38: Chapter 38 Blood Array

Whoosh—! The gale poured in, and the shrill sound of breaking through the air shrieked in his ears.

Falling from a spirit boat dozens of zhang high was no different than sticking half of one's body into the gates of the underworld for a Cultivator in the Qi Refining Stage who could not fly by controlling artifacts.

All around were the desperate screams of the Loose Cultivators who had been kicked off the flying boat.

Gu Shen was in mid-air, his face as calm as still water.

He did not flail his limbs wildly like the others; instead, he adjusted his posture in the plummeting gale with extreme calmness.

"Condense!"

Inside his Dantian, his Qi Refinement Level 6 magic power circulated silently.

A faint cyan light emerged from the surface of his body, and the Wood Armor Technique was instantly activated.

Like a layer of fine, dense cyan vines, it adhered seamlessly to his skin, tightly protecting his vital points.

At the same time, he formed a seal with his left hand.

A palm-sized greyish-blue shield flew out from his storage ring, expanding rapidly in the wind to become a thick stone wall that cushioned his feet.

Bang!

Gu Shen stepped heavily onto the black turtle shield, and the massive counter-shock force surged up through his legs.

The Wood Armor emitted a teeth-grinding sound of compression, absorbing seventy percent of the impact for him.

Utilizing this buffer, the shadow shoes under his feet flashed with a dark light, and his whole body, like a falling leaf, slid slantwise into the rolling dark red blood mist below.

Splat.

The moment he landed, Gu Shen rolled on the ground to dissipate the final bit of force.

Around him, the Loose Cultivators who were completely unprepared or only at the Early Stage of the Qi Refining Stage met a miserable end.

"Ah—!"

A bearded man at Qi Refining Level 3 (the one from the tavern) crashed directly onto a white bone tree trunk that stood inverted like a spear.

The sharp bone spur instantly pierced through his chest, and blood sprayed wildly.

In this White Bone Forest, none of the trees had branches or leaves; there were only trunks as pale as bone, exuding a chilling Death Qi.

"Kill!"

From deep within the blood mist, a series of hoarse roars suddenly erupted.

Dozens of blood corpses, their bodies festering and emitting a nauseating, fishy stench, rushed frantically from all directions toward these falling Loose Cultivators like sharks that had caught the scent of blood.

Accompanying the blood corpses were the Blood Fiend Sect Demonic Path Cultivators hiding in the shadows, controlling the Formation.

Using the cover of the blood mist, their Magical Artifacts harvested the lives of the Loose Cultivators like venomous snakes.

The slaughter erupted completely from the very first breath of landing.

"Save me..."

The bearded man pierced by the bone tree was not yet dead and reached out desperately toward Gu Shen not far away.

Gu Shen's eyes were cold, without a shred of pity.

He snatched up the black turtle shield, and like a gecko merging into the night, he slid silently along the ground into a natural depression formed by the tangled roots of several thick bone trees.

The breath-concealing effect of Thousand Faces was pushed to the limit.

He disguised his own aura as a corpse devoid of any Life Qi.

Above, the Foundation Establishment Elder of the Danding Sect was controlling the spirit boat, bombarding the barrier of the Blood Sacrifice Array above the White Bone Forest frantically.

The Formation flashed with red light, shaking the earth and mountains.

"The Foundation Establishment old monster from the Danding Sect cannot get in, and they do not care about the slaughter inside this Formation at all; they only want us to use our lives to consume the blood energy in the Formation."

Lying in the muddy blood, Gu Shen understood clearly in his heart.

He dared not release his Divine Sense to investigate on a large scale, fearing he might alert the Demonic Path experts at the hub of the Formation, so he only compressed his perception within a five-zhang radius of his body.

Just then, he noticed a trace of something extremely subtle and unusual.

Drip.

A drop of warm blood dripped down along the bone tree roots above his head.

It was blood from the Loose Cultivators who had died above.

Gu Shen keenly discovered that the soil on the ground of this White Bone Forest did not absorb blood.

The moment the blood flowing from the severed limbs of those Loose Cultivators touched the ground, it seemed to be pulled by some invisible force, turning into thin threads of blood that flowed in reverse, seeping into the pale bone tree roots.

