The Blood Demon was anxious, and his movements inevitably lost some of their precision. Thus, although his attacks grew increasingly vicious, Su Xin’s state of mind was now much steadier than his, and he managed to endure them head-on, tying the Blood Demon down and preventing him from escaping.
The two fought fiercely. Black qi coiled around one side while layers of red light blazed on the other, neither yielding as they struggled for the upper hand.
Su Xin looked smug, but in truth he was growing calmer and calmer inside. After fighting the Blood Demon for some time, he had already sensed that the old demon had something weighing on his mind and was holding back out of fear of damaging something. Su Xin simply laughed and said, “Demon, that Grand General’s body of yours is about to break!”
The Blood Demon’s eyes turned scarlet, and the veins at his forehead throbbed. “Brat! Stop your chatter, or trouble will come from that mouth of yours!”
Yet he could not resist checking the condition of the body. The moment he did, he discovered that several meridians had already been damaged, while the flesh had split open in several places under the strain of his domineering spiritual power. If he continued using it so recklessly, the body would soon collapse, and all his previous effort would be wasted.
The Blood Demon was furious but helpless and roared, “You little brat! The immortal path and demonic path have nothing to do with each other. Why do you insist on causing trouble for me?”
If he had kept quiet, it might have been better. At those words, Su Xin’s sword-like brows shot upward, and a fierce hatred surged from the bottom of his heart. “Nothing to do with each other? Blood Demon, your memory must be poor indeed. It has only been a few decades, and you have already forgotten all the bloody crimes you committed?”
The Blood Demon’s heart jolted when he heard this.
By now, how could he not understand? This youth had clearly come seeking revenge. No amount of talk would help, and saying more would only invite contempt.
The Blood Demon immediately fell silent, but a trace of vicious intent rose within him. They say that when you cut weeds, you must pull them out by the roots. Sure enough. I absolutely cannot let this brat leave today. Otherwise, the young one will go and the old ones will come, dragging their whole clan here to make trouble for this old man. What a nuisance that would be!
With that thought, the Blood Demon beckoned the two Blood Bees back to him, caught one in each hand, and crushed them into two masses of blood.
The blood struck the ground and became pools, then rose again as blood mist. Afterward, as though abruptly gaining sentience, it transformed into several blood-red snakes only a finger long, hazy and half-visible.
Before the spell was even complete, the Blood Demon gave a savage grin and shouted, “Great Blood-Mist Life-Seizing Art!”
Several explosions sounded. The blood qi in the area suddenly intensified, and even more blood mist streamed in from every direction, dyeing the sky itself red as it rapidly poured into the illusory blood snakes and made them solidify.
Su Xin’s breath caught. He was not stupid and immediately understood, his eyes nearly spitting fire. “You killed all those Southerners!”
He was still young. Although he took pride in being a cultivator and looked down somewhat on ordinary mortals, he was by no means cruel or bloodthirsty. When he arrived tonight, he had merely taught the eunuchs and soldiers a lesson without taking a single life. Seeing this scene now, how could he fail to realize that the Blood Demon had killed the guards and eunuchs stationed around the Eastern Palace with a spell, then taken their blood essence to feed the blood snakes?
“Utterly deranged!” Thinking of his own blood feud, Su Xin cursed furiously. “You damned demon deserve death by a thousand cuts, with even your primordial spirit annihilated!”
A thin sheen of blood-red light covered the Blood Demon’s face as he laughed wildly. “I’ll devour you first, then eat your companions. When all of you are inside my belly…”
Before he could finish, Su Xin had already raised his sword in fury and slashed.
The Blood Demon let out a howl. The blood snakes’ eyes flashed, and several hundred serpentine bodies bared their fangs and surged toward Su Xin at once.
* * *
After finding the Blood Demon’s physical body, Xu Ziqing immediately followed the swiftly drifting Yun Lie back to the Crown Prince’s Eastern Palace.
Before they even drew near, the two of them sensed that something was wrong.
Two colors of light intertwined above the Eastern Palace, clearly from Su Xin and the Blood Demon fighting. Yet the surroundings were deathly silent, and the air reeked of fresh blood.
