The northern bank of the Huai River, Jing Prefecture.
Drip~
Drip~
The remaining beads of blood slid down the "Furnace Tender" banner and dripped onto the ground piled with coal ash.
The vast mine hidden in the mountains was brightly lit yet deathly silent. Only a few black-robed figures remained on the slopes, watching for any stir in their surroundings.
On the grounds originally used to store iron ore, over twelve hundred corpses had been heaped into a corpse mound with their limbs intact. Blood spread between the bodies and seeped into the ground beneath its thick layer of dust.
The blood baleful intent had yet to disperse. Wisps of blood energy still flowed toward the center.
Wearing a cloak, He Hai sat cross-legged on a roof ridge, cradling an openwork Golden Orb in his palm.
A drop of blood hung suspended inside the Golden Orb, a vivid red without a trace of impurity, resembling a blood ruby.
Beautiful though it was, this was the essence refined from over twelve hundred men in their prime.
People were born into different stations, but their bodies were not. Whether an emperor above the multitudes or a beggar in the mud, each had two hands, two feet, three ethereal souls, seven corporeal souls, seven emotions, six desires, vital energy, and essence blood. No one was born with fewer of these than anyone else.
The key to a Blood Demon Pill was not refining essence blood, but awakening the sacrifices' desires so that all their blood and energy drained away in bliss.
Desire was the source of human drive, capable of stimulating the body to an immense degree and unleashing its potential.
What a Blood Demon Pill collected was actually a kind of desire kindled deep within the soul by an extraordinarily powerful craving.