Blood Sacrifice Begins

Among the Blackwater Gang's five great protectors, Duan Kun might not have been the strongest, but he was still ranked among the top two.

Born with immense strength, he wielded his Ghostfang Saber with terrifying force. Even in the army, he would have counted among the fiercest warriors.

Yet when he encountered Chen Yuan, Chen Yuan cut him down as easily as crushing dead wood. Duan Kun's subordinates were so frightened that they had gone utterly numb.

Only after Duan Kun's head hit the ground did someone finally react and turn to flee.

But how could Chen Yuan possibly let them escape?

Bolstered by the powerful inner force of the Blood-Shifting Realm, Chen Yuan moved with incredible speed.

With each leap, he crossed several paces. Beneath his Wild Goose Feather Saber, only headless ghosts remained.

The one who had run the farthest had only just reached the courtyard gate before Chen Yuan cut him down as well.

Shaking the blood droplets from his blade, Chen Yuan had just sheathed his saber when he heard a miserable wail.

The young man was sprawled over his parents' corpses, crying and howling in grief.

Chen Yuan was about to say something, but the youth suddenly turned toward him and let out a heart-rending roar.

"Why didn't you come sooner!? Your martial arts are so powerful—you could have killed these villains easily! If you had come earlier, my parents wouldn't have died! You killed them!"

The youth's voice shifted from agonized shrieking to bitter hatred. He glared viciously at Chen Yuan, his eyes brimming with venom, as though Chen Yuan were the one who had murdered his parents.

When Duan Kun had killed his parents and forced him to reveal the location of the Divine Mechanism Pavilion's hidden weapons, he had not dared look at Duan Kun that way.

Chen Yuan sighed. The Wild Goose Feather Saber he had just sheathed was drawn once more.

Blood sprayed, and the youth went to reunite with his parents.

"What an ungrateful bastard."

Chen Yuan mounted his horse and returned to Linked Mountains City.

The root of all this was that the youth had refused to heed his parents' teachings and exposed his family's identity, bringing them to this end.

His final hatred toward Chen Yuan was merely because he refused to admit that he himself had caused his parents' deaths and wanted to make a good man take the blame.

A good man could be held at gunpoint, but unfortunately, Chen Yuan was no good man.

Besides, in the original plot, their family was supposed to be reunited anyway. What Chen Yuan had done merely kept the plot from going astray.

After returning to the Hall of Transmissions, Chen Yuan locked the door and immediately opened the brocade box from his robe.

Inside the brocade box was a jade purification vase. Yet it was not porcelain, but forged from metal.

Looking closely, it was assembled from countless densely packed mechanisms. The gaps were tiny; without careful inspection, one might mistake them for the vase's natural patterns.

The mouth of the vase was sealed shut, with a tiny button on top. To prevent accidental activation, it required tremendous force to press.

This was Guanyin's Tears, a high-grade hidden weapon of the Divine Mechanism Pavilion.

That tiny jade purification vase contained tens of thousands of blades as thin as cicada wings.

Once activated, everything within thirty yards would become a hell of spinning blades. Any living creature would be shredded into bloody flesh.

This item killed too indiscriminately. After using it, even a Bodhisattva would lower her eyes and Guanyin herself would weep, hence its name.

This thing was worth even more than an equal weight of gold.

More importantly, it was priceless and unavailable on the market. Ordinary people were not even qualified to buy it; they had to exchange treasures the Divine Mechanism Pavilion required.

The Divine Mechanism Pavilion had very few artifact refiners, but they were usually supported by numerous craftsmen and servants who handled miscellaneous work.

The servant who had stolen Guanyin's Tears and fled was truly brainless.

If he had stolen some low-grade hidden weapons, he could have quickly sold them for gold and silver, then found some remote place to live comfortably for the rest of his life.

But he had instead stolen a high-grade hidden weapon like Guanyin's Tears. The moment he tried to sell it, people would notice.

Although he had also stolen some mechanism materials, those semi-finished goods were only worth the price of refined iron and steel. They were not worth much, and the Divine Mechanism Pavilion's markings made it easy to expose his identity.

Thus, though he held a priceless treasure, he had still spent more than a decade in poverty. In the end, his own son had gotten him killed. It was truly miserable.

After putting away Guanyin's Tears, Chen Yuan summoned Zhang Xiaoyi and told him to keep watch on outside developments and report to him every day. He himself entered seclusion once more.

Martial cultivation required bitter training, but it also required real combat to unleash its greatest power.

After fighting Duan Kun, Chen Yuan had gained new insights into the "Raging Waves, Flowing Clouds Art" and the "Autumn Water, Startling Swan Saber Art." He needed time to settle and digest them.

Five days later, the Blackwater Gang also discovered that Duan Kun and his men had vanished.

The Blackwater Gang searched for another two days before finding Duan Kun and the others' corpses outside the city. By then, the bodies had already begun to stink.

This time, Chen Yuan had not destroyed the evidence, because there was no need.

Whether judging from Duan Kun's reason for leaving the city or his injuries, no one would suspect Chen Yuan.

Of course, with the corpses rotted into that state, they likely could not make out any injuries anyway.

Once the matter spread throughout Linked Mountains City, everyone in the city became jumpy and uneasy.

First, Chu Ziping, one of the Heavenly Wolf Gang's Three Elites, had vanished without reason. Neither living nor dead, he could not be found.

Then Duan Kun, one of the Blackwater Gang's five great protectors, had died outside the city alongside his trusted subordinates.