A bad feeling rose in Xu Ziqing’s heart. He quickened his pace, and the instant he landed on the ground, his pupils contracted.
At the entrance to the Eastern Palace, there should originally have been dozens of eunuchs and several hundred soldiers standing guard. Now, however, skeletons lay scattered everywhere, leaving behind only layers of human skin, clumps of hair still attached to scalp, and discarded clothing strewn across the ground.
The Blood Demon had slaughtered innocents again!
The chill around Yun Lie intensified. Sword qi surged around him with a zzzt, zzzt, carrying such force that it seemed capable of tearing the sky apart.
Seeing this, Xu Ziqing instead forced down his anger. He quickly stepped to his friend’s side and said, “Brother Yun, let us join hands and eliminate this demon!”
Yun Lie said, “This demon must die.”
Neither spoke again. Their figures blurred, and they rushed inside.
Bones and dried corpses littered the path. Xu Ziqing’s heart ached at the sight, but he kept his gaze straight ahead and passed through without stopping.
Before long, the two reached the courtyard. There they saw the Blood Demon and Su Xin, one astride the blood-red horse and the other hovering in midair, exchanging attack after attack without giving an inch. The atmosphere was thick with the smoke of battle.
Su Xin was being pressed extremely hard. After all, he was only at the fifth layer of Qi Refinement. No matter how exceptional his aptitude, he could not compare with an old demon like this. Worse, the blood snakes had drunk their fill of blood essence and were vicious, poisonous, and extraordinarily agile. Once they entangled him, they were extremely difficult to handle.
Left with no choice, Su Xin spat out the Azure Flame Treasure Fire once more and attached it to his flying sword. The sword light flared brilliantly, giving rise to azure-blue flames more than one zhang long.
The blood snakes swarmed wildly but could not touch the fire. The slightest contact reduced them to smoke. Su Xin relied on his flying sword and continuously drove his spiritual power, but there were simply too many blood snakes. He had to devote all his attention to preventing them from approaching, and his spiritual power was being consumed at an enormous rate. As his strength gradually failed, his teeth parted and he prepared to bite his tongue and spit out a mouthful of blood essence to force the flying sword onward again. Just then, however, he caught sight of a familiar figure appearing at the edge of the battlefield and finally relaxed a little.
Xu Ziqing had arrived!
Su Xin knew help had come, while the Blood Demon also noticed an unfamiliar immortal-path cultivator and immediately grew wary.
Earlier, the Blood Demon had split his attention while creating the blood snakes. Now that he steadied his mind, he suddenly sensed that something was wrong.
His physical body!
The Blood Demon’s eyes nearly split with rage. He had labored painstakingly to nourish his physical body, yet now his primordial spirit had lost all connection to it. How could he fail to understand what had happened?
His body had been taken!
Realizing this, the Blood Demon looked toward Su Xin, and boundless hatred surged within him.
He had fallen for a diversion!
The moment his restriction had been disturbed, he should have rushed back immediately. Instead, someone had delayed him here until his entire scheme was nearly ruined. Now he had no choice but to kill these people and recover his body before making any other plans.
The Blood Demon was a man of firm resolve. At once, he stopped caring about Jiao Tu’s body, no longer restrained his spiritual power, and released all the strength his primordial spirit had carried with it.
His original body had been taken, and his life was in danger. How could he still care about seizing a dynasty’s fortune? He had to survive this calamity first. If his primordial spirit were destroyed, then even Jiao Tu’s body would be useless to him.
Having made his choice, the Blood Demon spread his arms slightly, and a blood-red flag appeared between his palms. It resembled the ones Xu Ziqing and Yun Lie had seen in the demon cavern, but it seemed to be made from some strange material. From the outside it looked almost like black gold, though it was surely a hundred times harder.
The blood flag was extremely heavy. When the Blood Demon swung it, it resembled a long spear and carried tremendous force. Blood-red radiance rolled across the flag, bringing a nauseating stench that made it appear even more vicious and ominous.
