Dressed in brocade robes, Dongyang Bo advanced with his hands clasped behind his back, the vajra ring hovering above his head.
The vajra ring trembled continuously. With each vibration, a phantom image of the magic treasure shot forth.
Unlike the true ring, the phantom was dim and lacked any fluctuation. Before the blood shadows could dodge, it would clamp down tightly around them, trapping them regardless of how fiercely they struggled.
Then, with a gentle shudder from the treasure's phantom, the trapped blood shadow would be completely annihilated.
This treasure was his natal magic treasure. Nurtured and refined over many years, it had long since advanced to become a supreme-grade magic treasure, possessing boundless wondrous uses.
Relaxed and at ease, Dongyang Bo did not spare a glance at the surrounding blood shadows. He merely tracked Gongliang Yu’s movements, a faint, ambiguous smile playing upon his face.
They dove deeper and deeper.
The blood shadows grew increasingly powerful, to the point where even the Nascent Soul talisman puppet could no longer obliterate them with a single punch.
Gongliang Yu could sense the azure spiritual light in his origin soul constantly draining away. Once this azure light was exhausted, he would have no choice but to recall the puppet.
At the bottom of the blood river, relying solely on his own strength, he would not be able to advance an inch!
Anxious, Gongliang Yu urged the Nascent Soul talisman puppet into a furious dive toward the riverbed, feeling the crushing pressure mount with every passing moment.
Nurtured by the blood river for countless years, these blood shadows not only possessed bizarre abilities, but the stronger they were, the harder they were to kill. Even when severed into two pieces, they simply split into two blood shadows, charging on without the slightest fear of death.
Talisman silhouettes flashed incessantly across the Nascent Soul talisman puppet, revealing its true power.
All manner of spirit talismans flared across its surface.
Every talisman silhouette represented a different power: water-attribute talismans, fire-attribute talismans, lightning talismans, demon-spirit talismans, and more—an endless array, all refined into the puppet’s body.
The puppet’s repertoire was ever-changing. Wind, fire, thunder, and lightning manifested in turn upon its form, working in concert with heavy punches to obliterate the blood shadows.
Having descended an unknown distance into the river, Gongliang Yu finally spotted something other than blood shadows.
Down in the blood mist below, a blood-colored stalagmite jutted upward. Its pointed tip, steeped in the blood mist for ages, had taken on a crimson hue as translucent as a blood diamond.
At the sight of the stalagmite, Gongliang Yu was overjoyed. He had finally reached the bed of the blood river.
He immediately plunged downward, and before long his feet touched solid ground.
Washed and tempered year in and year out by the blood mist, the earth and stone here had long undergone a transformation in texture, turning extraordinarily hard.
Without time to examine his surroundings, Gongliang Yu sped forward. The blood shadows drawn by their descent grew ever more numerous, surrounding them on all sides and placing increasingly heavy pressure upon the Nascent Soul talisman puppet.
The ground was rugged and uneven, crisscrossed with gullies and bristling with sharp stalagmites everywhere.
The good news was that aside from the omnipresent blood shadow evil spirits, they had not encountered any other monsters.
Man and puppet charged forward with their heads down, entirely unconcerned with how many more blood shadows this would attract; there were already more than enough, and a few more would make no difference.
The Nascent Soul talisman puppet carried out its duty faithfully to protect Gongliang Yu, keeping him largely unharmed.
Even so, seeing such vast swarms of blood shadows left Gongliang Yu pale. His only wish was to find the Blood Zhi Herb as quickly as possible and leave this perilous ground.
After hurtling forward for a while, a chasm abruptly appeared in the ground ahead.
This chasm cut straight across the path, almost perfectly linear, its two ends reaching all the way to the distant banks and severing the entire riverbed. It stretched a thousand zhang wide and was bottomless, with remarkably smooth edges.
Chasms were common at the bottom of the blood river, but one with such an alignment and shape was exceedingly rare, and there was no telling what might be concealed within.
*This is the chasm!*
Gongliang Yu cried out in his heart, unable to conceal the delight in his eyes.
The Blood Zhi Herb did not grow inside the chasm itself, but the trench served as the most unmistakable landmark. According to the information he possessed, once he found this chasm, the Blood Zhi Herb would be close at hand.
When that senior had entered back then, the Blood Zhi Herb had not yet matured. Reluctant to commit a wanton waste of heaven's gifts by harvesting an unripe spirit medicine, the senior had endured the heartache of leaving it behind for later generations.