High-ranking members of both gangs had met with misfortune one after another. This was truly eerie. Could some vicious heretic cultivator have entered Linked Mountains City?

More than twenty days later, that conclusion was confirmed once again.

More than fifty members of the wealthy Wang Family in the city were all slaughtered, their entire household exterminated. Most strangely, every last drop of blood had been drained from their bodies.

Such sinister deaths clearly were not the result of an ordinary vendetta.

Thus, new rumors spread through Linked Mountains City that the evil Blood God Cult had revived and was killing people to drink their blood and restore its strength.

Others said that the Blood Ghosts in Youzhou's mountains were preparing to hibernate, so they had entered the city to hunt and stockpile blood for the winter.

In short, every sort of rumor circulated. For a time, the entire city was filled with panic, and many people did not even dare leave their homes.

When Chen Yuan heard the news, he immediately let out a long breath.

Jiang Kaitai had begun the blood sacrifice for the divine artifact.

It was just that this was more than ten days earlier than in the original plot.

Chen Yuan guessed it was related to his killing Chu Ziping and Duan Kun.

With high-ranking members of both gangs dead, some martial artists in the city had guessed that they had been killed by vicious heretics from outside.

Jiang Kaitai had taken advantage of the suspicion before it faded and directly carried out a blood sacrifice, further drawing everyone's attention toward outsiders.

Two days later, the wealthy Zhou Family in the city, along with more than a hundred servants and family members, was also wiped out in a blood sacrifice.

When Chen Yuan heard this news, he could not help but sigh. Jiang Kaitai, that old bastard, was truly ruthless.

To obtain the divine artifact, he no longer cared about anything.

The Zhou Family was different from the Wang Family. The Zhou Family was Jiang Kaitai's blood relative.

Jiang Kaitai had risen from the jianghu and had once been a bandit. His relatives on his father's side had long since died out, leaving only a few relatives on his mother's side.

After establishing the Heavenly Wolf Gang and gaining a foothold in Linked Mountains City, he had brought his mother's clansmen over to settle in the city.

The Zhou Family was not particularly capable, and none of its members had much talent for martial arts, so they had not joined the Heavenly Wolf Gang.

However, as Jiang Kaitai's relatives, the Zhou Family had considerable business in Linked Mountains City.

Relying on Jiang Kaitai's influence, they had run rampant through Linked Mountains City and prospered without obstacle, nearly monopolizing all grain, salt, and iron trade within the Heavenly Wolf Gang's territory.

In a little over twenty years, they had grown from a family of barely a dozen people into a household of more than a hundred.

Jiang Kaitai chose the Zhou Family as his second blood sacrifice precisely to clear himself of suspicion and throw up a smokescreen, using them as cover when the Murong Clan and the One Qi Piercing Sun Alliance came to investigate later.

After all, who in their right mind would imagine that Jiang Kaitai could personally wipe out his last remaining relatives in this world?

After the Zhou Family was exterminated, Jiang Kaitai immediately summoned all the Heavenly Wolf Gang's hall masters for a meeting.

Inside the council hall, Jiang Kaitai wore an expression of profound grief.

"You all know that the Zhou Family was wiped out in a blood sacrifice. They were my only remaining relatives in this world!

"I may not be an emperor, but now I too understand the loneliness of being utterly alone!"

Jiang Kaitai's voice was hoarse, his eyes bloodshot, and the muscles in his cheeks trembled faintly. He portrayed the mingled grief and fury perfectly.

Chen Yuan could not help sighing inwardly. This old bastard really could act.

Qin Yuancheng hurriedly stood and said, "Who says you are utterly alone? You still have your son! Those Zhou Family people were useless to begin with. In the future, I will certainly see to your old age and funeral!"

Chen Yuan could not help lowering his head and covering his face.

Qin Yuancheng truly had a way with words.

If the Zhou Family massacre had really been committed by outsiders, Jiang Kaitai would definitely have kicked him flying right then and there.

The man's only relatives had all been exterminated, yet he was saying those relatives had been useless.

Though it was true, he could not just whip the dead at a time like this.

Moreover, Jiang Kaitai had always been deeply suspicious. Though he was old now, reaching the Qi Forging Realm meant he could easily live to a hundred.

And Qin Yuancheng was already talking about seeing Jiang Kaitai through his final days. What, was he so eager to inherit the gang leader's position?

Jiang Kaitai's mouth twitched slightly. Qin Yuancheng's words had choked him badly as well.

If he had not needed to keep acting, he truly would have wanted to kick him twice.

At that moment, Chen Yuan also rose to his feet and said, "Godfather, please restrain your grief. The dead cannot return to life. We will surely find the murderer and avenge the Zhou Family!"

Jiang Kaitai nodded and said through gritted teeth, "Keep watch for any suspicious outsiders entering Linked Mountains City during this time. If I catch the murderer, I will definitely tear him into ten thousand pieces!"

Once the performance was over, everyone hurriedly dispersed, each preparing to capture the "murderer."

When Chen Yuan returned to the Hall of Transmissions, he saw a waiter from Worry-Free Tower waiting for him there.

"Young Master Chen, the proprietress said she has something to discuss with you. She asked you to visit Worry-Free Tower when you have time."

Chen Yuan nodded. "All right, I'll go now. I happen to have something to discuss with your proprietress as well."

Jiang Kaitai had already begun the blood sacrifice for the divine artifact. It was time for Chen Yuan to start making his own arrangements.