Longevity: Starting as a menial servant in the Green Wood Sect

Deep inside the cave, torches blazed, illuminating a scene resembling hell.

A massive pool of blood occupied the center of the cave, measuring a full ten zhang in diameter. The water was a viscous, dark red, with bubbles constantly churning on its surface, emitting a nauseating, overwhelming stench. This blood was no ordinary substance, but a mixture of demonic beast essence, the heart blood of prisoners of war, and some kind of eerie spiritual liquid. Catalyzed by the malevolent energy, it was emanating a chillingly foul aura.

In the very center of this blood pool, nine thick bronze chains hung from the top of the cave, tightly gripping a giant cauldron that was entirely dark blue-black.

Nine Dragons Demon-Suppressing Cauldron.

But at this moment, the cauldron was no longer as majestic and sacred as Qi Yunmeng remembered.

Most of the nine bronze dragons were soaked in filthy blood, their scales filled with rotten pieces of flesh and blood. The originally dark blue-black cauldron had taken on an eerie dark purple hue from the blood. The ancient and mysterious runes on the cauldron were now dull and lifeless, some even corroded and blurred.

The cauldron's mouth faces downwards, directly opposite the blood pool.

Streams of foul blood energy, like living creatures, surged wildly into the cauldron along the chains and its opening. The treasure that had once suppressed demonic thoughts now resembled a greedy glutton, devouring all the negative energy of this filthy land.

Around the blood pool, hundreds of Corpse Puppet Sect disciples dressed in black robes were busy as ants.

Some of them held bone staffs, chanting incantations as they poured buckets of fresh blood into the pool; others commanded walking corpses to drag convulsing prisoners of war or monster corpses to the edge of the pool, slit their throats with specially made bone knives, and let the scalding blood flow into the pool water; still others, disciples with higher cultivation levels, were inscribing dense array runes around the blood pool, and with each rune that fell, the blood pool rippled more violently.

On the east side of the blood pool, a simple altar made of piled bones was beginning to take shape.

On the altar, three Corpse Puppet Sect deacons, each possessing a chilling aura and at least at the late Qi Refining stage, stood solemnly. In their hands, they each held a pitch-black soul-summoning banner, its surface embroidered with twisted ghostly runes in silver thread, trembling slightly with the surge of blood energy.

Further away, in the shadowy corner of the cave, several powerful figures could be seen appearing and disappearing.

Those were elders at the Foundation Establishment stage, responsible for guarding this place. They did not participate in the trivial arrangements, but simply sat cross-legged in the shadows like statues. However, their faint divine senses covered the entire cave like a spider web, and no abnormal fluctuation of spiritual energy could escape their perception.

Gu An was currently mingling in a group transporting corpses.

He wore a black robe that he had stripped from the two drugged outer disciples of the Corpse Puppet Sect, and his face was smeared with thick layers of corpse oil and blood, obscuring his original appearance. His back was slightly hunched, and his steps were heavy and dragging, making him look no different from the laborers around him who were delirious from the corrosive effects of the corpse energy.

With a still-warm monster corpse on his shoulder, Gu An kept his head down and followed at the back of the group, slowly approaching the edge of the blood pool.

"Hurry up! What are you dawdling for!"

A foreman wielding a bone whip roared, lashing out at the laborer in front of Gu An, leaving a deep, bloody welt. "These three hundred sacrificial offerings must be thrown in before noon! If you delay the sacrificial ceremony, I'll turn you all into walking corpses!"

The laborer groaned, but dared not resist in the slightest, and could only quicken his pace.

Gu An quickly followed suit, jogging a few steps. His eyes, hidden beneath the grime, took advantage of the brief moment when he looked up to scan the surroundings.

"The defense is too tight..."

Gu An's heart sank slightly.

The guards here were even more stringent than he had anticipated. In addition to the hundreds of disciples on the surface and the Foundation Establishment elders lurking in the shadows, three layers of restrictive light barriers were set up around the blood pool. The outermost layer was a simple warning array, the middle layer was a "Thousand Corpse Soul-Locking Array" to trap enemies, and the innermost layer, right next to the edge of the blood pool, was a blood-red light shield that emitted a pungent, fishy stench.

