Everyone noticed Evan Yang scanning the area with his eyes, as if searching for something. About forty Soul-Forming cultivators still remained here, all clustered around Evan, not daring to leave his side.
None of them dared to face the masked man alone, especially after experiencing those terrifying Golden Parasite Bugs. They would rather stay close to Evan than risk searching for an exit elsewhere.
"May I ask how we should address you, fellow Daoist?" One of the forty Soul-Forming cultivators, acting as their representative, asked Evan.
Evan snapped back to attention and smiled. "My name is Mark Wood." He chose not to reveal his real identity, knowing that many here belonged to major clans—if they found out, it would surely cause more trouble.
None of them had ever heard of Mark Wood, assuming he must be a hermit. The representative respectfully said, "Brother Mark, thank you for saving us."
"No need to thank me. But everyone should be careful of that masked man—he's not simple." Evan felt the man was growing more and more terrifying, especially with the canyon's blood river. This river, formed from blood, never dried up and seemed endless, flowing on and on.
Everyone agreed that Evan was right. After seeing the blood river and the masked man leap away, plus Evan's warning that this was likely all part of the masked man's scheme,
everyone understood the real purpose behind it: he was after their primordial spirits.
"What does he want with so many primordial spirits!" someone said angrily. Each cultivator's primordial spirit was forged through countless hardships, often taking hundreds or thousands of years to achieve. For every Soul-Forming cultivator, it was an incredibly precious thing.
Yet the masked man had snatched so many primordial spirits with ease, leaving every Soul-Forming cultivator here filled with hatred for him.
"If you want answers, follow the blood to its end. That's where we'll find them," Evan Yang said, seeing the confusion and anger on everyone's faces.
Everyone nodded. Only by doing this and finding the masked man could they uncover the real reason and figure out how to escape.
So, over forty people, each already seeing Evan as their leader, followed him. Evan hadn't expected the golden parasite bugs to threaten them so badly that they'd rather drop their pride and choose a stranger to lead.
They really had no choice. No matter how proud they were normally, now wasn't the time for doubts—otherwise, they might be the next ones to have their primordial spirits seized.
So the group followed the canyon, searching for the end of the blood river and the exit to this space. While following Evan, everyone stayed alert to their surroundings, ready to fight at any moment.
Evan also split his divine sense into four hundred threads—the most he could manage at late-stage Soul-Forming Realm—each locking onto a tiny direction, searching for any possible movement. One thread always focused on the very front, ready to spot anything ahead.
Evan alone was equal to four hundred people in perception—a fact no one else knew. For him, any danger would be spotted instantly, while the others, each only monitoring one direction, couldn't react as fast as he could.
Thanks to this, Evan quickly led everyone forward. After rushing for a while, he stopped at a certain spot, his expression turning a bit strange.
Seeing Evan stop, the others halted too. The representative asked, "What's wrong?"
"Ahead, there's a blood pool. A lot of things are there," Evan frowned.
When everyone heard about the blood pool, they locked their divine sense onto the front of the canyon. Those at late-stage Soul-Forming Realm could clearly see it: a blood pool filled with shocking things—human bones.
"Are these the corpses that fell into the river?" someone exclaimed.
Those who could see were all shocked—the number of bones was staggering. If not ten thousand, then at least several thousand. How many people had died here?
"Let's go take a look," Evan said, relaxing his brow. Those who hadn't seen the pool felt nervous, but for safety, they followed Evan closely, not daring to linger on their own.
After a short while, everyone arrived at the blood pool—a giant basin of blood. At the top, blood leaked in, and at one end, blood flowed out into the canyon.
"How many people did it take to fill this?" someone said, stunned.
Everyone else had the same thought—including Evan. None of them had expected so many bones here.
"Look, there's something in the center," someone pointed at the middle of the blood pool.
Everyone looked and saw a blood-red sphere spinning in the pool.
"Blood-Essence Core?" someone cried out in shock.
What is a Blood-Essence Core? Those who didn't know asked suspiciously.
"Kid, this space is dangerous. You need to leave as soon as possible," Old Clam suddenly said to Evan when he saw the Blood-Essence Core.
