Where had the missing half of the villagers in that painting gone? The answer was already plain to see.
They had been used as sacrifices.
No wonder a perfectly good Holy Sword had ended up tainted by demonic nature. They had actually used living people as sacrifices.
But what had ultimately driven them to do such a thing? Clearly, the answer lay in the cave he had fallen into, in that section of erased mural.
Or had something else happened in the village before that, something the painting had never mentioned?
Qin Ming felt as though his mind were a tangled skein of thread. He could find its beginning, yet he could not unravel the many mysteries hidden within.
At that moment, the Demonic Sword hovered above the Artifact Refining Furnace on the altar, as though looking down upon them.
A layer of demonic qi suddenly rippled around the blade. Then the previously dry Artifact Refining Furnace gradually filled with blood.
Even the intricate grooves filled with blood, as though it had suddenly surged up from beneath the Sacrificial Altar.
Qin Ming was startled. The blood in the furnace shot skyward like ropes, forming several streams. From time to time, some merged and twisted together, making the resulting columns of blood ever larger.
Then those columns of blood wound themselves around the blade.
Qin Ming looked closely and soon spotted the problem. The sword was drinking blood, and it was drinking fast.
The furnace seemed rather strange as well. The fresh blood within it appeared inexhaustible.
Qin Ming's gaze darkened. He knew he could not let this continue. After all, no one knew what the Demonic Sword would become once it finished drinking blood. He drew his Azure Cloud Sword and charged toward the Sacrificial Altar. Yet the instant he