PtM 17 - Chapter 4: Red Earth, Clear Skies

2/3 this week!

Having come to the Chasewind Plane six years ago, Cha Ming was quite familiar with the Azure Tempest Region he’d been assigned to. The region saw its fair share of severe windstorms that could rip off the face of even powerful demigods, and Cha Ming, having never left his protectorate, expected more of the same everywhere else.

It turned out the Blood God Region was very different from the Azure Tempest Region, whether in terms of geography and populace. It took Cha Ming only a few hours of flying past the border mountains to revise his original plan. Infiltration and sabotage could wait until he performed a bit of reconnaissance.

Cha Ming began his investigation in the Blood Rock Kingdom. It was a small kingdom known for the blood ore that it produced. Several large cities and even a few Tier 4 and Tier 3 sects relied on the local blood ore veins for their lively hood.

Blood rock was the simplest type of blood ore. Though it wasn’t very strong compared to most construction-grade materials, block rocks contained trace an abundance of natural blood energy. Buildings and beds made from this material would strengthen mortal constitutions and chase away disease. Blood rock beds were standard in hospitals, and families often purchased pieces of blood rock furniture for their elderly relatives.

Core formation cultivators were especially fond of blood rock. Cultivation caves or dwellings made from this prized material greatly increased the cultivation speed of mortal cultivators. This was especially true for blood cultivators and body cultivators. Transcendent cultivators could also benefit from these materials, but they typically relied on higher quality blood iron or blood crystals.

These materials might sound sinister to outsiders like Cha Ming, but Cha Ming confirmed that they all came from natural ore veins. And these ore veins could only be found in the Blood God Region. No one knew why this was, but legends spoke of a great battle during primordial times. A great battle had resulted in oceans of god and demon blood that nourished the mountains and the land.

The Blood Good Region did not just produce blood ore. The soil was bright red and smelled of iron. The crops produced in the Blood God Region all had a reddish hue and eating them was very beneficial for one’s health.

When Cha Ming had inquired with Elder Verdant Tempest about blood cultivation, he’d expected to find only a few dozen powerful cultivation sects. But he’d sorely underestimated the effects of geography. It turned out that a full thirty percent of cultivators in the Blood God Region were blood cultivators.

This meant that Cha Ming couldn’t assume that all blood sects were evil supporters of the dreaded Blood God Sect. He would need to evaluate them on a case by case basis.

Cha Ming’s investigation led him to a city called Bloodfield. As one my expect, Bloodfield produced crops rich in bloody energy. Blood wheat was its most famous export, and the area produced a full twenty percent of the blood wheat in the entire Blood God Region.

Bloodfield was home to roughly a million mortals. Because of the region’s low population, there were even fewer cultivators than normal. Cha Ming had no issue assimilating into the city Seventy-Two Transformations.

“You should have seen it,” said a farmer nursing a drink at an inn. “I was there, tilling my fields as I always do, when suddenly, a fiend appeared. I thought I was done for, but then, a cultivator in blood red robes cut the thing down with a single attack. She wore an onyx mask, so I never did find out who she was, but I know she was from the Blood God Sect, bless her soul.”

“I was in Mineros a couple weeks back when a hundred thousand fiends swarmed the city,” said a carpenter. “If not for the Blood God Sect holding the line, all five million of us would have died.”

“Did you see the latest information jades?” said a baker. “I can’t believe how bad the fighting gets in the south. If not for the Blood God Sect, we’d all be goners, I’m sure of it.”

These were but few of the generally favorable words spoken about the Blood God Sect. In the Blood God Region, the elite cultivators of the Blood God Sect were heroes.

In fact, the populace was so supportive of the Blood God Sect that many civilians willingly donated blood to the war effort. Cha Ming found several dozen blood collection locations in Bloodfield, and even with their strict requirements on donor health, it was impossible for these collection centers to keep up with the sheer number of enthusiastic donors.

The Blood God Region’s mortal forces were much more active than the Azure Tempest Region’s mortal forces in defending against fiendish incursions. Cha Ming discovered that the army was constantly recruiting and had been doing so for the past six years.

Often spoken were the famous words of Patriarch Blood God. “There’s only one way to defeat these fiendish invaders, and that is to bleed! We must bleed for our sects, for our countries, and for or neighbors. We must bleed for the Chasewind Plane!”

Cha Ming began to doubt his original assumptions.

In the Blood God Region, core formation cultivation and mortal body refining were extremely popular. Mortals and transcendent cultivators alike used the terms qi manipulators and body refiners instead of the derogatory term martial artists.

