Chapter 537 – The Strange Hand in the Blood Pool (1/2)

A cold bark echoed through the underground palace.

“Sect master!”

Ma Chaoqun turned his head stiffly and saw a tiny, skinny old man in black the size of a child in the passageway. He walked into the underground palace, his face withered like a skeleton’s as he radiated with yin qi and corpse qi. Impressively, he was a Foundation Establishment cultivator, and late Foundation Establishment at that.

He was the elder who revived Burial Mound mountain, the current sect master of Burial Mound mountain.

“Release him!”

The old man ordered. Yu Shukuang was only a measly Qi Practitioner. He did not take him seriously originally—if he died, then so be it. However, he was also a Hawkwolf guard, so he dared not be careless. The Academy of the Hundred Schools was currently rising in power. If a Hawkwolf guard died on his Burial Mound mountain, it would be no laughing matter.

However, Ma Chaoqun did not release Yu Shukuang. Instead, he pressed him towards the blood pool.

Yu Shukuang widened his eyes as the blood pool filled his face. The smell of blood grew heavier and filled his eyes and nose. He felt an indescribable sense of great horror from the depths of his heart. As if he had become stricken with fear, he was unable to move.

The moment the tip of his nose approached the blood pool, it stopped.

“You’re crazy!”

A hand that resembled a chicken’s claw grabbed Ma Chaoqun’s arm firmly. The old man had never thought his first disciple who had always been so obedient would actually defy his orders. He grabbed Yu Shukuang with his other hand and tossed his aside casually.

Launched into the air, Yu Shukuang flew away from the blood pool and slammed heavily against the wall. Having scraped by with his life intact, the blood pool he stared into earlier seemed to want to suck him into another world.

Just as the old man wanted to teach this disciple of his a proper lesson, he suddenly felt there was something wrong with the pool of blood. The smell of blood was nothing to him—he had no sense of smell—and he had seen plenty of sights that involved mountainous piles of corpses and seas of blood before.

Pools of blood on Burial Mound mountain were used to refine blood corpses. It seemed very chilling to regular people, but it was nothing special to him. However, there was something different about this pool of blood as if something was hiding beneath. He tried extending his soul sense into it and his expression suddenly changed drastically.

“This- How dare you! No wonder your cultivation progressed so quickly!”

Before Ma Chaoqun could reply, he slammed his hand towards the top of Ma Chaoqung’s head. Overcome by surprise and fury, he actually showed no mercy at all, wanting to execute the first senior brother of Burial Mound mountain on the spot.

However, he sneered without a hint of fear.

Splash!

A great wave suddenly arose from the pool of thick, dense blood. A huge, withered hand extended out and grabbed the old man like it was grabbing an insect. His bones shattered and ruptured like firecrackers before the hand pulled itself back into the pool.

The pool of blood surged a few times before settling down very quickly.

All of this had happened in an instant. A late Foundation Establishment cultivator had simply vanished silently like that. Let alone putting up a struggle, he had not even been able to let out a shriek.

“Thank you for saving my life, sir!” Ma Zhaoqun knelt on one knee and stood up, about to chase after Yu Shukuang.

“There’s no need to chase after him! Let him draw in even more people. I need even more corpses.” A dry, hoarse voice rang out from the pool of blood.

“I’ll go gather all the disciples right now.” A sliver of viciousness flashed through Ma Chaoqun’s eyes.

“I’ve really troubled you for the past three years. You haven’t disappointed me, so I won’t disappoint you either.”

“Yes.” Ma Chaoqun was overjoyed. Ever since he began hearing the voice, he had never stopped working hard. He could finally see a ray of hope now.

When the old man tossed out Yu Shukuang, he immediately fled for his life. Only when he escaped from the underground palace did he glance back and discover that Ma Chaoqun was not after him. Had the old man killed him? He dared not return and verify his thoughts.

No, I need to report this to the Hawkwolf Guard!

Without much effort, Li Qingshan found a few cultivation methods that simultaneously practised water and fire in the library of the academy. Sure enough, they explained in detail how to merge fire and water and make them supplement one another. This was the most difficult aspect of it all.

After reading for a while, a thin, azure water flow rose up from Li Qingshan’s palm, coiling up like a spirit turtle. At the same time, a tiny ball of fire lit up, dancing about like a phoenix.

Under his control, the water and fire collided together and engaged in a violent clash, like two mortal enemies. The water wanted to extinguish the fire, while the fire wanted to burn away the water. How was this merging water and fire? In the end, the water gained the upper hand and suppressed the fire, but the fire only lost the upper hand temporarily. As long as an opportunity showed itself, it would fight back vigilantly.

There was not a single trace of merging together. Li Qingshan shook his head, stowed the water and fire away, and returned the books. The usage of the information in the books was very limited. It was easy to balance out regular fire and water, but both the spirit turtle and the phoenix were the purest embodiments of water and fire.

They were powerful because of how pure they were, but it also made the water and fire more intolerant of one another.

“Commander, you’re here!” Hua Chengzan paced over and appeared between two bookshelves.

“What’s happened?” Li Qingshan turned around and asked. Normally, Hua Chengzan would not refer to him as commander.

“One of our Hawkwolf guards, Yu Zijian’s father, ran into some trouble.”

“Oh? What trouble?”

“We’ll talk as we go.”

Letting Li Qingshan walk in front, Hua Chengzan glanced from the corner of his eyes and discovered the cultivation method that Li Qingshan had been studying was called the Study of Water and Fire. Then he looked away.

Doesn’t he have the Arts of the Boundless Ocean already? What’s he looking at this third-rate cultivation method that can only be practised till Foundation Establishment for?