123: Black-clad Blood Servant, Blood Curse Backlash

The surrounding Spiritual Qi suddenly boiled, transforming into a violent vortex with a diameter of one kilometer!

At the center of the vortex was Zhang Sheng.

He was like a bottomless abyss, with massive amounts of Spiritual Qi crazily pouring into his body.

Five minutes, just five minutes!

The progress of the Primordial Chaos Heavenly Art increased by 7 points, and a brand-new spirit sun, containing immense power, slowly rose within his Qi Sea.

After cultivating the Primordial Chaos Heavenly Art to the Proficient Realm, it would take an entire week to complete one full circulation without the aid of the star vortex spirit gathering plate.

With the spirit gathering plate enabled, the dense Spiritual Qi compressed the cycle down to half an hour.

Theoretically, if supplemented with a peak grade spirit gathering pill, the Extreme Speed could even reach an astonishing three minutes per circulation.

However, the reality was five minutes.

Zhang Sheng knew clearly: even with the support of the spirit gathering plate, the Spiritual Qi concentration here was still insufficient.

Five minutes was already the limit under the current environment.

"Perhaps, only by waiting for the next stage, when a Secret Realm with more abundant Spiritual Qi descends, can this five-minute bottleneck be broken," he thought to himself.

The Divine Breath Realm Yao Beasts within the current Secret Realm had already been wiped out by China's Divine Breath Realm Cultivators within two hours of its arrival.

The dropped blue-grade Jade Slips would eventually be gathered and sent to Zhang Sheng via the First Cultivation University—only he possessed the star ring and could investigate the mysteries of the Jade Slips.

The descent of the Secret Realm was not without traces.

They only appeared in land areas where human activity was frequent, so every newly born Secret Realm could not escape the "eyes" of high-altitude satellites.

Zhang Sheng's whale-like cultivation, absorbing Spiritual Qi, inevitably attracted the attention of more and more people.

Although the Secret Realm was vast, covering an area of 300 kilometers in radius, the speed at which the Spiritual Qi was decreasing was still shockingly fast.

Every five minutes, a huge spirit sun would appear in Zhang Sheng's Qi Sea, containing a Spiritual Qi value as high as 9.99 million!

This astonishing efficiency relied entirely on the Perfected State Heavenly Circulation Method.

Song Xian's Cultivation Technique could only condense a Foundation of "hundred spirits" in one refinement, whereas the Perfected State Heavenly Circulation Method could achieve a supreme Foundation of "ten thousand spirits in one refinement"!

The Spiritual Qi contained in one of Zhang Sheng's spirit suns was equivalent to the sum of one hundred of Song Xian's.

According to the information provided by the myriad worlds pearl artifact spirit Clone—"Xiao Ling," if Earth could pass the "Civilization Assessment," it would collectively ascend to the Tianxing Continent.

"Heavenly Circulation Method... Tianxing Continent... Could there really be some connection between the two?" A trace of doubt flashed through Zhang Sheng's mind.

After learning that the source of the Spiritual Qi anomaly in the Secret Realm was Zhang Sheng, the other Cultivators dispersed to busy themselves.

The Chinese Cultivators were like efficient worker ants, transporting the resources in the Secret Realm—even a drop of lake water—outwards.

This was exactly the scene Zhang Sheng was happy to see.

"It seems the plan to accelerate the descent of Secret Realms can be started soon!" A sharp light flashed in his eyes.

"Big Head! Have you heard? War God! War God Zhang is cultivating in the Secret Realm!" A young Cultivator named "Huzi," wearing a special logistics uniform, excitedly patted his companion's shoulder.

"War God? Which War God?" The companion known as "Big Head" didn't react for a moment.

"Who else could it be? Zhang Sheng! War God Zhang! In my heart, he is the only one in China worthy of the title 'War God'!" Huzi's voice rose.

The conversation between the two clearly reached the ears of a rogue Cultivator who was sitting cross-legged and cultivating not far away.

This person was dressed in black, with a wide hood covering most of his face, revealing only a cold, rigid jawline.

After the arrival of the cultivation civilization, strange clothing had long since become commonplace, and no one found it strange.

Beneath the shadow of the hood, a trace of scarlet flashed from the depths of his pupils.

He stood up silently, turning into a faint black shadow, and sped directly towards the central area of the Secret Realm.

Inside Zhang Sheng's Dantian, new spirit suns were rising at a steady rhythm.

Twenty-five... twenty-six... twenty-seven...