That was the core protective shield of the "Filthy Array," which not only isolated it from external interference but also condensed and purified the filthy energy in the blood pool, continuously pouring it into the Nine Dragon Cauldron.

It is virtually impossible to disrupt it from the outside.

The only chance lies within the blood pool itself.

The Blood Pool is not stagnant water; it has an inlet drawn from an underground river, located upstream on the west side of the cave. Fresh blood and clean water are injected through there, mixing with the original filthy blood in the pool. After being circulated by the array, it is finally transformed into the purest form of filth.

As long as the source of pollution can be polluted...

Gu An's gaze fell on the hole upstream of the blood pool, where fresh blood was constantly flowing in.

The entrance to the cave was small, only about half a person's height, and was covered by a simple filtering barrier to prevent large debris from clogging it. There were only two disciples at the early stage of Qi Refining guarding it, who were sitting nearby, idly dozing off.

opportunity.

Gu An took a deep breath, adjusted the corpse on his shoulder, and moved himself closer to that direction.

Just then.

"Buzz..."

A faint yet seemingly soul-stirring sensation emanated from the Nine Dragon Cauldron in the center of the blood pool without warning.

The fluctuation was so subtle that even the closest Corpse Puppet Sect deacons were completely unaware of it.

But at this moment, the "Life Forest Wood Technique" within Gu An's body suddenly trembled!

That was not fear, but a cry that was almost a lament.

homology.

That is the same source as the Yi Wood True Qi in Gu An's body, but it is even more ancient and purer—the original power of the wood element!

Although the Nine Dragon Cauldron was corroded by filthy blood, the core of the Yi Wood restriction, personally imprinted by Qi Yunmeng three hundred years ago, deep within its body, had not been completely extinguished. Sensing the approach of Gu An, the inheritor, it cried out for help like a drowning person grasping at a last straw.

Gu An's heart skipped a beat.

He could clearly feel that the broken jade pendant given to him by Qi Yunmeng at his waist was now slightly warm, resonating with the fluctuations in the cauldron.

"Ancestor..."

Gu An murmured to himself, his eyes growing even more determined.

Qi Yunmeng's remnant soul once said that as long as he could get close to the Nine Dragon Cauldron and use the "Life Forest Wood Technique" to activate the inscriptions on the cauldron, he could reactivate the restriction and even refine the Tai Sui in reverse.

But now, let alone getting close, even from dozens of feet away, one can feel the terrifying pressure brought by those layers of restrictions.

We must proceed according to plan.

Gu An composed himself and continued carrying the corpse, moving upstream towards the blood pool.

However, just when he was less than ten feet away from the water inlet.

"Hey, you!"

A rough, hoarse shout suddenly came from the side.

Gu An paused, then slowly turned his head.

A burly, early-stage Foundation Establishment supervisor with a scar on his face was frowning as he stared at him. His sinister eyes scanned Gu An, clearly trying to recall if the face appeared on the roster.

Alarm bells rang in Gu An's mind, but he quickly put on a bewildered and fearful expression.

"Sir...sir, are you calling me 'little one'?" he asked tremulously, his voice hoarse as if he had a mouthful of sand in his mouth.

"You look unfamiliar to me?" The scarred foreman stepped forward, unabashedly releasing the pressure of a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator. "Which team are you from? Who's leading them?"

The surrounding laborers trembled with fear at the oppressive aura and retreated in disarray.

Gu An also pretended to have weak legs, almost dropping the corpse on his shoulder to the ground. He quickly tried to steady himself with his free hand, but his body lost its balance due to "fear" and he staggered towards the upstream inlet of the blood pool.

"I...I followed Master Li..." Gu An answered in a panic, while "unintentionally" using the corpse on his shoulder as a support, and slammed hard into a protruding rock next to him.

All of this happened too fast.

To onlookers, he looked like a low-level laborer who had been terrified by a Foundation Establishment cultivator and had slipped and fallen in his panic.

"idiot!"

A hint of disdain flashed across the scarred overseer's face as he reached out to grab Gu An.

Just then.

As Gu An's body tilted to the side, his right hand discreetly squeezed the storage bag full of "waste" at his waist!

"puff!"

