PtM Book 17 - Chapter 10: The Blood Demon Sect

After six months of training in the Clear Sky World, the rebel cultivators had undergone a metamorphosis, and were well on their way to matching the power of a Tier 2 sect. Unfortunately, Tier 2 sects also required inheritances and accumulation. An all-out conflict with the Blood Demon Sect was out of the question.

But that didn’t mean there were no options. Every sect had their vulnerable points, and the Blood Demon Sect was no exception. Their blood pool was Cha Ming’s next target.

Cha Ming’s Clear Rune Battle Art appeared simple at first glance, but it contained many intricacies. The Clear Rune Steps technique was a powerful teleportation-type technique that bypassed spatial barricades, but it was far more than that. Clear Rune Steps would integrated with his Clear Rune Field, as his Clear Rune Field was an extension of his body. And thanks to 72 Transformations, his body could take on the aspects of any element.

Effectively, Cha Ming could use the technique to move through any of the five elements as though it were air. This applied to water, earth, and even metal. There were exceptions, of course; runes and law projections could inhibit this ability. But even then, it would only slow him down.

This was an ability that Cha Ming had only shown during his attack on the Blood Leaf Sect, and to his knowledge, there were no survivors in the inner sect. The entire outer sect had been captured. As a result, he found no defences underground as he moved through mountain rock, forest soil, and veins of precious metal ore in the Blood Demon Mountains.

The Blood Demon Sect occupied tens of thousands of square kilometers. It wasn’t just city, but small country, where cultivators raised livestock, mined minerals, and crafted the many items necessary for the everyday needs of their sect members. Over ten million cultivators lived inside the Blood Demon Sect.

The sect’s primary defences consisted of twelve large blood demon statues affixed to key spirit veins that ran through the mountains. Most of their power came from the blood stone ore and blood stone crystal veins directly beneath the sect. Where these natural ore veins fell short, the blood demon statues could draw power directly from the sect’s blood pool, though this function required permission from a plurality of the sect’s elders or a directive from the sect master.

Passing through the formation proved no issue for Cha Ming. The combination of being able to move through rock and soil and being able to become said rock and soil when necessary, exceeded the detection capabilities of the formation.

The next hurdle came in the form of thousands of small blood pagodas that demarcated the inner sect. The inner sect was built on a rich ore vein, and as such, these pagodas could only scan two kilometers deep at most.

The elder’s quarters proved a challenge, however. They were once again guarded by twelve blood demon statues, but these ones had three heads and six arms. Each one was an early law stitching golem controlled by a slave soul. As such, their operations weren’t mechanical but unpredictable.

These sentry statues forced Cha Ming twenty kilometers down to evade detection, but Cha Ming did not mind. The Blood Demon Sect’s blood pool was located fifteen kilometers below ground. Unlike Tier 3 blood pools, Tier 2 blood pools were full of crystalized blood essence that required a constant source of earthen fire to keep melted. As such, it was common to build them in aquifer-like pockets near sources of magma.

Cha Ming approached the blood reservoir slowly and carefully. Several Tier 3 blood pools had been stolen before, so he was not surprised to find several strong guards and an initial law-stitching elder guarding it.

He was not afraid of fighting such a weak and isolated group of cultivators, but he was wary of the formation they’d laid down. Just a cursory inspection told Cha Ming the formation was from the Heartforge Realm. It was linked to the blood pool, and if activated, would make it difficult for Cha Ming to defeat them in a reasonable amount of time.

Another problem lay with the law-stitching elder. He might be weak, but sect elders were allowed to wield the power of their sect’s blood reserves in emergency situations. This would make his energy reserve virtually limitless and boost his strength to that of an early law stitching cultivator.

Both strategies relied on an intact blood pool, so his objective was naturally to first neutralize the blood pool. The elder did not appear to sense him as he drew nearer; his body’s composition perfectly matched his surroundings.

Cha Ming did not have much experience with higher-level formations, and the fact that this one was from the Heartforge Realm made dealing with it even trickier. Though he couldn’t understand law-stitching grade formations, he did have some means of getting passed them. He used a combination of the Crown of the Starry Sky and All-Heaven’s Eye to copy the formation, then recreated a copy in the Clear Sky World to test and simulate. It didn’t take him long to find weak points in the formation that could be exploited.

Cha Ming had no intentions of breaking the formation, as doing so would only alert his enemies. He crept up to one of the formations weak points and pierced through it, enlarging the flaw just enough to send a single clear rune through.

Once the clear rune was on the other side, he used it as a transfer medium and carried the rest of his body over. He sent a full half of his power over but kept the other half in reserve. A half-strength incarnation should be more than sufficient for pulling the blood pool into the Clear Sky World while another half-strength incarnation retreated to a safer distance.

