39: Chapter 39 Hidden Lines

Inside the White Bone Forest, the blood mist was so thick it almost wouldn't disperse.

Piercing screams rose and fell from all directions, as if one were in the Shura Purgatory. Thousands of Loose Cultivators at the Early and Middle Stages of Qi Refining were being frantically slaughtered by the Blood Fiend Sect's demonic cultivators and painless Blood Corpses within this massive Blood Sacrifice Array.

Gu Shen curled up in a hollow among the roots of a giant Bone Tree, like a cold, stubborn stone.

Thousand Faces locked his aura tightly within his body. He had also applied a thick layer of grey-black mud over the faint green light of the Wood Armor Technique on his skin, perfectly blending into the dark environment.

He was waiting.

Waiting for the first and most frantic wave of slaughter to pass.

Half an hour later, the surrounding screams gradually thinned out. They were replaced by the hair-raising sounds of chewing and the sticky noise of flowing blood.

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes and looked out through the gaps in the roots.

Along the muddy path in front of him, bright red blood gathered into a stream. But strangely, this blood did not seep into the ground; instead, as if it were alive, it flowed upstream and disappeared entirely into the trunks of the pale Bone Trees.

"The flow of blood energy is extremely regular."

Gu Shen silently deduced in his heart.

Formations in the Cultivation World always follow certain fundamental principles. Whether it's a Spirit Gathering Array or a Blood Sacrifice Array, there must be a Formation Eye serving as the hub.

"These Bone Trees are like the veins of the Formation. The endpoint of the blood energy flow must be the deepest part of the White Bone Forest. That is where the Formation Eye is located."

The trace of unease in Gu Shen's heart grew heavier and heavier.

Above, the sounds of bombardment from the two Danding Sect Foundation Establishment Elders were still deafening. But from Gu Shen's current perspective of a Qi Refinement Level 6 Formation expert, that bombardment was all thunder and no rain, not hitting the weak nodes of the Blood Sacrifice Array at all.

"Feinting on the outside, sacrificing lives on the inside. What kind of monster are these two great Sects feeding with the blood of Loose Cultivators?"

As soon as this thought arose, Gu Shen forcibly cut it off.

The more one knows, the faster one dies. He now only wanted to follow the opposite direction of the blood energy flow, reach the edge of the Formation, and find the Gate of Life.

Shasha.

An extremely slight sound of footsteps came from the blood mist on the right.

Gu Shen's muscles instantly tensed up.

Three figures draped in blood-red cloaks emerged from the mist like ghosts. These were three Blood Fiend Sect Outer Sect Disciples; the leader was at Qi Refinement Level 6, followed by two at Level 5 Qi Refining.

They didn't chase after the Loose Cultivators running around in chaos, but instead searched the area methodically in a triangular Formation.

In the leading demonic cultivator's hand was a palm-sized blood-red compass. The needle on the compass was trembling violently, pointing directly at the Bone Tree hollow where Gu Shen was hiding.

"Second Senior Brother, the blood seeking compass has a reaction. There's a big fish hiding under here with extremely vigorous blood energy, at least in the Middle Stage of Qi Refining!" The demonic cultivator on the left licked his lips, a bloodthirsty red light flashing in his eyes.

The leading demonic cultivator sneered and quietly gripped a white bone flying fork: "Do these Loose Cultivators really think they can survive by hiding? Once the array is open, as long as there's living blood energy, they can't escape the tracking of the blood seeking compass. Move, capture him alive, and throw him into the blood pool to be a Formation Spirit!"

Before his voice had even faded.

Sou!

The leading demonic cultivator suddenly flicked his wrist, and the white bone flying fork turned into a pale streak of light, tearing through the blood mist and stabbing with pinpoint accuracy toward the shadow in the hollow.

Exposed.

Locked onto by a specialized detection Magical Artifact, even Thousand Faces could not completely hide a living person's life force.

There wasn't the slightest ripple in Gu Shen's eyes. Since he couldn't stay hidden, he would kill!

At the very moment the flying fork was about to pierce his face.

"Rise!"

Gu Shen shouted inwardly.

Buzz! A pale grey stone shield rose without warning in front of the hollow. The black turtle shield!

Dang!

The white bone flying fork slammed hard into the stone turtle shield, sparks flying everywhere. The shield, which had been infused with the essence of third-grade stone armor, remained motionless, without even a white mark left behind.

"What?! A High Grade defensive Magical Artifact?" The leading demonic cultivator's pupils constricted.

Before he could react.

From the shadows within the hollow, a freezing Divine Sense attack, like an invisible venomous snake, instantly crossed the ten-meter distance and stabbed fiercely into his Sea of Consciousness!

Soul-Shocking Spike!

His Qi Refinement Level 6 Divine Sense erupted with full force, holding nothing back.

"Ah—!"