Gongliang Yu led the Nascent Soul talisman puppet in leaping across the chasm. After traveling swiftly for a while longer, he noticed an abnormality in the flow of the blood mist ahead.
Even before drawing near, a peculiar pressure came bearing down on him.
Gongliang Yu staggered, his protective armor of spiritual energy fluctuating violently as his expression shifted drastically. He had no idea how that pressure had formed, but it had nearly torn his armor to shreds.
Slowing his pace, he approached the abnormal area. The blood mist there was far denser than elsewhere, and the terrain sank into a hollow resembling an underwater lake at the riverbed.
At the center of the blood mist emanated an intense crimson radiance.
In the middle of that glow, an herb with a cap the size of a disc bobbed with the crimson vapors, as if floating upon blood water and undulating with the ripples.
The herb was blood-red throughout, as though formed from congealed blood.
The entire plant possessed only a single leaf, round as a full moon—a sign that it had fully matured.
Its surface bore no veining. At its center lay a coin-sized circular protrusion shaped like a skull, radiating a bizarre and eerie aura.
It was none other than the rare spirit medicine, the Blood Zhi Herb, rumored to aid cultivators in condensing a Nascent Soul!
"At last..."
Catching sight of the Blood Zhi Herb from afar, Gongliang Yu's heart thumped wildly, his breathing turning ragged.
The Blood Zhi Herb gave off no medicinal fragrance. Gongliang Yu surmised that for a spiritual plant growing in such a place, not emitting a foul stench of blood was already a blessing; the lack of a sweet aroma was completely natural.
Even if it possessed any scent, it would have been dispersed by the thick blood mist.
The spirit medicine was right before his eyes!
Yet the blood shadows they had attracted were multiplying by the moment.
Gongliang Yu swept his gaze over the area and saw no guardian spirit beast nearby, nor had that senior mentioned anything of the sort.
These blood shadows harbored intense hostility toward all outsiders. No spirit beast could possibly survive in such a place unless a rare anomaly possessing profound intelligence had arisen among the evil spirits.
With all the commotion he had caused, there had been no reaction around the Blood Zhi Herb, which meant there was likely no guardian beast.
"Go!"
Gongliang Yu barked a low cry as two beams of talisman light shot forth from his dantian.
One was the Tiangang Saber Talisman, which he had already cultivated to great completion.
The other was the Nine Dragons Heavenly Chariot Talisman that Qin Sang would have found familiar, complete with all nine flood dragon souls!
As for Qin Sang’s own talisman, he had no further use for it after reaching the Nascent Soul stage and had bestowed it upon Li Yufu. Because its origins could not bear scrutiny, he had instructed Li Yufu not to use it casually, but to save it for life-or-death crises.
With the flood dragon souls coiling about him and the Tiangang Saber Talisman manifesting its true form to cleave through the suction force ahead, Gongliang Yu became one with the two secret talismans. Following closely behind the Nascent Soul talisman puppet, he drove back the blood shadows and charged toward the Blood Zhi Herb.
To his dismay, halfway there, Gongliang Yu felt the pressure grow so overwhelming that he doubted he could withstand it much longer.
Opportunity knocked but once; there was no time to hesitate.
Deciding decisively, he commanded the Nascent Soul talisman puppet to go ahead and harvest the herb alone. He channeled the full power of his secret talismans and flung out spirit talisman after spirit talisman, preparing to hold the blood shadows at bay for a short time.
*Roar!*
The flood dragon souls howled as the Nine Dragons Heavenly Chariot Talisman was pushed to its absolute limit.
The saber talisman instantly slashed out countless blades of light.
Heavenly thunder, spiritual fire, wooden vines, mountain peaks...
One powerful spirit talisman after another was cast without the slightest hesitation.
Struggling to maneuver through the onslaught, Gongliang Yu watched as the Nascent Soul talisman puppet finally reached the Blood Zhi Herb and reached out to grasp it.
Unexpectedly, the puppet caught nothing but empty air!
Like the moon reflected in water, the Blood Zhi Herb shattered on the spot.
The smile on Gongliang Yu's face froze entirely, replaced by disbelief.
Then, right before his eyes, the Blood Zhi Herb coalesced once more.
Still just as enchanting!
Still just as tragically beautiful!
Before Gongliang Yu could fathom what had happened, he suddenly felt a powerful aura erupt from behind, closing in on him in the blink of an eye.
Chapter 1239