In the darkness of night, Wei Zhong pushed the Aura Concealment Technique and Invisibility Art to their limits, even using the Years Dao Method to borrow his past abilities and suppress the fluctuations of his spiritual power.
At the same time, mysterious runes surfaced in his eyes as the Spirit Seeking Art activated.
Lights of spiritual energy in every color instantly filled his vision. Following the strength of those lights, Wei Zhong headed toward a mountainside.
He finally stopped before a cave abode. Its entrance was shaped like a ceremonial gate, with the three words "Zhi Ming Cave" written above it.
The writing was mottled with age, likely left behind by some ancestor of the Li family. Unfortunately, this ancestral foundation had fallen into outsiders' hands.
Wei Zhong entered the cave abode. Inside was a somewhat spacious, long passageway. Swarms of bats covered the ceiling, and some of the larger ones glimmered with bloody light.
Those were ranked demonic beasts—Blood-Eating Bats.
They were social demonic beasts that loved feeding on all kinds of fresh blood, especially spiritual blood rich in spiritual energy.
Moreover, they possessed an extremely strong perception of blood and vitality. So long as a human entered their territory, they would immediately be discovered. Qi Refining cultivators often left not even bones behind, and even Foundation Establishment cultivators might not escape unscathed.
Candle Daoren had raised such a swarm of demonic beasts as an alarm system. They were far more effective than the formation outside, and at critical moments, they could even become fighting strength to help fend off enemies.
Yet beneath this swarm of keen Blood-Eating Bats, Wei Zhong walked on as if nothing were amiss, silent as a stone.
Just as he was about to leave the passageway, Wei Zhong suddenly spotted a gigantic bat far larger than any ordinary Blood-Eating Bat.
Its entire body was blood-red. Even with its wings folded, it was already half the size of an ordinary person.
Hanging upside down in the passageway, it was like a front tooth in a mouth—impossible to ignore.
A late first-rank demonic beast, perhaps even a peak beast only one step away from the second rank.
Glancing back at the densely packed swarm of bats behind him, Wei Zhong abandoned the idea of letting humans fight humans while beasts fought beasts later.
Whether it was Nine Colors or Da Jin, facing this swarm of demonic beasts would likely mean a dead end.
After leaving the passageway, Wei Zhong intended to first locate Candle Daoren.
This cave abode was the place on the island with the richest spiritual energy. The brilliance of the spiritual lights nearly dazzled Wei Zhong's eyes.
Wei Zhong had no choice but to rely on his ordinary vision, and he noticed traces that people were still living inside the cave.
Yet after searching everywhere, he saw no sign of Candle Daoren. Had the man gone out? Or was this place merely a decoy, with Candle Daoren not here at all?
Just as Wei Zhong was puzzled, he suddenly noticed something wrong with a rock wall. The spiritual light there seemed rather strange.
It was not abundant, but excessively sparse.
After examining it carefully, he discovered an odd, unknown piece of ancient paper. It had been painted to resemble the surrounding stone wall, which was why Wei Zhong had failed to notice it at first.
However, the paper actually had a slight effect of concealing spiritual power. It was quite a good item.
Wei Zhong carefully lifted the painted paper, sensing no mechanism being triggered.
Behind it lay a narrow passageway, from which drifted a faint smell of blood.
So the painted paper did not merely conceal spiritual power—it also sealed that bloody smell inside.
Wei Zhong became alert. He secretly held two black pellets between his fingers, with the Flying Throwing Art poised to strike.
Walking down the passageway, Wei Zhong could already see the four most conspicuous clusters of spiritual light within.
Two clusters flickered unsteadily, as though they could go out at any moment. Each was connected by a thread of spiritual light to another blood-colored cluster.
The three did not move, while only the remaining cluster shifted constantly.
Only after Wei Zhong reached the end of the narrow passage did he finally see the scene within clearly.
Two people were restrained and hung upside down in the cave like dead pigs. Their exposed necks, arms, chests, and other areas were covered in wound after wound.
Blood flowed from those wounds, ran down their bodies and long hair, then dripped into stone troughs below, following the grooves toward a blood-colored humanoid figure.
