The sky had only just begun to lighten, yet the lamps in the alchemy infirmary on Pill Peak had still not been extinguished.
Bai Fengqiu sat in a wooden chair in the corner, wrapped in the outer robe Wen Zhaotang had fetched for her.
After treating more than a dozen patients suffering from severe blood miasma poisoning through the night, her face was deathly pale.
Just then, a hurried set of footsteps sounded outside the infirmary.
A Pill Peak disciple rushed in, his expression grim.
“Elder, another urgent report has come from the settlement at the foot of the mountain.”
Elder Yao Jun had just put away a medicine bottle. At those words, he raised his head.
“More severe cases?”
The disciple shook his head.
“The critically ill patients rescued last night have been stabilized for the time being, but quite a few villagers with milder symptoms have begun developing blood-vein patterns.”
“More troublesome still…”
He paused, then lowered his voice.
“Something abnormal has been discovered in several of the town’s wells.”
“Ordinary people can barely see anything wrong with the naked eye, but once the water is probed with spiritual power, fine red threads can be seen drifting through it.”
The atmosphere in the infirmary, which had only just relaxed, tightened once more.
Elder Yao Jun’s brows drew together.
“This is bad. The blood miasma has contaminated the water.”
Bai Fengqiu lifted her head.
Last night, she had only saved those who were already sick.
But if the water source remained contaminated, the blood miasma would spread again sooner or later.
When that happened, every surviving villager in the temporary settlement below the mountain might be dragged into it.
Elder Yao Jun made his decision swiftly.
“Report this to the Peak Master at once.”
“Prepare detoxifying medicinal stones, well-sealing talismans, and water-purifying formation plates.”
“I’ll go down the mountain personally first.”
After assigning tasks to several disciples, his gaze fell on Bai Fengqiu.
“Fengqiu, the Blood-Drawing Life-Transformation technique you used last night may be able to lend me a hand as well.”
“Are you willing to accompany me down the mountain?”
Wen Zhaotang immediately frowned. “Elder, she’s already overexerted herself last night.”
Elder Yao Jun did not argue.
Of course, he could see that Bai Fengqiu’s qi and blood were now weak and unstable, while her spirit was utterly exhausted. She was in no condition to use any more techniques.
But the situation below the mountain was urgent.
Bai Fengqiu pushed herself up by gripping the back of the chair.
Her body swayed slightly, but she quickly steadied herself.
“I’ll go.”
Wen Zhaotang looked at her. “Fengqiu, you look very pale.”
Bai Fengqiu said quietly, “Senior Sister, I want to take a look.”
Wen Zhaotang gazed at her pale yet stubborn face. In the end, she did not try to dissuade her again. She merely said, “Then I’m coming too.”
Elder Yao Jun glanced at the two of them.
“After this matter is settled, I’ll report both of your contributions to the sect.”
…
The group soon arrived at the temporary settlement below the mountain.
The small town had originally been a mortal settlement at the foot of Pill Peak.
After the beast tide, the sect gradually relocated the nearby survivors there.
As a result, the once fairly spacious town had become unbearably crowded within just a few days.
Every dilapidated house was packed with people who had lost their homes.
Some elderly villagers sat on their thresholds, clutching ancestral tablets to their chests as they stared blankly at the distant mountain ridges.
Some, their bodies wrapped in bandages, were still helping to boil water and brew medicine.
Several children hid behind wooden doors, secretly peeking at the Immortal Masters who had come with the Pill Peak elder.
The moment Bai Fengqiu appeared, many villagers recognized her.
“Immortal Master Bai…”
“It’s Immortal Master Bai, the one who saved people last night.”
A woman tried to kneel while holding on to her doorframe, but those beside her hurriedly helped her up.
The little girl Bai Fengqiu had been the first to save the night before was now leaning against her mother’s arms.
Her face was still pale, and the color had not yet returned to her lips, but she was able to open her eyes.
When she saw Bai Fengqiu, she called out softly, “Thank you, big sister.”
Bai Fengqiu paused.
For a moment, she did not know how to respond to all those gazes.
Gratitude.
Trust.
