John's heart beat loudly within his chest from the burning rage he felt at the moment. While he was not a saint, he wasn't a monster who would kill innocents either. The amount of blood within the cauldron was staggering, and must have taken tens of thousands of human sacrifices to reach this level, if not more.
His hands were clenched tightly as he looked at the scene before him and listened to the wails of pain coming from those being sacrificed. John closed his eyes and calmed himself, before slowly opening them once more.
His face had once again returned to its former calm.
'I can't do anything about this right now. However, every single thing I learn about this sect increases my desire to destroy it. I will destroy it, and all those within it!'
After regaining his composure, John started walking around the large chamber. He looked for any and all clues regarding what this process was, or how to potentially stop it in the future. However, no clues were evident, and all he could see was the occasional pile of corpses thrown in far corners of the chamber, from those who had already been sacrificed.
After doing a full circle around the chamber, John had still not found any sort of information regarding what was going on. His eyes locked onto the cauldron in the center of the room, as well as the formation runes etched onto its surface.
The formation runes glowed with incredible power, signifying that they were doing something to the blood within the cauldron. A thought appeared in his mind as he looked at the formation runes.
'If I could somehow destroy some of those runes, I'm sure it would stop whatever is going on, at least for some time.'
After thinking about this plan, John shook his head at himself.
'That's not good enough. If I destroy some of the runes, I'm sure they will just replace them in short notice. While it might affect whatever is going on a bit, I'm sure the amount of damage I could cause would not be enough to destroy whatever this is. Not only that, but if I tamper with the cauldron, I'm sure there would be a massive investigation of what went on, and the fact that I assumed the identity of that Elder would be discovered. While they wouldn't know it was me, they would know that there was someone capable of disguising themselves as another. If that happened, my mission would most likely be over once everyone is thoroughly investigated.'
With this in mind, he decided not to take any drastic actions at the moment. His gaze once again lingered on the cauldron, and the blood within. Even from the distance he was standing at, John felt a thin connection with the blood. With just a thought, he would be able to draw it into his palace realm.
However, such a thing was mostly useless. The blood was too low in quality for him to use for his Immortal Asura Body, as it was the blood of mortals. Ever since he had ascended to the Qi Condensation Realm, John had discovered that only blood from cultivators at his realm or at a higher realm would be able to boost his body cultivation.
The blood of mortals, despite being in such a large quantity, would not be able to help him at all.
At the same time, if he siphoned the blood from the cauldron right now, it would not only raise the guard of the sect that something was amiss, but also require the blood of more innocents to complete whatever was going on here.
John continued to wrack his mind for solutions to this problem, but was unable to come up with anything.
'I could inform Thunderzen by crushing the talisman and having him arrive, but I still don't know what the plan of the Bloodfiend Sect is. Thunderzen instructed me to discover their plans, not save some mortals. Until I figure out what is going on, I can't crush the talisman, regardless of how angry this scene makes me.'
John continued to walk around the chamber for some time, investigating its interior while looking as natural as possible. He was stopped by some Elder's for casual small talk, but he kept the conversations as brief as possible.
'I guess I can't stall any longer, or the two guard Elder's will get suspicious. I'll leave for now, but at least now I know where part of the Bloodfiend Sect's plans are being carried out.'
With this in mind, John turned and walked to the exit of the chamber. The screams of those hanging from the hooks above had grown quieter and quieter, until not a whimper was heard.
"This batch is done," one of the Elder's shouted loudly. "Put the next batch up."
At his command, several Elder's flew up into the sky above the cauldron and removed the dead mortals from the hooks. After this was done, the other Elder's grabbed the living mortals on the ground, and began to fly them up towards the hooks.
The mortals screamed in fear and despair, but were powerless to stop what was going on. Before long, a thousand new mortals were thrown on the hooks, each screaming out in anguished pain as the hooks pierced through their flesh.
John watched this process be carried out as he arrived at the exit of the chamber. His eyes turned completely cold, but his face remained calm as he burned the scene into his mind. He made a silent pledge in his heart to have all those within this sect suffer for their actions, before he turned around and left.
The anguished cries of those he made the vow to echoed within his mind as he left the chamber.
"Did you find what you were looking for?" one of the guard Elder's asked John as he returned to the entrance.
"I did," John replied with a short response, as he walked past the guards and up onto the stairs. He grabbed his spatial ring from the box as he passed by it, before leaving the way he had entered.
At the top of the stairs, he placed his hand on the formation disk, and a boom was heard. The stone wall in front of him began to part, allowing him to leave. John quickly slipped out and sped into the distance, blending into the darkness of the night.