The figure had only barely taken human shape. Its surface was made of constantly writhing flesh, making it an utterly horrifying sight. Its facial features were even more disorderly, like grotesque lumps of flesh growing from a round mass of blood and meat.
A strange feeling arose in Wei Zhong's heart, and he could not help recalling the inheritance of the Blood Sea True Lord that he had obtained years ago.
Within it was a method for refining an Extracorporeal Incarnation—the "Blood Body Technique." Although he had not examined its contents in detail back then, the technique cultivated by the person before him was highly likely to be this art.
Wei Zhong turned to look at Candle Daoren, who radiated the aura of Foundation Establishment. Just as the intelligence had said, he seemed to be only at the early Foundation Establishment stage.
His burly frame stretched his loose Daoist robe taut. The robe was red and white, its fiery cloud patterns rising from below forming a sharp contrast with the white smoky clouds above.
His hair was a mess, hanging loose like a chicken coop that had been thoroughly stirred up. His face bore a highly distinctive pair of straight brows, the sort of face anyone would remember after a single glance.
At this moment, however, the rough-featured Candle Daoren was somewhat beside himself with rage.
He held dark medicinal pills in his hand and stuffed them into the mouths of the two hanging people.
"Trash, trash! What a waste of all the Healing Pills this Daoist prepared for you. The spiritual blood of two Foundation Establishment cultivators is thinner than water."
As he spoke, he struck one of them across the face. "You're worse than even household pigs."
The man did not react at all to the blows. Years of torment had already ground away his will, and his weakened body no longer had the strength to resist.
If not for his Foundation Establishment cultivation, he would likely have died long ago.
Wei Zhong understood that their injuries were beyond saving. If they could still move now, they would probably choose suicide to end this endless torment.
He had originally thought the two had been secretly killed by Candle Daoren. He had not expected them to be used for blood extraction and cultivation.
Wei Zhong felt a little sorrowful.
As he pondered, Candle Daoren had already finished venting his anger. He walked before the blood-colored figure, bit his fingertip, and let red blood flow out.
Ignoring the disgust of that writhing flesh, he used his finger to smear the blood across its face.
This was likely one of the refining steps of the Blood Body Technique.
After investigating for some time, Wei Zhong had confirmed that there were no other ambushes within this cave. The only ones he needed to face were Candle Daoren and the blood-colored figure.
Now, while Candle Daoren was refining the blood body, was the perfect chance for a sneak attack.
Wei Zhong made a slight movement with his hand, and a black shadow instantly shot through an almost vacuum-like passage of spiritual energy toward Candle Daoren's back.
Flying Throwing Art · Master (11%)
Candle Daoren, with his thick brows and large eyes, suddenly felt a chill in his heart. By the time he detected the attack, it was already too late.
He could only barely twist his body as a flash of firelight flickered across him.
This was precisely his automatic defensive life-saving measure.
Yet that firelight failed to buy him enough time. Like a layer of illusory light and shadow, the black pellet passed through it almost without resistance.
It struck his chest, completely destroying the organs inside. Its momentum did not stop, and it tore through his back, incidentally blasting away half the body of the mangled humanoid figure.
The formidable vitality of a Foundation Establishment cultivator kept him from dying immediately even after suffering such grave injuries.
With a slight movement of his fingers, he formed a hand seal. The two Foundation Establishment cultivators hanging upside down in the cave immediately exploded.
They became a rain of blood that enveloped Wei Zhong.
Wei Zhong swept his sleeve upward, and pale-black Foundation Establishment spiritual power formed a curtain above his head. Blood splattered against it with hissing sounds.
Blood, fire, and poison. Good heavens—what sort of ghastly thing had this old Daoist fed those two brothers?
Although Wei Zhong could withstand this rain of blood, in order to conserve spiritual power, his body flashed as he used the Soaring Cloud Art to leave the area covered by the bloody rain.
Through the rain of blood, Wei Zhong could not see Candle Daoren behind it. Even his divine sense was temporarily blocked by the blood rain and could not pass through.
Only after the bloody rain subsided did he glimpse a tall, twisted humanoid rising from the ground. It let out heavy, ragged breaths before roaring at Wei Zhong:
"You deserve to die!!!"
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