The Stench of Blood

"I know of some information that may be related to the cultivators of the Great Yu Dynasty." Seeing that Lu Yang agreed, Vice Sect Leader Shi felt that the success rate of dealing with the cultivators of the Great Yu Dynasty had increased even more, and was willing to cooperate further with Lu Yang.

Lu Yang gave an "oh," relaxed, and leaned back in his chair.

"Tell me about it?"

"There are two reasons why cultivators from the Great Yu Dynasty are not accepted by the Great Xia Dynasty." Vice Sect Leader Shi held up two fingers.

"Firstly, it goes without saying that the cultivators of the Great Yu Dynasty do not acknowledge the existence of the Great Xia Dynasty and demand the restoration of the Great Yu Dynasty's rule, which the Great Xia Dynasty naturally cannot accept."

"The second reason stems from the conflict between good and evil."

"According to historical records, blood sacrifice incidents occurred frequently in the Great Yu Dynasty. In order to consolidate their rule and win over powerful figures, the Imperial Preceptor and the Emperor of Yu tacitly approved of such incidents. For example, the Venerable of Natural Disasters, who was known as a natural disaster and brought suffering to the people, was ignored by the Great Yu Dynasty. The reason lies in this."

"Da Yu believes that sacrificing several cities to win over a Tribulation Transcendence Transcending cultivator is a very worthwhile deal."

Vice Leader Shi scoffed at Da Yu's actions. Although their demonic sect also killed people, they had faith and did so to promote the existence of the Nine Netherworlds, which was completely different from people like Venerable Tianzai who took pleasure in killing.

"If this had happened in High Antiquity, the Great Yu would have been wiped out by our Heavenly Court long ago," Lu Yang said coldly. Blood sacrifice by cultivators was a rare occurrence even in High Antiquity.

Before the Five Immortals of High Antiquity, the High Antiquity order was chaotic, so it's not surprising that blood sacrifices occurred. If such things still happened after the Five Immortals became High Antiquity, then it means that the Five Immortals of High Antiquity were not respected.

This can be seen from the Immortal Fairy's attitude.

The Immortal Fairy is naive, not foolish; she would not tolerate blood sacrifice.

From this, we can infer that if the four High Antiquity immortals who were on good terms with her were ruthless killers, the Immortal Fairy would not have become friends with them.

"The newly recovered cultivators of the Great Yu Dynasty are in a weak state. The quickest way to recover is through blood sacrifice and blood offering. However, the Great Xia Dynasty now has strict rule, making it difficult for them to openly perform blood sacrifices as they did more than 100,000 years ago."

"By using [the rules], or other means, secretly performing a blood sacrifice, it would be very difficult for the Great Xia to find out."

Lu Yang recalled the events in Buyi Town, which was the method by which cultivators of the Great Yu Dynasty restored their strength.

"Our Nine Nether Sect has spies all over the continent. We may not be as good as the Great Xia in terms of what's on the surface, but when it comes to what's going on behind the scenes, the Great Xia knows far more than we do!" Vice Sect Leader Shi laughed. Their Nine Nether Sect has existed for tens of thousands of years; without some intelligence channels, they would have perished long ago.

"A few days ago, I received intelligence that seemed to indicate a blood sacrifice. It didn't seem to be the work of the Radiant Sun Cult or the Ruthless Cult; it was very likely done by ancient cultivators!"

"Suspected blood sacrifice?"

"Yes, suspected, but not yet confirmed."

What exactly is the situation?

"My subordinate reported to me that he passed through a small village called Huai'an Village on his way to Liangzhou. Looking into the distance, he found the village deserted, without a trace of life. His cultivation Cultivation Method is somewhat special, making him very sensitive to the smell of blood, and he detected a faint scent of blood."

"The fact that the smell of blood can still be detected from such a distance indicates that a large number of people have died in the village!"

"He was afraid of the rules set up in the village by the Body Integration Realm and dared not approach. After learning of the unusual situation in the small village, he immediately reported it to me!"