In less than two hours, his total Spiritual Qi had already doubled!

Suddenly—

An extremely strange aura, carrying a strong, decaying, bloody stench, like a stone thrown into a calm lake, sped past him!

Zhang Sheng's eyes suddenly opened!

His immense Divine Sense instantly spread out like a surging tide, covering a radius of forty kilometers!

After cultivating to the second stage of the Qi Sea Realm, his Mental Energy reached a new peak, and his mapping range had reached an astonishing forty kilometers.

Target locked—that Man in Black wearing a hood!

Cultivation came to an abrupt halt!

Zhang Sheng's figure shot into the sky like a cannonball, breaking the sound barrier and emitting a piercing sonic boom!

Several curved blades flickering with cold moonlight shot out from around his body, cutting through the sky and instantly sealing off all escape routes for the Man in Black!

The Man in Black was flying at full speed towards Zhang Sheng's direction, completely unaware that he had already been exposed under the giant net of Divine Sense.

It was only when cold light appeared in front of him, and the figure rushing over with terrifying might came into view, that he realized in horror!

His pupils suddenly contracted to pinpoints!

The moon blades hovered, the cold edges almost touching his skin, filled with chilling Killing Intent; if he made the slightest move, he would be instantly reduced to fragments!

Immediately after, tough green wooden vines grew wildly out of thin air, binding him tightly from head to toe like a living creature, completely imprisoning him!

The closer he got, the more distinct and pungent that nauseating, strong, bloody stench became.

The reason Zhang Sheng struck with thunderous force was precisely because of this aura—it was identical to the bloody stench that radiated from Irene when she was divining Hei Sha!

At that time, he only thought it was Yao Beast blood, but now, recalling her abnormal behavior at the time, it was full of strangeness.

After cultivating the Nine Tribulations Secret Codex, his sense of smell was no longer ordinary.

The stench and decay contained in this bloody aura at this moment definitely did not originate from any Yao Beast!

Zhang Sheng's gaze was like lightning, his sharp vision seemingly able to pierce through the opponent's flesh and blood.

However, he did not find any traces of control by the Parasitic God Insect Emperor.

Judging from the Spiritual Qi fluctuations, this person's cultivation level was about at the "First Refinement Ten Spirits" standard, which was considered quite skilled among the Divine Breath Realm.

"Speak! Who are you? Which force do you belong to?!"

Zhang Sheng's voice was bone-chillingly cold, containing powerful Mental Energy pressure that pierced directly into the opponent's mind—this was a small trick of mental intimidation he had figured out.

The Man in Black looked at Zhang Sheng in terror, his throat rolling, and he spoke with difficulty:

"I am... gu... argh—!"

Before the words could finish, viscous dark red blood suddenly sprayed out from his seven orifices!

Zhang Sheng reacted extremely quickly, the light of the Rejuvenation Spell instantly enveloping the entire body of the Man in Black.

However, all the blood in the opponent's body was crazily flowing backwards, boiling, and evaporating, and his life force was rapidly dissipating in an unstoppable, bizarre way!

In the span of a breath, the Man in Black had completely lost all life, becoming a hideous corpse!

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, in a deep mountain valley.

Julian, who was meditating, suddenly opened his eyes, a scarlet light flashing and disappearing.

"Julian, what is it?" Leon asked in a deep voice from the side, eyes closed.

"Lord Leon, one of my Blood Servants... died due to the Blood Curse backlash. He was a pawn responsible for investigating China's experts." Julian's voice carried a trace of subtle fluctuation,

quickly adding, "But please rest assured, Lord! The Blood Curse has already taken effect; it is impossible for him to have leaked any information about us before he died! Once the core is touched, the backlash is triggered immediately!"

"Julian," Leon's voice was unquestionable, "Immediately withdraw all Blood Servants in China. Now is not the time for a direct confrontation with them; alerting the enemy will do more harm than good."

"Understood! Lord Leon!" Julian bowed and accepted the order.

Zhang Sheng stared at the corpse on the ground. The Man in Black's appearance was typically Asian,

except for that dissipating, evil, bloody aura, he was no different from an ordinary Cultivator from the inside out.

But a strong sense of incongruity lingered in Zhang Sheng's heart.

"This is definitely not ordinary control... it's like some kind of Talent?" He frowned deeply.

With a wave of his hand, he completely froze the corpse.

Zhang Sheng put it into his storage ring.

"Take it back to Hou Wu; perhaps we can dig up some clues."