Turbid Blood Invests in the Gods

Hou Yi's palm pressed the "Town" character, formed from dark red blood mist, onto Cheng Xi's dantian sea of qi. This character carried the turbid fiendish power that had settled deep within the earth for ten thousand years.

Hummm--!

An indescribable, stifling power surged through his body. It wasn't sharp, but thick and viscous like ten thousand years of mud, carrying the essence of death, decay, and the deepest filth of the earth. This force brutally forced its way into Cheng Xi's already riddled meridians, colliding head-on with the rampant Chaos Sword Essence that was about to incinerate everything!

Chii--la--!

It was like boiling magma suddenly poured into a cold swamp! The sharpness and chaos of the Chaos Sword Essence, capable of annihilating all things, were enveloped, permeated, and neutralized layer by layer by the thick, turbid fiendish power! The cyan-grey, frenzied light visibly dimmed. The destructive torrent that had been charging and smashing within Cheng Xi's body, like countless invisible muddy chains binding and entangling it, struggled less and less, until it was forcibly pressed back into the depths of his dantian, compressed into a highly unstable, slowly rotating cyan-grey vortex.

The searing pain was instantly replaced by a deeper, suffocating sense of sinking! Cheng Xi's vision went black, as if he were being dragged to the bottom of a lightless, boundless mire. The turbid fiendish power not only sealed the berserk sword essence but also, like a film of filth, coated his nascent Dao Foundation, severing his connection with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. His senses, originally sharp due to the Chaos Origin Point, became sluggish and muddled. His thoughts felt as if they were filled with lead, making them difficult to process. The Tongtian Mark on the sword sheath flickered its last faint light and extinguished. The Qingping Sword Sheath lay cold and silent, like ordinary iron.

"Ugh..." Cheng Xi swallowed, and what he coughed up was no longer fresh blood, but a dark red, muddy liquid with a foul smell. He slumped weakly in Meng Tian's arms, his breath as faint as a wisp of smoke, his eyes unfocused. He felt his body was heavy and cold, like a living corpse sealed in a coffin.

Hou Yi slowly withdrew his hand, the blood-red Witch Script on his palm fading away. He looked at Cheng Xi's ashen face, his brow furrowed. "The chaotic malevolent energy is temporarily sealed, but the turbid fiendish power has infected the Dao Foundation, like a bone-deep ulcer. This is like drinking poison to quench thirst. If a source of pure fire or Lord Tongtian himself cannot intervene... this child will eventually be assimilated by the turbid fiendish power, turning into a walking corpse." His gaze swept over the holes in Meng Tian's arm armor, eroded by sword energy and now oozing wisps of black blood. "Your body has also been invaded by the filth. It will require seven days of scorching by the True Solar Fire to purge it."

Meng Tian looked down at Cheng Xi in his arms, whose life force was nearly extinguished. He then felt the numb, cold invasion at his arm wound. His eyes, usually fierce, were filled with a dark resolve, and he gritted his teeth. "No matter the cost... save him! Great Qin... owes him a life!"

Above the ruins of Ganquan Palace, the white and orange flames entwined around Yan Lingji slowly receded. The sulfurous demonic aura and dark gold flowing shadows that had permeated the air were temporarily burned away, leaving only a faint scent of scorched purity. She knelt on one knee amidst the scorching rubble, breathing heavily. Sweat soaked her crimson dress, clinging to her heaving back.

On the back of her hand, the crack that had once opened a dark gold vertical pupil had closed, leaving only a faint golden scar. The spreading demonic patterns had completely receded, lurking back into the depths of her bloodline like dormant venomous snakes. The small orange flame at her heart pulsed weakly but stubbornly. Each beat brought a bone-deep weakness, yet also a clarity of having survived the ordeal.

She lowered her head, looking at the Qingping Sword Sheath clutched tightly in her arms. The sheath's scorching heat had faded, its cloud patterns dull and lifeless. A subtle yet piercing the sheath's body crack was a shocking sight—the last wisp of Lord Tongtian's mark, used to help her guard her heart's lamp, had been completely exhausted and dissipated.

"Kindling Fire..." Yan Lingji murmured, her fingertip tracing the crack. In that moment of life and death, the orange flame had brought not destruction, but a warm sense of protection and inheritance. It was faint, yet it pierced through the chaos of the demonic whispers and the coldness of the Pangu Imprint.

Hummm...!

An extremely faint yet incredibly clear tremor, without any warning, emanated from the deepest part of her bloodline! It was not the majesty of the Pangu Imprint, nor the erosion of the demonic patterns, but a call from something much older, much more fundamental! Distant, profound, carrying the compassion and urgency of the earth's pulse, like a mother calling to a lost child!

It was Pangu Hall! It was the will of Empress Pingxin!

