed brightly. “So you demon have at least some knowledge. You recognize this young master’s precious little flame!”
The Blood Demon’s eyes grew darker as anger surged within him.
He had roamed the Upper Nine Continents for many years. How could he fail to recognize this flame? This brat was barely grown, yet dared speak so insolently to him. Did he truly think a tiger fallen onto level ground could be humiliated by a cur?
The Azure Flame Treasure Fire ranked forty-seventh on the Immortal Fire Ranking. Its flames were exceptionally pure and were especially powerful in suppressing wicked things of the demonic path.
If the Blood Demon were using blood mist with his peak Essence Transformation cultivation, this flame might not have been able to do anything to him. But using Jiao Tu’s body, the Blood Demon could not overcome it.
Still, to think that a single immortal flame could leave the Blood Demon helpless was far too naive.
A fierce light flashed in the Blood Demon’s eyes, and he raised his hand again.
* * *
After bidding farewell to the Dongli brothers and Su Xin, Xu Ziqing waited until Su Xin went out to provoke the Blood Demon, then quickly used the Wood-Escape Art to head toward Jiao Tu’s residence.
The Grand General’s residence was not easy to locate. Walking along the streets, Xu Ziqing could not detect even a trace of demonic qi. No wonder Su Xin had come straight to the Eastern Palace instead of storming the Grand General’s residence, which had effectively become a demon’s lair.
Xu Ziqing did not panic. First he sealed his five senses, then spread spiritual power throughout his body. Wood qi was the qi of life, while demonic qi was mostly a form of yin and baleful qi. For this reason, wood-aligned cultivators were often exceptionally sensitive to demonic qi.
The instant he did this, a fine, sharp pain appeared across the surface of his body, caused by contact with demonic qi. Delight flickered in his heart, and he immediately fled toward its source at high speed.
Sure enough, in less than a single breath, Xu Ziqing saw a grand and imposing residence. Its presence was exceedingly formidable, and the demonic qi came from beyond its gates.
Using an Invisibility Art, he passed directly through the wall and encountered no restriction. Presumably, the Blood Demon had never expected an immortal-path cultivator to come to the Lower Nine Continents, so he had not placed many defenses around the residence.
After entering the courtyard, Xu Ziqing ignored everything else and followed the demonic qi directly. He passed through many courtyards and corridors before arriving at an inner residence.
Xu Ziqing slipped inside and entered a private room.
The room had the rough, forceful air of a warrior. A long spear hung on the wall, while beside it rested a broad-backed saber whose edge gleamed coldly with imposing force.
This was Jiao Tu’s bedroom, and the demonic qi was actually coming from the bed.
Xu Ziqing did not hesitate. He went straight to the bed and saw a spiritual pearl resting on the bamboo pillow, faint black light seeping from within. Looking elsewhere, he found nothing else carrying demonic qi. He picked up the pearl and saw that a little spiritual power still remained inside. The Blood Demon had apparently used it earlier to absorb the spiritual energy within but had not finished, leaving it here. The pearl had therefore become tainted with demonic qi.
Unable to find the Blood Demon’s body, Xu Ziqing felt somewhat disappointed. But Su Xin was delaying the Blood Demon at the Eastern Palace, and no one knew how long he could hold out. Xu Ziqing had to search quickly.
Then another thought occurred to him. Since the Blood Demon had left the spiritual pearl here, and Jiao Tu’s body could not absorb spiritual energy, the original body was probably nearby. Most likely, the Blood Demon had constructed a secret chamber with a formation or some other means of reaching it directly. But finding the entrance would require testing every object in the room one by one.
There simply was not enough time for that.
Xu Ziqing stopped thinking and called to his friend within the ring. “Brother Yun, the situation is urgent. Could you perhaps…” help me?
Before he could finish, the man in white had already appeared, cutting off the request before Xu Ziqing could speak it. Xu Ziqing smiled slightly and thought, Brother Yun truly is cold on the outside and warm within. For such deep friendship, I must repay him well in the future.
Cultivators below Foundation Establishment had only begun to glimpse the threshold of the immortal Dao. Though their bodies gradually acquired a transcendent quality, they still could not entirely shed their mortal nature. Foundation Establishment itself was merely the first step across that threshold. Essence Transformation continuously refined and transformed the body, while only after reaching Golden Core and nurturing that golden core within could one truly depart from the mortal state. Not until the Nascent Soul stage, when the core shattered to form an infant and the body was remolded, would the physical body become entirely free of impurities.
