19: Chapter 19 The Scholar's Killing Technique: No Knife Needed
Opposite the main peak of the Cloud Break Mountain Range, a Nameless Desolate Ridge.
The stench of blood permeating the air was thick enough to be suffocating.
A massive Blood Pool bubbled and churned; every bursting blood bubble released billions of invisible Gu into the world.
The Old Ancestor of the Blood River sat cross-legged on a White Bone Lotus Platform in the center of the Blood Pool, his withered face filled with a sickly feverishness.
He was obsessed with this feeling of being the Dominator over the life and death of all spirits; it intoxicated him more than any Spirit Pill or medicine in the world.
"Wail! Fear! Your despair is the sweetest nourishment for my 'Blood-Refining Divine Gu'!"
He let out a laugh like a night owl, slightly raising the Soul-Summoning Banner in his hand, preparing to completely crush the final barrier of the Heavenly River Sword Sect.
He didn't know.
Death was already standing above his head.
The Void Realm was boundless, silent, and soundless.
Under the absolute stealth of the [Void Walker], Li Mo merged into the world like a grain of dust, quietly hovering three feet above the head of the Old Ancestor of the Blood River.
At this distance, he could clearly see the dark red Gu pulsing incessantly on the Old Ancestor's neck.
The Mother Gu.
It greedily sucked the host's essence and blood, and it was also the absolute hub for thousands of child Gu.
"Golden Core Late Stage, full of openings."
There wasn't a single ripple in Li Mo's gaze.
In his [Great Reader] vision, the Old Ancestor of the Blood River wasn't some Demonic Path giant, but merely an inferior piece of reading material filled with loopholes and annotations.
[Target: Old Ancestor of the Blood River (Injuries unhealed)]
[Weakness Analysis: Cultivation Technique backlash, floating Spiritual Qi; Mother Gu parasitic on the vital point of the neck, life-linked; mental defense line is practically non-existent due to extreme excitement.]
"Load entries: [Baleful Qi Control], [Anatomy Mastery]."
Li Mo's will condensed into an invisible hand, and he took out that human skin book from his robes—"Xiao Hei."
"Time to eat."
These three words were an edict opening the gates of Hell.
"Sss—"
The moment the palm-sized Xiao Hei left his hand, it expanded wildly against the wind.
The human skin cover twisted and stretched, transforming into an abyssal maw large enough to blot out the sky, silently biting down toward the Blood Pool below.
A silent devouring was far more terrifying than a roar.
While the Old Ancestor of the Blood River was laughing wildly, the light from the sky suddenly dimmed.
Before he even had time to think, a large chunk of his protective Blood Qi Shield was bitten off by an invisible force, without even causing a ripple!
"What is this?!"
The Old Ancestor of the Blood River's expression changed drastically as he looked up fiercely.
No Magic Treasure, no Flying Sword.
What entered his pupils was a swirling, pure, and bottomless black void.
The aura emanating from that void was ten thousand times more sinister than the Demonic Technique he had immersed himself in for a lifetime!
"Ah! My blood qi!"
The Old Ancestor of the Blood River was terrified; the Blood Pool he was so proud of was being sucked dry by that giant maw at a rate visible to the naked eye!
"Bastard! What kind of Prodigy is this!"
The old demon was an old demon after all; his panic lasted only an instant.
He poured his anger into his Dantian, his Golden Core Late Stage cultivation erupting violently. The Soul-Summoning Banner in his hand transformed into a blood-colored spear that pierced through heaven and earth, stabbing straight into the high sky!
"Now."
Li Mo's figure stepped out from the void.
He ignored the blood spear stabbing toward Xiao Hei.
Xiao Hei's "thick skin and flesh" was on a level of Physics; this strike would at most make it burp.
Li Mo's target was the Old Ancestor's neck.
He had no sword in his hand.
Only an ordinary-looking "spring and autumn brush."
There was no ink on the brush tip.
Instead, it was the Dragon Qi of the Imperial Path borrowed from Chu Linger, enough to suppress demons from all ages!
"Freeze!"
Li Mo spoke.
A single word came out, like a heavenly decree.
[Words Follow Law] fused with [Majestic Imperial Might].
Time didn't stop, but rather the Old Ancestor of the Blood River's thoughts were forcibly paused by a higher-dimensional will.
For the strong, an instant is an eternity.
Puchi.
A slight sound of flesh being pierced, almost inaudible.
The spring and autumn brush in Li Mo's hand turned into a streak of light, accurately piercing the Old Ancestor of the Blood River's carotid artery.
The tip of the brush hit that wriggling Mother Gu right in the center!
"Screee—!!"
A sharp insect cry that tore through the Divine Soul echoed through the clouds.
The strangling power formed by the intertwining of Dragon Qi and Vast Righteous Qi didn't allow the Mother Gu even a moment of struggle; it exploded into a cloud of blood mist on the spot.
