Atop the cliff in the Xiao Clan's Back Mountain.
Lin Chen sat cross-legged as the Blood Scripture slowly circulated.
The thin energy between heaven and earth was drawn in by the supreme technique.
As though caught in an invisible vortex, it surged wildly into his body.
Refined through his meridians, it became pure, blood-red Dou Qi and flowed into the cyclone in his dantian.
Its speed far surpassed any Black Rank technique in the Xiao Clan's collection.
It could not even be compared to them. It was faster than a Heaven Rank technique!
An ordinary Dou Zhe cultivating here would have been beside himself with joy.
But Lin Chen's brows furrowed slightly.
"Too slow..."
He felt the barely perceptible growth in his dantian compared with what he gained by devouring others.
Compared with the skyrocketing cultivation he got from directly consuming his enemies' blood essence and souls,
it was like heaven and earth!
With this steady, step-by-step cultivation, it wouldn't take long to rise from Two-Star Dou Zhe to three stars.
But after experiencing the rush of surging cultivation, who would want to cultivate at a snail's pace?
For someone like him, burdened with a deep-seated vendetta and desperate to repair a supreme treasure and condense a Blood God Child,
it was simply unacceptable!
"Plunder—that's the true essence of the Blood Scripture."
"It's also the fastest way to repair Yuantu and Abi!"
A flash of blood-red light crossed Lin Chen's eyes. He had made his decision.
The Jialie Clan... would pay the first installment of interest on their crimes!
That night, the moon was dark and the wind howled.
Wutan City's nights were never peaceful, especially in the outer city.
Gang fights and petty theft were common.
But over the past few days, an inexplicable fear had begun to spread among certain groups.
The Jialie Clan's patrol guards were disappearing one after another!
At first, only one or two peripheral members failed to come home for the night. It was put down to slacking off or running into ordinary enemies.
But then the number of missing men rose to five, then seven...
And every one of them had vanished without a sound while out on patrol or alone late at night!
No bodies, no trace of them alive.
At last, the Jialie Clan began to grow wary.
Lin Chen moved through the shadows of Wutan City like a god of death in the night.
He still wore that oversized cloak and kept his face covered.
The body of a five-year-old child was his best disguise. No one would ever imagine
that the killer who inspired such terror was just a child.
He had a clear target: isolated Jialie Family guards at the Dou Zhe stage.
These men were low-ranking members of the clan, numerous enough that a few could disappear without immediately attracting attention,
yet valuable enough to provide a decent amount of "nourishment."
His methods were simple, efficient, and brutal.
He used the Blood Scripture's keen sensitivity to blood and vitality to lock onto his targets.
Then, with the peerless sharpness and speed of the Yuantu Abi Twin Swords,
he launched a sneak attack and fatal strike far beyond their ability to react!
Afterward, he used the Blood Scripture's devouring nature to consume every last bit of the dead men's essence!
Finally, a faint wisp of Red Lotus Karma Fire completely purified the remains, leaving no trace!
The whole process was swift as a ghost, uncanny as a night owl.
In just four days, thirteen Jialie Clan guards had vanished from the face of the earth.
Their blood essence and souls became nourishment for Lin Chen's cultivation.
They also provided a little sustenance for the restoration of the Yuantu Abi Twin Swords.
With each successive act of slaughter and devouring, Lin Chen's understanding of the Blood Scripture and the two supreme treasures deepened.
He realized he had overlooked one thing.
As the Blood Scripture devoured a life's essence,
it instinctively consumed and refined the victim's soul as well,
using it to nourish his own soul.
The Yuantu Abi Twin Swords, however, craved blood essence rich in life energy most of all!
But they also had a need for souls!
Neither turned away anything they could get!
The Twelfth-Grade Karmic Fire Red Lotus, however, reacted quite differently!
During the first few killings, the guards' feeble souls were divided between the Blood Scripture and the twin swords.
The Red Lotus phantom did not stir at all.
That changed when he killed a man who seemed to be a squad leader, a man at Eight-Star Dou Zhe.
The man was steeped in baleful energy, his gaze lecherous and vicious.
For the first time, the Red Lotus phantom in Lin Chen's dantian sent out the faintest hint of desire!
When Lin Chen circulated his technique and separated the man's soul,
then tried guiding it toward the Red Lotus phantom, a faint crimson flame swayed gently.
Like a cat catching the scent of blood.
In an instant, it enveloped the filthy, vicious soul, heavy with karmic sin, and burned it!
There was no energy returned, no increase in its origin.
But the process of burning let Lin Chen clearly sense
an emotion from the Red Lotus phantom: "comfort," "satisfaction."
As though it had cleansed away the filth and become just a little more whole?
The change was so slight it was almost negligible, but the direction was clear!
"The Karma Fire Red Lotus... burns away sin and severs karma... What it needs is souls weighed down by sin?!"
