Demon Cultivator

However, he wanted to take a look at City Lord Zheng before leaving. There were quite a few people watching the commotion at Fang Manor today, and City Lord Zheng was hidden among the crowd as well, solely because he had once again sensed that strange aura.

He transformed into a streak of rainbow light and shot into the sky, soon vanishing beyond the horizon. He had no intention of going openly; he was merely pretending to leave first, to lower the other man's guard.

In truth, he urgently used a Breath Severing Technique from the Taibai Soaring Sword Canon to sever the aura leaking from his body, then quietly slipped back into Golden Jade City. Once this technique was activated, unless someone saw him with their own eyes, even a cultivator one realm above him would be unable to sense him.

City Lord Zheng's name was Zheng Xiu. He had held office in Golden Jade City for over thirty years, yet had accomplished nothing remarkable during his tenure and had always seemed rather mediocre.

The aura he had sensed from the man earlier felt somewhat similar to the Demonic Qi he had read about in ancient records. He had never encountered a demon cultivator before, so he could not be certain.

"There really is an array here. Something is indeed wrong."

Like a ghost, Fang Xiao entered the City Lord's Mansion. He investigated every corner and found nothing amiss until he reached the ornamental lake in the rear courtyard, where he discovered an array designed to conceal auras.

Though he did not understand the Dao of arrays, this array was extremely crude and had a very limited effect. As long as he was careful, it would not be difficult to enter it without being discovered.

After an hour of investigation, Fang Xiao found a safe route. Combined with the Breath Severing Technique, he silently reached the bottom of the ornamental lake.

There was a hidden world beneath it, nearly half the size of a football field. Zheng Xiu had actually excavated such an enormous secret chamber beneath the ornamental lake.

At this moment, the secret chamber was filled with the smell of rust. Fang Xiao surveyed his surroundings and saw eight blood-red stone pillars standing throughout the chamber, their surfaces inscribed with different patterns that he could not understand at all.

Eight corpses were bound atop the pillars. Each one was thin and withered, their hands like chicken claws, as if a gust of wind could scatter them away. The blood channels extending from beneath each pillar led to a blood pool at the center of the secret chamber.

The blood in the channels had yet to run dry. The corpses atop the pillars had evidently been drained of every drop of blood in their bodies.

Blood mist swirled above the blood pool, giving off a red glow that dyed the entire cave chamber a dark crimson. Looking closely, he saw a figure sitting in the pool. The man had a head of crimson hair, his left arm severed at the shoulder. He was an unfamiliar cultivator.

To avoid alerting the enemy, Fang Xiao did not probe him with Spiritual Sense. However, judging from the fluctuations of spiritual power, the man was likely at the Foundation Establishment Realm, though his cultivation was unstable at the moment, sometimes at the middle stage and sometimes at the late stage.

A large number of bandages lay scattered around the pool. Looking again at the man, his face was flushed, while his severed arm was wrapped in red light. He was apparently healing his injuries.

Healing in such a manner, this man was undoubtedly a demon cultivator.

At that moment, a figure emerged from the hidden passage, walked straight to the blood pool, and knelt. It was Zheng Xiu.

"Master, how are your injuries? The cultivators in the city have already left."

"Do not be careless. Before my injuries recover, you had best keep a low profile and avoid drawing attention. Also, the blood pool still needs more Essence Blood. For now, use the people in your manor. It is a pity there is no cultivator's Essence Blood, or I could recover even faster."

The man in the pool opened his blood-colored eyes and spoke.

"Master is right. I had planned to wait for the people from that brat Fang's sect to leave, then help Master trick him in here and take his Essence Blood to aid your recovery. Unfortunately, the brat got away. But this disciple has already prepared eight strong mortal men to aid your healing."

Hearing this, Fang Xiao sighed inwardly. As expected of father and son—their desire to harm others truly ran in the same vein.

"Do not worry. You possess spiritual roots. Though you are somewhat old, with the cultivation techniques of my Blood River Sect, as long as there is enough Essence Blood and the aid of the blood pool, not only can you enter the Qi Condensation Stage, even Foundation Establishment in the future is not impossible."

From what the man said, he came from a sect called the Blood River Sect and could even help Zheng Xiu, a man past fifty, begin cultivating.

"Thank you, Master. As the City Lord of Golden Jade City, are not blood meals mine for the taking? If refining all the people of Golden Jade City can help Master recover from your injuries, that would be their honor."

A trace of killing intent rose within Fang Xiao. Had he not returned, it would likely not be long before the entire city, including his own father, was slaughtered clean.

"Good. To walk the path of demon cultivation, one must be ruthless and vicious. Mercy toward others is cruelty toward oneself."

After Zheng Xiu left, the Blood River Sect demon cultivator continued healing his injuries.

Fang Xiao intended to take advantage of his healing to kill him in one strike. As for Zheng Xiu, he had not even begun cultivating. How far could a mortal body run? Fang Xiao could deal with him slowly afterward.

He formed a Sword Art with his fingers, and the Great White Sword Pellet silently flew from his body. At the same time, powerful spiritual power surged into it. The Sword Pellet shot forth as a streak of white rainbow light, about to pierce straight through the demon cultivator.

Abruptly, the eight stone pillars around the blood pool lit up with dazzling red light. The sword light transformed from the Great White Sword Pellet faltered, while the demon cultivator reacted with astonishing speed, immediately dodging aside and avoiding his vital points. The Sword Pellet, arriving a step too late, only pierced through his shoulder.

"Who is it that dares launch a sneak attack on this old ancestor?!"

Dozens of blood-red chains shot from the stone pillars and split into two paths. One batch flew toward the Sword Pellet, while the other rushed directly at Fang Xiao's true body.

Though the Sword Pellet was not by his side, Fang Xiao was not without means. He raised two fingers in a sword gesture and pointed directly at the incoming chains. In an instant, sword light burst from his fingertips like floodwaters pouring through opened sluice gates. Though it failed to destroy the chains, it stopped them dead in their tracks.

As for the chains winding toward the Great White Sword Pellet, the moment they touched the sword light surrounding it, they shattered inch by inch.

"A Sword Pellet—a Sword Cultivator."

The demon cultivator's expression changed drastically. He had not examined it closely before and had assumed it was some powerful magical artifact. Only now did he immediately realize what it was.

His stone pillars were both magical artifacts and array artifacts. The chains they unleashed could capture not only Foundation Establishment cultivators, but even some weaker False Core cultivators. Yet they had collapsed like a landslide the instant they touched the sword light released by the other party's Sword Pellet. That was not something an ordinary Foundation Establishment sword cultivator could achieve.

He roused his spiritual power, and the Essence Blood in the pool shot toward the stone pillars. The eight pillars formed the Eight Fiends Blood Refining Array, which he had created by refining eight Foundation Establishment cultivators alive. Their flesh, blood, souls, and essences had all been fused into the pillars. Normally, they could refine blood meals to aid his cultivation and heal his injuries. When facing enemies, it was like fighting eight Foundation Establishment Blood Dao cultivators at once. Once the array was combined, the power of the Eight Fiends' joint assault would multiply, and it possessed the terrifying ability to remain undying and indestructible so long as its Essence Blood did not run dry.

Sword cultivators usually had limited techniques: high offense, low defense, and little aptitude for prolonged spell battles. So long as he activated the Eight Fiends Blood Refining Array, he could trap this sword cultivator within it and slowly grind him to death. With the Essence Blood of this Foundation Establishment sword cultivator, his own injuries could recover seventy or eighty percent.