"Puff!"
When the Mother Gu dies, the host perishes.
The Old Ancestor of the Blood River felt as if he had been struck by lightning. His monstrous Demonic Technique collapsed and leaked out in an instant, like a punctured balloon.
"You... you are..."
He clutched his spurting neck, his eyeballs bulging as he stared fixedly at the young man before him, who wore a Servant's uniform but whose face was shrouded in a layer of mist.
He couldn't understand.
When did the Heavenly River Sword Sect hide such a monster?
Dual Cultivation of Confucianism and Dao? And he could even command abyssal evil creatures?
"Who I am, you are not worthy to know."
Li Mo pulled out the brush and flicked off the foul blood, his tone as calm as if he were critiquing a book he had just finished reading.
"Your Dao, I have finished reading it."
"A page full of nonsense, not worth reading."
"You..."
The Old Ancestor of the Blood River spat out a mouthful of blood, his life force severed. He fell straight backward, tumbling into the dried-up Blood Pool.
A generation's demonic overlord had fallen.
Simultaneously, the billions of blood-colored threads spread throughout the Heavenly River Sword Sect snapped inch by inch.
Inside the Sect, all the poisoned Disciples vomited a mouthful of black blood, and the evil force devouring their life force vanished.
The Sect Master, who was fighting to the death at the front of the mountain, watched the blood mist in the sky suddenly dissipate, his face filled with shock and confusion.
...
Upon the desolate ridge.
Li Mo didn't linger for a moment.
He scooped up the stuffed and burping Xiao Hei and casually took the Old Ancestor of the Blood River's Storage Ring.
A professional habit.
"Withdraw."
[Void Walker] activated, and his figure began to fade.
Just as he was about to completely merge into the void—
In the Blood Pool, the corpse of the Old Ancestor of the Blood River suddenly snapped its eyes open!
Those were pupils as black as ink, burning with ghostly green fire.
A cold and majestic voice that didn't belong to this world spoke through the corpse, as if coming across endless time and space:
"Good methods, to destroy my Divided Soul and ruin my grand plan."
"No matter who you are... you have been stained with my 'Styx Blood Seal'. Even to the ends of the earth, the Great Zhou Dynasty will surely kill you."
Buzz!
A streak of blood light, condensed to the extreme, shot out from the corpse's brow!
It ignored space and even rules, appearing directly in front of Li Mo.
Li Mo's brow furrowed; this attack had locked onto his Divine Soul, making it unavoidable.
"heaven-deceiving stone, block!"
He pulled the strange stone from his chest and activated its power to deceive the heavenly secrets, meeting the blood light.
"Crack!"
The strange stone, capable of deceiving the Heavenly Dao, actually let out a wail at the moment of collision with the blood light, its surface covered in cracks!
The blood light was weakened by ninety-nine percent, yet a sliver of the cold mark still penetrated through layers of obstruction, imprinting itself on the back of Li Mo's hand.
A hideous blood-colored skull flickered in and out of sight.
"State Preceptor of Great Zhou, Sima Changfeng?"
Li Mo looked at the mark on the back of his hand. There was no fear on his face; instead, a trace of chilling coldness appeared.
"I just wanted to read books quietly for a few years, but someone always insists on flipping over my table."
"Fine."
"You gave me a mark, so I'll leave a mark on you too."
Li Mo called up the System interface and lightly scanned the skull mark on his hand.
[High-level Karma-based tracking mark detected.]
[Source: Sima Changfeng (Divine Soul projection).]
[Reverse analysis in progress... Analysis successful!]
[New book list obtained: "Black History of the State Preceptor of Great Zhou: From Possession to Treason", "Detailed Explanation of the Imperial Dynasty Dragon Vein Stealing Technique"]
"Just wait."
Li Mo's figure completely vanished into the wind.
"Once I finish reading about your scandals, I'll have to take a good look in your ancestral tomb."
The wind stopped, and the person was gone.
Only a mess was left on the ground, proving that an unknown "reading exchange meeting" had taken place here.
In the Heavenly River Sword Sect's Scripture Pavilion, Dugu Yun watched the Li Mo who appeared out of thin air, and the teacup in his hand shattered with a "snap."
He stared fixedly at the Storage Pouch Li Mo was casually carrying.
On it, the blood-colored lotus totem of the Old Ancestor of the Blood River was exceptionally eye-catching.
"You... you really killed him?" Dugu Yun's voice was trembling.
Li Mo shrugged, tossed the Storage Pouch onto the table, and turned back into that lazy sweeping Servant.
"No."
"I picked it up on the road."
He stretched, as if he had just gone out to throw away some trash.
"By the way, Elder, I want to eat braised pork for dinner. Put more sugar in it to nourish my brain."