Zhang Ruochen shifted his attention to a group of Darkdemon cultivators. None of them were dead, but they all had already collapsed to the ground, unable to move, losing their combat ability.
The lightning net that Xue Lingxian created was incredibly powerful. Those people would have died had he not held his punches.
Zhang Ruochen thought for a moment and took out an Exquisite Dimensional Orb. He held those Darkdemon cultivators in it, just in case.
He then looked at Zhou Yu, Mosheng, and Xuetu, who were subdued on the Blood God Altar. These three people who looked haughty a while ago had now become his prisoners. It was a heavy blow to their egos.
Among the three, Zhou Yu’s condition was slightly better. Mosheng and Xuetu, however, were seriously injured, especially Xuetu, whose body had been pierced by the tail of Xue Lingxian’s snake. He would probably never recover, even with the Immortal Vampire’s powerful self-healing ability. He was bleeding non-stop.
After making sure that the three of them could never escape the Blood God Altar, Zhang Ruochen released his spiritual power so that it could enter the altar.
He had wanted to physically enter, but it was apparent that this was unrealistic unless he destroyed the Blood God Altar entirely.
Zhang Ruochen knew that the Blood God Altar was anything but ordinary the first time he saw it. There must be many mysteries hidden inside. Just that he never had the opportunity to check it out.
No one could stop him from exploring the Blood God Altar with his current cultivation base.
The Blood God Altar was entirely built of bones. Since the Sect of the Blood God’s establishment, the altar had accumulated more and more bones over the past 100,000 years, so much so that it had grown taller and more magnificent than Qianyuan Mountain. The energy it exuded was powerful and intimidating.
Under the Blood God Altar, there was an enormous space, in which the Blood God’s body rested. It was a holy and forbidden place of the Sect of the Blood God. No ordinary people could enter. Of course, it was not the inside of the altar.
The Blood God Altar contained some weird and powerful repelling forces that constantly pushed Zhang Ruochen’s spiritual power back.
Fortunately, Zhang Ruochen’s spiritual power was strong enough to break through the barriers. He followed the breath of Xue Lingxian’s manifestation of the sacred will as he continued to venture deep into the altar.
Some time afterward, his spiritual power stopped in front of a blood mist barrier that blocked his way.
Xue Lingxian’s breath was completely gone at this point.
The blood-mist barrier was extremely tough. Not only was it difficult to penetrate, but it was also caustic to his spiritual power when he got close.
“A blood-mist barrier can’t stop me. Break!”
Zhang Ruochen immediately released more spiritual power into the Blood God Altar.
The vigorous spiritual power gathered and formed into a needle to puncture the blood-mist barrier.
It took serious effort before the blood-mist barrier gave way. Now, Zhang Ruochen’s spiritual power could finally pass through.
“If my spiritual power hadn’t reached the peak of the fifty-ninth order and gone through the forging of the Bronze Furnace of Life and Death, I would probably not have passed through.” Zhang Ruochen was quietly astonished.
Such a defense would be impenetrable to most spiritual-power Saint Kings.
Among the native cultivators in the Kunlun Realm, only a handful of them could do it.
After passing through the blood-mist barrier, Zhang Ruochen’s spiritual power arrived before a dim blood-mist dimension. It looked like a dimensional bubble with an extremely spacious interior.
Zhang Ruochen dispersed his spiritual power to check out this blood-mist dimension.
“This is…”
Zhang Ruochen quickly discovered something.
There were many oval cocoons formed by blood mist in the dimension, and Saint Souls of different levels of strength were shrouded within. All of them were perfectly preserved and in a deep sleep state.
Zhang Ruochen’s heart skipped a beat when he sensed that some of the Saint Souls in the blood cocoon were emanating extremely powerful energy even though they were in hibernation.
Based on that alone, he could see that the Blood God had built the Blood God Altar with a special purpose in mind.
Zhang Ruochen immediately thought of Mount Gushen of the Liangyi Sect and the holy altar built under the order of Emperor Ming. Both places could preserve saint souls.
“Altar of Path’s Soul, Mount Gushen, Ying Yang Sea, Blood God Altar, the holy altar… Is there any connection between them?” Zhang Ruochen thought to himself.
Zhang Ruochen found that the more he discovered, the more questions he had on his mind. He could not help but conjure up some terrifying thoughts.
The last thing he wanted was to wake up those sleeping saint souls in the blood cocoons. So he quickly reached out his spiritual power to the center of the blood-mist dimension.
There was an extremely huge blood cocoon here, almost 300-yard long. Instead of standing upright, this cocoon rested horizontally on the ground, like a coffin.
With his spiritual power, Zhang Ruochen penetrated the cocoon through the tiny gaps on the surface and came into the blood cocoon interior.
He was shocked by what he saw as soon as he was inside.
Unlike the other blood cocoons, sleeping inside this huge blood cocoon was not a saint soul, but a body.
“Why is the body of Xue Lingxian inside the Blood God Altar?”
