Chapter 353: Driving Straight In

Dharma-Devouring Grafted Spirits.

This perfected top-tier spell has finally found the most suitable place to put its abilities to use! Facing something like a Blood Demon, which can be called a conglomerate of mana and is normally very difficult to kill or eradicate, it is truly a natural nemesis. The moment it makes contact, it breaks through and penetrates, beginning to take root and grow, crazily devouring mana without end! Not enough, too little; there are too many monks and too little gruel!

The tide-like surge of Blood Demon mana was eaten clean in the blink of an eye.

The character for "death" returned to normal, and the blood hand vanished in a flash.

Before Du En had even walked up to that ostentatious display of blood, it was like the heavens turning upside down; the tide receded with such urgency that it retreated completely, leaving only a ground full of grafted branches. They became visible to the naked eye, clinging to the cave walls and floating in the air, swaying without wind, as if brewing or gestating something.

"It seems the transition to cultivating this spell will be unexpectedly easy."

As Du En walked past them, they all floated up, following behind him, crowding and trailing, continuing to penetrate deep into this cave passage.

The Blood Demons retreated in haste; Du En advanced at a leisurely pace.

If the people from over there were to see this, they would certainly be shocked, and might even, because of the scene Du En was creating, develop doubts about who exactly was the true demon lord.

That is just how it is with the Blood Demons here.

"You, why..."

"Hiss! Ha!"

"Coo coo coo!"

Du En walked out of the cave passage and arrived at a vast underground karst cave. It looked as if it had been dissolved by the Blood Demons trapped here; it had previously been filled with blood, but now it was more than half dried up.

Standing in the remaining blood, three Blood Demons with only human-like outlines and strength at the fourth rank were struggling bitterly to resist the Dharma-Devouring Grafted Spirits that were covering the sky and earth, dense and numerous, growing more ferocious and distinct the more they absorbed, resembling a great swarm of blood-sucking insects.

They emitted their own sounds toward Du En, carrying shock, fear, and killing intent.

"Are you the people of that Blood Demon Sacred Sect?"

"Impossible, impossible! I have entered the demonic path, I have become a demon, I am already above humanity—why would I still be forced into a dead end by someone, and so easily at that?!"

"Hahahahaha!"

"Hiss-gurgle!!!"

The three Blood Demons did not understand Du En's words at all; they possessed only madness. They had long since lost their human hearts, remaining only as residual shells and outlines.

After Du En determined that communication was meaningless, he immediately ordered the Dharma-Devouring Grafted Spirits to submerge them, eating these Blood Demons clean and transforming them into the slender, tender grafted branches floating behind him.

He continued to advance.

He encountered new cave passages, eroded over long years, already very wide and deep, with pit after pit where individual Blood Demons were entrenched. Upon discovering Du En's approach, they immediately leaped out.

And then, dead!

Facing these third and fourth-rank Blood Demons, the Great Cultivator Du En simply steamrolled them. It could truly be called sweeping away the demonic atmosphere. He continued to push forward, and no matter how many branching tunnels there were, he carried out comprehensive strikes, exterminating them all.

"The Sacred Sect is ahead!"

A stone tablet that the Blood Demons could not erode lay crookedly on the ground, but the vigorous and forceful calligraphy upon it remained unchanged, carrying pride. Because it was imbued with spiritual charm, it had been able to survive until today.

The autograph of a Great Cultivator!

It silently recounted that the Blood Demon Sacred Sect of the past had also once known a time of prosperity.

But why did it eventually fall into the demonic path and collapse? Was it caused by the secret interference of True Monarch Regretful Heart?

Could that female priest who bewitched and lured people be her? Du En had many questions and doubts, but for the moment, there were no answers.

Therefore, he could only continue to advance to find the answers within.

Moreover, the first spatial anchor point was right ahead.

Letting the small stone statue stop and wait, Du En stepped forward composedly, then halted.

Blood-colored waves like a tsunami surged out suddenly, capturing the prey that had stepped into the trap and instantly bringing it to the reverse side of the surface space.

In fact, he had sensed it long ago and remained vigilant. Thus, the moment he arrived here, his mana immediately surged and his pressure expanded, acting directly like an invisible iron hammer to smash the blood-colored tide that had engulfed him.

Splash! After the blood waves shattered, Du En saw only countless amounts of blood like rain. In this area on the reverse side of space, there was an endless rain of blood! Demonic Blood Rain!

A top-tier spell of the demonic path, it had been raining for a long time, swallowing an unknown amount of spiritual energy, mana, and living beings, converging into a blood-colored ocean.

Sensing that the prey that had come knocking this time was not easy to deal with, the sea of blood began to churn, and from within it leaped a colossal monster—a bizarre existence formed by the adhesion of countless people, countless demonic beasts, and countless other living beings.

