by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
“Boss, do you think I can handle a drop of it?” asked Xia Chen. All the men had finished absorbing it. Even some of the women had absorbed it.
Now, he was the only man who hadn’t absorbed it, along with Meng Qi, Tang Wan-er, and the healing disciples. His face was burning hot.
“I don’t think you should. Although you have gone through the upgrade of the blood essence stone and the blood soul stone, your physical body doesn’t have that much potential. A single drop can take your life. Furthermore, your profession is a grand formation master. That’s an extremely rare and noble profession. Why envy others?” Long Chen shook his head.
“It’s because he can’t out-drink anyone in the Dragonblood Legion or out-fight them, and he’s too embarrassed to out-curse them. He wants to blend in,” said Tang Wan-er with a smile.
Long Chen came to a realization. Xia Chen was more delicate than the rest of the Dragonblood Legion. If he wore a scholar’s band, he would look just like a scholar, which wasn’t the same style as the rest of the coarse Dragonblood Legion.
“It’s not that. I’m getting along very well with everyone in the Dragonblood Legion,” said Xia Chen awkwardly.
“Since you’ve joined the Dragonblood Legion, we’re a family, so you don’t need to compete or try to make yourself more like everyone else. Don’t force yourself to be someone you’re not,” said Long Chen, patting Xia Chen on the shoulder. Xia Chen wasn’t very talkative and was more reserved. Long Chen was a bit worried he felt out of place.
“You’ve misunderstood. I have a different reason for wanting to absorb that metal devouring evil dragon essence blood. I have a crazy idea. I want to create a formation connected through bloodlines. If it works, then supported by bloodline power, we won’t need to use outer runes to merge our energy. It will increase the efficiency, increasing our power while decreasing the exhaustion rate,” said Xia Chen.
Long Chen and the others were surprised. So Xia Chen had actually thought of something like this. If it really worked, the Dragonblood Legion would completely transform.
“Your physical body isn’t strong enough. It would kill you. But I can erase ninety percent of the metal devouring evil dragon’s will before sending it into your body. That should be the limit that your body can endure. It should be enough for your purposes,” said Long Chen after a moment's thought.
“Good! I just need to have the ability to feel it and see if I can make a formation so that the power of everyone’s Spirit Blood can be joined together,” said Xia Chen excitedly.
Long Chen extracted a drop of essence blood. He erased ninety percent of the power within it before slowly sending it into Xia Chen’s body.
However, even having ninety percent of its power erased, Xia Chen turned pale, his whole body trembling.
Xia Chen was a formation cultivator. His energy was mostly focused on his soul. Formation cultivators could be called a kind of soul cultivator, and their weak physical bodies were something that they couldn’t do anything about.
“Alright, they’re in seclusion refining the essence blood. The rest of you don’t need to be envious. There’s good stuff for you as well.”
Long Chen called over Meng Qi and the others. Taking out a large roasting sheet, he showed them a large fish that he had already finished cooking.
“Come, I’m treating you to some fish.” Long Chen smiled.
“Alright, then we’ll have a taste of boss’s craftsmanship.” The healing disciples were mostly women. Seeing the piping hot fish, they took out their knives and forks.
“Yes, this fish is definitely delicious.”
“It melts as soon as it enters the mouth. Its fragrance overflows. What kind of fish is this? It’s so good!” exclaimed Tang Wan-er.
“I heard it’s called Scarlet Blood Spirit Fish. The taste is alright.” Long Chen also took a big bite.
The Scarlet Blood Spirit Fish wasn’t just a treasure. It was famed for its flavor and was something said to be the main dish for major figures back in ancient times. Its taste truly lived up to the legends.
“Never heard of it, but it really is delicious,” praised Tang Wan-er as she continued taking big bites.
Meng Qi was in the midst of chewing slowly and savoring it when she thought of what Long Chen had just said. Her eyes suddenly widened.
“What did you just say?! Scarlet Blood Spirit Fish?! The one with the heaven-defying ability to awaken one’s bloodline, one of the most precious ancient treasures ever? That Scarlet Blood Spirit Fish?!”
