Chapter 1828: Harvesting Blood
Translator: StarveCleric Editor: Millman97
To Zhang Xuan, it mattered not how many Blood Reincarnation realm Ancient Sages of the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe died. What he valued more was their fresh blood.
If he could gather sufficient Ancient Sage blood, it would become easier for him to push for a breakthrough to Ancient Sage.
As such, after piercing the enemy’s palm with his spear, he delightedly began harvesting the other party’s blood.
“You’re asking to be slaughtered!”
On the other hand, the Otherworldly Demon Ancient sage was on the brink of succ.u.mbing to lunacy.
Even though he was bound to obey Sovereign Chen Ling’s orders due to the Seed of Acquiescence, he still retained some part of his consciousness. It was already a huge insult for him, a Blood Reincarnation realm expert and one of the few Lords of the Spirit Tribe, to be wounded by a Great Sage, but the other party was even treating him like livestock, choosing to harvest his blood instead of pus.h.i.+ng on with his attack or fleeing altogether.
This was a flagrant act of humiliation!
Gritting his teeth furiously, the Ancient Sage turned his attention away from Sovereign Chen Yong, Liu Yang, and the others, and he smashed his other palm right down upon Zhang Xuan.
No matter what, he was determined to strike down this arrogant fellow who dared belittle him!
The strength of a Blood Reincarnation realm Ancient Sage was immense, as though countless towering tsunamis pouring forth from the ocean. In the peak of his rage, the sheer might of his offense was greater than ever.
Puhe!
However, before the immense might could crush the young man beneath its prowess, a spear whistled through the air and impaled the attacking palm as well.
Padah! Padah!
Fresh blood gushed out of the impaled spear.
The Ancient Sage yelped in pain as he watched the young man rus.h.i.+ng over to carefully collect his fresh blood with a jade bottle in hand. It was almost as if his blood was a commodity so precious that even a droplet lost would be a huge loss to the world.
“…”
With lips quivering in fury, the Ancient Sage drove his zhenqi to seal his veins. Even though his injuries were glaring, no more blood sputtered out of them anymore.
At his cultivation realm, he was more than capable of controlling his physical functions to a precise degree.
“Hmm?”
Seeing that the flow of fresh blood had come to a halt, the young man raised his head to look at the Ancient Sage with an extremely displeased look on his face.
“Brat, how dare you harvest my fresh blood! I swear I shall send you through the gates of the netherworld…” The Ancient Sage glared at the young man savagely as he bellowed vicious words.
Alas, before he could finish his piece, the displeased young man raised his hand, and the spear shot forth once more.
Seeing the spear charge straight toward him, the Ancient Sage immediately moved to evade the attack. But all of a sudden, there was a momentary spatial disorientation, and before he knew it, the spear was already plunged right into his thigh.
Puhe!
Yet another ma.s.sive hole was punctured into the Ancient Sage.
The Ancient Sage was taken aback. When he finally came to, the young man was already delightfully hopping around with his jade bottle in hand, collecting droplet after droplet of his blood.
“Screw this sh*t…”
To be honest, the Ancient Sage was only a step away from bursting into tears.
It was at that very instant that he realized that the other party could kill him at any moment as long as the other party willed it. However, it was just that the other party chose not to make a move, treating him as a sample to harvest blood instead.
Unable to take it any longer, the Ancient Sage decisively turned tail and fled.
Puhe!
A bloodied hole appeared on his bottom as fresh blood continued pouring out.
After filling the first jade bottle, Zhang Xuan proceeded on to fill a second. Just like that, it did not take too long for him to collect more than ten bottles. Each time the Ancient Sage attempted to seal his wound, a spear would shoot forth to create another hole, causing blood to pour forth once more.
It was almost as if the Ancient Sage was a leaking water pipe that simply could not be fixed!
Eventually, it came a point where the Ancient Sage resigned himself to his fate. He gave up on fleeing and chose to sit down on the spot instead, not moving in the least. His eyes gazed dazedly in front of him, and it looked almost as if he had lost his soul. Blood sputtered out from the dozens of holes all over his blood, splattering all around the area.
Since any attempt to flee would just cause even more pain to him, he might as well accept his fate.
Soon enough, due to losing too much blood, the Ancient Sage collapsed, plummeting from the sky. He was probably the first Ancient Sage who was so pitiful as to die as a result of losing too much blood.
After slaying the first Ancient Sage, Zhang Xuan turned his gaze to the other battles occurring around him.
Fortunately, Ancient Sage Allfire, Ancient Sage Mo Ling, and the other Ancient Sages were also standing their ground. Their tight collaboration produced a formidable force that even Sovereign Chen Yong in his peak would have had to think carefully about facing.