The bone trees were absorbing blood!

Gu Shen pressed his fingertips against the bone tree roots beside him, and a trace of his pure Qi Refinement Level 6 magic power quietly probed inside.

Boom!

In his mind, he seemed to hear some kind of massive and greedy pulsation.

The interior of these bone trees was actually hollow!

Like blood vessels, they were continuously transporting the massive amount of essence blood absorbed from the Loose Cultivators toward the center of the White Bone Forest.

"Something is wrong."

Gu Shen frowned slightly.

Ancient records of the Great Yu Cultivation World stated that the Blood Sacrifice Array of the Blood Fiend Sect usually converted blood energy into Evil Qi mist to trap enemies or corrode the Magic Treasures of Righteous Path Cultivators.

But this Formation before him, although it was also creating blood mist, had a core that was focused on absorbing and transporting.

This did not look like a Formation for defending against enemies; it looked more like a massive hotbed for cultivating some kind of extremely evil object.

Could the Foundation Establishment Elder of the Danding Sect not see the peculiarity of this Formation?

If he had seen it, why would he throw thousands of Loose Cultivators in as cannon fodder? Wasn't this actively feeding the Demonic Path Cultivators?

Gu Shen's heart skipped a beat.

He keenly sensed the scent of a conspiracy.

This bloody battle between the two major Sects outside Wild Dog Ridge was definitely not as simple as competing for territory on the surface; the center of this White Bone Forest absolutely hid an Opportunity or secret that would make even Foundation Establishment grand Cultivators green with envy.

"In the power struggle between Sects, we Loose Cultivators are all just chess pieces."

Gu Shen suppressed this discovery deep in his heart.

That was a chessboard for big shots; he had no qualifications to touch it right now.

He only had one goal now: to survive in this meat grinder and wait for the moment the Formation broke.

Rustle, rustle.

A light sound of footsteps approached, treading on the bloody mud.

Gu Shen gathered his focus.

A blood corpse, eight feet tall and covered in red fur, seemed to have caught the scent of a living person and stopped above the depression where Gu Shen was hiding.

The blood corpse had no intelligence, but it was extremely sensitive to Life Qi.

Its turbid, pupil-less eyeballs rolled, and its fangs, dripping with drool, slowly aimed at the shadow inside the depression.

He could not hide anymore.

Gu Shen did not panic in the slightest.

He remained lying in the bloody water, forming a spell seal with his left hand.

Just as the blood corpse lowered its head to pounce.

Soul-Shocking Spike!

In his Sea of Consciousness, a condensed, transparent spike shot out silently, plunging directly into the center of the blood corpse's forehead.

Although the blood corpse did not have a complete Divine Soul, the corpse Qi hub controlling its actions was pierced by this Divine Sense, and it instantly fell into a standstill.

Its massive body stiffened abruptly in mid-air.

The next breath.

Gu Shen drew his saber with his right hand.

The thunder pattern gold-slaying blade left its sheath, but there was no dazzling brilliance.

Gu Shen deliberately suppressed the explosive power of the thunder, retaining only the extreme sharpness of the Geng Metal Qi.

Sshh.

A dark grey saber light flashed across the bone tree roots.

The blood corpse's head slid off silently, and before blood could spray from the severed neck, the blood vessels were scorched by the faint thunder-magnetic force attached to the gold-severing saber.

Gu Shen reached out with his left hand, steadily catching the falling head, while his right hand pressed onto the headless corpse.

In his Sea of Consciousness, the phantom fire of the Heaven and Earth Furnace surged.

This blood corpse, comparable to a Qi Refining Stage 4 Cultivator, along with the Evil Qi on its body, was instantly sucked into the Great Furnace and vanished without a trace.

The entire process took less than two breaths; it made not a single sound, nor did it leak a shred of blood energy.

Gu Shen retreated back into the shadows.

He was like a spider lurking at the bottom of an abyss.

Outside, the sounds of killing shook the heavens, and blood flowed like a river.

Yet he, in the dead silence and coldness, patiently waited for the moment when the Opportunity to break the situation would arrive.