Hope.
These were things that should have warmed her heart, yet when they settled upon her, they felt like a garment growing heavier with every passing moment.
“Fengqiu.”
Bai Fengqiu came back to herself and forced a nod toward the child.
“Get plenty of rest.”
The little girl obediently nodded.
The mother’s eyes reddened once more.
Elder Yao Jun did not delay. He soon ordered his disciples to draw water from several wells and test it with medicinal stones.
The moment the various toxin-detecting stones were dropped into the water, they rapidly turned black.
A blue stone specially used to identify demonic poison developed a web of fine cracks across its surface.
Strangely, however, the wells in the settlement were not close to one another.
In theory, if only one well had been contaminated by demonic blood, the other wells should not have displayed the same abnormalities.
Bai Fengqiu stood beside one of the wells and looked down at the dark water below.
On the surface, the water merely appeared somewhat murkier than usual.
But when she quietly activated her Myriad Lives Blood Eye, the scene before her abruptly changed.
The well water was no longer ordinary water. Strands of dark-red blood thread wound through its veins like roots.
They were not still.
Instead, they slowly spread along the underground water channels, like countless tiny blood serpents burrowing bit by bit into the entire water system beneath the settlement.
Deep below, there seemed to be a clump of demonic blood miasma that had not yet dispersed. Encased by the water veins, it continued to exhale red threads into the surrounding water.
Bai Fengqiu’s face turned slightly paler.
She closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, the blood threads were still there.
“It isn’t just a problem with the wells.”
Elder Yao Jun looked toward her.
“What do you see?”
Bai Fengqiu forced herself to remain calm.
“There’s something in the water veins.”
“The blood miasma is still spreading outward.”
Elder Yao Jun’s expression darkened.
If only a few wells had been contaminated, sealing them, replacing the water, and relocating the villagers would have solved the problem.
But if the underground water system had been ensnared by the blood miasma, things would be much more troublesome.
They would have to find its source and remove it completely.
Otherwise, this settlement would eventually become uninhabitable.
Even the other water sources at the foot of Pill Peak might be affected.
Elder Yao Jun asked, “Can you find the source?”
Bai Fengqiu lowered her head and followed the direction in which the blood threads flowed through the well.
Deep within her sea of consciousness, the Myriad Lives Blood Eye slowly revolved.
“Follow them.”
Bai Fengqiu drew in a slow breath.
“I can.”
…
Following the path revealed by the blood threads, she led Elder Yao Jun, Wen Zhaotang, and several Pill Peak disciples away from the settlement and into an abandoned canal outside the town.
The canal had once been used to divert mountain springs into the settlement.
Later, the waterway was rebuilt, and the old canal gradually fell into disuse.
Now, moss covered its walls, silt had piled up along its bed, and a faint fishy stench lingered over the surface of the water.
The farther they went, the stronger the stench became.
The disciples each took out a detoxifying pill and held it beneath their tongues.
At the end of the canal lay a dark cavern buried beneath broken stones.
The entrance was extremely low, concealed by weeds and scattered rocks. Without Bai Fengqiu following the trail of blood threads, an ordinary person would have found it nearly impossible to notice.
Elder Yao Jun raised his hand and swept it outward. Spiritual power blasted the stones aside.
The instant the dark cavern was exposed, a wave of foul, overpowering stench rushed out.
Several of the younger disciples paled, nearly vomiting on the spot.
Inside the cavern lay the rotting corpses of several demonic beasts.
The beasts had likely been wounded during the beast tide and fled here, only to die near the water source.
After their corpses decayed, the demonic blood that remained seeped into the underground water system.
Under normal circumstances, the blood of demonic beasts, though filthy, should not have formed such a strange blood miasma.
Yet the demonic blood within these corpses seemed to have been catalyzed by some unknown force.
Instead of dispersing naturally, the blood aura had intertwined and condensed into a dark-red miasma core.
The core was embedded deep within the canal. Half of it sank into the sludge, while the other half remained connected to the underground water system.
Every few breaths, it exhaled a thin red thread that spread outward along the water veins.
Elder Yao Jun’s expression turned exceedingly grim.
