Ritual of Kan Water Lineage

That drop of liquid was about to slip from the jade bottle's mouth.

From the shadows, a sword edge followed close behind!

With [Tracele ss] activated, tripling his limit in speed, and bolstered by the Stars-Separated Unseen Sword, this strike was unbelievably fast!

The Earth Spirit Sect senior brother did not even have time to feel a warning. He only instinctively felt a chill down his back.

"How is this possible? A cultivator infiltrated this place?!"

By the time his divine sense reacted, he had already been struck by the sword.

"Pfft!"

Deep black-water Sword Qi tore through the earthen-yellow armor around him like rotten wood crumbling away, shredding it apart in an instant.

The separated flesh could not heal. A current of black-water energy continuously corroded his body and soul—this was the viciousness of the Stars-Separated Sword!

"Ah..."

The Qi Refining, Seventh Layer senior brother could not help vomiting a mouthful of black blood. In his horror, the jade bottle in his hand flew from his grasp.

With calculation against the unprepared, a single blow had already gravely wounded him!

Yet this Earth Spirit Sect disciple was no pushover. He reacted with extreme speed and stomped hard.

"Boom!"

The entire blood altar trembled. As the formation activated, a thick surge of earth-baleful power rushed upward against the current and poured into his body.

He pulled a blood-colored talisman from his robes and slapped it onto his chest.

"Earth Mother Blood-Sealing Technique!"

The talisman forcibly locked down all the blood and Qi within his body.

At the same time, he formed a hand seal with his other hand. A force of suction drew back the jade bottle flying through the air, dropping it back into his palm.

The senior brother staggered several steps forward, then turned and stared fixedly at where Shen Qingzhou had revealed himself.

"You sneaky rat hiding your head and showing your tail! You're courting death!"

He could not understand how the other man had concealed himself from his divine sense, infiltrated so close, or pierced through his protective spiritual radiance with one sword strike.

Shen Qingzhou was not surprised that his strike had failed to kill.

The world was full of strange methods; unusual life-preserving means were nothing remarkable.

Shen Qingzhou said no more. His figure flickered, and the Ripple-Pattern Sword became a streak of water once more, shooting straight for the other man's throat.

"Stop him!" the wounded senior brother howled sharply. He no longer dared to be the slightest bit arrogant. "Activate the Earth Mother Soil-Covering Formation! Seal this place shut! Today, I'll refine him alive into a Dao soldier!"

He no longer cared about refining procedures or superior-grade vessels. He only wanted to kill this enemy!

"Yes!"

The two remaining Qi Refining, Fifth Layer disciples in the hall had already gone pale with fright at this sudden upheaval.

Hearing their senior brother's command, they snapped awake as if from a dream. Scrambling and crawling, they threw themselves toward two smaller altars on either side of the stone hall and poured their magic power into them.

Bzzzz—

The entire stone hall began to shake.

Rumble! Rumble!

Two heavy stone doors fell, completely sealing every exit. The faintly glowing runes on the walls and floor flared brilliantly, while earth-baleful power from the blood pool spread along the runic channels, locking down the entire stone hall.

"Ah—"

"Help..."

For a time, wails and curses rose one after another.

The wounded senior brother looked at Shen Qingzhou and roared, "Die!!"

Instead of retreating, Shen Qingzhou advanced.

[Water-Curtain Radiance]!

His figure blurred in place. Several watery afterimages identical to him darted in different directions—some charged fiercely with swords in hand, while others flashed and weaved about. Reality and illusion were impossible to distinguish.

Those Dao soldiers had lost all intelligence and attacked only the nearest target by instinct.

"Pfft! Pfft!"

Several Dao soldiers' bone blades hacked viciously into the Shen Qingzhou figures rushing toward them, only to disperse the watery light.

To capture bandits, first capture their king. He had dealt the other man a heavy blow; the man's condition could not possibly be good.

"Not good!"

A Qi Refining, Fifth Layer disciple who was fully operating an altar felt a chill strike from behind. Just as he tried to turn around, it was already too late.

A talisman flashed, and an invisible sharp blade silently pierced the back of his head.

[Star-Felling Gold-Shattering Blade]!

The disciple's body stiffened. His soul was shredded by metal-element power, and without even a scream, he fell straight down.

Shen Qingzhou had already appeared behind the other Qi Refining, Fifth Layer disciple.