This call was not in words, but a series of fragmented images forcefully flooding her mind:

In the dark, boundless depths of the earth veins, countless golden channels symbolizing the flow of earth energy were being fiercely eroded by a viscous, malicious dark gold filth! The filth, like a living vascular tumor, twisted and spread across the golden channels. Wherever it passed, the warm earth energy became scorching, violent, filled with the restlessness of destruction! The entire earth groaned in muffled pain under this pollution! And at the core of that filth, a giant, blurry dark gold vertical pupil, condensed from pure chaotic demonic energy, was slowly taking shape. Its cold, greedy gaze pierced through layers of obstruction, locking onto the northwest—Xianyang!

The final image froze deep beneath Mount Li, a drop of heavy, viscous dark gold demonic blood seeping down a rock crevice! It was this drop, like a poisonous seed, that was polluting the Dragon Vein Earth Energy!

"The earth veins... are polluted?!" Yan Lingji's pupils constricted, her heart shaken! The aura of that dark gold demonic blood... was from the same source as the demonic patterns that had invaded her bloodline! Even... purer and older than what was within her!

Empress Pingxin's call carried an unprecedented urgency! The earth veins were the foundation of the earth, and the pillar of reincarnation! If they were completely polluted... the consequences were unimaginable! This was no longer a disaster for one person or one tribe, but a calamity that could overturn the Primordial Era!

She suddenly looked up towards Mount Li, the orange flame flickering in her eyes. Protection... inheritance... this newly understood meaning of Kindling Fire, for the first time, had a clear and weighty purpose—she had to stop that drop of demonic blood! She had to purify the polluted earth veins! For Pangu Hall, for this world, and also for... the countless beings she did not yet know, but were already connected by blood!

The remaining Witch Fire reignited weakly, with a hint of resolute orange. She struggled to her feet, her bare feet treading on the scorching earth, each step leaving faint sparks. Her direction—Mount Li!

In a depression covered with decaying leaves, the deathly silence was broken by a grating sound of scales rubbing against each other.

Lu Buwei curled up on the ground, his body convulsing and spasming violently. His luxurious brocade robe had long since been torn apart, revealing skin of an inhuman, ashen hue beneath the fragments. The massive wound on his chest, ripped open by sword energy, now had curled edges. It no longer bled, but was instead covered by a viscous, writhing mass of dark gold flesh buds, healing.

Chii la... chii la...

Fine tearing sounds came from various parts of his body. On his shoulder blades, back, and arms... patches of dark gold scales, sharp-edged and gleaming with a cold metallic luster, were piercing through his ashen, flabby human skin, emerging stubbornly like poisonous mushrooms after rain! With each scale that emerged, a non-human cry of pain was squeezed from the depths of his throat, along with... the complete annihilation of a shred of his sanity.

The half-charred Demon Lizard's Severed Skull in his arms was now tightly adhered to the wound on his chest, as if fused with the writhing dark gold flesh buds. The single scarlet evil eye on the fractured surface of the skull, its eyelid charred, twitched violently. Deep within the pupil, a pure, greedy dark gold light faintly glowed, like the eye of a reawakened demon!

"Power... chaos... eternity..." Broken words were squeezed from Lu Buwei's twisted mouth, which was slowly elongating and sharpening. His voice was hoarse and sticky, no longer human. His eyeballs were completely covered in dark gold, his pupils shrunken into cold vertical slits. The desires for power, fear, and unwillingness that belonged to "Lu Buwei" were being rapidly overwritten and replaced by a cold, pure, chaotic will that only craved endless consumption.

He struggled, trying to use his hands, now covered in fine scales with fingernails sharpened into hooks, to tear at the demonic skull adhered to his chest. But the moment his fingertips touched the cold skull, a subservience and craving from the depths of his soul instantly drowned out his remaining resistance. His hand then clenched the demonic skull tightly, as if embracing its origin lost for ten thousand years.

Hummm...!

An invisible, chaotic fluctuation spread out from him. The vegetation around the depression withered and rotted at a visible rate, turning into black ash! The light of the dark gold vertical pupils intensified, and the Demon Lizard's Severed Skull seemed to melt, slowly sinking into the writhing dark gold flesh buds on Lu Buwei's chest!

"Ugh... Ahhhhh--!!!"

Lu Buwei (or rather, the body being replaced) suddenly threw his head back and let out an ultimate, piercing shriek! Accompanied by the horrifying sounds of cracking bones and proliferating flesh! His body rapidly expanded and deformed like a balloon being inflated! His back clothes completely burst open, and several twisted, dark gold bone ridges covered with jagged spurs erupted from his body! A long tail, covered in barbs and ending in a sharp scorpion-like sting, tore through his trousers and thrashed wildly behind him!

The last vestiges of his "human" form were disappearing. A dark gold monster, with a fierce and chaotic aura, somewhere between human and demonic lizard, revealed its hideous nascent form under the moonlight in the wilderness! Its cold vertical pupils slowly rotated, filled with endless hunger and a desire for destruction, looking towards... the direction of the most concentrated earth vein pollution deep within Mount Li!

