txolops Chapter 61 Blood Pool
Chapter 61 Blood Pool
The crevice behind us slowly closed, shutting out the night wind and the rustling of tattered cloth outside.
Huang Chen, carrying his knife, slipped. Instead of stepping on stone, his shoes landed on a thin film of water. The water was icy cold and flowed deep into the cracks, like countless tiny snakes crawling along the mountainside.
Li Chenshuo, who was in front, did not turn around, but raised his hand and gestured for people to keep their voices down.
The narrow path only allows two people to walk side by side. Sparse bone lamps are embedded in the mountain wall, and the flames are not fire, but clusters of ethereal blue light.
As people pass by, the water ripples gently, casting flickering light and shadow on the outlines of the armor plates and scabbards.
Huang Chen's chest cavity was still burning hot from the medicine.
The intense heat pressed against his wound, yet it felt like a red-hot iron wedge being driven into his flesh, causing him so much pain that he had to hold his breath. He didn't make a sound, but simply tightened his Xuanhuang armor and used the Ash Breath Concealing Meridian Technique to suppress the fluctuations in his qi and blood.
After walking for about fifteen minutes, the terrain suddenly opened up ahead.
A natural rift valley lies in the heart of the northern foothills of Buzhou Mountain. Instead of jumbled rocks, the valley floor features layers of black bone platforms, stone bridges, water troughs, and giant drums half-buried in the cliff face.
Deeper inside, there were camps, braziers, and animal skin banners hanging high. Water vapor swirled in the valley, occasionally carrying the smell of blood and the bitterness of burnt herbs.
Huang Chen narrowed his eyes.
This place is not what he expected.
It was neither a crude, demonic stronghold nor a haphazardly erected camp.
Between those black bone platforms, ancient water patterns are carved, echoing the underground river at the bottom of the valley. The leather drums on the drum stands are not just for decoration; every few dozen breaths, a deep, resonant sound will be emitted, the sound rolling in all directions along the rock strata.
The drumbeat wasn't loud.
But the shock made people's ribs go numb.
The shamans patrolling in the distance were clad in heavy animal armor, and in their hands they held not ordinary spears, but bone halberds engraved with drainage grooves.
Some people suddenly stopped walking, scratching their necks as if something was crawling under their skin. Others had reddened eyes, growled at their companions, and then swallowed their words back down.
A chilling aura.
Huang Chen glanced at it a few times and already knew what was going on.
The outer perimeter of this main vein is no longer simply heavily fortified; the icy water vein beneath is now having a backlash, causing the bones of these sorcerers to harden. If this drags on any longer, forget about fighting; the camp itself will descend into chaos first.
Li Chenshuo led him along the high stone corridor to the side, avoiding the patrol line below.
"Take a break first."
He lowered his voice, "The way you are now, if something really happens, don't drag me down with you."
Huang Chen was too lazy to argue with him and simply asked, "How long can you rest?"
'
"A few hours." Li Chenshuo glanced at him. "The shift changes around dawn, that's when it's most chaotic."
If you want to look something up, that's the best time to start.
The two entered a makeshift rock shelter.
Inside were several rolls of damp animal felt and half a split black wooden stake. In the corner sat a heated stone jar, steam rising from its mouth. The two main warriors guarding the door glanced at Huang Chen when Li Chenshuo returned, asked no questions, and silently gave up their seats.
After Huang Chen sat down, he first swallowed a Qi-replenishing pill.
As the medicine took effect, the stabbing pain in my chest gradually subsided.
He closed his eyes for a moment and casually brought up the system panel.
[Host: Huang Chen]
[Realm Level: Mid-stage Earth Immortal]
[Battle Body: Intermediate Witch Clan Battle Body]
[Current Status: Recovering from injuries, approximately 70% fit to fight]
[Mastered: Pulsefire Battle Domain, Seven Forms of Witchcraft, Breath Concealment Technique, Ember Breath Concealment Technique, Pulse Tracking and Listening Technique (Beginner)...]
Huang Chen's gaze lingered on the "Pulse Fire Battle Domain" for a moment.
With his current physical body and vital energy, if he truly expands his battle domain and adds the Xuanhuang Armor and Shura Blood Blade, he could easily contend with most late-stage Earth Immortals. If he were to utilize the terrain, the array patterns, and the conflicting energy of water and fire, he could become even more ruthless in his attacks.
But what if you bump into a real celestial being?
That gap can no longer be bridged by mere physical strength.
Huang Chen exhaled a breath of stale air, turned off the control panel, and raised his hand to rub his temples.
Li Chenshuo sat at the cave entrance, his long spear resting across his lap, as if guarding him, or perhaps watching him.
Occasionally, someone would run past outside, their armor clattering, accompanied by a few muffled curses and coughs.
The sky gradually darkened.
Li Chenshuo stood up only after the first drumbeat of the change of guard sounded in the valley.
