Blood Demon Sect?

Du Caiyue was utterly astonished when she saw the blood-red eyes of those black-clad attackers surrounding Chen Ming.

It was like hitting upon one’s objective without effort.

For months, the entire Six Gates of Qingfeng City had been searching for members of the Blood Demon Sect, but to no avail. Unexpectedly, these people revealed themselves right before her.

A great achievement had landed directly in her hands.

However, Du Caiyue didn’t rush to attack but instead observed patiently.

Blood-red eyes indicated that these were just "Blood Slaves," lacking much rationality. The one controlling these Blood Slaves was the true disciple of the Blood Demon Sect, who was still hiding in the shadows.

Anyway, the Blood Slaves mentioned capturing alive, so Chen Ming was not in mortal danger.

It wouldn’t hurt to let him suffer a bit.

Du Caiyue concealed her presence while observing every potential hiding spot around.

After a moment, she suddenly sensed something was amiss.

The eight fearless Blood Slaves attacked simultaneously, yet they had not been able to capture Chen Ming. Instead, he managed to take down several of them.

In the span of a few breaths, four Blood Slaves were already felled, and Chen Ming had only sustained a few injuries. Though they looked severe, they were merely superficial wounds.

As the battle continued, he grew more valiant, beheading one more Blood Slave, drenched in blood, resembling a god of war.

This—

Du Caiyue was dumbfounded, nearly dropping her jaw in shock, "How is this... possible?"

Blood Slaves were not easy to deal with. Though they lacked intelligence, they were fearless. Most troubling was their Blood Demon True Qi, filthy as it was, akin to a Poison Technique. Once invaded, the meridians would be extremely difficult to expel.

Chen Ming had advanced to the Sixth Grade merely a few months ago, yet he managed to kill five Blood Slaves amid an onslaught from eight Sixth Grade Blood Slaves.

If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn’t have believed it.

When Chen Ming executed another sword technique, Du Caiyue’s eyes narrowed slightly, as this sword strike seemed to cover the vital points of three Blood Slaves at once.

The precision and depth of the Swordsmanship were astonishing.

Three flashes of blood light streaked by.

The last three Blood Slaves were simultaneously struck by the sword, with three gaping wounds each, collapsing with a thud.

"It’s the Pure Yang Technique!"

A bolt of realization struck Du Caiyue’s mind, "Could it be—"

A name flashed across her thoughts.

Fiery Sun Divine Skill!

So that’s why...

No wonder...

"What a superb Swordsmanship!"

Suddenly, a voice of admiration rang out, followed by wild laughter, "Hahaha... From now on, it’s mine!"

Got you!

A glint of coldness flashed in Du Caiyue’s eyes as she finally pinpointed the foe’s location. With a boom, the carriage shattered into pieces, and her figure became a black shadow pouncing toward a big tree.

"Fourth Grade—"

The earlier voice turned into a mix of shock and anger, letting out a shriek, "Du Caiyue, how are you here—no—"

...

After Chen Ming had slain all the enemies before him, the overwhelming memories surged in, drowning his last bit of sanity.

When he came to, he saw Du Caiyue standing not far away, looking at him with a strange expression, lying at her feet was a person.

Chen Ming ignored her, checking his injuries first.

He had a cut on his shoulder, one on his back, one on his thigh, and one on his calf – a total of four injuries.

It wasn’t due to the sheer number of opponents; in fact, almost none of the eight had coordinated attacks, with only two or three managing to land blows occasionally.

He was injured because his proficiency with the sword technique was lacking initially.

After taking down a few, he allocated his experience points to the Vermilion Bird Swordsmanship, significantly advancing his Swordsmanship, making dispatching the last three much easier.

Fortunately, all four wounds had stopped bleeding, and based on how they felt, there were no signs of poisoning.

Chen Ming opened his panel for a look.

[Level: 42]

[Current Points: 60,000]

[Cultivation Technique: Iron Horse Stance (Fifth Level Perfection), Three Yang Body Refining Skill (Ninth Layer Perfection), Six Yang Qi Cultivation Skill (Level 1 79652/100000)]

[Martial Skill: Three Talents Fist (Accomplished), Eight Trigrams Saber Technique (Accomplished), Zhuang’s Flying Knife (Accomplished), Swallow Returning Sword Technique (Accomplished), Vermilion Bird Swordsmanship (Skilled 191321/200000)]

"So, killing a level 40 enemy yields 20,000 experience points."

