Chapter 278: The Blood Stream Sect… Arrives!
A roar echoed through the air as an enormous dragon appeared. It was pitch black, with protruding scales and blood-red eyes. It seemed completely and utterly ferocious and deadly.
It was none other than… the Heavenhorn ink dragon!
Bai Xiaochun was completely shaken by what he was seeing, and all of the other disciples of the Spirit Stream Sect felt their minds reeling. Whether it was the ninth mountain peak, the white sun, the legacy echelon cultivators, or the spell formation giants, all of them were things no one had ever seen before.
These were… the true reserve powers of the sect.
This was what the power of a sect truly looked like!
Even as everyone was trembling mentally, the black raven that sat within the white sun suddenly emitted a deafening cry.
Waaahhh!
It almost sounded like a crying baby, and was so loud that rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth. An arc-shaped shockwave shot through the Luochen Mountains, speeding across heaven and earth toward the territory of the Blood Stream Sect.
The shockwave was like an invisible blast of fury that swept across everything in its path. It flew onward for about 30,000 meters until it seemed to hit an invisible obstacle, whereupon cracking sounds filled the air. Suddenly visible was a mirror-like object which shattered into countless pieces.
In response, enormous blood clouds billowed out in all directions. Even the air collapsed as the true world beyond that 30,000-meter mark was revealed.
Blood clouds churned relentlessly, connecting heaven with earth, and within them, countless howling sounds could be heard.
Vicious faces were visible within the blood cloud, faces of both men and women. As the blood cloud neared the Spirit Stream Sect, the howling reached a thunderous level, and blood-colored light spread out near and far, staining all creation with the color of blood.
A rain of blood began to fall, and lightning crashed. Where the rain fell, seas of blood rose up, like a ma.s.sive flood. Soon, rumbling sounds could be heard as blood-colored battles.h.i.+ps became visible on the seas of blood, sending blood splas.h.i.+ng about as they surged forward.
At the same time, an army became visible, an army filled with refined corpses and gargoyles.
The Blood Stream Sect… had arrived!!
Bai Xiaochun’s eyes narrowed slightly as he peered at the world of blood outside the Luochen Mountains. Within the swirling blood clouds and boundless blood sea were, not only battles.h.i.+ps, but endless numbers of blood-colored war chariots!
The Blood Stream Sect’s war chariots were different than the Spirit Stream Sect’s. They were made from bones, and were terrifying and bizarre in appearance!
The blood-colored war chariots were manned by countless Outer Sect disciples, all of whom abounded with killing intent. Madness flickered in their eyes, and as they closed in, they stared at the Spirit Stream Sect disciples, whose hearts trembled in response.
The bloodthirsty gazes of the Blood Stream Sect disciples were filled with such brutality and murder that anyone who saw them would be shocked.
In addition to the war chariots and the battles.h.i.+ps, the sea of blood also contained numerous blood giants. They were completely hairless, and were apparently formed from nothing but blood. Each step they took caused the seas beneath their feet to howl. Cl.u.s.tered around the blood giants were countless other disciples of the sect.
A seemingly endless army filled heaven and earth. It was a spectacular sight.
Up above were the blood clouds, and down below were the blood seas. Between them was endless darkness that seethed and churned as if it were alive.
It was only when lightning shot down from the clouds that the darkness was illuminated, to reveal dozens of ancient and barbaric giants, clad in battle armor, faces expressionless. Atop the heads of the giants sat cold-faced cultivators who emanated the fluctuations of Core Formation!
Furthermore, the feeling they gave off was not that of ordinary Core Formation. The blood qi that rippled off of them was especially intense, and at a single glance, Bai Xiaochun was able to tell that they surpa.s.sed the level of the blood masters. And yet, each and every one of them showed signs that in the past… they had been blood masters!
Bai Xiaochun’s eyes went wide as he realized that these were cultivators whose position in the sect surpa.s.sed prime elders. They occupied the highest position under the patriarchs. They were… the blood rippers!!
When blood masters reached Core Formation, they became blood rippers!
The dozens of blood rippers traveled along within the boundless darkness. However, on either side of the darkness were the hundreds of prime elders of the Blood Stream Sect, who bristled with divine abilities as they flew along.
Beyond them were more than a thousand Foundation Establishment cultivators, who flew along in beams of light, cl.u.s.tered around the boundless darkness. The presence of so many powerful cultivators only made the blood rippers seem more majestic.
In the vanguard position ahead of the boundless darkness were four major forces. One of them was made up of countless gargoyles formed into the shape of a gigantic black head. Sitting atop the head were none other than the Nameless Peak blood master and grand elder!
The second major force was an enormous coffin, surrounded by countless refined corpses. Atop the coffin could be seen the blood master and grand elder of Corpse Peak, who sat there cross-legged, looking around with expressionless eyes.
The third major force was an enormous hand formed from blood and flesh that emanated shocking fluctuations of power. Sitting cross-legged in the palm of the hand were the grand elder and blood master of Lesser Marsh Peak.
The final major force was made up of an enormous blood sword. Matchlessly sharp, it emanated a blood-colored glow, and seemed capable of slas.h.i.+ng rifts into the air itself. Atop that blood sword… could be seen a single person.
It was none other than Song Junwan, dressed in battle garb, an unsightly expression on her cold, elegant face. Clearly, the disappearance of Nightcrypt made it so that the forces of Middle Peak couldn’t match up to the other mountain peaks. Considering that they were going to war, that effect was even more p.r.o.nounced.
Down below, within the blood sea, were countless Outer and Inner Sect disciples. As they neared the Luochen Mountains, they ceased their war cries, and instead shot forward in silence, radiating intense, murderous auras.
