Pan Long had not flown far. After a little over ten miles, he found a high mountain and landed.
Mountains covered the upper and middle reaches of the Heaven-Reaching River, so finding a high peak was easy. Landing on one from the sky drew no attention.
He sat down in a fairly open spot. The first thing he did was enter the Classic of Mountains and Seas to check himself over.
During the fight, when the Blood River engulfed him, Azure and Yellow Qi had risen from his body. Not only had it held back the Blood River's corrosion, it had ignited his True Qi, already compressed to its limit, into a roaring blaze.
The blaze gave off little heat, but it was dazzlingly bright. Even Pan Long himself could barely open his eyes against the glare, let alone his enemy.
Within that brilliant light, he had clearly sensed the currents of Heaven and Earth Essence. He had also understood what the nine-headed monster bird manifested by the Demon Blade's evil intent truly was: the gathered final resentment of the Ma Family members sacrificed to the blade.
Pan Long had assumed their resentment was aimed at their murderer. He had been wrong. They did not hate the middle-aged man who had killed them and used them as sacrifices. They hated everyone.
They hated anyone who was alive. If someone lived well—happily, contentedly, with their head held high—their hatred grew so fierce it made their teeth ache. They wanted to slaughter that person's entire family and make them suffer the same misfortune.
Their resentment toward their murderer, by contrast, was so faint it was scarcely worth mentioning.
"This whole family is insane!" Pan Long had cursed.
Then, drawing on the Azure and Yellow Qi that had suddenly risen around him, he