novelraw Chapter 951: Creepier Than The Blood Sect
Chapter 951: Creepier Than The Blood Sect
Most people in the village were mortals.
Weak.
Ordinary.
Though Han Yu noticed something odd.
Their clothing differed.
Some wore tropical fabrics.
Others wore thick northern garments.
A few styles resembled settlements he had passed during his journey.
They did not seem native to one place.
As if people had come from many regions.
Han Yu frowned.
Among them existed cultivators too.
Qi Refining realm.
Some at late stage.
Nothing stronger.
None reached Core Condensation.
Then... He felt it.
One presence that was far stronger, Peak Nascent Soul realm.
Perhaps even half step into Dao Shell.
Han Yu narrowed his eyes.
"That person."
He immediately took precautions.
An illusory talisman activated.
His figure vanished.
Then he touched the spirit bracelet around his wrist. Its concealment formation activated and suppressed his aura and Qi fluctuations. Only after that did he move. He did not know if these villagers could detect outsiders.
He did not know if that hidden cultivator possessed strange abilities.
Carelessness here would be foolish.
Han Yu walked through the village slowly. The people ignored him entirely. A woman carrying water laughed softly while staring into empty space. A young boy ran circles around a tree while giggling endlessly.
Two old men sat beneath a roof and smiled at each other without speaking.
The silence beneath the laughter made everything worse.
Han Yu inspected the buildings.
They looked ancient.
Stone foundations had cracked.
Wood showed signs of weathering.
Moss covered walls.
Many structures appeared centuries old.
What caught his attention though were the murals.
They repeated everywhere.
Walls.
Pillars.
Door frames.
Even wells.
Most had faded with time.
Yet one design remained repeated constantly.
Han Yu stopped before another carving.
It depicted a strange creature.
Its body resembled a bat.
Large wings.
Thin limbs.
Yet its head...
Its head was human.
Sharp fangs extended from its mouth.
Its expression resembled laughter.
Han Yu stared longer.
He had never seen such a beast.
Not in sect records.
Not in inheritance memories.
Not anywhere.
The image repeated again and again throughout the village.
Clearly it held significance.
"A local deity?" Han Yu wondered.
He moved on.
The houses revealed little.
No food.
No grain.
No kitchens in use.
No signs of cooking.
No preserved supplies.
Nothing.
Han Yu found that deeply strange.
There were over three hundred people here.
Children included.
Yet they had no visible source of food.
The villagers simply wandered endlessly while laughing.
He watched a child enter a house.
The child sat down.
Then laughed alone for ten minutes.
Before leaving again.
Han Yu felt increasingly disturbed.
Finally after exploring most of the settlement he reached the largest structure in the village.
It stood near the center.
A temple.
Or what remained of one.
Its upper section had collapsed.
Walls lay broken.
Vines crawled across cracked stone.
The same bat headed creature appeared repeatedly along the entrance.
Han Yu entered.
Inside lay ruins.
Broken pillars.
Collapsed ceilings.
Faded murals.
He searched carefully.
The upper levels held nothing.
Then he saw it.
A staircase.
It descended underground.
Han Yu approached.
Cold air drifted upward.
The stone steps disappeared into darkness.
He followed.
The stairs extended surprisingly deep.
Dozens of meters.
The temperature gradually dropped.
The walls changed too.
The stone became darker.
Smoother.
Almost polished.
Ancient symbols appeared carved into them.
The same bat headed figure repeated.
Though now...
The smiles looked wider.
Han Yu continued.
Finally he reached the bottom.
The staircase opened into a vast underground chamber.
Han Yu stopped immediately.
His eyes narrowed.
The chamber was enormous.
Hundreds of candles burned across the walls.
And at the center...
A massive ritual circle covered the floor and around it stood frozen corpses.
Dozens.
No.
Hundreds.
All smiling.
Han Yu silently observed the underground ritual hall.
The place felt ancient.
The candles burning along the walls gave off pale blue flames that did not sway despite the cold wind drifting through the chamber. Frost covered parts of the floor and the air itself felt heavy.
He slowly inspected the ritual circle again.
It matched Palm Hand Lu’s records exactly.
The same structure. The same smiling faces carved into the outer ring. The same unnatural pathways. And judging from the lingering energy fluctuations, the ritual had not happened long ago.
Han Yu could still feel traces of Frost Qi drifting through the chamber.
It had happened recently.
Very recently.
Yet something still bothered him.
Han Yu looked around again.
No water.
No spring.
No stream.
Nothing.
The place was called Smiling Spring.
Yet from entering the village until now, he had not seen anything remotely matching that name.
No spring outside.
No underground river.
Nothing within this temple either.
"Then why call it that..." Han Yu muttered inwardly.
His thoughts stopped abruptly.
The stronger Qi signature moved.
Han Yu immediately hid.
He slipped into a shadowed alcove formed by collapsed pillars and concealed himself completely.
The figure entered the chamber.
The cloaked person moved slowly toward the center.
Then...
They removed the outer robes.
Han Yu narrowed his eyes.
A moment later surprise appeared on his face.
"It is not Madam Cold Fang?"
The person standing there was clearly male.
That alone surprised him.
But that was not the shocking part.
The man possessed strange ears.
They resembled bat ears and rose from the sides of his head sharply. Two elongated fangs protruded from his mouth while his nails had grown dark and claw like. His appearance remained mostly human.
Yet these features made him distinctly different.
Han Yu immediately thought of one thing.
"Beastkin..."
The term surfaced naturally.
He knew of them.
The race was ancient.
Part human.
Part beast.
A complicated lineage that once spread throughout the Violet Eve World. By the current age they were believed extinct on the Central Continent. Though the Blood Continent still possessed some remnants.
Han Yu had seen records.
The Slaughtered Moon Divine Blood Sect had captured them long ago.
Experiments.
Bloodline research.
Pleasure slaves.
Breeding stock.
Their existence survived only because the sect found value in them.