Zhang Ruochen could not have felt more surprised.
Except for the Blood God’s body, he had never heard of anyone’s body being preserved inside the Blood God Altar.
According to legend, Xue Lingxian was a traitor, who later was killed by the Blood God. Understanding this point, it was even more unlikely that Xue Lingxian’s body would be preserved in the Blood God Altar.
The sacred will that had been revived earlier was now in this blood cocoon. It was wrapped in a large amount of blood and had fallen asleep again.
So even if Zhang Ruochen had questions in mind, he could not even ask.
Apparently, this sacred will of Xue Lingxian was re-accumulating his strength. But it was going to take a long time.
It was truly incredible that a sacred will could last for over 100,000 years and accumulate strength on its own. After it had exhausted its strength, it could even slowly recover it.
Collecting himself, Zhang Ruochen summoned his spiritual power. He wanted to check out the body of Xue Lingxian to find out something.
As if something had triggered it, silvery lightning bolts burst out of Xue Lingxian’s body and almost tore the blood cocoon apart.
Pang!
Zhang Ruochen bore the brunt of the explosion, his spiritual power dissipating instantly.
Outside the Blood God Altar, Zhang Ruochen’s brows were knitted together. He did not foresee this to happen.
“I want to see what strange things are hidden inside.” He decided after some thought.
With the help of the traces left by his spiritual power, he performed a Dimensional Shift and appeared in the blood-mist dimension in person.
Lucky for him he had a high attainment in Dimensions. Otherwise, he could not have pulled this off.
The presence of his true form had a huge difference from when he infiltrated with his spiritual power.
“Every trace of blood mist here is extraordinary. If it goes to the outside world, it can turn into a massive amount of blood.”
Zhang Ruochen whispered to himself as he swept his eyes over the wisps of blood mist.
That was not all. He also discovered that this blood mist was not inert but full of vitality, as if they had just been extracted from the body of a living person.
He willed with his mind, trying to inhale a wisp of blood mist into his body.
When the blood mist entered his body, it automatically dissolved and formed a powerful blood Qi before it was absorbed by his body.
The incredible happened when Zhang Ruochen felt that his injury rapidly healed and he recovered from the loss of blood.
But Zhang Ruochen did not continue to absorb the blood mist. After all, he was not sure if absorbing this blood mist would be harmful.
You can never be too careful.
After all, it was an immortal who built the Blood God Altar. No one knew what was in the immortal’s mind.
He looked at the blood cocoons of various sizes around him.
Those saint souls in these blood cocoons had been here for ages, yet they were all extremely well preserved, which made him wonder if they would come alive again someday.
He could not help but think of the scene of the battle of the shenzis. One after another, incorporeal bodies and bones combined and absorbed a vast amount of blood and finally became indistinguishable from ordinary humans. Was this another way of rebirth?
He shook the thought from his mind and walked straight to the huge blood cocoon that wrapped Xue Lingxian’s body inside.
“Huh? What is that?”
His expression changed slightly as his eyes fixated on the ground.
When he first came in as a spiritual power, he did not notice the many blood veins extending from the blood cocoon that wrapped Xue Lingxian’s body formed into a large net on the ground.
His eyes followed the blood veins. He discovered that each blood vein was connected to a blood cocoon.
“Are all blood cocoons derived from the blood cocoon in the center?” Zhang Ruochen speculated in his mind.
In fact, when he saw the blood cocoons, he immediately thought of the immortal saint body of the immortal blood silkworm.
Especially when he sensed the high similarity between the energy of these blood cocoons and that of Yan Liren’s cocoon body. He was even more certain that there must be a deep connection between the two.
Upon perceiving carefully, he found that these blood cocoons contained an amazing power of metamorphosis and rebirth. Perhaps because of this, the saint souls in them could be perfectly preserved.
Lub dub!
Zhang Ruochen heard an abrupt, deep sound of a heartbeat.
He turned his head immediately and his eyes landed on the largest blood cocoon in the center.
Through the tiny gaps in the blood cocoon, Zhang Ruochen saw Xue Lingxian’s chest heaving as an enormous amount of blood mist poured into his mouth and nose.
“Heartbeat. Breathing. Xue Lingxian is not dead!”
There was a hint of surprise in Zhang Ruochen’s eyes.
The body of Xue Lingxian had inhaled all the blood mist in this dimension in the blink of an eye.
The dimension instantly became empty, and all the blood cocoons fell into absolute silence.
“Xue Lingxian’s body is preserved inside the Blood God Altar by the Blood God. He did not really die. By the looks of things, something must have happened behind the scenes.” Zhang Ruochen thought to himself.
Judging by the Blood God’s way of doing things, if he really wanted to kill Xue Lingxian, no way Xue Lingxian could have still lived. Not only that, the Blood God would have obliterated his sacred will altogether.
From his calculation, it would probably take Xue Lingxian a long time—about a day—between inhalation and exhalation.
This meant that Xue Lingxian would continue to sleep. But there was also a possibility that he would wake up in a short time.
