Chapter 428 - 428 425 Life Principle Annihilates Blood Demon
Chapter 428: Chapter 425 Life Principle Annihilates Blood Demon Chapter 428: Chapter 425 Life Principle Annihilates Blood Demon Qin Feng extended his Divine Sense, wanting to probe into the activity of the Soul Devouring Vine Demon in the Blood Pool, only to discover a strange force within the Blood Pool. Layers of resistance made it extremely difficult for his Divine Sense to penetrate deeply; there was even the possibility that it could be dissolved by the immense power of the Essence Blood within the pool.
Seeing this, he could only retract his Divine Sense to avoid being needlessly harmed.
However, even without using his Divine Sense, he could still feel the joy of the Soul Devouring Vine Demon through the connection with his spirit.
This Demon Vine was frantically devouring the Essence Blood in the Blood Pool, absorbing its power for cultivation.
The Blood Pool was a creation of the Blood God Sect, crafted with special methods to refine and purify Essence Blood, maintaining the vitality and power in the blood.
This was also why they were able to cultivate exotic treasures like the Blood Lotus.
Of course, the true efficacy of the Blood Pool was not just for cultivating the Blood Lotus but mainly for the Sect’s powerful cultivators to use for their cultivation.
For example, the Blood Pool in front of them was the result of the subordinates of Old Demon Huaxue taking great risks, battling with Righteous Path Cultivators for many years, collecting the blood from various slaughters and plundering.
Usually, this place served as Old Demon Huaxue’s seclusion spot for cultivation, and only occasionally, if a disciple performed a great deed, would he reward that disciple with time here to cultivate.
Since the Blood Pool had the effect of purifying Essence Blood, and this particular pool had existed for at least ten thousand years, it had also accumulated some nice things over the years. Apart from the Blood Lotus, there were thousands of crystal clear, ruby-like Blood Essences scattered at the bottom of the Blood Pool.
That was the essence of blood, condensed at the positions of the array nodes within the pool. In terms of efficacy, these were much purer and more powerful than the blood in the Blood Pool itself. After accumulating for over ten thousand years, so many fist-sized Blood Essences were formed.
When the Soul Devouring Vine Demon discovered these Blood Essences, it almost jumped for joy.
Fortunately, driven by greed upon discovering the existence of Blood Essences, it dived straight to the bottom of the Blood Pool; otherwise, had it actually leapt, the creature would surely have encountered danger.
Because, at this very moment, several Demon Cultivators suddenly appeared outside.
Upon seeing Li Miaozhen, they immediately flew into a rage, “You there, woman, you’ve got some nerve coming here.
Return the Blood Lotus at once, or else today you will be begging for life and not get it, begging for death and not be able to die!”
Li Miaozhen sneered, “Afraid of you? I think not!”
Without waiting for the Demon Cultivators to speak, she whipped out her saber and was preparing to charge at the opposition.
However, she had barely taken a step forward when her footsteps suddenly faltered; she then turned around, grabbed Qin Feng, and transformed into a streak of Golden Light, escaping towards the distance.
It turned out that behind those few Demon Cultivators, a group of Demon Cultivators had followed. Among them, there were not a few of profound cultivation, and even Dharma Image Realm cultivators were present.
If it were only a few Purple Mansion Realm Demon Cultivators, she wouldn’t be too afraid; even if she couldn’t beat them, she could escape. But in the face of Dharma Image Cultivators, with realms so vastly different, even a top-level True Disciple like her wouldn’t dare to confront an enemy across two major realms, so she had to flee immediately.
“Stop, Demoness, leave the Blood Lotus behind!”
The few Demon Cultivators were unwilling to let Li Miaozhen go and quickly chased after her using their Light Escape.
The crowd of Demon Cultivators who came after heard that the Blood Lotus was on Li Miaozhen and immediately forgot their original purpose, chasing after her one after another.
Fortunately, there was more than one passage around the Blood Pool, which allowed Li Miaozhen and Qin Feng to escape.
