Chapter 80: Blood Forging Method (Please Subscribe! Monthly Ticket!)

Yunhe casually tossed out a few elixirs for them to replenish their mana.

"The sect should be able to reimburse this, right?"

Thinking it over, at worst it's just a few low-grade Qi Supplement Pills; I am already a Foundation Establishment Great Cultivator—why bother over a few elixirs?

"It seems I still haven't fully left the mindset of a Qi Refining cultivator."

Yunhe couldn't help but be speechless.

However, his expression showed no change; he merely gave a light, indifferent nod while facing their effusive thanks.

"You all return and report back; I'll take over matters here."

Having said that, he no longer paid attention to the three and walked toward the main hall of the shrine.

"I will obey your command, Uncle-Master!"

Zhao Youwei and his three companions dared not voice any opinion; they all rose and bowed to Yunhe.

Looking at this place that had nearly driven them to lose themselves, yet before Yunhe seemed unaffected, the three couldn't help but show a hint of admiration, and even more longing, in their eyes.

Foundation Establishment—that's the direction they've always yearned for.

But they didn't dare linger; seeing the mist Yunhe had dispersed beginning to gather again, they immediately ran out of the shrine.

"With Divine Sense, one wouldn't be greatly affected; Divine Sense and Spirit Sense differ by just one character, yet are worlds apart."

Ignoring Zhao Youwei and his companions' reaction, Yunhe entered the main hall and saw rows of neatly arranged spirit tablets, all bearing the names of Wang Clan ancestors.

"Wang Clan."

Yunhe murmured softly.

The next moment, he seemed to sense something.

In his Divine Sense, the mist shrouding the rear hall flickered slightly, and then he "saw" a ghostly figure flash out and flee into the distance.

"Found you."

Yunhe immediately formed a seal, and his form vanished once again from the spot.

At the same time.

The figure that had run out from the rear hall was enveloped in a mass of black mist, revealing only a faint, extremely unsightly pallid face and eyes glowing with a bloody red light.

"Damn, I didn't expect them to come this fast!"

He deliberately didn't kill those three Qingzong Sect disciples, fearing that doing so would attract Foundation Establishment cultivators.

But he hadn't expected that the Qingzong Sect's Foundation Establishment cultivators would arrive even sooner than he anticipated.

Be that as it may, his escape speed was extraordinary—in the blink of an eye he had left Wang Clan Village and reached the banks of the surging Flood River.

The black mist shrouding his body gradually dissipated, revealing a somewhat gaunt figure; the folds of skin on his face and hands suggested he had once been fat, but had suddenly lost weight due to some special cause, leaving his skin sagging.

Added to his deathly pale complexion and reddish eyes, he looked rather eerie.

"The Flood River's waters are turbulent, with many demonic beasts below that can conceal one's aura to some extent; entering is dangerous, but still better than being hunted by a Foundation Establishment Great Cultivator!"

As if consoling himself, he muttered to himself while rushing to the riverbank, preparing to jump in.

But in an instant, the hairs on his body stood on end, and his jumping motion halted abruptly.

He widened his narrow eyes and recoiled in terror.

All that could be seen was.

On the surface of the Flood River, a large volume of water suddenly swirled and coalesced, quickly forming a human shape.

Standing atop the wave.

It was Yunhe appearing via the Water Escape Technique!

A hint of surprise appeared on his usually calm face.

"Qi Refining Eighth Layer? Such a swift escape technique—must be a demonic art?"

Fortunately, his Divine Sense was strong enough; although it couldn't pierce the rear hall's thick mist, he detected the anomaly in the fog—otherwise, given this person's escape speed, other Foundation Establishment cultivators might not have reacted in time.

He might have gotten away.

But when he truly examined this cultivator preparing to flee again, shock welled up in his eyes uncontrollably.

"Steward Wang?"

Upon hearing the title "Steward Wang," the cultivator who had been gritting his teeth, ready to unleash the Blood Sacrifice Escape Technique once more, also instinctively halted his movement.

