139: Chapter 139 A Drop of Demon Blood, The Terrifying Shadow Behind the Temple

Something is wrong.

The self-detonation of a Cultivator at the Foundation Establishment Stage, even if mixed with Golden Core fragments, is essentially an instantaneous release of uncontrollable Spiritual Qi.

The residue should be wild and scattered Spiritual Qi, which would slowly dissipate into the world over time.

But the charred center before his eyes was not like that.

The air in that area seemed to have been drained of all warmth, exuding a bone-chilling cold.

Even more bizarrely, in the center of the charred flesh, a fist-sized pool of pitch-black slime, resembling a living creature, was slowly writhing.

It had no fixed form; it contracted and expanded, its surface glistening with a greasy reflection.

Every movement was like breathing, emitting an indescribable, decadent, and filthy Aura, as if it were the condensation of all the negative emotions in the world.

Lin Chen's gaze was fixed on that pool of slime.

He was not unfamiliar with that Aura.

It shared the same Origin as the wisp of Aura that emanated from the depths of the Ink Abyss, which made all living beings tremble instinctively, but it was more condensed and... more aggressive.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the slime seemed to sense danger and began to writhe faster, attempting to burrow into the gaps of the deck and penetrate into the Spiritual Vein below.

Lin Chen's pupils constricted slightly.

He flicked his finger almost subconsciously.

"Puff."

A wisp of golden flame, solid as substance, flew from his fingertip and landed precisely on the pitch-black slime.

This was not an ordinary flame; it was the "Geng Metal True Fire" formed after he entered the Golden Core stage, created by the Fusion of Geng Metal Sword Qi and his own pure Spiritual Qi. It was extremely Yang and rigid, specialized in breaking all evil.

By all logic, such filthy things should be like snow meeting the scorching sun in the face of Geng Metal True Fire, instantly evaporated.

However, a bizarre scene occurred.

"Sizzle—!"

As soon as the golden flame touched the slime, the slime began to roll and boil violently, emitting a shrill, sharp shriek that no living creature could possibly produce.

The shriek did not travel through the air but acted directly on people's Divine Soul, as if countless steel needles were frantically churning in their minds, causing all the lower-cultivation Cultivators present to groan in unison, clutching their ears with pale faces, yet the sound continued to echo in their minds.

What shocked Lin Chen even more was that his Geng Metal True Fire had failed to destroy this pool of slime immediately!

The golden flames, like maggots on a bone, tightly wrapped around the black slime, continuously burning and purifying it.

The slime, however, was stubborn to the extreme, twisting and struggling in the flames. Its volume was being dissolved at a visibly slow speed, but its core remained active, even showing a faint trend of turning the tables to pollute and devour the Geng Metal True Fire.

A bizarre stalemate formed between the two.

What on earth... is this?

Could mere residue left behind after Venerable Xueli's self-detonation be able to contend with a Golden Core Cultivator's True Fire?

Lin Chen's gaze darkened completely.

For the first time, he felt that his understanding of the "Ink Abyss" might still be on a very shallow surface.

He no longer hesitated; with a thought, he mobilized the mysterious Chaos Spiritual Root within his body.

A power, more primal and all-encompassing than the Geng Metal Spiritual Qi, followed his will and transformed into an invisible tentacle of Divine Sense, cautiously reaching toward the slime wrapped in flames.

He wanted to analyze the essential composition of this thing.

Just the moment his Divine Sense tentacle touched the black slime—

"Hum!"

An indescribable, vast, and almost infinite negative will, as if it had found an outlet for release, instantly surged back along that wisp of Divine Sense, violently crashing into Lin Chen's Sea of Consciousness!

Chaos, madness, decadence, destruction, hatred, despair...

Countless extreme and filthy thoughts, like a breached black torrent, arrogantly slammed against his mental defenses.

Lin Chen only felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his Purple Mansion, as if someone had stabbed him with a red-hot iron awl!

His body jolted violently; he groaned subconsciously, and his face instantly turned pale.

Almost simultaneously, he made a decisive move; with the resolve of a warrior cutting off his own wrist, he forcibly severed the wisp of Divine Sense he had extended!

"Puff..."

With his Divine Sense severed, it was as if a corner of his Soul had been torn away. Lin Chen's Sea of Consciousness fluctuated, and a metallic, sweet taste surged up his throat, but he forcibly swallowed it down.

He slowly straightened up; his gaze toward the slime had turned from solemnity to complete wariness.

This was the first time since he formed his Golden Core that he had suffered such an unexpected, hidden loss in a pure confrontation of power.

That will did not belong to Venerable Xueli at all!

It was more like... a collection of pure malice from a higher dimension.

