Chapter 60: Journey to the Profound Yellow Sect!

The medicinal soup in Ye Xiao's hand was faintly warm.

Han Qi's breathing had already steadied, but the blood-red veins between her eyebrows were still spreading, crawling like a spiderweb across her pale cheeks.

The Sword-Guarding Elder's medicine could only delay the affliction, not cure it.

"Three days..." Ye Xiao clenched his fists, his fingernails digging into his palms. "That will be enough."

The emaciated fingers of the Sword-Guarding Elder withdrew from between Ye Xiao's eyebrows, and a trace of exhaustion flashed through his cloudy eyes. "The profound principles of the Chaos Sword Classic have been imprinted into your divine sense. Whether you can comprehend them depends entirely on yourself."

Du Mao braced himself against the stone wall and stood up. "Senior, what should we do next..."

"Go to the Xuanhuang Sect." Ye Xiao interrupted him, his voice as cold as ice. "But we are not walking to our deaths."

He pulled a yellowed map from inside his robe!

This was spoils of war obtained from a disciple of the Xuanhuang Sect, marking the general topography of the sect.

His fingertip pointed to the waterfall at the back of the main peak. "The core of the Blood River Formation is right here."

Du Mao leaned in to look closely, his eyes suddenly widening. "This is..."

"Xu Beichen's secluded cultivation cave." Ye Xiao sneered. "He has long been preparing for the descent of the Blood Fiend."

The Sword-Guarding Elder suddenly coughed violently, dark blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.

He waved his hand to indicate he was fine. "The Blood Fiend's perception is spreading; this cavern won't hold out much longer." With that, he took three bone talismans from his sleeve. "Crushing them will conceal your aura for one hour. Use them with caution."

Ye Xiao took the bone talismans, their touch as cold as a corpse's bones.

He handed one to Du Mao and tucked another into the collar of Han Qi's garments.

"Let's go." The Sword-Guarding Elder turned toward the pill cauldron. "This old man has some preparations to make..."

The stone steps closed silently behind the three of them.

Hardly had the ground returned to its normal state when a harsh cawing echoed from the distance.

"Blood crows are searching the mountain!"

Du Mao lowered his voice.

Ye Xiao narrowed his eyes and looked up at the treetops.

Three blood crows were weaving through the forest, their scarlet eyeballs sweeping over every inch of the ground. He pressed down on Du Mao's shoulder. "Wait."

When the first blood crow swept over their heads, Ye Xiao suddenly burst into action!

The Chaos Sword slashed out an arc interwoven with blue and red light, and all three crow heads hit the ground simultaneously. The dark blood was absorbed by the sword body before it even had a chance to splatter.

"Move!"

The two men took turns carrying Han Qi, speeding northward along the mountain ridge.

At dusk, they settled down in an abandoned hunter's cabin.

Ye Xiao sat cross-legged, the Chaos Sword laid horizontally across his knees.

The blood veins on the sword body were clearer than yesterday, flowing slowly as if they possessed life.

"Are you certain you want to cultivate right now?"

Du Mao anxiously looked out the window. "The Blood Fiend might already..."

"Precisely because of that." Ye Xiao closed his eyes and concentrated. "The Sword-Guarding Elder didn't just pass down sword moves to me, but also the method to sense the Blood River Formation."

His divine sense sank into his Qi sea, and the text of the Chaos Sword Classic surfaced in his mind.

Unlike ordinary cultivation techniques, these characters changed shape with his breath, at times resembling swimming dragons, at times flashing like thunder.

Ye Xiao's breathing gradually synchronized with the sword's rhythm.

In a trance, he saw a boundless sea of blood.

Seven bronze pillars stood tall within the sea of blood, with a beating heart floating atop each pillar. On the centermost pillar, the figure of Xu Beichen flickered in and out of view.

"Found you..."

The moment Ye Xiao's divine sense touched the sea of blood, all seven hearts turned toward him at once!

Excruciating pain exploded! Ye Xiao snapped his eyes open, his nasal passages filled with the stench of blood.

Du Mao was shaking him frantically. "You're having a nosebleed!"

Outside the window, the last ray of sunset was swallowed by darkness.

Ye Xiao wiped away the blood, only to find that the tip of the Chaos Sword was already pressing against his throat at some unknown point.

"It's warning me." Ye Xiao slowly moved the blade away. "The Blood River Formation is far more dangerous than we imagined."

Du Mao handed him a water skin. "Are we still going?"

Ye Xiao looked at the unconscious Han Qi. The young girl's eyelashes were trembling, as if trapped in a nightmare.

