A Threat of Death

These apprentices, controlled by evil spirits, had all grown stronger than before. Each fought without fear of death, throwing everything they had into their attacks on Jiang Feng.

But their Root Bones were abysmal to begin with, and the gap between them and Jiang Feng—a seventh-level Martial Apprentice of the Blood-Moving Realm with a major cultivation method mastered to great success—was immense.

The Iron Stake Technique excelled at strengthening the body, focusing especially on honing the waist, abdomen, and legs. Once mastered, it not only greatly increased physical strength but also gave its practitioner exceptionally fine control over their muscles.

Though Jiang Feng had yet to learn any movement techniques, he was astonishingly nimble as he twisted and dodged. None of the seven could even brush his clothes as they surrounded him. Instead, he seized every opening with precision, each stroke taking a life—clean and decisive.

In the blink of an eye, all seven apprentices had become dismembered corpses, strewn across the ground without the slightest movement.

Jiang Feng's aura only grew stronger. He stomped down hard, dragging his blade as he charged ferociously toward the shadow.

The shadow had never imagined that such a vicious fighter would emerge from this pack of useless rabble. The whole group had surrounded him, yet not one had managed to touch his clothes before they were all wiped out.

At last, it began to retreat. A trace of panic crept into its voice:

"Wait! I think... we can still talk this over—"

A savage look spread across Jiang Feng's face. He stamped down hard and leaped high into the air, the Ghost-Head Blade in his hand wrapped in crimson qi and blood as he brought it crashing down on the shadow.

"Then have a nice, long talk with my blade!"

The instant the Ghost-Head Blade struck the pitch-black figure, it let out a chilling, "Sizzle!" as though a drop of clear water had splashed into boiling oil. The figure shuddered violently, then let out a shriek that made Jiang Feng's scalp crawl.

Jiang Feng's heart leaped, and a flash of delight crossed his eyes. "It really works! Ordinary physical attacks can't hurt it—you have to use qi and blood!"

That discovery dispelled most of the fear still lingering in his heart. Fear came from the unknown, but once he had discovered his opponent's weakness—and found that he already held the weapon to kill it—the hunter and the prey had quietly changed places.

The shadow had yet to disappear, so Jiang Feng pressed his advantage without pause. He poured even more of his qi and blood into the Ghost-Head Blade, and its crimson glow burned ever brighter. He followed up, swinging one strike after another.

After taking that terrifying blow, the pitch-black figure had grown fearful of Jiang Feng. Its voice turned frantic. "Wait! Stop! I'm willing to leave!"

Jiang Feng sneered, his blade's momentum undiminished. "You're only thinking of running now? Isn't it a little late? Leave your life here. I'd really like to find out what it feels like to kill an evil spirit!"

A peerless horizontal slash swept across, cleaving the pitch-black figure in two at the waist.

Then a howl, even more anguished and agonized than before, exploded through the storeroom.

"Fine, fine! If you refuse to let me go, then don't expect to get off easy either!

"When my true body finds you, I'll make sure you die in the most miserable way imaginable!"

Before its piercing shriek had faded, Jiang Feng's third strike, filled with qi and blood, came crashing down.

But before the blade could reach it, the pitch-black figure suddenly burst apart, transforming into a dense cloud of black mist that shot straight at Jiang Feng's face.

Jiang Feng's pupils contracted. He instinctively tried to summon his qi and blood to defend himself, but only then did he realize that the qi and blood he had painstakingly replenished had once again been drained completely. He had not a trace of strength left.

He twisted aside instinctively, trying to dodge the attack with his footwork, but he was a step too slow.

The instant the black mist touched him, it seemed to transform into countless tiny black snakes, burrowing into his body through his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

Jiang Feng's eyes flew wide open. Every vein in his body bulged, and it was as though he had been cast into a hell that alternated between blazing flames and icy depths. He endured an indescribable agony.

His gaze remained fixed on the ceiling. A moment later, everything went completely dark.

No one knew how long passed. When Jiang Feng opened his eyes again, dusk had fallen.

"I... should still be alive, right?"

He struggled to his feet and looked around. He was still in the storeroom at the base, and the bodies strewn across the floor remained where they had fallen.

His mind gradually cleared, and the events before he passed out came flooding back.

"That evil spirit... what did it do to me? It seemed to turn into a cloud of black mist and burrow into my body."

As he wondered, a searing pain suddenly burst through him. He could barely stand before collapsing to the ground again.

The pain lasted a full quarter of an hour before slowly fading, as if something had churned through his insides before settling back into a temporary slumber.

Jiang Feng immediately pulled open his collar and looked down. A dense web of pitch-black markings had appeared right in the center of his chest.

He reached out to touch them. The markings were still writhing faintly, as though some living thing lay dormant beneath his skin.

"What the hell is this thing?!"

Jiang Feng immediately sat cross-legged and circulated the Exquisite Breathing Method, drawing on the qi and blood within him to force the mass of black markings away from his chest.

If qi and blood could hurt an evil spirit, they should be able to disperse what it had left behind.

But as soon as he began, he sensed another, even more alarming abnormality: the qi and blood in his body had dwindled to a fraction of what it had been, pitifully thin.

If before he had been a strapping young man with vigorous qi and blood, now what little remained was like the flickering life force of an eighty-year-old man—ready to collapse at the slightest touch.

Jiang Feng forced down the unease welling up in his heart and continued gathering his qi and blood toward his chest.

About an hour later, he opened his eyes again and looked down. The strange markings had indeed shrunk and faded somewhat, but before he could breathe a sigh of relief, he watched them visibly return to their original state.

Worse, as time passed, they seemed to be expanding, gradually spreading toward his heart.

Jiang Feng had a premonition: once the black markings completely covered his heart, his time would be up.

His brows knitted together. "What is this thing... I've spent so much qi and blood on it, and I still can't root it out."

After a little thought, he decided to set aside the strange change in his body for now.

First, the qi and blood he had left were nearly depleted, and he couldn't afford to try a second time. Second, he had to get out of here as soon as possible.

The evil spirit's words from just before it burst apart still rang in his ears: When my true body finds you, I'll make sure you die in the most miserable way imaginable!

That had been no empty threat from something on the verge of death.

The shadow had been no more than a puppet of the evil spirit, yet it had already been this difficult to deal with.

Jiang Feng could say with near certainty that if he faced the evil spirit's true body, he wouldn't have the slightest chance to fight back.