"Up ahead is the herb garden's array eye. Heighten your vigilance."
"—Mhm."
The gains did not diminish their caution. In fact, the more they obtained, the warier Wang Yu became, noting every rustle and movement.
Finally.
One of the Heaven Soul Herb Garden's array eyes was dimly visible in the distance.
Due to the overly dense blood mist, even with the Grand Yin Ghost Pupils' enhancement, he could only see clearly for about six or seven meters. Long Yiran fared worse, seeing only about two meters.
The Gazing at Qi Golden Pupils seemed powerless against this blood mist as well, or perhaps its efficacy simply wasn't in this area.
The two felt their way forward.
Suddenly—
Long Yiran bumped into Wang Yu's back. She realized his body had gone rigid.
"What's wrong, Bro... ther Wang..."
Her voice grew faint. In the blood mist ahead, two crimson eyes like lanterns watched them. Its height didn't match the Blood Corpse Giant, but it was still over ten meters tall.
Two streams of turbid red air flowed from below the eyes.
Like exhaled breath.
The blood mist swirled, parting with the giant shadow's movement. A massive, entirely gray-brown, heavily wrinkled old ginseng came into view. Its chin was covered in ginseng root hairs.
On its head was a single twelve-petaled green leaf. Its head, body, even hands and feet were plump and round. If not for its wrinkly, old-man-like face, it could be called a giant baby.
"*Gulp—*"
Long Yiran swallowed hard, her voice strained.
"This... this is... a Medicine King?!?!"
"Run!"
The other's power far surpassed the Blood Corpse Giant. Its aura was undoubtedly at the fourth-tier. Apart from root hairs, its body surface was covered in blood-red patterns, clearly also corrupted by the Blood Demon's power.
As the two retreated, the Blood Demon Ginseng seemed to trigger some mechanism. Its plump, short arm traversed space instantly, swatting towards them.
*Whoosh—*
Wang Yu flew backward like an arrow from a bow. Mid-air, he felt many bones break, his internal energy in chaos, his organs severely damaged.
A torrent of blood gushed from his mouth.
Just that one slap inflicted severe injuries, enough to leave a shadow.
If the creature had any reason, changing the swat to a grab...
He would have been one hundred percent finished.
"*Boom—*"
Wang Yu crashed through the herb garden's edge white wall, collapsing more buildings before barely stopping his momentum.
Long Yiran's whereabouts were unknown. Looking at the Spatial Escape Talisman clutched in his left hand, Wang Yu smiled bitterly. There had been no time to activate it, nor any chance to consider her survival.
Given her physical resilience, her situation was not optimistic.
This was... the third time "fortune within danger" had gone wrong.
He was almost developing a stress response to that phrase. What priceless ten-thousand-year Medicine King? This was a thing that demanded life!
Just after stabilizing, Wang Yu's Frost Moon Wings unfurled behind him. He fled headlong towards the secret realm exit, simultaneously swallowing a handful of top-grade spirit pills.
From being struck to fleeing, the whole sequence took less than three breaths.
Immediately after,
He felt a massive shadow appear behind him. The Blood Demon Ginseng... was chasing him!
"Damn!!"
A ginseng fist descended from the sky. Wang Yu hurriedly flipped over.
Bringing his hands together, he fully activated the Netherworld Spring Great Palm Seal. Twisting his waist, he expended all his strength to unleash a hundred-meter-long Netherworld Demonic Dragon, covering its body with the Ice Flood Dragon Pill Flame.
In that brief instant, he used almost every available method. Then came a scene of despair.
The Netherworld Spring Great Palm Seal shattered directly against the Blood Demon Ginseng's fist. Knowing it was bad, Wang Yu activated the Spatial Escape Talisman.
Then,
The Netherworld Demonic Dragon wreathed in blue flames, like a moth to a flame, was annihilated inch by inch by the ginseng fist, leaving only a black mark.