“Well… I suppose… if you wanted to… you could put it that way.” Long Chen smiled.
Meng Qi’s plate dropped to the ground. She grabbed Long Chen, shouting, “You fool, the most precious thing about the Scarlet Blood Spirit Fish is its blood! You… you actually roasted it?! Do you know, with such a giant fish, there would be at least a fifty percent chance of it being capable of awakening a person’s bloodline power! Heavens, have you gone crazy?!”
The always calm Meng Qi had such a huge reaction. Seeing Long Chen destroy a priceless natural treasure like this, Meng Qi was speechless.
“So its blood is useful? Alright, next time I’ll bleed it before baking it,” said Long Chen.
“Next time? Wait a minute, you mean… you have more?!” Meng Qi’s beautiful eyes stared at Long Chen with disbelief.
“Yes, as many as I want. Even if you wanted to eat it all day, I could satisfy you.” Long Chen winked.
“Long Chen, you’re evil! You definitely did that on purpose!” raged Meng Qi upon realizing she had fallen for his teasing. She angrily pinched him, causing him to laugh.
It seemed that this was his first time managing to find such success teasing the ever calm Meng Qi. He felt truly accomplished.
Within the primal chaos space, he was constantly feeding the Scarlet Blood Spirit Fish, and they were constantly breeding and growing. Now, Long Chen had over seven hundred fish kings that were more than three meters long.
As for those a meter long, there were tens of thousands of them, and he couldn’t count the even smaller ones. As long as he continued to feed them, they would continue reproducing.
That was why Long Chen dared to take out a fish king as a snack. Its taste was even better than he had expected.
In an incense stick’s worth of a time, a three-meter fish king was finished by over fifty people.
Long Chen proposed roasting another one, but Tang Wan-er shook her head, saying that if she ate another one, her stomach would explode since she wouldn’t be able to stop herself.
After a fish king had entered their stomachs, they felt completely relaxed, even lazy. Tang Wan-er leaned against Meng Qi, feeling an urge to sleep.
Meng Qi looked at the Dragonblood warriors who were covered in sweat as they refined the dragon essence blood. They had entered a bitter meditative state. She couldn’t help saying, “Is it really alright for us to be enjoying fish while they’re like that?”
“That’s called different people have different fates. Don’t pity them. Once they refined the essence blood, you’ll have to be the ones envying them. Wan-er, I’ll be preparing a Scarlet Blood Spirit Fish for each one of you. You can absorb their essence blood. As for the actual fish, I’m sure you have your own methods. Whether you boil or steam it, roast or bake it, it’s up to you. In any case, its flavor is locked in its flesh and won’t interfere with anything else. Meng Qi, I’ll need your help. Help me refine the dragon teeth. Evilmoon is in seclusion, so I need them.”
During the next while, Meng Qi and Long Chen began working on refining the seventy-one golden dragon teeth, slowly erasing the metal devouring evil dragon’s will.
Tang Wan-er and the others were the most blessed, absorbing the Scarlet Blood Spirit Fish’s essence blood while enjoying its taste.
A week passed. With Meng Qi’s help, Long Chen had finally finished wiping away the original will of the dragon teeth. He no longer needed to worry about a backlash.
Now he could nouri
sh them with his mind. Other than Evilmoon, he had new divine items, divine items that he could control with his soul. That filled him with confidence.
If Xie Luo, Ming Jie, or True Immortal Jiaoqi had been forced to the point of unleashing the full power of their divine items, he would have been at a disadvantage before this. That was especially true of Ming Jie. While Long Chen thought that he would be able to endure it himself, the rest of the Dragonblood Legion wouldn’t have been able to.
With the dragon teeth refined, Long Chen left the rest of the fish kings with Meng Qi and the others, letting them slowly absorb them.
