9: Chapter 9 Blood Curse

Then.

Wu Li crouched on a withered branch and closed his eyes.

The Spiritual Qi of the fleeceflower root began to dissolve gently within his body; this was also the reason Wu Li dared to consume the fleeceflower root directly.

Soon.

Wu Li's body began to heat up slightly.

A faint red glow appeared on the skin beneath his feathers, which was the trace of Spiritual Qi flowing through his Bloodline.

The newly grown black feathers, which had been a bit limp, were now, under the nourishment of Spiritual Qi, becoming tougher, glossier, and shimmering with a metallic luster.

Wu Li felt his bones itching.

That was the sensation of Spiritual Qi seeping into his bones.

A crow's bones are hollow, light, and brittle; this is the price of flight—lightweight, but not sturdy.

But at this moment...

The Spiritual Qi of the fleeceflower root was seeping into the bone walls bit by bit, as if plating the hollow bones with a thin membrane.

Wu Li shrank his neck and buried his head beneath his wing.

This was a crow's instinct.

In his past life, when Wu Li Cultivated the Blood Eye Pagoda Sutra, he needed to sit cross-legged, with his five centers facing the sky, adjust his breathing, and focus his mind.

Now, that was no longer necessary.

He was a crow.

A crow's Cultivation does not require those flashy postures; he could just do whatever felt comfortable.

Wu Li buried his head under his wing, his body curled into a black ball of fluff, his claws gripping the withered branch tightly, his breathing becoming slow and long.

He recited the incantation of the Blood Eye Pagoda Sutra in his mind, the scripture reinforcing his Demon Power to refine the Spiritual Qi, circulating it through his body for one cycle, and then another.

At the same time.

When the Blood Eye Pagoda Sutra was in operation, a Blood Pupil condensed upon Wu Li's crow body.

After the Blood Pupil appeared, Wu Li was surrounded by a bloody light. From time to time, this bloody light would form strands of crimson scripture, attracting the surrounding essence of the moon and assimilating it into crimson scripture...

The night passed without incident.

The moment the sun rose.

Wu Li ended his Cultivation. All the scriptures merged into the Blood Pupil, and the Blood Pupil returned into Wu Li's body, strengthening him.

"Boom~"

In an instant.

The aura on Wu Li's body surged.

Then, Wu Li opened his bean-sized eyes, a trace of imperceptible satisfaction flashing within them.

"It really is a world of supernatural anomalies... This Breakthrough in cultivation is actually this easy..."

"It's just that my Physical Body and talent..."

"Are truly terrible."

At this moment, Wu Li.

His cultivation had perfectly broken through the Early Stage, reaching the Middle Stage of a Tier 1 Yao Beast, equivalent to the sixth level of the Human Race's Qi Refining.

Although it was the same in terms of Realm, the difference was that a human at the sixth level of Qi Refining could already use quite a few techniques.

But Wu Li...

Because he had not yet perfectly achieved Awakening of his Bloodline and had no Divine Ability, his strength at the Middle Stage was actually significantly weaker than that of a human Cultivator.

Of course.

This was also due to the difference in species.

At the same Realm, if it were a tiger demon, a Middle Stage beast could definitely trade blows with a normal human Cultivator at the sixth level of Qi Refining, and if the human Cultivator didn't have any powerful techniques or Spirit Treasures, they might even be defeated.

Fortunately...

Although Wu Li did not currently have a Divine Ability, he did have the Blood Eye Pagoda Sutra.

At the Middle Stage, he could already make an initial attempt to Cultivate the techniques within the Blood Eye Pagoda Sutra.

The Blood Eye Pagoda Sutra—the scripture was just like its name, and the most powerful part was naturally this 'Blood Pupil'.

When Wu Li obtained this Cultivation Technique in an Ancient Tomb in Kunlun in his past life, he had once seen a fragmented record on that shattered jade wall.

In ancient times, there were mighty beings who cultivated the Blood Pupil; with one glance, they could break ten thousand techniques, and with one glance, they could determine life and death.

