182: Chapter 182 The Supreme Empress Picks Up a Bargain!

"The Righteous Path is closed to me. To go against the heavens with this Mortal body that lacks a Spiritual Root, the only way is the path of Body Refining."

The Empress walked out of the ruined temple, feeling the extremely faint trace of "Heaven-Devouring Devilish Qi" she had just refined within her; her confidence recovered slightly.

She recalled the "Blood Spirit Sect" mentioned by those two lackeys earlier, and a plan instantly formed in her mind.

"Blood Spirit Sect? Judging by the name, it's just a low-life demonic cultivation Sect. How dare such ants claim to practice demonic arts?"

"No matter. The blood pools they've collected can serve as the first pot of gold for this Empress to forge the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Body. I shall infiltrate the Blood Spirit Sect's Branch right now and seize it for myself!"

In her imagination, the script was absolutely perfect.

"Go!"

The Empress gave a sharp cry, her eyes cold and proud. She sank her Qi into her Dantian, preparing to use "Moment," the ultimate movement technique that had shaken the starry skies in her past life, to travel.

Her right leg kicked off the ground with force as she took a step forward!

However—

*Splat!*

This twelve- or thirteen-year-old Mortal body was severely malnourished; its thigh muscles simply couldn't withstand the load of such a high-level exertion technique.

At the very moment she jumped, her left foot cramped, tripping over her right foot with unerring precision.

The once-mighty Jidao Empress, who had suppressed the starry skies for a hundred thousand years, was now like a chick with broken wings. She tumbled face-first into the mud in a most pathetic "dog eating dirt" posture, her small face buried deep in a puddle.

The night wind blew, and the surrounding fields fell into a dead silence that lasted for three full seconds.

After a long while.

The Empress stiffly raised her head from the mud pit and silently spat out the dirt. The corners of her eyes, usually as calm as an ancient well, began to twitch uncontrollably.

"Damn this Heavenly Dao suppression... Damn this Mortal shell! Even walking has to follow the Laws of physics?!"

Helpless, and to maintain her cold and aloof persona as an Extreme Dao Great Emperor, she could only endure the sharp pain of the cramp. She brushed the mud off her backside and, like an ordinary little vagabond, pumped her thin, short legs, sprinting through the night wind with heavy breaths.

She ran for a full two hours.

By the time the Empress was gasping for air, feeling as if her lungs were about to burst, she finally reached the wall of the Blood Spirit Sect's Branch over ten miles away.

She was just about to show her Divine Might and slaughter everyone with the rusty iron nail in her hand.

But as soon as she climbed onto the wall, she froze.

The Blood Spirit Sect, which she had expected to be heavily guarded, was currently engulfed in soaring flames!

A group of mysterious assassins dressed in black and wearing Faceless Masks was carrying out a one-sided, brutal massacre of the Blood Spirit Sect.

These assassins were well-trained, their movements eerie. They struck without hesitation, leaving not a single soul alive.

The usually high-and-mighty Blood Spirit Sect Elders were falling before them like vegetables being chopped.

The Empress was stunned.

"Preposterous! What power dares to snatch this Empress's prey?!"

In her past life, the Empress would have flattened these men in black along with the entire mountain range with a single palm strike.

But now, from a distance, she could clearly sense the powerful fluctuations of the Foundation Establishment Stage and even one at the Golden Core Stage coming from those men in black. Reason compelled her to silently pull her small head back behind the wall.

"A mere assassination organization has a Golden Core Cultivator leading the team? Judging by this discipline, they are certainly no ordinary power."

The Empress calculated silently.

But at this moment, seeing the blood of the Cultivators flowing all over the ground, the "Heaven-Devouring Demonic Body" within her emitted an extremely thirsty roar.

"No, the demonic body has just been established. If I don't absorb this, my Foundation will be ruined! Whatever, fortune favors the bold!"

Thus, an extremely comical yet eerie scene appeared on the outskirts of the Blood Spirit Sect:

In front, the mysterious assassins in Faceless Masks were cold-bloodedly killing, looting Storage Pouches, and kicking aside the corpses.

Behind them, a mud-covered, scrawny Little Girl, like an agile wild cat, darted back and forth through the piles of corpses under the cover of night.

Her expression was extremely cold and aloof, her gaze looking down upon the world, but the movements of her hands were chillingly practiced.

Her small hands pressed precisely onto the recently deceased corpses as she frantically circulated the "Heaven Swallowing Dao Transformation Art," taking a deep breath of essence and blood before quickly moving to the next one.

