Chapter 364: The Final Settling

Chapter 364 The Final Precipitation

Xue Canghai had no idea about this fellow’s ancient dragon sentiment; to him, the naming was pure meddling. A man who trains in blood and qi, using such soft, poetic names—was he planning to recite them to some young girl?

Oh, right... the Jiangnan campaign, it seems Tang Wanzhuang is currently in charge...

Xue Canghai’s expression turned very peculiar.

Zhao Changhe was gazing at the sky, waiting for a long while without the Chaos Book flashing, and couldn’t help but sigh in relief, saying cheerfully, “Let’s leave it at that for now. Everyone go back and rest. From now on, I’ll come find the Sect Leader for blade practice every day, ha.”

Xue Canghai: “...”

The followers suddenly felt that the Sect Leader now seemed worse off than before... It wasn’t like when he was the gatekeeper of the Human Ranking, where everyone wanted to take a shot at him but never succeeded. What was this now?

Still being taken shots at, every single day, like a pair of breasts.

Come to think of it, the Sect Leader had broken through to the Secret Treasury first and had pondered the Secret Treasury blade techniques for many years; Zhao Changhe had just broken through and had never touched the subsequent blade techniques, having just learned them... By comparison, the Sect Leader should be at a higher level. So, was the Sect Leader being challenged across levels again?

The followers quickly dispersed, not letting the Sect Leader see their sympathetic faces. Fortunately, the Chaos Book didn’t flash, or else it would have been truly tragic...

Xue Canghai had no idea what his followers were thinking. He was instead mulling over Zhao Changhe’s earlier strike, finally beginning to grasp it: “I thought the Holy Son had created his own blade move, but upon careful reflection, it still uses the mold of Hell As It Is... though combined with other elements. I’ve seen the Yellow Sand Blade Technique you taught the Beimang followers before; this strike contains its essence.”

“Yes, my killing intent isn’t strong enough, so I have to incorporate other methods. The Sect Leader doesn’t necessarily have to follow my path; he can focus on refining blood killing intent.”

“If you keep this up, you might truly create your own blade moves.”

Zhao Changhe thought for a moment: “Not just blade moves, but ideally, I’d create my own techniques. Someone advised me not to be too obsessed with inheriting ancient legacies. The same applies to you.”

Easy to say, create your own techniques—who do you think you are, Xia Longyuan?

Xue Canghai didn’t dwell on that and instead said, “If the Holy Son finds his killing intent lacking, he might use the array disk to nurture it. Especially after activating the sacred artifact, I see abundant energy and overflowing killing intent. As long as you keep your mind steady, nurturing killing intent shouldn’t be a problem.”

“I was thinking the same. I’ll try it later.” Zhao Changhe asked, “Sect Leader, that strike of yours earlier, and yesterday’s—the blade momentum was light yet heavy, the force restrained and condensed. How did you achieve that without it dispersing?”

“Oh, it’s like this... There are some tricks in channeling force...”

The two walked into the secret chamber, chatting like old friends, exchanging insights. From afar, Instructor Sun scratched his head, feeling a sense of abandonment.

When had these two become so close? Strange indeed.

Over by the array disk, Zhao Changhe took out the bead that had absorbed killing intent before and tried it in various similar slots until, with a “click,” it fit perfectly.

Though the killing intent had been extracted, compared to such a sacred artifact, the bit absorbed when he was at a few levels of the Mystic Gate was like a mouthful of water from the sea—utterly insignificant.

Beside him, Xue Canghai was overjoyed: “Our sect has searched for these array disk components for generations, with little progress. We found some in the early years, but in recent times, none at all. Where did the Holy Son get this one?”

“From Maitreya.” Zhao Changhe began to divert the blame: “Maybe he has more? Look at their concept of killing to achieve Buddhahood—doesn’t it seem similar?”

Xue Canghai chuckled helplessly: “The Holy Son needn’t say more. We understand.”

“Ahem.” Zhao Changhe said, “Anyway, from now on, the Blood God Sect’s main goal is to find these things. I’ll leave that to you. I can’t handle all this work alone.”

Resolving the enmity with the Blood God Sect and turning them into allies was one of the most typical benefits.

Zhao Changhe had high hopes for the complete array disk. How powerful would the complete sacred artifact be? That went without saying. Even in the previous era, this array disk was among the top-tier items. If he could assemble it in this life, it would truly be god-slaying, Buddha-slaying—who knew if even the Blind One could withstand a single strike from it.

But where would he find the time to search for all these scattered things? Having a sect handle it made things much easier. Once assembled, he’d still have a say in how to use it.

As for their previous difficulty in finding them, that was tied to their strength and connections. The Blood God Sect had been holed up here, afraid to roam freely—how could they find any treasures? His involvement could turn that around, making future searches much less difficult. Besides, he had Win Five as a collaborator.

