"Elder Koza, you just left. Why have you returned already?" one of the Elder's asked in a questioning voice.
John felt a powerful divine sense wash over him, inspecting him closely. He ignored the divine sense, as he knew neither his identity or cultivation would be detected. He was just about to reply, when the other guard cut him off.
"We made sure you received your spatial ring when you left, so what reason do you have for returning already? You're not scheduled to work here again until tomorrow," the other guard replied.
John's face remained calm, but inside he cursed at the situation.
'Shit, I was just about to use that spatial ring excuse that the Elder yesterday had done, but it seemed they made sure such an issue would not arise again. What should I say.'
John remained silent for a moment, before he decided to fully embrace the nature of the Bloodfiend Sect.
"My nature is my own. Do I have to report my every action to you? Do you want me to tell you every time when I wipe my ass?" John replied, his voice slightly 'angered'. "I left something inside, and I plan to retrieve it," John replied.
The Bloodfiend Sect was a ruthless place, and John decided to channel some of that ruthlessness into his response. Both Elder's were slightly taken aback at John's reply, before the first Elder spoke up.
"It seems like someone is in a foul mood today. No matter, we have more important matters to care about. Enter and retrieve what you left inside. Just don't let it happen again," the Elder replied.
He had already fully inspected John, and found no irregularities with him. John nodded his head and began to walk forward, when the first Elder barked at him to stop.
John stopped, and looked at the Elder with a frown. "What do you want?" John asked.
The Elder too frowned, not exactly liking the tone that John was using. However, both of the Elder's were relatively even in status, and so neither could do anything to the other. The Elder pointed to one of the tables to his side, which contained a box filled with spatial rings.
"Your spatial ring," he instructed.
"Oh," John replied. "In my rush, I forgot."
He walked over and took off his spatial ring, and placed it into the box. All spatial rings contained defensive mechanisms to ensure that they were not tampered with, and so John was sure that the Elder's would try no funny business with his ring.
'Good thing I moved most of my stuff to my palace realm already.'
"You may enter," the Elder instructed as he saw John place his ring into the box.
John nodded his head and began to walk forward, towards the glowing light that grew brighter and brighter in his vision.
'Whatever they're planning here, the security is pretty tight. They don't even let their own Elder's bring their own spatial rings in.'
While thinking about this, he soon reached the end of the tunnel. An incredibly large chamber entered his vision, which glowed brightly with fiery light. The chamber was a mile long on each side, as well as half a mile tall.
His eyes swiveled in all directions, as he took in the sight before him.
In the very center of the chamber, a massive cauldron, hundreds of yards wide and tall rested. It stood on three legs, and was maroon in color. Tens of thousands of red formation runes were etched into the side of it, making it by far the most impressive cauldron John had ever seen in his life. The cauldron was filled nearly three fourths of the way to the top with a liquid which sloshed around. The liquid seemed to be refined and compressed by the formation lines on the cauldron, slowly but surely purifying it.
Circling around the cauldron on the ground, a massive blood red formation glowed and thrummed, as if it had a life of its own. It seemed to provide even more power to the cauldron, and John could tell something incredibly profound was happening inside.
Beneath the cauldron, a massive fire raged, bathing the bottom of the cauldron in incredible flames. The flames illuminated the room brightly, as well as the tunnel behind him.
On the outskirts of the cauldron, thousands of mortals stood there, divided into dozens of groups. Each group was guarded by dozens of Elder's, making sure that each group was kept in order.
The mortals all had looks of pure fear and despair on their faces. Half of them stared at the ground beneath them in hopelessness, while the other half stared up in the air, their fearful eyes locked onto something.
John followed where they were looking, and his heartbeat began to rise. Descending from the roof of the chamber high above, thousands upon thousands of metallic hooks were suspended in the air. The hook's descended in pairs, each pair spaced only a foot apart from each other.
From each of these pairs of hooks, a mortal hung, each hook piercing directly through each shoulder.
John clenched his fists tightly as he witnessed this scene. Thousands of mortals hung from the hooks, looks of anguish, pain, and despair on their faces. Anguished cries left their mouths, echoing loudly throughout the large chamber. Most of the anguished mortals still lived, but some seemed to have died already, as their limp bodies hung there lifelessly.
From those still living, the blood from the hook wounds freely flowed out, and fell down into the cauldron below. At the same time, a suction force seemed to emanate from the cauldron below, as if a hungry maw was consuming all the blood it could. Slowly but surely, the blood of the mortals was drawn out to the cauldron below, making it appear as if blood was raining down from the sky.
John's eyes widened wide as he finally realized what the liquid was. The cauldron, hundreds of yards wide and tall and almost fully filled, was filled with the blood of humans.