71: Chapter 71 White Lotus Seed

"This pill is only available within the Sect, and even if this old man can beg for it, I cannot give it to you for free. Unless you can produce items of equivalent value to exchange, it is not enough."

Wang Shouren raised his head, the desolation in his eyes swept away, replaced by two piercing, glowing lights.

"Good! Then the lesser guyuan pill it is. Magistrate Hu, please wait a moment; this Junior will return shortly."

Before his voice faded, his figure flashed and transformed into a streak of crimson-gold lightning, swiftly darting toward the direction where the old monster's remnant Soul was fleeing.

The lightning shuttled through the mountains and forests, its speed so fast that it left streaks of afterimages. From time to time, he closed his eyes to sense for a moment before adjusting his direction to continue the pursuit.

Hu Shan watched the distant streak of lightning, his fingers hidden behind his back curling slightly. This speed was truly much faster than his own Flying Sword.

"Are those who practice both Physical Body and magic cultivation all monsters? I wonder who will be stronger in the future between Tian Zhen, who has a Single Spiritual Root, and Wang Shouren, who Cultivates both body and magic."

After thinking about it, he still felt that Tian Zhen, with his lightning Spiritual Root talent, would be stronger. For no other reason, talent far surpassed everything else.

...

One hour later.

At the border between Wanshan County and Xiaoshan County.

Wang Shouren raised his hand and made a grasping motion in the air. The crimson-gold lightning burst in his palm, transforming into a lightning net that enshrouded the dense forest below.

"Hiss ah! How did you discover me?"

That mass of dark red remnant Soul was trapped within it.

The remnant Soul charged back and forth inside the lightning net, emitting a piercing screech. Every time it touched the lightning net, a puff of black smoke burst out, and its form shrank by a fraction.

"Stop! This old man has cultivated for hundreds of years and knows countless secrets! The secret treasury of the Tiexue Sect! The secret lore of the Baihua Sect! This old man knows all of them! As long as you let this old man go, I will tell you everything!" The remnant Soul's voice was sharp and urgent, carrying the eagerness of a dying struggle.

"Secrets? Do I still need you to tell me?"

Wang Shouren glanced at it, his five fingers slowly tightening.

The black lotus between his brows silently bloomed. An extremely thin and faint black beam shot out from the heart of the lotus, piercing through the lightning net and nailing deep into the remnant Soul.

The remnant Soul let out a miserable scream unlike that of a human. Its figure suddenly expanded and then abruptly contracted, before being forcefully pulled out of the lightning net by that black beam and submerged into the black lotus.

The black lotus petals gently closed and then slowly opened again, leaving a trace of extremely faint dark red deep within the heart of the lotus.

A jumble of fragmented memories surged into Wang Shouren's Sea of Consciousness. Those were the memories of the Blood Demon Immortal over hundreds of years.

The memories were not complete. For a remnant Soul to linger on its last breath for decades and still retain anything was already a miracle; it was normal for the memories to be incomplete. Most of them were memories he valued.

One hour later, Wang Shouren opened his eyes.

"Get out!"

Wang Shouren let out a low shout. The black lotus between his brows suddenly surged with thick black Qi, wrapping and circling in wisps, as if something was desperately struggling.

Countless crimson-gold lightning bolts suddenly rippled across his entire body, as dense as snakes. They moved upstream along his Meridians, surging wildly toward the black lotus between his brows.

The black lotus was enveloped by the lightning, its petals flapping violently and emitting a teeth-aching sizzle, as if it were screaming miserably or begging for mercy.

After a stalemate for a moment, the black lotus finally spat out an extremely thin white light with reluctance.

That was a Lotus Seed, white as snow and crystal clear, quietly falling into Wang Shouren's palm.

"Just as the Thunder Emperor said, this black lotus has countless wondrous uses. If I didn't use some methods, it really wouldn't be willing to spit it out."

Wang Shouren held that white Lotus Seed between his fingertips and examined it for a moment, the corners of his mouth curving up slightly.

"It has consumed so many of my Souls, and now it feeds back a white Lotus Seed to me. That's not asking too much, right?

Especially that old monster's remnant Soul; he was at least a prominent figure in the Late Stage of Foundation Establishment during his lifetime, having lived for two hundred years. Trading it for this single seed is worth it."