It was important that he have uninterrupted time with the blood pool, so Cha Ming observed the elder and the guards for several days. There was a constant flow of cultivators from the inner sect and the elders’ quarters. Some would take away concentrated blood essence from the blood pool, while others would pour in large amounts of processed blood that would reduce in volume over the course of several hours.

Like this, an entire week passed by. There was no specific schedule to blood deliveries an pickups, but after a week of observation, he noticed that certain times of day saw less frequent visits.

He waited until an inner sect member delivered a batch of blood essence before making his move. Since fresh blood had just been added, the elder would not approve any removals of blood essence until this newly added blood boiled down.

Currently, Cha Ming had completely melded with the stone flooring. He moved slowly and was extremely careful to mask his presence. He edged up to the blood pool, then carefully transformed himself into corrupted blood. While it was difficult to imitate corrupted blood with Seventy-Two Transformations, since he could not imitate properties of grudge and resentment yet, he could replicate the contents of the blood pool and all its alchemical reagents.

The blood pool was very large, and though it was filled with a resentful will, this will did not report its presence. It hated the Blood Demon Sect. Why should it care if someone was here to cause trouble?

It wasn’t long until Cha Ming was indistinguishable from the blood pool. He began absorbing it slowly, and as he did so, he added a second liquid to the blood pool by mixing up various inks in the Clear Sky World to match its properties.

Tier 2 blood was a powerful treasure, and in normal circumstances, it would completely overpower Tier 3 blood. But it not do so when it encountered the Righteous Blood in Cha Ming’s Clear Sky World. The sin-infused blood craved vengeance and release. It was only too happy to surrender to the Righteous Blood and added its own grievances to the collective debt Cha Ming owed to the blood pool.

It wasn’t long before the blood pool broke through. The Righteous Blood in the pool crystalized as it evolved, becoming an early law stitching liquid. The blood hissed and boiled and greatly reduced in volume. If not for the fact that this had occurred within the Clear Sky World, it would have attracted a lot of attention.

The breakthrough not only made the blood more powerful – it deepened the karmic ties binding the pool and Cha Ming. Furthermore, the act of stealing the Blood Demon Sect’s blood pool counted as partial revenge, which strengthened the blood pool’s approval of Cha Ming.

More gold flecks appeared inside the Righteous Blood. Its spirituality increased. It began to feel and to crave action.

It only took a full day for Cha Ming to drain the entire blood pool. Only a useless alchemical copy remained. Even the blood stalagmites at the bottom of the blood pool had been stolen.

He was about to leave when suddenly, the supervising elder’s eyes snapped open. “Is it just me or is that blood pool looking a lot less resentful than it usually does?” the elder asked one of the guards.

The guard glanced at the pool in shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never felt the resentment myself.”

The elder rolled his eyes. “Then what do you call that intangible force that tries to destroy you whenever you consume blood to make a breakthrough?”

“Oh that,” the guard said. “I always assumed that was just how blood behaved.”

“I think you should spend less time drinking, brother Blood Wine,” said another guard.

“The Dao of Blood Alcohol is a legitimate Dao to pursue,” the guard said, defending himself. “In fact, I think one of our elders cultivates the very same path.”

“Pipe down!” the elder shouted. He rose to his feet and walked up to the edge of the blood pool. Cha Ming had stopped his excavation activities and cursed himself for overlooking the issue of resentment. Though it was difficult for cultivators of their level to sense such things, elder-level figures were very experienced with blood and were likely to have a sixth sense when it came to blood treasures and techniques. “Someone’s tampered with the blood pool. Somehow. Test it, Blood Wine.”

Blood Win dipped his finger into the blood pool. Cha Ming’s paint imitation was naturally quite convincing, so he didn’t notice anything amiss. “Looks like blood. Feels like blood.” He dipped the finger in his mouth. “Tastes like blood.”

“And yet…” the Elder sent a wave of spiritual energy into the blood pool. It combed through the entire pool, which included Cha Ming’s body, as he was currently imitating blood. The spiritual energy began to squeeze and cut at the blood to check if anything tangible was present inside. It felt and probed at the false blood. “This… isn’t blood, the elder said.”

“Impossible,” Blood Wine said. “I sample this blood pool quite often. It tastes the same as it usually does.”

“I said it isn’t blood, so it isn’t!” the elder snapped. “Moreover, can you see the formation starting to weaken? It’s just a treasure, but it has more sense than you. We need to get to the bottom for this, and fast. Join your power with mine!”

