Fragrant Blood Offering

"You have received Guangfa's infusion and are condensing a temporary curse mark: tiger demon curse mark."

"You have received Guangfa's infusion..."

"Guangfa's infusion is insufficient to fully condense the temporary curse mark. You have obtained the tiger demon curse mark (incomplete)."

The black smoke coiling around Guangfa slowly dispersed. His body returned to its former skin-and-bones state, and a bluish-black tinge appeared on his sallow face.

Su Wu touched the spot on his neck where Guangfa had bitten him and felt two scars left by the healed wounds.

He regretted not having obtained a complete temporary curse mark.

Tiger demon curse mark (incomplete curse mark): activating this curse mark grants you 50% of an adult tiger's physical capabilities. This state lasts two minutes.

After two minutes, you will enter a weakened state lasting 72 hours.

If you forcefully activate this curse mark while weakened, there is a small chance that you will immediately lose your sanity and become a mindless husk; there is a greater chance that you will gradually lose your sanity and require a prolonged period of recuperation to recover.

"Most of my power is currently needed to keep my two senior brothers in check, so for now, I can only infuse you with the foundation of the curse mark.

Once we leave this place, I'll help you complete it." As Guangfa spoke, he took a silver-inlaid, copper-plated bone bowl from inside his robes.

He opened his mouth and spat a mouthful of blood into the bowl.

Su Wu's eyelids twitched. Rather than look at the bone bowl in Guangfa's hand, he asked, "Can we really leave? Master, you and those two horrors are keeping each other in check...

If we leave, won't the horrors inside them awaken immediately?"

What he meant was that once the horrors inside the other two monks awakened, they would still catch up with Su Wu and Guangfa. Neither of them would escape.

"If you hadn't come, I naturally wouldn't have been able to extricate myself.

But now that you're here, I have a way.

I took you as my disciple because you're useful to me. Otherwise, why would I bring along a burden?"

Guangfa raised his eyebrows.

He held the bone bowl beneath the oil lamp. Supporting it with one hand, he pinched off a tiny flame with the other and placed it in the bowl, where the blood was slowly congealing and turning black.

As Guangfa dropped various strange things into the burning bone bowl, he said, "Your fate is exceptionally unusual. You have a natural ability to draw horrors to you.

The moment my two senior brothers see you, they'll be drooling with hunger. Tossing you to them would let me escape and delay the awakening of the malevolent horrors inside them.

However, I've already taken you as my disciple and promised Zhuosang I'd give you a way to survive, so I can't let them kill you.

That leaves taking a little of your blood to make a 'Fragrant Blood Offering' for the horrors inside them. It'll keep them settled for a while. We can get out of here first and worry about the rest later.

Once we reach the No-Thought Venerable Power Temple, we'll be safe."

The "Fragrant Blood Offering" was the substance inside the bone bowl Guangfa held.

By now, the flame burning in the bowl had grown so red that it was turning green.

Su Wu recalled that Guangfa had indeed sucked his blood with those tiger fangs. Presumably, what Guangfa had spat into the bowl was Su Wu's own blood.

Could a Fragrant Blood Offering be fed to horrors to stop them from hunting living people for a while?

Could I use this method in the real world?

An intense thirst for knowledge filled Su Wu's heart.

But this was not a good time to ask how the Fragrant Blood Offering was made.

The flame in the bone bowl turned completely green, bathing the entire room in a ghastly green glow.

Guangfa set the bowl on the table, turned, and walked up to Su Wu. His withered hand, like a chicken's claw, closed around Su Wu's hand. "Disciple, let's go."

Without waiting for Su Wu's consent, he pulled him out through the door.

Su Wu had felt uneasy, but as this master he'd picked up held his hand and led him slowly out of the temple, much of his anxiety actually dissipated.

His newfound master had openly stated that their relationship was purely one of mutual benefit, with no intention of using his position as master to pressure Su Wu. Su Wu found that way of getting along simple and comfortable.

Outside, the sky had gone completely dark.

Su Wu followed Guangfa through the temple without encountering either of the other two monks trying to stop them.

Neither monk seemed inclined to come out and take a look.

Guangfa did not move quickly, nor did he try to avoid his two senior brothers. He simply led Su Wu past their doors and out of the Little Temple.

Only after they stepped outside the Little Temple did the calm shatter, and everything abruptly changed!

The scripture curtains hanging on the Little Temple's four walls stirred without wind. Thick masses of hair spilled down from them, covering the red paint on the walls.

Black hair entwined and swallowed the entire temple.

A mass of black hair joined into a streaming ribbon, shot out through the temple entrance, and unfurled straight toward Guangfa and Su Wu.

Standing on the black ribbon was a long-faced monk whose skin had been pierced all over by strands of hair, making him resemble a marionette.

His gray-white eyes rolled like those of a dead fish. Hair tugged his jaw open and shut as a mechanical voice emerged from his mouth. "Guangfa, you're just going to leave?"

"If you leave, what are we supposed to do?"

Another voice rang out in the gloom.

Every patch of light and shadow beneath the dim sky trembled and overlapped. Amid those countless trembling, overlapping images, a desiccated corpse abruptly appeared, seated at their very center. Its form was solid and distinct, without the slightest double image.

Anyone who looked at it would feel that it was very close to them, yet they were very far from it.

Caught between two "people" whose internal horrors were on the verge of awakening, Su Wu instantly tensed.

But this time, he was not the central figure. Guangfa was. Without so much as raising his eyelids, Guangfa sneered, "You two should have died long ago. It's only thanks to me that you've lived this long.

Now that I'm leaving, you think you can stop me?

Who the hell do you think you are?!

Stay in the temple and wait quietly for death!"

Guangfa's words were wild and arrogant, utterly unlike his earlier aloof demeanor!

Su Wu listened, dumbfounded, and his heart turned ice-cold.

We're done for!

Brother-no, Master-are you really this reckless?!

You really have never died before!

Sure enough, the moment Guangfa finished speaking, the icy aura surrounding them intensified severalfold. The desiccated corpse fixed at the center of the light and shadow spoke in a chilling voice. "Guangfa, you're courting death!"

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

The long-faced monk was even more direct. He opened his mouth and spat out strand after strand of hair. They twisted together into black spears that filled the sky as they stabbed toward Su Wu and Guangfa!

In the next instant, the desiccated corpse tore through the trembling light and shadow and appeared before Guangfa. Its shriveled hands clamped toward his throat. All the light and shadow around Guangfa froze at that moment, seemingly fixing him in place as well. He could only watch those putrid hands approach his neck!

For the moment, no one was paying attention to Su Wu.

He shifted his feet slightly, hoping to seize the chance to escape, only to discover that Guangfa was gripping his hand tightly.

Now we're both going down together!

Su Wu's heart kept sinking.

Then, unexpectedly, he heard Guangfa say, "It's all right."

It's all right?

Su Wu froze.

Immediately afterward, he saw a vast blaze of ghastly green light rise from inside the temple!

The hair spears stabbing toward them suddenly curled back. Countless strands dragged the long-faced monk back into the temple!

The desiccated corpse reaching for Guangfa's throat was entangled in countless patches of light and shadow and likewise dragged into the temple!

The Fragrant Blood Offering!

As Su Wu witnessed the scene, a thought flashed through his mind.

The Fragrant Blood Offering had taken effect!

The horrors inside the two monks wanted to feast on the Fragrant Blood Offering. They had seized control of the monks' bodies outright and dragged them back into the temple!