Overall, it resembled a squid, yet it had the outline of a whale, dragging behind it eleven tentacles woven from corpses.

"Jee jee jee!!!"

It emitted strange sounds from its mouth, breaking through the wind and waves, bringing with it gusts of fishy wind and churning waves. The blood tentacles swung in unison, breaking through the air and extending until they were already before Du En.

He opened his hand, and a guandao formed from gathered light. He swung it backhand, erupting with a crimson color that surpassed the blood itself, severing the tentacles and plowing into the aggregated Great Blood Demon, immediately leaving deep gullies and splashing up a curtain of blood.

The fishy wind and blood waves grew even more terrifying, but abruptly, another wind began to blow.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! The wind wailed, accompanied by sand grains. A sandstorm descended upon the sea of blood, engaging in a war of attrition with it and the blood rain, the two sides falling into a stalemate for a time.

However, at this very moment, that curtain of blood rose along the momentum, emitting an aura of decay.

Corrupting Blood Curtain! Yet another demonic spell, utilized by the aggregated Great Blood Demon in the flow of battle; it could be called grand in scale.

Yet Du En had already tested that it was "gold and jade on the outside, but rotten on the inside."

Thus, he did not hesitate further; the Dharma-Devouring Grafted Spirits, which had been waiting all along, surged up violently.

Absorbing the Blood Demon mana, being corrupted by its spell, then absorbing it to grow, then being corrupted again... the two sides fell into a tug-of-war stalemate!

In fact, if it were not for the fact that this aggregated Great Blood Demon had been developing here for many years, constantly aggregating other fourth-rank Blood Demons and devouring all sorts of flesh and blood, expanding its scale to this point, it would never have been like this.

Because its early fifth-rank strength was actually a sham. To put it specifically, it only barely passed the mark by aggregating enough individuals, treading the line of a "weak genius," belonging to the worst tier of the fifth rank.

Therefore, the subsequent development seemed very normal.

Countless grafted branches broke through the blood curtain and finally landed on the body of the aggregated Great Blood Demon. Even though they were already saturated, they still crazily extracted and devoured its demonic mana, dyeing themselves a deep red, like congealed blood.

"Roar!!!"

The aggregated Great Blood Demon let out a wild roar. Its body, which was originally an adhesion, began to dissociate. Blistering sacs—some human-shaped, some beast-shaped, some bizarrely shaped—emerged, crazily slapping, tearing, and destroying those grafted branches.

Blood flowers splashed and blood color permeated. It should be said that it was effective; this top-tier spell, already saturated, was inherently inclined toward being subtle and quiet, specializing in the aspect of devouring mana. Now that it was exposed in the open and no longer hidden, its lack of intensity was revealed. Therefore, although it continued to devour and repair itself while being destroyed, there was still a threshold; once exceeded, it could no longer continue and would dissipate, crumbling away with the wind and movement.

After a bout of entanglement, there were not many grafted branches left, and the aggregated Great Blood Demon had shrunk by several sizes, barely able to maintain its fake fifth-rank strength.

"That's about enough."

Du En thought this, relying on the previously intense urging to make the Dharma-Devouring Grafting Spirit continuously devour and regrow, allowing it to reach its own limit threshold at an extremely fast speed.

Then, the flower bloomed.

Yellow-grade Dao technique, Grafting Flower! Slender and delicate, it bears its flower.

Following this Dao technique that connects to the Dharma-Devouring Grafting Spirit, it contains the principle of wood-elemental blooming, absorbing nutrients, growing branches, and blooming flowers; it sounds very simple at first, but in reality, it articulates the fundamental laws of life.

Predating on other things, nourishing oneself, and, propagating the species.

Seeing that the grafting branches, which had little left, bloomed with blood-colored flowers, they further swallowed and aggregated the Great Blood Demon's mana, and then more rapidly began to disperse themselves; bits of grafting spirits drifted, as if life were endless, landing in the blink of an eye, and then rapidly growing full.

"Roar?!!"

The Aggregated Great Blood Demon was stunned, feeling an instinctive fear and terror, completely unable to understand how the maggot on the tarsal bone that it had just managed to remove with such difficulty had grown back in the blink of an eye.

It hurriedly tried the same trick again, but this time, it plucked off the Grafting Flowers, only to grow more Grafting Flowers; even if it stretched out thousands or tens of thousands of hands and spread out its body outline, it could not eliminate these Grafting Flowers that could not be shaken off once they grew! In the end, the Aggregated Great Blood Demon stopped.

On its body, it was covered in flowers competing for beauty, each one taller and more gorgeously bloody than the last, sucking it dry and squeezing it into a shell.

Or rather, a shell composed of countless roots.

The actual Aggregated Great Blood Demon had already been eaten clean and had disappeared without a trace.

