108: Chapter 108 Human Elixir
Jiang Xun looked confused as he studied Zhou Zhiqing seriously.
"Is there something wrong with my Cultivation Technique?"
Zhou Zhiqing licked his lips.
The movement was subconscious, but in Jiang Xun's eyes, it looked like a snake's tongue flickering out from between its teeth and retracting.
"Fellow Daoist might not be aware."
Zhou Zhiqing chuckled, as if sharing some common knowledge.
"That pure Spiritual Qi on your person is a top-quality human elixir in the eyes of us Demonic Path Cultivators."
As he spoke, his eyes swept over Jiang Xun again, his gaze sizing him up like a plate of rare delicacies.
"Just now over there, I spotted you from afar. I was wondering where such fine raw material for a human specimen had popped up from?" Zhou Zhiqing smiled.
"Coming closer, I see it's the Sect Master's property. A pity, a pity."
Though he said it was a pity, his eyes never left Jiang Xun.
A chill surged through Jiang Xun's heart.
human elixir.
In the game, that was one of the most cruel cultivation methods of the Demonic Path—refining living people like Medicinal Pills, taking their essence, blood, and soul to nourish oneself.
In the Early Stages of the game, there were specialized Human Pill Hunters who targeted the 'seeds' of various Immortal Paths; once a major figure took a liking to them, they would become prey.
Once caught, they would be refined into a pill.
For someone to consume.
And the pure Spiritual Qi inside Jiang Xun's body didn't come from a Cultivation Technique.
It was the ice phoenix bone.
Its marrow produced the purest Spiritual Qi at every moment.
In the eyes of a Human Pill Hunter, he was like a walking, fragrant piece of meat.
He suddenly realized—so this guy originally wanted to eat me!?
Jiang Xun raised his hand.
Slap!
He delivered a fierce slap to Zhou Zhiqing's face.
The force was heavy, and the crisp sound echoed before the stairs.
Zhou Zhiqing was sent staggering to the side, five red marks instantly surfacing on his face.
He looked incredulous and a bit dazed.
"You!"
Zhou Zhiqing wanted to demand an explanation.
Jiang Xun's gaze was unfriendly as he stared at him:
"What business is it of yours what technique I Cultivate?"
As his voice fell, the red mist that had been suppressed within his body suddenly surged.
Between his brows, a blood-red vertical mark faintly emerged.
The pattern showed through from beneath the skin, its edges shimmering with a faint halo.
The vertical mark sat right in the center of his forehead; paired with his current expressionless face, it exuded an indescribable, handsome eeriness.
Zhou Zhiqing clutched his face, stunned for a moment.
A flash of violence crossed his eyes, but it was instantly and firmly suppressed.
"Yes, yes, yes."
He bowed and scraped, not caring at all about being slapped. "It was my big mouth, my big mouth. I hope Fellow Daoist won't take offense."
Jiang Xun didn't look at him again.
He turned and walked up the stairs.
He didn't give Zhou Zhiqing any face at all, even though he was a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator.
When you have backing, you have no fear.
A jade-green Medicinal Pill appeared in Jiang Xun's hand.
It was also a human elixir.
It was the one Black Demon had fed to Chen Qing, which Jiang Xun had silently collected.
After killing Chen Qing.
At that time, the blood mist inside his body had been extremely hungry for this human elixir.
Seeing it was a treasure, Jiang Xun had taken it.
Zhou Zhiqing stood where he was, hunched over; only after the figure had walked far away did he slowly straighten his back.
His whole body was trembling with rage.
No one had treated him like this for hundreds of years. How did that person dare?
He, Zhou Zhiqing, had been in the Blood Fiend Sect for hundreds of years; although he wasn't a core figure, he had never been slapped in the face like this.
Just because the Sect Master took a fancy to him?
But as he trembled, he suddenly froze.
That man's face... something was wrong.
He carefully recalled that face.
The sword-like brows, the thin lips, and that moment of eeriness before the blood mark on his forehead vanished... Zhou Zhiqing suddenly shuddered violently.
He had seen a scroll in the Library Pavilion.
That was a long time ago.
A portrait of the previous Sect Master, Dao Seeking Demon Venerable Dao Xun.
His reign was extremely short, and it was now so far in the past that few remembered him.
But when Zhou Zhiqing was organizing ancient texts in the Library Pavilion years ago, he had accidentally come across a yellowed scroll.