Because leaving the mortal body behind was so difficult, the greatest difference between Foundation Establishment and Qi Refinement lay in spiritual sense.
A Qi Refinement cultivator had merely been elevated one level above an ordinary mortal, and all their methods remained limited to the physical body. A Foundation Establishment cultivator, however, gradually began to touch upon the soul and could perceive the world through the soul. This was spiritual sense.
A Foundation Establishment cultivator’s spiritual sense could observe everything within ten li. Xu Ziqing, at the seventh layer of Qi Refinement, naturally possessed no spiritual sense. Yun Lie, however, even though he was only a wisp of soul, clearly was no simple Qi Refinement cultivator judging from his presence.
That was why Xu Ziqing had thought to ask for his help in searching the enormous Grand General’s residence as quickly as possible.
Yun Lie said nothing more. He merely swept his gaze around the room, then raised a hand and flicked his sleeve.
A needle-like streak of golden light, carrying an indestructible force, shot straight toward one corner of the room. Black light flashed there, and the space abruptly split open, revealing a deep, dark passage.
The instant the passage appeared, demonic qi surged violently outward, accompanied by a dense stench of blood from deep within.
Yun Lie leapt inside first, and Xu Ziqing transformed into a blur of azure light and followed.
As soon as the two entered, Yun Lie waved a hand again, and the passage immediately sealed behind them.
Only then did Xu Ziqing realize that the place was a bottomless shaft. Wind roared past his ears as his body drifted downward like a leaf.
This was evidently a demon cavern the Blood Demon had excavated underground. The moment Xu Ziqing landed, the stench of blood grew even thicker, rushing into his nose and making him nauseous.
He felt something wet and sticky beneath his feet. Looking down, he saw the ground stained bright red, the soil itself soaked with blood so that every step left a footprint. Xu Ziqing frowned, an ominous feeling rising within him.
Without stopping, he asked, “Brother Yun, is the Blood Demon’s body here?”
Yun Lie nodded slightly. “Ahead.”
Xu Ziqing understood and hurried after Yun Lie, swiftly crossing the earthen path.
Stone walls rose on either side, the soil upon them still fresh and also stained red, with not a blade of grass growing anywhere. The farther they went, the stronger the smell became. The path itself was not long, and the two soon reached its end.
In the next instant, Xu Ziqing sucked in a sharp breath.
Before them lay a cavern large enough to hold a hundred people. A pool had been dug in the center, dozens of chi across, its surface churning with a painfully vivid red.
It was all blood.
Above the pool floated a blood-red gourd. Its mouth bobbed up and down, pouring out streams of blood that cascaded into the pool. Yet despite the constant flow, the level of the blood neither rose nor fell and remained unchanged.
At the center of the pool was a formation fitted with a formation disk. The disk floated on the surface, as large as a millstone, and upon it sat a man cross-legged, thin as a skeleton.
The man was about eight chi tall. To call him extremely thin was almost inaccurate, for he had originally been reduced to little more than a skeleton. Countless strands of tissue intertwined over the bones, making him look like a body stripped of its skin, raw red and horrifying.
More than ten blood-colored formation flags had been planted around the pool. They floated unsteadily in the blood, flashing with an eerie red light. Countless blood threads extended from the flags, weaving into a dense net across the entire pool before tangling thickly around the man’s body and feeding all that blood into him.
Without question, this was the physical body the Blood Demon was desperately trying to restore.
Coldness appeared in Yun Lie’s eyes, and the aura around him grew even more frigid. “Human blood.”
Xu Ziqing held his breath. His eyes showed both pity and fury. Seeing this, how could he possibly fail to understand? The blood inside the gourd was plainly the blood of Southerners collected by the Blood Demon.
It took far longer to describe than it had to happen. From the moment they broke the restriction and entered the demon cavern, not even a single breath had passed. Time was short, and this was not the moment to indulge in anger.
Xu Ziqing only said hurriedly, “Brother Yun, I’m afraid this will foul the place where you reside.”
Yun Lie replied, “It does not matter.”
