Chapter 361: Breakthrough, the First Secret Treasury

For reasons unknown, such a tale had manifested before his eyes... In the past, it would have been naught but the phantom of some demon god demonstrating martial arts.

Perhaps it was due to his acquisition of the second page of the Heavenly Book, which had encapsulated the entirety of the surroundings, thus giving rise to this story of the object's origin before him?

It was, he had to admit, rather intriguing... Everyone had always yearned to know of the previous epoch, yet they had ever remained barred from its gates. Glimpsing what they could from the records of a few obtained classics was never vivid enough. How could anything compare to the clarity of watching a motion picture? Whether it was a person's disposition or the sheer might of their martial arts, all was laid bare at a single glance.

One had to concede that Sect Leader Xue's worship of the Blood God did not diminish his standing; this figure was indeed worthy of posterity's reverence. Of course, blind faith was out of the question. Zhao Changhe was far more willing to accept the identity of a "successor"—"There will surely be those who come after, using my blood to rip the heavens asunder once more."

This was the intent that the Blood God wished for posterity to inherit and continue, yet what manner of rubbish had the Blood God Sect actually inherited?

Bloodiness? Slaughter?

Perhaps that was indeed the Blood God’s temperament, but it ought not to be the essence. Or rather, it was somewhat lagging behind the times...

However, the significance of these matters to Zhao Changhe's own arrival here was negligible. He walked his own path. Matters of tearing the heavens, rending the earth, and rebelling against gods and demons were tasks for the likes of Xia Longyuan. Perhaps it was also the path that Sect Leader Xue and the others would hasten toward in the future, but it held little relevance to him, Zhao Changhe... at least for the time being.

The critical point of his pursuit lay entirely within that single blade strike.

This strike was, in truth, still a far cry from his current level, an art that demanded long-term comprehension. Yet it contained almost everything he had learned up to this point; the entire Blood Fiend Blade Technique was derived from it. If he wished for his blade technique to advance to the Hidden Treasury tier, pondering this would never be a mistake.

Zhao Changhe closed his eyes and stood there in silence, repeatedly mulling over and savoring that single strike, understanding where his greatest problem lay.

There were roughly two issues...

First, now was not the time for him to pursue a return to simplicity by reducing everything into a single strike. He still required the entire sequence of blade movements to build a system from the lowest to the highest level.

As was universally known, because he lacked the subsequent manual for the Blood Fiend Blade Technique, his movements had always been confined to the Profound Gateway level. Naturally, he lacked a profound understanding of the blade.

Speaking solely of the blade technique itself, it was bad enough that his routines were few, but his ultimate techniques were fewer still, numbering a mere three. Among them, "Gods and Buddhas Dissipate" and "Heaven, Earth, and Selflessness" had already become passive enhancements, meaning his only active skill was "Hell is Thus."

This resulted in a dearth of moves at his disposal, forcing him to fuse the ultimate techniques of the Sword Emperor and steal various moves from others to compensate for his singular methods. But herein lay the problem: they were all bloody sword techniques, save for Hu Lie’s Yellow Sand Blade Technique, which did not quite harmonize with his own path.

Previously constrained by his own strength, Sect Leader Xue had likewise been unable to execute the Hidden Treasury blade techniques, appearing on the surface to employ the exact same techniques as Zhao Changhe. Yet Xue had read the subsequent manual; he understood its intent, and his system was complete and interconnected. His utilization of the preceding moves was naturally far more refined. How could Zhao Changhe compare?

But now he possessed it. The Heavenly Book could evolve this single strike, transforming it into a complete and flawless system, more thorough than the manuals comprehended and compiled by successive generations of the Blood God Sect.

At a glance, Zhao Changhe beheld the new move that followed "Hell is Thus."

"Hell is Thus" belonged to a horizontal slash, silent and soundless, reducing all laws to emptiness. The subsequent move of the Hidden Treasury tier, however, transformed a single blade into ten thousand, filling the sky with a deluge of blood.

When Lie had delivered that strike, several heads had fallen to the ground simultaneously. That was the re-unification of a mass-combat skill. If one were to unravel it from the lowest to the highest level now, it would first need to be dismantled into a blade for mass combat.

It was also the variant process of turning "Hell is Thus" into ten thousand forms. Mastering it was the stairway leading toward the Hidden Treasury.

If the empty heaven and earth were hell, then this single strike allowed hell to display its due ferocity and terror, flooding the mountains and rivers with blood.

This move was named "Blood Flooding Mountains and Rivers." Compared to the names of the previous three moves, it seemed far more simple and unadorned, yet it served as a new foundation. Built upon the basis of already slashing out a hell, it was the process of slashing upward to shatter the firmament—the very process of the "motion picture" he had just witnessed. The beginning of the environment: a man in the wilderness, ruin collapsing all around, and a sea of blood creeping to the soles of his feet.

Zhao Changhe stood silently for a brief moment, then suddenly drew his blade.