Qin Feng instructed the Soul Devouring Vine Demon through the connection of their spirits to hide in the depths of the Blood Pool and not to emerge recklessly, as being discovered by a Demon Cultivator of the Blood God Sect would surely result in its death.
Although the Soul Devouring Vine Demon wasn’t particularly bright, it was very obedient. So, it lay quietly at the bottom of the Blood Pool, wildly extending all of its vines to extract the power from the Blood Pool while stuffing those Blood Essences from the bottom of the pool into its belly.
Even in its consuming fervor, it devoured the roots of the Blood Lotus that was originally in the Blood Pool, leaving nothing behind.
The Cultivators of the Beast Taming Sect and the Demon Cultivators of the Blood God Sect were fighting intensely while the Vine Demon was happily devouring within the pool.
It had not lacked in its consumption of the blood of powerful members of the Demon Clan while in the Red Flame Demon Realm, even secretly devouring a few Commander-Level Demon corpses after major battles. Thus, the creature’s strength had already cultivated to the Mid-Stage of the Demon Core Realm.
Since Qin Feng returned to the Sect in the past few years, he hadn’t fed it, which gave it some time to consolidate its cultivation. It had a Cultivation Technique specially developed by the Beast Taming Sect for plant-based Demon Beasts, so its foundational roots were rather solid. At this moment, gaining the endless energy of the Blood Pool, its cultivation soared, breaking through the bottleneck and advancing to the Late Stage of the Demon Core Realm in no time.
Demon Beasts are naturally capable of bearing greater energy in their bodies than Human Clan Cultivators, allowing them to directly consume various heavenly materials and earthly treasures, whereas Human Clan Cultivators have to refine them into Elixir Pills for better absorption and Refining.
And among all Demon Clans, plant-based Demon Beings were quite an exceptional existence.
As long as they could break through the shackles of life, they could virtually continue growing indefinitely. That was why in the Cultivation World, there exist Tree Demons that grow hundreds of feet tall, as well as exotic treasures like the Blood Lotus that can keep improving, in addition to the powerful effects of Ten-Thousand-Year-Old Elixirs.
The body of the Soul Devouring Vine Demon was tough, and since its innate divine ability was vine regeneration, it nearly had no risk of bursting open; and even if it did burst, it could instantly repair itself.
Besides, in addition to storing Essence Blood energy in its vines, its core position in the roots had an even more formidable storage capacity. Thus, the amount of Essence Blood it absorbed and refined far exceeded ordinary Demon Cultivators’ imagination.
The regeneration divine power of the Vine Demon belonged to the Wood Element’s Life Principle, similar to the Blood Lotus, except the Blood Lotus was cultivated using Essence Blood, so the Life Principle of the Blood Lotus wasn’t divided into Wood or Water Elements but was a pure Life Principle, more suitable for Human Clan Cultivation.
No matter how you look at it, the essence of the power of the Soul Devouring Vine Demon holds some similarities to that of the Blood Lotus. Therefore, when it consumed the roots of the Blood Lotus and extended its own root system along the previous rooting spots of the Blood Lotus, it immediately received the same nurturing methods originally reserved for the Blood Lotus in the pool, providing the Soul Devouring Vine Demon with a chance to emulate the former treatment of the Blood Lotus.
Meanwhile, from the deepest core of the Blood Pool, a sliver of the Power of Life Origin was felt condensing.
The Soul Devouring Vine Demon was not like the unintelligent Blood Lotus; sensing the Life Principle, it immediately integrated it into its own rootstock used to store energy, combining it with its Lifebound Regeneration Divine Power.
Then, it understood.
So this was the Law!
This was the Power of the Law that belonged to the Life Dao!
After comprehending the profound mystery of the Law, the Soul Devouring Vine Demon’s speed of refining the Blood Pool’s energy suddenly increased several-fold.
If it had been considered absorption before, now it could only be described as devouring.