A very faint cracking sound was drowned out by the surrounding noise.

The internal structure of the storage bag collapsed instantly.

The contents inside—all the high-level poisonous herb residues brought from Broken Soul Valley, the powder from failed poison pill refining, the soil contaminated with corpse poison, and… the jade bottle containing Steward Ma, which had turned into pus—mixed and erupted at this moment!

A thick, foul-smelling, purplish-black liquid gushed out of the storage bag like a flood bursting its banks, and just as Gu An fell, it poured into the half-person-high inlet at the top of the blood pool!

"Splash—!!!"

Gu An, along with the monster's corpse, fell into the cold blood.

The icy blood instantly submerged his mouth and nose, and the strong, stench almost suffocated Gu An. But he held his breath tightly, letting his body float in the blood, while frantically circulating the "Turtle Breathing Technique" and the "Corpse Control Technique" to make himself look like a corpse that had accidentally fallen into the water.

"Damn it! What a piece of trash!"

The scarred overseer cursed when he saw Gu An fall into the blood pool, but didn't immediately try to rescue him. In his eyes, the life of such a laborer was worth less than that of a demon beast.

What bothered him more was that there seemed to be something amiss in that brief moment.

He frowned, walked to the inlet, and peered inside.

However, the moment his gaze fell upon the pool water—

A sudden change has occurred!

The blood pool water, which was originally dark red, began to boil violently like a pot of boiling oil after it came into contact with the "waste" that Gu An poured in!

"Glug! Glug! Glug!"

Numerous bubbles surged from the bottom of the pool, bursting and releasing thick purple smoke.

The color of the pool water changed at a speed visible to the naked eye: from dark red to purplish red, and then to a chilling purplish black!

The fresh blood that had just been thrown into the pool congealed and turned black as if it had encountered a natural enemy, sinking to the bottom of the pool. The carrion leeches that had been swimming in the pool and purifying the blood began to twist and swell wildly upon contact with the mutated water, before bursting open with a "bang" and turning into clumps of foul-smelling pus and blood.

"Sizzle sizzle—"

The harsh sound of corrosion echoed through the cave.

At the edge of the blood pool, the newly inscribed array runes melted and dimmed as quickly as ice and snow exposed to the scorching sun after coming into contact with the spreading purplish-black pool water!

In particular, the innermost layer of the blood-red "filthy array" shield was now flickering violently, its light changing unpredictably, as if it were about to collapse at any moment.

"What's going on?!"

"The water level in the pool has changed! Stop immediately!"

The three deacons on the altar were the first to notice something was wrong; their expressions changed drastically, and they shouted sternly.

The entire cave was instantly thrown into chaos.

The disciples who were pouring blood and controlling the zombies looked at the discolored pool water in panic. Some of them who were close by accidentally got splashed with the poisonous water and immediately let out a shrill scream - their skin quickly rotted and their flesh melted away, and in a few breaths they turned into skeletons!

"It's poison! Someone poisoned us!"

The scarred foreman finally realized what was happening. He turned his head sharply to look at the spot where Gu An had just fallen, his eyes filled with murderous intent.

However, apart from the still churning purplish-black pool water and the floating monster corpse, there was no trace of Gu An.

"Which bastard did this?! Show yourself!"

The scarred overseer flew into a rage, unleashing his Foundation Establishment stage spiritual pressure without reservation, causing several low-level disciples around him to vomit blood.

With a wave of his hand, a giant black spiritual claw slammed into the blood pool, attempting to pull the "murderer" out.

But just as the giant claw was about to touch the surface of the pool...

"boom--!!!"

In the center of the blood pool, the Nine Dragons Demon-Suppressing Cauldron suddenly emitted a muffled loud bang!

The cauldron trembled violently, and the nine bronze dragons, stained with blood, seemed to come alive, letting out silent roars in unison.

The foul blood energy that had been continuously flowing into the cauldron was forcibly reversed at this moment!

A pure, ancient, yet boundless rage-filled azure flame erupted from the cauldron's mouth, transforming into nine tiny fire dragons that surged upstream along the chains, crashing fiercely into the restrictions surrounding the blood pool!

This turn of events came too suddenly!

