Volume 1, Chapter 176 – Half-God Race

When Shi Lan first heard the Cangyue Demon King say “Half-God Race,” the term sounded faintly familiar. After thinking for a moment, she finally dug up the related memories from the back of her mind.

The Half-God Race was a new race born from the Ancient Gods interbreeding with humans and the demon and devil races.

In the Primordial Era, the Half-God Race had once shared the world with the Ancient Gods. At their peak, they even occupied over sixty percent of the Lingyang Realm’s territories. Their sharp rise in power was something never seen before or since.

Yet this powerful race had long since been buried in the dust of history.

In the Ancient Era, the human race had nearly unified the entire continent. The current Boundless Demon Domain and the Boundless Devil Cavern where the devil race was entrenched had, for the most part, once been human lands.

In that age when the human path was nearly the sole supreme way under heaven, a large portion of the demon race and devil race had been forced into the Boundless Sea. On that desolate expanse of ocean, they clung to life on scattered islands.

The Half-God Race had long since vanished without a trace.

According to the rough records in the Annals, after the end of the Primordial God War, under the orders of Great Emperor Wanggu, the human race launched a war with no distinction made against all other races.

The Half-God Race in particular suffered the most frenzied blows from the humans and was all but annihilated.

The few Half-Gods who survived by luck merged into the demon and devil races. After the passage of millions of years, the Half-God bloodline should have long since thinned to nothing, or even completely disappeared.

Cangyue suddenly bringing up the Half-God Race gave Shi Lan a slight jolt. For Cangyue to sense something odd in her aura and suspect she was of the Half-God Race could not be baseless. He had to have some reason to say such a thing.

According to what the system had said before, Innate spiritual blood was the blood of living beings from before heaven and earth opened. Neither the Ancient Gods nor the Half-God Race matched that.

Even if Cangyue had simply sensed wrongly, for him to connect her with a race rumored to have been wiped out, there had to be some underlying cause.

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Could it be that the Half-God Race still existed somewhere under some stretch of sky?

As these thoughts flashed through her mind, Shi Lan’s expression did not change in the slightest. It was as if she had not heard Cangyue’s question at all as she urged, “Send those demon beasts as soon as you can. I want them alive.”

Cangyue did not dare to ask again for fear of angering Shi Lan. After giving a bow, he left the cave.

Tianbai watched the Cangyue Demon King depart, then stretched its limbs. It leapt off the mountainside in a single bound and plunged into the clear pool in the valley below, sending up a towering spray of water.

It needed to cool down a bit.

……

Shi Lan slowly drew in her aura until it calmed. She sat down on the ground and took out a small casket of phoenix blood from the Qiankun Bracelet. After a moment of hesitation, she put it away again.

She had already been in the Boundless Demon Domain for several months, and during these months, she had never once absorbed the phoenix blood.

It was simply because she worried that the aura of the phoenix blood would draw trouble. From the reactions of those great demons she had seen on the battlefield before, that pool of phoenix blood in Ancient Phoenix City clearly had no ordinary origin.

……

Cangyue was gone for quite some time. A full half month passed before he returned to the Ximu Mountain Range. With him came nearly a hundred Earth Fiend Realm demon beasts, all heavily wounded and bound neatly in rows.

Many of Cangyue’s own subordinates had come as well, Bashan among them.

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The demand Shi Lan had made was not easy for Cangyue to fulfill. Many of the Earth Fiend Realm demon beasts in his domain had some sort of connection with him. Naive wild beasts of the mountains like Tianbai were in the minority.

For those demon beasts that had ties with him, Cangyue could not bring himself to act so lightly. In half a month, he had only managed to gather nearly a hundred that met Shi Lan’s requirements.

Shi Lan was not very satisfied with this pace and set a deadline for Cangyue. Within two months, he was to hand over all five hundred demon beasts.

Cangyue did not dare voice any objections to Shi Lan’s demand. He could only return full of worries, racking his brains for solutions.