"This Empress is not picking up scraps; this Empress is... performing rites for these common Mortals!"

As the Empress absorbed, she made excuses for herself in her heart. Her originally shriveled little belly visibly rounded out, and her complexion became much more ruddy.

However, how could such strange "battlefield scavenging" behavior escape the notice of well-trained assassins?

On an ancient tree in the shadows.

Dark Seven, a minor leader of the Shadow Pavilion who was personally leading the team to oversee the battle tonight, was staring with interest at the little beggar scurrying through the piles of corpses.

"Not a trace of Spiritual Root fluctuations, and her Meridians are blocked; she's a complete Mortal with severed pulses." Dark Seven's eyes narrowed slightly behind his mask, his heart churning with shock.

"And yet, she can actually ignore the backlash of the Cultivators' residual True Qi and directly devour the essence and blood of these demonic Cultivators?"

After a brief moment of shock, an astonishing light erupted in Dark Seven's eyes.

He remembered the supreme order the Pavilion Master had personally issued before they came to the Qianji Realm:

[Seek out all females in this realm with unique Physiques, those who defy common sense, and those with Heaven-Defying Luck! No matter if they are old, weak, sick, disabled, blind, lame, ugly, or strange—as long as they are unique enough, there will be a heavy reward!]

"No Spiritual Root yet able to cultivate a demonic body? This extreme Physique that defies common sense very likely meets the requirements mentioned by the Pavilion Master!!"

Thinking of this, Dark Seven did not immediately order her capture but decided to personally test the Little Girl's mettle.

"Bang!"

Dark Seven leapt down from the tree and, with a casual kick, sent the Branch Master of the Blood Spirit Sect flying like a ball to the Empress's feet.

"Pfft—"

The heavily injured Branch Master coughed up a large mouthful of essence blood mixed with fragments of internal organs in front of the Empress.

Dark Seven slowly stepped out from the shadows, his Golden Core Stage pressure released without reservation. Looking down at the Little Girl, he sneered with a hint of playfulness:

"Little beggar, you've got some nerve, daring to steal food under the Shadow Pavilion's nose. This old dog's blood essence is quite nourishing. Shall I show some mercy and grant it to you?"

Faced with the pressure of the Golden Core Stage, any ordinary Qi Refining Stage Cultivator would have long since knelt and begged for mercy.

But the Empress slowly raised her head.

Though she had to look up at Dark Seven due to her height, the eternal vicissitudes and extreme indifference in her deep eyes made even a cold-blooded Golden Core Cultivator like Dark Seven feel an involuntary chill in his heart!

That feeling was as if he were being watched by an immemorial Vicious Beast lurking in the abyss.

The Empress did not offer thanks; instead, she let out an extremely disdainful sneer.

She didn't rush to absorb the blood essence as she had before. Instead, with the commanding tone of a superior, she looked coldly at Dark Seven:

"Your killing technique is too crude."

Dark Seven was stunned. "What did you say?"

The Empress pointed a dirty little finger at the dying Branch Master on the ground, her voice devoid of emotion:

"When cutting his heart vein, your blade was off by three-tenths, causing the purest mouthful of his natal spirit blood to dissipate into his internal organs. With such a wasteful and shoddy technique, you dare call yourselves assassins?"

As her voice fell.

Completely ignoring Dark Seven's bewildered gaze, she suddenly pressed two thin fingers together like a peerless sword and, with an incredibly tricky angle, stabbed them into the Foundation Establishment Branch Master's vital acupoint between his brows with a *squelch*!

"Heaven-Devouring Dao-Transformation—Seize!"

Along that tricky angle, the last trace of undissipated natal blood essence within the Branch Master's body was perfectly extracted, turning into a streak of crimson light that the Empress swallowed in one gulp!

"Boom—!"

As that mouthful of Foundation Establishment Peak blood essence entered her stomach, the Empress's body, which originally lacked a Spiritual Root, emitted a series of crackling sounds like beans being roasted!

She had no Dantian, but relying on the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Body, her physical strength was forcibly raised in that instant to a level comparable to the fifth level of Qi Refining!

Dark Seven stood there, looking at this mud-covered Little Girl who didn't even reach his waist; his jaw nearly hit the ground behind his mask.

A Mortal Little Girl without a Spiritual Root was teaching him, a Golden Core assassin, how to kill people right to his face?

And she even poked a Foundation Establishment Peak Cultivator to death with a single finger right in front of him?!

A glint of greed flashed in Dark Seven's eyes as he stared at the Empress and asked.

"By revealing your secrets before me, aren't you afraid I'll kill you and take your treasures?"