Scarlet Grotto-Heaven

The blood mist exploded, and a figure in black shot backward out of the crimson haze.

Whoosh!

Xie Xuanyi's expression darkened.

Once one stepped into the Grotto-Heaven Realm, a cultivator's strength underwent a "qualitative transformation." Every cultivator's Grotto-Heaven possessed different characteristics corresponding to the Great Dao... If he had guessed correctly, that bloody vertical eye emerging between Rank Six's brows was the Grotto-Heaven she had condensed!

This Grotto-Heaven corresponded to the Heavenly Puppet Sect's "Blood Refinement Path"!

When the flying sword pierced Rank Six's shoulder, she had taken the chance to leave blood upon its blade. She had been waiting for Xie Xuanyi to summon the flying sword back.

The Blood Refinement Art was immensely powerful, but its price was equally immense!

This technique somewhat resembled the famed "Seven Wounds Fist" of the martial world. Every time its user launched an attack, they had to consume their own blood... Cultivators of this path were all designated "evil cultivators" by Great Chu! To make up for their lack of blood, they often sucked human blood to nourish themselves!

Xie Xuanyi had known from the very beginning that Rank Six was a ruthless woman.

But he had not expected... this madwoman to be so decisive!

The moment she unleashed the Blood Refinement Art, it completely engulfed a radius of thirty meters. She did not even care about the living corpse she had painstakingly refined!

Xie Xuanyi successfully escaped.

But that hulking living corpse was blown straight into countless fragments!

The tall, swaying thick stalks of the purple bamboo grove were coated in a faint scarlet hue, and the air was filled with a dense stench of blood.

"Your movement technique is quite good..."

Rank Six excitedly sniffed the air.

Though her face was pale, her expression grew ever more exhilarated.

Blood still flowed incessantly from the wound the flying sword had pierced earlier... After the living corpse puppet exploded, the bloody stench in the air was almost tangible.

Rank Six slowly raised one slender arm.

As she lifted her hand, countless scarlet auras darted and gathered through the air, transforming into one blood-red fireball after another.

Blood-red stars floated above the purple bamboo grove.

"Go!"

With a sharp cry—

The bloody vertical eye on Rank Six's forehead abruptly widened, and dozens of scarlet fireballs hanging above the bamboo grove came crashing down—

Xie Xuanyi turned and ran without the slightest hesitation, fleeing cleanly and decisively. This woman from the Heavenly Puppet Sect had deep cultivation and vicious attacks, and most importantly, this Scarlet Grotto-Heaven... was simply too bizarre!

In an instant, the purple bamboo grove became a sea of flames.

Huge crimson fireballs shrieked as they crashed down, like the siege shells developed by the Great Chu Imperial City's Directorate. Every strike carried the momentum to destroy heaven and earth.

Scorching, blazing wind swept in from behind him.

Xie Xuanyi, fleeing in "sorry" fashion all the way, found time to glance back. As expected, he saw Rank Six's twisted, ugly face, carrying a trace of mocking sneer.

This Grotto-Heaven evil cultivator probably thought victory was already hers. At this moment, she regarded him only as prey with nowhere to escape, playing one final game of "cat and mouse."

"You probably think you're clever, don't you? You knew to wear a face mask when traveling and hide your identity."

"But in my eyes, you're nothing but a complete idiot."

Rank Six folded her arms and followed unhurriedly behind him. The corners of her lips curled upward as she watched Xie Xuanyi get bombarded by fireballs and flee in disarray, clearly taking pleasure in beating a dog that had fallen into the water.

She smiled. "I had originally worried that you brat would not dare come to honor the appointment at Sunken Chime Mountain."

Xie Xuanyi narrowed his eyes.

After testing the waters for this long, he could already confirm...

The Scarlet Grotto-Heaven cultivated by Rank Six indeed corresponded to the Heavenly Puppet Sect's "Blood Refinement Path."

The ground was covered in craters, and bloodfire blazed toward the sky.

Every wisp of flame burning here was driven by Rank Six's own blood essence. Yet judging from her reaction, she still seemed to be in a state of "ample blood supply"?

"I've played enough."

Rank Six instantly withdrew her smile and said coldly, "Time to send you on your way."

She pressed her palms together.

The final blood-red fireball no longer merely "barely grazed past." It accelerated and struck directly at Xie Xuanyi's head—

The violent sound of something tearing through the air rang in his ears.

Xie Xuanyi instinctively drew his sword, but the sword he had casually bought in Carp Tide City had already been shattered by the Scarlet Grotto-Heaven. Even if he used Primordial Force to summon it, he would only summon a pile of fragments... Xie Xuanyi bent low as he ran, reached out to seize a thick stalk of purple bamboo, and exerted force with his palm. The purple bamboo, over fifteen meters long, was instantly pressed down until it bent flat against the ground.

The next moment, a cracking sound rang out as the bamboo could bear no more. It snapped cleanly in two!

Xie Xuanyi stopped running. Instead, he gripped the long, slender purple bamboo, twisted at the waist, turned around, and hurled it like a spear!

At the instant he turned—

His entire field of vision was filled by the descending bloodfire!

Boom!

The next moment, the massive fireball was pierced through and blasted apart by the purple bamboo. That incomparable explosive force of the flesh directly shattered the Scarlet Grotto-Heaven's "Blood Refinement Path" through brute strength!