Chen Ming quickly calculated.

In such a short time, he gained 160,000 experience points.

"Gaining experience from killing is indeed faster."

He mused inwardly.

At this moment, Du Caiyue’s voice reached his ears, "First time killing?"

Chen Ming finally looked at her and questioned, "Why didn’t you protect me earlier?"

Du Caiyue replied calmly, "You should thank me. That battle just now will benefit you for a lifetime. If you hadn’t been pushed to the brink, your Swordsmanship couldn’t have improved so much."

You think I was going all out?

In fact, I was just adding points.

Chen Ming inwardly retorted, choosing not to dwell on it, and looked at the person lying on the ground, asking, "Who is this?"

"This is the true disciple of the Blood Demon Sect. These eight Blood Slaves were under his control."

"Blood Slaves?"

Chen Ming’s eyes shifted sharply.

Du Caiyue patiently explained, "When the Blood Demon Sect refines Human Pills, they turn the remnants into Blood Pills. These Blood Pills look identical to Human Pills but are far less effective and have severe side effects. Consume too many, and it erodes sanity. The Blood Demon Sect uses a Secret Technique to control these people, turning them into Blood Slaves. These Blood Slaves appear normal, except when channeling their powers; their eyes turn blood-red."

Chen Ming was deeply shocked upon hearing this. After hundreds of years, these secrets about the Blood Demon Sect were likely known only to the Six Gates and other major powers.

Previously, he had Zhuang Xiaotian investigate the Longevity Sect but found none of this information.

Du Caiyue pulled off the person’s mask and asked him, "Do you recognize this person?"

After looking closely for a while, Chen Ming saw the man was around thirty, with a hairless, fair face, entirely unfamiliar, and shook his head, saying, "Never seen him."

"Then why did he ambush you?" Du Caiyue scrutinized him, "Moreover, you knew in advance that someone meant you harm and came to seek my protection."

Chen Ming chuckled wryly, "If I knew the ones ambushing me were from the Longevity Sect, I certainly wouldn’t have ventured out of the city to take this risk."

Du Caiyue was not easily fooled and directly asked, "So, how did you know someone intended you harm?"

Chen Ming said, "If I say it was intuition, would you believe me, madam?"

Intuition?

Du Caiyue believed in people’s intuition, but solely relying on intuition to expend a favor from a Fourth Grade expert and a Six Gates Captain was hard to believe.

At that moment, the sound of hooves echoed as a group of twenty or thirty riders galloped over, all clad in black, seemingly from the Six Gates, but with exceptional skills, unlike typical Ninth Grade.

As they approached, all reined in and rushed to Du Caiyue, kneeling on one knee, "Lord Du."

Du Caiyue ordered, "Take all eight bodies back and identify each person. Quick!"

"Yes, my lord."

"Also, leave five horses behind."

"Yes."

The black-clad members loaded the corpses and departed as instructed.

Du Caiyue then said to Chen Ming, "Let’s go."

Chen Ming approached the carriage, and besides the bodies of the two horses, the coachman lay dead nearby. He lifted the coachman’s body onto a horse.

Next, he went to Zhang Mingkai’s body, feeling a weight on his heart.

This straightforward person had truly suited him, so he liked to take him wherever he went; unexpectedly, it ended up costing him his life.

There were already few people in this world who spoke the truth; now, there’s one less.

Chen Ming hoisted Zhang Mingkai’s body onto the carriage, secured it with ropes to prevent it from falling during transit.

During this whole process, Du Caiyue watched quietly without interruption.

...

When the two reached the city gates, they were already shut.

Luckily, with Du Caiyue, a Fifth Grade Captain, present, the guards opened the gates; otherwise, they would have had to spend the night outside the city.

After entering the city, Du Caiyue took the Blood Demon Sect disciple back to the Six Gates.

Chen Ming led the two horses carrying the bodies back to Xiushui Street, knocking to open his own door.

PS: Third update; please vote.