novelraw Chapter 110 : Royal Blood
Chapter 110 : Royal Blood
Chapter 110: Royal Blood
When the Nether Lord woke once more, the forest was so quiet it felt suffocating.
The rain had already stopped, and only the droplets left on the leaves occasionally dripped down, finally landing on the soil with ticking sounds.
The coarse cloth garments on the girl’s body still carried traces of dampness, clinging tightly to her skin, bringing a biting chill.
The red fox let out two low whimpers, gently pressing its fluffy paw against the girl’s fair arm.
“Calm down.”
The girl opened her eyes. Last night the red fox had guarded her the entire night; just as Granny Long had said, that group of marauders saw that she was not of the human race and directly ignored her.
She did not rise immediately. Instead, she wrapped her arms around her knees, sitting in the muddy ground, curling herself into a tight ball, lacking any sense of security.
Memories surged like a tide, then receded.
The girl’s voice was hoarse and low: “I am very calm.”
After a long moment, she finally stood up. The hem of her skirt was soaked with mud, hanging down heavily.
This forest was already in a state of complete ruin. The bloodstains left from last night had been washed away cleanly by the torrential downpour, as if nothing had ever happened.
The sun rose once again, its warm light filtering through the layered branches and leaves, falling upon the girl’s face. But the girl did not feel the slightest warmth. She tilted her head back, staring blankly at the sky, her emotions completely withdrawn.
“You tell me, what did Granny Long and the others do wrong?”
Her voice was as light as a feather.
The red fox’s tail lightly swept across the ground, its large tail also stained with mud: “No one did anything wrong, they were just too weak.”
Yes.
Just too weak.
The girl slowly walked out from behind the large boulder. She thought of the newborn babies in the tribe, and she thought of the glowing flower cakes Granny Long had kneaded for her not long ago.
Using the faint-glow grass harvested in the early morning, mixed with flour and special petals, patted into shape, and cooked over fire.
The process was simple, yet the taste carried a refreshing scent of plants.
She would likely never eat it again.
Returning once more to the site of yesterday’s gathering, she found that it had already been completely plundered, with nothing left behind.
The girl walked to where the bone-selling stall had been. She suddenly crouched down and searched through the soil with her fair fingers; the gaps beneath her fingernails quickly filled with black mud.
After a long while, her fingertips brushed against a familiar texture — it was the black skirt she had bought yesterday. In her hurried departure, the skirt had been left on the ground.
And because it had been stained dirty by the mud, the Spirit Clan had not bothered to take this unremarkable garment.
The girl dug the skirt out of the mud, holding it tightly in her arms. The mud upon it stained her fair skin a greyish black.
She stared at the now-empty platform, as if she could still hear Granny Long’s voice.
The red fox rubbed its tail gently against her leg and said, “Let’s go.”
The firestone in her arms was still giving off heat, a faint warmth seeping through the cloth.
The girl came back to her senses. She told herself that the first thing she needed to do was return the firestone to the tribe.
This winter would be cold, and the people of the tribe were still waiting for the firestone to keep warm.
The red fox spoke softly: “You’re bleeding.”
She did not know when it had happened, but her fists were clenched tightly, and she had bitten her own lip. Fresh red blood flowed from the thin, cold lips; the metallic taste filled her mouth, bringing a dizzying shock.
A jumble of emotions surged up all at once.
But all these emotions were forcibly suppressed by the Nether Lord.
The Nether Lord parted her lips with difficulty. She said, “We are returning to the tribe. The people of the tribe… are still waiting for the firestone. This winter… will be very cold, very long.”
The winters of the human race had always been cold and long.
Larks circled and cried high in the sky, their crisp songs clear and pleasant, as if praising the rainbow after the rain.
Before long—
A massive lake appeared before the Nether Lord.
The red fox leapt into the lake: “Wash up.”
The Nether Lord nodded, stepping into the lake one step at a time. She gently washed her skirt, then sank her old clothing beneath the water and changed into the new skirt now soaked through.
“Granny once told me, as long as someone still remembers the dead, then the dead never truly die. So the living must carry the share of the dead and live on together.”
The human race was the race most determined to survive.
The girl seemed to sense something. She abruptly turned her head and extended her hand.
A ghostly blue flame suddenly spread around her.
A streak of blue light came from afar, leaping directly into her palm.
A faint voice echoed: “I hope Ming can grow up well. A child without parents must always grow up early.”
The girl said in disbelief, “Granny Long?”
This fragment of thought was Granny Long’s final remnant will, drawn to her because of her Spirit Clan identity, arriving in her hand.
“Granny…”
The girl could no longer hold back her emotions.
