Blood Shadow's Trail, Return Journey's Change

As he looked at the figures emerging from the shadows, emitting a stench and resentment like flowing filth, Xuanwei felt as if he had just climbed out of one pit only to fall into a cesspool! Blood Sea Asuras! The murderous race created by that perverted old man, Old Ancestor Minghe! Weren't they supposed to stay in the Netherworld Blood Sea? How did they end up visiting the Guixu secret realm? Their scope of business had expanded too widely!

"System, analyze target weaknesses!" Xuanwei frantically called out in his mind as he urgently stopped his cultivation, concealing his aura to the extreme.

[Target Analysis: Low-level Blood God Son clone (controlled by Blood Sea Asura). Energy core is Blood Fiend Grudge. Fears extreme Yang and extreme rigidity, lightning purification, and high-level flame power. Has some adaptability to Chaos Qi but detests pure life force.]

Extreme Yang and extreme rigidity? Lightning purification? High-level flames?

Xuanwei quickly inventoried his abilities. His Supreme Pure Divine Thunder was only at the beginner stage with limited power; he didn't know any high-level flames; as for extreme Yang and extreme rigidity... did his Innate Immortal Qi origin count? It didn't seem quite right.

Pure life force? He had that! The Remnant Seed of Jianmu was perfect for this!

Seeing the blood-shadow figures like sharks smelling blood, twisting and emitting silent howls as they lunged at him, their passage even staining the Chaos Qi with a hint of filthy dark red, Xuanwei dared not hesitate any longer!

"Jianmu's life force, Azure Emperor Longevity, open for me!"

He fully activated the Remnant Seed of Jianmu in his sea of consciousness! Buzz! A surge of majestic, pure, emerald green light, brimming with infinite life force and purifying power, erupted from him! It was like lighting a beacon of life in a dead, gray world!

The charging blood-shadow figures, the moment they touched the emerald green light, let out sizzling burning sounds like snow meeting a scorching sun. Red and black smoke billowed from their surfaces, and they emitted painful, sharp soul shrieks! Their forward momentum abruptly halted, and they instinctively recoiled, their blood-red eyes filled with disgust and a hint of... fear of this life force?

"It's effective!" Xuanwei's spirits soared! As expected, extreme deathly resentment and extreme life force were natural enemies!

Seizing the advantage, he maintained the output of Jianmu's life force while circulating the Azure Emperor Longevity Art, transforming the life force into countless tiny emerald green vine phantoms, whipping them towards the blood-shadow figures like lashes!

Crack, crack, crack!

The life force vines struck the blood-shadow figures, each blow stripping away a wisp of Blood Fiend Grudge, making their forms grow fainter! The leader, a Blood Sea Asura at the Mysterious Immortal level, attempted to condense its Blood Fiend power to counterattack, but its attack's power was greatly weakened upon touching the domain of Jianmu's life force, making it difficult to inflict effective damage on Xuanwei.

With the balance shifting, in just a moment, the several True Immortal level blood-shadow figures were completely dispersed and purified by the life force vines, turning into nothingness. Only the Mysterious Immortal level leader remained, now dim and lusterless. It let out a resentful roar, exploding into a mass of blood mist, attempting to escape.

"Trying to run? Leave something behind!" Xuanwei's eyes turned cold. He subtly activated the power of the Chaos Bead, creating a tiny spatial distortion in the path of the escaping blood mist!

Poof!

The blood mist collided with the distorted space, emitting a dull thud. Most of it dissipated, but a small wisp of the most refined blood origin was forcibly stripped and sealed by the spatial power, transforming into a grain-of-rice-sized, struggling blood-red bead that fell into Xuanwei's hand.

[Obtained "Imperfect Blood Fiend Origin x1". Can be used to refine evil magic treasures, cast curses, or be analyzed by the Chaos Bead to reverse-engineer parts of the mysteries of the Blood Scripture (high risk).]