Seeing Su Xin besieged by the blood snakes, Xu Ziqing caused two emerald leaves to form beneath his feet and rose into the air to assist him. Yet the Blood Demon moved even faster. Before Xu Ziqing could act, the Blood Demon had already brought out the blood flag, and the blood snakes immediately began to change.
The moment the blood flag rose, the blood snakes withdrew from around Su Xin. Then, like moths rushing into flame, they competed to throw themselves into the flag.
The blood flag blazed brighter with every blood snake it devoured, while its stench grew more intense and its appearance more uncanny. The Blood Demon cackled strangely and occasionally breathed out a stream of blood qi, adding still more radiance to the flag.
In the blink of an eye, the blood flag had been refined until wicked qi rolled from it in waves. The Blood Demon seized it and gave it a violent shake.
Swish!
Countless streams of blood mist erupted from the flag, several times thicker than the mist that had preceded the blood snakes. The vivid red grew more and more viscous, forcing its way toward people’s mouths and noses. Even the faintest whiff made one want to vomit, and could even leave the soul dizzy and disoriented.
Yet this was still not the end. From within the blood mist, now almost like a sea of blood, strange sounds gradually began to emerge.
Creak… crack, crack!
Crackle, crackle!
Xu Ziqing brushed a hand across his face. Azure light immediately flickered in his eyes, allowing him to see what was happening inside the blood mist.
Only then did he discover countless skeletons draped in bloodied skin swaying to their feet and walking step by step toward the blood flag.
At first the skeletons were somewhat sluggish, but Xu Ziqing quickly noticed that as the blood mist thickened, their steps became faster and their movements increasingly agile. Before long, they had become nimble and ferocious, dropping to all fours and charging like savage beasts.
Su Xin stood highest at the moment, and two clusters of azure-blue flame burned in his eyes, allowing him to see the scene below clearly as well. He blurted out, “What in the world are those things?”
Xu Ziqing did not know what they were either, but he could tell they would be extremely difficult to deal with. He immediately said, “Brother Yun, I’ll go help Su Xin.” With that, the emerald leaves beneath his feet moved and carried him toward Su Xin.
As soon as the emerald leaves appeared beneath Xu Ziqing’s feet, Yi-Wood qi spread outward from his entire body, radiating a hazy green light. He looked almost like a green lantern drifting through the blood mist.
The blood mist was thick enough to bind a person’s movements, yet the instant it touched the green radiance, it parted like flowing water. The sight was truly strange.
With everything blocking his path dispersing on contact, Xu Ziqing did not hesitate. He flew swiftly to Su Xin’s side and said, “I’ll help you.”
Seeing the green radiance surrounding Xu Ziqing, Su Xin was overjoyed. “You’re a wood-aligned cultivator?”
Xu Ziqing nodded. “I am. Why?”
Su Xin laughed. “Wood qi is brimming with vitality. Look at those things standing up. They’re all skeletons, and every one of them was originally killed by the Blood Demon. They can move only because of some art he used. But…”
Xu Ziqing understood at once. “But since they are dead things, they must carry death qi.”
Su Xin nodded. “And death qi is restrained by life qi.”
No wonder Su Xin was so delighted. These blood-mist bone corpses were strange, but in the end they had been animated by death qi. With a wood-aligned cultivator present, they could be suppressed to some extent.
The Blood Demon below had clearly realized this as well. Yet he had great confidence in this spell. So what if there was a wood-aligned cultivator? Limited by cultivation and experience, the two youths might still be no match for these corpse demons.
He only resented that his current cultivation was so limited. If he were still at the peak of Essence Transformation, how could he possibly create corpse demons of such a low level?
Before the two young cultivators could react, the Blood Demon pursed his lips and whistled.
At once, the corpse demons howled together. The bloody skin across their backs trembled ceaselessly, while every joint in their bodies cracked. Soon several bones thrust outward from their spines with a chain of sharp reports like firecrackers. After that burst of cracking, the bones rapidly fused into pairs of skeletal wings. With a single flap, the corpse demons took to the air.