"Walk.
'
Huang Chen got up and stretched his shoulders and back. His chest still felt tight, but it had been reduced to a bearable level.
The two descended along the elevated walkway.
The deeper you go into the outer reaches of the main vein, the heavier the moisture becomes, and the more slippery the stone slabs under your feet become. In many places, grayish-white ice crusts have formed in the crevices of the rocks, while warm, dark red liquid flows in the blood grooves nearby. When the hot and cold liquids collide, they steam up layers of fishy mist.
Huang Chen didn't rush to look around.
He first activated the Spirit Listening Technique, immersing his mind in the mountain scenery and the sound of water beneath his feet.
The world around me suddenly changed.
On the surface, there are drumbeats, footsteps, commands, and the rubbing of metal, but underneath there is another layer of subtler sounds.
Like water flowing through bone tubes, like chains dragging across stone walls, like a breath that doesn't belong here, intermittently seeping upwards from deeper underground.
Huang Chen paused in his steps.
Li Chenshuo turned his head to look at him.
"What did you hear?"
'
"Something is flowing against the current," Huang Chen said. "It's not the Cold Water Vein itself, but some extraneous noise mixed in."
'
Li Chenshuo frowned but didn't press the matter.
Huang Chen continued forward, his other hand already touching the shattered seal of the North Sea Mirage Palace.
The fragmented seal was hidden in the sleeve, its touch icy cold. The moment it was activated, the seal's surface immediately emitted a faint, misty blue light, which did not point forward, but rather veering to the left towards a semi-abandoned old ditch.
Huang Chen's eyes narrowed slightly.
"there.
'
Li Chenshuo glanced at the old canal, his expression turning somewhat grim.
"That place used to be a pool for abandoned treatment."
It was used for bloodletting to treat soldiers suffering from the cold; it was sealed three months ago.
"Even though it's sealed, the pulse is still moving."
'
Huang Chen didn't say much, and went down first with his sword.
At the entrance to the old canal, there were piles of broken bones and abandoned medicine jars, and the ground was covered with dried, blackened stains.
The further you go in, the stronger the fishy smell becomes, until it's almost like a layer of rotten flesh stuck in your nasal cavity, making even breathing feel astringent.
An abandoned pool of blood soon appeared ahead.
The pool walls were made of black stone, their surface covered with cracks and years of blood stains. Above the blood pool stood a crooked wooden shed, beneath which hung several strings of dried medicinal bones, which would gently tap against each other with a soft, crisp sound when the wind blew.
A person was squatting by the pool.
The man had a slender back and wore a dark purple robe with the hem trailing in the sewage, half of which was already soaked.
He wore a crown made of white fish spines, his neck was frighteningly thin, and three polished black tooth pendants hung behind his ears.
His hands are the most striking feature.
His ten fingers were wrapped with thin bone fragments, the tips of which were bluish. He was using a crescent-shaped bone spoon to scoop up the dark red viscous liquid from the bottom of the pool into a green-bellied jar. With each scoop, a faint mist would overflow from the jar's mouth, wrapping around his wrists like a living thing.
As soon as Huang Chen stopped, the coolness of the shattered imprint shivered violently.
We've found the right place.
The man also noticed the commotion, his shoulders tensed, and he slowly turned his face.
His face was so thin it looked like a skeleton covered with skin, his eyes were sunken, and there were blue-black water patterns on the sides of his nose. His lips were always pursed, as if he had been tasting some bitter medicine for years.
His gaze swept over Huang Chen, then fell on Li Chenshuo, his pupils contracting.
"Li Jiang".
He forced a laugh, his voice hoarse. "The Abandoned Treatment Pool is filthy. What are you doing bringing outsiders here?"
Li Chenshuo said coldly, "Xuan Gu, you tell me first, what are you doing here?"
'
Huang Chen remembered the name.
Whirlwind Witch Doctor.
These are the people in the main lineage who secretly handle the contaminated blood of the ancestral witches.
Xuan Gu slowly rose, supporting himself on the jar, his bone robe rustling as it scraped against the ground.
"The soldiers below are going crazy, and the old methods can't suppress them. I'll clean up the mess." As he said this, he seemed to notice the faint blue light that Huang Chen was holding, and his expression changed drastically. "What did you take?"
'
Huang Chen didn't waste any words with him. He flashed and rushed straight to the blood pool.
The whirlwind reacted incredibly fast, and the two bone whistles in its sleeves instantly went off.
As soon as the sharp whistle sounded, two waves of blood erupted from the bottom of the blood pool. It wasn't water, but two monsters that had been soaking in the filthy blood for who knows how long, suddenly leaping out. They were on all fours, their shoulders and backs hunched, their flesh torn into dark red, rolled-up lumps, their mouths filled with layers of backward teeth, and their eyes were grayish-white.