“It must be burned at once.”
Several disciples summoned spiritual flames.
But the moment the flames touched the miasma core, the blood miasma churned violently, like a living creature startled awake.
The dark-red fog suddenly swelled.
“Fall back!”
Elder Yao Jun spoke in a low voice.
But one of the disciples was still too slow to dodge, and the red fog brushed across the back of his hand.
In the blink of an eye, a thin blood-red vein appeared beneath his skin.
The disciple cried out in pain.
Elder Yao Jun immediately sent a surge of spiritual power to seal his wrist, then fed him a Meridian-Calming Pill.
For the moment, there was nothing the others could do but retreat.
Standing behind the formation, Bai Fengqiu watched the miasma core squirm incessantly.
Deep within her sea of consciousness, the Myriad Lives Blood Eye slowly revolved.
“Ordinary spiritual flames can’t burn it away.”
“It’s already entwined itself with the water veins.”
Bai Fengqiu asked inwardly, “Then what should we do?”
The Myriad Lives Blood Eye answered in an eerily calm voice.
“Draw it out.”
At that moment, Elder Yao Jun spoke as well.
“This thing has entangled itself with the water veins. We can’t burn it by force.”
“We need to use a medicinal formation to sever the water veins, then slowly refine the miasma core.”
One of the disciples asked, “How long will that take?”
Elder Yao Jun replied solemnly, “At least several days.”
Several days.
During those days, the blood miasma would continue to spread.
Even if the well was temporarily sealed, there was no guarantee the contamination could be completely isolated from the water veins.
She said softly, “I can try.”
Everyone turned to look at her.
Elder Yao Jun frowned.
“How do you intend to try?”
Bai Fengqiu’s fingers curled slightly.
“My Blood-Drawn Life Transformation can draw the blood miasma out of the water veins, then seal it inside an alchemy furnace.”
Elder Yao Jun did not agree immediately.
“The risk is extremely high.”
“If you fail, the blood miasma will turn on you.”
Wen Zhaotang was the first to object.
“Fengqiu, you already exhausted yourself last night.”
Bai Fengqiu looked at her, her voice soft.
“Sister, I don’t want to wait until someone dies before regretting that I didn’t do anything.”
Wen Zhaotang’s throat tightened.
The words of protest she had been about to utter suddenly became impossible to say.
Elder Yao Jun fell silent for a moment before finally making his decision.
“I will personally oversee the formation.”
“If anything goes wrong, I will protect you at once.”
He took out several formation flags and set up a protective formation.
Then he used his own alchemical fire to suppress the area around the water channel, preventing the blood miasma from leaking out.
Bai Fengqiu stood at the center of the formation and took out her alchemy furnace.
Deep within her sea of consciousness, the Myriad Lives Blood Eye whispered:
“The miasma core has demonic blood as its root. Ordinary medicinal lures won’t be able to attract it.”
“To draw it out, you must use blood vitality that is even fresher.”
Bai Fengqiu understood what it meant.
Without looking at anyone, she raised her hand and sliced open her own palm.
Blood dripped into the alchemy furnace.
One drop.
Two drops.
Three drops.
A faint blood-colored radiance spread along the formation lines. In the dark, damp abandoned channel, it seemed to light a solitary lamp.
The next moment, the dark-red miasma core deep within the water veins began to writhe.
Countless strands of blood tore free from the muddy water and surged madly toward the furnace.
To the others, it looked only like red fog roiling violently.
But in Bai Fengqiu’s eyes, those strands of blood resembled countless open mouths, all trying to follow her blood into her body.
She clenched her teeth and forcibly circulated the Blood Refining Life-Transmutation Art.
The blood miasma crashed into the alchemy furnace, then rebounded along the formation lines and rushed into her meridians.
Bai Fengqiu’s face quickly turned pale, and a trace of blood seeped from the corner of her lips.
Wen Zhaotang instinctively took a step forward, but Elder Yao Jun raised a hand to stop her.
“She can’t be interrupted now.”
Wen Zhaotang’s eyes reddened, but all she could do was clench her fists tightly.
