In the mountains northwest of Lost-Trace Lake, the demon fiends all wore blood-red vine armor and woven vine hats. The tightly woven armor enclosed their entire bodies, leaving only their faces and two pairs of hands exposed. Judging by those exposed faces and hands, however, the people inside were terribly gaunt, without a trace of color, as though all the blood in their bodies had gone to feeding their armor.
This was the attire of the Blood-Vine Cult.
The vine armor of the Blood-Vine Cult's followers was famous throughout the Southern Borderlands, something akin to a Life-bound Dharma Treasure. After joining the cult, these demon fiends would be given a vine seed to plant in their navels, where it would take root and sprout. They fed the seeds with blood, and once the vines grew, they formed armor that protected the entire body. Few of the same realm could pierce it. Moreover, the vine armor could absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and nourish its host in return, so the Blood-Vine Cult's demon fiends cultivated very quickly.
The Blood-Vine Cult was a demonic cult within the Southern Wastes. Like the Yin River Ghost Cult, it had once dominated its own territory, but now both had become running dogs under Xinchेंnzi.
Yet the Blood-Vine Cult was somewhat more famous than the Yin River Ghost Cult, not merely because of its peculiar method of cultivation, but also because its leader, Blood-Vine Granny Long Youpo, had already passed through four lightning tribulations. There were even rumors that she had taken human form from a vine demon in a Dragonfall Land, absorbed the essence of a dragon's corpse, and obtained a Dragon Treasury. She was someone with an excellent chance of reaching the Fourth Realm.
Long Youpo had lived for many years,