Aspiring to the Immortal Path - Chapter 545

Chapter 545: Blood Shaping

The western scarlet plains.

A convoy was proceeding through the plains.

Its leader was a large and muscular man with red skin and horns growing from his head. He was a member of the Hemos Race, one of the most important races in the Blood River Domain.

Ten-some Hemos were driving a herd of a hundred-some blood horses, and behind them were thirty-some humans, who had their hands bound up and were being forced to run behind the horses.

“We’re going to be at Three Rivers soon! Everyone, work a little harder and we’ll be able to spend the night in town!” the leading Hemos, Leto, shouted.

“Raaa!” The other Hemos excitedly shouted.

They spurred their horses and raised their whips, picking up speed, and the lashes rained down on the human captives as they roared, “Faster! You damn bastards!”

As they were whipping away, one of them shouted:

“Up ahead!”

The Hemos looked ahead and saw two figures in the distance, one big and one small, moving forward.

“Human!” Leto had sharp eyes and quickly identified the target up ahead.

“Capture him!” the Hemos behind him began to shout.

Leto called out the names of three Hemos. “Gerasin, Hando, Tarin, the three of you go together! Be careful! This man might have some skill!”

The three Hemos flew up from their horses, wings of blood emerging from their backs as they shot toward that human.

Yiyi glanced behind them and softly called out, “Big Brother!”

“Mm, I know. After all these days, we’ve finally run into living people.” Tang Jie seemed a little emotional. “But it seems like we’ll have to fight before we can talk.”

The three Hemos were already on Tang Jie’s back, the one called Gerasin casting a crimson net at him.

Tang Jie didn’t move, but Yiyi raised her hand, a sword of ice flashing with frost, freezing the net. Clink! The frozen net fell to the ground.

The three Hemos were stunned, and then enraged. “The audacity! Daring to resist!”

The three of them shot threads of blood at Yiyi.

The threads of blood wriggled as if they were alive, ultimately turning into small snakes that bit at Yiyi. Yiyi evaded, but those three blood snakes turned around and continued to chase, having seemingly fixated on her.

Tang Jie flicked his fingers, sending three blasts of air at the snakes. There were three splashes of blood as the snakes all exploded into two. But rather than being destroyed, they turned into six smaller snakes and continued to give chase.

Tang Jie chuckled. “The methods of the Hemos are rather interesting.”

On her end, Yiyi thrust out the Crystal Ice Sword six times, and six frozen blood snakes fell to the ground. Smirking, the little girl commented, “They don’t seem like much to me.”

“Don’t use the Crystal Ice Sword,” Tang Jie said.

The three weren’t strong, and Yiyi was wholly capable of taking them down. After all, Yiyi was half a step from Transformation. But Tang Jie wanted to familiarize himself with the fighting style of the Hemos, so he intentionally dragged things out.

The three Hemos were furious. They pulled out their scimitars and cut their own arms.

Blood gushed out, but the three seemed to not feel it, pointing at Tang Jie while mumbling something.

Tang Jie was in no rush to strike, waiting to see what they would do.

The three of them barked, and the blood flowing out of them congealed into three humanoid figures of blood. Meanwhile, the three of them paled somewhat from the excessive loss in blood.

As the three of them poured out their blood, the three little blood people finally finished forming.

These three people were of small stature, having horns on their heads and wings on their backs. They held little forks in their hands, appearing just like little blood devils.

Once the Hemos stopped their bleeding, the three blood devils opened their eyes and lunged at Tang Jie and Yiyi, moving with surprising speed. As the blood forks stabbed, Tang Jie waved his hand, producing a middle-grade art relic sword to meet the forks. There was a boom, and Tang Jie’s body slightly swayed.

The blood devils were rather formidable.

A blood devil yelled and bit down on Tang Jie. Tang Jie flicked his fingers several times at the devil. But because the blood devil’s body was made entirely of blood, it felt nothing from having several holes punched in its body and continued to attack.

At the same time, the three Hemos in the rear fired off spell art after spell art.

Tang Jie wanted to test their power, so he intentionally didn’t kill them and chose instead to repeatedly fend off their attacks. The trio seemed to realize that their opponent was powerful, so they hardened their hearts and cut their wrists again.

