Chapter 24: Blood Sea Grand Array

Chen Ping drew a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the urge to fly back to the sect immediately.

He looked down at his faintly trembling hand. In his palm, a wisp of violet-gold thunder danced.

The fragment of Thunder Law he had received through Lin Xiaoyu’s feedback had, in this moment, finally fused completely into his Grand Dao origin.

He raised his gaze toward the Qingyun Sect, a golden glint flowing through his eyes, a mix of relief and heartache.

That girl was fighting with everything she had.

He took a deep breath, pushed down the impulse to return at once, and continued on toward Blackstone City.

Resources. He had to earn them fast.

Only then could Xiaoyu break past the limit of Qi Refining’s ninth layer and step into the true Heavenly Qi Refining Realm.

*

Luoxia Peak. Night.

Lin Xiaoyu was roused by a cool, medicinal fragrance.

She opened her eyes to find herself lying on her familiar hard bed, her left shoulder carefully bandaged.

A round-faced girl sat by the bedside, gently feeding something into her mouth.

“Mm…?”

“Don’t move, don’t move! This is the Pill Hall’s Jade Dew Bone-Mending Ointment. It works wonders!” The round-faced girl brightened when she saw her awake.

“You were incredible! When you collapsed, all five Golden Core puppets shattered! Everyone’s talking about you!”

Lin Xiaoyu blinked blankly.

She remembered now: the Eye of Heavenly Punishment, golden thunder, and then…

“I won?”

“You won! And it was spectacular!” the round-faced girl said excitedly.

“Oh, right, the Guardian Elder told me to pass along that you set a new record. Your reward’s been tripled and already sent to your identity token.”

Lin Xiaoyu paused, then hurriedly checked her token.

Contribution Points: +300,000.

High-grade Spirit Stones: +50,000.

An additional Cultivation Tower exclusive reward: a cyan jade bead the size of a longan fruit, warm to the touch, with faint lightning patterns flowing across its surface.

“This is… a Thunder Spirit Pearl?”

“A semi-finished Thunder Spirit Pearl, but still incredibly rare!” the round-faced girl said enviously.

“It can assist in cultivating thunder-attribute arts and even boost your success rate against the Golden Core lightning tribulation by thirty percent. You’re so lucky!”

Lin Xiaoyu gripped the Thunder Spirit Pearl tight, warmth swelling in her heart.

Her desperate struggle hadn’t been in vain.

*

Midnight.

Blackstone City.

Chen Ping’s figure landed silently on a hill three li outside the city.

He did not enter recklessly.

The moment he activated the Grand Dao Divine Eyes, a faint golden light surfaced deep within his pupils.

And then he saw it.

Above all of Blackstone City hung a layer of blood-colored mist, so thin it was barely there.

The mist was so faint it was nearly impossible to detect. Even a peak Divine Ability Realm cultivator passing through would dismiss it as ordinary nighttime vapor.

But Chen Ping saw it clearly.

That was no mist.

It was countless blood fiend threads, fine as hair, dense as a spider’s web, winding around the entire city in layer upon layer.

The tip of every thread plunged deep into some household’s roof, a wall corner, the edge of a well…

Like innumerable straws, drawing out the vitality of the city’s living creatures at an agonizingly slow, nearly imperceptible pace.

The Blood Sea Grand Array.

Chen Ping had seen this array recorded in the Records of Anomalies in Myriad Realms.

The array used living human essence blood as its catalyst, refining an entire city’s populace step by step.

Once the array was complete, the whole city would transform into a sea of blood.

Every living being’s essence, blood, and soul would be devoured completely, converted into cultivation nourishment for the one who laid the array.

And Blackstone City’s Blood Sea Grand Array had long been set. The moment its master activated it, every person in the city would become fodder for the blood sea.

“Ambitious…” Chen Ping murmured to himself.

The Blood-Handed Butcher? Or someone else’s work?

Chen Ping did not act rashly.

An array this meticulously concealed was meant for something significant.

Whoever went to such lengths would make their move soon.

He chose to wait.

On the hill, Chen Ping sat cross-legged, suppressing all traces of his aura.

The Grand Dao Divine Eyes continued operating at minimal power, blanketing the entirety of Blackstone City within his perception.

The night wind swept past, carrying the deathly stillness of the city.

*

That same moment.

Blackstone City. The ruins of Lin Mansion.

A slender figure landed soundlessly atop a crumbling courtyard wall.