Xue Canghai didn’t know about Win Five, but he understood that with Zhao Changhe, the Blood God Sect’s future might indeed be different.

He bowed sincerely: “Thank you, Holy Son.”

Zhao Changhe said, “It’s late. The Sect Leader should rest too. I’ll try absorbing and nurturing killing intent.”

Hearing the dismissal, Xue Canghai instead said, “Absorbing external killing intent is troublesome because it’s often mixed with various negative impurities that can affect the mind, gradually altering one’s temperament. Does the Holy Son have a method?”

“Yes, I’ve absorbed this bead before.”

“The Holy Son might have used other schools’ methods of calming the mind to suppress it. That only works for weaker energies; against a sacred artifact, it might not be effective, given the gap in level... But we, who specialize in this, have our own methods to directly discard negative influences and precisely extract the needed blood killing intent, with better results. In the future, if you encounter other items containing killing intent, you can use this method.”

See what expertise means? Zhao Changhe was delighted: “Please instruct me, Sect Leader.”

Xue Canghai left behind the method for extracting killing intent and took his leave. Zhao Changhe lightly touched the array disk, closed his eyes to sense the blood killing intent within, and attempted to extract it.

At the same time, the Heavenly Book unfolded a VR analysis: “Blood God Array Disk, a blood-killing array created by the Blood God before his death, using a massacre of ten thousand as a sacrifice, incorporating his own flesh and blood, forged from the blood wrath of countless souls. Its killing intent soars to the heavens, with boundless power. It contains the Blood God’s lifelong techniques condensed within. Analysis as follows...”

“Wait, don’t analyze the techniques for now. Analyze the internal energy.”

The Heavenly Book stalled, as if this wasn’t related to martial arts and thus irrelevant... After a long pause, it answered irrelevantly: “Because it contains the Blood God’s own blood, extracting a portion for use can serve as nourishment for advancing the Blood Asura Body. However, the gap in bloodline power is too great. To avoid bloodline replacement or body explosion, some dilution methods are needed.”

Zhao Changhe grew interested: “How do I extract and dilute it?”

The Heavenly Book fell completely silent.

It was an analysis tool for martial arts, not a guide. Reminding him that dilution was needed seemed already beyond its scope, cheating. How could it list every method?

Zhao Changhe didn’t mind. Just moments ago, he had been pondering his next cultivation path without direction, and now it had arrived.

As for how to do it, there would always be a way.

Zhao Changhe ignored the Heavenly Book and quietly applied the method Xue Canghai had taught him, directly filtering out impurities and extracting the blood killing intent.

His blood killing intent was indeed weak—Xue Canghai had looked down on him several times for it... What could he do? He had only been on the scene for such a short time, how many people could he have killed? Fortunately, his earlier deep involvement in the frontier battles had allowed him to kill relatively more. If he had stayed in the Central Plains, he might never have accumulated the killing intent needed for this Secret Treasury breakthrough his entire life.

This step filled the last piece of the puzzle, while also laying a more solid foundation for the Blood Asura Body. Without sufficient blood killing intent, what was the point of training the Blood Asura Body?

...

The next morning, Zhao Changhe arrived at the training ground in high spirits. The Elder of Transmission and Instructor Sun were instructing the followers in their practice. When they saw Zhao Changhe, they bowed: “Holy Son.”

Inwardly, they were startled. The Zhao Changhe of earlier days had a rather scholarly air, hardly fitting the title “Bloodthirsty Asura.” But after just one night, the ferocity befitting that epithet had returned.

If Sect Leader Xue fought him today, he might be defeated in even less time.

Was this guy a monster? His rate of progress was absurd.

Just as they thought this, Zhao Changhe waved cheerfully: “Good morning, everyone. Good morning, Instructor Sun.”

That smile immediately halved the killing intent. People sighed in relief and said, “Good morning, Holy Son. Would you like to give us some pointers? Everyone is looking forward to it.”

Zhao Changhe said, “Uh, I came to find Old Xue for a fight.”

“...” Instructor Sun fell silent: “Sect Leader Xue ran off early this morning, saying only an idiot would keep being a punching bag.”

Zhao Changhe’s gaze swept past Instructor Sun and landed on the Elder of Transmission, who took a step back, watching him warily.

Zhao Changhe bared his teeth in a grin: “The Elder just said I should give everyone some pointers...”

The Elder of Transmission was at a loss whether to laugh or cry: “We can’t provide any tempering...”

“You can.” Zhao Changhe said seriously: “With Sect Leader Xue, it’s about training one-on-one. Here, I can train in group combat... How many are there? All of you, come at once.”

Everyone: “...”

What had Sect Leader Xue just said? Only an idiot would keep being a punching bag.

Instructor Sun sighed.

The Elder of Transmission patted his shoulder: “Now I believe you weren’t some retired wonton seller hiding away... This bastard got where he is today entirely because he’s a madman himself.”