Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Wen Jiu jumped into the tunnel with the many disciples of the Night Patrol Division.
The instant he landed, blood qi mingled with dense death qi rushed toward him. To ordinary Qi Refining cultivators, it was suffocating; they could barely breathe. But to Wen Jiu, it was paradise.
Every mouthful of blood qi lifted his spirits.
It was as if he were standing in the middle of a vast grassland.
Wen Jiu glanced at the Black Zombie beside him. It was bouncing excitedly, drawing the attention of those around them.
There was nothing for it.
Wen Jiu had to hold it down.
Stop bouncing!
You'll get your fill soon enough!
Following the others' gazes, Wen Jiu looked ahead. Before them stretched a blood-red tunnel with no visible end, one zhang wide and one zhang high. The walls on both sides were covered in claw marks left by demons.
After walking a hundred zhang inside, they gradually began to see the corpses of Blood Robe Tower remnants. In a stretch of just thirty zhang, they found thirty or forty of them.
Seeing the Blood Robe Tower remnants sprawled in pools of blood, the Night Patrol Division disciples' expressions gradually turned stern.
Their mood grew heavier by the moment.
Bringing up the rear, Wen Jiu watched the scene, his heart itching.
Blood!
Cultivators' blood!
What a waste not to absorb it all and use it to nurture corpses!
With that thought, Wen Jiu slowed down on purpose, letting the others go ahead while the Black Zombie began absorbing the blood covering the ground.
A few Night Patrol Division disciples saw what he was doing. Their expressions turned complicated, with even a hint of disgust, but they knew Wen Jiu was one of Mu Canglong and Manager Liu's people, so they didn't dare say anything.
Still, several of them quickened their pace, intending to leave Wen Jiu behind.
Wen Jiu simply stopped.
Once the others had gone far ahead, he took out the Corpse Eye and began absorbing the blood in earnest, draining it all in a hundred breaths.
The amount of blood he obtained rivaled half an hour of absorbing blood qi in the heart of the Dead Corpse Land.
Nothing beat the blood of someone who had just died.
But when he continued forward, the Night Patrol Division disciples were nowhere in sight. Only seven or eight branching passages lay before him.
Corpses of Blood Robe Tower remnants and Flying Immortal Peak disciples lay at the junction. Wen Jiu took them all.
Then he headed down the path on the far left. He could sense that the blood qi was coming from there. The other paths also had blood qi, but little death qi. Only this passage poured forth an unending stream of it.
Death qi.
The stuff that could improve the Yin Province Corpse Nurturing Art.
Wen Jiu naturally wasn't about to let it go.
After entering the passage and walking a thousand steps, he found more corpses of Blood Robe Tower remnants, though not many.
Once he had absorbed them, more than a dozen branching passages appeared. Wen Jiu continued along the path where the death qi flowed out.
As he went farther, the tunnel gradually narrowed until only one or two people could pass through at a time. The Blood Robe Tower remnants' corpses had vanished, replaced by the horrifying corpses of Flying Immortal Peak disciples.
Some had been bitten to death by insects of some kind, their entire bodies rotting away.
Others had been torn apart by something, left in an even worse state than Chen Feng.
After absorbing them all, Wen Jiu kept going. A little over a quarter of an hour later, the surroundings grew extremely quiet. Only the howling of the yin wind could be heard, while the blood qi and death qi grew ever denser.
By now,
the blood qi was several times denser than in the heart of the Dead Corpse Land!
Filled with anticipation, Wen Jiu hurried onward, all the while on guard against dangers that might emerge from the surrounding passages.
And so,
after winding through another seven or eight junctions, Wen Jiu came to a wall with a huge crack in it.
The dense blood qi and death qi were leaking out through that crack.
Wen Jiu studied it carefully. The crack seemed to have been made by a cultivator's magical artifact striking from the inside, not the outside. To be safe, he immediately cast Three Rivers Ghost Concealment.