The twelve guards assumed set positions around blood pool and formed a blood link with the elder, increasing his strength. The elder then reached out to the formation and tried to draw on the power of the blood pool, confirming his suspicions.

“The blood is gone,” said the elder. “Assist me while I confirm.” He resumed the same coming and probing motions as before, albeit with much great strength. “I found you!” the elder shouted. A baleful aura exploded from inside him as his law projection descended. “Eighteen Blood Spikes of the Demon King!”

Cha Ming trembled as a technique that could destroy the entire blood pool took form. He wasn’t sure what had given him away, but he definitely couldn’t handle something like this.

“Elder, you mustn’t!” a voice shouted.

“Quiet while I exterminate this spy!” He shouted and brought the spikes down.

At this point, Cha Ming was only a weak incarnation, so losing it wouldn’t hurt him that much. He decided to take a risk and did absolutely nothing.

His gamble paid off, because the technique stopped millimetres away from the surface of the blood pool. “Elder…” one of the guards said uncertainly.

“It’s called deception, apprentice niece,” the elder said. “If someone was skilled enough to hide form my scanning capabilities, perhaps I could force them out of hiding with a bluff. I would naturally never destroy the blood pool unless I had no choice.”

“So you’re saying everything is fine? This is legitimate blood?” another sect member said.

“It’s obviously not fine,” the elder said. “Look. Can’t you see that the formation isn’t getting any power from it? But that doesn’t mean its not blood. It’s just that’s properties are off. We’ll talk to the alchemists and get them to rectify it. I bet one of our rival sects did something to it.”

He took out a talisman and called from some reinforcements, and Cha Ming, relieved at having evaded detection, dispersed his incarnation. Ten kilometers away, his second incarnation opened its eyes. It was only a matter of time before he was discovered, so he flew through the earth towards the Blood Demon Sects’ protective boundary and made a swift exit.

***

Though Clear Rune Steps allowed Cha Ming to travel underground, it was impossible for him to use Azure Tempest Wings at the same time. Yet he avoided the skies, because his intuition was telling him that something was off.

His soul felt a sting of pain only a half hour after successfully stealing the blood pool. He looked back towards the Blood Demon Sect and saw a karmic thread leading back to it.

Cha Ming immediately tried to sever the karmic thread using the Clear Sky Carving Knife and destruction qi – only to see the blade pass through the thread without damaging it. The tracking technique being used is too powerful, and my connection to the Blood Demon Sect too strong, he thought. To break the connection, I can only rely on distance.

Powerful auras began to close in on his position, each one armed with powerful tracking devices. Though his intuition told him that he couldn’t match up to the cultivators on the surface, waiting would only make things worse.

He considered fleeing further underground but decided against it. Not only would the pressure and heat increase exponentially underground, but it was also a well-known fact that powerful entities liked to hide in the core regions of every planet. Moreover, Cha Ming wasn’t out of options just yet.

Cha Ming shot out of the ground with the momentum he could muster. The earth exploded, sending a shower of rock and dust straight into a cluster of twelve ships, destroying one and sweeping away the others.

It was Cha Ming’s habit to keep a weak incarnation in the Clear Sky World. The incarnation appeared before the rebel sect masters and elders. “Oh? What’s brought you here today, Clear Sky? And in such a hurry too?” asked Elder Fall.

“It’s time,” Cha Ming said to them. “The Blood Demon Sect was expecting me, and now they’ve caught up. It’s going to be a rough fight.”

“We’ve never been afraid of battle,” said Elder Summer. “Arm yourselves, disciples! Prepare for battle! Assemble formations!” His cries were echoed by the leaders of various factions. They assumed their rehearsed positions.

There were twelve ships in total currently chasing after Cha Ming. Three of them were corvette class vessels equipped for speed and capture, while the rest were scouting vessels barely a quarter of their size.

Cha Ming was amazed at how well-prepared they were for dealing with a cultivator like him. It was almost like they had predicted he would appear here. Was it divination?

“Surrender, Daoist Clear Sky!” said a law stitching cultivator from one of the ships. “Yes, we know it’s you. There’s no need to make things harder on yourself.” He and twelve others stood on the prow of their ships, though one ship had two law stitching cultivators, one of which was completely dishevelled, as his ship had been obliterated.

“Congratulations,” Cha Ming taunted. “After a year, you finally managed to find me. How did you do it? Divination? Prophecy? Process of elimination? Spies?”

“It was obviously a seer who f – “

“Shut up, you dimwit!” the strongest of the twelve said. “Another word out of you and I’ll have you executed!” But it was already too late. Cha Ming had gotten the answer he was looking for. He stopped playing around and flew backwards towards the twelve ships, jumping atop one of them and summoning the Savage Deity War staff in pillar form and smashing downwards.

