Blood Restriction

"Ninth Aunt!" Caiyi Xianzi waved, her voice delicate and brimming with anticipation. "Was there any supreme treasure inside?" A smile played across Nine Phoenix King's face; she had evidently reaped a rich harvest. "It appears to have originally been a medicinal garden, devoid of magic treasures. The grounds were quite vast, though entirely dilapidated. Even so, I found several spirit herbs inside that will aid my healing. Once I refine them upon our return, my injuries should fully mend..." The demons were secretly astonished. None knew just how severe Nine Phoenix King's wounds had been for her still to be unhealed after all this time. Nine Phoenix King descended before them. Her robes were immaculate, looking no different from when she had first entered. "I have already searched the area; there are no other treasures hidden here. Without further ado, let us attend to proper business." Stepping out of the moon gate, Nine Phoenix King made a light stroke with the square seal and led the demons away. A ripple passed over the restrictions on the wall, followed by a flash of light. The wall was restored to its original state, and the moon gate vanished. ... At the entrance to Flower Immortal Lake, the demons stepped down from the wooden bridge. Nine Phoenix King flew atop a high peak, gazing into the distance to observe the terrain of the Hall of Seven Kills. Several landmarks within the Hall of Seven Kills were particularly conspicuous and could be faintly discerned even from here—such as the Heaven Tower, the immortal platform, and the enigmatic Inner Hall shrouded in immortal restrictions at its deepest reaches. "Lingzhuzi and the Grand Shaman are over there!" Caiyi Xianzi pointed toward the Heaven Tower. "When we entered Flower Immortal Lake, they had yet to leave the Hall of Seven Kills. Since everything remains calm inside the Hall now, they should still be within the Heaven Tower. The last time, when the Demon Lord and the Grand Shaman fought over the treasure, their fierce battle threw the Hall of Seven Kills into utter chaos..." Nine Phoenix King's gaze was piercing as lightning. After staring at the Heaven Tower for a long while, she said coldly, "Now is not the time to cross paths with the Nascent Souls of the two races. Stand guard for me." With that, Nine Phoenix King dropped onto an open clearing and sat down cross-legged. Though puzzled, the demons quietly fanned out around her, watching their surroundings with heightened vigilance. With a wave of her sleeve, Nine Phoenix King laid down several restrictions around herself. She then produced a glazed glass bead the size of an infant's fist. Raising her palm slightly, she let the glazed bead hover before her. Her hands shifted in rapid succession, her fingers turning like a wheel as seal after seal flew forth and sank into the bead. The glazed bead trembled, buzzing as brilliant light flared from it. The surrounding restrictions sealed off the commotion brewing within the bead. Then, an astonishing scene unfolded. Nine Phoenix King parted her lips and spat a mouthful of essence blood directly onto the glazed bead. In an instant, the essence blood was completely devoured by the bead. Runes danced frantically within the translucent sphere in a dazzling display; staring at it for even a moment brought a dizzying sensation of one's mind being drawn inside. Glancing out of the corner of his eye, Qin Sang detected a faint, lingering resonance connecting the bead to Nine Phoenix King. Even if it was not her life magic treasure, it must have been nurtured by her for many years to possess such a deep connection. Moments later, the glazed bead gradually ceased trembling, its internal appearance drastically transformed. Suspended within the bead was a single droplet of golden liquid. It seemed to be the concentrated power of Nine Phoenix King's essence blood, yet it was not bright red, but rather a brilliant gold. By this point, Nine Phoenix King's aura had withered considerably compared to before. She hurriedly swallowed a medicinal pill, her expression solemn as she gazed at the glazed bead. Suddenly, she flicked her finger, sending a streak of flowing light onto it. With a sharp metallic ring, the glazed bead abruptly transformed into a streak of golden haze and shot forth. Caught off guard, the demons' expressions shifted slightly, and they prepared to intercept it. But Nine Phoenix King waved her hand, her red lips moving as she silently incanted a spell. The glazed bead ground to an abrupt halt midair and was snatched back into her palm. The glazed bead continued to struggle. Nine