However, the Ancient Sages who were controlled by the Seeds of Acquiescence fought desperately, and they had many aces up their sleeves. As a result, it was still a close fight, and it was hard to tell who would emerge victorious.
Cultivators at the level of Ancient Sages were incredibly difficult to kill. Battles among Ancient Sages could easily last for many days. More often than not, the loser would end up getting away through using some hidden ace, and the winner would walk out of the battle with grievous injuries.
For this reason, Ancient Sages, be it for mankind or the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe, were regarded as last resorts. They were mostly used for the purpose of deterrence, and rarely would they get chances to fight.
While an intense battle was underway, Sovereign Chen Ling continued on with the ritual around him. He raised his hands, and all of the artifacts on the stairs around the pedestal simultaneously burst into flames, forming a blazing inferno.
An incredible surge of energy descended from the high heavens and flowed into his acupoints, filling his meridians with power.
With this inflow of energy, Sovereign Chen Ling’s wounds began healing at a visible rate. In fact, he seemed to be getting even stronger than before.
“This is bad. We have to stop him! If Sovereign Chen Ling recovers from his wounds, it will make things much trickier for us!” Zhang Xuan frowned.
When they were at their peak, it was true that Sovereign Chen Ling had been weaker than Sovereign Chen Yong, but there was no denying that he was one of the strongest experts of the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe. Otherwise, he would not have been able to govern large swathes of land in the otherworldly battlefield and tower above ordinary Ancient Sages.
The current Dragonbone Divine Spear could still defeat him easily in his severely wounded state, but once he made a full recovery, it would not be that easy to kill him.
“Break!”
Knowing that he had to act, Zhang Xuan thrust the Dragonbone Divine Spear straight in the direction of Sovereign Chen Ling. The pitch-black spear tore through the surrounding s.p.a.ce in order to impale the latter’s head, a clear attempt to land a fatal blow to end the battle once and for all.
Seeing Zhang Xuan’s actions, Sovereign Chen Yong narrowed his eyes and cried in horror, “Young Master, don’t!”
However, it was already too late. Before the spear could reach Sovereign Chen Ling, an incredible force descended from the dark hole in the sky and collided with Zhang Xuan’s spear. The next instant, Zhang Xuan felt as if the skin between his fingers was being ripped apart, and fresh blood flowed down from his fingers.
At the same time, the Dragonbone Divine Spear was jolted out off his hand.
Weng!
It pierced into the ground, creating a ma.s.sive crater beneath it.
In the crucial moment, Zhang Xuan activated his bloodline ability and hurriedly retreated, allowing him to dodge the descending force by a hair’s breath. He quickly leaped down to the crater to retrieve the Dragonbone Divine Spear before asking Sovereign Chen Yong doubtfully, “What happened?”
It was a brief collision, but there were slight cracks that could be seen on the body of the Dragonbone Divine Spear. It was clear that it had sustained severe injuries in that short encounter.
Fortunately, for weapons of such tier, as long as they were fed sufficient Ancient Sage blood, they should make a recovery soon enough.
“Young Master, the being connected on the other side of the ritual is a G.o.d from the other world. Your act of a.s.saulting Sovereign Chen Ling is viewed as an act of disrespect toward the G.o.d, so the G.o.d attempted to inflict heavenly retribution upon you!” Sovereign Chen Yong quickly replied.
“An act of disrespect toward the G.o.d?” Zhang Xuan widened his eyes in astonishment.
It was no wonder that the powerful Dragonbone Divine Spear had been jolted away in an instant. Who could have thought that there was such a thing?
But thinking about it again, it kind of made sense to him.
The ritual conducted was a ceremony to make offerings to the G.o.ds. Depending on the value of the offerings, the G.o.d would reward the individual conducting the ritual. At this very moment of the ritual, both worlds were connected together with a small gateway, allowing the power of the G.o.ds to seep into their world. To wreak havoc at that moment was no different from undermining the dignity of the G.o.d, so naturally, one would have to be punished due to that.
That explained why no one had not gone straight for Sovereign Chen Ling despite the threat that the latter posed. It turned out that there was such a reason behind it.
“But if we don’t stop him, the ritual will be completed, and he will fully recover from his injuries. If things go badly, we might all lose our lives here!” Zhang Xuan said with a frown.
There was no doubt that it was an act of utter foolishness to test the patience of a G.o.d, but if they left the ritual be, Sovereign Chen Ling would make a full recovery. That could place them in a dangerous position.