“Holy Land!” Without even realizing what he was doing, Bai Xiaochun walked over to the edge of the blood waterfall he’d just spotted, and could immediately sense the powerful blood qi. To him, blood qi was very important to replenish his vital energy.
Taking in a deep breath, he felt his spirits lifting, and just when he was about to begin to absorb the blood qi, a sensation of crisis filled him. He immediately backed up, whereupon a boom echoed out from the spot where he had been standing.
A beam of blood-colored light, almost like sword qi, had slashed into that very spot. The surrounding plants and vegetation whipped back and forth from the blast, and a huge furrow was hewn out in the ground.
“Eee?” someone said. Then, a young man strode out from within the blood waterfall. He wore all red, and had an icily cold arrogance to him as he stared at Bai Xiaochun. “Screw off. You’re not allowed in this area!”
Bai Xiaochun immediately recognized the young man. It was Song Que. Immediately after issuing his command, he turned and walked back into the blood waterfall, where he sat back down cross-legged.
“So, this moron is here,” Bai Xiaochun thought. “Humph. What makes you think you’re so special? Back in the Fallen Sword World, you were crying for your mommy and daddy when I beat you up. Just wait until I get famous in the Blood Stream Sect, I’ll show you a thing or two. Humph!” Glaring hatefully, Bai Xiaochun decided that he would definitely find an opportunity to call Song Junwan ‘Big Sis’ in front of Song Que. That would definitely heap humiliation onto his head! 1
Eyes flickering coldly, he left. He walked along to visit some of the places he noticed that had especially strong blood qi, but every time he got close, someone would attack him and drive him away.
None of them were very polite at all, three of them even attacked him with completely murderous auras. If he hadn’t fled fast enough, it seemed likely that he would have been killed.
Bai Xiaochun grumbled to himself louder and louder at how overbearing these people were. All he wanted to do was breathe in some blood qi, not stake a claim to their territory.
Eventually, he arrived at Middle Peak Pavilion, where newly promoted Dharma protectors were supposed to check in. Waiting there for him was an old man in the late Foundation Establishment stage. After sizing Bai Xiaochun up, and realizing that he was at Mortal-Dao Foundation Establishment, a condescending expression appeared on his face, and he took the jade pendant from Bai Xiaochun. Then he handed him a new identity medallion, along with a crimson jade slip.
“That jade slip contains Middle Peak’s secret magic, the Blood Annihilation World. If you don’t understand the cultivation method, you can attend one of the monthly training sessions administered by a prime elder. It costs merit points to ask questions about the Dao, but if you lack merit points, you could always request a personal audience with a prime elder.
“As for your immortal’s cave, we have 37 vacancies for Dharma protectors at the moment. Pick any one that you want. If you don’t like what you see, and you think you’re strong enough, you can simply take an immortal’s cave from someone else. Alright, that’s it, you can go now.” Waving his hand, he closed his eyes to meditate.
It all seemed overly simple to Bai Xiaochun, who took the two pieces of jade. After sending some divine sense into the medallion, he saw a map of Middle Peak, as well as notations on all the immortal’s caves.
Considering it was morning, he decided to simply walk around and take in the sights. By the time evening fell, he’d had a chance to examine all of the immortal’s caves in the Dharma protector district. Taken on their own, they were actually pretty nice, but compared to the other occupied caves, they were quite deficient in terms of blood qi.
However, he he had no choice at the moment other than to select the best one he could find, and move in.
Looking around at his new immortal’s cave, he had to admit that it was much better than the cave in the Inner Sect. However, he still didn’t think it measured up to the Spirit Stream Sect. Having no other options, he sighed and produced the blood-colored jade slip, which he scanned with spiritual power.
“Eee? Use blood qi to form a sword, transform it into a world of annihilation? Whether you’re injured or you injure someone else, the blood qi that spills out will make the blood sword stronger. Now this is a secret magic!” Feeling a bit shocked, he studied the information in more detail, causing his face to flicker with various reactions. In the end, he was even more shocked than he had been at first, and thought back to when Song Que had attacked him with a blood sword in the Fallen Sword World.
“This blood sword is a secret legacy of Middle Peak. On Corpse peak, they refine corpses, on Nameless Peak they raise gargoyles, on Lesser Marsh Peak they have devilblood body refinement, and on Middle Peak, they have this blood sword Annihilation World!” Bai Xiaochun was shaken, and had to admit that in this regard, the Blood Stream Sect was a bit better than the Spirit Stream Sect. Here, the secret legacy techniques were given out to all qualified disciples to cultivate.
Clearly, the Blood Annihilation World was completely beyond ordinary. After further study, Bai Xiaochun came across a description of the origin of the blood sword.
“Long ago, one of the Blood Stream Sect patriarchs was studying the enormous hand when he suddenly received some inspiration. He created the blood sword Annihilation World, which was then added to and perfected by further generations. In the end, it became the secret magic of Middle Peak!”
After some more thought and study, he waved his right hand, causing all of his blood to suddenly stop flowing. Blood qi rose up from the ground around him, then began to form together into a shape in front of his finger. However, there was clearly not enough blood qi, and even after letting some time pass, there was no clear result.
Frowning, Bai Xiaochun dispersed the blood qi.
After some more thought, he studied the jade slip a bit more, and performed another test. However, the result was the same. There seemed to be some obstructions of some sort which were preventing a steady flow of blood qi.
“According to this jade slip, the first step in the blood sword is to extract all of the blood qi from your body, then transform it into sword qi, right in front of your finger. Then, you use the secret magic to change that foundation of sword qi into a blood sword….” He tried one more time, yet failed again.
“Why isn’t it working?” After thinking the matter through even more, he abandoned the method described in the jade slip and instead called upon the Undying Live Forever Technique. Instantly, the swirling blood qi in the area began to stream toward him and merge into his body.
In the space of a single breath, he then sent that blood qi toward the tip of his finger. There, it transformed into sword qi, one third of a meter long.
It all happened very naturally and without any hindrance whatsoever. If any observer had been able to watch what was happening, they would have been struck mute. In the entire history of the Blood Stream Sect, there had never been a single Chosen who could form blood qi into sword qi in less than a day. Bai Xiaochun, despite having used an unorthodox method, had accomplished it in only a few breaths of time.