Flesh and Blood

Though the giant beast's phantom was blurry and indistinct, it looked very small.

But the instant it opened its eyes, a terrifying aura like the might of heaven locked firmly onto Yang Xiao at once, leaving him completely unable to move.

Those eyes were cold and bloodthirsty, terrifying eyes that seemed to contain every negative thing in the mortal world!

And for some reason, within that gaze, Yang Xiao seemed to see a trace of—resentment?

"You ran into my dantian for no reason, and now you're turning around and resenting me?"

Sweat broke out on Yang Xiao's forehead as he cursed inwardly.

Suddenly—

The giant beast's phantom opened its bloody, sinister maw, aimed at Yang Xiao's dantian, and bit down viciously.

A terrifying sense of deadly crisis abruptly descended upon Yang Xiao's heart.

Yang Xiao's entire body was powerless. He could not resist at all.

Yet just as Yang Xiao thought there was no escaping this calamity—

The giant beast's phantom suddenly began to turn illusory.

In just a few brief moments, the giant beast's phantom completely dispersed, turning into black qi that filled the sky, leaving Yang Xiao's dantian and preparing to tear through space and depart.

Although he did not know what had happened to the giant beast's phantom, Yang Xiao had a premonition that this black qi seemed extremely important, with many benefits for him.

"You almost got me killed by shattering my dantian, and now you still want to leave? Not a chance!"

Yang Xiao decisively circulated the Myriad Phenomena Heaven-Swallowing Art and summoned the phantom.

The phantom had no consciousness of its own. Only when Yang Xiao gave it an order would it passively go devour.

Yet this time, the instant the phantom appeared—

Whoosh—

Without needing any command from Yang Xiao, the phantom's eyes lit up. It leaped up madly, grabbed the black qi with both hands, and buried its head to devour it frenziedly.

"This phantom actually isn't using the Taiji feng shui fish formed from black and white qi to devour it, but is swallowing it directly with its mouth?"

Under Yang Xiao's stunned gaze, the phantom's chewing noises rang endlessly in his ears.

He did not know if it was an illusion. The black qi made no sound at all, yet Yang Xiao seemed to hear shrill screams, as well as emotions of unwillingness, grief, indignation, and resentment.

The instant the black qi was completely devoured, all the "sounds" came to an abrupt stop, as if they had never appeared.

And after devouring the black qi, the phantom's figure was no longer illusory. It actually turned into a "person" who seemed to possess flesh and blood, as though truly existing.

It was just that this "person" was pitch-black all over. "He" stood in the shadows, and if one did not look carefully, he would easily be overlooked.

"Could that black qi be the 'flesh and blood' of the giant beast's phantom? After being devoured by this phantom of mine, the phantom that came with my Myriad Phenomena Heaven-Swallowing Art also gained 'flesh and blood'?"

A rough guess suddenly appeared in Yang Xiao's heart.

Perhaps this guess was not correct, but it should not be far from the "truth."

"A 'blood oath' is not something only those demons of the Peace Sect can use. Any martial artist who cultivates the qi-blood martial path can swear a blood oath and thereby establish a contract, binding each other. Even a Martial Dao Grandmaster cannot violate it, or else they will suffer 'heavenly punishment.'"

"Looks like this so-called 'heavenly punishment' should be this Void Behemoth causing trouble. But this Void Behemoth... what exactly is it?"

The more Yang Xiao thought about it, the more wrong it felt. He only felt that this matter was tangled and confusing, as if it hid some heaven-shaking secret.

Forget it!

I'm just an unknown nobody. Why think so much?

As long as there are benefits, I, Yang Xiao, will take them!

Whoosh—

After devouring the black qi, the phantom did not need Yang Xiao's command. It turned into a streak of flowing light and instantly sank into Yang Xiao's dantian.

Wait!

Yang Xiao vaguely sensed something was wrong. His entire body suddenly shook, and he abruptly looked toward his dantian.

Inside his dantian, a human-shaped phantom sat cross-legged with its eyes closed in meditation, as if digesting something.

Around this human-shaped phantom, a faint layer of black qi drifted. The black qi vaguely resembled the outline of a Void Behemoth.

"Isn't the phantom something that comes with the Myriad Phenomena Heaven-Swallowing Art? Why can't I withdraw it anymore? Why has it rooted itself in my dantian?"