The leading demonic cultivator let out a piercing scream, and the blood seeking compass dropped straight to the ground. He clutched his head, blood leaking from his seven orifices, his body frozen in place as if struck by lightning.

Having succeeded in one strike, Gu Shen did not pause for a moment.

The shadow shoes on his feet erupted with extreme speed, and he lunged out of the hollow like a leopard.

"You're looking for death!"

The remaining two demonic cultivators at Level 5 Qi Refining were furious, simultaneously drawing their magical sabers and slashing toward Gu Shen in mid-air from both sides.

Gu Shen neither dodged nor avoided them.

Green light flared from his body as the Wood Armor Technique instantly condensed.

Bang! Bang!

The two magical sabers hacked fiercely at Gu Shen's shoulder and waist. Vines intertwined on the surface of the green wood armor, making a tooth-grinding grinding sound as it endured the two slashes, leaving only two shallow blade marks.

"How is this possible!" The two demonic cultivators' eyes flashed with extreme shock.

This Loose Cultivator not only had a top-quality stone shield but also such a powerful protective Spell!

Taking advantage of the moment when their magical power was spent and new power had yet to arise.

Gu Shen gripped the hilt of his saber with his right hand.

Zheng!

The thunder pattern gold-slaying blade unsheathed with a roar.

Deep blue lightning flared in the blood mist. Geng Metal Qi mixed with the overbearing force of lightning magnetism, turning into a bone-chilling crescent-shaped blade glow.

Chila!

Like a hot knife through butter.

The two demonic cultivators at Level 5 Qi Refining, along with the Low Grade magical sabers in their hands, were sliced in half at the waist by this single strike!

The scorched smell of lightning strikes instantly overwhelmed the scent of blood.

Gu Shen landed, his figure spinning like a ghost. With a backhand slash, he smoothly slit the throat of the leading demonic cultivator, who had just recovered from the agonizing pain in his Divine Sense and was still struggling.

Three breaths.

Three demonic cultivators, all executed. Clean, cold, without a single redundant movement.

Gu Shen didn't linger and immediately walked to the three corpses.

At this moment, the soil on the ground had already begun to squirm, attempting to absorb the essence and blood of these three fresh corpses.

"This Formation wants to suck blood? In your dreams."

Gu Shen placed one hand on the leading demonic cultivator's corpse.

Within his Sea of Consciousness, the [Heaven and Earth Furnace] roared into operation.

Grey light swept out, swallowing the three corpses along with their severed limbs, and even the blood sprayed on the ground.

In just a few breaths, only three tattered blood-red cloaks and three Storage Pouches remained.

Gu Shen swept the three drops of inferior White Dew and the three Storage Pouches into his Storage Ring.

Now was not the time for a careful inventory; he bent down and picked up the blood seeking compass that had fallen on the ground.

The compass was blood-red all over. Without the Formation to drive it, the needle had stopped. Gu Shen probed it slightly with his Divine Sense and found that it wasn't some profound Magical Artifact, but a Formation Plate artifact connected as a sub-unit to the blood array of the White Bone Forest.

Gu Shen flipped the compass over.

On the back of the compass was carved an extremely crude miniature Formation map. Several red light spots were marked on the map, representing the demonic cultivators' safe outposts within the array.

And at the very center of the Formation map, which was the endpoint of the blood energy flow.

There was no skeletal symbol representing the Blood Fiend Sect carved there. Instead, with extremely subtle strokes, a tiny three-legged round tripod was engraved!

That was the Danding Sect's Sect totem!

Boom!

A bolt of lightning flashed through Gu Shen's mind.

The center of the Blood Fiend Sect's Formation map actually bore the mark of the Danding Sect!

Gu Shen stared intently at that three-legged round tripod, and all his previous doubts were connected at this moment.

The two great Sects weren't fighting to the death at all. They were working together!

Using the Blood Fiend Sect's Formation to deceive others, and using the thousands of Loose Cultivators conscripted by the Danding Sect as top-quality blood food, they were jointly watering and ripening some kind of Heaven-Defying object in the center of the White Bone Forest that was enough to overturn the power structure of both Sects!

"No wonder those two Foundation Establishment Elders were just putting on a show on the periphery. No wonder this Formation only sucks blood and doesn't just kill."

A layer of cold sweat broke out on Gu Shen's back.

This was a desperate dead end. Any living Loose Cultivator would never be allowed to walk out of this White Bone Forest. Even if they survived the hunt of the demonic cultivators, the moment the Formation was broken would be the day the Danding Sect's Law Enforcement Hall silenced them.

"I must find the Gate of Life on this Formation map before they close the net!"

Gu Shen crushed the blood seeking compass in one hand, erasing all traces.

He looked up toward a remote node marked on the Formation map. That was the edge where the blood energy flow of the entire massive array was at its weakest.

Dark light lit up beneath his feet, and Gu Shen, like a shadowy phantom, completely blended into the thick blood mist, quietly moving against the direction of the slaughter.