She knelt on the lakeshore and cried aloud.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dawn was about to arrive.
From the distance, a faint crack of light appeared, and the heavy night was gradually pushed away by the sunlight.
The Nether Lord dragged Lu Changyuan up to the crown of the World Tree.
Below, members of the Spirit Clan were already gathering in scattered clusters, while the Nether Lord used Lu Changyuan as a pillow, resting with her eyes closed.
“Weren’t you going to take over the entire Spirit Clan? Wake up, it’s time to get up.”
Lu Changyuan clearly saw the girl’s brows tightly furrowed as she clung stubbornly to his clothes.
He sighed and sat at the edge of the tree crown. From here, he could see the clouds at the horizon, and he could overlook the ancient beings below. Just like now, he could see faint red light in the far distance.
He did not know what that light was.
In ancient times, the Spirit Clan had also been a very powerful race; otherwise, they could not have occupied the World Tree.
How tall this tree truly was could not be known, for it was still growing—
Growing more and more like the Jianmu of the human legends.
“In the future, I’ll bring the human race up the tree to live.”
The girl opened her eyes at some unknown moment and suddenly spoke: “The Spirit Clan can’t fill the tree anyway.”
Lu Changyuan only smiled and said nothing.
The Nether Lord had been raised by the human race and naturally held feelings for them.
“The Spirit Clan outside has already filled the ground kneeling. Won’t you go see them?”
The girl turned over, her little face pressing against Lu Changyuan’s abdomen, then scooted inward.
Her back faced the kneeling Spirit Clan below.
She said, “Not seeing them.”
A person’s sense of belonging to a race came from the people they knew and the memories of the past.
But the Nether Lord’s feelings for the Spirit Clan—and the people to whom those feelings had been tied—had all vanished into the sparks of that night.
Whenever the Nether Lord closed her eyes, she saw the night from many years ago, when the royal clan was hunted down, the sky filled with fire, and the cries of agony unending.
“How long until the honorific title descends?”
The Nether Lord said softly, “I don’t know, but it will definitely be soon.”
Lu Changyuan was actually very interested in how people entered Jade Radiance in ancient times.
What exactly were the honorific titles bestowed by the Heavenly Dao?
How did the human race, as the weakest race, become the masters of the world step by step? These were questions Lu Changyuan wanted to know.
Lu Changyuan suddenly said, “They have already been kneeling for several days.”
“Mm.”
The girl only let out a soft “mm.”
The Sun-Moon Sundial hung in the sky.
A thick fog rose once more.
Below the crown of the tree, the Spirit Clan knelt before the tree, heads bowed, like mortals come to confess their sins.
Bang!
At first it was a very faint sound, as if something had burst open, then came a chain of consecutive noises.
Lu Changyuan froze for a moment and looked to the distance. The few streaks of red light he had seen earlier suddenly exploded, and then something began drifting from afar toward the World Tree.
“Those are the Spirit Clan members who tried to escape?”
“Mm.”
After all, Chi and Lan still had some followers. Those Spirit Clan who did not believe in curses thought that staying far away would spare them.
They had underestimated the Nether Lord’s arts.
No matter how far they fled, they could only turn into clusters of blooming Blossoms of the Other Shore.
Lu Changyuan silently stroked the Nether Lord’s hair.
But his heart felt increasingly uneasy.
For in that instant earlier, he had seemed to sense fluctuations of Jade Radiance from the Nether Lord.
“Something is coming here.”
The Nether Lord rose. Her tall figure stood on the crown of the tree as she gazed into the distance: “Someone is coming.”
The thick fog that spread around her suddenly became tinged with blood, the Nether Lord’s fog transforming into a viscous swamp of blood.
Something was devouring the Nether Lord’s arts in reverse.
Lu Changyuan raised Severed Thought.
This scene was somewhat familiar.
Back when he had just left the mountain village, when he carried Qiu Yuehan and was pursued by two from the Blood Demon Palace, the same kind of viscous blood mist had appeared.
Yes.
He had not even had time to eat that pot of boiled noodles with clear broth.
Nor the pickled radish.
【The Blood Demon is about to emerge】
Blood Demon Palace and the Blood Demon?
Lu Changyuan snapped back to his senses. This was not the time to think about such things, because the girl beside him seemed abnormal.
“What’s wrong with you?”
On the girl’s fair skin appeared countless red marks, as if her blood were about to burst through her skin.
“The royal blood is boiling.”
A sound like some kind of wriggling maggot came from beneath the World Tree.
It was a sound that brought instinctive disgust.
Lu Changyuan frowned: “Are you alright?”
The Nether Lord shook her head: “It shouldn’t be too big of a problem. Chi and Lan seem to have helpers.”
