Chapter 347
Chapter 347
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: [Unknown]
Chapter Title: Godblood Tempering and Peng Village in Peril
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"Could the lord of the Heavenly Pool Nation have also visited Despair Slope?" Chen Shi wondered to himself.
According to Yang Bi's account, the True King had voluntarily severed the two major realms of tribulation transcendence and ascension after visiting Despair Slope, adding the four realms of Divine Shrine, Divine Embryo, Divine Descent, and Void Refinement. He transformed the techniques brought from Huaxia Divine Continent into the current cultivation system.
This change caused cultivators' lifespans to match those of mortals—no more than a century at most. Moreover, no one could transcend tribulation and ascend to become carefree immortals anymore.
If the Heavenly Pool Nation had also stripped the ghost and god clans of literacy after visiting Despair Slope, then how terrifying must Despair Slope be to successively force the True King and the prehistoric civilization to yield?
Chen Shi had crossed paths with Zhuang Wuji before and hadn't found him particularly formidable.
But now, gazing at the corpses dangling from Immeasurable Cliff, Chen Shi felt Despair Slope was likely far more powerful than imagined.
"I wonder if the Blood Lake True Scripture can absorb the blood flowing from these gods?" Peng Yan'er also looked up at the gods hanging on the cliff wall and suddenly said.
Chen Shi praised her.
"Yan'er, you're nothing like your brother—instead, you take after me."
He too wanted to know if the Blood Lake True Scripture could refine this divine blood. However, the gods' fleshly bodies hanging from the cliff wall remained intact, their auras overwhelmingly mighty—alive or dead, who could say? Rashly harvesting their blood might provoke a mere wisp of aura to shake him to death.
Chen Shi leaped down from the locust tree and arrived at the base of the cliff wall.
Peng Yan'er hurriedly followed. Chen Shi instructed her.
"Later, don't activate the Blood Lake True Scripture first. I'll test it to check for danger."
Peng Yan'er assented, barely containing her excitement.
A blood-colored stream ran at the base of the cliff wall, its divine blood like amber—crystal clear and translucent. Rosy glows of every hue wafted above the stream, gorgeously radiant.
Chen Shi found a human skull and cautiously approached the stream, trying to scoop up some divine blood. Unexpectedly, the skull shattered with a 'pa' the instant it touched.
He tried several more times. No container could make contact without being crushed outright. The divine blood possessed potent dissolving properties; shattered fragments that fell in vanished without a trace.
Chen Shi backed away from the blood stream a short distance and tentatively activated the Blood Lake True Scripture, drawing in a wisp of rosy glow hovering over it.
With utmost care, he tried refining the wisp into the blood pool behind his head. The moment it touched him, an intensely violent blood qi surged forth. In his daze, Chen Shi seemed to see a sky-obscuring bloody wave crashing toward him to pulverize him!
He retreated at once, but the bloody wave roared onward undiminished!
"Those gods hanging from the cliff wall were far beyond the Great Vehicle Realm in life! This blood qi surpasses the Great Vehicle by miles!"
Chen Shi clenched his teeth, circulating the Blood Lake True Scripture to its utmost. He had encountered numerous Great Vehicle existences—their auras domineering beyond measure—but they paled a full tier against the power latent in this divine blood!
Unique patterns of the Shepherd Ghost surfaced across his small skeletal frame! "Pa pa pa!"
The patterns shattered one by one under the divine might, fine cracks exploding from his bones. The skeletal body, previously tempered by the Blood Lake True Scripture, cracked all over, on the verge of disintegration!
The bloodline imprint gained from slaying and refining the Shepherd Ghost's blood qi shattered clean away! Worse, the primal soul possessing the skeleton sensed doomsday crashing down!
Inspiration flashed through Chen Shi's mind. He promptly activated the First New Talisman! Divine incantations thundered in his sea of consciousness!
"Yang essence illuminates spirits, yin ghosts shall decay! Divine Vermilion blazes, light unveils the Supreme Subtlety!" "Seven qi forms the Dipper, three qi forms the Platform! A hundred evils extinguished, ten thousand ghosts crushed and bowed!"
Thunder light erupted in clusters across his skeleton. Bolts coursed along the bones as Chen Shi trod a thunder platform, resembling a skeletal divinity bathed in lightning.
The cataclysmic bloody wave slammed in. With the First New Talisman invoked, Chen Shi's frame stood like an unyielding pillar amid raging currents, enduring the onslaught!