Venerable Xueli was, at best, a contaminated vessel!

Just then, a suppressed exclamation came from the Formation behind him.

"Father!"

Lin Chen turned around abruptly, his gaze piercing through the Formation light curtain and landing precisely on his eldest son, Lin Haoyu.

He saw that Lin Haoyu's face was pale, his forehead covered in fine cold sweat, and he was clutching his right wrist with a pained expression.

His gaze was locked onto the black slime on the deck that was stalemated with the Geng Metal True Fire.

In Lin Chen's spiritual perception, the "Wu Earth True Source" within Lin Haoyu, which had not yet been fully refined and absorbed, was now running uncontrollably, emitting a heavy, solid earthy-yellow halo, as if an enraged beast were roaring in his Meridians.

A clearer scene appeared at Lin Haoyu's wrist.

There, a wound that had been cut by a Magical Artifact earlier to set up the Formation, which had already scabbed over, was now splitting open again.

A drop of dark red blood slowly oozed out from the wound.

But this drop of blood did not fall; it hovered on the surface of the skin. At its core, a faint yet incredibly pure earthy-yellow halo was flickering rapidly, as if it had formed some kind of extreme, antagonistic resonance with the black slime, emitting a feeling of repulsion that was intense to the extreme.

Just like light and darkness, they were natural enemies!

In Lin Chen's mind, the information obtained during the Soul-searching flashed instantly— "Lin Haoyu brought back the 'Wu Earth True Source' from the Ink Abyss. This item is crucial and may serve as an 'anchor point' to stabilize the power of the Ink Abyss..."

So that was it!

This bizarre slime represented the polluting power of the "Ink Abyss".

And the Wu Earth True Source within Haoyu was the key to restraining, or rather, balancing this power!

The True Blood Temple's goal was not to suppress the Lin Family at all, but for Haoyu, for the Wu Earth True Source within him!

Realizing this, the killing intent in Lin Chen's heart rose again, but it was immediately replaced by deeper anxiety.

This thing must never be allowed to burrow underground!

The Spiritual Vein of Black Wind Valley was the Foundation of the Lin Family's foothold; once eroded by this bizarre power, the consequences would be unimaginable.

He immediately changed his strategy.

Forcible destruction carried too much risk and could cause unknown secondary pollution.

The best method was a Seal!

Lin Chen took a deep breath, his hands lightning-fast as he formed a series of complex and profound hand Seals in front of his chest.

"Kun is Earth, bearing all things with virtue; hear my command, rise!"

The warship deck beneath his feet, along with the entire land of Black Wind Valley below, emitted a dull roar.

An invisible, heavy power of the Spiritual Vein was forcibly drawn out from the depths of the earth by him.

Immediately after, his hands changed again.

"Metal for the lock, Wood for the prison, Water for the binding, Fire for the refining, Earth for the Foundation! Five Elements rotation, Seal the evil and suppress the pestilence, condense!"

With his low shout, Spiritual Qi of five attributes in the air was frantically drawn over. Under his control, it quickly intertwined, sketched, and constructed above the black slime.

Countless profound runes were generated out of thin air, connecting to each other to form a palm-sized, yet multi-layered five-colored runic cage that resembled a three-dimensional maze.

The moment the cage took shape, it descended with a heavy Aura capable of suppressing all things!

The black slime, still struggling against the Geng Metal True Fire, seemed to sense a catastrophic disaster; the Divine Soul shrieks it emitted became even more shrill and frantic!

But it was all in vain.

The runic cage accurately covered it, with five-colored brilliance circulating to form an airtight absolute Domain.

The slime dashed left and right; every time it struck the inner wall of the cage, it was ground and weakened in turn by the mutually generating and overcoming power of the Five Elements.

The shrill shrieks also gradually suppressed and became weak.

"Suppress!"

Lin Chen pressed his fingers together like a sword and pointed from afar at the five-colored cage.

The cage sank violently, piercing directly through the hard warship deck, and sank into the ground below with the trapped black slime.

It did not stop; under Lin Chen's guidance, it continued to sink and sink along the trajectory of the Spiritual Vein...

One hundred zhang, five hundred zhang, one thousand zhang...

Until it reached the deepest part of the Black Wind Valley Spiritual Vein, a naturally formed geothermal lava node.

"Close!"

Lin Chen formed one last hand Seal.

The entire mountain-protecting Formation of Black Wind Valley was driven to its limit at this moment.

Infinite power of the Spiritual Vein converged, forming a larger and more stable natural Seal at the geothermal node, completely suppressing the five-colored runic cage, along with the filthy thing inside, deep in the earth, never to rise again.

After doing all this, Lin Chen slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air, and a trace of sweat seeped from his temples.