Xie Xuanyi raised his sleeve to shield his face. As the purple bamboo spear blew apart the fireball, he withdrew and retreated, while a rain of flames scattered down from the sky.

He retreated once more to a safe distance...

The purple bamboo he had hurled with all his strength did not lose momentum after blasting apart the fireball. It sped toward Rank Six's position.

Everything happened too fast.

Rank Six's pupils constricted. The hand seal formed by her pressed palms was forcibly broken, and she had no choice but to stretch out both hands to catch the fiercely incoming purple bamboo spear head-on. The bloodfire filling the sky gathered toward her sleeves, instantly dyeing her black robe blood-red like a dragon drawing water. With a single palm strike, the purple bamboo was shattered from end to end!

Thud, thud, thud.

Rank Six retreated three steps, her expression somewhat ugly as she uncertainly scrutinized Xie Xuanyi again.

There were only a handful of sects that cultivated the body.

This fellow's attacks were every bit as ruthless as hers, not the slightest bit more "merciful." Such methods of killing clearly had nothing to do with Buddhism!

Why did she feel that the person opposite her was also a fellow traveler cultivating an "evil path"?

Sunken Chime Mountain fell into brief silence.

After that exchange of attacks, neither side chose to rashly launch another assault.

It seems that, as I am now, I still cannot fight a Grotto-Heaven...

Xie Xuanyi murmured softly in his heart.

Just as he had expected.

With less than half his acupoints ignited, it was difficult to wrestle with a Grotto-Heaven Realm cultivator.

After condensing a Grotto-Heaven, the power of the Blood Refinement Art was far beyond what someone like Xu You could compare to.

The peak of the Qi Guiding Realm and the Grotto-Heaven Realm seemed separated by only a thin bottleneck.

But in truth, it could be called an insurmountable chasm.

The very existence of a "Grotto-Heaven" was a symbol of the Great Dao.

If she were merely in the Qi Guiding Realm, Rank Six's "Blood Refinement Art" could never have been sustained for so long... This Grotto-Heaven provided her with an extraordinarily abundant reserve of blood and Qi, allowing her to squander it without restraint.

Setting aside the difference in realms.

There was another very important factor...

That was the "Blood Refinement Art," which was simply too bizarre and too vicious.

Xie Xuanyi lowered his head and looked at his palms. Golden Qi flowed through his acupoints, covering both hands, yet traces of bloody, murky aura could faintly be seen moving over the surface of his skin.

A sizzling burning sound arose in the air.

Though he had been cautious at every turn.

Rank Six's "Blood Refinement Art" had still splashed onto him.

Evil cultivators who practiced this technique often committed a mad act... they mixed poison into their own blood.

Yes, they would consume different kinds of Gu poison themselves.

That way—

The "blood" they normally offered and scattered in sacrifice would also carry deadly poison!

This was also why ordinary cultivators were unwilling to fight evil cultivators. Who would want to grapple and fight to the death with such lunatics?

In such circumstances, getting even a single drop of blood on oneself was an extremely terrible thing.

"You are much stronger than I imagined."

After a moment of silence.

Rank Six spoke again. The look in her eyes as she watched Xie Xuanyi had changed, no longer carrying the utter contempt from before.

"You were struck by the 'Blood Refinement Art,' yet you can still stand."

Rank Six narrowed her eyes and slowly said, "Do you have a precious artifact protecting you, or is your physique truly so tyrannical that... you can withstand Gu Blood head-on?"

Neither.

Xie Xuanyi remained silent. He knew perfectly well why he could still stand.

It was the Immortal Spring...

More precisely, it was the Golden Qi that had yet to condense into an "Immortal Spring." It had originally lingered in a free state within his dantian, but after he was struck by Gu Blood, that Golden Qi began actively roaming over the surface of his body. The poison-laden "Gu Blood" was discovered by the Golden Qi the moment it invaded his skin.

Then they reacted with one another and canceled each other out.

That was why the sizzling sound continued without end.

"Either possibility is a good thing."

Rank Six did not grow angry at receiving no answer.

"If you possess a precious artifact capable of resisting Gu Blood, then after tonight, that artifact will be mine..."

"If you are relying on your body to resist it head-on, then that is even better. I happen to lack a sufficiently powerful life-bound puppet."

Smiling, she stretched out both hands and formed another strange hand seal.

The Scarlet Grotto-Heaven hovered above her head, its bewitching red radiance cascading down like a waterfall. If one set aside her twisted, ugly, hateful face and only looked at the hazy, dreamlike aura around Rank Six as she stood bathed in red light... one might actually be struck by the illusion of beholding a merciful Bodhisattva.

Xie Xuanyi narrowed his eyes.

He saw a second pair of arms slowly extend from behind Rank Six, who stood bathed in the light of the Scarlet Grotto-Heaven.

It was no illusion.

Rank Six had truly grown a second pair of hands. Though slender and long, they dripped with blood!

The second pair of hands formed the Buddhist Pure Vase Seal, making her appear all the more solemn and dignified.

Bathed in bloodlight, the woman wearing the Scarlet Grotto-Heaven as a rosy shawl spoke softly, "Meeting is fate. Tonight, the mountains are high, the moon is round, and all around is silent. Why don't you and I enjoy ourselves to the fullest?"

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