The person in the painting and the youth just now... looked very similar.
No, it wasn't just 'similar.'
Zhou Zhiqing's pupils shrank. It was that person.
Dao Seeking Demon Venerable... is alive?
Jiang Xun didn't know what was happening behind him.
He just walked up step by step.
The stairs were very long, so long that by the time he counted to over nine hundred, he finally saw the end.
At the end was a magnificent hall.
It was entirely pitch-black, built from some unknown stone, yet a soaring red light emanated from within.
The red light seeped from the roof and every crack in the walls, making the entire hall glow like a piece of burning coal.
Jiang Xun stood at the edge of the plaza in front of the hall, looking left and right.
Only then did he see the full view of the entire Blood Fiend Sect.
A massive barrier was inverted over it like a transparent bowl, shrouding the entire Sect within.
Blood-colored runes flowed densely across the barrier, with occasional flashes of lightning and a dull humming sound.
Beyond the barrier...
Was an endless black desert.
The sand was black, the sky was gray, and swirling ashes drifted down from the sky like an eternal black snow.
The ashes fell onto the desert, blending with the black sand until they were indistinguishable.
This environment... Jiang Xun frowned.
It's very similar to the Cangwu Secret Realm.
Could it be that the Blood Fiend Sect moved the Sect into a Small World beyond the heavens?
Then how was he supposed to call for reinforcements?
When the Blood Fiend Sect was at its peak, it occupied the only Rank Ten Spiritual Vein in the Central Province.
That was the place with the densest Spiritual Qi in the entire Central Region, a place demonic Cultivators the world over would break their heads trying to get into.
But now?
A black desert and ash-filled skies.
Not a single blade of grass grew outside the barrier.
Jiang Xun stared at the endless desolation and remained silent for a long time.
Footsteps came from behind him.
Jiang Xun turned around.
A person walked out from the shadows of the hall.
He was very young, appearing to be twenty-seven or twenty-eight.
He wore a jade crown set with a piece of warm white jade.
He was dressed in a mysterious black brocade robe with silver cloud patterns embroidered on the hem, bound at the waist by a golden silk belt from which hung a dragon-patterned jade pendant.
At a glance, he was clearly a scion of a noble family.
Two people followed behind him, clad in iron armor. The armor plates were pitch-black, revealing dark red linings only at the joints.
The two of them, one on the left and one on the right, kept pace with the youth in synchronized steps.
Jiang Xun's gaze swept over the two of them.
Golden Core Stage.
And their auras were steady—clearly the kind of Golden Core forged through actual combat, not piled up with Medicinal Pills.
The young man came to a halt about a dozen paces in front of Jiang Xun.
He sized Jiang Xun up, his gaze lingering for a moment on his forehead.
Then he smiled.
The smile was proper and warm, like a spring breeze.
He spoke, his voice clear, "I am Li Chenqian. May I ask how to address Fellow Daoist?"
Jiang Xun simply said, "I am Jiang Xun."
Li Chenqian said, "That Fellow Daoist could be taken under the Jiang Hongyuan's wing really makes me envious!"
This sentence seemed half-joking.
Jiang Xun gave a dry laugh.
"Could it be that Fellow Daoist Li also admires Jiang Hongkite?"
Li Chenqian's expression changed, and he suddenly became cautious. He whispered, "How dare you speak the Jiang Hongyuan's name directly?"
He looked around, and after breathing a sigh of relief, he said:
"Fellow Daoist, you can joke with anyone, but you must never joke about the Jiang Hongyuan."
Jiang Xun nodded; indeed, Jiang Hongkite was someone who meant exactly what she said.
One couldn't joke with her at all.
Because she took everything literally.
In one plotline of the game, Jiang Xun said her eyes were beautiful, as if a star had been tucked inside them.
Jiang Hongkite had gouged out her eyes in front of him, looked at them, and then said blankly, "There are no stars!"
Jiang Xun had been terrified at the time.
Afterward, when he pursued Jiang Hongkite, he was always direct and never used abstract or metaphorical language.
Even if he wanted to say something romantic, he would provide the explanation along with it.
He didn't delve deeper into this topic.
Jiang Xun said, "Is Fellow Daoist Li here looking for someone?"
He realized that the name Li Chenqian was very similar to Li Chenguang.
The two should be related.
Li Chenqian said, "I am indeed here to handle some matters."
He suddenly grinned.
"My dear brother is still waiting for me."