Chapter 6: Blood Sacrifice to the Netherworld Path
The moment the bronze fragment and the qingmu spirit pearl interlocked, the solidified magma rippled with a bloody hue.
Lu Qingyang's pupils reflected the surging Dragon shadow within the pearl, as the Three-Headed Flood Dragon's inverted scales crumbled, and crimson-gold fine sand poured into his cracked Dantian, a burning sensation shooting up his spine to the crown of his head.
The jade pendant at Su Li's waist burst forth with green light, and the shockwave generated by its resonance with the spirit pearl blew away the remaining stalactites on the dome.
"This is Dragon Blood Soul Tempering!" Su Li's cry of alarm was frozen in the temporal rift, the ice crystals congealed in her hair reflecting myriad bloody runes.
Ancient memories suddenly flooded Lu Qingyang's Sea of Consciousness—the qingmu spirit pearl was actually formed from a Jianmu Remnant Branch and required true Dragon essence blood to awaken its spatial-temporal power.
Terror appeared in the Three-Headed Flood Dragon's vertical pupils; it struggled to spit out its vital demonic core, but it was twisted into fragments by the emerald vines extending from within the spirit pearl's space.
The rock layers at the bottom of the dark river collapsed with a roar, revealing a bronze altar buried for a thousand years.
Twelve stone statues with flood Dragon heads and human bodies were arranged in a circle, each holding a fragment in its palm that was of the same origin as Su Li's bronze casket.
The Dragon blood sand particles in Lu Qingyang's Dantian suddenly became agitated, pulling him stumbling towards the central groove of the altar.
Su Li tried to grab his sleeve, but she found her own shadow being swallowed by the altar's patterns.
"Lend me some blood," Lu Qingyang suddenly grabbed Su Li's wrist, and the qingmu spirit pearl branded a vine-like mark on her palm.
When the blood of the two dripped into the groove, the altar's patterns pulsed like living blood vessels, and the silent stone statues slowly turned their heads, their hollow eye sockets lighting up with eerie blue ghost fire.
The roar of gears turning came from underground, a long-sealed teleportation array was Awakening.
Su Li suddenly tore open her collar, revealing the black curse mark spreading below her collarbone: "The Taiyi Pavilion's Soul Devouring Curse... I have three hours left."
She slapped the bronze casket fragment onto the altar, and a silvery-white liquid seeped from the cracks, "This is North Cold Marrow , it can temporarily freeze the curse's onset—if you dare to monopolize the Opportunity..."
"Mr. Lu hates being threatened the most," Lu Qingyang sneered, but his hands deftly spread the cold marrow over the surface of the spirit pearl.
The medicinal field inside the pearl instantly froze, and the Dragon's Tooth Grass, which had withered from excessive Ripening , actually sprouted anew in the extreme cold.
He glimpsed the inscription behind the stone statue out of the corner of his eye—"The Netherworld Path opens; only direct descendants of Dragon blood may enter."
The Three-Headed Flood Dragon's remnants suddenly exploded, and a Dragon-scale-shaped key floated up in the blood mist.
As soon as Lu Qingyang grabbed the key, the entire dark river suddenly inverted, and he and Su Li spun wildly as if falling into a kaleidoscope.
When their vision returned, they were in a Cave with a starry dome, and beneath their feet was a silver river flowing with liquid Spiritual Qi.
"A thousand years, and finally, a living sacrifice," a hoarse voice came from the end of the silver river, and the figure on the White Bone Throne slowly stood up.
It was a Cultivator with only half his flesh remaining, a blood-red vine wriggling in his left eye socket, and the finger bones of his right hand clutching a fragment of the same material as the qingmu spirit pearl.
Su Li suddenly crushed the jade pendant at her waist, and the Taiyi Pavilion's emblem appeared on her forehead: "Elder Tianshu, you look much handsomer like this than in your portrait."
Her fingertips quietly formed a seal, and the talisman paper slipping from her sleeve burned with green smoke in the Spiritual Qi river.
Lu Qingyang immediately retreated three steps upon seeing this, casually tucking the Dragon scale key into his crotch.
"A girl from the Ye family?" Elder Tianshu's decaying lips curled into a cold smile, and the silver river suddenly surged with giant waves, "When your grandfather stole the qingmu spirit pearl back then, did he ever think..."
Before he finished speaking, the spirit pearl in Lu Qingyang's embrace suddenly flew out of his hand.
The ice layer of the medicinal field within the pearl cracked, and the illusory image of Jianmu rose from the ground, its branches piercing through the dome of the Cave .
Elder Tianshu let out an inhuman roar, countless thorny vines emerged from where his flesh had fallen off, and the liquid Spiritual Qi in the silver river boiled like lava.
Su Li seized the Opportunity to throw out three Thunderstorm Talismans, pulling Lu Qingyang onto a Jianmu branch: "If you don't want to die, infuse it with Dragon blood!"
She bit her tongue and spat out essence blood, and the lightning talismans exploded a path through the Spiritual Qi tide.
Lu Qingyang endured the pain and cut his wrist, and the Jianmu branches soaked in Dragon blood grew wildly, tearing open a spatial rift in the dome.
As Elder Tianshu's vine tentacles wrapped around Lu Qingyang's ankle, Su Li suddenly turned and kissed his blood-stained lips.
The Taiyi Pavilion's Soul Devouring Curse spread along their touching skin, actually forming a Spiritual Qi vortex between the two.
Lu Qingyang was startled to realize that the Dragon blood in his body was being drawn by the curse mark, and the Jianmu branches suddenly turned and pierced through Elder Tianshu's heart.
"You tricked me!" Lu Qingyang grabbed Su Li's neck, but he found her pupils had turned into vertical pupils like a Dragon's.
The suction from the spatial rift suddenly intensified, and the illusory image of Jianmu, encompassing the entire Cave , collapsed.
In the instant before his consciousness disappeared, he glimpsed tens of thousands of bronze coffins floating in the silver river, each coffin lid engraved with the Taiyi Pavilion's emblem.