The alchemy furnace shook more and more violently.
Dark-red marks surfaced across its walls, as if something inside were slamming against them in a frenzy.
Bai Fengqiu formed hand seals.
Her fingers trembled violently. Several times, she nearly broke the sequence of the technique, yet each time she forcibly continued.
“Suppress.”
Bai Fengqiu’s voice was hoarse.
The alchemy furnace shook with a thunderous boom.
In that instant, all the strands of blood were forcibly drawn inside.
The red fog surging through the water channel abruptly contracted.
The stench of blood quickly faded.
The water that had originally shimmered with a dark-red hue gradually returned to its former murky gray-black.
Elder Yao Jun immediately raised his hand. His alchemical fire transformed into a ring of flames that sealed the furnace firmly.
A long while passed.
At last, the tremors inside the furnace ceased.
Bai Fengqiu staggered half a step and nearly fell to her knees.
Wen Zhaotang hurried forward and caught her.
Only after Elder Yao Jun confirmed that the blood miasma was no longer leaking out did he slowly open the furnace.
There were no pills inside.
Only a black-red blood pearl the size of a knuckle.
It was the remnant core formed from the blood miasma compressed out of the entire water vein.
Bai Fengqiu spoke with difficulty.
“Elder, seal it away.”
“This thing cannot remain inside the town.”
Elder Yao Jun immediately took out a jade box and used spiritual fire and sealing runes to lock the blood pearl inside layer by layer.
After finishing, he looked at Bai Fengqiu.
His gaze held more than mere admiration now.
If he had not witnessed it with his own eyes, he would have found it difficult to believe that a young disciple who had only recently entered the sect could extract the blood miasma from the water veins in such a manner.
This was no ordinary alchemical technique. It did not even resemble conventional healing arts.
Rather, it seemed like an ancient esoteric art that existed somewhere between alchemy, medicine, blood, and formations.
Bai Fengqiu forced herself to remain standing.
She still wanted to say something.
But before she could speak, her vision suddenly went black.
“Fengqiu!”
Wen Zhaotang caught her in her arms.
Leaning against her, Bai Fengqiu managed a faint smile.
“Sister…”
Wen Zhaotang’s eyes immediately reddened.
“Don’t speak anymore.”
Bai Fengqiu wanted to nod.
But she no longer had the strength.
The next moment, she lost consciousness completely.
…
After returning to Pill Peak, Bai Fengqiu was once again carried into a quiet healing chamber.
Elder Yao Jun personally examined her body. After confirming that she had merely suffered excessive depletion of qi and blood, with no sign of the blood miasma entering her body, he finally allowed himself a little relief.
Wen Zhaotang remained at her bedside.
She looked at Bai Fengqiu, who lay unconscious, her expression complicated and filled with heartache.
“Fengqiu.”
“What inheritance did you receive?”
Bai Fengqiu did not answer.
She remained submerged in unconsciousness, her brows faintly furrowed, as though she were still struggling with something in her dreams.
Elder Yao Jun stood to one side and placed the sealed black-red blood pearl in a separate containment box.
This strange art was simply too unusual.
He decided to consult the Tianyuan Sect’s records later and search for any similar arcane texts.
The quiet chamber fell silent once more.
Meanwhile, deep within Bai Fengqiu’s sea of consciousness, the Myriad Lives Blood Eye hovered silently in the darkness.
It had indeed violated none of the rules Bai Fengqiu had established.
To save others, Bai Fengqiu had willingly used her own blood as bait.
She had willingly circulated the Blood Refining Life-Transmutation Art.
She had willingly drawn the blood miasma into the alchemy furnace.
She had not cultivated it.
Yet she had already grown intimately familiar with the Way of Blood.
She had not killed anyone.
Yet she had already begun relying more and more on this power.
The dark-red eye slowly revolved.
After a long while, the Myriad Lives Blood Eye let out a low laugh.
“You see?”
“The world only watches flowers bloom on the shore. Who would care what lies buried beneath the water?”
“Now that the lamp has been lit—
“no one will bother asking whether the oil feeding its flame is clean oil…”
“or blood.”