Blood Slave Beast.
Once they came out, the entire old canal seemed to be filled with stench.
One of them rammed directly into Huang Chen's waist and abdomen, its speed so fast that it left a trail of sticky blood. Huang Chen stomped his foot, his Mountain and River Boots exerting tremendous force, and his entire body swept half a circle along the edge of the pool, his Xuan Tie Blade slashing down in the process.
clang!
The blade struck the beast's neck, but only managed to cut a half-inch deep gash, from which a string of black blood beads gushed out.
Huang Chen's eyes turned cold.
The bones of this thing have been reforged by something.
Another blood slave beast pounced from behind, its stench assaulting the back of his head. Li Chenshuo swung his long spear, forcefully deflecting it three feet from the side. The spear tip collided with the beast's claws, producing a series of ear-piercing scraping sounds.
"Just keep looking for things," Li Chenshuo snapped.
Instead of retreating, Huang Chen advanced and leaped directly into the blood pool.
The slime in the pool reached above my calves, a mixture of icy cold and burning heat, like needles hidden beneath a pot of rotten blood.
The shattered imprint trembled even more violently inside the sleeve, and the Spirit Listening Technique also heard a clearer strange sound at this moment—something was buried at the bottom of the blood pool, thin and long, driven into the rock bone, and its tail was still emitting a very faint mirage.
found it.
Huang Chen clenched his five fingers and inserted them directly into the silt at the bottom of the pool.
This grasp felt like touching a living bone.
The thing twitched gently in his palm, as if it were connected to deeper veins. Huang Chen roared, the veins in his arm bulged, and his blood and qi surged down, forcefully pulling the thing out of the rock.
Click!
A half-foot-long bone nail emerged from the water, covered in blood, mud, and gravel. The nail, which should have been black, was now soaked in misty blue mirage patterns, and its surface was covered with fine scales, as if it had been scraped off an old seashell.
Li Chenshuo's expression changed completely the moment he saw it.
"This is the main vein standard bone nail."
'
"It's not like that now." Huang Chen gripped the bone nail, flipped himself out of the pool, and said, "Someone modified it with mirage energy, using the main vein lock pattern as a guide."
'
Before the words were even finished, the first blood slave beast to be injured had already pounced on him.
Huang Chen raised his hand and threw a punch.
The punch was unpretentious, purely a display of brute force infused with blood and qi. With a muffled thud, half of the blood slave beast's face collapsed on the spot, shattered teeth and black blood flying everywhere. Its massive body was slammed sideways for two zhang before crashing into a stone pillar by the pool.
Just as the other end was about to bite from the side, Huang Chen twisted his left foot, and the Pulse Fire Battle Domain suddenly opened.
Within a radius of several feet, the cracks in the ground all lit up with a dark red light.
The blood pool's filth hissed as it steamed, the heat waves mingling with the underground fiery energy rising upwards like a suddenly tightening net, trapping the blood slave beast along with its vortex-like bones. The blood slave beast howled in agony, large chunks of its contaminated blood-red shell cracking open.
Huang Chen took a step closer and threw a second punch.
This time, it shattered his sternum.
The Blood Slave Beast's entire front half sank into the ground, twitched a few times, and then remained still.
Whirlwind was forced to retreat several steps by the Battle Domain, and the bone jar in his hand almost slipped out of his grasp.
The fake smile on his face was long gone, replaced by shock, anger, and a barely concealed fear in his eyes.
"You are not a member of the Gonggong Department."
'
"Nonsense." Huang Chen, carrying the mirage-stained bone nail, walked up to him. "Speak."
"Who gave you permission to bury this thing in the main vein?"
His Adam's apple bobbed, and his eyes darted around rapidly.
"I was only ordered to perform the blood purification."
Huang Chen kicked him, breaking his knee.
With a miserable groan, Xuan Gu knelt down, smashing the bone jar in his hand onto the ground. The dark red liquid in the jar spilled out, and after touching the rock surface, it turned into wisps of mist that seeped down into the cracks.
Li Chenshuo's temples throbbed as he watched, and with a whoosh, he held the long spear horizontally in front of Xuan Gu's neck.
"You still want to talk about blood purification?"
Xuan Gu's lips trembled, and cold sweat poured down his forehead.
Huang Chen squatted down and placed the bone nail directly next to his face.
As the mirage approached, the water ripples on Xuan Gu's face spontaneously rose up, as if they had been scalded.
His pupils contracted sharply; he finally couldn't hold back any longer.
"I'll talk, I'll talk!"
'
"hurry up."
"Three days from now... the Abyss Eye Festival will begin."
"Whirlpool's voice trembled violently, "These soldiers in the outer ring, who have been invaded by the cold evil, are all the triggers. Seven bone nails that lock the veins have been buried. When the time of the sacrifice arrives, the cold water, ancestral blood, and war drums will resonate together. The outer ring of the main vein will explode first, and then collapse into the heart of the main vein."