“They didn’t die?”
“Mm.”
Only now did Lu Changyuan learn that the Nether Lord already knew Chi and Lan had not died.
“I didn’t sense their final remnant will. They escaped using a method I don’t know, but sooner or later, they will come looking for me again.”
Chi and Lan had schemed after the Heavenly Dao’s honorific title for so many years; they definitely would not give up easily.
Lu Changyuan said helplessly, “Well, now they’ve really returned, and they brought quite a lot of help.”
From where the two of them sat, it was easy to see that numerous clans were approaching the World Tree.
The Nether Lord shook her head, her black hair swaying gently: “It doesn’t matter how many come. You just wait here for me. I’m going to kill all of them.”
The girl’s voice was icy, yet because she was speaking to Lu Changyuan, the tone was excessively gentle.
Lu Changyuan nodded.
He looked up. Chi and Lan were already standing in the sky, staring coldly at the Nether Lord, provocation heavy in their gaze.
The thick mist rose again.
Lu Changyuan slowly stood.
“What? Do you think I’m easy to bully?”
As the words fell—
A streak of red appeared behind Lu Changyuan. It was a blood figure that was difficult to describe, its entire form emitting a dense stench of blood.
The blood figure screeched, letting out a cry like an eagle’s scream, painfully sharp. Drops of crimson blood fell, transforming into lively blood worms that crawled toward Lu Changyuan.
Lu Changyuan finally saw the blood figure clearly. It had no face, only countless tiny mouths—the face was formed from innumerable blood worms. Its entire body lacked human skin texture; instead, it was composed of densely packed blood worms forming a wriggling surface.
“What a disgusting thing.”
Lu Changyuan raised Severed Thought: “Even more disgusting than those who cultivate Blood Dao.”
His wrist sank slightly as Severed Thought released a swift arc of sword light. The blood worms in the front row burst upon contact with the sword aura, turning into foul blood mist.
However, more blood worms surged forth, stepping over the corpses of their kind as they pressed in.
They quickly changed shape, becoming an indescribable cloud of blood.
Unable to kill them?
Lu Changyuan frowned. But before he could react further, something came from behind.
Boom!
It was a giant, eyeless worm. It lunged from the mist, and Lu Changyuan reacted instantly, stabbing Severed Thought toward its belly. The worm was extremely fast; the wound opened by Severed Thought instantly tore wider. Green, foul-smelling corrosive mucus dripped down, with one or two drops falling onto the back of Lu Changyuan’s hand.
Sizzle, sizzle.
The acidic mucus corroded flesh. Lu Changyuan shook it off expressionlessly as sharp sword aura rose again.
But what puzzled him was that both the blood cloud and the worm froze in place, unmoving.
What was happening?
Stopping halfway through the fight?
【They are shocked that you haven’t disappeared】
Was I supposed to disappear?
Lu Changyuan found it strange.
Because he did not know what exactly the Blood Demon was, he naturally did not know that the Blood Demon restrained the royal clan’s guardian spirits.
The Blood Clan condensed the Blood Demon through the power of the entire clan; it could sever the link of a contract.
The guardian spirits summoned by the royal clan were, in essence, new lives transformed from the royal clan’s own blood, naturally carrying a blood contract.
As long as the Blood Demon touched even a drop of the guardian spirit’s blood, the contract would instantly be destroyed. Once the blood contract was broken, the guardian spirit would immediately disappear, and the royal clan would suffer backlash. This was the true reason Chi and Lan sought out the Blood Demon to deal with the Nether Lord.
Lu Changyuan did not disappear because he had never been a new life created from the Nether Lord’s blood. Instead, he had been forcibly pulled here by her through connection.
He was not a spirit—he was a physical entity. The Nether Lord had not placed a blood contract on him; she had only used a symbol named Feather to strengthen their connection.
Naturally, the Blood Demon could not affect him.
The blood worms quickly regained their senses and lunged at Lu Changyuan again.
Pure Yang!
A sword brilliance as scorching as the sun fell, flattening the blood figure and the worm alike.
“What on earth is this?”
Lu Changyuan frowned and picked up a fallen blood worm. The Five Desires and Six Dusts Mind-Transforming Technique circulated, and in an instant, the blood worm shriveled into dry skin.
“The technique is improving?!”
Lu Changyuan’s earlier action could be understood as having eaten this worm—meaning he had eaten a part of the Blood Demon.
And the result was—
The Five Desires and Six Dusts Mind-Transforming Technique progressed, even if only slightly, but progress nonetheless.