It turns out the Blood God Sect and subsidiary sects had long since started promoting blood wheat crops as a way to generate more cultivators. And in sense, they were more successful than Cha Ming’s Clear Sky Conglomerate, because these foods were already mainstream; consuming normal portions of these materials during childhood and adolescence was enough to cultivate one’s core and marrow halfway to completion.

Cha Ming spent a week mingling with the local populace. Thanks to his mind skimming technique, he was able to form his own opinions on the situation. These people didn’t just pay lip service to the Blood God Sect. In the eyes of the people, they were heroes.

It was therefore quite difficult to find any dissenting opinions. People who disapproved of the Blood God Sect did so quietly, and rumors about them died down almost immediately after they started spreading.

Cha Ming found his first promising lead after a week of searching. He was posing as a travelling merchant in a tavern in the city’s cultivator district. This latest trip had netted him quite a sum, so he didn’t hesitate to buy several rounds for the entire establishment.

“Let me tell you, the Blood God Sect is the best thing that ever happened to this place,” a local merchant said to Cha Ming. He was a late rune carving cultivator that made a living facilitating trade between Tier seven and Tier 8 sects. “The True Blood Sect is powerful, no one ever doubted that, but they didn’t did anything.

“We had fiends invading our homes, and all they did was sit in their monasteries and practicing fighting instead of going out there and getting their hands dirty. When Patriarch Blood God brought out his sect to protect our homes during the latest outbreak, I finally started breathing easy.”

“What about the other sects?” Cha Ming asked.

“What about them?” the merchant scoffed. “They’re the same as they always were – following whoever’s in charge. Back when the True Blood Sect was running things, the sects let everyone fend for themselves. Now, they’re all afraid of the Blood God Sect, so no one dares slack off.”

“At first, there were some who didn’t do their part, but that changed when an elder from the Blood God Sect flew in and made an example of them. Half of the sects were broken up and sent to the front lines. The other half became blood farms.”

Cha Ming’s interest was piqued. “Blood farms?”

“Yeah,” said the merchant. “I can’t believe you don’t know about blood farms.”

“I was actually travelling through another region,” Cha Ming said. “The Azure Tempest Region.”

“A far place that,” the merchant said. “Respect for making the trip and surviving. Anyway, blood farms. It’s an easy concept. Some sects don’t like to fight, but everyone’s gotta bleed, so they become blood farms.

“That’s where the idea of blood donations came from. People heard about the blood farms and couldn’t fight, so they decided to contribute by donating blood. But that’s only useful for lower-level blood cultivators. Higher level blood cultivators need stronger blood, which is where the blood farms come into play.”

“How often do they need to give blood?” Cha Ming asked.

“Not sure,” said the merchant. “I think there’s a sect quota. And since it’s a punishment, no one’s allowed to leave without permission until the punishment period is over.”

“And what happens to the sects that don’t meet the quota?” Cha Ming asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” the merchant said, downing his drink. Then, seeing Cha Ming’s sombre expression he, he laughed. “They give ‘em given blood recovery medicine and force a little more out of them. Bleeding ‘em to death won’t do anyone any good, will it?”

With blood farms as a starting point, Cha Ming was able guide more conversations toward this topic, and by the end of the night, he’d acquired much more information than he’d managed all week.

He also discovered another important piece of information. Members of the Azure Tempest Sect had been spotted in the region during the fiend outbreak. The Blood God Sect had publicly accused them of sabotage!

When Cha Ming inquired about proof, he was surprised to discover that proof was readily available. “What, you think they’d accuse the Azure Tempest Sect without evidence?” a spiritual blacksmith said. “Here, let me show you something.”

He passed Cha Ming a transcendent recording jade. It contained several different recordings obtained in battle during the fiend outbreak. Some of them showed members of the Azure Tempest Sect razing entire sects and even feeding transcendent crystals to fiends to make them rampage.

At first, Cha Ming was doubtful. In his past life, it was very easy to manipulate this sort of device. Yet the more he looked into it, the angrier he became. Pictures and images were easy to copy, but authentic azure tempest auras and techniques? Those were very difficult to imitate.

One such recording featured a cloaked cultivator that attacked with ribbons of green wind. The ribbon only appeared for a split second, but it was enough for Cha Ming. The aura in the recording was unmistakeable. It belonged to none other than Verdant Tempest, who was in charge of collecting information in the region.

In the end, Cha Ming could only leave Bloodfield with a heavy heart and a bellyful of anger. Perhaps much of the information in these recordings was made up, but one thing was certain: the Azure Tempest Sect was hiding things from him.