*Clang—*
At the critical moment, Wang Yu's Starfall Frost Furnace saved his life. It was, after all, a mid-third-tier magic treasure. Even with the Blood Demon Ginseng's fourth-tier strength,
A casual punch couldn't completely destroy it.
Thus,
Wang Yu was struck by the ginseng again, flying back like a sandbag. The Starfall Frost Furnace was badly dented. Wang Yu, hidden inside, was injured again by the shock.
He felt the bones in his chest area were almost completely shattered.
Fortunately,
The Spatial Escape Talisman's effect activated. The mindless Blood Demon Ginseng had no way to stop spatial escape magic. It could only watch as Wang Yu transformed into a silver light and vanished.
It looked up and roared, its massive head sweeping around. Looking at the ground, its wrinkled mouth corners twisted into an even more ferocious arc.
Its fat, short, thick leg stomped heavily on the ground.
*Rumble—*
It felt as if the entire secret realm's ground shook. The earth cracked open into numerous wide fissures. Blood Corpse Giants hundreds of meters tall climbed out from within.
In the distant Heaven Soul Herb Garden, the dense blood mist began to spread.
From it emerged three more Blood Demon Medicine Kings.
One resembled a Ganoderma lucidum, another looked like a fleeceflower root. They flew out one after another, standing alongside the Blood Demon Ginseng. Their auras were all at the fourth-tier. But the final entity
Resembled a pitch-black sunflower, only its flower disk imprinted with a blood-red human face. Its aura was the most horrifying, reaching late fourth-tier.
A level comparable to a great Nascent Soul cultivator!
The rising Blood Corpse Giants numbered over a thousand, all at the third-tier level, from early to peak.
The Blood Demon remnants within the Heaven Soul Sect secret realm boiled over completely. Along with countless ordinary blood corpses, they all marched towards the secret realm's gate.
Within an earth vein.
Long Yiran, having forcibly connected herself to the earth vein using a secret method, barely preserved her life. But half her body was almost pulp. She didn't have Wang Yu's physical strength.
A delay of one second would have meant certain death.
Simultaneously, the backlash of connecting to the earth vein occurred. Her body began to petrify uniformly, eroding an entire leg before barely stopping.
She dared not delay, gritting her teeth and using the Earth Mother Loam Banner to travel within the earth vein. The Heaven Soul Sect ruins... harbored great danger!
Though worried about Wang Yu's situation, she absolutely dared not stay. She fled towards the secret realm gate. Whoever wanted to come to this damned place could have it.
...
...
Meanwhile, the outside world.
—Yin Ghost Mountain.
"What's going on with this damned place?"
Several Foundation Establishment cultivators stood in mid-air, arms crossed, observing Yin Ghost Mountain while warily watching the densely packed figures in the sky.
Several years ago,
The Red and White Twin Evils disappeared. According to eyewitness accounts, they were chasing the Wan brothers of Venom Scorpion City towards Yin Ghost Mountain when they vanished.
Around that time, the perpetually cloud-covered Yin Ghost Mountain area saw its dark clouds dissipate considerably. The Soul-Shaking Yin Wind intensified,
And wispy blood mist began rising from the ground, gradually surrounding the entire Yin Ghost Mountain.
This place was originally a good spot for capturing ghosts. Many cities near the Heavenly Demon Bone Forest, along with some wandering cultivator territories like "Ten Thousand Poisons Town," sect forces... would come here searching.
It was somewhat of a popular "scenic spot." The blood mist anomaly was discovered early.
Thus, more and more people were drawn.
From Yunling Province, Ye Qiong Province, and You Province, cultivators came to investigate. Many believed this was a sign of a rare treasure's emergence. Such fortuitous encounters were quite common in Scarlet Kite.
Often triggered by lucky wandering cultivators, eventually causing phenomena that attracted various powers.
