Changqing recovered his human form from the bloody water, and with a stomp of his foot, a Blood Pool spread out from beneath him across the ground, extending throughout the entire Immortal Cave.
As Liu Lu bit Dan Ji's shoulder, a pale arm reached out from the Blood Pool beneath her feet and grabbed her leg.
Immediately after, countless pale arms emerged from the Blood Pool, firmly trapping Liu Lu's body, rendering her immobile.
Liu Lu struggled with all her might. With the Blood Demon Spirit's enhancement, her strength was immense, and she managed to break several arms.
But more arms continuously emerged from beneath her feet. Liu Lu was like a fly caught in a spiderweb; although she struggled fiercely, she ultimately sank deeper and deeper.
These arms, like the water ghosts rumored to be formed from drowned people, slowly dragged Liu Lu into the depths of the Blood Pool.
“Ah ah ah ah ah! No! No! You won’t stop my Ascension!”
Her entire body had already sunk into the Blood Pool, with only her head—a mass of countless venomous snakes and crimson tentacles intertwined and converged—remaining above the surface.
At the last moment, she seemed to erupt with an extremely strong will, struggling fiercely, and half of her body actually managed to crawl out of the Blood Pool.
“I can’t die! I can’t die! I’m almost there! Almost there! How can I die at a time like this!”
“This fellow is quite tenacious. Exert all your strength to activate your Spiritual Qi and sacrifice all your Blood Qi; don’t hold back!”
Dan Ji’s voice was slightly urgent.
Changqing gritted his teeth, a tear of blood flowed from the corner of his eye, and his hair, from bottom to top, gradually turned white, just like Dan Ji’s.
Immediately, more pale arms emerged from the Blood Pool, enveloping Liu Lu’s entire body and dragging her completely into the endless abyss of the Blood Pool.
The Blood Pool beneath them receded, leaving no trace of Liu Lu in this world.
Changqing also swayed, falling to the ground. His face was incredibly pale, his body even thinner, his eye sockets sunken, and his ribs clearly visible, looking as if he didn't have long to live.
His pupils were already tinged with a faint red, and half of his hair had turned white like Dan Ji’s, making him look particularly strange.
“Cough cough, your Imperial Spirit is simply deadly.”
In the recent battle, he was like a three-year-old child fighting with a cannon; although he ultimately defeated the opponent, the recoil from firing was enough to harm himself.
“Don’t worry, as long as the acupoints haven’t become dead points, there’s still hope. We’re in this together; I wouldn’t harm you.”
“I feel all the strength has been drained from my body. Why, even with your Physical Body supplying me with Blood Qi and Spiritual Qi, do I still not feel better?”
“The Blood Domain Spirit of the Undead just now, the Spiritual Qi and Blood Qi required to merely activate it already exceeded your entire reserves. To activate it, your Origin had to be consumed.”
“Can it be restored?”
“It’s not difficult to restore, but it requires a large amount of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi for replenishment. The Spiritual Qi and Blood Qi my Physical Body provides you are only temporary and cannot be used for your cultivation or absorption; they can only be used by you temporarily. To recover, your cultivation might have to stagnate for quite some time. It’s my fault for not calculating properly and causing you to lose too much Origin.”
“Circumstances forced it; it’s not your fault.”
Changqing rested for a moment, then stood up. “So, in my previous life, when I used the Blood Demon Spirit, I was actually overdrawing my Origin as well?”
“What kind of rubbish is the Blood Demon Spirit? How dare it compare to my proud Blood Domain Spirit of the Undead? With your current ability, activating the Blood Demon Spirit for a short time is no big problem; only prolonged use will overdraw your Origin.”
Dan Ji said with disdain.
“So that’s how it is.” Changqing walked to the spot where Liu Lu had disappeared. The Blood Demon Spirit lay on the ground, its glow dim.
He picked up the Blood Demon Spirit and put it into his Earth Palace Viscera.
“Now that Liu Lu is dead, and the Four Guardians have also been eliminated by me, the Hundred Flowers Legacy should be mine.”