Reviving their bloodlines was a somewhat slow process with low chances of success. Long Chen had them absorb the Scarlet Blood Spirit Fish’s essence blood slowly and temporarily not go out. Once the Dragonblood warriors finished refining the dragon essence blood, he would impart the Dragon Blood Body Tempering Art to them.
He recorded the method for training in the Dragon Blood Body Tempering Art in photographic jades and left it for them.
After arranging everything, he stealthily slipped away. In the end, he still wished to fulfill Yan Nantian’s request. Although Ye Lingshan was definitely also searching, he couldn’t place all his hopes on her.
Leaving the mountain valley, Long Chen looked at the map. Choosing a location that others hadn’t stepped into yet, he began flying over.
Chapter 1852 Dogs Are Loyal, Nobles Aren’t
Before going out, Long Chen left the divine items he had seized to Meng Qi so that she could distribute them.
The Dragonblood warriors would need to get used to their power after refining the dragon blood. Only then could they train in the Dragon Blood Body Tempering Art. This would require quite a bit of time.
Long Chen also told Meng Qi to do her best at refining the Blue Eye Peacock’s true feathers. If she had the Silver Wing Horned Eagle, the nine hundred and ninety-nine true feathers, as well as the original true feather, Meng Qi would be able to fight on the same level as experts like Xie Luo and True Immortal Jiaoqi.
It just so happened that everyone was in seclusion now, so once the Dragonblood warriors finished refining the essence blood, she could go roaming on her own again.
As for awakening her bloodline, the main thing would be whether or not any terrifying experts had ever appeared amongst her ancestors.
If no such amazing figures had appeared amongst them, there wasn’t much potential to be excavated for her bloodline. However, if such a peerless expert had appeared once, then she would be much more powerful.
Anyway, whether or not such a powerful figure had ever appeared, the Scarlet Blood Spirit Fish could still make her bloodline purer. It could increase the quality of her Spirit Root and even draw her closer to the Heavenly Daos. Even in the worst-case scenario where they had little effect on her, they would still cause her Spiritual Strength to multiply. Because soul cultivators mostly inherited their spiritual prowess, so she would awaken at least a bit of power in that aspect.
Long Chen had also tried it, and he didn’t know if it was because of the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, but the Scarlet Blood Spirit Fish had no effect on him. He could only satisfy himself with the taste.
As for the wood cultivators, once their core energy was fully excavated and awakened, Long Chen trusted that they would become the strongest healing corps.
Leaving the mountain, Long Chen flew toward a place that hadn’t been marked by anyone. He wanted to search through as many places as possible.
“Stop! This path was opened by me, these trees- aiya!”
Long Chen was in the midst of flying when three masked experts blocked him. However, when they saw who it was, they immediately fled for their lives.
“Get back here, or you’ll all die,” snorted Long Chen.
Those three experts froze. They had just started fleeing, but they didn’t dare to continue. They obediently returned.
“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, we were just joking. Don’t take it so seriously. In this world, who would be so stupid as to dare to rob you?”
One of them took off his mask, and repeated bowing toward him. It seemed he knew that if Long Chen wanted to kill them, it wouldn’t take him the slightest bit of effort. But experts on his level would disdain killing people like them as well.
They had been quite unlucky to encounter him. His aura had been hidden, and he was wearing black robes. They had thought that he was a lone expert of the Corrupt path or from some other race.
The majority of the Righteous path’s disciples wore white robes. The Corrupt path mostly wore blood-colored robes, but a portion of them liked black, so they had mistakenly assumed Long Chen was from the Corrupt path. Not sensing anything special about his aura, they had immediately swaggered out, but then upon seeing his face, they had almost crapped their pants.
“That’s right, senior apprentice-brother Long Chen is a mighty hero.” One of the others added a few gratifying words.
“Who you rob has nothing to do with me. Hand over your maps. Are there any interesting regions nearby?” asked Long Chen.
The three of them hastily took out their maps. One of them obediently said, “We slew seven Corrupt experts in the past few days. During the soulsearch, we noticed a sinister forest nearby. Based on their memories, quite a few powerful experts are gathering there. Most likely, there is some strange lifeform there that can kill others in a bizarre way. These Corrupt experts were fleeing from that region. Then… hehe, we cut them down,” said one of them proudly.