Blood Fiend Origin? Xuanwei looked at the thing in his hand with disdain, feeling like he was holding a booger. Using it directly was out of the question; it would tarnish his Orthodox Xuan Sect reputation. Having the Chaos Bead analyze it? The risk was too high; who knew if Old Ancestor Minghe would track him down through the internet? He'd keep it for now; perhaps it could serve as bait or a disposable weapon later.

Having resolved the sudden Blood Sea Asura crisis, Xuanwei dared not linger in this place. Who knew if there were more Blood Sea Asuras, or if he had attracted something even more troublesome? He quickly cleaned up the residual battle traces and aura near the Chaos Qi eye and then unhesitatingly turned to leave, continuing his exploration deeper into the secret realm in search of an exit.

This time, he was even more cautious, almost maximizing the concealment functions of [Deep Immortal Seclusion] and the Chaos Bead. He moved like a transparent ghost through the shattered, dead land.

Along the way, he encountered several more scattered Blood Sea Asuras, but he sensed them in advance and cleverly avoided them using Jianmu's life force and his concealment abilities. He also noticed that these Blood Sea Asuras didn't seem to have stumbled in by accident. They appeared to be searching for something, their movements methodical. Occasionally, he could see them leaving faint blood-red markings at specific spatial nodes.

"Old Ancestor Minghe's reach is long... daring to interfere even in the Guixu secret realm? What is he trying to find?" Xuanwei's heart was filled with doubt, feeling that this situation was becoming increasingly murky.

After traveling an unknown distance, the scenery ahead changed again. The shattered spatial fragments gradually decreased, replaced by a relatively intact, desolate black plain. At the end of the plain, a spatial barrier that spanned the heavens and earth, constantly twisting and fluctuating, could be vaguely seen! On the other side of the barrier, there was no longer the dead silence of the secret realm, but the normal scenery of the Primordial World – faintly visible undulating mountains and swirling Immortal Qi!

The exit! He had finally found the exit!

Xuanwei was overjoyed but did not let down his guard. He carefully observed the spatial barrier, finding that although it was unstable, there seemed to be a relatively weak area, rippling like water waves, through which he might be able to force his way.

However, just as he was about to make a dash for it, an anomaly occurred again!

Rumble--!!!

A more violent, more terrifying explosion, as if from the core depths of the secret realm, suddenly erupted! Immediately after, the entire secret realm space began to shake as if the world was turning upside down! The ground cracked, spatial fragments in the sky rained down, and even the spatial barrier began to twist and deform violently, becoming extremely unstable!

"Not good! It's from the Canyon Altar! Did those fools from the Western Teachings blow up the altar?! Or did those two guardian puppets self-destruct?!" Xuanwei's face changed drastically! This level of spatial shockwave definitely indicated a major upheaval in the core area! This secret realm... was likely on the verge of complete collapse!

No more waiting!

He glanced at the spatial barrier, which had become like a raging sea, and gritted his teeth. He activated the defense of his Black Tortoise Dao Pattern Armor to its maximum, while simultaneously drawing upon the power of the Chaos Bead to protect himself. Like an arrow loosed from a bow, he charged towards the weakest point of the barrier!

"Open for me--!"

Squelch!

As if passing through a layer of viscous gel, or being sliced by countless spatial blades, Xuanwei felt a tearing pain in his Immortal Qi's main body! But he grit his teeth and endured, relying on the armor's defense and the Chaos Bead's subtle influence on space, forcing his way through the violent spatial turbulence!

His vision suddenly brightened! The familiar aura of the Primordial World washed over him!

He was out!

Before Xuanwei could even feel relieved, he felt an irresistible repulsive force from the secret realm entrance behind him. At the same time, the entire entrance rapidly shrank and collapsed at a visible speed! He dared not delay, mounting his escape light and desperately flying away from the entrance!

Just a hundred miles after escaping, he looked back. The space above that sea area shattered like a broken mirror, piece by piece, before completely annihilating. Only a huge, slowly rotating spatial vortex remained, emitting the last vestiges of Guixu's deathly aura, and then it too slowly subsided and disappeared.

