Chapter 236: Blood of Divinity

"I said that old woman's story was nonsense—you Luoshen Peak people kill people with divine nature, how could it possibly be because of some prophecy from the Old Sage of Heaven's Secrets?"

Li Musheng shook his head, and the senior disciple of Luoshen Peak's Zhang Sect immediately nodded involuntarily.

He had once been punished for responding too slowly—the other party activated the Life-Death Talisman, leaving him wishing he were dead, wracked with unbearable agony.

At this moment, Li Musheng waved his hand and said:

"Stop standing there frozen—why aren't you sending a distress signal yet?"

Hearing this, the young man convulsed violently, then immediately pulled a jade tube from his bosom and activated it with true qi, transforming it into a golden flame that shot straight into the sky.

The golden flame rose above the skyline of Bai Lian City and erupted into blinding light, far more conspicuous than the signal emitted earlier by the Grand Elder of Bai Lian Peak.

"Definitely a major sect—each one more cowardly than the next; even their distress signals are like flare guns."

Li Musheng glanced up at the night sky lit as bright as day and clicked his tongue.

The senior disciple of Luoshen Peak lowered his head; his previously pale face was now filled with darkness and venom.

"Arrogant fool—you actually allowed me to call for help? Utterly stupid, begging for death!"

And this was his only chance now.

Li Musheng had just tortured him beyond endurance—he had memorized every moment of that pain, and when his master and the senior uncles arrived, he would return every ounce of suffering he endured, a thousandfold, a hundredfold.

All he needed to do now was endure humiliation, satisfy every demand of the other, and avoid the inhuman torment of the Life-Death Talisman.

Moreover, he was certain: with his innate divine ability protecting him, the other could only inflict pain—he couldn't kill him in the short term.

At this moment, Li Musheng watched the signal in the sky slowly fade, then turned his gaze back to the senior disciple of Luoshen Peak.

"Enough. If you have no other value to offer, it's time for you to go."

Li Musheng spoke calmly.

The hidden secret of Luoshen Peak—one of the four great sects of the martial world—lay in its founding ancestor.

The patriarch who built this vast sect was himself a person of divine nature and a peerless martial genius of his age.

According to this senior disciple, such individuals were one in ten thousand, capable of simultaneously cultivating both divine and martial paths.

As for this so-called dual cultivation of divine and martial paths: the martial cultivation, needless to say, they possessed top-tier Martial Way cultivation techniques; but to enhance their divine power, they needed to do one thing—consume divine blood.

The source of divine blood was naturally those endowed with innate divine abilities, and this was why Luoshen Peak secretly slaughtered villages and towns targeting people of divine nature.

But their true goal was not to exterminate people of divine nature—it was for the divine blood itself. That old woman had clearly lied, or deliberately misled.

And this matter might involve another crucial secret of Luoshen Peak.

The divine blood within people of divine nature possessed extreme resistance—it could hardly be absorbed by ordinary people or even other people of divine nature.

But Luoshen Peak possessed an extremely unique divine art capable of absorbing divine blood, the very opportunity their founding ancestor gained before rising to power and the foundation of Luoshen Peak ever since.

Yet people of divine nature were rare, and this divine art was exceedingly difficult to cultivate; thus, only a handful of top-tier figures within Luoshen Peak could practice it—including every single Zhang Sect of Luoshen Peak.

The reason this senior disciple of Luoshen Peak was so young yet possessed such formidable innate divine ability was because he had killed many people of divine nature and consumed vast quantities of divine blood.

At this moment, the senior disciple of Luoshen Peak composed his expression, raised his head, and asked Li Musheng:

"I have fulfilled every one of your demands without the slightest defiance—yet even so, you still intend to kill me?"

Hearing this, Li Musheng glanced at him and asked:

"You said earlier I couldn't kill you—do you still believe that now?"

At these words, the senior disciple of Luoshen Peak stared at Li Musheng but said nothing.

Seeing this, Li Musheng nodded.

The next instant, he fully released his restraint on the young man, then extended one finger and pointed it toward the other's forehead.