That disciple's face changed drastically. He desperately drove his magic power, trying to flee.

But Shen Qingzhou turned his sword edge, and the Ripple-Pattern Sword traced a streak through the air.

Slash—

"How could this be..."

The wounded senior brother's pupils contracted sharply. His fellow disciples had been so utterly unable to withstand a single blow from the other man.

"No, this is definitely not a Rogue Cultivator. Which sect's prodigy is he?!"

The cultivation lineage and techniques the other man practiced were certainly not weak, and every magical artifact and talisman on him was top-tier.

"Trash! A bunch of trash!"

The Qi Refining, Seventh Layer senior brother was so furious that he spat out another mouthful of blood.

"Then we'll die like fish and break the net!" He howled and rushed to the blood pool. From the bottom, he scooped up a handful of viscous bloody mud containing a fist-sized pill and swallowed it directly!

It was an Earth-Baleful Blood Pill refined from the blood essence of countless mortals and earth-baleful power!

Boom!

Violent spiritual power exploded inside him. His already badly wounded body crackled with a string of explosive pops, and the pill forcibly pushed his aura to the peak of Qi Refining, Seventh Layer!

Sure enough, no sect disciple can be underestimated. Their methods are truly plentiful.

Shen Qingzhou silently found this troublesome. The [Wèi Earth] forbidden technique the other man had used clearly exacted an enormous price, so its power naturally would not be small.

"Get over here, all of you!"

He grabbed a Qi Refining, Third Layer disciple beside him who was still standing there in a daze, driving all five fingers directly into the disciple's crown.

"Ah! Senior brother, don't..."

The disciple let out a shrill scream, but all the blood essence in his body was forcibly drawn out, becoming a streak of blood that poured entirely into the blood altar beneath their feet.

The remaining low-level disciples saw this and were frightened out of their wits. They turned to run, only to be nailed firmly in place by the crushing pressure of the formation. They could only watch helplessly as that senior brother repeated the process, draining them one by one into dried corpses and sacrificing all their blood essence to the blood altar.

Glug glug...

Having absorbed the blood essence of several cultivators, the blood pool boiled completely.

From the bottom of the pool, a muddy idol with indistinct features slowly rose.

Earth Mother Dharma Form!

A crushing pressure descended. It was not merely physical suppression, but a contamination of the mind.

"I'll... refine you into a Dao soldier!" the senior brother roared, looking like a madman.

Shen Qingzhou stood in the middle of the hall. His soul sank, and even the circulation of Abyss-Hiding Sword Essence within his body became sluggish.

[Jade Well Purifying Radiance]!

A ring of cold spiritual light lit up around him, protecting his meridians and dantian while cleansing away the filthy deathly energy invading his body.

Even so, the pressure still made his blood and Qi churn.

The Earth Mother Idol had already taken shape. It opened its indistinct mouth and inhaled sharply.

Within the stone hall, every living thing—even the stones—gave off a wisp of light above its head representing its Life Flame, dragged uncontrollably toward the idol.

"What a bizarre Dao technique. It carries none of Wèi Earth's heavy, grounded bearing. What path did they cultivate this from?"

Under the crushing pressure, Shen Qingzhou's thoughts instead became perfectly clear.

Earth spirits, incense offerings, willpower, runes, formations, blood and Qi...

He looked at the Earth Mother Idol, at the structure linking it as one with the entire blood altar.

A thought he had noticed long ago suddenly connected through.

His gaze pierced the churning blood pool and saw the ceaselessly surging underground current beneath the blood altar!

So that was it. To establish something here, it had to conform to a certain natural configuration.

And this was precisely the flaw in this place.

An opportunity!

Instead of retreating, Shen Qingzhou advanced. With one sword, he thrust down fiercely!

Bzzzz—

The instant the sword tip touched the earth-vein node,

A line of incomplete ancient golden text slowly emerged from the depths of Shen Qingzhou's sea of consciousness, upon his profession panel.

[Ritual: Earth Granary Sinking Current (Incomplete)]

[Activation conditions fulfilled...]

[Seize the blood altar, sever the human sacrifices, sink earth and return to water...]

Rumble rumble rumble!

The Earth Mother Idol enveloped the entire stone hall.

At the same time, Shen Qingzhou, standing at the center of the blood pool, heard something beneath his sword tip—

The underground water vein, suppressed for who knew how many years... roaring!