Without delaying another moment, Yun Lie swept his gaze across the cavern. Two golden sword lights shot out, erupting with ferocious killing intent. They shattered the restriction in an instant and slashed straight at the blood gourd.
At the same time, Xu Ziqing made his move. With a sweep of his sleeve, the Blood Demon’s body began struggling as though trying to fly up. The pulling force from the formation disk was extremely strong and held it fast, making it difficult for Xu Ziqing to take it.
Yun Lie gave a cold snort. A hundred streams of sword qi coiled around him, then exploded outward all at once.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
In the blink of an eye, the formation flags and blood gourd were shredded to pieces. Xu Ziqing swept his sleeve again, and the Blood Demon’s body immediately flew backward into his storage ring. Almost in the very next instant, the blood pool itself was blasted apart.
At last they had found and seized the body, but Yun Lie did not return to the storage ring.
Xu Ziqing guessed that he found the Blood Demon’s body too filthy and said nothing about it. He only asked, “Brother Yun, shall we go to the Eastern Palace together?”
Yun Lie’s figure flickered, already moving ahead. “Go.”
The wind stirred, and two streaks of azure and gold light vanished in a flash.
* * *
The Blood Demon and Su Xin stood facing one another. Su Xin had released the Azure Flame Treasure Fire and destroyed the blood mist the Blood Demon sent out, but the Blood Demon remained unhurried. He pushed out his palm and rapidly formed a hand seal.
A faint bzz-bzz-bzz sounded. Suddenly, two Blood Bees the size of fists appeared around him. Their bodies were scarlet, their wings black, and the stingers at their tails were a full chi long.
The moment the Blood Bees appeared, they beat their wings.
An extremely powerful sound wave erupted. Caught off guard, Su Xin’s soul shook violently and he immediately lost control of the Azure Flame Treasure Fire. A blur flashed past, and one Blood Bee was already in front of the flame.
The Azure Flame Treasure Fire suddenly trembled as though it had encountered something terrifying. After shaking several times, it actually shrank by a full circle. The Blood Bee, meanwhile, looked visibly plumper, as though it had swallowed some nourishing medicine. The second Blood Bee also moved forward.
Fury spread across Su Xin’s beautiful face. He had gone through extreme danger to obtain this treasured flame and cherished it dearly. Yet after only a single exchange, it had already shrunk by half. How could he not be enraged?
But this was no time to lose his head. Su Xin immediately shouted, and the Azure Flame Treasure Fire fled back as though granted a reprieve, returning swiftly to his mouth before he swallowed it again.
Su Xin stared coldly at the Blood Demon. His scarlet longsword flew before him, firelight pulsing along its blade and changing continuously with its master’s intent.
The Blood Demon sneered as well. Instead of recalling the Blood Bees, he formed another hand seal, intending to send them charging forward once more.
Before he could act, however, his expression suddenly changed.
Someone had touched his restriction.
This time the Blood Demon flew into a rage. He immediately shouted, “You brat of the immortal path, do you have an accomplice?”
Hearing this, Su Xin knew the others must have found something. Disdain filled his eyes as he said, “This young master needs help to deal with an idiot like you?”
The Blood Demon’s knuckles cracked as rage consumed him. His physical body was hidden underground and protected by only a single restriction. If someone broke it, his body would be in grave danger. He had no desire to keep tangling with Su Xin now. He spurred the blood-red horse and turned to leave.
A mortal body was heavy and cumbersome, unable to flee through the air or ride the wind. The Blood Demon bitterly realized what a terrible mistake he had made and could only ride the blood-red horse back. The thought made him grind his teeth again. If even one of the spiritual artifacts or magical artifacts he had owned back then had survived, he could protect his primordial spirit while leaving Jiao Tu’s body and return directly to his own body. Would that not be far faster than this? Yet now, if he dared let his primordial spirit leave its vessel, that brat could probably burn it to ashes with a single burst of flame. Would that not mean his complete death?
Su Xin was quite clever himself. Seeing the Blood Demon so anxious, he guessed that Xu Ziqing had succeeded and was delighted. He immediately controlled his flying sword and brought it down in a slash. “Where do you think you’re going?”
The Blood Demon raged inwardly. Pah! Who says this old man is running?
But Jiao Tu’s body was fragile. How could he allow a flying sword to strike it? With no other choice, the Blood Demon turned back to fight, growing ever more frantic inside.