He glanced back with a hint of surprise.

In the spray kicked up by the crashing waves, he made out Yunhe's appearance.

At this moment, his shock and disbelief were several times greater than Yunhe's.

A hoarse, sharp voice suddenly rang out.

"Yun, Yunhe?!"

This person was actually the steward who managed the spirit farms in the River Canal Market for the Wang Clan, siphoning off profits!

And Steward Wang had obviously finally recognized Yunhe.

The spirit beekeeper who once kept bees in the River Canal Market—who they could knead at will—had not only joined the Qingzong Sect but had actually achieved Foundation Establishment?!

Becoming a Foundation Establishment Great Cultivator that he dared not even face head-on?

This change in status left Steward Wang somewhat unable to accept it.

But no matter what, everything becomes irrelevant in the face of survival.

Steward Wang suppressed his jealousy, forcing an ugly smile onto his wrinkled face: "Yun, Yun Senior, for the sake of our acquaintance, could you… let me go?"

Yunhe slowly descended from the lake surface to the ground; his Divine Sense had firmly locked onto Steward Wang, also "seeing" his small movements, yet he did not expose them.

He likewise showed a smile and said:

"Sure. But before that, I wonder if Steward Wang could tell me how you survived the River Canal Market turmoil? And what have you done in Wang Clan Village?"

Many escaped from the River Canal Market—Yunhe himself, for example, and Liu Hongyong, Hua Qianyun, and others.

But the Wang steward, being a member of the Wang Clan, will inevitably be targeted more, and the difficulty of escaping will also be greater.

Moreover, given his disposition, he doesn't look like someone who could cultivate to Qi Refining Eighth Layer.

Upon hearing "good", Manager Wang's face lit up with great joy, but after hearing Yunhe's two following questions, his expression instantly turned extremely grim.

Yet he still stammered as he said:

"I-I didn't do anything, I just happened to pass by."

Yunhe raised an eyebrow, looking at him with a half-smile.

At the same time, a thought stirred in his mind; from Manager Wang's reply, he "read" some hidden meaning.

He would rather answer what he did in Wang Clan Village first, rather than answer how he escaped the market.

From a normal person's perspective, under pressure and threat, faced with two questions, one would naturally answer the easier one first, then slowly consider how to answer the other.

But Manager Wang directly skipped Yunhe's first question and chose the seemingly harder second one.

Either he thought Yunhe's second question was the crucial one.

Or the first question was harder for him to answer than the second!

"Just passing by."

Boom!!

As Yunhe's voice just sounded, Manager Wang's body suddenly erupted in a burst of blood mist, followed by black qi coiling around him, fleeing backward at great speed.

But this time, as he just unleashed his secret technique, two scarlet-red domains pierced him at even greater speed.

Pfft—

Manager Wang's figure halted abruptly, and he heavily fell to the ground.

Moreover, his aura suddenly dropped, falling from Qi Refining Eighth Layer to Qi Refining Seventh Layer, making him look even weaker.

"Will you speak or not?"

Yunhe appeared before him again, his expression much graver.

"I'll speak, I'll speak," Manager Wang pleaded, but as soon as he opened his mouth, his eyes widened: "No! No! Old... old ancestor!"

Bang!

His whole body emitted a dull thud.

His body remained still, but a thin stream of faintly green-lighted qi poured from his eyes, nose, and mouth.

"A restriction?"

Yunhe immediately drew a "Soul-Guiding Talisman", lit it, but only gained a speck of crystal.

Looking at Manager Wang on the ground, emaciated to almost skin and bone, Yunhe's expression turned somewhat grim.

He originally thought Manager Wang had somehow obtained a demonic cultivation method, but now it seems.

"Probably not demonic cultivation, but ghost cultivation."

"Old ancestor"

Yunhe, murmuring low, suddenly shuddered.

This "old ancestor" damn well couldn't be the Wang Clan's old ancestor, could it?!