“It’s not that easy to get the Legacy. First, go retrieve the Hundred Flowers Token, and then we’ll make a long-term plan.”
With that, Changqing walked out of the cave. He saw the Blood-Flesh Ling Embryo at the entrance with a large gash torn open, hanging on the wall, barely alive.
“Mama, hungry.”
The Ling Embryo, seeing Changqing, called out weakly with a hint of joy in its childish voice.
“Is this thing useful?”
Changqing asked Dan Ji.
“It’s just a Ling Embryo. I tried to refine one when I was refining the Blood Law Spirit, but I didn’t succeed. This thing isn’t very useful; when it’s alive, it’s just a waste of Blood Qi. Liu Lu wanting to use it to create a new Physical Body for herself, to be reborn, is simply a fool’s dream. An Imperial Spirit formed from a dead Ling Embryo like this might not even be a useful Imperial Spirit; it’s truly a chicken rib.”
“However, this thing is indeed quite rare, because whether it can be refined depends entirely on luck. If I were to take over this Hundred Flowers Cave and had the spare capacity, I might keep it as a rare treasure to play with.”
Dan Ji said indifferently.
“Is that so…” Changqing placed his blade against the embryo, hesitated for a moment, but still didn’t strike it down.
“Forget it, I’m not lacking Imperial Spirits right now. Instead of killing it, I might as well keep it. How should I raise this thing?”
“It’s not that troublesome to carry a Ling Embryo with you. That idiot Liu Lu added all sorts of messy flesh to it, but its true body should just be a small bead in the middle of the flesh. You can just scoop it out and nourish it with Blood Qi daily.”
Changqing understood. He picked up his knife and cut open the flesh ball in front of him, finding a bead the size of a fingernail inside. The bead was like an ink-black eyeball, with eyelids on the front and several tiny, wriggling nerves extending from the back.
“Mama, it hurts.”
The eyeball blinked and let out a whimper.
Changqing ignored its cries. Holding the eyeball, he thought for a moment, then turned to pry open Dan Ji’s mouth.
“Hey, hey, hey, don’t just put this thing randomly in my mouth, okay?”
Dan Ji complained.
“Just let your Physical Body raise it for now. Anyway, the little Blood Qi it needs is nothing to you.”
Changqing, without explanation, tossed the eyeball in.
The eyeball seemed to sense the abundant Blood Qi contained within this body and immediately adhered to Dan Ji’s oral cavity, its posterior nerves deeply rooting themselves within.
Only then did Changqing, satisfied, lead Dan Ji’s Physical Body out of the cave, arriving at the place where he had buried the Hundred Flowers Token in his previous life, and dug it out.
“Alright, now, tell me about the Hundred Flowers Legacy.”
The situation had changed. This Hundred Flowers Legacy was something even Dan Ji, who was an Evil Lord in her past life, coveted. He definitely had to fight for it: escape the Hundred Flowers Cave, protect Luo Hongyan, and obtain the Hundred Flowers Legacy—he wanted it all.
“This Hundred Flowers Cave is actually a Legacy left by the Hundred Flowers Evil Saint a hundred thousand years ago. There are two ways to obtain this Legacy. First, like I did in my previous life, forcefully kill the Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul left behind by the Hundred Flowers Evil Saint. Although most of the Legacy will be destroyed, you can claim the Imperial Spirits within the Legacy for yourself. These Imperial Spirits are definitely the most valuable part of the Legacy.”
Dan Ji explained.
“However, now I only have a Physical Body left, and you are definitely no match for the Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul. Fortunately, this body, which only has a Physical Body and no soul, is already like a walking corpse and will no longer emit any aura of a Venerable, thus it won’t attract the Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul’s extermination.”
Changqing nodded. Although he hadn't personally witnessed the battle between the Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul and Dan Ji in his previous life, he could tell from Dan Ji's disheveled appearance after the battle that the Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul's strength was not something he could contend with now. It was best not to disturb it.