Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1070 - 1069 - Blood Cult

While the war towers put up a fight, Lind and Ranger were slipping carefully past any enemies without using any Qi hardly at all.

The demon and dragon had many techniques to just blend into the world while active auras washed over them. It seemed like time was shifting all on its own in speed.

They seemed to crawl for eternity across open clearings and passed through a forest in an instant yet never arrived at their destination.

Lind would have tried to tear through space but he would bet hard money that the formation eyes were heavily defended against that very power. The fact an entrance was finally found showed how extensive their preparations were when they set up the array.

Ranger finally held up a hand to stop the pair near a random area of the forest before pointing to the northwest.

Lind felt nothing until they changed perspective and an opening was revealed! It was also guarded within by 2 cultivators he would assume were at least Shard Tiers.

[That is it, Master. What do we do?] Lind had opened a telepathic connection between them but he had no answer to the question. He wanted inside the complex but he did not want to get tied down in battle.

Ranger was no help against Immortals and only a truly idiotic enemy would not leave enough Immortals behind to guard their precious array eye.

It would be nice if the Fiends were so simple but they were not. Even when truly inconvenienced they had shown remarkable adaptability or recovering their goals without incurring further losses.

[You will stay behind me and keep an eye out for any traps or attacks. I will need to act quickly to kill them without raising an alarm.] Lind made a decision as the longer they took, the more people could be dying behind them.

He already had helped Jur on the way there but he could sense far more Immortals than they had feared were attacking.

Once he was inside the complex, he doubted he could use his aura any further to help them.

He pulled out 2 daggers as dark as a moonless night that clearly made Ranger uncomfortable. Lind had no choice, he had to become far more dangerous with True Severing Blades.

They were not his creation but slavers. If a slave tried to revolt, they wanted to punish them yet leave them alive. The dagger would instantly shatter a dantian and shred meridians with the inscription refined into it by exploding into the body.

It was a nasty way to cripple someone but leave them alive.

Lind had kept some when he realized how severely outgunned he was. He did not give them to anyone else and even sealed them via Haro until certain conditions were met. A threat to the entire realm certainly qualified.

Lind tensed his muscles as his legs transformed partially into a dragon's before the ground shattered beneath them. Ranger had raced away from him before he moved so he was fine.

The 2 humans only glanced up before their guts took the daggers to them. They could not even scream as the air was robbed from their heads by Lind to make a vacuum.

They writhed on the ground as Qi, Laws, and blood fled their bodies until they passed out. They were alive but just mortals now.

The handles crumbled away as the daggers had finished their job.

"I personally want all such weapons destroyed and all knowledge of them purged." Lind's voice was cold but soft yet he got a response from behind him.

"I agree, Master, but I find it fitting they are used on these monsters in human skin." Lind nodded at his sentiment and they entered the complex. Just as expected, his aura was cut off from the outside world even with the entrance open.

Vile crimson veins throbbed in the walls around them but the tunnels were neatly cut into the stone. The first floor was mostly traps and defenses but they were largely deactivated for the current deployment of their forces.

They found several passages going down but Lind did not like any of them. He moved inwards until he came to a larger room that finally felt different. It was like a large oval with a strange altar at the heart of it.

It was a twisted black stone shape with random protrusions and gaps rising for 2 meters until it topped out on a flat surface. The stone felt horribly wrong to him but it was not the array eye he was looking for.

"Blood Cult. They are the Blood Cult." Ranger suddenly spoke up and Lind looked confused. It was not a name he had heard of.

"Who are they?" The bright yellow eyes narrowed at the altar.

"They were a bunch of Fiend worshippers but it was almost like they were just idiots. It is like kids saying they will be a dragon and another will be the prince.

They claimed a lot and did a lot of bad things, but nothing on this scale." Ranger looked almost in disbelief. "The altar is what was always found in any of their caves or other simple camps. Usually covered in sacrifices of small animals and such."

The rather small time description did not match the current large scale complex but Lind felt a darkness in his soul.

"They used them for recruitment. They meant for them to be fools in public while the real cult worked in the background. If no one takes you seriously, no one cares what happens to you." No matter what crimes they committed, if the powers that be found them just annoying, they would only act in response to events as they cropped up.

Meanwhile, the cult slowly built up their real force and made connections from the deluded members reaching out to all walks of life. It was insane to plan for that long as it would take an impossible amount of time to progress but it reeked of Fiends.

"I remember several branches being executed for wiping out farming villages but you are saying they were just a front for the real cult that could do all this?" Ranger seemed to become pale as his lavender skin darkened.

Lind nodded as they investigated the room until they came to stand in front of the altar. There was really not much in the large room aside from some chairs decorated for ceremonies. One was well made and clearly for an important member while the other had leather straps and small metal spikes in the surfaces to bleed a subject strapped to it!

Lind used his Eyes and saw there was something at the base of the altar.

He found a formation that had its inscription intentionally broken at 2 points. WIth a little testing a click was heard as the altar slid aside to reveal a much more vile feeling coming from a circular stairwell going into the earth.

"You cannot follow me in there. It will claim your mind in a few breaths. Go back outside and lay traps for any returning forces. Show no mercy." Ranger bowed and quickly left Lind behind.

He had not lied but he could have protected the demon easily enough. The issue was his plan.

He had a crazy idea that would take all he currently had to pull off.

He quickly descended down the stairs and something triggered the altar to return to its original position. Light vanished but he could see easily enough. The pulsing veins increased as the stench of blood increased.

Lind also began to feel a faint vibration he could not fully explain but it was too far away to locate at the moment. He did not dare to freely use his aura inside the complex as there had to be more enemies or defenses just waiting for him to do that.

He moved carefully as he checked for traps but none were found as he finally came down to a new floor that was far rougher in nature than the neatly cut tunnels above. The feeling of moisture increased but it was not due to water.

It was blood.

He was standing in a cavern looking over a massive pool of blood! There were ripples in time with the vibrations but he now knew it was a kind of thumping. It was a regular rhythm that he recognized all too well.

His emerald eyes narrowed as his hands cracked in rage. He carefully walked along the edge of the pool until he found an ornate dark bridge across the blood. There were no handrails or anything aside from the black slabs of stone connected across it.

He felt nothing but truly did not believe it could be so easy.

His Eyes pierced the mist of blood and then he threw up! The bloodline array eye was as vile as the array itself!

An amalgam of flesh was on an island he saw rising and falling in time with the rhythm. A heart! A massive vile heart pumped the blood into the array!

The grotesque flesh was molded in mockery of demons and humans but there were also aether children mixed in!

He finally found some but they were turned into a monstrous living artifact!

[Ah, a guest has come to see us. We are not alone in the dark. Come, come.] A chorus of voices raked over Lind's mind like he had no defenses at all! A rising horror came to him as his Eyes pierced the mists again and the eyes on the flesh object were looking right at him!

It was alive!

What was that vile thing?! Just what was the eye of the bloodline array?!