Xu Ziqing and Su Xin were just about to swing their weapons when dozens of corpse demons abruptly appeared before them. Their speed was like a flash of light, and in an instant they bared rows of ghastly fangs.
Almost by instinct, Xu Ziqing produced the thousand-year Steelwood in his palm and slashed straight at the nearest one.
Crack! Crack!
The skeleton shattered under that single strike and immediately scattered across the ground.
Xu Ziqing looked around and discovered that the corpse demons had already surrounded them. Behind those nearest, countless more corpse demons sprouted skeletal wings and rushed into the air one after another.
He no longer hesitated. Raising the thousand-year Steelwood, he began hacking and sweeping in every direction.
The white-robed figure floated quietly within the dense blood mist. Not a single corpse demon dared approach within several chi of him. Yet he remained motionless, apparently with no intention of joining the fight.
Only when Xu Ziqing began fighting did Yun Lie’s brows draw together almost imperceptibly.
The long sword in Su Xin’s hand was crimson, while a layer of azure-blue flame covered its surface. Scorching waves rolled from it as he moved, and every swing stirred up a long tongue of flame that remained condensed instead of dispersing.
His movements were exceptionally fierce and precise, with clear order in every surge and withdrawal of sword light. The sword technique seemed perfectly suited to his attribute. Every time the blade struck a corpse demon, the creature was reduced to charred ash.
At first, the two youths fought side by side while each handled his own enemies. Now, with so many corpse demons pressing in, they gradually drew closer until they were fighting back to back. Fortunately, fire qi was fierce while wood qi was gentle, and wood could further nourish fire. Fighting the corpse demons this way made both of them considerably more formidable.
The corpse demons seemed endless. Each time one fell, another immediately replaced it. Before long, the two cultivators had already consumed half their spiritual power, while the corpse demons still surged forward without pause. If this continued, their spiritual power would eventually be drained dry. Once that happened, if the corpse demons swarmed them together, neither would escape the demon’s hands.
Xu Ziqing had some combat experience by now. Seeing that the situation was turning bad, he said first, “I’ll draw the corpse demons away. Find an opening and attack the Blood Demon!”
Su Xin naturally had no objection. He also knew that Xu Ziqing carried wood qi, giving him a better chance of surviving than most. He immediately replied, “I can hold them off for one ke. Clear a path for me. Can you do it?”
Xu Ziqing said, “I can try.”
The two made their decision quickly. Su Xin’s figure flashed, and he swept his long sword outward, instantly clearing the space around Xu Ziqing.
More corpse demons surged from behind, but Xu Ziqing had already raised his arm. He clenched his left hand into a fist, then abruptly opened it and scattered what lay within.
Countless green motes burst from his palm like splashing green waves or a fine, drifting rain, covering an area three chi around him.
Looking closely, one could see that they were not motes of light at all, but countless tiny luminous leaves, crystalline and lovely. Each contained extremely pure Yi-Wood qi. The moment they met the blood stench surging toward them, the blood qi retreated. Any corpse demon touched by the leaves was soon covered from head to toe. The Yi-Wood qi and death qi consumed one another, but in the end the death qi receded. The corpse demon immediately lost the force sustaining it, reverted to a skeleton, and fell from the air, smashing to pieces below.
Su Xin exclaimed happily, “Excellent move!”
Xu Ziqing smiled faintly, feeling somewhat steadier. He scattered another sheet of green light. This time he directed it toward the Blood Demon and pushed it forward with all his strength. The luminous green leaves obediently surged ahead like a rising tide, and wherever they passed, death qi dispersed completely.
Su Xin moved with them, following close behind the leaves and flying forward at high speed. The blood mist before him continuously thinned, and he drew closer and closer to the Blood Demon.
Ten chi, eight chi, three chi. The Blood Demon was right in front of him.
Because the Blood Demon was limited by Jiao Tu’s body, he had to devote all his attention to controlling the blood flag and could not dodge at all.
This spell used the blood flag as the formation eye and was called the Corpse-Demon Bone-Eroding Formation, a vicious seventh-grade formation. The formation was perfectly matched to the Blood Demon Great Art, and regardless of the Blood Demon’s cultivation level, it could animate the bones of those he had devoured.
