Blood Sacrifice

Blood Sacrifice

Su Qiu came to a complete stop. The confusion in his eyes vanished, replaced by blazing fervor.

Even the cowlick standing upright on his head seemed to grow stiffer.

"A Soul King Evil Soul Master."

As he assessed his own strength, Su Qiu nodded, unable to suppress the excitement in his voice. "Worth a try."

A Soul King without Battle Armor was neither too strong nor too weak for the current Su Qiu—just right.

Seeing Su Qiu like this, Su Wuyan's smile deepened. He patted Su Qiu's shoulder. "This is a rare chance for real combat. And with me watching over you, nothing will go wrong."

"When do we leave?" Su Qiu did not press for details, instead asking what concerned him most.

Over the past few years, his unchanging day-and-night training had always involved teachers and elders as sparring partners. Though Su Qiu's goal was to eliminate Evil Soul Masters, he had never fought a real one, much less an opponent at the Soul King level.

Su Qiu's excitement brought a flicker of gratification to Su Wuyan's eyes. "We leave now. Every extra second an Evil Soul Master lives is a waste of air."

He placed a hand on Su Qiu's shoulder and willed it.

The light around them seemed to twist and converge upon a single point. In an instant, the two men turned into specks of light and drifted away on the wind.

The tree-lined path fell silent again, seeming even dimmer than before.

At the same time, Gu Yue, who had been waiting like a hunter at the entrance beneath Su Qiu's dormitory building, lightly furrowed her brows.

She looked in surprise toward the path leading to the dormitories.

A powerful aura had just flashed by there, one that had reached at least the level of a Titled Douluo.

If Gu Yue had not been a god-level being cultivating anew, she would not have been able to sense it with her current cultivation.

She lowered her head slightly, her falling hair concealing her delicate face. Her eyes could not be seen, making her impossible to read.

As if speaking to herself, she murmured, "What was that?"

The air went still.

A second later, the air currents trembled faintly, and Di Tian's voice came through. "My Lord, it was Su Qiu's elder. He took Su Qiu away."

Gu Yue remained silent.

Su Qiu and Wu Changkong's daily sparring sessions always took place after their special training.

Tomorrow was a rare day off, so Gu Yue had come early to wait for Su Qiu, intending to ask him to stroll through the streets with her later.

She had not expected such a development.

Since that was the case, it was time to handle another matter.

"Di Tian." A sharp glint flashed through Gu Yue's eyes. "From now on, monitor Tang Wulin's every move with all your strength."

"Do not overlook a single suspicious detail. Report immediately if anything happens."

Before Di Tian could respond, Gu Yue's tone suddenly grew heavier. "Be careful while monitoring him. Do not let his weakness make you careless."

"He carries the aura of another King."

"My Lord, do you mean that one?" Di Tian's voice carried unprecedented shock. How could Tang Wulin possess that one's aura?

"That is the truth." After this period of contact, Gu Yue was utterly certain that Tang Wulin occasionally emitted the aura of the Golden Dragon King.

It was incredibly faint, yet it truly existed.

It was as slight as a grain of sand in a river, yet to her, the Silver Dragon King, it stood out as vividly as a bonfire in the night.

Back then, the Dragon God had split into two, becoming the Gold and Silver Dragon Kings. Of the two Kings newly born from that division, the Golden Dragon King had been sealed on the spot by the God Kings of the God Realm.

Only Gu Yue had escaped the encirclement and fled into the lower realm.

Then how could Tang Wulin possibly possess the Golden Dragon King's aura?

Unless he had some connection to the God Realm.

Narrowing her eyes slightly, Gu Yue drew upon the wisdom of the Dragon God.

"His surname is Tang, his Martial Soul is Blue Silver Grass, and he is connected to the God Realm."

She thought of someone.

Tang San, the Sea God who had ascended to the God Realm twenty thousand years ago!

Could these two be related?

"Tang San. Tang Wulin."

A figure flashed through her mind.

