Devouring Demonic Art

On the stall, quite a few rogue cultivators had gathered.

Lin Fan also squeezed his way in, but his expectations quickly plummeted.

There were many cultivation methods and secret manuals on the stall. Besides some from righteous sects, there were even a few from Demonic Sects.

However, without exception, they were all low-level cultivation methods, completely useless to Lin Fan at his current stage.

"To obtain higher-level Blood Demon Sect cultivation methods, I'll have to find another way."

Lin Fan shook his head and immediately turned to leave.

To be safe, he circled the marketplace several more times, confirming he wasn't being followed, before darting away.

However, not long after leaving the marketplace, Lin Fan suddenly frowned, feeling a presence behind him, a faint, intermittent sense of being watched.

"I'm being targeted?"

If not for Lin Fan's keen senses, it would have been difficult for other Meridian Condensing Realm cultivators to detect anything unusual.

He was just puzzled. After entering the marketplace, out of caution, he had even changed his appearance and aura twice for transactions, and only left after confirming he wasn't being followed.

Despite such meticulous care, he was still targeted. Could there have been a slip-up somewhere?

Lin Fan's expression flickered as he carefully analyzed the reasons.

He soon came up with a preliminary deduction.

The first possibility was simply bad luck, being targeted by rogue cultivators in the marketplace and mistaken for an easy mark.

As for the second, it was highly possible that his perfected Blood Gathering Art had a subtle flaw that was inadvertently detected by someone with ill intentions.

The above two were merely matters of luck.

Of course, there was a third possibility, one that excluded luck.

Lin Fan glanced at his cloth bag.

He had heard that some cultivators of the evil path, in order to track their targets, would intentionally leave a unique scent or mark on something the target carried, thereby monitoring their movements in real-time.

"It's very likely that those few bottles of demon blood, or those two Spirit Jades, were tampered with."

Lin Fan sighed softly.

Both the low-level disciples of the Blood Demon Sect and the Flowing Cloud Sword Sect used storage bags made from basic materials.

The principle behind them was to compress the volume of a large water vat into the size of a cloth bag.

Not only was the storage effect mediocre, but they also couldn't block external senses.

If he had a storage ring with better effects, or some other storage magical artifact, he probably wouldn't have found himself in this situation.

While Lin Fan's thoughts raced, his speed was astonishingly fast. He moved as if on level ground, rapidly descending the mountain.

"He's quite fast."

A few hundred meters behind Lin Fan, a masked man's eyes flashed with sharp light. He was the stall owner who had bought the items.

"To be able to produce several flying swords from the Flowing Cloud Sword Sect at once, he must be a disciple of the Demonic Path."

"And he's skilled in disguise and aura concealment, so he must possess many secrets or even treasures."

"The Flowing Cloud Sword Sect has issued a wanted order. Killing just one disciple of a Demonic Sect earns a reward of five Spirit Jades."

"I can't kill someone from my own sect, but can't I kill other Demonic Path disciples?"

"Kid, if you have to blame someone, blame your bad luck. I'm taking both your head and your treasures."

The masked stall owner grinned, forming a hand seal. On the surface of his palm, a tiny black insect stared intently at Lin Fan's hiding spot.

This insect could clearly smell the unique fragrance he had sprinkled on the two Spirit Jades.

"Huh? Why did he stop?"

Suddenly, the masked stall owner froze. Through the insect's senses, he found that his target had stopped not far ahead.

The masked stall owner's eyes were filled with confusion as he muttered, "Did he discover something and realize he can't escape, so he wants to struggle?"

"If it were anyone else, you might put up a fight, but unfortunately, you're destined to die here when you met me."

He cackled and sped up, charging towards the target's location.

A moment later, the masked stall owner suddenly stopped. He saw two Spirit Jades placed on a rock not far away.

"This..."

His face darkened, and he said bitterly, "He actually ran..."

"Hmph!"

Suddenly, a thunderous voice boomed in his ear.

The masked stall owner's face changed. Caught off guard, the black insect on his palm let out a shrill cry before suddenly exploding.

It had been directly shocked to death.

At the same moment, from the grass closest to the masked stall owner, a flying sword shot out instantaneously.

"Not good, an ambush!"

The masked stall owner was greatly alarmed, but his reaction was swift. A surge of black malevolent energy erupted, forming an impenetrable defense in front of him.