Years ago, when the Golden Core Perfected One fought the Blood Demon, the Blood Demon had likewise summoned countless bones belonging to cultivators he had killed and transformed them into an overwhelmingly powerful sea of corpse demons, nearly trapping the Perfected One and preventing him from escaping.
That formation had been more than a hundred times stronger than the one before them now. Not only were corpse demons made from cultivators’ bones vastly stronger than those made from mortal bones, but the Blood Demon’s cultivation then had been worlds apart from his current state. Only with all of that had he managed to hold the Perfected One back for even a short while.
Still, the Golden Core stage was ultimately the first step by which a cultivator broke free of the Heavenly Dao’s constraints. The Supreme Elder of the Rogue Cultivator Alliance had accepted some injuries and swept the formation away, though the Blood Demon had still seized the chance to escape.
Now the Blood Demon was completely confident. Even if the present formation was countless levels weaker, his opponents were merely youths who had not yet reached Foundation Establishment. In his eyes, they were hardly worth mentioning.
What he had not expected was that just as the corpse demons finished forming and began slowly wearing the two young cultivators down, the blood mist inside the formation suddenly started to thin.
The Blood Demon narrowed his eyes and looked up.
So the slightly older youth was a wood-aligned cultivator. And yet… after examining him more carefully, the Blood Demon’s expression suddenly tightened.
Just as wood qi restrained death qi and was acutely sensitive to demonic qi, demonic qi and death qi were equally sensitive to wood qi. With the Blood Demon’s experience, he could tell that Xu Ziqing’s wood qi was astonishingly pure, seemingly without the slightest impurity.
Impossible!
Unless one had reached Nascent Soul, completely shed the mortal body, and reconstructed the Dao body, it was impossible to automatically expel spiritual qi of other attributes after it entered the body. A low-level cultivator like this could never possess spiritual power so pure.
No. There might be one other possibility.
A single spiritual root.
If this youth possessed a single spiritual root, then even with his low cultivation, the spiritual power inside his body would still be incomparably pure.
Once the Blood Demon arrived at this conclusion, a trace of greed suddenly appeared in his eyes.
A single spiritual root represented monstrous aptitude. Even if such a cultivator’s cultivation was not high, the spiritual power contained within his flesh and blood far surpassed that of others. Devouring just one of them could equal devouring a hundred cultivators of the same cultivation level.
Without realizing it, the Blood Demon licked his lips.
I really want to eat him…
But at that moment, the blood mist grew thinner still. He could even smell a fresh fragrance of plants gradually driving away the reek of blood and steadily approaching.
The presence was advancing slowly, but there was no question that the blood mist within the formation was losing ground.
The Blood Demon’s expression changed, and he temporarily suppressed his greed.
At that very moment, a mass of scorching flame came hurtling toward him.
Within the blaze was a beautiful youth gripping a long sword. Azure-blue radiance flared across the blade as Su Xin attacked with unstoppable momentum and complete disregard for his own life.
The Blood Demon sneered. Completely unhurried, he gripped the blood flag and smashed it fiercely against the long sword.
Clang! Clang!
Metal rang against metal. Azure-blue flame scattered from Su Xin’s sword, but it could not damage the blood flag in the slightest.
No one knew how the blood flag had been forged. In that brief contact alone, several cun of Su Xin’s flying sword had been stained black. Fortunately, the Azure Flame Treasure Fire was extraordinary. With a single sweep across the blade, it burned the corruption away.
Even so, Su Xin was still no match for him.
The Blood Demon raised the blood flag and struck again and again.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Each blow was heavier than the last, each impact louder than the one before.
Boom, boom!
Su Xin had originally been in the air and had borrowed the force of his diving charge, but after taking so many consecutive strikes, his momentum quickly ran out. After the final two blows landed in succession, he was finally sent flying backward.
Having knocked Su Xin away, the Blood Demon did not press the advantage. Instead, he shifted his gaze toward the green-robed youth high above, who was still driving back and destroying corpse demons.
The greed in his eyes was no longer concealed in the slightest.