Phoenix King slowly closed her eyes. After sensing its pull carefully for a moment, a hint of delight surfaced on her face. She snapped her head toward the distance and said, "Follow me!" With that, she took to the air in a streak of escape light and sped toward that direction, deliberately holding back her speed to accommodate the group. Crossing over mountains and ridges, the demons soon arrived before a cliff face. The glazed bead in Nine Phoenix King's hand trembled violently, seemingly drawn to something hidden within the rock. The cliff was damp and blanketed in moss and overgrown weeds. Several ancient pines had even sprouted tenaciously from crevices in the stone, clinging stubbornly to life. "What is Ninth Aunt looking for?" Caiyi Xianzi asked. Nine Phoenix King did not answer. Sweeping her gaze across the cliff, she pointed to a specific spot on the stone wall. "Caiyi, you two attack that spot with all your might." Caiyi Xianzi and Gu Heng stepped forward and flew to the spot she indicated, both uttering a low shout. Glowing clouds emerged over Caiyi Xianzi's body, conjuring the phantom of a seven-colored phoenix. Within Gu Heng, bones cracked with loud pops as sharp dragon horns suddenly sprouted from his head. The two demons exchanged a glance and struck simultaneously, unleashing full-powered blows upon the stone wall. Ordinary rock would have shattered into pieces under such a ferocious assault. Yet this cliff did not even crack; only the moss and weeds were swept clean, reduced to fine dust. The cliff's true face was revealed, its surface shimmering with a faint glimmer, the rock entirely undamaged. At that moment, Nine Phoenix King flickered and appeared before the stone wall. Pressing her fair hand gently against it, she cried out, "Open!" The cliff shuddered violently, and an entrance appeared out of nowhere. Moments later, the demons found themselves standing in an empty cave, filled with perplexity. Clutching the glazed bead in one hand, Nine Phoenix King stood before one of the cavern walls, her head slightly tilted as she stared blankly at the bare stone. Standing beside her, Caiyi Xianzi seemed to sense something as well, yet she looked uncertain and hesitated to speak. "Do these restrictions feel familiar to you? This is a blood restriction unique to our Phoenix Clan," Nine Phoenix King said to Caiyi. "The senior who left this blood restriction possessed cultivation far surpassing ours. Had its power not faded drastically over the passage of time, and had it not been breached by brute force in the past, even I would have found it difficult to detect with secret arts." "A Phoenix Clan blood restriction!" Caiyi Xianzi gasped in shock. "Could this be the cave dwelling of an elder of our clan?" Nine Phoenix King nodded. "It is possible. There is surely more than one such place; other abandoned abodes of demon cultivators must remain within the Hall of Seven Kills. They may have been spirit beasts tamed by human cultivators, or perhaps they belonged to the same sect and hailed from the same faction." "Demon cultivators and human cultivators hailing from the same sect?" Caiyi Xianzi and the others found such a scene hard to imagine. The demon race and human cultivators of the two great sea realms had always been like fire and water. Nine Phoenix King said indifferently, "What is so strange about that? The ancient cultivation world was far from peaceful; demon cultivators and human cultivators were not necessarily enemies at all times." Something suddenly occurred to Caiyi Xianzi, and she said excitedly, "Ninth Aunt, does that mean the Hall of Seven Kills is not purely a human sacred ground as the human race claims? In truth, is this also a sacred ground for our demon race?" Nine Phoenix King gave a soft hum of affirmation and sighed. "Be that as it may, the human and shaman races flourish in the Canglang Sea while the demon race has declined, forced to live under their thumbs and scrape by in hardship. We lack the power to contest the Hall of Seven Kills. Who knows how many treasures left by ancient demon seniors have fallen into the hands of human cultivators, like pearls cast before swine? If we could obtain those treasures, we might well find an opportunity for Deity Transformation." A chord of sorrow struck the hearts of the demons. The bitter irony was that the Hall of Seven Kills lay in the Canglang Sea rather than the Demon Sea. They had endured untold hardships just to infiltrate this place; launching a full-scale invasion of the Canglang Sea was out of the question, leaving them utterly powerless to compete against the human cultivators.