Could it be that the Wang Clan's old ancestor did not die in the River Creek Market?

"The sect should have sent someone to investigate, right."

Previously he was merely a Qi Refining cultivator; after escaping River Creek Market, despite many twists joining Qingzong Sect, his status then didn't qualify him to access the sect's investigation of River Creek Market.

After he achieved Foundation Establishment, he had long since cast the River Creek Market affair behind him.

Only today, upon seeing this Manager Wang, did he barely recall some memories of River Creek Market.

"'Go back and look through the sect's investigation files on River Creek Market.'"

"'However, it's also possible that Manager Wang defected to a cultivator or to a sect elder.'"

He waved his hand to disperse the residual soul crystals, then seized Manager Wang's storage bag.

He easily erased the imprint on the storage bag.

In a corner of the storage bag, he found two broken Jade Slips.

"Truly cautious—not only leaving a restriction on the soul, but also on the Jade Slips."

These two Jade Slips were placed with such care, obviously important to Manager Wang.

Likely they are the cultivation method he practices, and that secret technique which is extremely costly but astonishingly fast.

Yunhe had originally wanted to glean some information from the Jade Slips.

"There's also the Wang Clan ancestral hall."

He put away the storage bag and flew again toward the Wang Clan ancestral hall.

When he returned, the thick mist in the rear hall of the ancestral hall was gradually dissipating, and the fog enveloping the whole village also showed signs of fading.

But when Yunhe entered the rear hall, the bloody smell that hit him and the heavy yin evil qi made him involuntarily furrow his brows.

All that could be seen was.

In the center of the rear hall lay a stone coffin.

Inside the coffin remained only a bottom layer of extremely viscous dark-red liquid.

"Blood Refining Method?"

Yunhe's face sank as he recalled an extremely evil sacrificial refining method he had seen in Qingzong Sect's scriptures.

Using the blood of blood relatives to refine into Blood Soul Pills, thereby boosting one's cultivation base.

This Wang Clan Village likely shares some blood relation with Manager Wang, perhaps a distant relative among several generations.

Moreover, the mist formed from gathered souls' resentment can to some extent block divine sense.

When no one maintains it, the resentment tends to dissipate, albeit slowly.

"If it is said that all the evil deeds within the Qingyu Domain are like those in Wang Clan Village, then it indicates there is a behind-the-scenes manipulator controlling everything."

"Immediately he recalled the profound expression of Sect Leader Kong Zhibo before his departure, and the latter's words that people had already been sent to investigate the source."

"It seems the Sect Leader has also noticed."

"But Yunhe still has something he cannot figure out."

"That person hiding behind the scenes, so openly ordering his subordinate cultivators to slaughter villages, is it merely to increase their strength?"

"Even unwilling to conceal his own traces for this purpose?"

"After all, if it is to refine the Blood Soul Pill from blood relatives, only people like Wang Guanshi can use it."

"No, it could also be for himself; the resentment brought by slaughtering blood relatives is the heaviest."

"Yunhe shook his head; the 'mystery' before him is too great—he only glimpsed the tip of the iceberg from Wang Guanshi, unable to see the whole picture."

"Immediately he took out a large number of Warding Talismans."

"He cast them out repeatedly."

"Only then did the resentment in this place finally dissipate."

"At the same time he ignited a fire to burn away the blood that had not yet been fully refined."

"These things are useless to him."

"If left unattended, after a period of time this place will inevitably gather yin qi, breed resentment, and possibly give rise to other evil entities."

"He felt it necessary to learn some arts targeting demonic cultivators and evil entities, or to obtain some corresponding Spiritual Artifacts."

"Otherwise, not to mention that dealing with the present matters would be troublesome; if that behind-the-scenes manipulator shows up later, at least he would have some means of countermeasure."

"After finishing with the Wang Clan ancestral hall,"

"Yunhe had no hesitation, swiftly fleeing."

"(End of chapter)"