He quietly approached the crack and heard someone on the other side bustling about, apparently moving things.
He peered through.
There were three Blood Robe Tower remnants.
All were at the Qi Refining Third Layer.
Not weak at all.
When he looked down, Wen Jiu's expression suddenly froze. In the center of the stone chamber was a gigantic blood pool.
Blood churned inside it. The blood qi and death qi leaking out couldn't compare to even a tenth of what filled the chamber.
One glance was enough to send the longing in Wen Jiu's heart soaring. Compared with this, the blood qi in the Dead Corpse Land was like a firefly beside the sun. If he could absorb all the blood in this pool, he could scarcely imagine how powerful the Black Zombie would become.
And what level would the death qi take him to?
"What exactly are those Blood Robe Tower remnants up to, stockpiling this much essence blood..."
"How many people did they have to kill?"
Wen Jiu was secretly alarmed.
He planned to wait until the three men left, then use Blood Corpse Escape to get inside. But after they finished packing up the other things, they took out three bottle-shaped magical artifacts and began collecting the blood from the pool, as if they meant to take it all away.
Wen Jiu froze.
Don't touch that!
It's mine!
There was no time to think. Wen Jiu immediately ordered the Black Zombie to smash through the crack and charge into the chamber. With Three Rivers Ghost Concealment boosting its speed, it attacked the nearest Blood Robe Tower remnant.
Crash—
The crack burst apart.
The instant the three men looked up, the Black Zombie had already reached one of them.
The man's expression changed drastically. He had no time to put away his bottle, and in his panic, he pulled out a magical artifact to defend himself. But the Black Zombie, boosted by Three Rivers Ghost Concealment, was too fast. It slammed straight into him.
Its claws pierced his chest.
The Black Zombie tore him apart on the spot.
"A ghost!"
"How could there be a ghost here?!"
The other two men's expressions changed drastically. They hurriedly put away their bottle-shaped magical artifacts, then controlled their own artifacts and activated talismans, attacking the Black Zombie as they retreated. Wen Jiu quickly circled around behind them, brought out the Corpse Eye, and unleashed the yin magic he had accumulated over time.
In an instant, the Corpse Eye released a surging tide of gray yin magic, swallowing the two men whole.
In the blink of an eye,
the Corpse Eye dispelled the activated talismans. The two men's bodies began to rot and shrivel at terrifying speed. Blood sprayed from their skin, and the sight was so grisly that even Wen Jiu felt a chill.
In less than three breaths, once all the yin magic had poured out, the two men had become a pool of rotten blood and flesh.
"This..."
The Corpse Eye's power after storing up yin magic was certainly a pleasant surprise.
But this way of killing people was really troublesome.
It was even more horrifying than the Blood Robe Tower remnants' usual methods. If someone saw it, wouldn't they call him a Blood Robe Tower remnant?
Honestly...
What a headache.
And what a gloomy feeling.
Shaking off his thoughts, Wen Jiu quickly set the Corpse Eye and the Black Zombie to work absorbing the vast amount of essence blood in the pool.
A mere hundred breaths—
and he had absorbed as much as he would have by drawing in blood qi for an entire day in the heart of the Dead Corpse Land.
After a quarter of an hour,
the Black Zombie could no longer absorb any more.
The Blood Transformation Body had reached its limit, but the Black Zombie still wanted to keep going. Wen Jiu yanked it outside.
He was afraid it would burst from overfilling.
Fortunately, the Corpse Eye could still absorb blood.
At the same time, Wen Jiu picked up the three bottle-shaped magical artifacts and controlled all four artifacts at once to absorb the blood.
Honestly, he would never have dreamed of controlling four magical artifacts at once. His Spiritual Sense already felt as if it were being torn apart.
But Wen Jiu gritted his teeth and held on.
Every extra moment meant more essence blood.
This was a once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity. Wen Jiu didn't want to miss it!