Yang Xiao furrowed his brow, his eyes filled with shock and uncertainty.

Fortunately, this phantom was connected to Yang Xiao by blood, as though they were one body, and did not give Yang Xiao any sense of crisis.

After studying it for a while, Yang Xiao speculated that this sudden change should be related to the phantom devouring the Void Behemoth's "flesh and blood."

But Yang Xiao could not be certain.

"This change shouldn't be harmful to me. Forget it. I'll take it one step at a time. There's no rush regarding this matter."

Yang Xiao truly did not understand what was going on, so he simply stopped thinking about it.

And in that very instant, as if there were some response in the unseen world, Yang Xiao keenly discovered that the invisible connection between him and Song Qingshan—had been severed!

"Could it be that because I was Song Qingshan's master, yet used the blood oath to kill Song Qingshan, I ruined some scheme of the Void Behemoth, and that was why it resented me? Was that also why it scattered into black qi, and why that black qi almost returned to the void?"

Yang Xiao seemed to be deep in thought, vaguely understanding something.

"If I kept using blood oaths to make people acknowledge me as master, then killed them, wouldn't there be an endless stream of black qi to devour?"

The more Yang Xiao thought about it, the more tempted he became. He felt this matter had great potential.

But the moment he thought of the Void Behemoth's terrifying gaze, Yang Xiao hesitated, and in the end, he still gave up on that enticing plan.

After all, while the black qi was good, that Void Behemoth was simply far too frightening.

Yang Xiao did not want to be high-profile. He only wanted to keep a low profile and quietly survive while he developed. As for something mysterious, unknown, and completely uncontrollable like the Void Behemoth, Yang Xiao had no intention of touching it again.

"It seems the 'behemoth flesh and blood' contained in this black qi is too powerful. My phantom can't absorb it all at once, so it's sitting in my dantian to digest it?"

"Then let me see what surprise it can bring me once the phantom completely devours the black qi."

Yang Xiao withdrew his gaze and stopped peering into his dantian, then turned and left the waiter dormitory.

"Brother Xiao, it's your day off today. Why have you come here?"

A moment later, Uncle Liu came from afar. When he saw Yang Xiao standing at the door of Private Room Ding 527, he was immediately taken aback.

"Day off?"

Yang Xiao was stunned.

"Brother Xiao, you've only just taken the job, and your father died suddenly besides. No one told you many of the rules in advance. That was this old man's oversight."

Uncle Liu was also startled, then explained with a faint note of apology in his voice.

It turned out that the waiters of Vermilion Bird Tower could take one day off after every three days of work.

"Brother Xiao, if there's anything you don't understand in the future, you can ask Zhang Long and Zhao Hu more often. Colleagues should mingle with one another, not live like a lone household with no kin."

Uncle Liu casually gave him a few words of advice, then turned and left with his hands clasped behind his back.

Yang Xiao bowed to respectfully see Uncle Liu off.

Only after Uncle Liu had gone far away did Yang Xiao straighten. Yet he did not leave Vermilion Bird Tower. Instead, he walked to a hidden room on the first floor.

Yang Xiao showed his Black Iron Martial Introduction and rode that pitch-black, lightless "iron cage" all the way to the Scripture Pavilion in the underground world.

Pavilions and towers, little bridges over flowing water.

Countless lanterns floated in the void, lighting up the underground that should have been pitch-black until it was bright as day.

Although it was not his first time here, Yang Xiao still found it pleasing to the eye. He felt the ingenious, heaven-stealing craftsmanship of this place's design was truly stunning.

Suddenly—

A ripple of guqin music drifted slowly over with the wind.

"That zither sound again?"

Yang Xiao was immediately startled, and suddenly remembered the strange zither music he had heard the last time he came to the Scripture Pavilion.

Back then, someone had clearly been playing the zither, yet the old man of the Scripture Pavilion had not heard it.

"So it wasn't my imagination last time. This zither music—who exactly is playing it?"

With a trace of curiosity and doubt, Yang Xiao slowly walked forward, then suddenly stopped.

Ahead.

Inside an ancient pavilion.

A peerless beauty, her long hair draped over her shoulders, had her back to Yang Xiao as she slowly played the guqin.

Above this peerless beauty's head.

A cluster of golden light shot into the sky, brilliant as the great sun, dazzling and radiant...