Volume 2, Chapter 101 – Legend (2)

Cao Chuan finally understood. His scalp felt like it was exploding.

Huangzhou and Daizhou, one to the left and one to the right, stood in front of Jingzhou, practically the heavenly gate of the Northern Frontier.

He remembered… He’d always wondered why only those two dojos had not extended so much as a tendril of influence into other provinces. So it was to suppress the “Blood Sea”?

But what exactly was the “Blood Sea”?

Huangzhou, Daizhou… and strictly speaking, there was also Jingzhou.

With the power of three provinces pressed down on the Northern Frontier so it didn’t dare make a rash move—just what level of threat was this?

“Shh…”

Just as Cao Chuan was about to ask, he saw Yu He lift a finger, glancing over at Huang Meng in the distance, listening to his account with total focus.

“…The ‘Blood Sea’ is a ‘phenomenon’.”

Huang Meng went on. “I can’t say for sure what year it first originated, but its revival should have been twenty-one years ago, or a bit earlier. Because it was around that time that the army on the Northern Frontier began upgrading its equipment.”

Revival.

Bai Xiang rolled that word around in her mind.

She thought of “the revival of a Demon Kingdom in the Northern Frontier”, a line she’d once read in a history textbook.

“The ‘Blood Sea’ isn’t a Demon Kingdom.” Huang Meng happened to be emphasizing the distinction too. “It’s far more terrifying than a Demon Kingdom!”

Rеаd οո ΚаtRеaԁіոɡСafе

A Demon Kingdom was also a kind of mysterious phenomenon. Its birth was marked by Aberrations gathering in great numbers across the wilds, with countless demon beasts and Demon Pools slaughtering and devouring one another within secret-realm spaces, and eventually producing a demon king, who would lead them in continued growth and expansion.

Some Demon Kingdoms were newly born; some were revived from dormancy.

But all Demon Kingdoms were rational.

The reason they were called Demon Kingdoms and not simply demon riots…

Was precisely because they possessed rationality… they had a leader, and that leader had the basic logic for acting and thinking. That meant all of its behavior followed patterns, could be grasped. Some fully formed Demon Kingdoms had even begun imitating the current social structures of the human race. They looked like another kind of civilization entirely, with much of their raw savagery faded.

But the “Blood Sea” was different.

In Huang Meng’s description, the revival of the “Blood Sea” began when a small group of demonfolk smuggled out a large quantity of fresh organs. Taking advantage of a brief lapse of attention on the Northern Frontier, they carried them beyond the border and set up a ritual out in the wilds.

He didn’t know exactly what that ritual involved; this was just rumor he’d heard. Back then his rank hadn’t been high enough to let him know more of the secrets.

He only knew that, as a reconnaissance ranger, when he and his comrades flew an armed helicopter to the scene, what he saw was the wasteland under the setting sun… the savage silhouette on the horizon… that silhouette throwing back its head in a silent roar… and the boundless, terrifying “Blood Sea” that was about to swallow the fortress city of “Panyan Circuit” whole.

“That was an ocean formed from blood-colored demonic aura condensed to near solidity… there was no way to disperse it by any means…!!!”

Clearly, Huang Meng’s symptoms were flaring up again. His voice shook badly as he spoke.

“The reinforcements that followed still couldn’t save the one-point-six million lives in Panyan Circuit. We were forced to abandon three fortress cities including Panyan, and a gaping hole was torn open out of thin air in the Northern Frontier’s defensive line…!”

“Driving the ‘Blood Sea’ away is impossible.” He was almost incoherent now. “Even the Sword Lord couldn’t do it… All you can do is hold it back… stop it from advancing…”

“And Lord Xu… the organs Xu Zhe had me allocate before, that quantity was a bit too much.”

Rеαⅾ oո KаtReadіոɡCafe

“I don’t believe the Demon-Immortal Dao riffraff actually has the means for that kind of ritual either. After all, this place is a hell of a long way from the Northern Frontier defensive line!”

