Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
There were many zoomorphic sacred herbs near the blood lake, some looking like rabbits, some snakes, and some Taotie looking like dragon-tiger crossbred with strong spiritual power.
The cultivators had subdued and consumed many zoomorphic sacred herbs along the way, allowing their cultivation base a tremendous boost.
It was exactly because of this that they could not control their excitement when they suddenly saw so many zoomorphic sacred herbs. Their eyes lit up with greediness, and they forgot why they were coming to the polar region.
“If I harvest them, I will surely attain the Precept Domain realm.”
“It is worth the risk if I can attain Nine-Step Saint Kinghood in the shortest possible time.”
“No risk, no return. Opportunity always lies in the most dangerous places.”
…
As the saying goes, the wages of avarice is death.
“Be careful, everyone. These zoomorphic sacred herbs can attack your Saint Souls and Spirits,” warned Fairy Tianchu.
“Fret not, Fairy! I have Nine-Aperture Suppressive Beads and am not afraid of the attack.”
Dizu Prince was confident of his ability. He brought Yue Gongming, Xian Gongming, and Eunuch Que toward the bloody lakeside to harvest those zoomorphic herbs.
Not to be outdone, other cultivators also joined them in collecting the zoomorphic herbs.
Knowing that she could not stop them, Fairy Tianchu sighed softly. She then summoned her Saint Qi and opened her vertical eye to search for the Blood Wasp Ashuran King.
Unfortunately, because of the suppression from the divine corpse’s remnant power, her vertical eyes could not work at their full potential.
“Something is wrong!” said Fairy Tianchu.
“What is wrong, Mistress?” asked Li Miaohan.
“Since the Blood Wasp Ashuran King has come to Warsoul Star, he surely won’t miss this divine blood lake. But why is he not here?” said Fairy Tianchu.
“Probably he has sensed our arrival and fled,” said Li Miaohan.
Butcher nodded in agreement. “This is entirely possible. We have the advantage in number. With so many powerful fighters here, as nasty as the Blood Wasp Ashuran King is, he wouldn’t dare to clash with us.”
“If so, what are waiting for? Come on, let us harvest those zoomorphic sacred herbs! Earlier, a cultivator has attained Eight-Step Saint Kinghood from Seven-Step Saint Kinghood after consuming the zoomorphic herb! Those guys will have all the sacred herbs for themselves if we don’t hurry up. We mustn’t come here and leave empty-handed!” an elder said hurriedly.
However, Fairy Tianchu was aware of the danger. She shook her head. “No. We can’t let all the cultivators go out there to collect the sacred herbs. We’ll be done for if the enemies launch a surprise attack.”
Li Miaohan cast his eyes toward the divine blood lake and was a little shocked. “He-He has gone to the divine blood lake! What is he doing there?”
Fairy Tianchu followed Li Miaohan’s eyes and saw Zhang Ruochen, whose back was facing her. “This guy must be thinking of getting something for himself,” she mumbled to herself, furrowing her brow.
“Divine blood has more uses than zoomorphic sacred herbs. With such a vast lake, he will be rich overnight even if he just takes a hundredth or even a thousandth,” said Li Miaohan with a smile.
Dumbo’s eyes lit up instantly. “Should we also harvest some, Your Highness Fairy?”
“Divine blood contains a higher level of energy. One drop can penetrate the ordinary vessel. Without a special vessel, how are we going to hold the divine blood?” said Fairy Tianchu.
“Besides, I am sure this divine blood carries something impure. We won’t be able to refine it directly.”
Dumbo rummaged through his body for a long while but found no suitable vessel for the divine blood. At last, he let out a sigh of disappointment and stayed beside Fairy Tianchu.
Zhang Ruochen was using six Pearls of Vanity to protect himself as he went toward the divine blood lake slowly.
As he was getting near, he felt the pressure between heaven and earth increasing, and saw some strange visions.
The blood lake had become a boundless body of blood, and skeletons emerging out of the blood lake were screaming in a heart-wrenching manner.
The aura of some skeletons was as powerful as that of the Supreme Saints. They were holding sharp bone spears and thrusting at his chest.
But Zhang Ruochen was unperturbed. When those bone spears hit him, they went through his body as phantoms.
Everything was an illusion.
It was due to his strong spiritual power that he could resist the illusion. Had this happened to the other cultivators, they would have been scared to death as soon as the Supreme Saint’s aura emerged.
“Are you overlooking the danger because of the divine blood, Zhang Ruochen?” said Awesome, the Little Taoist. He was a bundle of nerves.
“Do you really think I am after the divine blood?”
“You are not?”
Zhang Ruochen came to the edge of the divine blood lake. He opened his Heaven’s Eye and scanned the lake’s surface. After a long while, he wore a confused expression. “Could I have been mistaken?”
“What are you looking for?” asked Awesome, the Little Taoist.
Zhang Ruochen walked along the lakeside and searched every corner that one could hide in. “The Blood Wasp Ashuran King.” He only gave his reply when Awesome asked for the fifth time.
“Damn, I thought you were searching for something else!”