More blood poured into the blood devils, and they visibly grew larger, stronger and faster. They became so strong that Yiyi started to have a tough time dealing with them.

The Hemos were of mediocre cultivation level, but the blood spell arts were rather bizarre. The blood devils they created didn’t fear harm and were both strong and fast. But the power depended on the blood contributed, and how much blood could they give?

It was said that humans would die upon losing a third of their blood, but that was for mortals. Cultivators could lose 90% of their blood and not die, and it was probably even more extreme for the Hemos.

In other words, if these guys were willing to make the sacrifice, this blood devil spell art could make them several times stronger. It was no wonder they dared to be so arrogant.

The three Hemos had by now spilled more than half their blood, and their blood devils were half the height of an adult man, and much faster and stronger. Alas, they still couldn’t do anything to Tang Jie.

Tang Jie snorted. “Anything else? If there’s nothing else, I’ll stop being polite.”

The three grimaced, and turned to shout back, but rather than speaking in the human language, they called for reinforcements in their own tongue.

Ten-some Hemos flew out, slitting their wrists as they did. Blood flew out, and ten-some blood devils took form. Gerasin shouted, “Be careful! This human is very powerful, but it seems like he doesn’t know about us!”

“From the outside?” Leto’s eyes flashed with surprise. “If you want to see the spell arts of the Hemos, then let’s show him the real deal! He will pay the price for his pride and carelessness!”

The Hemos all furiously roared.

The several dozen human captives shook their heads and sighed.

An elder sighed and moaned, “I thought it was a rescuer, but it turned out to be a fool.”

A middle-aged man said, “He’s showing no signs of stopping the Hemos from casting their combination art. How is this not suicidal?”

“He seems to be a foreigner who doesn’t know about the Hemos.”

“How much of a foreigner do you have to be to not know about the Hemos? Who could be stronger than the Hemos in the Blood River Domain?”

As they murmured, their last embers of hope were extinguished.

As they talked, the three blood devils attacking Tang Jie suddenly flew back, joining with the ten-some blood devils in the rear, and then all those blood devils merged together into a giant mass of blood.

As the Hemos muttered, the blood roiled, turning into a giant ball of blood, which then grew hands, feet, and finally, a head. In this way, it turned into a blood giant more than twenty feet tall.

The giant roared, stomped over to Tang Jie, and punched.

Tang Jie’s eyes gleamed. “This is pretty interesting.”

He didn’t fall back, rising up and throwing his own punch.

Thud!

In the mighty collision, Tang Jie was blown back, his energy seething.

This blood giant had immense strength, and even Tang Jie’s middle-tier Jewel Body had been pushed back. It was clearly at the level of greater attainment of the Jewel Body.

But this clearly wasn’t its only move.

As Tang Jie was pushed back, the blood giant pointed a finger at Tang Jie. A blood arrow shot out, aiming for Tang Jie’s shoulder.

Tang Jie wanted to test its power, and he activated his various defenses.

The small blood arrow slammed into his defensive barrier, and there was a hiss as the corrosive blood melted away the barrier. It was just like with the Cinnabar Luan, though the effect was a little weaker.

In terms of strength, the blood giant was comparable to the lowest level of Spirit Ring True Person.

It had to be understood that none of the ten-some Hemos had high cultivation levels, ranging from Hundred Refinement to Nine Revolutions. But when they worked together, they were able to unleash a blood giant with the power of a Spirit Ring True Person.

But what if there were more of them?

Tang Jie almost didn’t want to think about it.

It was no wonder the Hemos were the number one race of the Blood River Domain. This was a race that could turn quantity into quality.

The blood giant was still hammering away at Tang Jie, while Leto and the other Hemos cast various blood spell arts at Tang Jie from the rear. These blood spell arts were strange and complex. It was clear that it wasn’t just the blood giant that was powerful, though it seemed like Leto’s group was more skilled in blood morphing spell arts. As the blood giant pushed Tang Jie back, Leto’s group laughed, and the human captives could no longer bring themselves to watch.

Bang!