……

Nearly a hundred Earth Fiend Realm demon beasts filled the valley. Jinhong made a single circuit, then cut them all down.

The thick stench of blood filled the valley. Even the clear pool had been dyed red. Everywhere she looked, there was only scarlet.

Shi Lan stood on the surface of the water. Behind her, a chaotic dark illusion of the Black Domain unfolded, spreading nearly two hundred zhang and enveloping dozens of demon beast corpses. The dense blood qi surged into the sky, faintly forming a blood-red divine pillar behind her.

That divine pillar was only a little over two hundred zhang tall. Compared with Bai Weiyang and those shapeshifted great demons whose blood qi pillars stretched for several thousand zhang, the gap was enormous.

Yet compared with those Earth Fiend Realm demon beasts, it surpassed them by an unknown number of times.

Tianbai squatted at the mouth of the valley, a chill running through its body again and again. It did not dare look directly.

Unfolding the Black Domain, Shi Lan sat cross-legged on the surface of the water. The boundless flesh-and-blood essence turned into a long river, which she swallowed like a whale drinking the sea, drawing it all into her body.

The Jade Tempering Art circulated at high speed, digesting that blood qi. The vast essence fused into every part of Shi Lan’s body, tempering her tendons and bones, strengthening her blood and fortifying her flesh.

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The roaring sound of blood and qi echoed through the valley and did not fade for a long time.

As her blood qi gradually boiled, the aura of Innate spiritual blood in Shi Lan’s body became ever more distinct. Tianbai’s limbs went soft. It did not dare to keep watching and slowly backed out of the valley.

Shi Lan’s inhalations and exhalations grew longer and longer. Her skin became crystal clear like glazed crystal. The pale violet blood flowing through her veins was plainly visible, and she could even see each jade-like bone.

Skin like ice and bones like jade, purple blood coursing through her body.

She no longer seemed like a mortal, but ethereal, like an exiled immortal.

The blood qi of nearly a hundred Earth Fiend Realm demon beasts was not so easy to digest. Only after seven or eight days did the demon beast corpses in the valley turn into piles of dried bones wrapped in hides.

Such an immense volume of blood qi pushed the Jade Tempering Art all the way into the eighth stage. With Shi Lan’s current body, even mid-grade magic tools would already find it hard to break her skin.

She was but a single step away from the ninth stage, condensing the Jade-Glaze Body. Then even top-grade magic tools would struggle to wound her, and she could even catch their power bare-handed.

Besides the growth of the Jade Tempering Art, several of the acupoints in Shi Lan’s left leg had also been blasted open, starting from the Yongquan acupoint on the sole of her foot. Her true qi increased by a margin, and her strength advanced greatly.

Flesh-and-blood essence had a much more obvious effect on the body than on true qi, after all.

After regulating her breathing for a short while, Shi Lan stood up, stored the demon hides into the Qiankun Bracelet, and sank the pile of bones to the bottom of the pool.

Back in the cave, Shi Lan opened the system panel to check her current basic information.

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Host: Shi Lan

Cultivation: mid Earth Fiend Realm

Aptitude: 9 (Innate spiritual body, once in a thousand years.)

Cultivation arts: Yuqing Creation Art (second layer), Vajra Divine Fist (great accomplishment), Jade Tempering Art (eighth stage)

Divine abilities: Heaven’s Eye Qi-Sight (three-star), Black Domain (seven-star)

Strength evaluation: Some small achievement

Reputation: 67,500 (Name just beginning to spread)

Looking at the reputation line, Shi Lan made up her mind. Once Cangyue delivered all the demon beasts, she would leave this place.

In the Boundless Demon Domain, her reputation grew far slower than in the Vast Land of Shenzhou.

Although she appeared to be in no danger at the moment, this was, after all, the demon domain.

Glancing at Tianbai crouching in the distance, Shi Lan pondered inwardly how she ought to arrange things for it.