The Bloodstone Patriarch identity wasn’t just a random mask that Xinzi picked up to deal with the White Immortal Sect. Beyond that, our monk would rely on it to carry out tasks that he couldn’t execute as Xinzi.
But first, he had to make a few adjustments—adjustments that’d enable the Bloodstone Patriarch to become a power of its own.
Standing by the Lake of Myriad Toxins, Xinzi faced the Klesha Avatar, who sat crossed-legged, hovering above the lake with the Thousand Soul Immolation Flag standing at his left. The 10,000 White Immortal Sect Disciples, about 20,000 Mutant Beasts and the 10,000 Withered Wood Treants, kneeled by our monk, forming ordered rows that mirrored disciplined legions.
Zi Yao was right, without her Mutant Monster Core, others—even demons—would struggle to control her abominations. This didn’t apply to Xinzi, who with the Five Transmutative Technique, and complete knowledge of Zi Yao’s Monster Core structure, could create a flawless copy. Said copy now stood above the lake, held in suspension by colorful mist.
”Master, if you want, you can channel my Evil Qi to save on Diabolic Shards. I can slowly restore it by bathing in the Self-Reinforcing Evil Tide—or outright wait for an opportunity to make up for it through various opportunities,” Xue Yuanshao offered, but Xinzi shook his head—denying him instantly.
”You do not have the matching Devil Heart for the Red-Tongue Devil body you’re currently occupying. Your abilities heavily rely on the Diabolic Shard I’ve replaced that heart with, and the shard is a consumable good. You can’t just replenish it because you want to—so I might as well spend another one. In any case, we’re about to get a massive supply of Diabolic Shards. Just make sure that nothing disturbs my ritual.”
”As you command!” Xue Yuanshao bowed and spread his Spiritual Sense out, covering everything across thousands of miles.
Xinzi’s hands flashed in incantation gestures. The Klesha Avatar reverted to Klesha Heart, releasing all the souls and goods it had stored into Xinzi’s main heart: the Bloodshifter. One Diabolic Shard shot out, rotating the Mutant Monster Core as the Five Elements Transmutative Technique kicked into gear, stimulating the Diabolic Shard.
It ruptured, becoming mesmerizing waves of purple qi that spread out like ripples on sea waves. The Devil Root Refining Sutra’s servant text filled the Withered Wood Treats’ minds, driving them to gain enlightenment in that supreme skill. Interestingly, as they did, the treants each split into pairs of males and females, sitting crossed-legged as their transformation carried on. The White Immortal Sect disciples and about 27,000 Mutant Beasts also received the texts, undergoing complete transformations to be reborn as…White-Winged Demons of the Xin clan.
The songs of the Grand Dao filled the gorge, mystical runes of glamorous and irresistible appeal forming radiant spirals of enlightenment.
The Servant Sutra enabled Xinzi to produce cheap and tyrannical demon servants. But the White-Winged Demons were destined to become trademarks of the Liberation Temple’s divine holiness. The Bloodstone Patriarch couldn’t use them, so Xinzi reserved the remaining 3,000 abominations for one experiment.
Eight more Diabolic Shards flew out—yes, eight! For the Uncrowned King and Heart Enslavement Gus, Xinzi only spent one Diabolic Shard. But for this experiment, our monk didn’t doubt that eight…was the bare minimum. His shard count dropped to 18, and gargantuan waves of Evil Qi exploded from the eight shards, latching on the 3,000 Mutant Beasts.
”Tsss!” The mutants’ shrill hissing cries pierced through the walls, suppressed only by the formations that prevented Xinzi’s nefarious ritual from leaking to unreliable eyes and ears. Their frames expanded, morphed and twisted in ballooning masses of scaly flesh. The scales hardened into lustrous ruby stones, glittering with vaster Blood Energy.
With his right hand, Xinzi manipulated the mutants’ metamorphosis. With the left, he channeled the first Diabolic Shard to reshape the gorge, pulling nearby mountains into the mix, and rearranging the chemical structure and tectonic plates to blend, expand, and transform the gorge into a miniature cave world.
Even of Myriad of Myriad Toxins suffered transformations, becoming a scarlet boiling liquid from which red smoke geysered up.
Here, Tusha completed her refinement of the Red-Tongue Devil Heart. Her cultivation base broke through two full realms, with her Blood Energy and Soul Force now comparable to a peak-stage Void Tribulant level expert. Although this was still far from her past cultivation, after spending thousands of years in the gutters of mediocrity, this was a stratospheric improvement. Better, a new set of long red hair grew on Tusha’s scalp, falling by her elbows.
The Infernal Nun couldn’t care for her new set of silky smooth hair, for what she saw upon awakening from her cultivation trance shocked her to the core of her sanguine soul. The previous dark-green stones that walled the gorge had vanished, replaced by jeweled stone walls with lapis lazuli, imperial jade, black diamond, and other precious stones.
The ground became light-red, with rainbows passing through narrow holes in the walls, and colorful clouds drifting underneath the ceiling. Burning stone pillars stood in ordered rows, lighting the gorge with their ever-burning orange flames.
Mineral and spiritual veins of unprecedented quality stretched under the ground—hiding behind the walls as well. And yet, these were far from being the most eye-catching changes.
3,000 ruby-colored golems stood around Xinzi, surrounded by 57,000 White-Winged Demons that flapped their wings, dancing like a gleeful host of angelic troops. Each over five meters tall, the golems rippled with rank-three Blood Energy. They weren’t the strongest on the scene, but the purity of their Blood Energy was such that, for a second, Tusha wondered if she wasn’t staring at Bloodshifters of the Infernal Paradise.
Yet, at the same time, the golems gave her the impression of some new brand of elementals—they just lacked the soul.
Their next move added to her doubts. The 3,000 ruby golems morphed into tall men and women, with pale skin, elfin ears and scarlet eyes that stared in reverence at Xinzi.
”Damn, what a costly failure. Without at least an Elemental Soul, you can’t call yourself spirits. But to say nothing of elemental souls, you have no souls to speak off. Oh well, it’s not like I didn’t expect a loss. I suppose we should feel satisfied by the current results.” Xinzi tried to console himself.
When Xinzi considered what type of spirits to create for himself, a Five Elements Spirits idea formed in his machiavellian mind, but he quickly dismissed it. There were just too many problems to break through. Not only would the venture cost Xinzi more energy than he could fathom, but he couldn’t guarantee that, without Divine Souls, the Five Elements Spirits wouldn’t get reduced into ashes by Heaven’s Will. As if that wasn’t enough, Xinzi also had to consider the consequences of an entire species being equipped with his Five Elements Transmutative Technique.
They’d deplete the world of all energy resources, and perhaps one day, somehow, he’d lose control, enabling them or their distant descendants to overthrow him.
The future didn’t look promising, so our monk sought alternatives. Then, he recalled that there was no such thing in Heaven as a Blood Pantheon. Giving him the opportunity to create a new species that could dominate the bloodlines of all other races.
A pity that the first try didn’t turn into a resounding success. With a sigh, Xinzi turned heels, pocketing the 570 Diabolic Shards generated by the Servant Sutra. Here, he noticed that Tusha had completed her breakthrough.
”Oh, Tusha? Hi beautiful. Congratulations on your breakthrough, and welcome to the Gorge of Thousand Stones,” Xinzi said, flashing the dazed Tusha a mischievous smirk.
The Infernal Nun wouldn’t get the chance to praise or curse.
Xinzi’s face twisted into a frown. His eyes turned red, and he clutched at his chest—blood dripping from his eyes, nose and lips.