45: Chapter 45: Blood Demon Ningchuan

At the border between Wanshan County and Xiaoshan County, beneath an ordinary cliff face.

This cliff face was completely bare, not even growing a few strands of wild weeds, and the exposed rock body shimmered with a grayish-white hue under the sun.

Occasionally, a Loose Cultivator passed by, but they wouldn't give it a second glance. For no other reason than that the Spiritual Qi here was thin, the terrain perilous, and even ordinary birds and beasts were too lazy to build nests here.

However, a hundred zhang deep beneath the cliff face, a completely different world awaited.

A naturally formed cave, about several hundred zhang deep, had cave walls as crimson as blood, with scorching hot air rolling up from the bottom of the cave, carrying a pungent smell of sulfur.

At the bottom of the cave, there was actually a pool of churning magma, bubbling away. Every time a bubble burst, a wisp of dark red mist rose up, mingling with the rolling hot air.

If any Cultivator were here, they would surely be terrified out of their wits; wasn't that dark red mist precisely the Fiery Fiend Qi that Cultivators feared like poisonous snakes and scorpions?

Ordinary Cultivators would feel a scorching pain in their Meridians upon inhaling even a wispy trace, and if they stayed for too long, it could even burn right through their Meridians.

At the entrance of the cave, upon a relatively flat piece of black rock, sat a red-haired youth with his legs crossed.

He was surrounded by eleven corpses.

Those corpses lay sprawling haphazardly around the black rock, and the clothing on their bodies was shockingly that of the Ning Family.

The most conspicuous one among them was dressed in Elder attire, his expression still carrying the astonishment before death—it was precisely the Third Elder of the Ning Family, Ning Shengtian.

Clearly, he failed to conquer the heavens, and instead ascended to the heavens right here.

From the eleven corpses, wisps of pale red blood mist were rising, as if guided by some invisible force, converging into eleven hair-thin blood lines that slowly drifted toward the red-haired youth.

With every breath he took, the blood lines sank into his mouth and nose, and his complexion grew a fraction more rosy.

Only that rosy flush exuded an indescribable eeriness.

After about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the final wisp of blood mist was sucked into his body.

A soft sound suddenly came from within the youth's body, like something being poked open.

The aura around his body suddenly surged by a notch, his robes fluttered without any wind, and his head of red hair whipped about in the heat waves.

He slowly opened his eyes, a flash of joy dancing within them.

"Qi Refining Layer Six." Ning Chuan lowered his head to look at his own hands, his five fingers closing together as he felt the surging power within his Meridians.

On that face which had originally been quite delicate, a layer of an ethereal blood color was now floating, the corners of his mouth hooked up slightly, yet there was not half a shred of warmth in his smile, only a nearly morbid satisfaction.

"Kid, I didn't lie to you, did I?" A hoarse voice came out from his mouth, yet it was not he himself speaking.

That voice was aged and sinister, carrying an aura of decay, sounding like a dead man crawling out of a coffin whispering.

"Cultivating my Dao, there are fundamentally no Bottlenecks. What Spiritual Root Aptitude, what thickness of Foundation, are all nonsense. As long as your blood qi is sufficient, Foundation Establishment is merely a matter of time for you."

Ning Chuan replied as if talking to himself, "Senior truly did not deceive Junior."

His gaze swept over the eleven corpses at his feet, lingering for a moment on the Third Elder's face, which held eyes wide open in unresigned death, before moving away.

"But why did Senior want to kill these clansmen of mine? The Third Elder is, after all, a Qi Refining Layer Eight expert. Keeping him, wouldn't it be even better for Senior's Possession?"

That aged voice sneered.

"If I don't kill them all, where would you get the blood qi to Cultivate? Just relying on you sitting in meditation to guide Qi every day, how many years would that take? My Blood Demon Scripture allows absorbing one Late Stage Qi Refining Cultivator, which equals three years of your bitter cultivation, as for Possession..."

He paused, a few extra traces of calculation entering his tone.

