Darkness swallowed everything; he could not even see his own hand in front of his face.
She Xuan seemed to have night vision. Combined with her long, slippery tail, she shook off Lu Bei before long and vanished in some unknown direction.
She had not contributed nothing, either. Somehow, she triggered a mechanism and lit the Everlasting Lamp, causing the stone-paved passage inside the cave abode to instantly brighten.
Lu Bei had just thrown out a Luminous Pearl and was using the blade scraping against the stone walls to feel his way forward. When the lights suddenly flared, he hurriedly raised his saber to guard himself.
Nothing happened.
He picked up the Luminous Pearl. Without bothering to wonder how the Everlasting Lamp worked, he took out the compass and cautiously explored ahead.
Had Zhu Bo been here, he would certainly have noticed something was wrong. They were not the first visitors to come here in a thousand years. The cave abode had been explored long ago, and someone might even have stayed here for a while. The special grease consumed by the Everlasting Lamp was the strongest evidence.
That explained the Buddha-faced Golden Body Spider and the key embedded in its head as well.
Lu Bei carefully felt his way forward, remaining completely unharmed with the compass's guidance. While marveling at the Formation Breaking Compass's wondrous abilities, he became even more determined to make sure it was lost.
He had promised Zhu Bo that the fan would not be lost, but he had never promised to return the compass in one piece.
She Xuan was cunning and treacherous. He had been caught off guard and lost the compass to her Sneak Attack. That was perfectly reasonable and did not violate their agreement.
Lu Bei, secretly delighted, did not know that it made no difference whether he had the compass on this trip. Someone had come here years ago; the mechanisms had been destroyed and the formation broken. Even if he had simply lain down and rolled all the way through, nothing would have happened to him.
After Lu Bei had left, advancing step by step, She Xuan coiled her snake tail around a pillar and slid down. She had watched the order of Lu Bei's steps, then copied him exactly, safely crossing the stretch of traps she had regarded as the most dangerous.
Back to Lu Bei. Holding the Formation Breaking Compass, he made it through several passages with only a few scares before arriving at a huge, perfectly square stone chamber.
The chamber was ten zhang long and wide, with a curved roof like a huge bowl turned upside down. A giant Luminous Pearl adorned its center. At the middle of the brick-paved floor, directly beneath the Luminous Pearl, stood a platform resembling an altar.
"Tsk, such a huge radioactive isotope. I have to hurry. I absolutely can't let myself get irradiated into cancer." Lu Bei shuddered and hurried to the altar.
As he searched for the keyhole, he examined the patterns on the altar. Before long, the writing on it caught his attention.
"Monster Language?"
Lu Bei did not understand Monster Language. A few characters had been carved onto the Feather Transformation Sect's token, so he could barely recognize it.
"That's right, it is Monster Language. The owner of this cave abode wasn't a Demonic Cultivator, but a senior Demon Cultivator of the same bloodline as me." She Xuan slowly slid into the stone chamber and looked toward the altar behind Lu Bei. A flash of longing crossed her golden, vertical pupils.
"Don't look around. It's all mine."
Lu Bei held his saber horizontally before him, blocking She Xuan's view.
"Without my help, you can't open the Bloodline Mechanism." She Xuan spoke with certainty.
What was a Bloodline Mechanism? Wasn't it opened with a key?
Lu Bei knitted his brows but did not voice the question in his heart. She Xuan noticed his expression, and her face softened slightly. "I don't know what evil method you used to suppress the backlash from your Demonic Arts, but I'm not completely without a Trump Card, either. Rather than both suffering losses, we might as well each take a step back and cooperate, then share the relics of the senior Demon Cultivator."
"Commander Zhu believed you and ended up half-dead."
Lu Bei smiled and shook his head, tossing the Black Gold Straight Saber in his hand. "The Liu brothers believed you and split up to act separately. What reason do I have to believe you?"
She Xuan was deeply wary of Lu Bei, but she absolutely could not let such a precious opportunity to advance her bloodline slip away. She took the initiative to soften her stance. "I can swear an oath. I will take only one item from the senior Demon Cultivator's relics. If I break my oath, I will die from bloodline backlash."
Her momentum weakened, and Lu Bei instead grew curious. "What thing... Wait. If the Demon Cultivator's relics contain only one item, what do I get?"
"I am a Demon Cultivator, and that senior shares my bloodline. Naturally, I want the pure bloodline he left behind. You aren't a Demon Cultivator, so it would be useless to you."
She Xuan felt deeply irritated, but still patiently explained, "If the senior left behind only a bloodline item and no other relics, then I will owe you one thing. I still have another business on hand. You can accompany me when the time comes. How about it?"
She Xuan's business referred to another ruin that required the blood of the Zhu Clan to open. Lu Bei had heard her mention it before and had paid it no mind, but now that he heard it again, his heart immediately stirred.
Entering a tomb did not necessarily mean receiving missions and experience, but if he did not enter a tomb, he would definitely receive neither missions nor experience.
Lu Bei pondered for three seconds before nodding decisively. "Fine. I'll cooperate with you. Swear your Blood Oath!"
"What about you?"
"Me?!"
Lu Bei pointed at himself, then looked around to confirm that She Xuan was talking about him. He declared righteously, "The advantage is on my side. Why should I swear an oath? I'm still waiting to break the agreement. What if I suffer backlash?"
"You're bullying me too much!"
She Xuan hissed out poisonous smoke. She had intended to argue with Lu Bei a little longer and explain the principles of cooperation for mutual benefit, but before she could even speak, Lu Bei had already attacked.
Skill 'Blood Rage' activated. Capture judgment successful.