However, although the Grafting Flower cultivation was completed and the Aggregated Great Blood Demon was easily taken down, Du En did not lower his guard, but instead became more focused, secretly brewing a new offensive.

Because there was a problem that had existed from the very beginning!

Previously, there had been Great Cultivators in the Blood Demon Sacred Sect, and it had only been a hundred years since the demonic fall and loss of control here; the other party should not have already exhausted their lifespan and perished, so naturally, they should have also fallen into the demonic path.

Although this Aggregated Great Blood Demon was also Fifth Realm, it was a patchwork counterfeit and could not be this main master.

Rather, under normal circumstances, such an aggregate could not possibly appear.

It was actually just a means, the result of a Dao technique!

Then, after solving this watchdog, the master hiding at home should also be alarmed... Unknowingly, the blood rain stopped.

The sandstorm also abruptly disappeared, and it was not at all that Du En had cancelled it.

—A trace of mana emerged, forcibly wiping away this wild sand and storm.

This is a means that a mature Nascent Soul stage would master, using the intimidation of the Primordial Spirit combined with the control of things to become further obviously powerful, capable of achieving all kinds of "Great Mana"! The title of Great Cultivator stems from this.

Although Du En, after seeing the records in this regard at the Scripture Pavilion of the Southern Pivot City, only felt that the predecessors were being lazy and did not want to think of any more words, so they attributed all kinds of miscellaneous means and abilities after the Nascent Soul stage to this "Great Mana."

Now is not the time to think about these things; as that demonized Great Cultivator made a move, it signaled that the battle had entered the next stage!

The blood sky was quiet, and the blood sea was silent.

Gurgle~ A sudden strange sound appeared, coming from the bottom of the blood sea, and then a string of bubbles emerged from the water.

With this as a start, the entire blood sea gathered at one point at a terrifying speed, sucking backward into the abrupt sea eye, not giving Du En another chance to secretly devour it.

It seems it is not some overly crazy guy...

He thought this, feeling a bit surprised.

However, he was not so naive as to think he could take advantage of the situation.

So he was well prepared and immediately cast it.

Ice Soul Art! Crack! The back-flowing and gathering blood sea was suddenly covered by solid ice! That was the cold of eternal ice, the cold soul of ice; although it was only a secret technique, precisely because it was a secret technique, its upper limit was more ambiguous than a top-grade spell. At this moment, with mana continuously supporting it, it immediately displayed power worthy of a Dao technique, freezing this sea of blood! At the same time, Du En urged the Dao technique of Grafting Flower, immediately causing ghostly grafting spirit seeds to appear within the solid ice, taking root and crazily devouring the blood sea.

Crack! Another fine, fragmented sound similar to an abrupt freezing appeared, and something drilled out from under the frozen blood sea; Du En suddenly erupted with his Primordial Spirit intimidation, colliding head-on with the invisible, formless, and qualityless demonic thought that had suddenly attacked.

Boom! The invisible collision between the two triggered a violent explosion, setting off a chain reaction.

The blood-colored sky shattered!

The frozen blood sea disappeared! What appeared before Du En's eyes was a completely different scene.

Replacing the blood-red and bloody was a blue tranquility.

It filled the surroundings, wrapping around a camp located in a cavity cave.

This camp had long since been destroyed, yet one could still see the clues of its former peak from the details of the ruins; it was an existence only one notch inferior to that central camp.

Wisps of residual souls and obsessions wandered here, leaving only outlines, very similar to the form of the Blood Demon, now wailing faintly, as if sighing and lamenting the past, faintly mixed with a lingering attachment to life and a reluctance and expectation for certain things.

"A space within a space? Is this, space grafting?"

Such a change in the situation could not help but make Du En think of this Dao technique.

Simply put, it is to cut out a piece of space and graft it into another space, using this other place to support or hide it, thereby gradually changing the two spaces and making them more solid and unique.

It is like sewing a steel plate into the middle of a piece of cloth.

"That's not right~ This is, the circling of space, plus folding, and combined sealing..."

A gloomy voice sounded, seemingly directly insighting into Du En's inner thoughts and making a rebuttal.

"Blood Resonance, I shouldn't be wrong about this demonic Dao technique, right."

Du En was very calm, without any waves at all, just opening his mouth to ask back.

His gaze turned, and he was turning around, but he stopped again, because the space had its own rotation, and naturally, he had already seen the place he wanted to look at.

A person was standing there silently, wearing a thick gray cloth-leather robe, incomparably wide, with a very wide hood covering them, making it impossible to see their face, only a patch of pitch black.

It was actually quite similar to Du En's current image.

The only difference was that Du En's Evil Dragon Robe covered his hem, from which his two legs extended, while the other party did not, moving only with the wind, with nothing but emptiness.

(End of chapter)