Simultaneously, he clenched his large hand, transforming it into a bloody palm that slammed fiercely towards the flying sword.

The next second, the black malevolent energy shattered and disintegrated. The flying sword and the blood-red hand collided heavily.

Lin Fan frowned. The moment the Azure Gavel Sword touched the blood-red hand, it felt as if it had plunged into a black hole, its power being continuously siphoned away.

What kind of technique is this?!

He quickly regained his senses and crushed two Blood Demon Talismans.

Two Snow Demon Wolves roared, lunging at the masked stall owner from both sides.

"Blood Demon Talismans..."

The masked stall owner's eyes widened.

He drew a treasured saber and, with immense power, viciously slashed at the two Snow Demon Wolves.

Just then, the masked stall owner's pupils constricted. A phantom-like figure had, at some unknown point, appeared behind him.

"Devour All Directions."

He roared, and a terrifying suction force spread outwards from him in all directions.

The figure's movements faltered, but the next second, its hand, like a sharp blade, instantly sliced into the masked stall owner's back.

Splat!

The hand-blade pierced flesh, directly digging out his heart.

Blood splattered everywhere. The masked stall owner's body went limp, his treasured saber falling to the ground, where it was fiercely bitten by the two Snow Demon Wolves.

A moment later, a mangled corpse appeared before Lin Fan.

The two Snow Demon Wolves, however, flashed with bloody light and reverted back into two Blood Demon Talismans. Perhaps due to having devoured flesh and blood, their talismanic fluctuations were even stronger than before.

This was the terrifying aspect of the Blood Demon Talismans; as long as their energy wasn't depleted, they could be reused. Moreover, the Snow Demon Wolves devouring flesh and blood could enhance the talismans' power.

"So it was him."

Lin Fan wiped the blood from his hands, recognizing the masked stall owner who had bought his stall.

He bent down to loot the body, but only found a storage bag on the man.

He had likely rushed out to hunt him down, so he hadn't brought the items from his stall.

"The cultivation method he just used was quite peculiar, carrying a hint of demonic aura."

Lin Fan opened the storage bag and examined its contents.

He first took out two medicine bottles, each with a small label.

Blood Replenishing Pill, to enhance one's blood energy; Bone Dissolving Powder, to corrode flesh and blood of corpses.

Looking at the descriptions on the bottles, Lin Fan pondered for a moment before pocketing them.

Next, Lin Fan found five Spirit Jades in the bag, which he also unceremoniously took.

Combined with the two Spirit Jades from before, his trip to the marketplace had yielded seven Spirit Jades. Even if he couldn't return to the Blood Demon Sect in a few months, his problem of scarce spiritual energy was temporarily solved.

At this moment, Lin Fan's eyes suddenly sharpened as he found another cultivation method: Devouring Demonic Art.

"If I recall correctly, this cultivation method's name is only one character different from the Blood Swallowing Demonic Art I obtained from Wu Hai."

"Could this masked stall owner also be from the Thousand Hand Demonic Sect?"

Lin Fan was taken aback.

With a hint of curiosity, Lin Fan briefly flipped through the Devouring Demonic Art.

Soon, his guess was confirmed; this Devouring Demonic Art was an enhanced version of the Blood Swallowing Demonic Art.

However, unlike the flaws of cultivating the Blood Swallowing Demonic Art, this cultivation method wouldn't cause one's body to mutate into a monstrous creature covered in tentacles.

Lin Fan was in need of a suitable cultivation method, and now he had one readily available.

But this was, after all, a cultivation method of the Thousand Hand Demonic Sect. Would cultivating it lead to future problems?

He hesitated and decided to put the cultivation method away for now.

Afterward, he took out some Bone Dissolving Powder and dripped it onto the corpse, which visibly dissolved into a pool of blood in a very short time.

Half an hour later, a figure suddenly appeared at the spot where Lin Fan had just fought.

The person was clad in a black robe, even their face concealed, revealing only a pair of fierce eyes.

He sniffed the air deeply and muttered, "The smell of Bone Dissolving Powder. Could Xuan Xie have met with an accident..."

"Damn it, the sect ordered him to lie low here and plan great things, yet he's so reckless!"

The black-robed man snorted angrily and immediately turned to leave.