However,
just as he had held on for a quarter of an hour,
Wen Jiu suddenly sensed someone approaching at high speed. The aura belonged to the Blood Robe Tower powerhouse who had fought the Flying Immortal Peak Master.
The Flying Immortal Peak Master and several other powerhouses were close behind.
"I really..."
Wen Jiu was unwilling to give it up, but he had no choice but to stop at once and flee through the crack.
Damn it!
He had absorbed only half the essence blood in that pool!
Only half!
Just a few breaths after he escaped through the crack, Wen Jiu heard a voice. It belonged to the Blood Robe Tower powerhouse.
"Ji Qiubai, stop running... Your body's been completely corroded by my Shadow's End Poison. You're on the verge of collapse."
Wen Jiu hurriedly cast Three Rivers Ghost Concealment again.
He didn't dare move.
He didn't even dare breathe.
"The peak master lost?!" Wen Jiu was secretly alarmed.
Then he heard Flying Immortal Peak's master, Ji Qiubai, speak in a voice that had grown increasingly weak. "I never thought the Blood Robe Tower would have buried so many contingencies... You even have someone among the elders of my Flying Immortal Peak..."
At those words,
Wen Jiu's heart skipped a beat.
Damn.
He'd overheard something he wasn't supposed to.
Suddenly,
a familiar voice rang out, dripping with coldness. "You weren't supposed to think of it."
Hearing that voice, Wen Jiu felt a buzz in his head. The face of someone he had once seen for only a few seconds flashed before his eyes, but he didn't dare be sure. Because if it was him, that would be too outrageous.
Soon,
Wen Jiu heard a thud.
It was the sound of Ji Qiubai falling.
Three people laughed as soon as Ji Qiubai hit the ground.
Wen Jiu froze.
There was another one?!
There was a traitor among Flying Immortal Peak's elders too?
But just then, that familiar voice rang out again. "A battle just happened here... And half the essence blood in the pool is gone! No, someone was stealing the essence blood just now!"
As soon as the words fell,
the Blood Robe Tower powerhouse turned toward the crack nearby.
"There!"
The instant that voice rang out,
Wen Jiu was horrified. He hurriedly used Blood Corpse Escape and appeared in a stone cave five li away.
Although he could no longer hear what was happening behind him, Wen Jiu continued using Blood Corpse Escape until he returned to his corpse-qi mark.
After leaving the underground tunnel,
Wen Jiu dropped onto the ground.
He could feel cold sweat running down his back.
He'd almost been discovered!
"Good thing I have Blood Corpse Escape!" Wen Jiu silently congratulated himself, no longer regretting that he'd absorbed only half the blood in the pool.
Meanwhile,
the Blood Robe Tower powerhouse rushed through the crack and swept his gaze around. His Spiritual Sense followed, scanning the surroundings frantically.
He even threw out a yin talisman.
But it didn't catch anything.
Only then did he return to the chamber.
"He escaped fast, and I couldn't detect a trace of his aura!" The Blood Robe Tower powerhouse's expression darkened.
The man had probably heard what they'd just said.
If that got out...
"He's a ghost cultivator... And this aura feels somewhat familiar... It seems I encountered it once at Flying Immortal Peak..." The old man, his face hidden beneath his robe, slowly crouched and carefully examined the torn corpse.
"How do you know?"
"Someone once used our name to kill people at Flying Immortal Peak. I secretly went to inspect the scene."
"You deal with him! Make sure you find him. That bastard stole half the lifeblood we'd gathered for the Alliance Leader, so now we have to kill another fifty thousand mortals... Find him, so we don't have to risk slaughtering a city again."
"Mm-hmm."
The old man answered in a chilling tone.
[Another three thousand words.
The two updates I've been talking about lately are actually as long as other people's three.
I'm begging you for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets.
Today's ranking push is on.
To be honest, this week I want to make a push for the rankings and the Sanjiang recommendation. It's miserable being stuck around eightieth on the new book list.
I'm begging everyone to give me a hand!
I'm deeply grateful!]
Before you continue