Lin Chen suddenly understood.
"Or is sin and karma its fuel?"
"Purifying them is, in itself, a way to restore and strengthen it?"
Then another discovery made his heart jolt!
Two days earlier, he had happened to spot Xiao Xun'er taking a walk in the garden from a distance.
The instant his gaze fell upon her small figure, the Karmic Fire Red Lotus phantom, which had lain dormant deep in his dantian,
stirred more violently than ever before!
It sent out a ravenous desire to devour, hundreds of times stronger than when it had burned that scoundrel's soul!
As though it had found a peerless delicacy!
Though the stirring was intense, no one but him could sense it.
But Lin Chen knew he hadn't imagined it!
He was absolutely certain there was something on Xiao Xun'er that could greatly restore the Karmic Fire Red Lotus!
"What does she have that could make the Karmic Fire Red Lotus react so violently?"
Lin Chen's thoughts raced.
"The Golden Emperor Burning Heaven Flame! The fourth-ranked Heavenly Flame on the Heavenly Flame Ranking!"
Only a Heavenly Flame with a fire origin of comparable standing could provoke such a reaction from the Karmic Fire Red Lotus!
Could devouring a Heavenly Flame also repair, or even strengthen, the Karmic Fire Red Lotus?!
The discovery set his heart ablaze!
Heavenly Flames were hard to find, but at least he now had a clear path to repairing it.
He knew a little about the story, after all. It wouldn't be especially difficult.
And judging from what it had communicated to him, devouring a Heavenly Flame seemed more "efficient" than searching for souls steeped in karmic sin!
The four days of hunting had yielded plenty.
Lin Chen divided the energy he had devoured:
Seventy percent went toward raising his cultivation, while thirty percent went toward nourishing the Yuantu Abi Twin Swords.
His cultivation soared like a rocket!
Five-Star Dou Zhe!
In just four days, he had jumped three stars!
That speed was enough to scare countless so-called geniuses to death!
But he could feel that each new star required energy in geometric progression.
The energy from those ordinary Dou Zhe guards did not grow less effective against the extraordinarily solid foundation the Blood Scripture had forged in him.
But the amount needed for each minor level multiplied several times over.
Of course, his own combat strength was also monstrous.
He was practically invincible among Dou Zhe. No matter how strong a Five-Star Dou Zhe was, they couldn't withstand a single one of his punches or kicks—not even someone at the peak of Nine-Star Dou Zhe.
He was even confident he could take down a Dou Master!
And he wouldn't need to rely on any outside help!
But over the past few days, the Jialie Clan had clearly tightened security. Patrols no longer went out alone.
They had even started sending Dou Masters to lead the inspections, and far fewer clan members were lingering outside at night.
The hunts had become difficult, and the risk had risen sharply.
And his progress in condensing a Blood God Child was so slow it was despairing.
It required a vast quantity of highly refined blood essence and powerful soul energy to serve as a catalyst.
What he had accumulated so far was nowhere near enough.
"I need bigger fish... or I need to change targets."
Lin Chen stood in the night, feeling the surging power of a Five-Star Dou Zhe within him, his gaze cold.
His cultivation was complete. There was no point lingering.
He returned to the Orphanage from the Back Mountain without a sound.
As he passed the elegant courtyards in the clan's residential area, it was already late at night. Only the chirping of insects broke the silence.
Suddenly, his ears twitched. From a nearby, tastefully appointed courtyard came the faintest sound.
It was the residence assigned to Xiao Xun'er, and it came from beneath the wall.
A faint rustling, scraping sound came from there.
Lin Chen's gaze sharpened. He held his breath and melted into the shadow in the corner.
A short figure was clumsily and furtively trying to climb the courtyard wall, which wasn't even very high.
Who else could it be but Xiao Yan?
Xiao Yan was sprawled across the top of the wall, feeling a little uneasy.
He didn't even know why he had to come at this hour. He had already seen Xun'er during the day.
But he just couldn't settle down, as though there were something he hadn't managed to say.
Or perhaps he simply wanted another look at the place where she lived.
Climbing with both hands and feet was proving difficult, and he kept thinking that he mustn't get caught.
It would be so humiliating if word got out!
"This kid isn't even really a child anymore!"
"Climbing a little girl's wall in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?"
A strange thought crossed Lin Chen's mind...
Inside the courtyard:
In the cozy, elegantly furnished bedroom, Xiao Xun'er curled up beneath a brocade quilt.
Her tiny body trembled violently, cold sweat beading on her forehead.
Her delicate, doll-like face was deathly pale, her teeth clenched tight.
She seemed to be enduring immense pain.
The Golden Emperor Burning Heaven Flame Seed inside her was like a beast breaking free of its chains, crashing wildly against her meridians.
Xiao Xun'er felt as though she had been thrown into a furnace, every inch of skin and every bone being scorched.
