Boom! Boom! Boom! Wen Jiu followed the other Night Patrol Division disciples as they leaped into the tunnel.

The moment they landed, a thick, death-tainted scent of blood rushed toward them. For ordinary Qi Refinement cultivators, this would be suffocating, making it nearly impossible to breathe. But for Wen Jiu, this was paradise.

Every breath of blood-filled air filled him with joy.

It was as if he were standing in the middle of a vast grassland.

He glanced at the black ghoul beside him. It was so excited that it kept bouncing up and down, drawing attention from those around them.

There was no helping it.

Wen Jiu had to press it down.

Stop jumping! There'll be plenty for you to eat later!

Following the others' gazes, Wen Jiu looked ahead. The tunnel stretched forward in a bottomless expanse of deep red. It was about ten feet wide and ten feet high, with claw marks from demons and fiends gouged deep into the walls.

A hundred feet in, the corpses of Blood Garment Tower remnants began to appear. Within just thirty feet, there were already three to five dozen bodies.

Seeing these Blood Garment Tower remnants lying in pools of blood, the expressions of the Night Patrol Division disciples turned grim.

A heavy silence settled over them.

Walking at the back, Wen Jiu felt his fingers twitch at the sight.

Blood! Cultivator blood!

It would be such a waste not to absorb it all and use it to nourish the corpses.

With that thought, Wen Jiu slowed his steps, deliberately lagging behind while letting the black ghoul absorb the blood covering the ground.

Some of the disciples noticed, their gazes turning complicated, even slightly disgusted. But they knew that Wen Jiu belonged to Mu Canglong and Steward Liu, so they dared not say anything.

Instead, they quickened their pace, wanting to leave him behind.

Wen Jiu simply stopped.

Once they had gone far enough, he took out the Corpse Eye and absorbed the blood in earnest. Within a hundred breaths, every drop was drained.

The amount of blood he collected was comparable to half an hour's worth of absorption at the heart of the Corpse Remains Deadland.

Fresh blood—just recently spilled.

Moving forward again, Wen Jiu found no sign of the other Night Patrol Division disciples, only seven or eight branching paths ahead.

At the crossroads, there were more corpses—Blood Garment Tower remnants and Feixian Peak disciples alike. Wen Jiu took everything.

Then, he chose the path farthest to the left—because he could sense that the strongest concentration of blood aura was seeping from there. The other paths also carried traces of blood, but only this one continuously exuded thick death energy.

Death energy.

The key to advancing the Yin Province Corpse-Nurturing Art.

Wen Jiu wasn't about to let that go to waste.

After a thousand steps, he came across more Blood Garment Tower corpses, though fewer than before.

He absorbed them and pressed on. Soon, another dozen paths appeared, but he continued following the flow of death energy.

As he went deeper, the tunnel grew narrower—barely wide enough for one or two people to pass at a time. And there were no more Blood Garment Tower bodies.

Instead, he started finding terrifying remains of Feixian Peak disciples.

Some had been eaten alive by some kind of burrowing insect, their entire bodies rotted through.

Others had been ripped apart by something far more vicious—even worse than what had happened to Chen Feng.

Wen Jiu absorbed them all and moved forward.

After nearly fifteen minutes, the surroundings became eerily silent. Only the howling of ghostly wind could be heard, but the blood aura and death energy had reached an astonishing intensity.

By now—

The concentration of blood aura was already several times stronger than in the heart of the Corpse Remains Deadland!

Excitement surged through Wen Jiu as he hurried forward, staying alert for any dangers lurking in the branching tunnels.

At last, after passing through seven or eight more junctions, he arrived before a stone wall.

A massive crack ran through it.

Thick blood aura and death energy seeped from within.

Examining the crack closely, Wen Jiu determined it had been caused by a cultivator's artifact—but not from the outside. It had been broken from within.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

For safety, he immediately activated the Three Rivers Ghost Concealment technique.

Silently, he approached the crack.

He could hear movement beyond it—someone shifting things around, as if packing up supplies.

Peering inside—

Three Blood Garment Tower remnants.

All at the third level of Qi Refinement.

Not weak.

Then, his eyes fell to the center of the stone chamber—and his expression froze.

A massive blood pool.

Blood churned within it, releasing an overwhelming flood of blood aura and death energy—far beyond what was escaping into the tunnel.

Just one glance and Wen Jiu's craving exploded.

Compared to this, the Corpse Remains Deadland's blood aura was utterly insignificant.

If he could absorb the entire pool, he didn't dare imagine how strong the black ghoul could become.

And the death energy—what heights could he reach with it?

"What the hell are these Blood Garment Tower remnants trying to do?"

"How many people did they have to kill to gather this much blood essence?"

Wen Jiu was shocked.

He had planned to wait for them to leave before using Blood Corpse Escape to slip in, but unexpectedly, after finishing their preparations, the three took out bottle-like artifacts and began collecting the blood.

They were planning to take it all away.

Wen Jiu's expression darkened.

Don't touch that. That's mine.

Without hesitation, he commanded the black ghoul to smash through the crack, charging straight into the stone chamber. At the same time, he activated Three Rivers Ghost Concealment to launch a surprise attack on the nearest Blood Garment Tower remnant.

Boom!

The crack shattered with a thunderous sound.

The three remnants looked up in alarm, but before they could react, the black ghoul was already upon one of them.

His face twisted in panic. He fumbled to put away the blood-collecting bottle and hastily drew his artifact to defend himself.

But the black ghoul—empowered by Three Rivers Ghost Concealment—was too fast.

Its claws tore straight through his torso.

Blood sprayed as he was ripped apart on the spot.

"A ghoul!"