With the support of the Power of Laws, it could continuously store energy in its rootstock, transforming it into a source of regenerative power.
Therefore, when the cultivators of the Blood God Sect suffered a crushing defeat and retreated to this space containing the Blood Pool to prepare for their final defense, they also saw the Blood Pool, a large portion of its Essence Blood Power consumed.
Seeing this scene, a Demon Cultivator burst into curses, “Who did this? Damn it, to take advantage of the chaos and extract so much power from the Blood Pool, aren’t they afraid that when the Grandmaster returns, he will refine them into the Blood Pool to make up for the loss?”
“Hey, who has time to care about that now? Even if the Grandmaster punishes us, we still need to be alive until that time.”
More Demon Cultivators silently regretted their earlier oversight. Why hadn’t they thought of this, foolishly clashing with the cultivators of the Beast Taming Sect? They should have quietly come here to absorb the Essence Blood from the Blood Pool to enhance their Dao Cultivation. At least later during the fight, it could have increased their chances of survival, maybe even providing an opportunity to break through the encirclement and escape to the heavens!
Now that everyone was here, they dared not brazenly extract power from the Blood Pool to cultivate, otherwise, those elders with profound cultivation would surely kill them on the spot and throw them into the Blood Pool to replenish energy.
“Enough, now is not the time to pursue these matters. Dealing with the Beast Taming Sect is urgent. We’ll discuss this later.”
An Elder of the Dharma Image Realm with a powerful aura said, “Hurry up and activate the array. The array in this space is connected to the Blood Pool. As long as there’s still Blood Essence left in the Blood Pool, the array will absolutely not be broken through.
Even if a significant amount of power has been secretly drawn from the Blood Pool, as long as the Blood Essence below is still present, we can hold out at least three days.
With so much time, as long as the Grandmaster hasn’t met with any mishaps, he will definitely return to the Blood Cave, and we will be saved then.”
“That’s right, quickly activate the array, start the defense. As long as the Grandmaster returns, I can launch a counterattack, and then I want to absorb all the Essence Blood from the Beast Taming Sect cultivators!”
“Hehe, compared to the Beast Taming Sect’s cultivators, I’m more interested in some Spiritual Beasts.”
A skinny and short Demon Cultivator said to the others around him, “Have you noticed? The Beast Taming Sect is indeed worthy of its reputation as a prestigious sect; there are so many Spiritual Beasts among their disciples. Among them, even existences like the White Tiger and the Jiao Dragon can be found. Although their bloodlines are not pure and they’re not genuine Divine Beasts, they’re extremely formidable. If I could absorb and refine the blood from those Spiritual Beasts, it would surely greatly enhance my Dao Cultivation.”
A Demon Cultivator glanced at him with disdain, “Those ordinary disciples’ Spiritual Beasts are nothing to brag about. The real powerful ones are those elders’ Spiritual Beasts. I’ve noticed some powerful Spiritual Beasts with such vigorous vitality that just one of them could be enough for me to breakthrough my constraints and advance to the Purple Mansion Realm.”
“What do you know?”
The short Demon Cultivator snorted coldly, “Do you know who I’m talking about? Have you heard of the reputation of Li Miaozhen, a true disciple of the Beast Taming Sect? Her Lifebound Spiritual Beast has the bloodline of the White Tiger. And Qin Feng, he hasn’t released his Lifebound Spiritual Beast, but I clearly saw that giant dragon he got from another world. That giant dragon is not only massive in size, but its blood also contains an immensely powerful energy. To absorb all the blood from that giant dragon would not only increase your and my strength, but most importantly, it could purify the essence of our power.”
“Why?”
The Demon Cultivator next to him showed confusion, “It makes sense to enhance strength, but why can it also purify the essence of power?”
“Because the power attribute of that giant dragon is extremely special and of utmost purity. Its bloodline also contains that kind of energy. As long as we refine the blood of that giant dragon, from now on, even when facing the Pure Yang Power of the Daoist cultivators, we won’t be too severely suppressed anymore.”