"Old Man cannot look down on these crooked melons and cracked dates. Although your Third Elder is at Qi Refining Layer Eight, he has a Quadruple Spiritual Root. If I take his Possession, Old Man will have no hope of Core Formation in this lifetime. My requirements aren't high; you find Old Man a young Cultivator with a Triple Spiritual Root or Dual Spiritual Root, and Old Man will guarantee you step into Foundation Establishment within ten years."

Greed flashed in Ning Chuan's eyes, only to be overwritten by a deeper layer of emotion.

He lowered his head, putting on a deferential appearance, "Senior, rest assured. Junior will definitely keep his promise. It's just a few dead clansmen; if Senior is happy, killing a few more doesn't matter."

Although he said this, his heart harbored completely different calculations.

The day he found a suitable Cultivator would be the time this old thing left his body for Possession.

At that time, he would seize the opportunity to strike down both the old thing and the person being possessed together, achieving two birds with one stone.

The secret of cultivating the Blood Demon Scripture must never leave any living witnesses, including this old monster residing within his body.

Before that, he first had to borrow this old thing's abilities to squeeze dry everything that could be squeezed.

He suppressed the calculation deep within his eyes, casting his gaze once more toward the eleven corpses at his feet.

Every single corpse had shriveled beyond human shape, skin clinging tightly to the bones, eye sockets sinking deep like hollow pits, looking like dried corpses that had been air-dried for decades.

This was the overbearing nature of the Blood Demon Scripture: using the living blood and essence of humans as a guide, transforming others' cultivation into one's own use.

Those who were sucked dry not only lost their cultivation entirely, but even their souls would be eroded by the blood fiend qi, resulting in Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering, leaving not even a chance for Reincarnation.

Ning Chuan stood up, dragging the eleven corpses one by one to the edge of the magma pool deep within the cave, kicking them one by one into the churning magma.

The moment the corpses fell into the magma, raging fires ignited, burning them completely clean within a few breaths, leaving not even a shred of bone scraps behind.

Having finished all this, he stood by the edge of the magma pool, gazing at the churning magma and the permeating fiery fiend qi, suddenly laughing softly.

That he could achieve this fortune today was entirely thanks to that errand half a month ago.

From an obscure collateral clansman, he now also had the hope of Foundation Establishment.

A month ago, there was new evidence regarding the cause of Ning Xishan's death. The Head of the Family was furious and dispatched the Third Elder to lead a team to investigate the cause of the Young Lord's death.

As a collateral descendant, Ning Chuan originally had no qualifications to participate in such a major matter, but as it happened, a deacon under the Third Elder was temporarily injured and lacking someone to run errands, so he casually checked him off the roster.

He followed the Third Elder from Mount Xiao to Wanshan, and from Wanshan to the auction house, spinning around like a headless fly for over half a month.

Until the Third Elder inadvertently discovered an extremely secretive clue: Elder Yin had repeatedly left the Ning Family alone during his lifetime, and every time it was in this direction.

This Qi Refining Layer Eight old man was seemingly a guest Elder of the Ning Family, but in reality his status was a mystery, his origins unknown.

The Third Elder investigated down this clue, and unexpectedly discovered the secret Immortal Cave beneath this cliff face.

Which was precisely this cave.

When the Third Elder barged in with the clansmen, the cave was completely empty, with only Jade Slips scattered all over the ground and a few shattered Magical Artifacts.

He, Ning Chuan, found a secret compartment on the cave wall, within which was sealed a palm-sized black jade bottle.

Thinking he had found Elder Yin's secret, he impatiently pulled open the bottle stopper.

The instant the bottle stopper was pulled, a wisp of blood light surged out from the bottle, piercing straight into the center of Ning Chuan's brows.

"What of heretical Cultivators? What of demonic Cultivators? In the Immortal Realm, strength is supreme. As long as I successfully achieve Foundation Establishment, in the future the Cultivators of these Three Counties will all be my blood food!"

The frantic laughter shook loose a few gravel stones. Just as he was brimming with self-satisfaction, a streak of red light shot directly at him from a hundred zhang away, accompanied all the while by waves of beast roars!