"Hoo—"
Behind his head, the blood pool whirled with a howl, swiftly expanding into a full pond!
The blood pond equated to his magic power—boundless and profound. Beyond quantity, it underwent a qualitative transcendence: circulation accelerated, refinement hastened!
Divine blood qi from the rosy glow suffused his limbs and trunk. In mere moments, the skeleton gleamed firm as carved jade, prior cracks gone without trace!
Shocked and elated, Chen Shi called to Peng Yan'er at once.
"Absorbing divine blood is far too perilous for you. Stand by my side—I'll borrow its aura first to forge your body!"
Peng Yan'er positioned herself beside him. Chen Shi activated the Blood Lake True Scripture anew, meticulously drawing another wisp of rosy glow. As it surged in, becoming rampant blood qi merging into his rear blood pond, he siphoned off a strand and fed it into her. He barked.
"Yan'er, activate the Blood Lake True Scripture!"
Peng Yan'er complied instantly. Her rear blood pool, infused with divine blood qi, ballooned wildly, the scripture's circulation speeding up apace!
More marvelously, the Blood Lake True Scripture backfed her body, distilling divine blood essence to recast her frame!
Her wingtips turned lustrous gold in moments, dazzlingly brilliant; other feathers tempered pure, dross burned away!
Her divine soul surged in potency too. The divine blood qi refined her bloodline essence outright, purifying it!
Chen Shi started. This fledgling hen, refining but one wisp, outstripped brother Peng Ju's toil these many days.
"Bird atop bird slays bird."
Chen Shi mused inwardly. Peng Yan'er's talent shone too brightly. Their clan had guarded this treasure trove sight unseen, unable to mine it. My decryption unlocked the Blood Lake True Scripture, letting them tap the vein. Yet post-departure, the siblings couldn't work it alone. Best elevate Peng Yan'er to solo-refine rosy glows, then aid Peng Ju. With Granny Sha purging my inner demons, I could depart serene.
He seized another rosy wisp, diverting a thread to her mid-refinement.
By degrees, Peng Yan'er's rear blood pool swelled vast, her pinions shifting golden, beaming divinity, bloodline might mounting.
She remained pint-sized, Chen Shi's height.
Mature Peng birds towered two zhang. Peng Yan'er fell shy of six chi—like a human tot of four or five. Yet now, village paramount!
No day-night divide in the underworld. Chen Shi tutored her two days till her blood pond solidified.
Magic thick, vitality rampant. Chen Shi assayed matching her realm to yang-world tiers—in vain. Blood Pond Realm hinged on innate bloodline, defying convention.
By prowess? Ninth Cycle Golden Core to Nascent Soul, Chen Shi reckoned.
Yet Blood Pond's instant burst awed; the scripture's blood-devouring terror blindsided. Higher realms might topple all the same!
Peng Yan'er now managed meager rosy wisps solo. Chen Shi ceased aiding, self-cultivating. His pond quadrupled prior span these two days—yet Blood Lake Realm loomed distant.
Blood Lake Realm birthed Blood Lake Hell for ferrying shades, amassing merit.
Scripture claimed Blood Lake Hell forged merit aplenty. Blood Sea Realm ferried hordes toward merit-sainthood, utter transcendence!
"Yet this art so fiendish—merits whence?"
Chen Shi craned back, eyeing his blood pond: void-suspended, basin-sized to outsiders, over hundred mu to him.
His slain Shepherd Ghost thrashed soundlessly within. "My merit, this?"
Chen Shi enlightened, musing, "Slaying him, grand virtue indeed." Conscience clear, he awaited Blood Lake sainthood.
Two more days by the stream: pond spanned hundred zhang square. Vast pond nears lake—verily blood lake now.
Blood Lake Realm eluded still.
"Scripture speaks ten thousand ferried for immortality. One Shepherd Ghost; epochs from myriad."
Chen Shi cogitated. "Peculiar: ten thousand ferried means post-Blood Sea, tribulation to immortal? No demon path, true immortal art?"
Mid-streamside cultivation, uncanny pull beset him—soul quaking, near-fleeing frame!
"Granny Sha summons me! Demons excised at last?"
Enlightened, Chen Shi urged Peng Yan'er.
"Yan'er, yang-world calls. Mind yourself these days! Flesh settled, I'll return!"
Bewildered, she watched as Granny Sha's spell yanked his primal soul free—whoosh through yin-yang pale, into yang realm!