“That powerful?”
The nearby Demon Cultivator exclaimed in surprise, “Such a great opportunity; why don’t you keep it to yourself? Why tell us?”
“Because I don’t have the ability to kill that giant dragon,”
The short Demon Cultivator rolled his eyes, “Do you think the elders couldn’t see what even I can see? Since I have no chance of refining the dragon blood in that giant dragon, what’s wrong with letting you crave it too?”
“…”
While the group of Demon Cultivators argued, cursed, and created a commotion, the Array Formation Restriction around the Blood Pool had already been activated. With a hum, it transformed into a blood-colored barrier, sealing off the connected passage tightly.
“Alright, we’ve finally got a chance to catch our breath,”
The Dharma Image Elder gasped for breath and turned to order, “It’s acceptable that someone secretly extracted power from the Blood Pool earlier, but now no one is allowed to draw essence blood from the Blood Pool to restore their Cultivation, even if they’re injured. We must delay for as much time as possible.”
“Yes, Elder,”
The rest of the Demon Cultivators responded in unison. Although some regretted not seizing the chance earlier, now they wouldn’t dare to act recklessly no matter what.
“Elder, will Elder Wu Ya encounter any trouble? If Elder Wu Ya is defeated, once those two Immortals from the Beast Taming Sect break in, we won’t possibly be able to hold this place.”
“Don’t worry, nothing will happen.”
Although the Dharma Image Demon Cultivator felt a slight sinking in his heart, his face remained impassive. “Elder Wu Ya cultivates the ‘Blood Transformation Saber Scripture’, and once the technique is complete, its power is boundless. Its speed of activation is extremely fast, and its physical form is indestructible. Even if the two Immortals from the Beast Taming Sect outnumber him, they won’t be able to easily defeat Elder Wu Ya. If they are not careful, they might even get wounded by the Blood Transformation Saber.
Even if they can win, it’s not certain they can take Elder Wu Ya’s life. After all, as long as Elder Wu Ya transforms into the Blood Transformation Saber, ordinary Immortals simply can’t handle him.
Moreover, even if Elder Wu Ya is defeated, he can retreat back to this place. With the Array Formation Restrictions here to defend and Elder Wu Ya’s ability to enter and exit various passages, I don’t believe the two Immortals from the Beast Taming Sect would disregard the lives of their disciples and still dare to split their forces into so many teams.
As long as they gather their forces in one place, it would provide us with an opportunity to escape.”
Hearing this, the other Demon Cultivators breathed a sigh of relief.
They were all cultivators from the Blood God Sect, and of course, they knew the formidable nature of the Blood Transformation Saber. In fact, a few of the Demon Cultivators had also considered cultivating the ‘Blood Transformation Saber Scripture’ before, but they simply couldn’t endure the excruciating pain and had no choice but to give up.
Shortly after the group of Demon Cultivators activated the Array Formation Restrictions, the figures of the Beast Taming Sect cultivators appeared in several passages connected to the outside space.
As they destroyed one passage after another and every cultivation site of the Demon Cultivators, confirming there were no more Blood God Sect Demon Cultivators outside, they all gathered and began to assault the Array.
“Hmm, what’s going on?”
The Dharma Image Demon Cultivator glanced at the Blood Pool unintentionally and suddenly exclaimed in surprise, “Why is the power in the Blood Pool being consumed so quickly?”
The Beast Taming Sect cultivators had not been attacking for long yet, but the Essence Blood in the Blood Pool had already decreased by a visible amount at a rate far exceeding his expectations.
The other Demon Elders turned their heads to look, their expressions also showing surprise, “Could it be the intensity of the Beast Taming Sect cultivators’ attacks?”
“Is that so? Perhaps!”
The Dharma Image Demon Cultivator felt slightly puzzled, but since the Blood Cave had never been breached before and they had never used the Array to defend against enemies, he thought this was normal and didn’t give it much thought.