The blood giant punched again, causing Tang Jie to stagger back a few more steps. He had already switched to the Sovereign Blade, but the blade’s ability to cut through all was useless against this being of blood. Even if the giant were sliced into eighteen pieces, the blood would easily come back together.

But Tang Jie didn’t mind. He was just testing things out, wanting to see the effect of different spells and weapons on the blood giant. Hearing the smug laughter of the Hemos, Tang Jie smiled and said, “So you guys don’t have anything else?”

“Arrogant brat, this is enough to deal with you!” Leto shouted.

“Is that so?” Tang Jie’s eyes flashed.

He put away his saber, and a ring of light began to expand from under his feet.

The human captives began to shout. “A Spirit Ring True Person! He was a Spirit Ring True Person!”

If this was a Spirit Ring True Person, then there was some hope of dealing with the ten-some Hemos, and the captives once more became expectant.

But a moment later, the Spirit Ring turned the color of blood, rolling out like a crimson tide, its range far surpassing what a Spirit Ring could have. Everyone froze, and then they sighed. “It’s not a Spirit Ring.”

It wasn’t a Spirit Ring, so it was probably some kind of spell art.

A powerful spell art alone would have a hard time dealing with the blood giant.

But as they sighed, a shocking development occurred.

The ten-some Hemos suddenly screamed as if they had encountered the most terrifying thing in their lives. As they wailed and screamed, their bodies deformed under some immense pressure. Muscles were squashed, bones cracked, and blood gushed out.

They wanted to run, but they couldn’t leave.

A blood fog churned within the blood ring, each cloud seeming to weigh tons as they ground down the Hemos like countless millstones. Their blood gushed out, becoming new clouds of blood and further strengthening the grinding power of the Flesh Millstone.

In the very center of the blood ring, that blood giant was affected the most by the grinding power.

Several dozen blood clouds flew around the blood giant, and with each go-around, they would send blood splashing into the ring. The blood giant crazily howled, trying to break free and stomp Tang Jie into a paste.

But even though Tang Jie was right there, not even moving, the blood giant couldn’t take a step.

That terrifying power tore its body apart, and every bit of blood drawn away could not be restored.

This was its natural counter, a power that surpassed ice or fire, mercilessly sucking away at it.

The blood giant seemed to realize that this was its end, throwing its head back and roaring in unwillingness, but under the power of the Flesh Millstone, it dropped to its knees.

As the blood clouds came and went, the giant grew smaller and smaller, ultimately dissolving into the blood fog.

But the Hemos had been crushed long before then, leaving behind only their remains.

Tang Jie stood tall in the sea of blood, leaving the distant captives stunned.

What power was this?

They had never seen something like this, someone who could wipe out a powerful group of Hemos at the drop of a hat.

Tang Jie called back the blood ring, and the clouds of blood flowed back into him. Tang Jie could sense that the Flesh Millstone had absorbed some of the blood energy of the Hemos and passed it on to him.

This made his flesh stronger and made it so that the Flesh Millstone would be stronger when he used it again.

This was exactly what made the Flesh Millstone so terrifying: not only did it kill the enemy, it could empower itself and its owner, allowing it to kill for longer periods of time.

Tang Jie walked over to the human captives.

He only now realized that these human captives were in a rather miserable state. Their Spirit Seas had been sealed, and special ropes had been threaded through their collarbones, all this to render them unable to struggle or resist. Tang Jie could tell that the strongest of these people was only at Nine Revolutions. Even if they hadn’t been restrained, they were no match for those Hemos experts. For them to still be treated like this could only be due to the naturally cruel natures of the Hemos experts.

Tang Jie waved his hand, breaking all the restraints, even restoring their Spirit Seas.

Everyone came up to express their utmost gratitude.

They had earlier believed that Tang Jie was doomed, but Tang Jie had unexpectedly turned the tables. It was hard to take all those twists and turns, and some of them dropped to their knees and began to weep.

But that elder from before came over to Tang Jie and deeply bowed. “Young friend, thank you for rescuing us!”

“It’s nothing. As humans, we need to look out for each other. Right, where do you all come from?”

The elder smiled. “This old man’s name is Han Fei. Young friend, from your tone, you don’t seem like a native.”