To the eye, it appeared as merely a single strike, but the surrounding pool of blood seemed to be hacked down upon by countless blade lights simultaneously. Blood splattered from innumerable locations at once. Looking as far as the eye could see, it was exactly like a sea of blood generating waves, surging through mountains and rivers.

Xue Canghai had been standing behind him all the while, watching in silence. Only now did he let out a breath. "Who the fuck would believe he isn't the Holy Son? There is absolutely no need to look at the manual. Just standing here for a brief moment, and he comprehended the Hidden Treasury-tier 'Blood Flooding Mountains and Rivers'... This move took our predecessors several years of comprehension before they gained anything from it..."

The Dharma Protectors by his side had long since frozen in astonishment.

They too were qualified to peruse the Hidden Treasury-tier blade manual, yet they could not execute it. On what grounds could this level of cultivation transform one into ten thousand?

But hadn't Zhao Changhe failed to break through yet? How did he execute it so casually, with such ease and without the slightest strain... No, a move you just comprehended can be used directly without practice?

Where did this cheat come from?

Yet this cheat was still softly sighing, "Not enough... I cannot break through..."

The crowd: "..."

Xue Canghai was expressionless. "I can't watch this anymore. It's enough to know he is indeed the Holy Son. I shall go deal with the Maitreya Envoy first, and we shall speak of this later."

With that, he flicked his sleeves and departed.

If he watched any longer, he suspected he would spit blood. You bloody cheat, and you still complain about not breaking through? Were you planning to just close your eyes, grope around for a bit, and break through to the Hidden Treasury?

Of course he couldn't break through. Xue Canghai had said before that Zhao Changhe was actually quite far off; it was not the single step away he had originally imagined. His comprehension of other intents might already be highly advanced, but those belonged to other arts, not the Blood Fiend Blade Technique and the Blood Fiend Cultivation Method.

Zhao Changhe also knew he faced two problems. The Blood Fiend Blade Technique was one, but what was still missing for the Blood Fiend Blade Technique to penetrate the Hidden Treasury?

The cultivation method, of course.

His own fiendish aura was not as dense as that of Sect Leader Xue and the others. After all, this sort of thing truly required slaughter to accumulate, or else the mass absorption of objects that nurtured fiendish aura, and he did not have enough. But in reality, the requirement of the Blood Fiend Cultivation Method was not the endless nurturing of fiendish aura like Xue and his lot; reaching a certain threshold was sufficient.

It was precisely what he had said to Sect Leader Xue before: your flaw lies in being overly obsessed. It is not something that can be achieved by desperately piling up bloody, fiendish aura... This matter depends on how one understands and applies it.

That strike of Lie's, was its fiendish aura dense?

In truth, it was not. On the contrary, it was light as floating clouds and gentle as a breeze, as though he were performing a trivial, insignificant deed. In fact, while he was swinging his blade, his mind was even distracted by engraving a formation disk.

Where was the ferocious deity or evil spirit? Where was the overflowing fiendish aura?

Yet the ultimate impression it gave was like hell itself, fiercely fiendish beyond compare. Why was that?

Because of the environment.

Indeed. The blood fiend not only reacted within one's own body, but it also existed universally on the outside. The enemy possessed it, the dead possessed it, and the bloodier the battlefield, the more it abounded.

It could be summoned and utilized.

At this very instant, it suddenly fused thoroughly with the previous guidance from Huangfu Qing and the discourse of Yu Xu, arriving at the same destination by different routes.

The First Hidden Treasury: uniting with external nature, blending into heaven and earth.

It was only that there was no fiendish aura outside at this moment, making it difficult to verify... He also lacked a fuse to lead himself through the pass... Should he capture Sect Leader Xue again and have another fight?

Zhao Changhe pondered for a moment, then suddenly embedded the blood token into the center of the formation disk.

In a flash, the formation disk overflowed with fiendish aura, as though an infinite, boundless might was brewing within it, ready to erupt at any moment.

He had it.

With a sharp whistle, Zhao Changhe's blade rose once more.

This strike produced no visible effect. The blood pool did not splash outward like fountains as it had just now, but the Dharma Protectors standing by the door behind him suddenly felt a wave of suffocation press against their faces. The blood and qi throughout their bodies surged wildly, their hearts violently constricted, and a boundless, limitless terror arose naturally within them.

It was as though the one swinging the blade before the formation disk was not Zhao Changhe.

It was the rebirth of the Blood God.

With a series of rustling thuds, a crowd knelt across the floor by the doorway. Everyone touched their foreheads to the ground, praying devoutly: "We reverently welcome the descent of the God... May the Blood God guide our path ahead..."

Zhao Changhe looked back, the blood-red color in his eyes flashing and vanishing.

He had hesitated and searched for so long... approaching the vast desert, hastening to Beimang, entering Kunlun, and advancing into Wushan. From the south of the sky to the north of the earth, from winter into spring.

Initiated by Hong Ling, seeking counsel from Huangfu, asking the way from Yu Xu, and guided by gods and demons.

The First Hidden Treasury was finally achieved.

From the time he began practicing martial arts until now, it had been exactly one year and three months.