Testing a New Method to Condense Blood Flame

Midnight.

Beneath the agreed-upon stunted ancient tree, broken halfway up, Liu Dongqing's tall figure was concealed within the shadows of the lush forest. He watched clearly as the young stall owner came stumbling over from the muddy ground beside what was not even a narrow path, moving with utmost caution.

"Yan Rong!"

Liu Dongqing's soft call suddenly drifted out from the shadows.

At once, the young stall owner shuddered from fright. Then Yan Rong, his face pale, followed the voice to find the stunted ancient tree—and Liu Dongqing beneath it.

"Senior Brother, you... know my name?"

Liu Dongqing maintained the smiling expression he had worn during the day.

"Wherever one walks, traces are left behind. It wasn't difficult to learn your name. I had to know your background first, after all, lest Manager Hou ask me about you someday and I have nothing to say."

At those words, the little color that had just returned to Yan Rong's face vanished again, turning him deathly pale.

Instinctively, he raised his head, intending to look toward the higher reaches of Departure Peak, toward Manager Hou's mountain courtyard that overlooked the entirety of Sunward Dao Academy year-round.

But this place was too close to the foot of the mountain, and ancient trees and forest blocked the view.

When Yan Rong looked up, he ultimately saw nothing.

Thus, in the next moment, Yan Rong looked back at Liu Dongqing, his voice fearful and helpless.

"Senior Brother, I was careful enough all the way here. I didn't even... I didn't even dare take the main road. I stepped through mud all the way here..."

As he spoke, Yan Rong's voice seemed to carry the hint of a sob.

At the same time, Liu Dongqing slowly walked up before Yan Rong. He took the three birdcages Yan Rong carried in one hand, while his other hand gently patted Yan Rong's shoulder in a steady rhythm.

Strangely enough, after only a few light pats, much of the fear on Yan Rong's face dissipated, and his complexion was no longer so pale.

Behind Liu Dongqing's half-lowered eyelids, a faint wisp of pale azure Sky Light endlessly circled in the depths of his eyes.

Manager Hou had inadvertently taught Liu Dongqing a different way to use Sky Light.

Now, it seemed highly effective.

"I know. Your senior brother knows everything.

"I didn't mean to frighten you. Do you remember that feeling of terror just now?

"If this matter is exposed, the hell your mind will have to face will be a hundred times, a thousand times, or even more terrifying than that!

"But... but!

"As long as you remain as cautious every time you come here in the future as you were today, as long as this terror keeps your mouth sealed tight,

"Then you have nothing to worry about. What we are doing is merely a transaction—money in one hand, goods in the other. Understand?"

Yan Rong nodded repeatedly. "I understand! I understand! Senior Brother, I definitely..."

Seeing Yan Rong open the floodgates, as though he were about to make one promise after another,

Liu Dongqing raised a hand and cut him off directly. "No need to say it. Don't say anything more. Junior Brother, we have a long road ahead of us. Time reveals the truth."

A short while later.

Having once more used Manager Hou's manner of speaking to reinforce the "Heart Lock" within Yan Rong, Liu Dongqing carried the three birdcages and climbed directly over the wall from the shadows where the courtyard bordered the ancient forest, sneaking back into his bedroom.

He exhausted every effort to ensure that each step was carried out as cautiously and secretly as possible.

Only then did he let out a long breath, releasing the burden in his heart.

Liu Dongqing finally fixed his blazing gaze upon the three birdcages on the table.

For the sake of excessive secrecy on this trip, Yan Rong had drugged the three Ash-Feathered Crows before coming. Even now, all three remained asleep.

Liu Dongqing had asked Yan Rong about the contents and dosage of the drug, then repeatedly compared them against the accompanying handwritten notes from the Demon Refining Mystic Sect's inheritance. After confirming that it would not hinder cultivation, he had even encouraged Yan Rong to transport the "goods" the same way in the future.

The next instant,

Liu Dongqing first shook his head.

As though shaking every stray thought from his mind.

Then, after taking several deep breaths in succession, Liu Dongqing thoroughly adjusted his essence, qi, and spirit. Only then did he form a Dao hand sign, slowly raising it to the space between his brows before pushing it outward in an unhurried motion.

As his fingertips left his brow,

a strand of azure Sky Light seemed to be "pulled" from between his brows by his Dao hand sign.

The Sky Light did not shine straight outward. Instead, it loosely contracted into a cluster and hovered above Liu Dongqing's fingers.

Up to this point, what was displayed was still the mana Liu Dongqing had cultivated in the past through Little Azure Light.

Then,

beneath that hovering cluster of azure light, Liu Dongqing followed the methods recorded in the Scarlet Crow Secret Seal Fire-Devouring Flame-Rising Spirit Incantation. His hand seals changed in a manner that was somewhat unfamiliar, yet every movement was concise and clear.

At the same time, his divine sense continually linked the hand seals and the azure light.

In scarcely a few breaths,

the azure light over the hovering Sky Light dispersed, crimson radiance burst forth, and as that brilliance grew ever fiercer, an illusory ball of scarlet flame gradually replaced the Sky Light.

At last,

Liu Dongqing's ever-changing hand seals stopped at a sword finger.

Then Liu Dongqing formed the sword finger and slashed it cleanly toward one of the Ash-Feathered Crows.

"Ignite!"

The instant his sharp cry rang out, the hovering illusory scarlet flame shot along the path of his descending sword finger like a falling meteor, smashing toward the still-sleeping Ash-Feathered Crow.

The instant it touched the crow, the fireball abruptly expanded, enveloping the entire Ash-Feathered Crow within it.

Then, beneath Liu Dongqing's gaze,

in almost an instant, the Ash-Feathered Crow's gray-black feathers all turned to ash and dust, scattering down from the flames.

Immediately afterward, the crow's entire hide began to rot and corrode within the illusory flames, splitting open in torn flesh and exposed skin.

The firelight seemed to contain some sinister and uncanny power.

Before long, that corrosive power began seeping into the Ash-Feathered Crow's Blood and qi, sinews, flesh, and even bones.

Yet not everything about the Ash-Feathered Crow was rotting away, turning under that corrosion into some dark-red, bloody sludge.

A vivid scarlet spiritual radiance also began emerging amid the collapse of the crow's body, as though refined by the flames. In the end, that vivid scarlet radiance completely merged with the flames themselves.

It was also through this process that the flames ceased to be illusory and began to gain a condensed, tangible form. Liu Dongqing could feel their scorching heat, hear the crackling explosions that coiled around them,

and smell a strange yet alluring scent of blood, like some precious medicinal elixir.

His throat even bobbed at the scent.

The next moment,

following the steps recorded in the technique,

Liu Dongqing's sword finger, which had been pointing toward the Blood Flame from afar, changed once more. At the moment it returned to a Dao hand sign, Liu Dongqing curled his palm inward and made to press the sign directly against his brow.

Yet faster than Liu Dongqing's own movement was the solid Blood Flame, freed from the bloody sludge.

It almost directly transformed into a brilliant scarlet streak of light. It soared up in an instant, like a swallow returning to its nest, and plunged straight into Liu Dongqing's brow.

Boom—

His body suddenly trembled violently. His face had already flushed crimson, as though he had truly swallowed some supreme tonic pill—or as though he were drunk in the height of revelry.

At that instant, illusory crackling blasts thundered through Liu Dongqing's ears!