“It seems you specialize at plundering the Corrupt path?” asked Long Chen with a bit of surprise.
“Not really. We’ll rob anyone, even those from the Righteous path, but we won’t kill them. As for other races, we don’t care that much. However, we do choose to target Corrupt experts more,” said the first one that had spoken. He looked at Long Chen nervously.
Long Chen looked at him and smiled faintly. “You’re quite smart.”
This person was smart because he had chosen to tell the truth. That made Long Chen feel better about him, and this behavior didn’t give Long Chen a reason to kill them.
The cultivation world was one where the strong devoured the weak, and the Righteous path in particular was a scraggly bunch. Many of them had left the Martial Heaven Alliance. The Righteous path was currently in a very tumultuous period. Who was friend or foe was unclear. Plundering the people from the Righteous path but not taking their lives was already better than most people.
The reason this person chose to tell the truth was because he felt that he didn’t have the ability to lie in front of Long Chen. Being a bit smarter might increase the odds that Long Chen would let them off.
“Are these two your brothers?” Long Chen looked over the three of them, finding that this person was the leader.
Just now when the three of them had blocked him, it had been the other two to block his path and draw his attention, while this smart fellow had snuck up behind him to launch a sneak attack.
“Yes.” Although he didn’t know why Long Chen would ask such a thing, he could only obediently answer.
“Good. Using your smarts for others is real smarts,” said Long Chen.
Just now, when the three of them had fled, they had gone in an arc, leaving almost identical distances between each other.
That meant that this person had been thinking about the other two, or he would have chosen to flee in the other direction. In that scenario, Long Chen would most likely choose to chase after the two of them, and so this person’s odds of fleeing safely were much higher. But he hadn’t done that.
Being stared at by Long Chen, this person felt like his soul was laid bare before him. He couldn’t help sighing. “Senior apprentice-brother’s praise is too much. I, Wang Mao, cannot accept it. The three of us are just independent cultivators. My two brothers were set up by others in their sects and kicked out, while I was also crowded out, and in my anger, I schemed to kill the other side. Unfortunately, I en
ded up exposing myself and had no choice but to flee from my sect. Later on, while searching for an ancient remnant, I was injured and almost died. It was my two brothers who saved me. As a result, the three of us chose to become brothers closer than blood brothers. We will live and die together. Actually, we’ve been constantly doing some shameful things these years, but we have no choice. It’s to live, to get stronger, to not be crushed like ants.”
“Not bad. Dogs are loyal, but nobles aren’t. It is the people living on the bottom rungs of life that end up with greater integrity and camaraderie. When the Yin Yang World closes, you can come to my Xuantian Dao Sect or the Martial Heaven Alliance. Don’t roam around the world aimlessly. The Righteous path needs people like you, even if you’re bandits,” said Long Chen.
This person couldn’t be called a good person, but Long Chen had seen his heart and felt that he wasn’t bad. Even bandits could act open and aboveboard.
“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, we’ve been abandoned by large sects. Do you really think we can join?”
“So what if you were abandoned? I almost left the Martial Heaven Alliance myself. If there’s no place for me there, I’ll make my own place in the world. The Righteous path is already a mess, and the ones causing the mess are those without any unyielding backbone. They only know how to scheme all day and backstab each other. However, the huge waves recently could be called a big thing. They will wash away the trash. A person can lack intelligence and brains, but they can’t lack that unyielding nature. Well, there’s no need for me to say so much. When you get back, go find Ye Lingshan. I’ll say that I have found a few capable helpers for her, so you can just follow her in the future. She is the heir to the Martial Heaven Alliance, so following her will definitely be good for you,” said Long Chen.
“The heavenly genius Ye Lingshan? Will she really accept?” The three of them were startled. Ye Lingshan was famous, and they didn’t think they were a good match for her.
