Chapter 47: Blood Refinement
Song Yan and Li Qingfeng returned to Qin Ying’s side and sat up straight.
“Is it an illusion technique?”
Li Qingfeng looked at the paper figure in Song Yan’s hand, his face full of shock. “Could it be a demonic beast?”
Among humans, there were very few cultivators who specialized in illusion techniques.
“I don’t know.”
Song Yan shook his head. “I encountered this kind of paper figure during a previous mission…”
“But that was three demonic cultivators, and the paper figure appeared only after I slew them.”
“This time seems a bit different…”
Xiao He, hidden in her sleeve, seemed to hear something novel and sneaked out from her lapel, her pair of cyan-gold snake eyes peeking outward.
Suddenly, the people in the hall erupted into commotion.
“The auspicious hour has arrived!”
Someone in the hall shouted, and outside in the village, the sound of suona horns began to ring out.
Drums beat, gongs clanged, and flutes played in unison, creating a boisterous scene.
Qin Ying suddenly stood up and walked outward, with Song Yan and Li Qingfeng naturally following close behind.
At some point, a fog had gradually settled over the village.
The moss on the eaves and wall corners had grown damp, dew had gathered on the ivy, and there were faint signs of it turning red.
“…”
Shadows moved within the fog as a group of villagers dressed in festive attire, each holding suona horns and drums, slowly approached.
Every face bore an exaggerated expression of joy.
Musicians led the procession, followed by eight bearers carrying a wedding palanquin on their shoulders.
Behind them followed the village women.
The eight-bearer palanquin came to a steady stop at the Jiang family’s entrance.
“Huh?”
Xiao He let out a soft sound of surprise, tilting her small head as cyan-gold light swirled in her eyes.
The curtain of the wedding palanquin stirred without wind, and scarlet mist seeped from beneath it. Frost gathered at Qin Ying’s fingertips as she shielded Song Yan and Li Qingfeng behind her.
Thick blood flowed downward from above, slowly dissolving the entire palanquin!
Seated within was not a bride, but a massive blood-colored cocoon.
“Yan Yan, there’s a girl in there, and her scent is very familiar… We may have met her before.”
“…”
Song Yan gazed at the blood-colored cocoon, his expression grave.
Given what Qin Ying had said—that Gu Qingqing had come here alone on a mission and had not been heard from since—the girl inside must be Gu Qingqing.
Sssss—
The frost at Qin Ying’s fingertips transformed into an ice blade, slicing toward one corner of the massive blood cocoon.
A corner of the blood cocoon was sliced away, revealing what lay within.
Dense blood-colored threads extended inward, clinging to a layer of condensed blue-white spiritual energy.
Gu Qingqing’s eyes were closed, her eyelashes trembling slightly, her gentle and serene face appearing starkly out of place amid the crimson.
“Junior Sister Gu…”
The surrounding villagers closed in on the three, their expressions twisted and sinister, whispering, “As expected…”
“We knew you were here to cause trouble…”
Several middle-aged villagers opened their stiff mouths, rolling out hoarse sounds from their throats.
“Ugh…”
Irregular lumps and bulges rose from the foreheads, cheeks, and necks of the middle-aged villagers.
“Peach Blossom Wharf…”
“Immortal… village…”
It seemed as though something was writhing beneath their skin and blood vessels.
“…”
“Ascend to immortality…”
“Watch out!”
BOOM!!!
In the night, blinding flashes of fire erupted one after another, followed by deafening explosions that resounded across the skies above Peach Blossom Wharf.
The thunderous noise surged like a tide, spreading outward in all directions.
“…”
Li Qingfeng spread his hands wide, and a burst of scorching fire-attributed spiritual energy enveloped the three of them. The surrounding houses, unable to withstand the blast, collapsed with a crash, sending bricks, stones, and rubble flying in all directions.
Song Yan looked around through the transparent, flowing spiritual energy.
Every villager in Peach Blossom Wharf was walking toward them like walking corpses, their eyes brimming with crimson.
Strangely, the recent upheaval had not caused any bloodshed in the area.
Song Yan narrowed his gaze, and where those two had originally stood, two paper figures remained.
Several wisps of pure blood energy drifted slowly, floating toward the direction of the Incense Burner Peak.
Blue frost surged in the palm of Qin Ying’s hand.
Hummm—
Her palm opened slightly, and the cold light spread outward.
The frost swept past, and all the villagers were frozen in place by the cold air, collapsing and ceasing to move.
There was not even a single scream.
Qin Ying’s brow furrowed even deeper as she gazed into the distance toward Incense Burner Peak.
Through the thick smoke and flames, two figures were slowly walking toward them.
“I am Jiang Xiao. Greetings to you, fellow Daoists.”
Jiang Xiao’s clothes were disheveled and loose, bearing none of the appearance of what one would expect of an immortal master…
Beside him, Bai Yulu’s attire was revealing, her index finger resting on her lips as she lightly licked at something.
“On such a joyous day as this, why would you unprovokedly attack the villagers? Don’t tell me… you’re here to steal the bride?”
Hummm—
Qin Ying’s overwhelming spiritual qi pressure was no longer concealed, sweeping across all of Peach Blossom Wharf in an instant. At the same time, spiritual energy rapidly condensed beside her as two ice-blue sword beams shot toward Jiang Xiao’s face.
Jiang Xiao’s smile faded, but he showed no panic. A mass of corrupted blood condensed in his hand as a flash of crimson light flickered at his fingertips.
The corrupted blood seized the blue sword beam, circled once around his body, then shot back in the opposite direction, colliding with the other sword beam and dissipating with a bang.
“Oh my, the Eastern Abyss Sect is also a prestigious sect, yet why so bloodthirsty…”
Jiang Xiao suddenly laughed cruelly. “But rest assured… I can bring the villagers back to life.”
He formed a subtle hand seal.
“…”
The villagers who had collapsed to the ground suddenly began to tremble, then one after another started writhing on the ground in an extremely grotesque manner.
The sound of bones interlocking and flesh shifting rose and fell.
Before long, all the villagers had stood up again.
Their skin gradually cracked open, and bright red blood began to burn.
A dangerous smile curled at the corners of Jiang Xiao’s mouth.
Bang!
Amid the crowd, a villager’s body suddenly exploded.
The instant the explosion spread, the bones and blood began to contract.
Qin Ying’s brow furrowed, still with no thought for words, as several ice-blue sword beams shot toward Jiang Xiao in unison.
Jiang Xiao raised his hands slightly, and the blood swirled, condensing in his hand into a solid bead of blood, resembling a pill.
A heaven-reaching surge of blood energy suddenly erupted around him, corrupted blood swirling around his body like quicksand, completely devouring the frost spiritual energy.
That towering blood light was suffocating, and the stench of blood engulfed all of Peach Blossom Wharf…
A Foundation Establishment realm cultivator!
At this moment, all the zombie-like villagers suddenly dropped the weapons in their hands and knelt toward Jiang Xiao.
Drops of scarlet, round blood slowly emerged from the foreheads and chests of every villager kneeling on the ground, drifting outward.
Jiang Xiao tapped his fingertip lightly.
A flying sword wreathed entirely in black flame surged from the bottom of the ancient well, hovering at his side.
“…”
Crimson light erupted from all directions simultaneously as a massive blood energy formation enveloped all of Peach Blossom Wharf.
At the center of the formation stood the ancient well.
“Blood Refinement of the mortal realm…”
His eyes were bloodshot, filled with wild amusement.
“Carry me to immortality!”