That peculiar Guixu secret realm was no more.

"Phew... finally... I'm out alive..." Xuanwei collapsed onto a lucky cloud (mentally collapsed), feeling as if he had fought a war that lasted ten thousand years, utterly exhausted in body and mind. Although the experience was thrilling and dangerous, the gains were decent (Black Emperor's inheritance improved, Chaos Bead's repair progress slightly increased, obtained a wisp of Blood Fiend Origin), he truly didn't want to go through it again.

He oriented himself and found that he wasn't far from Golden Ao Island. Just as he was preparing to return to the island to report his safety and then quickly go into seclusion at the "Supreme Pure Dao Comprehension Pool" to break through to Golden Immortal—

Buzz!

The communication jade slip from Daoist Duobao in his embrace, once again inconveniently and urgently, began to flash!

Xuanwei's eyelids twitched; he had a bad premonition. He probed it with his divine sense.

Daoist Duobao's intent, serious yet with a hint of... strangeness and urgency, came through:

"Xuanwei! Return to Biyou Palace immediately! White Crane Boy, a disciple under Uncle-Master Yuanshi of Yuxu Palace on Kunlun Mountain, has arrived with a formal invitation. He speaks of the approaching Three Pure Ones' Dao discussion and invites disciples of our Intercepting Sect to observe on Kunlun Mountain! Master's decree orders you—to accompany the team!"

Xuanwei: "!!!"

Kunlun Mountain? Yuxu Palace? Three Pure Ones' Dao discussion?! And he had to accompany the team?!

Instantly, the image of Primordial Lord of Heaven's cold, majestic gaze, looking at him as if he were trash, flashed before his eyes. Then there was that group of arrogant disciples from the Heavenly Origin Sect, especially Lingxiao, who hated him to the bone...

This wasn't a trip to attend a ceremony; it was clearly a trap!

He had just finished causing trouble in the East Sea and the Guixu secret realm, and before he could even catch his breath, they were throwing him under Uncle-Master Yuanshi's watchful eye? Was Master tired of him living too long?!

However, before he could recover from this "terrible news," another faint mental message, filled with anxiety and panic, came through the divine sense imprint he'd left on Golden Ao Island. It was Mo Yuan's voice:

"Master! Please come back and take a look! That... that Light Cocoon beneath your Medicine Garden, it... it's acting up again! And this time, the fluctuations it's emitting seem... seem to be madly absorbing and simulating a very strange, very ancient kind of Humanity's Fortune, carrying the aura of countless beings' prayers and the scent of war?! Many of the registered human disciples on the island have started involuntarily kneeling and bowing towards the Medicine Garden!"

Upon hearing this, Xuanwei's immortal qi body stiffened abruptly, nearly causing him to fall from the clouds.

The Light Cocoon absorbing and simulating Humanity's Fortune? Human disciples kneeling?

A preposterous, yet subtly fitting thought, flashed through his mind like lightning:

Could it be... that this Light Cocoon sensed his impending trip to Kunlun Mountain and his contact with the "Human Emperor Contest" karma from his memories, and thus... was preheating?!

He instinctively reached for (mentally reached for) the warm Black Tortoise Dao Pattern Armor in his embrace. He then felt the three (currently) quiet Black Tortoise Eggs in his Mustard Seed Space, as well as the (currently) dormant Remnant Seed of Jianmu in his sea of consciousness, and the slowly rotating Chaos Bead.

The storm in the East Sea had temporarily subsided, and the adventure in Guixu had concluded.

And a new vortex was already quietly gathering at the peak of Kunlun, amidst the upcoming Human Emperor Contest...

In his ears, he could already hear the prayers filled with confusion and hope from the human tribes, descendants of Buzhou Mountain. He could also see the phantom image of the Human Emperor Banner, not yet erected but already stirring the Heavenly Dao and human hearts, fluttering in the wind