The training grounds of the Falling Leaf Sect had turned into a silent graveyard. The corpses of the outer disciples were scattered like withered autumn leaves, and the bodies of the elders, or what remained of them as black dust, were a testament to the demonic power that had been unleashed in this place. In the midst of all this destruction, Wei Shen stood, his ivory daggers dripping blood, opposite the last person still standing: the Sect Leader, Yuan Bo.
Yuan Bo, a cultivator at the peak of the Eighth Level of Qi Condensation, was trembling with an uncontrollable mixture of rage and absolute terror. He had seen his elders, his companions in the Dao, killed and crushed like insects before this specter who was once the weakest disciple in his sect.
"Who... who in the hell are you?!" Yuan Bo screamed, his voice trembling violently as he raised his longsword, which glowed with a faint green light. "You are not Wei Shen! That boy was trash, a worthless insect! Who are you, devil, that wears his skin?!"
Wei Shen turned toward him slowly, the demonic crimson glint in his eyes now as bright as embers in a pitch-dark night. A cruel, confident smile played on his lips, the smile of a hunter cornering his final prey.
"Me?" he said calmly.
"Devil! You will die here today!" Yuan Bo roared, losing the last shred of his self-control.
He unleashed the full force of his Eighth Level power. A vortex of green-colored "Qi," resembling sharp leaves, exploded from his body, forming what looked like a storm of blades that launched toward Wei Shen from every direction. This was the strongest technique of the Falling Leaf Sect: "The Storm of a Thousand Cutting Leaves."
Wei Shen faced this storm of energy with incredible coldness. He didn't move from his spot, but simply circulated the "Blood Qi" around his body, forming the viscous, flowing "Bloody Shield."
The green Qi leaves collided with the dark red shield. There was no explosion, but a terrifying hissing sound, as if thousands of serpents were diving into a lake of acid. The green blades corroded and vanished the moment they touched the demonic shield, which seemed to absorb their power and dissolve them.
Yuan Bo's eyes widened in horror as he saw his most powerful technique fade into nothing. "What is this damned Qi?!"
Wei Shen didn't answer. The next moment, he had moved.
His speed, empowered by the Ninth Level, far surpassed Yuan Bo's. He appeared before the Sect Leader like a phantom, his ivory dagger aimed directly at his heart.
In this moment of desperation, Yuan Bo screamed and crushed a piece of jade that hung around his neck.
In a fraction of a second, before Wei Shen's dagger could reach his chest, a barrier of dense, emerald-green light appeared around Yuan Bo, taking the shape of a huge, thick turtle shell, covered in ancient and complex engravings.
Wei Shen's dagger struck the barrier, and a muffled, powerful impact sound was heard. The dagger managed to penetrate the outer layer, but the barrier was incredibly solid and stopped its advance.
Wei Shen retreated a step, looking at the barrier with interest. "A defensive treasure... interesting. This will make things a little more amusing."
"Devil!" Yuan Bo shouted from within his shield, having regained some of his confidence. "This is the 'Spiritual Turtle Shield,' the protective treasure of the Sect Leader! You will never be able to break through it! I will drain your energy and then kill you!"
"This is the only defensive treasure I have," Yuan Bo thought.
Then, Yuan Bo began his attack. His sword, the "Green Jade Leaf Sword," a low-grade spiritual weapon, unleashed rays of sharp green light that shot towards Wei Shen like spears.
A real battle began.
Wei Shen was now facing an opponent protected by a strong defense and possessing a weapon capable of harming him. He was no longer playing; he began to fight more seriously.
He dodged the sword rays with incredible agility, moving around the shield like a ghost, searching for any opening. From time to time, he would launch a "Blood Blade" from his "Art of the Bloody Tide." The dark crimson crescents would strike the green shield, creating a violent hissing sound and leaving behind black, corroded spots, but they weren't enough to shatter the shield immediately.
"This shield... consumes a huge amount of his Qi," Wei Shen thought as he watched Yuan Bo's aura weaken slightly with every attack he launched and every blow the shield took. "He is betting that my energy will run out before his. What a foolish tactic."
Wei Shen continued his attacks, not strong, concentrated ones, but fast, successive strikes from different angles. He constantly hit the shield, not with the aim of shattering it, but to force Yuan Bo to keep pumping Qi to maintain it. It was a war of attrition, a war that Wei Shen, with the power of the Ninth Level and his body refined by Blood Qi, was completely confident of winning.
