Blood Lake

"This is it!" After a fierce chase, relying on the Heavenly Eye Butterfly's divine abilities while pursued by Old Demon Ye, Qin Sang finally brought the Snake King to the Lake of Sealing. Knowing the ancient restrictions here like the back of his hand, Qin Sang flashed into the dark clouds and slipped through them with ease. Reaching the lake bed, he drove the ebony sword to stir the seal within the water, causing the passage to reappear. Right at that moment, Old Demon Ye's figure appeared above the dark clouds. Along the way, he had nearly lost his quarry several times. It was as though the other party understood the Abyss Ruins better than he, its ostensible master. By now, if Old Demon Ye still could not deduce that Qin Sang possessed some treasure specialized in breaking restrictions, all his centuries of cultivation would have been for nothing. Gazing down into the dark clouds for a moment, Old Demon Ye saw that the ancient restrictions here were already loosened. Breaking them would not be difficult, but it would inevitably cost him time. *** Inside the Heavenly Corpse Sect main altar. Qin Sang and the Snake King surfaced from the water. "Mingyue, so this is where you entered from! If I had known back then, I wouldn't have kept things from you. If we had come here together, entered through this path, and scouted the Abyss Ruins first, perhaps we wouldn't have run into all this trouble..." After fighting side by side for so long, the wariness between the Snake King and Qin Sang had lessened and given way to mutual trust; they now addressed each other directly by name. The demonic clouds around the Snake King were frayed and scattered, his injuries quite severe. Qin Sang shook his head. "I only found this place after a great deal of trouble myself..." As they spoke, they reached the exit of the secret realm, only to discover numerous Sin Abyss cultivators patrolling nearby outside. Clearly, word had reached them, and they were searching for the exit. Exchanging a glance, the two knew Old Demon Ye would catch up at any moment. They had to force their way through. "Once outside, we split up to draw them away," the Snake King sent via voice transmission. Qin Sang had the exact same intention. *** At the bottom of the Heavenly Scar, a four-man patrol squad made its way into a dark forest. "Senior Feng ordered us to look for an entrance to the Abyss Ruins, but why have we never heard of any other entrance to the Sin Abyss besides that cavern?" one of the guards asked with a puzzled look. "How could people of our standing know such secrets? Both seniors said so, which means it must truly exist. They probably want to take advantage of the unrest in Sin God Palace to make it easier to..." The man broke off halfway through his sentence, staring dumbly at a heap of jagged boulders beyond the tree line. The others followed his gaze and noticed abnormal spatial fluctuations rippling above the rocks. A moment later, two figures stepped out from the disturbance. *Swish!* A saber and a sword flashed, snuffing out the four guards' lives in an instant. Yet from the distance, the frantic chime of an alarm bell rang out, and the aura of a Nascent Soul cultivator rapidly closed in. "Alas! Still a step too late—they managed to sound the alarm." With a soft sigh, the Snake King whipped up a gust of demonic wind and soared into the sky. Qin Sang departed in another direction. Chaos erupted throughout the Heavenly Scar. Just then, Old Demon Ye finally arrived, tracking their trail. Extending his divine sense to its absolute limit, he locked onto Qin Sang. *** Outside the Heavenly Scar. Qin Sang drove his Thunder Escape technique with all his might, shaking off the other pursuers, yet he could still feel a faint, wispy strand of divine sense locked onto him from afar. *The gap in cultivation realm is all-encompassing. Some things simply cannot be bridged by treasures and secret arts. Once I return, I must find a way to obtain the Ancestral Holy Fire as soon as possible, cultivate the Fire Seed Golden Lotus, and elevate my divine sense. At least then, when facing a situation like this in the future, shaking off someone's divine sense lock will be far easier.