He tilted his head back and gulped down the entire bag of water. "We set off at dawn."

In the dead of night, Han Qi suddenly began to cough violently.

When Ye Xiao propped her up, he found her palms covered in dark blood.

"The blood veins... are about to reach my heart..." Han Qi's voice was as faint as a gossamer thread. "Don't worry about me..."

Ye Xiao crushed the bone talisman. The pearly-white powder sprinkled between Han Qi's brows, and the spread of the blood veins slowed noticeably, yet the powder was also turning black at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Hang in there." Ye Xiao gripped her hand tightly. "We'll get the antidote tomorrow."

Han Qi shook her head weakly. "Xu Beichen... is no longer human..."

At break of dawn, Du Mao returned from fetching water by the stream, his expression extraordinarily unsightly. "Three corpses floated down from upstream, wearing the attire of the Xuanhuang Sect."

When Ye Xiao inspected the bodies, the Chaos Sword suddenly trembled. The tip of the sword automatically pointed toward the chest of one of the corpses.

After slitting open the robes, they discovered a bloody hole where the heart should be—identical to those killed by the Soul-Devouring Ancestor in the sword crypt.

"The Blood Fiend is killing!" Ye Xiao rummaged through the corpse and fished out a blood-stained token. "This is... the token of the Hall of Discipline Elder!"

Du Mao gasped. "He's even killing his own people?"

"No." Ye Xiao stared at the bloody handprint on the back of the token. "These people wanted to rebel."

They hid Han Qi in the cellar of the hunter's cabin, using the medicinal powder given by the Sword-Guarding Elder to mask her aura.

Before leaving, Ye Xiao dipped the Chaos Sword into the stream. The moment the water touched the sword body, it actually froze into tiny ice crystals.

"Strange..." Ye Xiao muttered to himself, "Clearly before..."

The mountain path grew steeper and steeper. At noon, they finally caught sight of the mountain gate of the Xuanhuang Sect!

The archway originally carved from white jade was now crawling with blood-red threads, and the gate-guarding disciples had empty sockets, patrolling mechanically like puppets.

"They've been controlled." Du Mao crouched behind a boulder. "How do we get in?"

Ye Xiao produced the token of the Hall of Discipline Elder. "Let's take a gamble."

Disguising themselves as wounded disciples proved easier than imagined.

As the gate-guarding puppets saluted the token, Ye Xiao noticed that blood-red needles were inserted into the back of all their necks.

"The Blood Fiend is mass-producing puppets." Passing through the mountain gate, Ye Xiao spoke in a low voice, "The genuine disciples are probably all locked up."

On the main peak plaza, over a hundred disciples were constructing an altar.

Their movements were eerily uniform. Occasionally, if someone stumbled, they would be instantly engulfed in a shroud of blood mist, and upon standing back up, their eyes would be as hollow as everyone else's.

"Look at the center of the altar!"

Du Mao suddenly grabbed Ye Xiao.

Seven bronze coffins were arranged in the shape of the Big Dipper, each coffin connected to blood troughs that converged into a pool at the center.

The blood in the pool churned, and Xu Beichen could be vaguely seen sitting cross-legged within it.

"That's not his true body." Ye Xiao narrowed his eyes. "It's a blood-shadow avatar."

Taking advantage of a group carrying sacrificial offerings, they sneaked into the side hall. It was piled high with various medicinal herbs, and a few apothecaries were decocting medicinal liquid under the supervision of a blood fiend.

"The antidote must be among them." Du Mao was about to step forward when Ye Xiao suddenly pulled him back.

In the shadows behind the medicine shelves, a familiar figure was curled up! His hands were bound by blood chains, and a blood-red talisman was pasted on his forehead.

"How is this possible! Senior Brother Mubai isn't at the Mu family?!"

Just as Ye Xiao was about to act, the entire grand hall shook violently! A burst of wild laughter from Xu Beichen came from the direction of the blood pool: "You've finally come!"

Through the lattice windows, they saw the sky dyed the color of blood.

Twelve streaks of light were shooting toward the Xuanhuang Sect from different directions. The green-robed figure leading the way wielded a bamboo staff, and it was none other than Elder Qingzhu of the Fallen Leaf Sect.

"The punitive force has arrived." Du Mao's voice trembled. "We..."

Before he could finish speaking, Xu Beichen in the blood pool abruptly opened his eyes, his gaze piercing through multiple walls to lock directly onto Ye Xiao!

"I've waited for you for a long time, Junior Brother Ye."