Since the Azure Tempest Sect’s information was not reliable, and the Blood God Sect was running a well-orchestrated propaganda campaign, Cha Ming could only dig into the details to find the truth.

A lot of information was a matter of public knowledge in the Blood God Region. The Blood God Sect made a point of publicizing casualties and damages caused by fiends. This spurred cultivators and mortals alike cultivators to donate their savings and blood to the war effort. Joining the military was something that every young man and woman aspired to.

Their mood was so contagious that Cha Ming’s three auras were even affected by it. Anger towards the fiends resonated with his Aura of Iridescence, and their unified will and fighting spirit caused Cha Ming’s aura of Inspiration to surge uncontrollably. It was only thanks to the Savage Deity Aura that he could keep a calm mind.

Cha Ming combined the statistics provided by the Blood God Region with those recorded on his mission jade for the Azure Tempest Region. It was by reviewing these two separate sources of information and reconciling them with information provided by the Azure Tempest Sect that he discovered something odd: the casualty count in the Blood God Region much higher than in the Azure Tempest Region. This was all despite the territory’s lower fiend spawn rate and larger military presence.

Cha Ming was confident in his own region’s statistics but had reservations about the Blood God Region’s numbers. Moreover, he was unfamiliar with their way of hunting down fiends and eliminating them.

Since seeing was believing, so Cha Ming set out to discover the truth for himself. He became the wind and let the currents carry him.

***

For the next two weeks, Cha Ming flew from city to city, infiltrating army camps and patrols to discord fiendish movement patterns. He collected detailed maps with void rifts and patrols, as well as confidential communication codes.

It didn’t take Cha Ming long to confirm the casualty figures and compile a map detailing where and how they happened. Some locations, he discovered, had higher casualty rates than others, and were particularly undermanned.

He chose one such location and became the wind and waited. Another week passed before a powerful rank 9 fiend appeared.

What in the… why is a mortal army getting sent in to interfere? If it was a lesser fiend, such actions might be justified, but a rank 9 fiend? There was no reason to even consider sending out mortals.

A few flaps of his Azure Tempest Wings was all it took to arrive near the posted location. He expected a battle, but what he saw was a massacre.

The army hadn’t even reached the fiend. Just a short distance away from where it lumbered, ten thousand mortals lay trapped within a blood red formation circle. Even the strongest among these carefully trained soldiers were already half melted down.

Cha Ming’s blood boiled at what he saw, and for an instant, he considered jumping out and slaughtering the two cultivators operating the formation. He channeled his Savage Deity Aura to calm his raging heart and reign in his bubbling emotions.

They were already dead. Slaying these cultivators might avenge the fallen, but it would serve no greater purpose.

It only took two minutes for them to refinish refining the freshly gathered blood. Only a small pool of blood essence was left at the end. That, and ten thousand suits of barely used armor, which the collected to give to the next batch of new recruits.

What a monstrous scheme, Cha Ming thought as he continued observing. The Blood God Region has a powerful military presence, but these people can do little more than scout and slay weaker fiends. But the recruitment criteria stipulated by the military requires that each of these soldiers have potent blood essence. Those with the stronger blood essence are concentrated into sacrificial armies that are sent out to die.

Normally, these would deter mortals from applying for the military. But instead of concealing these casualties, the Blood God Sect weaponized the high death rate to encourage even more hot-blooded men and women to join the military. As long as the casualty rate doesn’t exceed a certain limit, they’ve secured a steady supply of high-quality mortal-grade blood.

The blood cultivators had yet to slay the rank 9 fiend. What’s more, the group that had been sent to harvest these mortals were too weak to dispatch such a powerful enemy. But they did not retreat. Instead, they began throwing blood jades at the creature, drawing its attention towards a nearby forest situated at the base of a resource-rich mountain.

Cha Ming reviewed the maps he’d collected and discovered that a sect was based in these mountains. It was a Tier 5 sect called the Unbroken Branch Sect. According to local rumors, there’d been some friction between this sect and other local powers of late.

It wasn’t long before more two dozen more cultivators appeared. Judging by their dress and the emblems they wore, these cultivators belonged to the Blood Leaf Sect. Cultivators were delicacies to fiends, and this rank 9 fiend was no exception. It stomped through the formation-filled forest, destroying all traps and natural formations in its wake.

Eventually, the fiend arrived at a large gate flanked by two fifty-meter-tall trees. The trees were treants, and the fiend, having been led around the nose for so long, was immediately attracted by the dense life energy they contained. It charged at the two protectors, ignoring the two-dozen cultivators who’d led it there.