Zhang Ruochen wanted to wake Xue Lingxian up and asked him about the untold story. It was a pity that he obviously could not do it.
Terrifying lightning bolts were dancing on Xue Lingxian’s body. There was also a faint sense of divinity that caused ripples to form in the dimension. Anyone who recklessly got close might get hurt.
Judging by how Xue Lingxian’s manifestation of the sacred will reacted, he might not be willing to say anything to Zhang Ruochen. Worse still, he despised Zhang Ruochen as the current grand master.
It was apparent that Xue Lingxian thought Zhang Ruochen was too weak and not qualified to know too much.
“Remember, you must not tell others what you see. Get out.” An extremely apathetic voice spoke all of a sudden.
Zhang Ruochen’s heart skipped a beat, and many thoughts flashed through his mind.
After taking another glance at Xue Lingxian, who was still sleeping, Zhang Ruochen performed a Dimensional Shift without any hesitation and vanished into thin air.
The next moment, he reappeared outside the Blood God Altar.
“Huh? The mark of dimension I left behind has disappeared!”
Zhang Ruochen’s expression slightly changed.
He spontaneously realized that the special dimension was not a place where he could simply enter, unless he had Xue Lingxian’s permission.
Apparently, Xue Lingxian knew what he was thinking and had let him enter the dimension.
But Xue Lingxian did not answer any of his questions. He would need to find out the answers all by himself.
“Zhang Ruochen, where have you been just now? How is Xue Lingxian now?” Blackie asked with curiosity as it appeared next to Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen came out of his thoughts. “I entered and checked out the Blood God Altar. You don’t have to know what happens to Xue Lingxian. All you need to do is think about what to do with these guys.”
Since Xue Lingxuan had instructed him not to divulge the secret inside the Blood God Altar, Zhang Ruochen would tell no one about it. So he immediately changed the subject of the conversation.
“Do we still need to think? Just kill these ingrates, for god’s sake,” said Blackie angrily.
As long as it involved Darkdemon Realm, Blackie would lose its head. It could not wait to wipe out the entire Darkdemon Realm.
“Blackie is right. Make an example of them by killing them so that no one would dare to come looking for trouble in the future,” said Bao Lie in agreement.
Bao Lie was fit to be tied at the thought of nearly being killed by Mosheng and Zhou Yu earlier. No way he was going to let them live.
Zhang Ruochen looked at Mosheng and Zhou Yu. “Now, your only chance to live is surrender and submit to me.”
“Stop the crap and kill me, Zhang Ruochen!” Mosheng snapped.
“Perish the thought if you think I will submit to you. If it weren’t for Xue Lingxian’s manifestation of sacred will, you would have died in my hands,” said Zhou Yu with a bitter voice.
“It seems that you two still don’t concede defeat. Should we have a one-one-on fight then?” said Zhang Ruochen.
Zhou Yu was delighted. “Will you let me go if I beat you?”
“Of course not. I just want to have a spar with you. I was not at my best earlier and didn’t get to know the true strength of the master of Light,” said Zhang Ruochen.
“You think I am your whetstone that you can use to sharpen yourself?” Zhou Yu was so angry that he nearly burped up blood.
Zhang Ruochen really wanted to fight with cultivators of Zhou Yu and Mosheng’s level. He could grow to the next level by accumulating the experience of fighting the masters.
“Don’t think so highly of yourself. You are qualified to be my whetstone.” Zhang Ruochen was confident of his own strength. He might have a chance if you brought out his trump card.
“In case you forgot, there is a two-realm gap between us.” Zhou Yu burst into laughter. Zhang Ruochen was overreaching himself. He forgot he was only a Precept Domain cultivator. Zhang Ruochen must be mad to challenge him, he thought to himself.
Bwoom!
A mighty force of Supreme Saint came from the outer sky, as if heaven was crumbling down.
“That’s quick.”
Zhang Ruochen looked up at the sky with cold light flickering in his eyes.
Those cultivators watching the battle around the Sect of the Blood God looked up at once. Their expressions changed.
“It is the Emissary Vigilant.”
“Both Zhou Yu and Mosheng are qualified to attain immortality. Heavenly Realm, Blackdemon Realm, and even Celestial Palace will definitely intervene. They will not allow Xue Lingxian and Zhang Ruochen to kill both of them. Let’s wait and see. Many bigwigs can’t sit still anymore when it concerns would-be-immortals.”
“It is said that the death of Shang Ziyan had triggered a fight among the immortals. Even the one who guarded Celestial River had joined the party. Just that I am not so sure if it was true.”
“Even Xue Lingxian, the ancient monster, has come back to life. There is no surprise that the Emissary Vigilant has come.”
“Zhang Ruochen and the Sect of the Blood God are in deep shit.”
Those cultivators lurking in the vicinity of the Sect of the Blood God were eager to know if Xue Lingxian had really been resurrected. But they were too afraid to come near. All they could do was let the Emissary Vigilant investigate.
