Duan Rong tightly held the man, who surprisingly was not completely dead yet. His head drooped, breathing as faint as a thread.

The intense odor of blood stirred the mucous membranes inside Duan Rong’s nose...

At the moment when the scent of blood spread, an unexpected longing arose in Duan Rong’s heart.

Duan Rong was startled by his own reaction, suddenly realizing that Filthy Blood Divine Skill had been activated within him due to the stimulation of the bloody scent.

The longing that surfaced in his heart came from Filthy Blood Divine Skill’s craving for blood energy.

Duan Rong had devoured the Artifact Spirit of the Bloodstained Copper Awl in Wei Yutian’s Secret Chamber Mandala, thereby attaining the second level of Filthy Blood Divine Skill.

Duan Rong initially thought he was merely understanding this evil technique, without intending to cultivate it, but Filthy Blood Divine Skill wasn’t ordinary martial arts; it didn’t rely on the diligent accumulation of inner strength, but rather focused on blood refining!

After absorbing the second level of Filthy Blood Divine Skill, faced with the fresh blood energy in the atmosphere, it involuntarily reacted within Duan Rong’s body.

Duan Rong hadn’t expected Filthy Blood Divine Skill to be like some parasitic creature within his body.

A hint of interest flickered in Duan Rong’s eyes. With merely a thought, dense threads of blood, like writhing leeches, emerged from the gaps in his fingernails, crawling swiftly along the torn neck of the man he held, rapidly spreading at a visible speed...

The man’s neck instantly shriveled, followed by his head and shoulders, spreading downward until his entire body, as if afflicted by some disease, became a desiccated corpse within moments!

Suddenly, at the point where Duan Rong had already broken the man’s neck, there was a cracking sound as it completely snapped, and a shriveled head rolled to Duan Rong’s feet.

The desiccated body simultaneously slipped from Duan Rong’s grasp, falling quietly to the ground, producing even less sound than the head that had dropped earlier. The cranium still contained some brain matter, after all.

Duan Rong’s left hand, used to crush the man’s neck, now hovered in mid-air, surrounded by writhing blood threads that were vivid and exuberant after drinking fresh blood...

Duan Rong gazing at the writhing, floating blood threads, felt a surge of disgust and nausea!

With a mere thought, the blood threads slithered like snakes going into hiding, retreating back into his body along the gaps in his fingers.

The earlier feeling of nausea now intensified to an unbearable level for Duan Rong, because the source of the nausea was within his own body.

In this instant, Duan Rong resolved, no matter the cost, he must find a way to completely eradicate Filthy Blood Divine Skill from within him.

Subsequently, Duan Rong introspected for a moment, finding no anomalies inside. Once Filthy Blood Divine Skill quieted down, the blood threads vanished within him as if they never existed.

"This martial art is damnably malevolent!"

Duan Rong had always been cautious towards strange things. Especially with this evil technique, after being absorbed, it could spontaneously activate under certain conditions, akin to being tainted by some ominous entity.

It seemed his act of devouring the Artifact Spirit of the Bloodstained Copper Awl while patting Xiao Yu’s shoulder in Wei Yutian’s Secret Chamber Mandala was rather reckless. Yet he hadn’t anticipated the martial art would be so malevolent!

However, the matter couldn’t be resolved immediately, so Duan Rong had to suppress it for now and later meticulously study ways to remove Filthy Blood Divine Skill from his body.

Duan Rong looked at the two unconscious people and a desiccated corpse on the ground, his gaze shifted to the window emitting a dim yellow light beside him. He suddenly drew the Cow Tail Saber, using Divine Sense Penetration, carefully lifted the inner latch of the window with the tip of the blade. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Returning the blade to its sheath, Duan Rong leaped like a bird through the window, landing lightly inside the bedroom.

At this time, the seductive fragrance originally pervasive in the bedroom had diminished slightly. Duan Rong approached the bed, lifted the hanging curtains, and gazed intently.

He saw Liu Eying lying under a quilt on the bed, still wearing mourning attire, tears streaked her face. Duan Rong sat beside the bed, checked Liu Eying’s pulse, and confirmed that the seductive fragrance merely induced slumber and posed no harm to her health.

Looking at Liu Eying, Duan Rong said faintly: "Sleeping like this is fine, the seductive fragrance allows for a deeper sleep."

If Liu Eying were to awaken now, she would surely think she was dreaming because Sun Huang had returned and was watching her.

Duan Rong stood up, lowered the curtains, then suddenly leapt out of the opened window!

Standing outside, Duan Rong resecured the window.

Gazing at the desiccated corpse by his feet, Duan Rong suddenly drew the Cow Tail Saber, infused with inner breath, and chopped the corpse into several sections, placing them inside the clay pot where he previously hid, finally stuffing the shriveled head inside as well.

After completing these tasks, Duan Rong scanned with divine sense, fetched a hemp rope from the utility room beside the kitchen, bound the two unconscious people together like piled sticks, wrapping them securely with the rope.

Duan Rong then lifted the bundle like a stack of corn stalks, single-handedly grabbing the rope and carried the two on his back, picking up the clay pot full of corpse fragments, tapping his toes, imbuing with inner breath, simultaneously performing minor success realm Cloud Serpent Step, and vaulted over the wall, vanishing into the vast night.