The Ancient Relic: Dongji Capital had much to say about that~
Amidst the Zhuyue Province conflict, people from the Netherworld Spring Abbey arriving here via the Heavenly Demon Bone Forest from You Province naturally also encountered those from the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect.
These were currently the two largest factions.
The most numerous were people from the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect's Venom Gu Peak: the Venomous Centipede Daoist already active in Ten Thousand Poisons Town, six Gu-cultivating Core Formation elders who came from the mountain gate,
And city lords affiliated with the Sacred Sect from Venom Scorpion City, Barrier Flow City, Fragrant City... Their cultivation varied, Foundation Establishment and Core Formation, but they all brought large groups of cultivation warriors.
If Wang Yu were here, he'd recognize a familiar father-daughter pair.
Green Snake True Person and his only daughter, Liu Jinxian!
The latter had been hanging around Ten Thousand Poisons Town for a while, earning the nickname "Insect Maiden." Her cultivation reached Foundation Establishment fourth layer. She was the second survivor from the Profound Bone Mountain incident, second only to Wang Yu.
From the Netherworld Spring Abbey side, there were five Core Formation cultivators with over twenty Foundation Establishment cultivators. They faced off against the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect across the sky.
Furthermore, over ten thousand wandering cultivators hid in the forests near Yin Ghost Mountain, mostly Qi Condensation cultivators, among whom perhaps hid several Core Formation cultivators.
Other Core Formation families, third-rate, and first-rate sects were present.
Blaze Demon Sect, Dark Yin Palace, Earth Demon Valley, Venom Scorpion Wan Family, Ruan Family... Spirit Marsh Zhou Family, Yuan Family, etc.
More powers lived on Reverse Spirit Blood Sect territory. They naturally leaned towards the Sacred Sect's position, putting the Netherworld Spring Abbey cultivators under great pressure.
The standoff had lasted a while.
Apart from sending scouts inside to search for anomalies, everyone waited for the phenomenon to erupt. Many array masters judged that within three years, this place would reveal its true form.
"Father, don't you think this blood mist seems familiar?"
Liu Jinxian pulled Green Snake True Person aside. At an extremely close range, using divine sense transmission, there was no worry of being overheard.
Hearing his daughter's question, Green Snake True Person also frowned.
"Somewhat. This aura resembles people from the Blood Nether Peak. Could this place be something they are scheming?"
Hearing "Blood Nether Peak," a flash of insight struck Liu Jinxian. She exclaimed,
"I remember, Father! In my childhood, I went to the Blood Demon Hall to test if I had talent for cultivating Blood Arts. I remember when Lu Chenzhou came into contact with the Blood Arts, the aura he emitted was exactly like this."
"Lu Chenzhou... Really?"
This person was one of the Blood Demon Hall Master's disciples. Due to cultivating blood path demonic arts, his progress was extremely fast, able to devour human blood to absorb cultivation.
Similar in age to Liu Jinxian, he was already a late Core Formation cultivator, with hope for Nascent Soul.
"Your daughter wouldn't remember wrong. It's almost identical to Lu Chenzhou's aura back then."
Green Snake True Person's expression instantly darkened. He took out a third-tier Spatial Escape Talisman and handed it to Liu Jinxian.
"If the situation turns wrong, leave immediately."
"Your daughter understands."
"I'll contact your Uncle Wu. He's knowledgeable and well-read, proficient in ancient history. He might know ancient secrets about this part of the Heavenly Demon Bone Forest."
"Alright."
With that, Green Snake took out a sound transmission jade talisman, somewhat reluctantly took out five top-grade spirit stones, using a secret method to amplify the talisman's communication range.
Even so, it couldn't reach the Sacred Sect's mountain gate directly.
It needed several relays to transmit the message inside the mountain gate.
At that very moment, in the air above Yin Ghost Mountain.
Under the watchful eyes of all, a silver light flashed. A masked, disheveled figure froze in place, aura in disarray, clearly severely injured.
Wang Yu: "..."
**(End of Chapter)**