Tang Jie nodded. “I truly do not understand the situation here. It seems like I said something wrong. Please instruct me on my errors.”

Han Fei hastily said, “I am happy to serve, young friend. Right, I have not asked you where you are from yet.”

After some thought, Tang Jie decided to be honest and admit that he wasn’t from the Blood River Domain.

Although they had expected this, everyone was still stunned to hear that Tang Jie was from another domain, particularly because Tang Jie wasn’t at Immortal Platform. To be able to cross domains at this stage was truly rare.

To meet like this had to be destiny, and since Tang Jie had even saved their lives, none of them held anything against Tang Jie for coming from another domain. The elder enthusiastically began to explain the Blood River Domain to him.

The elder knew much more than Tutu.

The Blood River Domain was immense, consisting of seven regions in all. The Blood River Domain was a place where humans, fiends, and demons lived alongside each other, and the seven regions were ruled by these three. The “fiends” here referred to the Hemos, and the Hemos were led by the Lord of the Blood River. But the Lord of the Blood River was not a human, and it had no thoughts for ruling, only for seeking the Heavenly Dao. Thus, though it was honored as the Lord of All Fiends, it had never once concerned itself with their affairs. If it ever needed anything, it wouldn’t ask the fiends to do it, instead sending an avatar.

The Hemos Race was the strongest in the Blood River Domain, and it currently ruled four regions, with everything to the north of the Blood River essentially belonging to the fiends.

The southwest was currently ruled by the demons, who held two regions. Only one region in the southeast was where the humans gathered, and under the leadership of an Immortal Platform Titan, they eked out a living.

The scarlet plains Tang Jie was in was a place to the south of the Blood River.

This was a zone at the intersection of three regions, where war was commonplace. As a result, people usually didn’t live here, and various slaver groups frequented the area.

Tang Jie had run into a Hemos slaver team, which caught humans to sell off as slaves.

“I understand.” Tang Jie nodded. “The blood giants the Hemos can make are truly outstanding, able to combine the strength of so many people. Right, Elder Han, do you know if there’s a limit to this ability? If the blood of ten thousand Hemos was merged together, could they form an Immortal Platform blood giant?” This question was Tang Jie’s greatest concern.

If they could really create such a terrifying existence with enough people, then Tang Jie was going to stay as far away from them as possible.

But his intuition told him that this wasn’t likely. If the Hemos were that amazing, there would have been no place for the humans and demons to survive.

Sure enough, Elder Han replied, “It’s not that bad. The Blood Shaping art of the Hemos has its limit. From what this old man knows, it can’t extend into Violet Palace.”

“‘Can’t extend into Violet Palace’… so peak Soul Transformation? That’s scary enough,” Tang Jie said, wiping some sweat off his forehead.

If the Hemos gathered enough people, they could send a whole pile of Soul Transformation blood giants, which would be a terror to deal with.

And in terms of powerful combat abilities, the Hemos probably didn’t have just this Blood Shaping art.

In truth, the Blood Shaping art had its own disadvantages. Letting too much blood would weaken one’s spell arts, so Blood Shaping was a spell art that could only manifest combat power with sufficient numbers. In reality, it was only the lower echelons of the Hemos that used it. The upper echelons actually didn’t learn such spell arts. Their numbers were few, so they couldn’t possibly employ wave tactics. Thus, what they learned were the more powerful blood spell arts.

Other than their complete system of blood spell arts, the strongest aspect of the Hemos was that all their people cultivated.

Perhaps because of the Blood River Domain’s unique environment, all the Hemos were born able to cultivate, and this was the key to their power. But their lower fertility restricted their development, which gave the humans and demons space to develop.

Tang Jie had a much better grasp of the situation now, so he asked Han Fei, “I want to go to a market to buy some materials. What should I do?”

Han Fei replied, “That would depend on what Young Sir needs.”

Tang Jie wrote down a list of what he needed, and the elder immediately frowned. “There are truly many precious materials here, and getting them won’t be easy.”

“Elder, please advise me on where I might find them.”

Han Fei closed his eyes for a while, and then he answered, “I’m afraid there might be only one place that can satisfy Young Sir’s requirements, but that place… is dangerous!”