Blood Lake Corpse Mountain remained as it always had.
It was only that, from some unknown time onward,
the three Void Refinement cultivators, Blood Ghost, Blood Bone, and the others, no longer went out or cultivated. Every day, they stood blankly in place, staring into space. Only when disciples occasionally came to pay their respects would they suddenly snap awake and return to normal.
They received disciples and subordinates as usual; before outsiders, everything appeared normal.
Yet when alone, they were utterly vacant and foolish, completely unaware of it themselves.
It was strange, yet perfectly normal—a sight that made one's hair stand on end.
This tranquility and strangeness lasted for more than a decade.
On this day, a faint, blood-mist-like escape light, invisible and formless, flew in from afar. Nearing the mountain gate, it revealed a woman of incomparable beauty, with features as exquisite as a painting.
She was Blood Tide True Venerable, the famed Void Refinement cultivator of the Thunderflame Domain.
"Senior Brother Blood Lake, why did you summon me so urgently?"
"Could it be that, just after the Tax Collector Envoy left, he intends to defy his prohibition and attack the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder True Sect? Or is there some other reason..."
Blood Tide True Venerable frowned, wariness rising in her heart.
Among Devil Dao Sects, even between fellow disciples, there was no such thing as harmony, friendship, or mutual aid. Even tens of thousands of years of acquaintance could not build any profound affection.
Every Demonic Cultivator understood that if the need arose, their own fellow disciples would swallow them whole or refine them into magic treasures without the slightest hesitation.
Blood Tide True Venerable wanted to leave.
However, Blood Lake Ancestor, who was nearly invincible within the Thunderflame Domain, was equally difficult to deal with.