Obsession, Blood Devil Cultivation Method
Liu Yi stared blankly at Liu Household Village before him, unable to come back to his senses for a long time.
At last, he took a step and slowly walked toward the village.
Along the way, familiar sights came into view, and those 130 years felt like yesterday.
Liu Household Village had changed very little, still filled with thatched huts, but the people in the village were no longer the familiar faces from back then.
He walked straight toward the ancestral graves in his memory.
When he arrived, he recognized the graves of his parents and his eldest brother, Liu Qin, at a glance.
The other graves were completely unfamiliar to him. Presumably, they belonged to Liu Qin's descendants.
Looking at the graves before him, his eyes reddened in an instant, tears spilling from them as sorrow welled up in his heart.
His heart trembled, and he immediately realized that this was the influence of his predecessor's memories and obsession.
He took a deep breath, then took out incense, candles, paper money, and other offerings, and solemnly paid his respects to his parents and eldest brother in turn.
After paying his respects to his parents and eldest brother.
He felt completely at ease, his mind clearer than ever before, as though even his soul had become light enough to float.
His predecessor's final obsession had dissipated. From then on, his consciousness from his previous life could take full control, free from his predecessor's influence.
He let out a long breath and walked toward where his home had once stood.
Although he had no intention of revealing his identity and acknowledging his eldest brother's descendants as family, he wanted to see how they were living and give them the valuables he had prepared.
After all, they were the only people in this world related to him by blood.
A short while later, he stood where he remembered his old home had been.
The house before him had long since changed, but the crooked-necked jujube tree by the door still stood tall, its cracked bark bearing several marks from his childhood climbs.
In a daze, he seemed to see his younger self and his eldest brother again, standing on tiptoe and raising bamboo poles to knock down jujubes.
Just then, clear, cheerful laughter rang out beneath the jujube tree.
Two children of six or seven were chasing each other around the tree, and one little boy with two tufts of hair tied like goat horns tilted his head to look up at the branches.
The scene gradually overlapped with an image deep in his memory, leaving him lost in thought.
"Big brother, you've been standing here for a long time. Did something happen?" A clear child's voice suddenly sounded beside his ear.
Liu Yi snapped out of his memories and looked down to see Liu Jun and Liu Wei gazing up at him, their clear eyes full of curiosity.
The corners of his mouth lifted without his noticing, and he smiled gently. "Little ones, is this your home?"
"That's right! This is our home," Liu Jun and Liu Wei answered in their clear young voices.
Just then, an aged voice came from behind him. "Young man, is there something you need help with?"
The white-haired elder Liu Hai came walking slowly over with a cane, his gaze wary.
Liu Yi slowly turned around and studied the wrinkles on the old man's face. "Forgive me for asking, but what is your relationship to Liu Qin?"
Liu Hai's pupils contracted slightly. His cloudy eyes sharpened instantly as he looked the young man before him up and down. "Liu Qin was my great-grandfather. May I ask who you are?"
Liu Yi's gaze was as keen as a torch as he examined Liu Hai closely. "I knew him for many years, and I once received a favor from him. I've come today especially to repay that debt."
As he spoke, he took a heavy pouch of money from inside his robes and handed it to Liu Hai.
He then turned his gaze to Liu Jun and Liu Wei, who were playing nearby, and said gently, "These two children are bright and clever, with a spark of intelligence in their eyes. If you nurture them carefully, they'll surely achieve something someday."
With that, he turned and left before Liu Hai could ask further questions.
Liu Hai was left standing there in a daze, clutching the money pouch, his face full of astonishment.
Liu Yi looked back at Liu Household Village, then turned and left.
Earlier, he had heard in the village that the bandits of Black Wind Stronghold frequently raided the surrounding villages, and several had already suffered at their hands.
The authorities had assembled men to wipe them out, only to suffer a crushing defeat. Now the bandits were growing ever more brazen, burning, killing, and looting everywhere. There was no telling when they would set their sights on Liu Household Village.
He wasn't surprised by this.
After all, in these dark times, many people had no choice but to take to the hills as bandits to live better lives.
On the road from Yunping City to Liu Household Village, he had lost count of how many bandits he had wiped out. He had used quite a few vicious ones to test his techniques.
Letting them serve one last purpose could be considered a small contribution to the world.
It was precisely because of this that his Yang-Devouring Cultivation Method had been able to evolve so quickly.
Since Black Wind Stronghold threatened Liu Household Village, he would simply get rid of them. It was an easy task for him.
He could also use the bandits to test his newly created Yin-Devouring Cultivation Method and Star-Devouring Cultivation Method, and see the effects of absorbing the power of moonlight and the stars.
As he was thinking, he suddenly noticed a little yellow dog lying by the road ahead, as thin as a stick.
Its eyes were full of helplessness. When it saw someone approaching, it gave a weak "woof."
He was slightly taken aback. He hadn't expected to see such a look in a dog's eyes.
The dog also looked like a Chinese village dog from his previous life, a very familiar sight.
After pondering for a moment, he went over to check on the puppy. Finding that it was starving, he immediately took out some food and fed it.
"You're all alone now, and so am I. How about I become your master from now on?"
As the little yellow dog ate, he barked twice and wagged his tail happily, as though he understood Liu Yi's words.
Seeing how intelligent he was, Liu Yi smiled and said, "I'll be your master from now on. Your name will be Little Yellow."
Little Yellow wagged his tail excitedly, licking Liu Yi's palm.
Liu Yi scooped Little Yellow into his arms and continued striding toward Black Wind Stronghold, a cold smile curling his lips.
"Come on. Today, your master will take you to punish evil and promote good, to act as a hero and uphold justice."
Little Yellow seemed to understand his master's words. He lifted his head and gave two clear barks, his paws gently pawing at Liu Yi's lapel.
Meanwhile, deep within Black Wind Stronghold, a bloody mist filled a sinister secret chamber.
A heavy stone door shut out the daylight. At the center of the vast chamber, strange ripples spread across a blood pool ten meters wide.
Sixty corpses hung upside down above the pool, dark red blood flowing endlessly from the wounds in their necks and dripping into the pool, where it burst into one eerie blood flower after another.
At the center of the blood pool, a naked middle-aged man sat with his eyes tightly shut, a blood-colored glow streaming around him.
As he breathed evenly, the blood in the pool seemed to answer a summons, transforming into fearsome blood pythons that surged toward his body, each striving to be first.
The thick stench of blood filled the enclosed space, making the entire chamber seem like purgatory.
If an immortal cultivator saw this scene, they would surely be unable to help crying out, "Blood Devil Cultivation Method!"
The Blood Devil Cultivation Method was a cultivation method that used blood to cultivate.
In this era, as Spiritual Qi grew ever scarcer, there had once been a devilish genius whose talent shocked the world.
He came up with the idea of using human blood as cultivation pills to replace Spiritual Qi, creating this utterly inhumane cultivation method.
Once the Blood Devil Cultivation Method appeared, countless common people fell victim to its ravages.
The blood in immortal cultivators' bodies contained powerful energy, making them the primary targets of those who practiced the Blood Devil Cultivation Method. As a result, many immortal cultivators suffered terrible fates.
A great war between the righteous and the demonic broke out as a result. Although the fiend was ultimately slain, the immortal cultivators also suffered heavy losses, and countless sects fell into decline.