"How is there a ghoul here?!"

The other two turned pale, hurriedly stowing their artifacts while activating talismans, retreating while launching attacks at the black ghoul.

But Wen Jiu had already circled behind them.

He activated the Corpse Eye.

The Yin Arts he had accumulated over time erupted.

A tide of gray Yin energy burst forth, engulfing the two of them in an instant.

In that brief moment—

Their activated talismans were completely dispelled.

Their bodies began to rot at a terrifying speed, flesh withering as blood spurted uncontrollably from their skin.

The sight was so gruesome that even Wen Jiu felt a chill.

In just three breaths' time, as all the Yin techniques poured out, the two figures had already dissolved into a rotting pool of blood and flesh.

"This..."

The destructive power of the Corpse Eye after being infused with spells was indeed impressive.

But this method of killing—honestly, it was frustrating.

It was even more horrifying than the bloodthirsty remnants of the Blood Robe Tower. If anyone saw this, wouldn't they immediately brand him as one of them?

This was just... truly exasperating.

And at the same time, deeply troubling.

Shaking off his thoughts, Wen Jiu quickly commanded the Corpse Eye and the Black Ghoul to absorb the vast reserves of blood essence within the blood pool.

A mere hundred breaths.

That was equivalent to an entire day's worth of blood absorption in the central region of the Forsaken Corpse Land.

Fifteen minutes passed.

The Black Ghoul could absorb no more.

Its Blood Transformation Body had reached its limit, yet it still desired more, forcing Wen Jiu to drag it away.

He was afraid it might explode from overconsumption.

Fortunately, the Corpse Eye could still continue absorbing.

At the same time, Wen Jiu retrieved the three bottled artifacts and controlled them along with a fourth, directing them all to extract more blood essence.

To be honest, handling four artifacts simultaneously was something he wouldn't even dare to consider on a normal day—his divine sense was already feeling like it was being torn apart.

But he gritted his teeth and endured.

The longer he persisted, the more blood essence he could obtain.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—there was no way he was going to let it slip away!

However—

Just as he managed to endure for another fifteen minutes, Wen Jiu suddenly sensed someone rapidly approaching.

It was the Blood Robe Tower expert who had been battling the master of Feixian Peak!

And close behind him were the Feixian Peak master and several other powerful figures.

"You've got to be kidding me..."

Wen Jiu was unwilling, reluctant—but he had no choice. He immediately stopped absorbing and fled through the fissure.

Damn it!

He had only managed to absorb half of the blood essence in that pool!

Only half!

Mere moments after he escaped, a voice echoed through the air—it was the Blood Robe Tower expert.

"Ji Qiubai, stop running... Your body has already been completely corroded by my Shadow's End Poison. You're nearing collapse."

Wen Jiu immediately cast the Three Rivers Ghost Concealment technique again.

He dared not move.

He didn't even dare to breathe.

"The peak master... lost?!"

Wen Jiu's heart clenched in shock.

Then he heard Feixian Peak Master Ji Qiubai's cold, weakening voice, "I never expected your Blood Robe Tower to have planted so many hidden pieces... Even among my Feixian Peak elders, there were spies from your faction..."

Hearing this, Wen Jiu's heart skipped a beat.

Shit.

He had overheard something he definitely wasn't supposed to.

Suddenly—

A voice he found oddly familiar rang out, its tone filled with chilling malice.

"Not expecting it is exactly why it worked."

The moment Wen Jiu heard this voice, his mind buzzed, and a face he had glimpsed for just a few seconds in the past flashed before his eyes. But he couldn't be sure—if it really was that person, it would be utterly absurd.

Not long after, a dull thud sounded.

Ji Qiubai had collapsed.

The moment he fell, three distinct bursts of laughter followed.

Wen Jiu froze.

There was a third person?!

Another elder of Feixian Peak was a traitor?!

But before he could dwell on it, that familiar voice suddenly spoke again.

"A battle just took place here... And half of the blood essence in the pool is gone! No—someone was just here, stealing it!"

The moment those words fell—

The Blood Robe Tower expert's gaze instantly locked onto the nearby fissure.

"There!"

As soon as that word was spoken—

Wen Jiu's expression shifted dramatically. Without hesitation, he activated Blood Corpse Evasion, vanishing in an instant and reappearing in a cave five miles away.

Though he could no longer hear anything from behind him, he didn't stop—he kept using Blood Corpse Evasion until he returned to the mark he had left with corpse energy.

Once he was out of the underground cave, Wen Jiu collapsed onto the ground, his back drenched in cold sweat.

He had almost been discovered!

"Thank the heavens I had Blood Corpse Evasion!"

He let out a breath of relief, no longer dwelling on the regret of only absorbing half the blood essence.

...

At the same time—

The Blood Robe Tower expert shot out of the fissure, sweeping his gaze around and sending his divine sense frantically probing the surroundings.

He even threw out a Yin talisman—

But it captured nothing.

Only then did he return to the cave.

"The bastard was fast—and his presence is completely undetectable!"

The Blood Robe Tower expert's expression was dark.

Whoever it was had likely overheard their conversation.

If this got out...

"It was a ghost cultivator... And this aura—it feels familiar. I believe I've encountered it at Feixian Peak before..."

A robed elder, his face concealed, knelt down and carefully examined the torn corpses.

"How can you be sure?"

"Someone once used our name to kill at Feixian Peak. I secretly went to investigate."

"Then he's your problem now! You must find him. That bastard stole half the blood essence meant for our alliance leader, which means we'll have to slaughter another fifty thousand mortals to make up for it... Find him so we don't have to take that risk."

"Understood."

The elder responded with an eerie chill in his voice.