Blood Sacrifice Begins

Among the Blackwater Gang's five great protectors, Duan Kun was not the strongest, but he was still a contender for the top two.

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

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

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

But how could Chen Yuan possibly let them escape?

Empowered by the formidable inner strength of the Blood-Shifting Realm, Chen Yuan's speed was incomparably swift as well.

With each leap, he crossed several paces. Beneath the Wild Goose Feather Saber, all became headless souls of the dead.

The one who had fled the farthest had only just reached the courtyard gate when Chen Yuan cut him down.

Shaking the droplets of blood from his blade, Chen Yuan had just sheathed his saber when a miserable howl of grief reached him.

The boy lay sprawled over his parents' corpses, weeping and wailing.

Chen Yuan was about to say something when the boy suddenly turned his head 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 those evil men with ease! If you had come sooner, my father and mother wouldn't have died! You killed them!"

The boy's voice shifted from a pained howl into bitter resentment. He glared fiercely at Chen Yuan, his eyes brimming with venom, as though Chen Yuan were the enemy 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 like that.

Chen Yuan sighed. The Wild Goose Feather Saber, which had only just returned to its sheath, was drawn once more.

Blood sprayed into the air, and the boy went to reunite with his parents.

"What a wolf-hearted, dog-lunged thing."

Chen Yuan mounted his horse and turned back toward Linked Mountains City.

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

His final hatred for Chen Yuan was merely because he was unwilling to admit that the one who had truly caused his parents' deaths was himself. He simply wanted to find a good man to 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 could be considered keeping the plot from going astray.

After returning to the Merit Transmission Hall, Chen Yuan locked the door and immediately opened the brocade box from his robes.

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

Upon closer inspection, it was assembled from countless densely packed mechanisms. The seams were so tiny that one might mistake them for the vase's natural patterns without looking carefully.

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

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

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

Once activated, everything within thirty zhang would become a hell of spinning blades, and every living thing would be shredded into flesh and blood.

This item slaughtered too fiercely. After its use, the Bodhisattva lowered her eyes and Guanyin shed tears—hence its name.

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

More importantly, it was something with a price but no market. Ordinary people were not even qualified to buy it; they had to trade 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 assigned to menial tasks.

The servant who had stolen Guanyin's Tears and fled had truly had no brains.

Had he 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.

Yet he had chosen to steal a high-grade hidden weapon like Guanyin's Tears. The moment he took it out, people would notice it.

Although he had also taken some mechanism materials, those half-finished goods were only worth the price of refined iron and steel. They were not worth much, and the Divine Mechanism Pavilion markings on them made it easy to expose himself.

Thus, despite clutching a priceless treasure, he had remained poor and destitute for over a decade. 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 instructed him to keep watch on outside developments and report to him every day. Chen Yuan himself entered seclusion once more.

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

After fighting Duan Kun, Chen Yuan had gained fresh insights into the Surging Waves, Flowing Clouds Formula 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 sent people searching for another two days before they found Duan Kun and the others' bodies outside the city. By then, the corpses had already begun to stink.

Chen Yuan had not destroyed the corpses this time, because there was no need.

Whether it was Duan Kun's reason for leaving the city or the wounds on the bodies, they would never suspect him.

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

Once the news spread throughout Linked Mountains City, everyone in the city became as jittery as birds startled by the mere whisper of wind.

First, Chu Ziping, one of the Heavenly Wolf Gang's Three Heroes, vanished without cause—neither alive nor dead could he be found.

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

The upper ranks of both gangs had suffered misfortune in succession. It was truly somewhat sinister. Could some vicious heretic have entered Linked Mountains City?

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

More than fifty members of the Wang Family, a prominent household in the city, were all slaughtered. Their entire family had been exterminated, and most bizarrely, every drop of blood had been drained from their bodies.

Such an evil manner of death was clearly not an ordinary revenge killing.

Thus, rumors spread through Linked Mountains City that the Blood God Cult, an evil sect thought reduced to ashes, had risen again and was killing people to drink their blood and restore its strength.

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

In short, every sort of rumor was circulating. For a time, all of Linked Mountains City was consumed by 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 simply more than ten days earlier than in the original plot.

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

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

Jiang Kaitai could take advantage of that suspicion before it faded and stage a blood sacrifice, drawing everyone's attention even more firmly toward outsiders.

Two days later, more than a hundred members of the Zhou Family, including their servants, were also wiped out in a blood sacrifice.

Upon hearing the news, even Chen Yuan could not help sighing. Jiang Kaitai, that old thing, was truly ruthless.

For the sake of obtaining 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 own kin.

Jiang Kaitai had risen from the martial underworld and had even been a bandit in the past. His father's relatives were long gone, leaving only a few relatives on his mother's side.

After he established the Heavenly Wolf Gang and gained a foothold in Linked Mountains City, he brought over his mother's relatives and settled them there.

The Zhou Family had amounted to little, and none of its members possessed any martial talent, so they had not joined the Heavenly Wolf Gang.

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

Relying on Jiang Kaitai's power, they ran roughshod through Linked Mountains City and succeeded in everything they did. They had practically monopolized all grain, salt, and iron trade within the Heavenly Wolf Gang's territory.

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

Jiang Kaitai had chosen the Zhou Family as his second blood sacrifice precisely to clear himself of suspicion and release a smokescreen, giving himself cover when the Murong Clan and the One Qi Piercing Sun Alliance investigated in the future.

After all, what normal person could imagine that Jiang Kaitai would personally exterminate the last of his own kin in this world?

After the Zhou Family was destroyed, 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 exterminated in a blood sacrifice. They were my only relatives left in this world!

I may not be an emperor, but now I have tasted the bitterness of being a solitary man indeed!"

Jiang Kaitai's voice was hoarse, his eyes bloodshot, and even the muscles in his cheeks trembled slightly. He portrayed grief and rage intertwined with vivid perfection.

Chen Yuan could not help marveling inwardly. This old thing's acting was truly good.

Qin Yuancheng hurriedly rose and said, "Who says you are a solitary man? You still have your son here! Those Zhou Family people were useless to begin with. In the future, I will definitely care for you in old age and see you off at the end!"

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

Qin Yuancheng truly knew how to talk.

If the Zhou Family's extermination had really been done by outsiders, Jiang Kaitai would absolutely have kicked him flying with one foot right now.

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

Though it was indeed true, he could not whip the corpse like that at a time like this.

And Jiang Kaitai had always been highly suspicious. Though he was old now, reaching the Qi Forging Realm meant that living to a hundred posed no difficulty.

Yet Qin Yuancheng was already talking about caring for Jiang Kaitai in old age and seeing him off. What, was he impatient to inherit the gang leader's position?

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

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

Chen Yuan also rose at that moment and said, "Godfather, please restrain your grief. The dead cannot return to life. We will certainly find the culprit and avenge the Zhou Family!"

Jiang Kaitai nodded and said hatefully, "Keep watch during this period for suspicious outsiders arriving in Linked Mountains City. If I catch the culprit, I will definitely tear him into ten thousand pieces!"

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

After Chen Yuan returned to the Merit Transmission Hall, he saw a waiter from Worry-Free Tower waiting there for him.

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

Chen Yuan nodded. "Alright, I'll go now. As it happens, I also have something to discuss with your proprietress."

Jiang Kaitai had already begun sacrificing blood for the divine artifact. It was time for Chen Yuan's side to begin making arrangements and exerting force as well.