Tao Yaoye was slightly startled; this matter seemed rather strange.

Lu Yang frowned. "The small village is deserted. Has the government not taken any action?"

"What's even stranger is that the government has completely ignored this village, as if they were unaware of its existence! Perhaps the villagers only disappeared recently, and the government is still unaware of it!"

"Based on my speculation, it is highly likely that ancient cultivators performed a blood sacrifice in a small village and used some means to block people's perception, or the perception of righteous cultivators!"

Lu Yang tapped his index finger rhythmically on the table. This was very strange, and Vice Master Shi's explanation was not necessarily plausible.

Regardless, we still need to investigate this small village.

Lu Yang wasn't worried that Vice Leader Shi was luring him there. The Heavenly Court Sect had already demonstrated some of its strength; even if he had his head hit by the Fifth Elder's flying shuttle, he wouldn't dare to trick the young leader.

"Then let's go take a look." Lu Yang set off, preparing to head to Liangzhou.

Vice Leader Shi was surprised, not expecting Lu Yang to be so decisive. He had thought that this young leader Lu was going back to find the Heavenly King Protector, which was why he went to investigate Liangzhou.

Do these two prodigies really dare to go to Liangzhou, a place suspected of being frequented by ancient cultivators?

Either he has the ability to save his life, or a Heavenly King's protector is already near Lu Yang, and he has no idea!

"Will the Stone Sect Leader come along?"

"Of course I'll go." Vice Master Shi readily agreed. He was the one who proposed it, so there was no reason for him not to go.

His flying boat anchored outside Yanjiang County, and the three boarded and left.

Vice Sect Leader Shi wanted to say something more to Lu Yang, but after Lu Yang boarded the flying boat, he closed his eyes to rest, looking like he didn't want to say anything more, so he didn't want to make a fool of himself.

Tao Yaoye didn't speak either. She knew that Senior Brother Lu closed his eyes because he was afraid of heights and afraid to see outside.

Three days later, the flying boat arrived in Liangzhou.

Liangzhou is located on the western side of the Central Continent. Due to the climate, it has more grasslands and less forest. Further west is the Golden Buddha Kingdom, where yellow sand stretches as far as the eye can see and it is difficult to find any greenery.

This is it.

Vice Leader Shi hovered the flying boat in the air, checked the location in the report, confirmed that the strange little village was below, and then jumped down.

Lu Yang was afraid of heights and didn't dare to jump, so he had prepared in advance.

"Junior Sister Tao, cast an illusion spell on me so I think I'm standing on the ground."

Tao Yaoye covered her mouth and chuckled, then raised her hand to cast an illusion spell over Lu Yang, and the two of them jumped down.

Those at the Golden Core stage can fly freely.

The three landed about a mile from the small village.

Fearing that he might alert the enemy, Vice Leader Shi did not use his Divine Sense to investigate the village.

"It doesn't seem like there are any signs of the rules being manipulated." Vice Master Shi walked around the small village and made this judgment. He was very experienced and almost never made a mistake in this regard.

"That's even stranger. Where did everyone in the village go?" Lu Yang and Tao Yaoye were also puzzled; it didn't make sense.

The three of them tried to enter Huai'an Village, and once inside, they were not affected by any of the village's rules.

Vice Leader Shi's nose twitched, his expression turning grave. "The stench of blood here is even stronger than I expected!"

"Does it smell?" Tao Yaoye sniffed, but couldn't smell anything.

Vice Master Shi explained, "You two are different from me. You cultivate the orthodox Cultivation Method of the Heavenly Court. The Cultivation Method we demonic cultivators cultivate are more or less related to blood sacrifice. Only someone like me who cultivates the demonic path can sense the anomaly of this place."

Lu Yang asked, "Is the smell of blood very strong?"

"It's incredibly concentrated. Even if you killed everyone in this small village, you probably wouldn't get this much!"

"This place is very likely an altar built by ancient cultivators, where they gathered captured mortals and cultivators for blood sacrifice!"