18: Chapter 18 Preliminary Blood Coagulation Eyes

The night was like ink.

Desolate Ridge was shrouded in a deathly silence.

Under the largest dead tree, two Tier 1 Demonic Beast corpses were already unrecognizable.

The White Ape Demon's grayish-white fur was withered and shriveled, clinging tightly to its skeleton like a layer of air-dried leather.

Tu San's grayish-brown feathers fell off one by one, revealing the shriveled skin beneath. Its blood vessels were sunken and its muscles atrophied, as if it had been dead for months.

All of its essence blood had been drained dry.

Wu Li crouched between the two corpses, motionless.

His body trembled slightly, his feathers covered in night dew, shimmering with a cold, eerie light under the moonlight.

Above his forehead.

A vertical Blood Eye Shadow slowly hovered.

The shadow was extremely faint, so faint it was almost invisible, like a wisp of red smoke scattered by the wind, or a reflection on the water surface about to dissipate.

It trembled slightly, as if it would completely collapse in the next second.

But it did not dissipate.

The moment the Blood Eye Shadow appeared, the Blood Eye Pagoda Sutra circulating within Wu Li suddenly accelerated.

The Demon Power that had originally been flowing slowly through his Meridians seemed to be pulled by something, suddenly speeding up. Blood-colored scriptures emerged from beneath his feathers, one after another, rotating and circling, enveloping Wu Li completely.

The speed at which the scriptures circulated was twice as fast as before.

Wu Li closed his eyes, sensing the surging power within him, and finally stopped, dispelling the Blood Eye Shadow.

"It's still not enough."

The power brought by the blood of the two Tier 1 Demonic Beasts was not much, and the Blood Eye Shadow was still too faint after condensing.

It was so faint that a gust of wind would scatter it; if he were to actually use it, he couldn't even maintain it for a single breath.

But Wu Li was not in a hurry; this was just the beginning.

Being able to condense the prototype of the Blood Eye Shadow from the essence blood of two Tier 1 Demonic Beasts was already a pleasant surprise.

In his past life.

Even after slaughtering so many living beings, he had never been able to take this step. Perhaps it was because the blood of those beings was inferior, or perhaps because that Heavenly Dao no longer allowed it.

But it didn't matter; as long as it was allowed now, that was fine!

"Caw~"

Wu Li opened his eyes and let out a low crow.

Although the Blood Eye Shadow had only been maintained for a fleeting moment, in that instant, a massive amount of information flooded into Wu Li's mind.

That was the Legacy sealed deep within the Blood Eye Pagoda Sutra, the true core of this Cultivation Technique.

In his past life, he had cultivated this sutra for decades without even touching the threshold. Yet now, just a prototype shadow had allowed him to glimpse the tip of the iceberg of the Blood Pupil.

The power of the Blood Pupil in the Early Stage did not lie in how much destruction it could cause itself, but in its augmentation of all the techniques of the Pagoda Sutra.

Just like the current Blood Seal Curse.

This was the only offensive technique Wu Li currently mastered.

With his First Stage Mid-level cultivation, the power of the Blood Seal Curse was enough to severely injure Tier 1 Demonic Beasts of the same level, but it proved inadequate against those at the Late Stage.

However, if the Blood Seal Curse were cast while the Blood Pupil was open, without increasing the consumption, its power could be increased tenfold.

This point...

Was enough to be insane!

What did tenfold power mean?

It meant that his Blood Seal Curse could completely allow for fighting above his level.

And this was just the preliminary ability of the Blood Pupil; Wu Li had not yet mastered the true subsequent powers of the Blood Pupil.

"No need to rush; there will be plenty of opportunities in the future."

Wu Li muttered, then flew toward his lair. Looking at the bright moon in the sky, he continued to circulate the Blood Eye Pagoda Sutra, absorbing the essence of the moon to slowly improve himself...

...

Meanwhile.

Deep within the Wanhui Mountain Range.

Outside the Earth Lizard's Immortal Cave, there was a deathly silence.

The Vulture Demon crouched on a boulder to the left of the cave entrance, its bald head tucked under its wing as if dozing off.

But those small eyes would open a slit from time to time, glance at the cave entrance, and then quickly close again.

The Python Demon was coiled in a rock crevice to the right of the cave entrance, its pitch-black scales blending with the rock, making it impossible to discover its existence without careful observation.

The Gray Rat Demon stood in a depression directly in front of the cave entrance.

Its grayish-brown fur was covered in mud and blood, greasy and looking extremely disheveled.