Before Peng Yan'er, the skeleton toppled.
She flinched, lunging to steady it—near crumpling under weight. Blood Lake True Scripture had densified those bones fearsomely.
Straining, she righted the skeleton against a boulder to sit beside her in practice, pondering mutely. "Whither Brother Chen Shi? Yang world diverting? Brother Peng Ju tarries why?"
Fearing chill, she wove feather raiment for the skeleton. Cultivation-weary, she chatted with it.
More soliloquy.
Underworld perils omnipresent, death lurking. Parents long gone; siblings sole kin. Peng Ju's Eastern Palace errand left her solitary.
Neighbor visits, chores if offered—but mostly homebound vigil.
House scoured repeatedly, dust ousted, self-talk rife. Chen Shi's frame companioned now; loneliness fled, joy bloomed.
Brother's duty overdue fretted though. "Mist Moon Night tonight!" Face paling.
Skyward, Peng kin winged to nests, barring portals. Afar, new moon like vast eye wept mist-snow, shrouding peaks, cascading cliffs, valley-surging—nigh!
Tree-under unsafe in Mist Moon Night. Chen Shi absent.
Peng Yan'er clutched skeleton, straining aloft—too leaden. Dragged piecemeal treefoot, stoned over.
Mist bore soul-rending roars; colossi loomed nebulous.
Four-footed tripod clanked chains; cauldron bones stirred mist-alive, hauling titan. Peng Yan'er bolted airborne, home-tree, door slammed.
Outdoors, cliffside thunderous oddities: mist-tainted god-corpses writhed revived, spear-shucking.
Immeasurable Cliff etched myriad enigmas. Abruptly sky boomed ponderous divine chants—myriad gods chorusing. Cliff blazed glory, half-hellmounts lit!
Peng Yan'er room-hid, awaiting. Without: quakes colossal, roars thudding dire. Corner-cringed, angst peaked. "Brother Chen Shi's bones safe outdoors? Brother Peng Ju hale in Eastern Palace?"
Omens endured nightlong. Dawn: mist moon fled, portents ebbed.
Peng Yan'er burst forth, tree-base: stones unmoved, breath eased. "Brothers Peng Ju, Chen Shi—return when?" Anxious.
Noon: ghost gods gale-borne from Heavenly Pool ringed Peng village. Bows trained clansmen—stir meant slaughter.
Foremost three-headed, panoplied majestic, torch-eyes fixed trembling Peng Yan'er, chuckling.
"You Peng Yan'er? Brother Peng Ju ghost-cultivator allied, slew殿下's Shepherd Ghost and shengsheng. Exposed!"
Peng Yan'er blanched, quaver-spoke.
"I'll labor, earn to repay殿下—"
"Lifetime toil buys no shengsheng.殿下 seeks not beasts, but Blood Lake True Scripture."
Ghost god grinned.
"Brother bungled, scripture-slew殿下 elites aplenty. Captured, mum on sourcing. Fortunate weakness: you. Take her!"
Subordinate yaksha ghost advanced, tresses wild—a mini-yaksha hair-perched incense-triple-wielding.
Feral fiend, straight for Peng Yan'er.
Then neighbor mid-Peng winged barrier, sycophant to three-head.
"Divinity, crime hers-brother's—what tie she.."
Unfinished: whoosh, bolt brow-holed, tree-nailed.
Three-head cold.
"Divine tongue known—grave stakes. Cull utter, none spared." "Whoosh whoosh whoosh!"
Bolts flew; Pengs blood-puddled. Fliers perforated mid-wing!
Chief-elder Peng wailed fury-pounce three-head—pre-close pierced!
"Cease! Cease!"
Peng Yan'er raged, tears torrent.
"Blood Lake True Scripture yours—spare clanskin!" Activated: rear blood pond bloomed.
"She too!" Yaksha glee-grab.
Terrorized, Peng Yan'er wings lashed—explosive growth, blood-sword cleaving yaksha torso.
Yaksha dazed, halved slow, flesh desiccate, soul blood-pond bound.
"Seize!" Ghost gods lunged. Peng Yan'er flail-frantic, wings whirled blood-swords zhang-crossed.
"Shua shua shua!"
Swords ramped, blood-dragons cavorted. Sudden: lights imploded to golden pinions rear-fanned, blood-trails pondward.
Air: husk-ghosts rained.
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