It was a young woman, her moonlight-white dress swaying gently in the night breeze.

Her face was exquisitely beautiful, yet so pale it was nearly translucent. Her lips were as colorless as frost.

She stood quietly on the wall, gazing out over the wreckage of Lin Mansion, a subtle trace of disappointment flickering through her eyes.

“Still nothing…”

Her voice was very soft, tinged with a weakness she could not suppress.

Her name was Yue Qingshuang, Saintess of Tianyue Palace, bearer of the Taiyin Sacred Body^[1].

Three months ago, the Taiyin Origin within her suddenly erupted. Without the Profound Yin Bead to stabilize it, at best she would lose all her cultivation. At worst, she would freeze solid and die.

She had followed the trail of the Profound Yin Bead all the way to Blackstone City.

But by the time she arrived, the Lin Family had already been wiped out.

She searched every inch of the Lin Mansion ruins, scoured every corner of the city.

She even infiltrated the Lin Family’s hidden chamber. It was utterly empty.

The Profound Yin Bead had vanished into thin air.

“Coincidence, or…” Yue Qingshuang murmured.

Or had someone taken the Profound Yin Bead before her, with deliberate intent?

She didn’t want to believe it, but she couldn’t afford not to be wary.

Just as she turned to leave.

Eight figures stepped out of the void simultaneously.

East, south, west, north, southeast, southwest, northeast, northwest.

Eight directions. Eight auras.

One at the early Divine Ability Realm. Seven at the late Nascent Soul Realm.

A perfect encirclement.

Yue Qingshuang’s pupils constricted sharply.

She was no naive young girl.

The instant she saw those eight appear, she understood everything.

The information about the Profound Yin Bead had been bait.

The Lin Family’s annihilation had been bait.

She had tracked the trail all this way, step by step, straight into a trap, completely unaware.

“Saintess of Tianyue. It has been some time.”

A cold, sinister voice came from due east.

The Divine Ability Realm elder leading them wore blood-patterned black robes. His face was gaunt as tree bark, but his murky eyes gleamed with a chilling sharpness.

“Blood Fiend Sect… Blood Shadow Hall.” Yue Qingshuang bit out each word.

“The Saintess has sharp eyes.” The old man grinned, revealing sparse yellow teeth.

“This old man is Li Cang, Blood Shadow Hall Master. By the sect master’s orders, I have been awaiting the Saintess for quite some time.”

Yue Qingshuang did not reply.

In her lowered right hand, a sword of icy blue slowly coalesced.

The blade was crystalline as frozen ice, its edge gleaming with faint moonlight.

The Lunar Cold Sword, one of Tianyue Palace’s most treasured weapons.

“Peak Golden Core, against this old man at Divine Ability Realm, plus seven Nascent Soul cultivators.” Li Cang smiled.

“The Saintess still wishes to struggle?”

His only answer was a flash of sword light.

The light was cold as frost, so fast its trajectory was nearly invisible.

Li Cang sidestepped. The sword light grazed past his temple, severing a few strands of white hair, and embedded itself in a stone wall three zhang behind him.

The wall was instantly coated in ice, then shattered with a thunderous crash.

“Fine swordsmanship.” Li Cang touched his temple, his smile deepening.

“A pity. A Golden Core is still just a Golden Core.”

A wave of his hand, and all seven Nascent Soul cultivators attacked at once.

Without a word, Yue Qingshuang’s Lunar Cold Sword erupted into a sky full of sword shadows, intercepting all seven attacks.

Sword light and blood radiance collided with an ear-piercing shriek.

Three breaths.

Five breaths.

Ten breaths.

Yue Qingshuang’s sword momentum remained fierce, but her already pale face had begun turning an unnatural shade of bluish-purple.

The Taiyin Origin… she could barely hold it back any longer.

She forced the Lunar Cold Sword to drive back two of the Nascent Soul attackers.

But another’s blood claw tore through her left shoulder. Blood sprayed, freezing into fine ice crystals in the air.

“Cough…”

Yue Qingshuang let out a muffled grunt and stumbled back.

Li Cang stood with his hands behind his back, making no move, simply watching with keen interest.

“The Taiyin Sacred Body lives up to its reputation,” he praised.

“At the Golden Core stage, to last over ten breaths against seven Nascent Soul cultivators of my Blood Shadow Hall, you would find no second such talent in the entire Southern Region.”

He paused, then shifted his tone.

“But… how much longer can you hold on?”