“Regardless of the reason, given the current rate of consumption of the Blood Pool, it won’t last long. We need to take action to stop the Beast Taming Sect cultivators, we can’t let them keep attacking like this.”
The other Elders nodded in agreement, “If so, we should split up our forces, assign some people to each passage to fight against the cultivators outside. If possible, we can also concentrate some cultivators at the Purple Mansion Realm and above to launch a surprise attack on their less numbered side.”
“Good, let’s do that.”
The group of Demon Cultivators began to disperse in front of the passage entrances, unleashing Magic Divine Power and various strange Demon Path Treasures Divine Weapons to attack from the inside out.
Since the Array was controlled by their Elders, it didn’t interfere with their power, and this could indeed delay for a significant amount of time.
Outside, Qin Feng and Li Miaozhen were also joining their fellow disciples in attacking the Array Barrier ahead.
The passage, while not particularly narrow, still couldn’t accommodate too many cultivators, so only a few were always attacking at the forefront. This nullified the advantage of the Beast Taming Sect’s superior numbers.
Now that the Blood God Sect cultivators had launched an attack from inside out, it further hindered their speed of breaking the Array.
“This won’t do.”
Up front, Chu Youming, an Elder of the Spiritual Snake Lineage from Dharma Image Realm, waved his hand to stop a few Divine Skills issued by Blood God Sect Demon Cultivators and said with a frown, “At this rate, it will take us three to five days to break through this Great Array.”
“What can we do then?”
By his side was his Daoist companion, Mo Li.
She was an Elder from the Purple Mansion; she had once met Qin Feng when Liu Xuanling took him to the Heavenly Pool Secret Realm.
She suggested, “How about we wait for the two Supreme Elders to kill Xue Wuya, and then rely on their strength to break this Array Barrier?”
Chu Youming shook his head, “No, that would take who knows how long. Besides, delay might bring about unforeseen changes. If I’m not mistaken, the Blood Pool of this Blood Cave should be inside. We need to break through this Great Array quickly and disrupt the Blood Pool inside.
Otherwise, if Xue Wuya is defeated and injured and flees here, he would surely find a way to absorb the Essence Blood from the Blood Pool to rapidly heal his wounds and recover his strength. If that happens, it might complicate matters.”
“But this Array’s defense is very strong, probably because it draws its power from the Blood Pool. Unless the power in the Blood Pool is exhausted, we might find it difficult to break through this Array, even with the Breaking Formation Talisman.”
Elder Mo Li sighed softly; she had already used a Breaking Formation Talisman earlier, which momentarily managed to breach the defense. However, before they could exploit the breach, the Divine Power Magic from the Demon Cultivators inside struck back, and the Array restored itself swiftly with the replenishing power from the Blood Pool.
“Elders, I have something to report.”
Just as they were at a loss, someone spoke from behind them.
Turning around, they saw a True Disciple from their own lineage and nodded.
Chu Youming even beckoned to him, inviting him forward with a smile and asked, “What does Junior Brother Qin have to say?”
His cultivation might be high and his years in cultivation were not short, but he was a generation junior to Ning Wuxu, so he could only address Qin Feng as Junior Brother.
“Reporting to the Elder, if this array is connected to the blood pool inside, I might be able to break through this array quickly.”
“Oh?”
Upon hearing this, the elders, along with the disciples around them, were all invigorated.
“What can you do? Speak quickly!”
An Elder said impatiently.
“That’s the case.”
Qin Feng cleared his throat and said, “I have a variant of the Soul Devouring Vine Demon, which likes to devour essence blood. Previously, Senior Sister Li and I sneaked into the space ahead and left the Soul Devouring Vine Demon in the blood pool.”
“Hm?”
Chu Youming was somewhat surprised. “Your Vine Demon is still alive?”
“Indeed.”
