Bloodline Taboo

Everyone shuddered in unison, as if invisible eyes were watching them from the darkness.

"Should we... retreat first?"

A scrawny cultivator in the group suggested tremblingly, his Daoist robe already soaked through with cold sweat.

Pan Zhuang gritted his teeth.

"No! Even trash like Gu Sheng and Ling Xiao managed to get in here. What right do we have to back down? Keep moving!"

Though he said that, his steps slowed involuntarily.

The farther they went, the stronger the smell of blood became, nearly congealing into something tangible.

The cave walls were splattered with dark red bloodstains. Some had yet to fully clot and were slowly trickling down.

Suddenly, Yu Tianyi, who was walking at the front, came to an abrupt halt and let out a cry.

"Good heavens!"

Pan Zhuang hurried forward, raising his torch toward the path ahead.

The corpse of a colossal python, nearly thirty feet long, lay sprawled across the middle of the cave. Its dark crimson scales were covered in golden patterns. It was the legendary Seventh-tier Blood Pattern Python.

Yet at this moment, the ferocious beast that could make Heavenly Palace cultivators flee at the sight of it lay limp on the ground like a discarded rag.

Most horrifying of all, the python's head had been split in two by a smooth cut, and a faint bluish-gray glow still lingered around the wound.

"Sword qi... and yin qi."

Jin Xianyun's voice seemed to squeeze out through clenched teeth.

"Killed with one strike."

Pan Zhuang's Adam's apple bobbed. Anyone capable of killing a seventh-tier demonic beast with a single sword strike had to be at least an Earth Palace stage powerhouse.

He looked around, unconsciously lowering his voice.

"Senior? May I ask which senior is here? This junior is Pan Zhuang. I mean no offense."