This series of operations, which seemed effortless, was actually extremely exhausting for him, a Cultivator who had just formed his Golden Core.

At this moment, two figures came to his side.

Su Qingyao supported Liu Ruxu; both women's faces were pale and carried a trace of lingering fear.

"Brother Chen, what on earth was that thing?" Su Qingyao looked at the hole pierced through the deck, her voice trembling slightly.

Liu Ruxu also spoke solemnly: "The Aura of this thing is extremely similar to several ancient extraterrestrial demons recorded in my Formation classics. It pollutes the Divine Soul, erodes the Spiritual Vein, and is incredibly overbearing."

Lin Chen's gaze was deep. He subconsciously rubbed the rough stone ring on his thumb; the cold touch on his fingertips calmed his chaotic thoughts slightly.

He was silent for a moment before speaking in a low voice. His voice was not loud, but it made both women's hearts shiver.

"Venerable Xueli might not have been himself from the very beginning."

Su Qingyao was startled: "You mean..."

"He was very likely deeply eroded by the power of the Ink Abyss long ago. Even most of his consciousness has been polluted and controlled by that will unknown to us." Lin Chen said word by word, "The information obtained from Soul-searching might just be what the other party wanted me to know. The so-called palace coup and treasure seizing were just pretenses put on the surface."

He paused, "I suspect that the real purpose of his trip, driven by the will of the Ink Abyss, was to come and probe, or even... to destroy the Spiritual Vein of our Black Wind Valley, to create a 'positioning' for a larger-scale invasion later."

"His self-detonation," Lin Chen's tone grew colder, "was more like a 'self-destruction' after completing a mission, completely erasing clues to prevent me from interrogating him for deeper secrets. That madman was not a loser at all; he was a... martyr who had completed his mission."

These words made Su Qingyao and Liu Ruxu feel a chill all over.

A giant of the Evil Path at the Golden Core Middle Stage was actually just a manipulated pawn, a piece to be discarded after use?

What kind of terrifying existence must the "Ink Abyss" behind the scenes be?

The Lin Family had just survived a genocide crisis, but immediately fell into a larger, more bizarre shadow.

Lin Chen did not explain further; he turned around abruptly, his gaze like lightning, sweeping over the Lin Family members below who had just recovered from the shock.

"All core members of the Lin Family, assemble in the Council Hall!"

His voice, containing the majesty of a Golden Core Cultivator, instantly spread throughout the entire scene.

A moment later, in the Council Hall, the atmosphere was as heavy as iron.

Lin Chen sat in the main seat, his gaze sweeping over every face below, which carried both the relief of surviving a disaster and anxiety and confusion.

His action of rubbing the stone ring on his thumb was more forceful than ever before.

This ring represented his initial heart of protection.

And now, this protection was facing an unprecedented threat.

He spoke slowly, issuing the first order after his Core Formation, and also the strictest order in the history of the Lin Family:

"First, from this moment on, the Family will enter the highest state of alert! All clansmen traveling or executing missions outside, regardless of where they are, must be recalled within three days! The Family marketplace is temporarily closed, and all unnecessary external dealings are cut off!"

"Second," his gaze turned to Liu Ruxu, "Ruxu, you will immediately preside over adding an ancient Formation specifically for 'purifying evil' and 'isolating Divine Soul pollution' on the basis of the original mountain-protecting Formation, at all costs! If you need any Materials, withdraw them directly from the treasury; if it's not enough, use the spoils from this battle to exchange for them!"

"Third," he looked at Su Qingyao again, "Qing Yao, your Pill Hall has the heaviest task. From today on, fully research and develop Medicinal Pill and medicinal powders that can detect 'Ink Abyss' erosion in advance and play a certain role in resistance. I will imprint a wisp of that power's Aura for you. Whatever Spirit Medicine you need, even if it is a thousand-year Spirit Medicine, buy it back for me!"

Three orders, each stricter than the last, made everyone present feel the immense pressure of the coming storm.

Lin Chen's gaze finally swept over everyone's faces and landed on the last seat, on the young man who had been keeping his head down and whose face was still a bit pale.

"Haoyu."

Lin Haoyu's body jolted, and he looked up abruptly.

Lin Chen's gaze became deep and complex.

"Follow me."

He stood up, not giving anyone a chance to ask questions, turned around, and walked toward the secret room behind the Council Hall that led to the depths of the Spiritual Vein.

Lin Haoyu's heart tightened; he subconsciously glanced at his mother, Su Qingyao, beside him. Seeing her cast an encouraging look, he took a deep breath and quickly followed his father's back.

That deep, dark passage leading to the unknown seemed to want to swallow the two father and son completely into the deepest part of this land.