Tang Wutong!

"Tang Wulin, Tang Wutong."

"Heh. So that's how it is."

A cold gleam erupted in her eyes as Gu Yue suppressed her rage. Tang Wutong had caused the Soul Beast world to lose its Auspicious Beast.

What scheme was hidden within Tang Wulin?

"Tang San. Hmph."

Skysea City.

The night deepened.

The sea wind, carrying the scent of rust, poured through the broken windows of an abandoned factory in southern Eastsea City.

Liu Jin hunched over in the shadows beneath a cargo container. His fingers were gaunt as he repeatedly rubbed the dark-purple sheet of paper in his hand.

Under the constant kneading, the paper's edges had become wrinkled and creased.

The words "Blood Sacrifice Ritual" reflected in his eyes, glinting coldly in the shadows.

Three years ago, he had still been a spirited young genius at Tianhai Academy. His Martial Soul, the Green Flame Vine, could draw upon the power of vegetation, and his teachers and elders had all spoken of his promising future.

But an incorrect Soul Spirit fusion had caused a sudden Martial Soul mutation, turning the Green Flame Vine into the Rotten Bone Sickle now wrapped in black strands.

There had always been something wrong with his Martial Soul, and the faulty Soul Spirit had become the fuse that triggered its mutation.

The Green Flame Vine became an Evil Martial Soul and backlashed against him. His normal cultivation had ground to a halt, and achievements once within reach had become distant fantasies.

The once-admiring looks around him had turned wary and disgusted, piercing through all his pride.

Just as he had fallen into despair and lost all hope, a figure had entered and given him a way to improve further, along with a secret technique.

A Blood Sacrifice Method known as the Blood Sacrifice Ritual.

"Blood Sacrifice Ritual, using the lives of living beings to elevate oneself." Liu Jin's Adam's apple bobbed as he repeated the mysterious person's instructions in a low voice.

That mysterious person had told him to record every detail of the blood sacrifice.

"Am I being used as an experiment?" Liu Jin had once been a genius, after all. Naturally, he could tell that the Blood Sacrifice Ritual had been altered and was incomplete.

Its original nature could vaguely be seen between the lines of the secret technique.

It was an immensely evil large-scale sacrificial ritual.

It seemed it had not yet been perfected.

Otherwise, that mysterious person would not have handed it to him for testing and had him record the details.

"Just what I want." Liu Jin no longer cared. He only wanted to become stronger—stronger than ever before. He wanted certain people to pay the price.

His gaze crossed over the piled-up scrap and landed on a curled-up figure not far away.

It was a boy of fifteen or sixteen, dressed in worn clothes washed pale with age. He clutched a faded backpack tightly to his chest. Liu Jin had been watching him for some time; the boy had come to the big city to look for relatives.

The boy slept soundly against the cargo container, a faint smile still lingering at the corner of his lips. He was probably dreaming of finding his family.

Liu Jin struggled inwardly for a moment, his fingertips trembling slightly.

He remembered his first Soul Master examination, when he too had been filled with anticipation, wearing the new clothes his mother had bought for him.

After only a brief hesitation, Liu Jin crushed those thoughts. There was no turning back for him.

This boy was not even his first target. What was there to hesitate over now?

He silently straightened his hunched body. Softening his footsteps, he moved toward the boy one step at a time.

"Don't blame me. Blame this world for refusing to make room for me first."

He muttered to the air, his voice hoarse.

His right hand quietly rose. The Rotten Bone Sickle Martial Soul emerged from the shadows, black chains dangling from its blade and moving without wind, casting a ghostly green glint beneath the moonlight.

"Interesting."

An abrupt voice sounded from above.

"Who?!"

Liu Jin abruptly looked up, but he saw no one. He looked out through the mostly shattered ceiling of the abandoned factory.

Under the moonlight, a Golden Light Entwined Spear plunged straight toward him.

I'm exhausted today. I stayed up to write a chapter; I'll write the rest after I wake up.