Three resounding impacts could be heard as the corvette-class ship’s cabin completely caved in, along with a good third of the deck and hull of the ship. Cha Ming didn’t bother assessing the damage – he simply appeared beside another ship, this time smashing through the front of it with a hundred meter long, five-meter-wide staff.

“Stop him!” their leader said. Twelve cultivators appeared around Cha Ming and manipulated the laws of the world to enforce spatial containment on him. Threads of space tangled around his arms and his legs, preventing him from moving, and preventing space from collapsing. Skimmers and living creatures flew out form each of the ships. The skimmers were standard issue, and many of them were from the Azure Tempest Region, but the blood demon mounts he saw were something unique to the region.

In total, there were thousand of cultivators that flew out to encircle him. The last remaining corvette flew up and aimed a lance-type weapon at him, while the other two hobbled along at a much slower speed.

“Any last words?” the lead law stitching cultivator asked with a sneer.

“Yeah,” Cha Ming said. “You’re probably going to get fired after this.” He used Clear Runes Steps, completely ignoring the spatial lockdown, then smashed his staff a third time destroying another ship. “See you later. Maybe.”

A void rift appeared and whisked Cha Ming away. This was possible because he’d sent a weaker incarnation fifteen kilometers away. There was a blockade ahead of it – likely thanks to that same seer that had anticipated his appearance, but the situation was still manageable.

This time, it was thirty ships that awaited him, each with their own law stitching cultivator. There were no less than three early law stitching cultivators overseeing them, and one of them was none other than Set Master Blood Demon.

There was no evading this confrontation, so Cha Ming flew up to the blockade and crossed his arms. “What can I do for you today, Sect Master Blood Pool? I know I’ve caused a lot of damage in this region, but isn’t this an over-exaggerated reception?”

The Sect Master appraised him for a few seconds before speaking. “You just stole my blood pool,” he said. “Tell me why I shouldn’t just kill you here and now.”

Cha Ming smiled. “I’m afraid you can’t bear the responsibility for killing me, Patriarch,” he said. “I’m from the Heartforge Realm, and they’ll punish anyone who kills a warden.”

“He’s lying,” said one of the law-snitching realm cultivators, holding up a truth-detection treasure.

“Kill him,” the patriarch said. A net appeared around the area as tens of thousands of cultivators emerged from beneath them. As for the ships, they began charging their main weapons for a single concentrated attack.

This was not something Cha Ming could deal with alone, so he portal to the Clear Sky world. His own army of cultivators poured. After such a long cultivation session with such plentiful cultivation resources, many of them had broken through to the law stitching realm. There were over a hundred law stitching cultivators and over a thousand rune gathering cultivators.

“Leave the elders to us,” Elder Fall from the blood leaf sect said with a laugh. He and most of the sect masters and elders joined together to form two formations according to their respective combat styles and elements.

“Leave these ships and the rank-and-file cultivators to us,” another sect master said. “Assemble formations! Charge!”

Each of these cultivators had accompanied Cha Ming in destroying and liberating many sects, and as such they were no strangers to sect warfare. With their new weapon and combat formations, as well as their significantly enhanced cultivations, they were a force to be reckoned with.

The Blood Demon Sect was the most powerful Tier 2 sect in the region, so they were not intimidated by this sudden outburst of strength. Even this small detachment of theirs boasted thousands of rune-gathering cultivators, thirty initial law stitching cultivators, and one early law stitching cultivator.

Their Blood Demon Sect also had their Blood Beast Division to rely on, as well as their elite Blood Demon Division. The first used portable treasures to summon fourth huge numbers of tamed blood beasts, while the second absorbed large quantities of blood to transform into monsters.

The Blood Sword Division was also present. Each of them had their own personal blood blades that had tasted the blood of hundreds if not thousands of enemies.

“Show them no mercy!” the cultivators of the Blood Demon Sect shouted in unison.

“Make them bleed!” the rebels cried out in response.

Tens of thousands of techniques flew back and forth. Hundreds died in just the first exchange. Only Cha Ming and the sect master were left unaccounted for. They floated not far away from the fighting, but too far to interfere with any of it.

“Why bother struggling?” Patriarch Blood Demon said. “You’re not my match given with your weak cultivation, even considering your frightening battle prowess. I’d also like you to look to the south and east. See those ships? They’re form the Blood God Sect, and they will be here in exactly three minutes.”

“That’s a relief,” Cha Ming said.

“What is?” asked Patriarch Blood Demon.

“I thought I only had seconds until reinforcements arrived,” Cha Ming said. “Minutes should be enough time to clean you all up.”