Unlike the black lotus seed, the white Lotus Seed is where the essence of the Soul condenses. It can help one's Divine Sense skyrocket and also has the effect of repairing the Sea of Consciousness.

He put the Lotus Seed into his storage ring, closed his eyes, and rummaged through the pile of messy memory fragments in his Sea of Consciousness.

The Blood Demon Immortal's memories of several centuries were like a warehouse piled with sundries. He quickly filtered through the contents concerning the Cultivation Techniques of the Blood Demon Scripture and the secret arts of evil cultivators, his brow furrowing tighter and tighter.

Evil Cultivation Techniques accounted for the vast majority of them: the Iron Blood Hand, the Blood Fiend Demonic Scripture, and the Soul-Devouring Claw. Every single one was a vicious method that used the vital blood of living humans as a catalyst, and every time vital blood was absorbed, the cultivator's desire for fresh blood would be amplified by a fraction. Once they absorbed the blood of a thousand people, they would completely degenerate into Puppets that only knew how to kill.

The Blood Fiend Demonic Scripture passed down to Ning Chuan by that old fellow was even an edited and altered version.

It only taught him how to rapidly raise his cultivation level, but never mentioned the side effects of the Cultivation Technique or the methods to crack them.

He never intended to genuinely nurture Ning Chuan; he merely treated that Physical Body with four Spiritual Roots as a temporary vessel. Once Ning Chuan found a suitable target for Possession for him, he would discard it like worn-out shoes without a moment's hesitation.

"This old thing sure knows how to scheme."

Wang Shouren let out a cold snort and continued flipping downward, suddenly pausing.

Deep within the old monster's memories, there was a secretive location wrapped layer upon layer by his Divine Sense, evidently viewed with extreme importance.

"There is another marvelous place?" Wang Shouren estimated the distance and found that the place was nearby. There was still time, and Hu Shan shouldn't be in such a rush for just a moment.

"It's also good to let Hu Shan wait a bit; otherwise, if things are obtained too easily, people won't know how to cherish them."

He hesitated no longer. The lightning beneath his feet flashed, transforming into a stream of light that swiftly darted toward the southeast.

In less than the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, he stopped in front of an ordinary cliff face.

The cliff face was bare and overgrown with bushes, no different from any other barren mountain within Wanshan County.

He lowered his head to look at the mountain stream below, which was tightly obscured by bushes, and stepped on his Flying Sword to descend to the bottom of the ravine.

The bottom of the ravine was dark and damp, with vines hanging down from the cliff face, blocking the entrance of a cave so that only a narrow slit remained visible.

If not for him having the Blood Demon Immortal's memories, even if he stood right at the cave entrance, it would be extremely difficult to discover this place.

"This must be that old man's burial place."

Wang Shouren pushed aside the vines. Inside the cave, it was pitch black, and a stale smell of blood could be faintly detected.

He raised his hand to condense a ball of crimson-gold lightning, suspending it in his palm for illumination, and slowly stepped into the cave.

The cave passage was not deep. The further inward he walked, the heavier the blood fiend traces on the cave walls became, and a thin layer of blood mist gradually floated in the air.

Passing over a few mummified corpses wearing the attire of the Ning Family at the cave entrance, Wang Shouren walked a little further inward, only to find that the blood fiend Qi had actually disappeared.

Instead, the temperature suddenly rose, and even breathing began to feel scorching hot.

"Why is this underground cavern so scorching hot? Both lightning and fire have extremely strong suppressing effects on blood fiends; why would the Blood Demon Elder choose to persistently guard this place?"

When he turned a corner, he saw a naturally formed grotto. The cave walls were densely engraved with blood-colored runes, and a long-decayed rush mat was placed in the center.

In front of the rush mat was a withered corpse.

"This should be the corpse of the Blood Demon Immortal. According to the incomplete memories, the Blood Demon Immortal should have fled here heavily injured, but why didn't he seek someone out for Possession early on and instead stubbornly guarded this place for decades?"

Wang Shouren couldn't find an answer to this. The black lotus had not fully grown, and the memories that could be obtained by devouring Souls were limited; coupled with the fact that the remnant Soul was already incomplete.

However, he quickly discovered something was amiss.