“But I don’t dare bet that it isn’t…”

Under the gazes of Yu He and the others, he shook his head wildly. “I have to tell you about this…” Then he suddenly hardened his tone. “The ‘Blood Sea’ must never be allowed to appear again!!!”

Silence.

On both ends of the line, aside from Huang Meng’s ragged breathing, there wasn’t another sound.

Those like Yu He, who could grasp how serious this was, didn’t even dare breathe. In their minds, it was as if they could see boundless blood-mist rolling in, swallowing up Zezhou and Qizhou, drowning all the countless commoners of the two provinces’ eight circuits.

“…I understand.”

Bai Xiang’s voice came through the receiver, carrying a faint electronic quality.

“I’ll keep watch for that ritual.”

Whoosh—

As those words fell, many of the listeners, Huang Meng included, let out a breath.

Huh?

Then he suddenly sensed something was off.

Rеαԁ оn KаtRеаdіոgСαfе

Wasn’t the commander of the Demon-Suppression Bureau in the Qi region supposed to be Fang Xiaochun?

Why was it a young woman’s voice? Could her promise really be relied on?

Bai Xiang had already hung up on her end. Huang Meng had no chance to ask anything more.

But looking around, he noticed that many people’s faces had relaxed after hearing that promise, and he roughly guessed that this “young woman” must be very powerful.

Powerful enough, at least, for them to entrust her with this kind of hope.

“Blood Sea…”

On the other side, after hanging up, Bai Xiang accelerated again, while in her mind she replayed Huang Meng’s account.

He seemed to look down on Demon-Immortal Dao quite a bit, actually lumping them in with “that lot”.

Even without the Blood Sea, soldiers on the Northern Frontier had to be guarding more than just one Demon Kingdom.

So he could be considered very well-informed… Compared to those full-scale war scenarios, Demon-Immortal Dao’s antics really were nothing more than petty trouble.

This was something Bai Xiang inferred herself, because she knew very well that not just any city qualified to be called a “fortress”.

She inclined toward believing Huang Meng—not just “he wasn’t lying”, but going a step further and believing in the threat revealed between his words.

Namely, that “the enemy’s ultimate goal is to recreate the Blood Sea”.

Because the chain of cause and effect lined up.

Rеαd οո ΚαtRеаԁіոgСαfе

Yao Qingyuan didn’t have the strength to oppose Yujing. After seeing those black mists drifting south, Bai Xiang’s guess had been that he might be using demon arts to cultivate some sort of wicked technique—to use that wicked technique to break through a realm and gain eternal life.

That was clearly a pursuit higher than imperial power and hegemony. If he succeeded, all of Yao Qingyuan’s bizarre actions would have an explanation; his move to seize troops and carve out his own fief would no longer seem absurd, but instantly become reasonable.

But that was very difficult. Logically, there was one flaw.

Even the Sword Lord couldn’t achieve immortality. If he really wanted to use demon arts to extend his life, there was actually a simpler route—start demonization and undergo Body Tribulation. That was far easier than sacrificing hundreds of thousands and ripping out their souls.

Before, Bai Xiang hadn’t been able to plug this logical hole. But now that she’d heard about the “Blood Sea”, she immediately thought of another possibility: that Yao Qingyuan might not be trying to seize Ze and Qi at all, and might simply be planning to borrow the Blood Sea’s power to destroy them.

Could the Marrow-Washing Pill, the soul-extraction and spirit-harvesting, be part of the ritual?

There was too little information. For now, it was still hard to analyze…

Suddenly—Bai Xiang brought her body to an abrupt halt.

The southern military camp lay less than a few hundred meters ahead, but already a black human-shaped figure had appeared before her eyes, its form drifting and shifting like smoke and dust.

“Shenming’s Bai Xiang?”

A man’s voice came from inside the figure, deep and rich, with a magnetic quality.

Bai Xiang didn’t answer.

Feixiang Heaven left its sheath. A streak of white light flashed across the sky, shredding the black figure to pieces.