Corpse Flower Blood Amber

To use the Boundless Blood Mulberry to go fishing, only to end up losing the bait along with the hook—reeled in by someone else instead. Qin Sang did not find it funny in the least. Fat Chicken was even more terrified, lamenting how treacherous the world was. "Someone has survived inside this Black Pagoda grand array from ancient times to this day?" Qin Sang said in a deep voice. Having rescued Bai, endured the demonic catastrophe in the Hall of Seven Kills, triggered the residual image of the Green Luan, and seen the bone array left behind by that mysterious figure at the Heavenly Corpse Sect main altar, Qin Sang had long grown accustomed to such matters. The upheavals in the Ziwei Palace had far-reaching consequences; ancient restrictions mutated, and all kinds of monsters and demons crawled out from the shadows. Qin Sang's feelings were mixed with joy and dread. The joyful part was that with more ancient cultivators surfacing, there would surely be those who remembered the secrets of antiquity. The worrisome part was that if another ruthless Demon Sovereign appeared, the Beichen Realm had no Soul Formation stage cultivators to turn the tide and seal the Demon Sovereign once again. The entire Beichen Realm would be plunged into misery and ruin. The Blood Lake was a perilous ground, yet it was also a place of treasures—possessing the Boundless Blood Mulberry, boiling blood evil flowers, and the spirit medicine that had lured Jingyu. What was even rarer and more valuable was that hardly anyone ever set foot here. He wondered how much Old Demon Ye and his cohort knew about this place, and whether they knew an ancient cultivator was still clinging to life here, posing a hidden danger. Could it be that they had come specifically for that ancient cultivator? It was conceivable that two or three people might be seduced or bewitched, but Qin Sang did not believe all the Sin Abyss cultivators had lost their minds to help Old Demon Ye release an ancient demon—unless they had obtained some prior information. "I do not know that person's background. Perhaps it is an ancient cultivator as you say, or perhaps a predecessor who accidentally wandered in and was trapped here just like me. But that person harbored foul intentions, was full of malice toward me, and is by no means virtuous!" Jingyu said resentfully. Back then, what had attracted Jingyu was a spiritual item known as Corpse Flower Blood Amber. The conditions required for Corpse Flower Blood Amber to form were exceedingly harsh. First, several unique and rare spiritual flowers had to sprout in a place steeped in extreme yin evil and dense blood qi. After blooming, if these spiritual flowers were left unpicked and never withered, they would absorb copious amounts of blood qi over time. Gradually, the flowers would crystallize and transform, shedding their impurities until they became an amber-like substance. Gem-like in appearance, it was also a spirit medicine for the monster race. Corpse Flower Blood Amber contained virulent blood poison, which human cultivators avoided like vipers and scorpions. However, powerful monster beasts nearing a breakthrough could consume it directly. By refining it, they could forcefully stimulate their own bloodline power to seek a breakthrough opportunity. Yet if their strength was insufficient, the blood poison would take advantage instead, killing them instantly beyond any cure. It was both a spirit medicine and a deadly poison. The monster race held a love-hate relationship with Corpse Flower Blood Amber. "Drawn by the fluctuations in the Blood Lake's seal, I came here and saw the phantoms of several stalks of Corpse Flower Blood Amber drifting upon the lake, appearing as though they could shatter at any moment. Seeing that the seal on the Blood Lake had loosened, I thought it was a heaven-sent opportunity. I joined hands with another monster fellow-daoist living in seclusion in Boundless Valley, broke through the seal, and entered..." Jingyu recounted her past ordeal as she reminisced. The seal on the Blood Lake experienced tremors once every ten years. Over time, they had grown accustomed to it and thought nothing of it. That time, the tremors had merely been somewhat more violent. After forcing her way in, Jingyu had spotted the true Corpse Flower Blood Amber from the mountaintop, floating in the center of the basin—which was within this very Black Pagoda array. They lacked the ability to fish out the Corpse Flower Blood Amber from afar, so they had no choice but to enter the basin in person to track it down. Back then, the restriction on the blood