After ten minutes of this frantic battle, Yuan Bo began to pant heavily. Cold sweat was pouring from his forehead, and the light of the "Spiritual Turtle Shield" began to flicker and weaken. He had consumed more than half of his energy.
"Playtime is over," Wei Shen said in a cold voice.
This time, he didn't launch a single blade. He focused all his "Blood Qi," raised both his hands, and unleashed a vortex of blood blades, dozens of crimson crescents that shot towards the shield from every direction like a swarm of demonic locusts.
Yuan Bo could not withstand this overwhelming assault. The shield shook violently, small cracks appeared on it, and then, with a deafening sound of shattering glass, the "Spiritual Turtle Shield" collapsed completely.
Yuan Bo's eyes widened in absolute terror as he saw Wei Shen appear before him, his ivory dagger aimed at his heart.
In a final moment of desperation, he threw his sword aside and screamed, "Please! Don't kill me! I'll give you everything! The position of Sect Leader! All our treasures! Just let me live!"
Wei Shen looked at him coldly, his dagger stopping an inch from his chest. "Your treasures?" he asked in a tone devoid of any emotion.
Yuan Bo nodded quickly, a glimmer of hope shining in his eyes. "Yes! Yes! We have a treasure hall, with spirit stones, rare herbs... everything will be yours!"
"Excellent," Wei Shen said. "After I kill you, I'll take them myself."
The hope vanished from Yuan Bo's eyes, replaced by absolute despair. Then, without any hesitation, Wei Shen plunged his ivory dagger into his heart up to the hilt.
The leader of the Falling Leaf Sect, its last guardian, fell to the ground, a lifeless corpse.
Wei Shen stood amidst the courtyard full of bodies, and silence returned to the place. There was only the sound of the mournful wind.
"The old account... has been settled."
He was about to start collecting the blood of the elders and the sect leader manually, but he suddenly felt a powerful, irresistible thrum emanating from the "Devouring Bloodstone" that rested in his Dantian.
"What is this...?" he thought in surprise. "The stone... is doing something on its own?!"
The next moment, a dark red, almost black, light emanated from Wei Shen's body, forming a small vortex around him.
Then, the horrific scene unfolded.
The scattered blood on the courtyard floor, and the blood still in the corpses of the disciples, elders, and the sect leader, began to move. The pools of blood quivered, then began to flow like small rivers, defying gravity, and heading towards Wei Shen. Red threads of blood rose into the air, like hundreds of crimson serpents, all heading towards him.
These bloody threads formed a terrifying vortex around Wei Shen, spinning with speed and power, while he stood in its center, calm, watching what was happening with cold curiosity. The blood didn't touch him directly but was pulled by an invisible force into his body, where the "Devouring Bloodstone" devoured it with an unparalleled greed and voracity.
This was a true bloody feast, a feast of the essence of dozens of cultivators.
After a few minutes, it was all over. The vortex stopped, and the red light faded. The scattered corpses in the courtyard were now pale and completely dry, as if every drop of life had been sucked out of them. And the courtyard itself was eerily clean, with no trace of a single pool of blood.
Wei Shen felt the immense, chaotic power now swirling in his Dantian, a power waiting for him to refine and tame it. He also felt that the stone had evolved. "I don't need to collect blood manually anymore," he realized. "The stone... will harvest for itself."
Before beginning to meditate to tame this new power, he walked calmly towards the main halls of the sect. There was no one left to stop him.
He broke the primitive defensive formations on the doors of the treasury and the library with simple blows of his "Blood Qi." Then he began the systematic process of plundering.
He collected all the "spirit stones," all the "medicinal pills," all the rare "spiritual herbs," and all the "technique manuals" he found, and placed them in the sect leader's storage bag, which was much larger and better than his old one.
When he was finished, he stood at the highest point of the Falling Leaf Sect, which had now become just a silent tomb, and looked towards the distant horizon.
"And now," he thought, feeling the immense and unstable power that needed to be refined in his Dantian. "With these resources... and this blood... it's time to think seriously about the requirements for the Foundation Establishment Realm."
He turned, leaving behind the sect that had despised and expelled him, which was now just a bloody memory in his history. His true journey, the journey of the "Demonic Heir" to the summit, had just begun.