"How many of them are there?" Xuefeng asked as he flew next to Yiren. "Maybe we can have them assist us in some way."
The King Rat she sat on was the only Immortal Stage beast in the army of rats and reached three times the size of its soldiers. The thought of using them for scouting immediately came to Xuefeng's mind.
Yiren reached out to Xuefeng and climbed into his arms like a koala. "Even though he doesn't know the exact number, he said there should be at least five thousand of them."
Xuefeng thought Yiren moved for him but her focus switched to Mona who occupied his shoulder. "Don't worry everyone, she will not do anything to you," Yiren assured as she rubbed Mona's beautiful fur.
Squeak!
Even with Yiren's presentation, the Rats still stared at Mona with fear in their eyes. It was understandable. After all, she belonged to one of the strongest Races of the Beast world.
"Xuefeng, if we want, they can escort us until we reach the danger zone," Yiren suggested. "They dominate this area but they won't go beyond the danger zone."
"What's the danger zone?" Xuefeng questioned curiously and the Rats began squeaking fearfully.
"Oh! That's horrible," Yiren exclaimed before passing the message. "They say that the deeper you go this path, the stronger beast appears. Once they tried to expand their territory and lost almost one-third of their army."
Xuefeng wasn't even surprised by that fact as something else confused him. "How are you doing this?"
"Hmm? Do what?" Yiren asked innocently.
"This. Talking to all beasts. How do you know their language?"
All Xuefeng heard was squeaking yet Yiren was able to discern what they were talking about. He was amazed every time.
"Oh, it's simple. Thanks to my affinity to nature, words form in my mind whenever they talk. I don't need to do anything," Yiren replied casually.
"That's amazing…" Ryan commented, looking at Yiren with respect. "Can you ask them if they know any locations with treasures or inheritances? I heard the Hellhole was used as a resting place for many experts."
Xuefeng nodded in approval while he pulled out Bard's compass. The needle was still pointing in the same direction as before. The amount of Fate Stones in the third zone was simply the biggest source of Qi in the Hellhole.
Too bad, they weren't lucky enough.
"They said they cleaned everything in the area already but they can still sense some 'good stuff' in the danger zone. That was the reason they were tempted to venture deeper," Yiren replied after asking the Rats.
"Let's go then. The sooner we reach the second zone the better," Xuefeng decided, and the whole army moved, escorting them from every angle.
Their combined power was enough to scare away any beasts that were tempted to eat them as a snack. Naturally, even with no disturbances, it would still take them a while to reach the next zone.
They could only entertain themselves with a talk.
"So you're telling me I can get the help of an Alchemist to extract the Bloodline Essence from the human blood to receive their Bloodline?" Drakos questioned with interest.
"Not only Humans but it works with every living being. As long as you have enough blood, you can extract their Bloodline and then accept it into your body," Ryan explained simply. "This is one of the easiest but at the same time the cruelest method though. You have to kill a lot to extract enough Bloodline Essence. It only worked for me because I happened to have a lot of enemies back in the days. I didn't mind using them as my stepping stones to get stronger."
"Isn't Lisa an Alchemist?" Drakos pointed out as he gazed at her. "Lisa, can you do that?"
"Yuk!" Lisa immediately responded with disgust. "You are asking me to play with Human blood? No way."
"Oh, come on." Drakos threw his hands. "Isn't Beast blood and Human blood the same? You won't even notice the difference."
"Tsk, you say it as if I would rather touch Beast blood," Lisa snickered before shuddering. "I hate blood in general so I'm not touching any of it."
"Isn't blood just an ingredient?" Ryan pointed out. "From what I remember, the method to extract Bloodline Essense is the same as processing Spirit Herbs."
"That's right. What if you need to use Beast blood as an ingredient to make your pills? This should be normal for any Alchem—"
"That's enough," Xuefeng cut Drakos off as he gave him a stern look. "If Lisa doesn't want to do something, we will not force her to do it. I'm sure there are different methods to acquire a Bloodline just like how I got mine from Yiren."
Xuefeng approached Lisa and kissed her to cheer her up. Even if they were right, Xuefeng would never force his wives into an uncomfortable position. "Are you alright?"
"Mhmm…" Lisa nodded sweetly as she hugged his side. "It's not that I can't do it or I never do it… I just don't like it. If you ask me though, I will do it for you..."
"It's okay baby. We can first search for other solutions," Xuefeng assured as he turned to Ryan. "Do you know any other methods?"
Normally Xuefeng would ask Ming or Ling but the two of them were as knowledgeable in Bloodlines as he was.
"I don't. I didn't investigate after finding the easiest way. I'm sure there are other methods but they usually always come with drawbacks and are much harder to execute. Killing is the best and the least problematic method," Ryan convinced. "Maybe it is a little cruel but the world of Cultivation was always brutal. People will kill each other for much smaller reasons."
"I agree," Drakos nodded firmly. "Looking at our group, only two of us have double Bloodline while one of those two just recently joined. We should slowly start searching for additional Bloodlines which will even further increase our power."
Xuefeng couldn't deny that Bloodlines were indeed powerful. Only only needed to look at his Elvish Bloodline and the Ability it provided. If trained to a high level, he could simply freeze someone's movements and kill them on the spot with no counterplay at all.
If all of them had a set of such powerful abilities, no one would be able to face them.
"It will be hard to find a Bloodline that suits us Royal Elves but I agree." Nuwa joined the conversation. "Shouldn't this place be filled with strong Beasts? Maybe we can get some Bloodlines from them."
"It is actually easier to acquire a Beast Bloodline compared to Human Bloodline," Ryan pointed out. "Most of their Bloodline Essence is located in their blood while it's the complete opposite for Humans. You don't want to know how many Bandits I hunted before to acquire my Human Bloodline."
"Alright, we will see later when we meet any powerful Beasts," Xuefeng nodded as he looked ahead. "It doesn't seem like we will meet them anytime soon."
With how wide span the Hellhole underground tunnels were, it would take them hours if not days even if they flew at their top speed. Xuefeng didn't mind that at all, always enjoying the time he could spend with his wives.
"Xuefeng, can we change the course for a moment? The Rat King is asking for a detour since his soldiers are thirsty."
After four hours of straight flying with no disturbance, Yiren passed on the Rat King's message.
"How long will it take?" Xuefeng questioned. "I don't mind if we can come back to our path afterward."
"He said we will have to turn right in the next minute and enter into another set of tunnels. Once we reach the underground river, we will connect back to this tunnel and continue on our way," Yiren reported. "We are only halfway towards the danger zone and it would take them eight hours to return if we don't detour now."
Sure enough, before Xuefeng replied, the Rats stopped before one of the biggest tunnel intersections and the King Rat glanced back at Yiren.
"Alright, let's go," Xuefeng called out, causing the Rats to turn excitedly.
Although they were beasts and their stamina was impressive, they have been running at full speed for four hours. It was understandable to take a short break.
After at least twenty minutes of shifts and turns, they finally heard the sound of water and found themselves entering a gigantic tunnel full of rapidly flowing water. The Rats lined up one by one next to the shore and started gulping down.
"I wonder where this river leads to," Xuefeng wondered as he crouched on the shore to check the water. "Shouldn't the water lead towards a bigger basin?"
"Maybe there is a lake at the end?" Nuwa guessed, making everyone curious. Xuefeng didn't hesitate and pulled out Bard's compass only to see the always steady needle spin like crazy.
He neared it towards the river and saw it stabilize again, aiming along with the river flow.
"One thing we know for sure, there is a great source of Qi at the end of this river."