Its tail flicked uneasily, its small eyes darting around, looking at the cave entrance one moment and at the Vulture Demon and the Python Demon the next.

It had been three days.

The number of living beings the Earth Lizard Ancestor devoured had begun to plummet.

As of today.

The Three Great Demon Generals had only sent in eight, but the Earth Lizard had only eaten three; it hadn't even looked at the remaining five, directly driving them out.

The Gray Rat Demon's Adam's apple bobbed as it swallowed. It stole a glance at the Vulture Demon, then at the Python Demon, its lips moving as if it wanted to say something, but it swallowed the words back down.

The Vulture Demon opened its eyes and glanced at the Gray Rat Demon, its hoarse voice low and calm: "Say what you want to say."

The Gray Rat Demon's body trembled slightly. After hesitating for a moment, it lowered its voice and spoke: "Is the Old Ancestor... nearing its end?"

The Vulture Demon did not answer, and the Python Demon did not speak either.

But the Gray Rat Demon had already received the answer from their silence.

The Vulture Demon raised its head and looked toward the cave entrance.

In those small eyes, fear was fading little by little, replaced by a more complex greed.

When the Earth Lizard Ancestor was alive, he was the overlord of the eastern part of the Wanhui Mountain Range; a single word from him could decide their life or death. The Vulture Demon dared not even breathe loudly in front of him.

But what if the Old Ancestor died?

The Vulture Demon's gaze fell on the Python Demon.

The Python Demon seemed to sense the Vulture Demon's gaze, its cold vertical pupils slowly turning to meet the Vulture Demon's eyes.

In those eyes, there was no fear, no retreat, only a calculation identical to the Vulture Demon's.

The Gray Rat Demon stood in front of the cave entrance, its small eyes darting back and forth between the Vulture Demon and the Python Demon, calculating in its heart as well.

It was at the First Stage Mid-level; it couldn't beat the Vulture Demon, nor the Python Demon, but its advantage lay in its tens of thousands of descendants.

If the Old Ancestor died, the Vulture Demon and the Python Demon would inevitably have a fierce fight.

At that time, it might be able to fish in troubled waters and reap some benefits.

The three Demon Generals, each harboring their own thoughts, guarded outside the cave entrance, waiting for the Earth Lizard Ancestor to take its last breath.

And compared to these three.

There were others eyeing this place.

Wanhui Mountain Range.

The outer perimeter.

Deep in a dense forest, two figures were silently lurking in the bushes.

They were dressed in grayish-brown Dharma robes, blending in with the dead branches and fallen leaves; if one were not deliberately looking for them, they would be impossible to discover.

"We're here."

One of them said in a low voice, his voice pressed extremely low, audible only to the person beside him.

He took out a palm-sized compass from his bosom; it was pitch-black, and its surface was covered with dense runes.

On the edge of the compass, a circle of small, ancient seal script characters was clearly visible.

Longevity, Bathing, Capping, Official, Prosperity, Decline, Sickness, Death, Grave, Extinction, Conception, Nurturing.

These twelve words corresponded to twelve types of Luck destinies.

The other person untied a palm-sized cloth bag from his waist, opened the bag, inserted two fingers, and pinched out a withered scale.

The scale was grayish-brown, its edges curled, its surface covered with fine cracks, and it emitted a rotten aura.

"Let's do it here; if we go any deeper, it's easy to be discovered by the other small Yao Beasts of Wanhui Mountain."

The man said in a low voice, then placed the scale in his palm and rubbed his hands together forcefully. The scale shattered, turning into a puff of grayish-white powder that fell rustling onto the center of the compass.

The compass trembled violently.

The grayish-white powder seemed to be pulled by something, slowly flowing across the surface of the compass and seeping into the runes.

"Hum~"

The pointer began to rotate.

The two Cultivators held their breath, staring fixedly at the compass.

The pointer rotated for about a dozen breaths, then its speed began to slow down, jumping from one notch to another, and finally, it stopped steadily on the word "Extinction".

"Extinction..."

The Cultivator holding the compass whispered this word, his voice filled with a trace of excitement.

The other Cultivator leaned over and glanced at the compass.

"Great, this is a Tier 2 Demonic Beast; its whole body is a treasure."

"That means the news Elder Huo of the Xuanyi Sect gave our Revered Master is true."

"That's for sure. Elder Huo Lei is an Inner Sect Elder of the Xuanyi Sect and a life-and-death friend of our Revered Master; how could he fake such a thing?"

"Let's go, hurry back to the Sect and report to our Revered Master."