When the Blood Pupil opened, within a thousand miles, the sky would be filled with bloody baleful energy, and beyond ten thousand miles, Karma would be severed. The Blood Pupil could also use one's gaze as a medium to directly attack the enemy's Soul; with just one glance, it could cause a person to suffer Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering, dissipating into the nine heavens.

That record was too exaggerated, and at the time, Wu Li just thought it was hyperbole.

But regardless, the power of this thing was beyond doubt.

Moreover, its conditions for Cultivation were extremely harsh.

First.

It required a massive amount of essence blood.

Not ordinary blood, but essence blood containing Spiritual Qi. Use blood as the scripture, condense the scripture into a curse, and gather the curse to form a pupil!

In short, with Wu Li's current Middle Stage cultivation and this crow body, he was still far from being able to Cultivate the Blood Pupil.

Forcing it would only result in blinding himself.

But the Blood Eye Pagoda Sutra did not only contain the Blood Pupil technique.

Wu Li crouched on the withered branch, eyes closed, searching through the memories of the scripture in his mind.

In his past life, he had Cultivated this scripture for decades; although he hadn't been able to condense the Blood Pupil, he had practiced quite a few of the techniques within the scripture.

"With my current demon body... I could actually try this Daoist Magic."

[Blood Seal Curse: During battle, as long as the opponent is injured, at close range, one can use their own Daoist Magic as a catalyst to leave a crimson mark on the target. Once the mark is formed, it instantly triggers a riot of Qi and blood within the enemy's body, and simultaneously, one can detonate the mark to severely injure them.]

...

Meanwhile.

In the depths of the Wanhui Mountain Range.

This place was completely different from Desolate Ridge.

The mountains were steep, the ancient trees towered into the sky, and it was shrouded year-round in a layer of gray miasma.

Even when the sunlight shone down, it permeated with a deathly, dim yellow hue.

In the deepest part of the mountain range, there was a naturally formed cave.

The entrance was not large, but it was so deep and dark that the bottom could not be seen, like the open mouth of a beast, ready to devour any living creature that approached.

From within the cave, a low hiss would occasionally be heard; the sound was hoarse and rapid, carrying a kind of madness before death.

Around the cave, not a single blade of grass grew.

The ground was scattered with ghastly white bones, some already weathered and yellowed, others still bearing dried bloodstains.

Inside the cave.

A half-human-tall Tier 2 Yao Beast, an Earth Lizard, was lying in the depths of the cave.

It was currently so thin that its skin was stretched over its bones, its skin cracked, its eyes murky and yellow, its pupils dilating and contracting, and its entire body was trembling slightly.

The Demon Power within its body was like a stagnant pool of water, unable to grow even a fraction no matter how it circulated. Yet, its body was aging day by day, scales falling off, claws and teeth loosening, and even breathing becoming increasingly difficult.

"Roar!!"

The Earth Lizard suddenly raised its head and let out a tyrannical hiss.

The sound carried an aura of decay, shaking the rubble on the cave walls so that it fell down with a rustle, and its tail lashed fiercely against the ground, gouging out a deep trench.

This Earth Lizard possessed the cultivation of a Tier 2 Yao Beast and had ruled Wanhui Mountain for nearly a hundred years. Over these hundred years, nearby human villages had been devoured by it from time to time, resulting in the fact that now, for a hundred miles around Wanhui Mountain, there was not a single human village.

And thirty years ago, when this Earth Lizard went down the mountain to cause trouble, it angered the immortal cultivation forces of the Human Race's Dachuan Dynasty. They severely injured it, destroyed its Foundation, and it fled back into the mountains, never daring to go out again.

Now, thirty years had passed, and the Earth Lizard was at the end of its rope.

But it was unwilling...

The more unwilling it was, the more tyrannical it became.

The more tyrannical, the more insane.

"Old Ancestor, calm your anger, Old Ancestor, calm your anger..."

Outside the cave entrance.

The Vulture Demon shrank its bald head, its voice carrying an ingratiating tone.

Its ugly face was full of smiles, but in those small eyes, a trace of imperceptible fear was hidden.

A Tier 2 Yao Beast, although its Lifespan was coming to an end, still retained its residual might; with just a flick of its claws, it could tear a creature like the Vulture Demon to shreds.