Up above, the Foundation Establishment elders would occasionally flick their sleeves as they flew along, causing gale force winds to spring up and send the Outer and Inner Sect disciples flying along. The disciples didn’t show any alarm or fear. As they flew into the air, they gathered into special formations that looked like blood-colored spheres of flesh.
When they landed back down, they would bash huge craters into the ground, after which the spheres would break apart into hundreds of disciples who would then continue to speed along.
The blood-colored spheres of flesh were shocking to the extreme, especially considering that the disciples who made them up seemed to be completely fearless, not even afraid of dying. They were like locusts, sweeping across the land in breathtaking fas.h.i.+on!
These blood spheres were one of the Blood Stream Sect’s powerful battle magics!
Bai Xiaochun’s scalp was tingling. As the blood master of Middle Peak, he knew a lot about the Blood Stream Sect, and yet he was shocked to discover that the sect had many secrets even he was unaware of.
When he looked at Song Junwan sitting proud and alone atop the huge blood sword, mixed emotions filled his heart, and he felt anxiety rising up within him.
Clearly, the Blood Stream Sect was already more impressive than the Spirit Stream Sect, and yet that was only their ordinary disciples and cultivators. Their true power reserves, and the patriarchs, were within the blood clouds up above!
Vicious faces were concealed within those clouds, including eight figures who could shake heaven and earth. They were breathtaking people who no one would ever think to look down upon!
Each of those eight people had vortexes spinning around them, causing anyone who looked in their direction to see nothing but terrifying distortions.
Within one of the eight vortexes was a gargantuan, pitch-black gargoyle, atop whose head sat an old man with eyes like lightning.
In another of the vortexes was a grand lich, the same terrifying corpse which had been awoken recently. On the shoulder of the grand lich was none other than the Blood Stream Sect’s Patriarch Droughtflame.
Patriarch Limitless was in another vortex, his body surrounded by 100,000 blood swords that could slash forests and destroy moons.
The Song Clan patriarch could be seen in another of the vortexes, standing atop a blood-colored banner. The banner was inscribed with golden magical symbols that pulsed with an electric, blood-colored light that spread out to fill the blood cloud and the blood sea.
All eight of the Blood Stream Sect’s patriarchs were present. One of them, the one in the lead position, had taken the form of a blood-colored giant. Most noteworthy of all was that the giant’s right hand clearly resembled the hand that the Blood Stream Sect was built upon.
That patriarch was none other than the Blood Stream Sect’s… current arch-patriarch!
The Blood Stream Sect had eight patriarchs, but the Spirit Stream Sect only had five!
And yet, the terrifying strength of the Blood Stream Sect had yet to be fully revealed. Surrounding the arch-patriarch was an enormous, blood-colored tree, which radiated boundless ancientness. That tree was one of the Blood Stream Sect’s most precious treasures!
There was also a blood-colored mirror, fully 300 meters across. Countless images could be seen within the mirror, and all of them seemed to be emitting soundless howls, and were on the verge of bursting out into the open. Then there was the Blood Stream Sect’s third precious treasure, two blood-colored lodestones which had been linked together into pair of blood-colored manacles!
The Blood Stream Sect’s precious treasures also surpa.s.sed the Spirit Stream Sect’s!
However, their ultimate reserve power was even more bizarre and fantastic. Perched high above the army, above the patriarchs and above the blood clouds, was… a shocking scarecrow!
At first, the scarecrow looked ordinary in nature, but closer examination revealed that it held a patch of human skin in its right hand, and had a steelyard balance in its other hand. A twisted smile could be seen on its face, and anyone who saw it would feel their heart pulsing with fear.
The arrival of the Blood Stream Sect included blood clouds in the sky, blood seas on the ground, and a swath of mysterious darkness. It was a terrifying sight to behold. It was as if a fiendish devil were looming over the Luochen Mountains, emitting intense pressure that could crush anything it encountered. Anyone who got in the way of the Blood Stream Sect would be destroyed in body and soul!
The cultivators of the Spirit Stream Sect felt their minds spinning, and yet, there was no time to unleash any emotion other than their explosive desire to fight!
Their will seemed to fuse with the Luochen Mountains, exploding out to join the magical symbols and lightning in the air, causing intense rumbling sounds to instantly fight back against the terrifying aura of the Blood Stream Sect.
—
Translator: Deathblade. Chinese language consultant: ASI a.k.a. Beerblade. Editor: GNE. Memes: Logan. Tocsin. Transcendent Patrons: Daoist Elder N, BLE, ttre208. . .
—
I’ve been asked on numerous occasions how long it takes to translate a chapter. I answer the question in my latest CFNFAQ video. .
Another note: I don’t remember specifically which chapter I mentioned the mistake with the exact ident.i.ty of Bai Xiaochun and Zheng Yuandong’s Master. I may have deleted it later (usually after I fix a mistake in previous chapters, I delete the explanatory footnote after a few weeks or a month, as they become obsolete.) Long story short is that I missed a single character when I originally translated the ident.i.ty of that patriarch. He is not from the first generation, he is from the previous generation. So to make things clear, the Master of Bai Xiaochun and Zheng Yuandong is a dead patriarch from the previous generation, and is not Frigidsect, the founding patriarch (first generation patriarch).
By the way: PLEASE READ THE FOOTNOTES. I can’t even count how many times I see people asking questions about things I explain in the footnotes. I’m not talking about these post-chapter notes, those are general skippable. But the footnotes are almost always explanations of the translation that I hope readers don’t skip.