She bit down hard on her lip, refusing to let a moan slip past her throat.
She had endured this agony many times before. She had to hold on.
She forced herself to circulate Dou Qi to suppress it, but the flame was far too domineering.
Every attempt to resist only brought an even more violent backlash, and her consciousness began to blur under the pain.
Inside her, the wisp of Golden Emperor Burning Heaven Flame Seed that Gu Yuan had forcibly sealed away, and that she had yet to fully refine,
was now stirring uncontrollably, biting back!
Terrifying heat raced wildly through her tiny meridians,
like countless red-hot needles piercing and scorching her!
The pain was beyond anything an ordinary person could imagine. It was almost enough to set her very soul alight!
She gritted her teeth, refusing to let out even the faintest moan, afraid of alerting anyone.
Just then, Ling Ying's grave voice rang directly in her mind:
"Miss! There's movement outside the courtyard! It's that Xiao Yan... He's climbing over the wall!"
Xiao Xun'er was being tortured by the backlash of the Heavenly Flame, caught between life and death. How could she spare a thought for Xiao Yan?
She struggled to focus her thoughts:
"E-Elder Ling... the flame... I can't control it..."
Ling Ying's voice was instantly filled with worry and heartache:
"Miss, hold on! This old servant will—"
He had not finished speaking when he suddenly let out a startled "Huh?"
At almost the same time, a light "pa" sounded from beyond the courtyard wall.
It was accompanied by Xiao Yan's stifled cry of pain: "Ow!"
Then came the rustling sound of footsteps running away.
"Miss, someone intervened... They drove Xiao Yan off with a pebble."
Ling Ying's voice held a note of uncertainty.
"It was... it was that Lin Chen! He happened to be passing by."
Xiao Xun'er furrowed her brows in pain, her consciousness growing hazy.
Outside the courtyard, Lin Chen casually flicked a pebble at Xiao Yan, knocking him down.
Watching the little brat clutch his hand and run off in a sorry state, Lin Chen shook his head and turned to leave.
He had no particular interest in Xiao Yan's actions; he had only acted on a whim.
What mattered more now was finding his next suitable "prey."
It was difficult to target the Jia Lie Family's guards. Perhaps he could figure something out by focusing on peripheral figures from other factions.
He kept walking, wanting only to return to his lodgings as soon as possible and sort through tonight's gains and plans.
Creak!
Just then, the elegant courtyard door behind him suddenly opened a crack from within.
A petite, frail figure leaned against the doorframe, seeming to have used every last ounce of strength just to open the door.
It was Xiao Xun'er!
Her face was as pale as snow, and her breathing was ragged.
Cold sweat soaked her bangs, sticking them to her smooth forehead.
Her usually clear, tranquil, glassy eyes were now clouded with a sheen of pain.
Her gaze was unfocused, and she looked incredibly fragile.
She seemed to want to see what was happening outside.
Or perhaps it was the restlessness of the Heavenly Flame within her, along with some inexplicable stirring.
That made her open the door without thinking.
Their eyes met.
Lin Chen stopped in his tracks.
Looking at the porcelain doll before him, who seemed liable to shatter at any moment, a flicker of surprise crossed his eyes.
So this was the young lady of the Ancient Clan? Why did she look like this?
The aura around her was chaotic and weak, nothing like the calm composure she had shown during the day.
Was she injured?
Or...
Yet the instant his gaze met Xiao Xun'er's:
"Vmmm!!!"
Deep in his soul, the phantom of the Twelfth-Grade Karmic Fire Red Lotus, which had always burned quietly,
shuddered and blazed with unprecedented fury, as though a raging fire had been doused in boiling oil!
An incredibly intense, utterly pure, almost instinctive hunger to devour
erupted from the phantom Red Lotus like a volcano, sweeping through Lin Chen in an instant!
Its target was the frail little girl inside the doorway!
More precisely, it was the strand of Golden Emperor Burning Heaven Flame within her, currently running wild and radiating its aura:
The Golden Emperor Burning Heaven Flame!
This hunger was so intense!
He couldn't worry about anything else now.
Only one thought remained in his mind:
This chance would not come again!
The chance to repair the Karma Fire Red Lotus was right before him. He absolutely could not let it slip away!
His body reacted before his mind could catch up!
A dark blur flashed!
At that moment, Lin Chen's speed reached its absolute limit.
He crossed the several meters between them in an instant, appearing directly before Xiao Xun'er, who was leaning against the door.
Under Xiao Xun'er's bewildered, pained, and even slightly startled gaze,
one of Lin Chen's hands shot out like lightning.
With unerring precision, leaving her no chance to resist, he seized Xiao Xun'er's slender right wrist as it hung limp at her side!
His fingertips were cold, yet filled with a scorching hunger that seemed capable of igniting everything!
The instant their skin touched:
"Boom!!!"
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