In an underground cavern, blood surged in every direction, and crimson mist rose into the air.
The cavern was enormous, dozens of kilometers wide. Bones of every race drifted through it: humans, members of the Tiger Race and Ox Race, and members of the Skullblood Vine Demon Clan.
The blood path treated every living being equally.
Jiang Ding arrived and revealed his form. He appeared to be a late-stage Spirit Transformation wood-vine demon, with emerald branches thrashing wildly.
This vine demon had once been a king among the wood-vine demons of the Demonstone Minor World. Later, he had vanished without explanation.
Some guessed that the slave had fled. Others thought an important figure of the Horned Demon Imperial Clan had coveted his life-rich heart. No one knew for certain.
So Jiang Ding had borrowed his identity as a cover.
"By decree!"
Jiang Ding took out a blood egg half as tall as a man and tossed it into the center of the Blood Lake.
He sat cross-legged, chanting under his breath. From time to time, he cast a series of spell seals and fed rare treasures from this starfield into the egg, refining the Blood River King's transformed body until it would obey him as readily as his own limbs.
The Blood Lake stirred in response to his spell seals. Blood dragons rose from it one after another and plunged into the egg, raising its aura bit by bit.
He had no choice. The Blood River King was too weak.
Though he possessed a peak Spirit Transformation cultivation realm and respectable means of escape, his actual strength was barely greater than that of an early-stage Spirit Transformation cultivator.
With strength like that, he could accomplish nothing.
Jiang Ding intended to refine the Blood River King anew, using methods for refining