'
Li Chenshuo's hand, which was gripping the spear, bulged up.
"Who gave the order?"
'
Xuan Gu was panting heavily, as if he would have died if he had waited another breath.
"It wasn't just Beiming who sent an order... there are other lines above him."
The Mirage Palace had been paving the way for a long time; there was more than one shattered seal, more than one… There were people in the main lineage providing support—the Old Treasury, the Sacrificial Canal, the Sick Camp, all of them—”
His voice suddenly stopped as he said this.
Huang Chen's brow twitched suddenly.
wrong.
Behind the swirl of the neck, a very faint gray-blue mark had appeared at some unknown time.
The mark resembled a closed eye; as soon as it appeared, the surrounding air suddenly turned cold.
"Get out of the way!"
"Huang Chen roared.
He grabbed Li Chenshuo and pulled him backward, while with his other hand he picked up the Demon-Subduing Golden Bowl and smashed it over.
Just as the golden bowl flew into the air, Xuan Gu felt as if an invisible hand had twisted him from the inside out.
Click, click, click.
First the spine, then the chest cavity, and finally the skull.
Before he could even let out a full scream, black blood mixed with mirage gushed from all seven orifices.
The gray-blue patterned seal suddenly shrank, then exploded, turning into a cold mist with a salty, fishy smell that burned his entire face, causing the skin and flesh to peel off.
Li Chenshuo pierced through the remaining mist with a single thrust, his face extremely grim.
"Causal restriction".
Huang Chen didn't speak, but raised his hand to put the golden bowl back and quickly stepped forward to examine the corpse.
Whirlpool's soul is gone.
It wasn't just a matter of being silenced; their very souls were preemptively bound, ready to be crushed at the slightest touch to the vital points.
Huang Chen reached out and wiped the back of the corpse's neck, picking up a bit of grayish-blue powder with his fingertips. He brought it to his nose and smelled it; the scent of the sea was mixed with a faint medicinal smell.
It shares the same origin as the shattered seal of the Mirage Palace in the North Sea.
It can be deeper, and it can be older.
Huang Chen turned to look at the shattered bone jar.
The remaining liquid in the jar was flowing back into the blood pool along the ground, as if it were sentient. Huang Chen threw out a Spirit Fusion Talisman to seal the remaining liquid and the broken jar together. He then tore off a piece of animal hide, wrapped the section of the Mirage-stained Meridian-Locking Bone Nail tightly, and put it into his pocket.
Li Chenshuo stared at Xuan Gu's corpse, his voice deep and resonant.
"Seven sites were buried in the main vein."
If what he said is true, the outer ring will collapse first once the Abyss Eye Sacrifice is activated.
"He didn't need to use this to deceive us before he died."
'
Huang Chen stood up, and the Pulse Fire Battle Domain slowly contracted, causing the surrounding heat waves to recede. The remaining filthy blood in the abandoned blood pool was still bubbling, making soft popping sounds as the bubbles burst, as if someone was whispering at the bottom of the pool.
Li Chenshuo suddenly looked at Huang Chen.
"You have enough evidence."
'
"Almost there." Huang Chen squatted down and cut open the chest cavity of the blood slave beast whose head he had smashed.
Sure enough, a small bone fragment was embedded among the animal bones.
The inscription on the bone fragment was not the Gonggong tribe's symbol, but a tiny mirage-like loop, almost hidden in the texture of the flesh, and could not be seen at all without disassembling the corpse.
Huang Chen picked out the bone fragments and handed them to Li Chenshuo.
"The sick soldiers have gone mad, the blood slave beasts have taken shape, and even the abandoned treatment pools that you used to suppress the cold evil have been turned into conversion fields."
'
"This place has been hollowed out long ago."
Li Chenshuo stared at the bone fragment, remaining silent for a long time.
Suddenly, hurried footsteps came from outside the old canal, and someone shouted, "General Li? What's going on inside?"
'
Li Chenshuo's expression hardened, and he immediately slammed the end of his spear into the ground.
"seal.
"Don't let anyone from here in."
There was a commotion outside, and soon the sound of soldiers running around could be heard.
Huang Chen had already begun wiping his hands, slowly cleaning the blood-stained blade from the dead animal hide. His movements were slow, but his eyes were icy cold.
The causal restriction just now was activated too quickly.
This suggests that the person behind the Whirlpool Bone might not be far away, or even somewhere on the outer edge of the main vein, watching this place through the sacrificial patterns and water veins.
Huang Chen looked up and glanced at the few strings of medicinal bones swaying gently above the blood pool.
The wind blew in from deep within the old canal.
The medicine and bone collided, click, click.
It sounded like someone was knocking their teeth in the dark.
The latest chapter is packed with exciting plot twists! Come check it out!