After experiencing that oppressive force once, She Xuan had not developed any resistance to it. Instead, Lu Bei's previous slaughter had left her with a severe psychological shadow. When she felt that pressure again, all her basic attributes plummeted. They were not quite cut in half, but she still lost thirty to forty percent of them.
She was both furious and afraid. Forcing down the cowardice in her heart, she spat out needles as fine as ox hairs and darted about with her agile body, not daring to give Lu Bei the slightest opening.
Skill 'Dark Tide' activated.
Lu Bei gathered his strength and suddenly swung the Treasure Fan. The gale rolled backward, sweeping away the poisonous smoke and needles and rendering She Xuan's attack useless.
Zhu Bo had worked with She Xuan several times and knew she was skilled with poison. The Treasure Fan was his Trump Card, and when they turned against each other, it effectively countered her.
She Xuan inwardly cursed the situation as troublesome. Suddenly, a flying knife was blown over by the gale and landed within two steps of her. Flames burst brightly, and her lithe body lost its balance by accident.
Rumble!
A gale suddenly surged. Lu Bei seized the opportunity and violently whipped up a hurricane. She Xuan could not withstand it; her body flew backward and slammed hard into the stone chamber wall.
The old injury in her chest worsened, and She Xuan could not help letting out a low cry.
Clang!
The icy blade pressed against her face. Bone-chilling cold roused her from the pain. From the corner of her eye, she saw the Black Gold Straight Saber pressed against her cheek, and a wave of grief and indignation surged through her heart.
She had lost again!
Lu Bei held the saber against She Xuan's cheek with one hand and gripped her slender snake neck with the other. He felt her long tail tighten coldly around his waist and abruptly shook the blade in his hand.
"Snake Aunt, the advantage is on my side. What do you think?"
Lu Bei looked down at her from above. After confirming it through experience, defeating She Xuan again still awarded experience, though much less than before.
[You defeated She Xuan and gained 10,000 experience]
No repeatedly farming experience?
Or had he been too quick this time? She Xuan's resistance had not been fierce enough, and the process had not been as dangerous as the previous time, resulting in a lower evaluation?
With his experience reduced, Lu Bei's expression turned unpleasant. He went along with it and darkened his face, then gave a cold snort.
"..."
Blood dripped from the cut on her cheek and slid down the edge of the Black Gold Straight Saber. She Xuan gritted her teeth and loosened the snake tail wrapped around Lu Bei.
"Very good. I've received your sincerity."
Lu Bei pressed his advantage without mercy. "As for your oath to acknowledge me as your master, I've thought it over again and again. I reluctantly have no objections. Swear your oath!"
"Then you might as well kill me."
She Xuan clenched her teeth, her vertical pupils narrowing to a line. Her snake tail wrapped around Lu Bei again, looking very much as if she would rather fight to the death and splash his whole body with blood.
"I was just saying. Why are you wrapping yourself so tightly, Snake Aunt? I respect your age, so don't go thinking about an old snake devouring young grass." Lu Bei activated the 'Blood Rage' skill, pressing She Xuan until her hands grew numb and her tail went limp. She let out a mournful cry and released her long tail.
"Snake Aunt, swear the oath. Open the Bloodline Mechanism. You may take only one of the senior Demon Cultivator's relics. Take more, and you'll definitely suffer bloodline backlash."
Lu Bei wore the face of a villain. "As for me, I'll decide what to do when the time comes. You don't have a problem with that, do you?"
She Xuan remained silent, like snake meat on a chopping board awaiting slaughter. She did not place her hopes in Lu Bei and merely sought to see what the opportunity to advance her bloodline looked like before she died.
She swore the Blood Oath in Monster Language. After finishing, at Lu Bei's friendly reminder, she repeated it in language everyone could understand.
The blood curse took shape and appeared on the back of She Xuan's hand like a brand. Sweat poured down her face as she glared resentfully at Lu Bei. Seeing that he lacked even the slightest awareness of a victor, she raised her hand and pushed away the saber propped against her neck.
She Xuan staggered to the altar. Lu Bei did not stop her, but kept the blade pressed against her slender waist and urged her, "Hurry up. Stop dragging your feet. I can't keep my saber down much longer."
"Shut up! Stop talking nonsense!"
With no way back, She Xuan instead let go completely. A dead snake did not fear boiling water. No matter how Lu Bei threatened her, she remained unmoved.
She raised her hand and gripped the saber pressed against her waist. Enduring the pain, she suddenly drew it across her palm, pouring the dripping blood into the altar's patterns. She said weakly, "Advancing as a Demon Cultivator is not easy. The bloodline is the most precious thing of all. If the senior left behind a relic, he would only choose to leave it to a junior of the same bloodline. Without my efforts, you will never in this lifetime..."
"Got it, got it. You're the greatest, satisfied?" Lu Bei cut in, too lazy to listen to She Xuan's rambling.
After a long while, She Xuan had lost too much blood. Her already fair, palm-sized face had become even more deathly pale. She stared at the altar patterns submerged in blood, her eyes filled with disbelief.
"It hasn't opened yet. Strange. Could the mechanism be damaged?"
"Maybe there isn't enough blood. Don't hold back—put in more." Lu Bei kindly reminded her.
"..."
His words were inhuman, but they did make some sense. She Xuan knew that her bloodline purity was too low, so she swallowed a bottle of Blood Replenishing Pills, gritted her teeth, and began bleeding again.
The scene shifted. She Xuan, having lost too much blood, lay unconscious on the ground. Beside her, Lu Bei was rummaging through the Qiankun Bag.
It wasn't anything else—he was merely doing a good deed and helping find Hemostatic Pills for her!
Before you continue