door was not as resilient as it was now. After attacking it together for a while, the two monster beasts managed to pry open a crack and slipped inside. After descending into the Black Pagoda grand array, the two monster beasts dodged the flesh puppets and searched around, eventually locating the center of the array. Just when they were about to pluck the Corpse Flower Blood Amber, they suddenly sensed that something was amiss. "We had been trapped at our bottlenecks for too long and were possessed by greed. We had overlooked all the anomalies along the way. "I do not know whether he lured us in to trick us into helping him break the seal, or merely to treat us as blood food. Seeing that we had caught on, he immediately bared his fangs. "I am innately proficient in Thunder Escape, and at the cost of severe injuries, I managed to escape with my life. Even though he was sealed, he could actually manipulate the flesh puppets here to hunt us down relentlessly. By the time I struggled back to the blood door, I found it tightly shut, and I had no strength to open it on my own. "Fortunately, he could not stir up trouble indefinitely. I fled through the Black Pagoda array with great difficulty, holding out until he fell into slumber. As for that fellow daoist, their whereabouts remain unknown, and they never appeared again." Jingyu sighed softly, paused, and continued, "Heavily wounded, I tried to heal while searching for a way out. From then on, he would awaken once every ten years. Even with a ten-year interval, it was exceedingly difficult to recover in such a foul and sinister place. I was in a wretched state during that period, and my injuries worsened continuously. Later, I stumbled upon this secret dungeon by accident. By that time, my strength was all but spent. Though I knew the secret dungeon might not be safe, I had no other choice..." Saying this, Jingyu stroked Fat Chicken's head and said softly, "Heaven was kind to me. The secret dungeon's restriction only trapped without harming, allowing this day of reunion to come." Jingyu spoke of her experiences in a placid tone, yet Qin Sang and Fat Chicken could both feel how harrowing it had truly been. To escape the demonic clutches only to be trapped in a secret dungeon, with perhaps never a hope of breaking free—how utterly despairing that must have been! Even after listening to Jingyu's ordeal, Qin Sang still knew very little about the ancient cultivator sealed here. "The seal on the Blood Lake fluctuated once every ten years—was that person trying to batter against the seal? Since he could control the flesh puppets, why didn't he use them to help attack the seal, or send them out to seek blood food?" Qin Sang asked, puzzled. Jingyu recalled, "From what I observed, the flesh puppets don't seem to belong to him. Rather, they are spawned by the Black Pagoda grand array and were somehow forcibly controlled by him through unknown means. Even under his control, such puppets cannot damage the array or the seal, and they likely cannot leave the array's boundary." "That makes sense," Qin Sang nodded, frowning. "However, with so many cultivators from both domains barging in, the flesh puppets have shown no unusual behavior, nor have I received any warning from Demon Monarch Tongyou. We were forced to separate, yet that person didn't take the opportunity to seize blood food. Is he in too deep a slumber, or does he harbor some other scheme?" Jingyu thought for a moment and said gravely, "Perhaps it is not that he will not, but that he cannot!" "What do you mean?" Qin Sang was surprised. A cold glint flashed in Jingyu's eyes. "Before hiding in the secret dungeon, I noticed that the number of flesh puppets he controlled dwindled each time. Even inside the secret dungeon, I could still sense the tremors caused when he battered the seal. Yet during the last two times he was supposed to awaken, there was no movement at all..." "You mean..." "Even if he isn't dead, he is at the end of his rope!" Jingyu said decisively. Qin Sang finally understood what Old Demon Ye was scheming for. Mere Corpse Flower Blood Amber was not worth mobilizing so many forces; the Sin Abyss had likely learned from somewhere that an ancient cultivator was sealed within the Blood Lake. An ancient cultivator at death's door! It was nothing less than a treasure trove! It was just unknown whether they would ultimately imprison the ancient cultivator, or if the ancient cultivator would seize the chance to break free and unleash a great catastrophe. Qin Sang had seen the Demon Sovereign with his own eyes, and the lingering terror remained with him to this day.