“Why must you do this, friends from the Blood Leaf Sect?” a voice called out from behind the gate. “We have not spoken out against your wrongdoings or criticized the Blood God Sect in any way. We are also a voluntary blood farm and have always met our assigned quota.”

One of the red-robed cultivators from the Blood Leaf Sect laughed haughtily. He was one of three peak rune gathering cultivators in the group. “It’s nothing personal, Unbroken Branch,” the leader of the Blood Leaf Sect cultivators said.  “We’ve simply come up short on our blood quota this month and need to make up the difference. The other Tier 5 sects offered us compensation, so we’re left with no choice but to harvest your sect.

“But we’ve known each other for a long time, so I’ll tell you what. Match their offer and throw in your sect’s protective treasure, and we’ll consider other ways to meet out blood quota.” His words were punctuated by the screams of treants as the fiends tore them apart and drained away their life essence. And once it finished draining them of everything they had, it turned towards the door and began draining away its energy.

“No.” The voice finally answered.

“Sorry, say that again?” the leader of the Blood Leaf Sect cultivators said.

“Our answer is no,” the leader of the Unbroken Branch Sect repeated. “We are the Unbroken Branch Sect. We may bend from time to time, but we will not break. If we chose to give up our treasures to redirect your wrath to others, would we be able to continue cultivating with a clear conscience? Better to fight you to the last and try to take some of you down with us.”

The Blood Leaf Sect cultivator laughed. “You’ve always been a righteous one, Unbroken Branch. He signalled to his companions to surround the gate. “The fiend’s about to break through. Same as last time. Keep it distracted after the door beaks down. Bait it with blood jades until we’re done, then lead the fiend through the sect to clean things up.”

He threw out a bloody leaf at the door to weaken the protective formation. The fiend’s next attack shattered the formation. The door shattered with it, revealing a group of half-starved, dried-up cultivators.

Twenty cultivators had come here from the Blood Leaf Sect, all of them rune gathering cultivators. Three of them were at the peak of rune gathering, while the rest had reached middle or late rune gathering. Given that the sect master of the Unbroken Branch sect was only a peak rune gathering cultivator in his prime, such a force was enough to completely wipe out the entire sect.

Sect Master Unbroken Branch and his sect’s three elders were prepared for death. They flew out with a hundred or so weaker rune gathering cultivators, wielding cudgels and staves carved from ironwood. “Die, Red Leaf!” the sect leader shouted, and charged at the leader of the Blood Leaf Sect forces.

“You’re not match for us, Unbroken Branch,” the leader of the Blood Leaf Sect cultivators said lazily. “Perhaps a half year ago I would have been worried, but you’ve given up too much blood. Your foundation is unstable.”

“No matter!” Sect Master Broken Branch said. “We might be short on blood essence, but we have our souls!” His aura surged wildly, as did the auras of his three elders. Even if they survived the battle, they might not survive the after-effects of their soul-burn technique.

“What are you all waiting for?” Red Leaf snapped. He bit on his tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood that transformed into a bloody leaf. The other Blood Leaf Sect cultivators mirrored his actions, sending out twenty sharp leaves that cut through bone and wood like it were paper. Over ten Unbroken Branch cultivators fell, and more were soon to follow.

Cha Ming was watching everything as it happened and had already positioned himself not far away from the fighting. When dealing with blood cultivators, it was important to first lock them down. Blood cultivators were typically proficient in the Blood Escape Technique.

Cha Ming’s solution to this problem lay with the Spacetime Camera. He fed the a top-grade transcendent crystal to the greedy treasure, giving it just enough energy to snap a single picture of the sect’s entrance.

This created a three-hundred-meter bubble of sealed space, which would prevent the Blood Leaf Sect cultivators from communicating with their superiors and prevent them from leaving for a short period of time.

Cha Ming had long since filled the area with clear runes, which he used as a conduit for his Nine Sky Seals to suppress the Blood Leaf Sect cultivators. He then launched himself at the nearest ones, pouring up weeks of accumulated hatred and savagery into every strike.

He alternated between Savage Deity Rush and Clear Rune Steps, blitzing through the weaker cultivators before they had any time to react. He locked down the leader and second in command of the Blood Leaf Sect cultivators using Wrappings of Runic Binding before turning his attention to the rest.

The Clear Sky Brush was also eager to do its part. It zipped across the battlefield, painting tiny azure tempests that destroyed arms and legs and dug into torsos. These attacks weren’t enough to directly kill these blood cultivators, but they distracted them at key moments, leaving them open to fatal attacks from the Unbroken Branch sect.