Qin Feng said with a smile, “The Elder is unaware that the blood pool can shield Divine Sense, preventing it from being probed, and those Demon Cultivators probably haven’t yet delved deep into the blood pool, so the Vine Demon’s existence has yet to be discovered.”
“How peculiar these Demon Cultivators are.”
Elder Mo Li shook her head, full of doubt: “All Soul Devouring Vine Demons are variants of the Bloodthirsty Vine. If they enter the blood pool, they would definitely absorb the essence blood voraciously. With such a large loss of essence blood, have those Demon Cultivators never suspected anything?”
“This…”
Qin Feng was scratching his head as well: “I really don’t know about these matters, but the Soul Devouring Vine Demon indeed remains undetected deep within the blood pool, still devouring essence blood to increase its strength; otherwise, it would definitely have been captured by those Demon Cultivators and killed outright.”
“Perhaps they suspect each other, thinking that other Demon Cultivators have secretly drained the pool’s power.”
Chu Youming casually spoke the truth, saying, “Demon Dao Cultivators are known to be selfish and cunning, deeply suspicious of one another. Moreover, since we don’t need that essence blood, that’s probably why they haven’t suspected anything else.”
“Hmm, that seems the most likely.”
Elder Mo Li looked at Qin Feng with a warm smile and asked, “What realm is your Vine Demon in? Can it break through the prohibition of the array within the blood pool and sever the array foundation and energy supplying patterns?”
“It has now cultivated to the Demon Core Late Stage and has also comprehended a trace of the Power of Laws. Whether it can break through the array is still unknown, but I think it’s worth a try. With the support of the Power of Laws, the probability of success should not be small.”
“To have comprehended the Laws, that’s indeed worth a try.”
Chu Youming nodded and said, “First, get in touch with that vine. I will send a message to the elders in the other passages to intensify their attacks on the array barrier and not give those Demon Cultivators a chance to detect us. This way, if any of the array foundations encounter problems, there will be sect members ready to break in and destroy the array, allowing us to thoroughly breach their defenses.”
“Alright.”
Qin Feng nodded and again communicated with the Soul Devouring Vine Demon through his spirit.
Moments later, the elders in several passages had exchanged information and were ready. Chu Youming then nodded at Qin Feng, signaling him to begin.
So Qin Feng immediately gave commands to the Soul Devouring Vine Demon.
At the bottom of the blood pool, the Soul Devouring Vine Demon was blood-red all over, including its roots, vines, leaves, and even its thorns.
Moreover, it was much fatter than before.
The vines, originally as thick as an arm, were now nearly as thick as a thigh, and even its leaves had become much fleshier—a result of absorbing too much essence blood.
However, compared to the main root where it stored energy, the change in the vines and roots seemed insignificant.
Much of the Blood Essence had simply not been refined in time and was stored instead.
Now, upon receiving its master’s orders, the Soul Devouring Vine Demon immediately shook all its roots vigorously, overturning the special jade stones that formed the array’s foundation at the bottom of the pool, causing them to crack and thrust its vines deep into the ground, stirring up the blood pool along with them.
Originally, with its Demon Core Realm strength, it would have been difficult to achieve this step. However, it had taken root where the Blood Lotus had previously grown, and with the boost from the Power of Laws, it was a different story altogether. With its relentless stirring, the blood pool’s connection to the array outside was getting severely disrupted.
The Vine Demon was quite enthusiastic; after all, it had already consumed the greatest benefits from the blood pool. When the Sect Elders breached the pool, it would have to be destroyed anyway, so it might as well be ruined by its own hands.
With the action of the Soul Devouring Vine Demon, the entire blood pool began to boil, and countless waves of essence blood surged up several zhang high.
“What’s going on?”
“What happened? Why has the blood pool suddenly changed?”
Before the Demon Cultivators had time to understand what was happening, they saw the blood-colored barrier protecting the space suddenly shatter. Then, many disciples from the Beast Taming Sect, led by the elders from two branches, stormed in!