The young man slightly narrowed his eyes; instantly, the heavenly and earthly true qi around him surged violently, and a strange power flowed through his body, rendering him ethereal and insubstantial.

Then, a blood hole pierced clean through his right chest, appearing out of nowhere.

The young man glanced down, and a faint, almost imperceptible smile curled at his lips.

But soon, his expression changed drastically—he frantically reached for his forehead.

At that moment, the flesh of his forehead was collapsing inward, forming a depression the size of a finger, rapidly drilling deep into his skull.

And simultaneously, one, two, three…

Countless blood holes, piercing clean through, appeared across his abdomen, arms, thighs, and every part of his body.

No matter how he channeled his divine power, no matter how he shifted his body's form to evade harm—

The blood hole at his forehead grew deeper, eventually piercing completely through his skull, leaving a transparent, blood-stained hole from front to back on his forehead.

The senior disciple of Luoshen Peak widened his eyes, his face filled with disbelief, and his life force rapidly faded.

In the span of a blink, his entire body became a human sieve, riddled with countless blood holes left by his failed damage-shifting.

Li Musheng withdrew his finger and watched the young man's body, honeycombed with holes, fall toward the ditch below the street. He shook his head:

"You couldn't even endure that many damage shifts? You've consumed so much divine blood—and still this weak?"

Then he reached down, grasped the young man's corpse, and strands of blood shimmering with pale radiance rose from the countless holes in his body, flowing upward toward the rooftop of Baixiang Pavilion.

Li Musheng activated the "Devouring Divine Art" he had obtained from the young man's mouth.

In the next instant, dark red blood veins appeared on his palm.

These blood veins connected with heaven and earth, pulsing like living things, spreading rapidly across his entire body.

But Li Musheng merely glanced at his palm—those blood veins emerging from his flesh instantly retreated under invisible pressure, leaving only a palm-sized patch visible on his palm.

Then, strands of blood shimmering with pale radiance were absorbed and devoured by the blood veins on his palm.

According to the senior disciple of Luoshen Peak, even if an ordinary person mastered the "Devouring Divine Art," they still could not absorb divine blood for themselves.

But Li Musheng didn't care—even if he wasn't a person of divine nature, he would overpower it with brute force and give it a try.

After absorbing the young man's divine blood through the Devouring Divine Art, it coalesced in his palm.

Li Musheng tried to merge it into himself, but the special power within it fiercely resisted, as if utterly incompatible with him.

Even when he forced it with his own qi and brute strength, the divine blood ultimately scattered and dissolved.

"Speechless. It seems 'great effort yields miracles' won't work this time."

Li Musheng frowned, just about to abandon the experiment of absorbing the blood of divinity.

However, a thought suddenly struck him, bringing to mind the techniques related to the Azure Dragon Cangming Art, which was on the verge of successful improvement.

"Although the power contained within a person of divinity differs greatly from Fire Qilin blood and Azure Dragon True Qi, the cultivation technique I have improved might still be usable to absorb other different kinds of power."

Li Musheng pondered for a moment, then decisively activated both the "Divine Devouring Method" and the "Azure Dragon Cangming Art" simultaneously, merging them directly to squeeze and absorb the blood of divinity in his palm to the utmost.

Moments later, Li Musheng furrowed his brows slightly; he found that although the effect was minimal, there was indeed some effect after all.

Yet, this suddenly gave rise to a thought in his heart.

Whether it be Fire Qilin blood, Azure Dragon True Qi, or Zhu Que bones, these things related to the so-called ancient divine beasts and auspicious beasts are all existences independent of the Martial Dao.

They appear completely different from the power contained within a person of divinity possessing human characteristics, yet behind them there seems to faintly reveal a thread of a vague connection.

This could not help but make Li Musheng begin to ponder: where is the source of these powers?

If Martial Dao transcendence does not exist in this world, then do other paths of transcendence exist?

Or is the sole path to Martial Dao transcendence simply constant fusion and evolution?

(End of this chapter)