The battle only took nine seconds from start to finish. By the end of it, only half of the Unbroken Branch Sect cultivators remained.

Having dealt with Dao God Blood Seal’s antics before, Cha Ming pulled over the two cultivators he’d taken captive and shot two Yin-Yang Spirit Threading Needles into their spiritual seas, destroying the blood seals that had already erupted and were in the process of consuming their minds and spirits.

Cha Ming didn’t normal using soul-searching techniques, but he did not hesitate to use them against these evil cultivators. Though it brought him some discomfort, he bore with the pain and absorbed out information he could before their spiritual seas were wiped out and their bodies collapsed into piles of blood.

“Senior!” the leader of the Unbroken Branch Sect greeted. “Many thanks for your timely assistance!”

“It’s what I should do,” Cha Ming said, then frowned when he saw that the fiend was now attacking his spatial barrier and draining it an accelerated rate.

Cha Ming quickly dispelled the barrier to save half a top-grade transcendent crystal. “You’re just as bad as Ninesky,” he said to the camera. And to his surprise, it buzzed indignantly.

With the barrier was gone, the fiend turned its attention back to the Unbroken Branch Sect cultivators. The creature had five reptilian eyes, a toadlike maw, and strangely shaped hands ands feet on its six awkward appendages.

Cha Ming did not wish for unnecessary casualties. He took a Clear Rune Step and smashed downward using Savage Deity Crush, channeling pure creation energies into the three consecutive strikes, thereby destroying the creature in a single attack.

A pool of black blood was all that remained, in addition to the corruption and blight it had spread on its way over. “Assemble,” Cha Ming spoke, and all the fiendish blood and corruption in the nearest twenty kilometers flew towards him, including the blood of many smaller fiends he hadn’t spotted.

The blood and corruption accumulated in the shape of a large blob, which Cha Ming refined with alternating flames of creation and destruction, eliminating the fiendish will within and rendering it safe for Ninesky’s consumption.

“Apologies, Sect Master,” Cha Ming said to Sect Master Unbroken Branch. “Time was short, so I prioritized eliminating the blood cultivators and the fiendish threat.:

“Of-of course, senior,” the old man said, bowing low. “Many thanks for saving us from the horrors of blood refining.”

Several hundred cultivators emerged from the sect. They kowtowed towards Cha Ming and expressed their thanks. “I did nothing, and your situation isn’t much better off, even with the death of those blood leaf sect cultivators,” Cha Ming said. “The Blood Leaf Sect will certainly investigate this incident. You will have difficulty escaping punishment. I’m afraid that in the end, your fates will remain unchanged.”

“Living another day is better than certain death, is it not?” said Unbroken Branch. “Besides, the sect will be disbanding shortly, and our cultivators will disperse. They’ll catch some of us - I won’t be able to escape capture, at any rate. But I am confident that many of our weaker cultivators will live, and to me, that’s as good as can be expected.

Selfless cultivators like Unbroken Branch were a rare breed in this day and age. Cha Ming did not want to tangled up in this matter, but he found it difficult to ignore their difficulties. “If you wish, I can give your sect a way out,” he finally said. “I know of a place. A pocket realm where you and your people can hide for many months.”

The old man blinked. “You mean a sanctuary pocket?”

“What’s a sanctuary pocket?” Cha Ming asked.

“You know, spatial pockets that higher level sects use as a method of last result?” the old man said. “Pretty unstable and unsafe if you ask me, but better than nothing.”

“It’s something like a sanctuary pocket, but not unstable at all,” Cha Ming said. “I think calling it a realm treasure would be more accurate. If you are all willing to enter my realm treasure, I can deliver you someplace else. The only caveat is that I don’t know how long it will take before I can let you out. It could be months. It could be years. And it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that your lives would be in my hands.”

The old man’s expression turned serious. “Benefactor, if not for your help, we would all be dead. How could we doubt you after everything you’ve done for us? Moreover, our situation is desperate. You’re offering us a chance at survival when nine tenths of us are likely to perish. I can only accept your generous offer on behalf of my sect. Just say the word, and I’ll have everyone ready within the hour.”

“Then let’s do it that way,” Cha Ming said. “One hour, and we’ll get moving. There’s no telling how quickly the Blood Leaf Sect will react to the death of their sect members.”

“We’ll be one hour, and not a minute more,” said Sect Master Unbroken branch. He immediately summoned the remaining sect elders and issued orders for a full evacuation.