“The way I see it, the Blood Wasp Ashuran King must have fled a long while ago. How can he be still here? Can he hide in the lake? This is the divine blood we are talking about; no Saint King can withstand its energy. The divine blood will turn any living beings into pus and blood,” said Awesome, the Little Taoist.
“Maybe you have a point,” said Zhang Ruochen.
“Since we are here with an entire lake of divine blood in front of us, how can we pretend not to see?”
Awesome, the Little Taoist took out the Purple-Gold Bagua Mirror, activated it, and then cast it out over the lake.
The divine blood in the lake flew up as droplets and disappeared into the bagua mirror.
“The Purple-Gold Bagua Mirror has an internal dimension?” Zhang Ruochen was surprised.
“Your face tells me you are shocked. Is it something strange for a supreme artifact having an internal dimension?”
Awesome, the Little Taoist paused, then continued. “It’s not as if we can be here every day. Maybe you should also take out your Azuresky Pagoda and start to collect the divine blood. You will need a lot of it should you want your body to attain the Supreme Saint rank. You won’t find it anywhere else if you miss this opportunity.”
But Zhang Ruochen had a bad feeling about it. He somehow sensed that a pair of dangerous eyes were staring at him.
He took out three talismans and kept them in his left hand, just in case. After that, he took out the Mercury Gourd and tied it with a Thousand-Inscription Sacred Artifact-class chain before casting it into the divine blood lake.
The next moment, the mercury Gourd swelled to the size of a typical palace as the divine blood gushed into the gourd with a vortex formed near the opening.
Awesome, the Little Taoist complained as soon as he saw this. “Using the Mercury Gourd is unfair!”
The Mercury Gourd was essentially a bottomless container; it was impossible to fill it up.
The Purple-Gold Bagua Mirror could only suck in ten drops of divine blood each time; it was too slow in comparison.
While those cultivators were harvesting the zoomorphic sacred herbs, they saw what Zhang Ruochen was doing and wanted a piece of the action.
Just then, the most feared danger happened.
Someone screamed from the field of zoomorphic sacred herbs.
“Blood-Blood wasps!”
A Nine-Step Saint King belonged to Dizu Prince’s camp lunged out of the field, his body covered in several dozen blood wasps. Some wasps had penetrated into his body with many thumb-sized bloody holes on his skin.
Attacked by blood wasps, that Nine-Step Saint King immediately gathered his Saint Qi and resisted the attack with his physical defensive ability.
But his skull exploded before he could leave the sacred herbal field.
A wasp the size of a fist emerged from the top of his skull.
It was a wasp king, blood red with streaks on the body. The aura it emitted rivaled that of the Precept-Domain elite.
Following that, a large swarm of blood-red wasps flew out of an earthworm-like sacred herb. The wasps turned into a cloud of blood and dispersed in all directions.
“Blood wasps! They are blood wasps!”
“It’s a trap! Get out of the sacred herbal field! Now!”
A swarm of blood wasps surrounded five or six Saint-level cultivators, stinging their bodies and sucking their blood dry in a matter of seconds.
The blood wasps, over a thousand, had caught them unawares.
Fairy Tianchu and her Four Great Elders immediately cast out the Crimson River Portrait to attack the blood wasps. The energy released shattered several dozen blood wasps and turned them into clouds of blood mist.
Those fleeing Saint cultivators had finally collected themselves and launched their counterattack.
Zhang Ruochen knew that things had gone wrong when he saw the appearance of the blood wasps. He quickly summoned his strength to pull back the Seven-Radiance Thousand-Inscription Sacred Artifact-class chain.
The Mercury Gourd flew out of the lake into the air in an arc trajectory.
Right at this moment, a black light appeared on the stone pillar at the middle of the lake, about 300 feet above the surface.
That black light was ejecting an overwhelming amount of energy toward the Mercury Gourd.
“I knew it. He really was hiding nearby.”
Zhang Ruochen gazed at that black light, his pupils contracting as he cast out a talisman from his left hand.
The talisman shot out like a flying sword and collided with the black light.
Boom!
Over a hundred bolts of lightning crisscrossed in the sky above the divine blood lake, sending shock waves through the air as the talisman exploded.
Behind the lightning stood a figure draped in black body armor with a pair of black wings on its back. It emerged from the lightning with a broadsword in his hand, staring dead at Zhang Ruochen.
He is unharmed! This man’s defensive ability has just gone through the roof! Zhang Ruochen was quietly stunned.
He had retrieved the Mercury Gourd. Two more talismans shot out of his left hand right after that.
That dark shadow was lunging at the Purple-Gold Bagua Mirror, but the second and third talismans intercepted him.
Boom!
Boom!
Two bolts of lightning lit up the sky above the divine blood lake.
The dark shadow lunged out of the lightning, his bloodshot eyes staring dead at Zhang Ruochen.
This shadow was none other than the Blood Wasp Ashuran King.
“I didn’t know there is such a smart cultivator in the Celestial Court. You predicted my movements correctly twice and launched preemptive strikes with the talismans. Interesting.”
The Blood Wasp Ashuran King flapped his wings and flew like a bolt of lightning toward Zhang Ruochen with the broadsword in his hand. He had to get rid of Zhang Ruochen first, lest he became a pain in the ass.
