A blood sacrifice, using the very lives of the people from the Sealed Ancient Land!

A dreadful possibility began to dawn on the people from the Sealed Ancient Land who had followed the Great Families and Sects, and their faces grew ever more terrified.

They never imagined that entering the Ancient Refining Ground this time wasn’t a stroke of luck, but a disaster bent on their destruction.

Over the past several days, the Noble Families and Sects had constantly supplied them with Top-grade Spiritual Pills and Upper-level Treasure Medicine, causing their Cultivation to skyrocket.

They had thought it was because the Noble Families and Sects valued them and wanted to invest heavily in their training.

But the truth was... the Noble Families and Sects were actually using them for a blood sacrifice!

Clearly, the higher their Cultivation, the more effective the blood sacrifice. No wonder the Noble Families and Sects were so willing to expend vast resources to train them and ensure they arrived here completely unscathed.

The Loose Cultivator, a Late-stage Foundation Establishment Realm powerhouse, had exposed the shocking truth in a single sentence. One might have expected the great Noble Families—Cang, Guo, Wei, and Nangong—to be furious. Instead, Guo Qishan spoke with chilling indifference, "We spent such vast resources cultivating these vermin for the sole purpose of offering them as a blood sacrifice to the Holy Sword Restriction. Otherwise, why would a swarm of ants like them ever catch our eye? We’ve lost so many of our own, all while ensuring they were brought here unscathed. It is, of course, time for them to repay the favor."

Wei Xiaolang chimed in coldly, "This was once a secret, but it’s irrelevant now. The Holy Sword Restriction has been fed blood sacrifices for many years, absorbing the lifeblood of tens of thousands from the Sealed Ancient Land. Its power has already been weakened to its lowest point. We just need to sacrifice these last ants from the Sealed Ancient Land, and the Holy Sword should be within our grasp. Once it’s freed, it’ll be every man for himself!"

The man leading the Cang Family, Cang Lengshan, also spoke up. "That’s right. In the past, to keep this a secret and prevent them from catching on, we had to let one or two of them return alive from each batch. We’d select the most outstanding cultivators from the Sealed Ancient Land every ten years to serve as offerings, and we had to pay a heavy price to erase that portion of their memories. But this is the last time. These ants are going to die anyway, so what does it matter if they know the truth? Let’s stick to the old rule: each group can only keep one person from the Sealed Ancient Land to bring into the Ancient Ruined City. The rest are for the blood sacrifice!"

This exchange caused the faces of everyone from the Sealed Ancient Land to turn deathly pale.

Only now did they realize the truth: they, like all those from the Sealed Ancient Land who had entered the Ancient Refining Ground before them, had been raised like livestock, only to be brought here for a blood sacrifice.

Each time, fewer than ten lucky souls were allowed to return, and even they had their memories of this place wiped clean.

Now they knew the truth. But what could they possibly do?

It was just as Cang Lengshan had said. In the eyes of these Noble Families and Sects, they were as insignificant as ants, utterly powerless to resist.

At this moment, Nangong Jinjie, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke. "Last time, our Nangong Family sacrificed all of our charges. This time, we must be allowed to keep two!"

Guo Qishan smirked grimly. "Your Nangong Family is truly sinister. To avoid the heavy price of erasing memories, you planted a lapdog right inside the Hua Family. Too bad the Hua Family found out during the last expedition, which is why you had to sacrifice every last one of them, isn’t it? But that’s your problem. And you want to keep two? Nangong Jinjie, I’ll bet this Hua Family contingent has another one of your lapdogs in it. As for that woman... you just want to keep her to play with along the way, don’t you! Don’t even think about it. This Young Master won’t allow it!"

Nangong Jinjie replied coldly, "Brother Guo, you truly understand me. But even if I can’t keep two, I should at least have the right to decide who is sacrificed last!"

"I have no objection to that," Guo Qishan replied.

Cang Lengshan and Wei Xiaolang nodded in agreement. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

To the people from the Sealed Ancient Land, however, these words were more terrifying than anything they could have imagined.

The color drained from Hua Xiaoling’s face. She finally understood exactly why her parents had died in the Ancient Refining Ground.

Ten years ago, her parents had led the Hua Family contingent. In the end, not a single one of them had made it out of the Ancient Refining Ground alive.

The horrifying truth was that the Nangong Family had used every last one of them for the blood sacrifice.

And going back further, decade after decade, generation after generation of the Hua Family’s most talented young disciples had followed the Nangong Family into the Ancient Refining Ground, full of dreams. Their final fate, however, was to be used as a blood sacrifice for the Holy Sword Restriction.

A cruel truth. A blood-soaked reality.

In the eyes of the Noble Family and Sect disciples, this was all perfectly normal, a matter of course. They viewed the people of the Sealed Ancient Land as nothing more than penned livestock, to be slaughtered at will.

But to Hua Xiaoling and the others from the Sealed Ancient Land, this was an unbearably cruel truth. The anguish and despair in their hearts were indescribable.

"So my parents... they were taken by your Nangong Family for the blood sacrifice? So that was the truth... heh..."

As the words left her lips, a longsword materialized in Hua Xiaoling’s hand, and she lunged at Nangong Jinjie!

However, even though Hua Xiaoling had reached the Innate Sixth Layer Perfect Realm, the gap between her and Nangong Jinjie, who was at the Mid-stage Foundation Establishment Realm, was still unimaginable.

With a casual wave of his hand, Nangong Jinjie immobilized Hua Xiaoling, freezing her in place.

"If it weren’t for that pretty face of yours, I’d have already tossed you onto the Holy Sword Restriction as a sacrifice," he sneered. "How dare you offend this Young Master? If we hadn’t been in such a hurry to find Treasure Medicine on the way here, I’d have taken you long ago, you bitch. Why wait until now? Heh. Actually, if you’re willing to be obedient and serve me well, I might consider letting you live. You should think about it!"

Nangong Jinjie spoke coldly. The other Noble Family Descendants, however, seemed to find nothing unusual in his words, their expressions remaining cold and impassive.

However, his voice had barely faded when a Hua Family disciple cried out anxiously, "Young Master Nangong, didn’t you promise to spare only my life? The rest of the Hua Family were supposed to be for the blood sacrifice!"

The people from the Sealed Ancient Land all recognized the speaker. It was Hua Xiaojun, son of the Hua Family’s Grand Elder!

At this point, nearly everyone understood. The Hua Family’s Grand Elder was the Nangong Family’s lapdog, and he had clearly known the truth all along.

"The Grand Elder... so it really was him!"

The faces of the other Hua Family disciples turned ashen as they muttered with bottomless resentment.

Hearing Hua Xiaojun, Nangong Jinjie let out a cold laugh. "Who the hell do you think you are? Whether you live or die depends entirely on my mood. Once the Holy Sword Restriction is broken, what use do I have for any of you? Heh heh... As long as Hua Xiaoling obediently lets me have my fun, then it’s simple: you die, she lives!"

"Hua Xiaoling, he’s one of the main culprits behind your parents’ deaths," Nangong Jinjie said, his voice turning sinister as he gestured toward Hua Xiaojun. "Betraying his family, harming his own kin... don’t you want to kill him? Just be a good girl and let me have my fun, and I’ll kill him for you right now!"

But before Hua Xiaoling could answer, a cold voice cut through the air. "You dare touch my woman? Are you looking to die?"