"What's going on?" Evan, like the others, really wanted to know what that Blood-Essence Core was.
"A Blood-Essence Core starts out only fingertip-sized. Now it's grown to the size of a fist—meaning it's devoured a huge amount of blood. I told you to leave because only a peak Spirit-Wandering-Realm expert could craft something like this," Old Clam explained.
"What? You're saying this space was made by a peak Spirit-Wandering-Realm expert?" Evan looked confused and shocked.
"It's just my guess. Whether it's really a peak Spirit-Wandering-Realm expert or not depends on who is behind all this," Old Clam said, not entirely certain.
This left Evan very surprised. The others, after hearing the explanation from those who knew about the Blood-Essence Core, were all confused and shocked, though their understanding differed from Old Clam's.
They only knew about the core's effects, not what kind of expert could make it.
The Blood-Essence Core condensed the essence of countless experts—like all the blood here, who knows how many died? If it really boosts cultivation, whoever swallows it could gain immense power, maybe even break through to Spirit-Wandering Realm.
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Some people were already tempted—even though they hadn't found the Five-Spirit Pill, the Blood-Essence Core could rival it, just a bit more bloody.
For these Soul-Forming experts, none of them were strangers to blood. Though uneasy, they couldn't help but feel drawn to the core.
A few people had already flown toward the Blood-Essence Core, wanting to grab it—completely forgetting about the terrifying figure in this pocket space and the mastermind behind it all.
The rest stood at the edge, waiting for them to return.
But as those few reached the edge of the blood, the liquid surged up like a living thing—a blood wave swept them into the pool, fast as lightning. They barely had time to react before they were submerged, unable to escape, trapped in the blood.
The blood was like sticky slime—no matter how hard they struggled, they couldn't get out.
The Blood-Essence Core slowly moved toward them.
How could it move? Was it sentient? Everyone was shocked, watching it drift to one person's side. That person, seeing it as a treasure, reached out to grab it.
But the moment he touched it, his face changed drastically. Everyone saw something strange—his face shriveled, aging from middle-aged to old in an instant, then only bones remained. It was like the core sucked out his essence.
Even his primordial spirit couldn't escape—the Blood-Essence Core absorbed it instantly, much like the golden parasite bugs had before.
Was it controlled by the same person? Everyone realized, their faces darkening.
Evan frowned, realizing the Blood-Essence Core was controlled by someone. But where was the controller? Only Evan thought this way—everyone else was too scared, crowding around him for answers.
Those trapped in the blood cried out for help, but even with all their magic treasures, they couldn't pull themselves free.
They could only wait for death, watching the strange Blood-Essence Core swim closer. Some even wished to leave their bodies early—to let their primordial spirits escape.
Soul departure—letting the primordial spirit leave the body—is normally a Soul-Forming cultivator's last resort, but here, even that couldn't help. The strange blood rendered their spirits useless.
"Don't come any closer!" someone shouted in terror, but the Blood-Essence Core ignored them.
"I'll kill you!" someone realized there was no escape, so they drew their weapon and tried to fight the core.
But to everyone's shock, the core acted like a soft creature—when struck, it split, then stuck together again, as if it were made of jelly. No matter how they attacked, nothing worked. Just like when Evan fought the snowman before, weapons went in and came out the same way—unable to threaten the Blood-Essence Core at all.
"Brother Wood, do you have any ideas?" the representative asked anxiously, never expecting things to turn out like this. All they could do was look to Evan for a way to save everyone—after all, each person's strength here was hard-won.
"Let me try." Evan decided to test the effect of his twin flames again. He summoned both, and at the same time split hundreds of threads of divine sense to scan the surroundings, determined to find out who was controlling the Blood-Essence Core—otherwise, how could it be so strange?
As soon as the two flames appeared in the air, the blood surged up again, trying to smother the fire.
Everyone was shocked. Blood is liquid, fire is fire—how could water and fire coexist? Everyone tensed up, knowing if the flames were extinguished or swallowed, they'd be doomed.
Evan was confident in his twin flames and not afraid. He was eager to see what would happen when fire met blood.
Sss, crack, splash—everyone heard a series of sounds, staring in shock at the scene unfolding above the blood.