31 The Xue Ku Introduction (1/2)
Reena sat in a lotus position with her eyes closed in meditation inside an abandoned immortal cave some miles away from the JinJin village. Her awareness through the divine sense was covering the whole area including JinJin village.
Earlier that morning, she had been notified of Jufeng's presence through her divine sense that she spread over their side of the continent. As an Asura, her divine sense could cover a vast distance especially on their part of the world.
She didn't just wanted to be monitoring her son all the time but as a mother, she had been a bit worried when Jufeng was leaving for the sect but as long as Jufeng was inside the sect boundaries, it was fine with her. Therefore, she had spread her divine sense to know if and when Jufeng would be outside the premises.
Immediately she sensed her son, she had used her divine evasion to arrive at a safer distance from Jufeng's position in order to first determine the situation of things. After close examination, she had come to the conclusion that her son was in a group of something resembling adventurers.
Although she didn't want to appear to be obtrusing on the union, she still wanted to keep an eye on the situation since they were only young cultivators. She hadn't been aware of their sect elder who had been following them until that attack. She had overlooked the possibility of that probably because she hadn't sense any form of danger in the vast area her divine sense was covering.
Now that the sect elder was with them, their group was well covered. She would wait for a bit more time before returning home. She relaxed her mind and continue to meditate.
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Their journey had no disturbances since that event with the crystals. The presence of elder Wang Xiu gave them confidence but also brought reservation too. They had only planned on finding the forsaken palace on their own but now, they had an elder's eyes on their back. Although, elder Wang Xiu tried to mingle, they could still feel the intimidating discomfort afterall, she was a nascent soul elder of the Last-Sword sect.
But Jufeng was extremely happy for elder Wang Xiu joining them. At the least, anything seeking their death would have to pass through her. His mind felt much more peaceful and relaxed. He didn't know why he had been courting death lately.
Led by the group of the other kids, they came to an open area where they could see the outskirt of the village in the far distance and stopped.
”Is that JinJin?”
Asked DaXia as she pointed in the direction of the village.
”Yes, that is JinJin.”
Replied Shi Xiang as she glanced at her group.
”This is where we stop. We need to go and make our own arrangements.”
They had only promised to take their group half-way towards the village which they had done anyways. They thanked elder Wang Xiu for saving their lives. They offered her the extra crystal which she refused saying it had no value to her since she was already at the nascent soul stage. They thanked Jufeng and others for their help before disappearing into the distance.
After the kids had gone, the group gathered themselves and happily intensified their steps knowing their journey was on course. As they got closer to the village, it became obvious that it was a rice farming village. Several farms of rice could be seen some kilometers away from the road leading to the village.
They reduced their speed as they were approaching when elder Wang Xiu noticed the steller straits eagle flying in their direction. The eagle was making a muffled sound like a plea for help. This was a magical bird with no awareness or reasoning therefore it couldn't be making a plea on its own. And Chi cultivators wouldn't use magical beasts intricately like this. For a Chi cultivator, magical beasts were only pets. But this was no pet and it could only mean one thing.
Xue Wu.
The blood cultivators.
Xue Wus, blood cultivators, were powerful mortals that used the mystical life-force power of the blood to gain powers. They were mainly diviners that used this blood essence to power their oracle bones for seeing the past and future. Unlike Chi cultivators that formed cores in their dantians, blood cultivators didn't formed cores. They formed core bonds with magical beasts with the magical beasts serving as their cores. The more powerful among the Xue Wus would make pacts and then formed bonds with the divine beasts making the divine beasts their cores. Their power grew as the beasts grew in power.
The blood cultivators generally draws from the blood of their bonded magical beasts. But for them to grow in power and advance in their level, they had to draw from the life-force infused blood of the divine beasts the reason being that they were innate bloodline beasts.
Although, the divine beasts and magical beasts made them more powerful due toThey would continue to live their lives in the mortal worlds.
This was the only way for them to attract the heavenly tribulations. And both the blood cultivator and the beast would have to undergo the tribulations together.
Over the years, the heavenly tribulations had been incredibly strong against them especially the ascension tribulations . Most of them had died from the effects of the tribulations, only a handful had ever made it to ascension.
Due to the fact that here was no other way for them, many blood cultivators had decided against attracting the tribulations. This had led many blood cultivators to avoid making pacts with the divine beasts but to obtain the much less powerful magical creatures. No ascension tribulations meant no sudden death and no fright of death over their divine beasts dying.
Due to their scrying oracles, they had been an integral part of the cultivation world.
Elder wang Xu sent out her awareness to intercept the bird.
”Who are you?”
”Immortal elder, my name is Yan Dai. Please help me.”
”Where are you from?”
”JinJin village, immortal elder.”
”Why do you need my help?”
”They are blaming me for what I didn't know about. First, they accused me of being Xue Ku and now they said I'm responsible for the disappearances of many children in JinJin and the surrounding villages.”
”Are you? And you better don't tell lies. These crimes are serious offenses in a mortal world.”
”No, immortal elder. I'm not lying. It's not me but I believe the one responsible is still here in JinJin?”
”How did you know?”
”Before my parents died, I heard them talking about something they discovered. There's a powerful Xu Ku who has a connection to the villages allowing children to be taken from them. They were about to expose the roots of the disappearances when they were killed.”
”Continue.”
”Something powerful and extremely fast entered our house. But before he could enter, it had to pass through the defensive array. Although it took seconds for it to break the defense, but while trying to do that, my father used our ancestral heavenly artifact on me and I couldn't remember anything from there. By the time I came around, I found them decayed. Please immortal elder, I can no longer hold the connection.”
”Okay go. If what you say it's true, I will see what I can do but if you are lying about the crimes, you must face their consequences.”
A Xue Ku in the village?
A Xue Ku, rogue blood cultivator was the forbidden side of Xue Wu, true blood cultivator.
Rogue blood cultivation. Completely draining the life-force of innocent mortals thereby turning them to Spectres before bonding them. This gave Xu Kus more power than the Xue Wus due to the pure karmic virtues in innocent souls. The power of the spectres could also make the rogue blood cultivators to launch powerful soul attacks.
Elder Wang Xiu recalled her awareness, turned to the waiting group and explained what was happening to them.
”Elder Wang Xiu, should we be involved?”