Before One Wave Settled, Another Rose

"When it rains, it pours..."

Beside a mountain stream, Fang Ling stopped and sat on a large rock, gasping for breath.

The Death-Seeking Curse had already tormented him beyond endurance, and his battle with Abbess Purple Bamboo had sent his condition plunging to rock bottom.

Worse, his weakened state seemed to make the Death-Seeking Curse even more intense.

"That damned nun shouldn't be able to catch up now, right?"

Recalling the exchanges of their battle, he still felt a lingering dread.

He had thought his strength was enough to secure a place for himself in the cultivation world.

But now it seemed he had been far too naive. Abbess Purple Bamboo was only an ordinary elder of the Pure Heaven Convent.

Above her, there were surely many even more formidable figures.

"Home... I need to go home first," he murmured, looking toward the Southern Sun Kingdom.

He was just about to rise and continue his journey when laughter suddenly came from ahead.

"You slaughtered a whole city to cultivate, boy. What a mighty figure you cut! Why so wilted now?"

"Tsk, tsk. That Abbess Purple Bamboo was truly formidable. Even watching from far away, I felt my heart tremble."

"Of course, you weren't bad either. To think a mere heavenly authority realm cultivator could escape from her."

The speaker was an uncanny young man who reeked of blood. Even his hair was red.

His eyes held the weight of countless years, marking him unmistakably as an old monster, yet his skin was better maintained than that of an eighteen-year-old girl.

"Who are you?" Fang Ling asked gravely.

The young man smiled. "I've been in seclusion for many years. You probably haven't heard of me."

"Back then, the people of these Southern Barbarians lands called me the Blood Demon Ancestor!"

"The Blood Demon Ancestor?!" Fang Ling frowned, forcing himself to muster his strength.

He knew of this man. He had once read the legends of this old monster in a biography.

He had originally been a cultivator of the Sky Mist Kingdom, but had been expelled for practicing demonic arts.

Later, after attaining great power, he returned to the Sky Mist Kingdom and unleashed a storm of blood and slaughter upon its cultivation world.

The legitimate royal family of Sky Mist had also fallen at his hands.

The three kingdoms of the Southern Barbarians were all vassal states of the Great Qian Dynasty.

After such a major upheaval in the Sky Mist Kingdom, the Great Qian Dynasty immediately sent experts to settle the score.

According to the biography, the Blood Demon Ancestor should already have been slain by the Great Qian Dynasty's experts.

"Oh? You've actually heard my name?"

"How rare!" Sensing Fang Ling's subtle shift in emotion, the Blood Demon Ancestor burst into laughter.

"Over seven thousand years have passed since I feigned death and escaped the pursuit of Great Qian's ruthless soldiers."

"I thought no one in this world still remembered me, Wei Wuya, the Blood Demon Ancestor."

"Since you still remember me, boy, I can grant you a quick death!"

"I have never wronged you, senior, nor do we have any recent feud. Why would you kill me?" Fang Ling asked.

He was in terrible shape, so every moment he could stall was another moment to recover a little.

"How do you think I earned the name Blood Demon Ancestor?" the Blood Demon Ancestor sneered.

"I've had my eye on you ever since you slaughtered Boundless City."

"If I use you to cultivate, I might break through the bottleneck at the peak of the jade balance realm and advance into the open sun realm!"

"I know you're stalling for time, boy, but what of it?"

"If I dared show myself, it was naturally because I'd watched you for a long time and only emerged once I was certain."

"You're already an arrow at the end of its flight. Stop trying to hold on."

"I'll send you to the Western Paradise now!"

Murderous light blazed in the Blood Demon Ancestor's eyes as he raised his hand to crush Fang Ling.

A bloody hand descended from the sky, slamming into Fang Ling in an instant.

Fang Ling braced both hands against the descending bloody hand. His legs trembled slightly, and the ground kept sinking beneath the immense force.

"Oh? You can still hold out?"

"That body of yours truly astonishes me."

The Blood Demon Ancestor was somewhat surprised that he had failed to win with a single strike.

"Then try this!"

"Blood Beast Frenzy!" He spread his hands, and a sea of blood surged behind him.

Blood beasts charged out of the churning sea one after another, rushing toward Fang Ling.

These blood beasts embodied his lifetime of cultivation. All the blood essence he had drawn from other living beings had gone into forming them.

As long as his river of blood did not run dry, these blood beasts were invincible, their bodies almost immortal!

"You look delicious too, you old bastard!" Fang Ling roared, his brows drawn and his eyes blazing.

His body began to change. His muscles grew more thickly knotted, and his skin turned dark red.

This was the demon prison body created by the Taotie God. Though still in its initial stage, it was already terrifying.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

He hammered the bloody palm imprint with a frenzy of punches, smashing it apart by brute force.

Even his eyes had changed, turning as savage and crazed as a wild beast's.

Facing the ferocious tide of blood beasts, he opened his mouth wide and swallowed them all in a single gulp.

The blood beasts were essentially blood essence, which contained vast quantities of life essence.

Thus, in Fang Ling's eyes, these blood beasts were merely delicious snacks.

An immense, abyssal maw swept toward the sea of blood behind the Blood Demon Ancestor. That sea was an even greater source of nourishment!

"What cultivation art do you practice? How can it be so domineering?!" the Blood Demon Ancestor roared in fury.

At first, the Blood Demon Ancestor had thought nothing of it. Seeing Fang Ling dare to swallow his blood beasts, he had sneered inwardly.

He had already begun imagining the brutal scene of the blood beasts tearing open Fang Ling's belly and crawling out.

But what caught him off guard was that the moment the blood beasts were swallowed, he lost all connection to them.

Seeing that the greedy Fang Ling intended to devour even his sea of blood, he hurriedly withdrew his manifestation and retreated at tremendous speed.

Fang Ling raised his hand and condensed the Life-Bound Blood Sword in his grasp.

The Life-Bound Blood Sword was now even more terrifying than before.

Fang Ling had infused it with some of the blood essence he had gained from devouring the blood beasts.

"Prison-Subduing!" He leaped into the air and slashed at the Blood Demon Ancestor, whom he had forced back.

"Blood Demon True Form!" Driven into desperation, the Blood Demon Ancestor no longer dared hold anything back.

He instantly transformed into a monster covered in red scales, with a pair of strange black horns growing from his head.

He raised both hands to block Fang Ling's sword light, then shot forward with a bang, appearing behind Fang Ling.

"Boy, did you think that was all I could do?"

"It doesn't matter that you swallowed my blood beasts. Once I refine you, it'll all be mine again!"

The Blood Demon Ancestor and Fang Ling plunged into close combat. Every punch struck flesh as they fought with tremendous ferocity.

"Swastika Mantra!" Fang Ling roared, striking with his palm.

Refusing to be outdone, the Blood Demon Ancestor unleashed his ultimate divine ability: "Six Paths Divine Fist!"

After a thunderous crash, both men were blasted away.

But Fang Ling was clearly hurled much farther, falling into a disadvantage.

The Blood Demon Ancestor's cultivation was frighteningly high as well: the peak of the jade balance realm.

Moreover, his long life had given him an extraordinary depth of accumulated power.

Fang Ling knew that even at his best, killing this man would be difficult.

"My wife, aren't you going to make your move yet?" The Blood Demon Ancestor lifted his head, wiped the blood seeping from the corner of his mouth, and called out loudly.