This technique, born from the Supreme Pure-Spirit Forget-Immortal Technique and half of the Desire Demon’s body, was something even its creator Lu Changyuan did not truly understand how to further improve.
To think that by mere accident, eating a part of the Blood Demon allowed him to find a path forward.
Lu Changyuan narrowed his eyes.
If he ate the entire Blood Demon… could he step into the Fifth Realm?
He temporarily suppressed this dangerous thought.
He heard a disdainful shout from afar: “Ming, did you really think Lan and I died just like that?”
The girl stood in the air, her immortal bearing unmatched. She said faintly, “I don’t care. Even if you hadn’t died, you would have come back just to die again.”
The Sun-Moon Sundial appeared once more.
Chi and Lan charged forward.
Soon, the two exalted ones roared furiously: “Impossible! Why are you unaffected?!”
Lu Changyuan folded his arms, watching the show from atop the World Tree.
These two exalted ones had planned to let the Blood Demon cause backlash to the Nether Lord, then seize the chance to kill her.
But because the Nether Lord was unaffected, they had walked into their own trap.
“What are you… waiting for?” The girl’s lips curved lightly: “Waiting to die?”
With Chi and Lan wearing identical expressions of disbelief, the Nether Lord silently appeared behind them, pressing down on their heads.
Bang!
Flesh and blood splattered wildly.
Chi said incredulously, “Why are you unaffected?”
The Nether Lord bent down and kicked the two of them from above, sending them crashing straight down.
She seemed to prefer the kind of method where flesh met flesh and the enemy was beaten to death with sheer force.
Chi’s figure flickered, his form unstable. He roared, “Are you even doing anything?! You haven’t killed her guardian spirit yet?! Don’t you want the royal blood?!”
The Nether Lord and Lu Changyuan both turned to the black-robed Blood Demon forming from the shadows.
Barely Sixth Realm?
A Sixth Realm Blood Demon coming to fight the Nether Lord? Was it not afraid she would kick it around like a ball?
The Blood Demon wriggled closer, its hoarse cry like some kind of curse, stirring revulsion in the heart.
A chill rose inexplicably in the Nether Lord’s chest.
The fog scattered.
A blood-constructed great domain quickly filled the surroundings. Surging rivers of blood roared forward with the Blood Demon’s rasping cries.
And within those rivers of blood, one figure after another slowly crawled upward.
The Nether Lord’s pupils shrank sharply.
Those figures were royal clan members—dead royal clan—her own kin.
“Chi… Lan! You actually allowed it to devour our clansmen back then!?”
A sword formed in the Nether Lord’s hand. It descended abruptly, gray-black sword aura seeming enough to cleave Chi and Lan in half.
But the sword light was intercepted mid-air.
A terrible premonition flooded the Nether Lord’s heart.
She possessed an unusual sensitivity toward death. And at this moment, she actually sensed death—and that death belonged to herself.
The blood rivers spread, dragging the Spirit Clan below into them. Those ordinary Spirit Clan members struggled and screamed in the rivers of blood, but were ultimately submerged and killed.
Crack—
The Nether Lord heard a sound.
She looked down.
Her body was beginning to collapse.
Why?
There was no time to think. She flashed in front of Lu Changyuan: “Go!”
Boom!
Her body burst into a brilliant curtain of blood. The blood of the royal clan backlashed against its own master at that moment.
Lu Changyuan reacted instantly.
The Five Desires and Six Dusts Mind-Transforming Technique circulated as he placed a hand on the Nether Lord’s shoulder.
“Don’t move. I’ll stabilize your injuries and calm your blood.”
Blood overflowed from the girl’s lips, sliding down her cheek.
She struggled to lift her sword, slashing open the netherworld and space itself. Filled with the Nether Lord’s arts, the sword light surged like the reversed floodwaters of the Nether River, chopping the Blood Demon, Chi, and Lan into fragments.
Even in her unstable state, this strike was terrifying.
But it could not kill the Blood Demon. Those shattered worms reassembled, wriggling, and were about to form a new Blood Demon.
Lu Changyuan suddenly realized something.
If the Blood Demon’s ability was to control blood and sever connections, and it had already eaten all the royal clan except the Nether Lord, then using the blood of the other royal clan to reverse-curse the Nether Lord—causing her royal blood to boil and even attack its master—what would happen?
With her last bit of strength, the girl said, “Go to Mount Long.”
Chi and Lan had never expected the Blood Demon to possess such an ability. They had thought its threat to kill the Nether Lord was just a joke.
Bearing the royal clan’s blood, the Nether Lord was the final missing piece in the Blood Demon’s cultivation. If it could not devour the Nether Lord, then even if it obtained the honorific title, its Dao would remain incomplete.