* With this thought, Qin Sang summoned his ebony sword, combining sword escape with thunder escape, and his speed surged once more. In the broad daylight, Qin Sang transformed into a streak of heavenly lightning that tore across the sky. Mortals mistook it for a falling star descending upon the earth. Only cultivators could sense the formidable aura churning within the lightning glare, trembling in fright. Old Demon Ye had assumed Qin Sang was utilizing some overdraft secret art to force his speed higher, never expecting that he would show no sign of slowing down. Suddenly, Ye's brow furrowed. Sensing an abnormal disturbance at the blood lake, he weighed his options and had no choice but to break off the pursuit. Watching helplessly as Qin Sang vanished beyond his sight, Old Demon Ye snorted coldly, turned around, and returned to the Heavenly Corpse Sect main altar. A Sin Abyss Nascent Soul cultivator was searching for something there—the very white-haired old man who had previously guarded the cavern entrance. Seeing Old Demon Ye, he gave a wry smile. "The Cold Lizard detonated its magic treasure, and Daoist Wan set off after it and has yet to return. This poor Daoist was incompetent and let the Snake King slip away; his cultivation is higher than mine, so I failed to see through his breath-concealment art." Old Demon Ye replied indifferently, "Tied down as we were by the blood lake, it was hard to exert our full strength. It is only natural they managed to flee. Going forward, watch out for that Demon King Mingyue. Though I failed to keep him here, I forced out almost all of his tricks. Pass word to our fellow Daoists so no more fall at his hands." "Understood! This poor Daoist searched the area thoroughly just now and suspects this might be the main altar of the Heavenly Corpse Sect from several thousand years ago. The Heavenly Corpse Sect was always secretive and was once besieged by the orthodox sects of that era. Rumor had it that their sect master possessed a refined corpse at the corpse king level. Later, their upper echelon vanished simultaneously, and the Heavenly Corpse Sect faded into silence. Who would have thought their main altar was situated here and even connected to the Abyss Ruins? That man might have obtained the Heavenly Corpse Sect's legacy..." The white-haired old man gestured around the main altar as he spoke. "The Heavenly Corpse Sect?" Old Demon Ye nodded, unconcerned. "Station men to seal off this place. Keep this passage intact; it may prove useful." Before his voice finished echoing, Old Demon Ye activated the passage to return to the Abyss Ruins. Looking fraught with worry, the white-haired old man said anxiously, "Elder Ye, once the Snake King and Demon King Mingyue return, they are very likely to report the blood lake to the Two Realms Alliance. As long as someone among them has been to the depths of Wuya Valley, it will be easy to connect the two and deduce our scheme. We originally thought that with the Two Realms Alliance tied down on the front lines, they wouldn't notice the anomalies in Wuya Valley, allowing us to deceive the world. Who could have foreseen that they would suddenly barge into the Abyss Ruins? One wonders if this is the will of Heaven..." "Heh, what will of Heaven? What if they do deduce it? They could never guess our true objective. At most, they will enter at the same time as us, and since we are already a step ahead, we will hold the upper hand." Old Demon Ye waved his hand and stepped into the passage. Seeing Elder Ye so composed, the white-haired old man felt his anxiety ease somewhat. *** Qin Sang sensed the divine sense locked onto him fade away, but still dared not let down his guard. Only when the thunder power in his phoenix wings was nearly depleted did he dive into a deep mountain range. Confirming that no one was following him, Qin Sang breathed a quiet sigh of relief. This journey into the Abyss Ruins had truly been fraught with peril. Fortunately, his divine abilities were formidable enough to allow him to escape the danger. He wondered how the Snake King and the others were faring. After a brief period of meditating to regulate his breathing, he set out again, heading straight out of the Sin Abyss. Before parting ways, he and the Snake King had agreed upon a rendezvous point in the desert. *It's a treasure I've never heard of before. Not a magic treasure, but likely some kind of spiritual material...* Qin Sang took out the white copper. Searching his memory of all the ancient texts he had read, he found no mention of it anywhere. It had to be an exceedingly rare spiritual material, though he had no idea what it was called. Restrictions placed by Qin Sang covered the white copper; its white radiance had dimmed somewhat, yet remained blindingly bright. Just as Qin Sang was about to examine its properties in detail, he sensed a voice transmitting from Fat Chicken inside the Primordial Concentric Rings. "Master, my mother and I... we've seen an identical blood lake in Wuya Valley..." Fat Chicken seemed to have hesitated for a long time, its tone distinctly lacking confidence.