Although the Nine Dragon Cauldron was contaminated, the core Yi Wood restriction was not completely ineffective. The "waste" Gu An had thrown in contained "living Yi Wood poison" extracted from Shen Wan's body, as well as a large amount of Yin Sha corpse poison. These toxins, mixed with the foul air in the blood pool, not only failed to further corrode the cauldron, but unexpectedly stimulated the remaining Yi Wood essence within it!

It's like pouring a bucket of boiling oil into a pile of dying embers!

Although the oil is toxic, it caused the flames to explode instantly!

"Not good! The cauldron spirit is backfiring! Quickly reinforce the formation!"

In the shadows, the Foundation Establishment elders who had been sitting cross-legged with their eyes closed finally couldn't sit still any longer. They opened their eyes simultaneously and appeared around the blood pool in a flash. They waved their hands repeatedly, sending streams of pure spiritual energy into the formation, attempting to stabilize the collapsing restriction.

However, it was too late.

The rage that the Nine Dragon Cauldron had been accumulating for three hundred years finally found an outlet at this moment.

"Snap! Snap!"

At the edge of the blood pool, the innermost blood-red protective shield shattered first, turning into a sky full of blood-red light.

Immediately afterwards, the "Thousand Corpse Soul-Locking Array" in the middle also groaned under the strain, and several soul-summoning banners at the array's core spontaneously combusted without fire, turning into ashes.

Only the outermost layer of the warning array is still barely holding on, but it is also on the verge of collapse.

The entire cave was filled with poisonous fog, flames soared into the sky, and screams and roars mingled together, creating utter chaos.

At this moment, the culprit that caused all of this, like a slippery loach, silently swam along the dark current at the bottom of the blood pool towards a hidden drain downstream.

Gu An held his breath and used the Turtle Breathing Technique to his fullest extent, disguising himself as a piece of rotting flesh drifting with the current.

His plan succeeded.

Not only did it successfully contaminate the blood source and disrupt the sacrificial formation, but it also unexpectedly triggered the Nine Dragon Cauldrons' counterattack, creating unprecedented chaos.

But this is not enough.

His target was that cauldron.

"Now is not the time..."

Gu An opened his eyes in the murky blood, looked at the giant cauldron in the center of the cave that was spewing blue flames, and a trace of regret flashed in his eyes.

Rushing over there now would be tantamount to suicide. Those enraged Foundation Establishment elders would tear him to pieces.

He must wait.

Let this chaos unfold, and let a better opportunity arise.

The drain outlet is right in front of us.

Gu An shrank back like a black fish, disappearing into the narrow passage, no bigger than a washbasin, and vanished into the churning blood.

Behind them, the roaring sounds from inside the cave grew fainter and fainter.

"Investigate! Investigate thoroughly! Leave no one who entered the cave today unpunished!"

The scarred overseer's roar, like that of a wounded beast, echoed for a long time in the cave.

The azure flames spewed from the Nine Dragon Cauldron in the blood pool finally extinguished slowly after a dozen breaths due to exhaustion.

The cauldron returned to silence, but a faint blue light seemed to flash briefly in the eye sockets of the nine bronze dragons, as if the sleeping beasts had opened their eyes for a moment.

The sacrificial ceremony was forcibly interrupted.

The formation was damaged.

The blood source was contaminated.

All of this foreshadows that the "Blood Spirit Sacrifice" three days later will not go as smoothly as the Corpse Puppet Sect and the Blood Blade Sect wished.

The culprit behind all this has now disappeared into the intricate underground drainage network, like a drop of water merging into the ocean.

What Gu An didn't know was that the moment he crawled into the drain...

In the shadows of the cave, an old man in black robes, who had been meditating with his eyes closed and whose aura was as elusive as a rock, slowly opened his eyes.

His gaze did not fall on the chaotic blood pool, but rather on the direction of the drain where Gu An had disappeared.

A glint of extremely subtle, venomous light flashed in those cloudy old eyes.

"interesting……"

The old man's lips curled into a barely perceptible smile as he murmured in a voice only he could hear:

"A little mouse that snuck in."

Then he closed his eyes again, as if nothing had happened.

The chaos inside the cave continues, but some deeper undercurrents have already begun to stir.