Deep within Mount Li, time seemed to stretch, elongated by viscous malice. The majestic torrent of Dragon Vein Earth Energy had become utterly foul. Countless dark gold patterns, twisted like living snakes, were deeply embedded within the originally pure golden energy, madly sucking, polluting, and transforming it! The warm, majestic vitality was twisted into scorching violence, and the dignified foundation of national destiny was being injected with the poison of chaos and destruction.

Rumble...

The entire depths of the Mount Li mountain range echoed with more frequent and clearer pained roars. On the surface of the mountain, large patches of forest began to show abnormal signs of decay, and dark red water seeped from rock crevices, carrying a sulfurous odor.

At the core of the earth veins, the dark gold vertical pupil, condensed from billions of resentments and fragments of chaotic laws, had fully formed! It was immensely large, suspended in the center of the polluted golden torrent. Its cold pupils, like the eyes of an abyss, greedily scanned every inch of the earth veins permeated by its power.

Hummm--!

The vertical pupil suddenly "rotated"! Its gaze pierced through the thick rock layers and foul earth energy, ignoring spatial barriers, like an invisible probe, instantly locking onto the depths of Xianyang Palace!

Meng Tian, barely holding on, placed the unconscious Cheng Xi onto a soft couch in a side hall of the Imperial Medical Office. Hou Yi stood by the couch, his rough fingers resting on Cheng Xi's cold wrist. Wisps of dark red blood mist probed inward, sensing the Chaos vortex that was tightly sealed in the dantian by the turbid fiendish power, yet still thrashing like a trapped beast. Hou Yi's brow was deeply furrowed. Cheng Xi's face was ashen as gold paper, his breath weak, and ominous dark red veins faintly visible beneath his skin—manifestations of the turbid fiendish power eroding his Dao Foundation.

This is it!

The dark gold vertical pupil deep within the earth veins suddenly locked onto Cheng Xi! The sealed Chaos vortex, like the most conspicuous lighthouse in the darkness, exuded a "disorderly" primal aura that made it salivate! What excited it even more was the layer of thick turbid fiendish power enveloping the Chaos vortex! This filth from the depths of the earth shared the same origin as the power it used to erode the earth veins! It was practically perfect nourishment and a springboard prepared for it!

Deep within the vertical pupil, its greedy light surged!

The next moment, an extremely subtle dark gold demonic thought, condensed from pure polluting intent, followed the network of polluted Dragon Vein Earth Energy. Like a fatal toxin spreading through blood vessels, it silently and with incredible speed, shot towards the direction of the Imperial Medical Office in Xianyang Palace! Its target was directly aimed at—the Chaos vortex sealed by the turbid fiendish power within Cheng Xi's dantian! It intended to detonate that sealed power, using the turbid fiendish power as a medium, and drag Cheng Xi, along with everything around him, into the abyss of pollution!

On the western foothills of Mount Li's main peak, in a secluded valley far from the collapsed Demon Den. In the valley stood an old locust tree that had grown for thousands of years. Its trunk required ten people to embrace, and its canopy was like a giant umbrella, shading the sky. Currently, this ancient tree, bearing the marks of time, was undergoing a bizarre transformation.

Near the base of the thick trunk, the bark showed large patches of dark gold, like rusty ringworm, gleaming with an ominous metallic luster in the moonlight. The originally dark brown leaves had become withered and curled, their edges tinged with black. A faint, chest-constricting smell of sulfur permeated beneath the canopy.

The ancient tree's massive root system, like a sleeping python, extended deep into the dark soil. One of its thickest lateral roots, while searching for nutrients deep within the mountain, inadvertently pierced through an extremely fine crack in the rock layer.

Deep within the crack lay that drop of dark gold demonic blood, which had seeped to this point and was now furiously polluting the main dragon vein above!

Hummm!

The moment the tree roots touched that heavy, viscous drop of demonic blood, the ancient locust's massive body trembled violently! Dark golden patches spread rapidly across its bark like living creatures! Withered leaves rustled and fell!

The roots that probed the crack were like vampires who had been thirsty for ten thousand years and touched a sweet spring, greedily clinging to it! The chaotic demonic intent and boundless energy contained within the dark gold demonic blood surged madly into the ancient tree's body through the ducts in its roots!

On the surface of the roots, a dark golden, keratin-like hard shell rapidly formed, visible to the naked eye! Beneath the hard shell, the rootlets bulged and pulsed like engorged blood vessels! The ancient locust's aura instantly became violent and distorted, its crown moving without wind, emitting a rustling sound like countless tiny teeth grinding together!

It was no longer an ancient tree drawing nourishment from the earth, but had transformed into a demonic plant rooted at the source of pollution! It greedily sucked the power of that drop of demonic blood, converting and spreading it, accelerating the pollution of the entire branch of the earth vein! The roots spread and pierced through the soil even more frantically, searching for more contaminated earth vein nodes...

Deep within the root system of this demonic ancient locust, an extremely faint dark golden embryo, condensed from pure demonic blood essence, was quietly sprouting. The shape of the embryo, faintly discernible, was like a closed... vertical pupil.