Cultivation Begins From The Desert-Chapter 49: Blood Demon Secret Technique

Regarding the legendary demonic cultivators, Zhouyang knew very little. He only knew that the cultivation techniques practiced by demonic cultivators were vastly different from those of proper Immortal Dao cultivators, and it was said that the cultivation process would be accompanied by immense pain, making it very easy to lose control of one’s mind and become possessed.

The cultivation realm seemed to be extremely wary of demonic cultivators, with information being heavily restricted. Zhouyang only knew that as soon as traces of demonic cultivators were found in any region, high-tier cultivators would immediately be dispatched to exterminate demons and protect the Dao.

He had once vaguely learned from the autobiography of a Foundation Establishment cultivator who participated in a demon extermination battle that demonic cultivators were divided into several lineages based on the types of cultivation techniques. Among them, demonic cultivators skilled in corpse refining and corpse control were called Corpse Demons, those skilled in soul refining and ghost exorcism were called Ghost Demons, and then there was the Blood Demon lineage he learned about this time from the black jade scroll.

The black jade scroll did not contain records of the cultivation techniques of the Blood Demon lineage, only recording three secret techniques of the Blood Demon lineage: "Blood Arrow Technique," "Blood Boiling Technique," and "Blood Escape Technique."

The "Blood Arrow Technique" had the lowest requirement for cultivation. Even Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators could practice and use it, but without the support of the Blood Demon lineage’s cultivation techniques, the power of this secret technique in the hands of a cultivator was much less than that in the hands of a Blood Demon lineage demonic cultivator.

The "Blood Boiling Technique" and "Blood Escape Technique" had higher requirements for cultivation. To use these two secret techniques, a cultivator must have Foundation Establishment stage cultivation.

Among them, the "Blood Boiling Technique" was a desperate secret technique, which temporarily increased magical power by burning the cultivator’s own essence blood, at most increasing the magical power several times.

The "Blood Escape Technique" was a life-saving secret technique, also using the burning of the cultivator’s essence blood. Once used, it allowed an escape of at least a hundred miles. When used by a Late-Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, escaping from a Purple Mansion Stage cultivator’s grasp was not too difficult.

After studying these three demonic secret techniques, Zhouyang could only lament that the demonic path truly lived up to its name, not only being cruel and vicious to others but also to oneself.

The essence blood of a cultivator was not just ordinary blood; it contained the essence of the cultivator’s essence, qi, and spirit.

A Ninth-Layer Qi Cultivation Cultivator, adding up all the essence blood in their body, would barely fill a small drinking cup, and losing a single drop would leave one weak for several days.

If too much essence blood is depleted, not only will the cultivator’s cultivation deteriorate, but their lifespan will also be reduced. If the loss is not compensated for in time, their path to Dao in the future will be essentially over.

Therefore, unless it is a life and death situation, a cultivator would basically never expend essence blood to display some of the desperate techniques listed as "forbidden techniques."

However, Zhouyang learned from the jade scroll he obtained that most of the techniques of the Blood Demon lineage demonic cultivators were related to essence blood, and the more essence blood consumed during the spellcasting, the greater the power.

Taking the "Blood Arrow Technique" as an example, according to information Zhouyang saw on the jade scroll, a Ninth-Layer Qi Cultivation Cultivator from the Blood Demon lineage, if willing to abandon all their essence blood to cast this secret technique, the power of the blood arrow would exceed that of a normal Tier Three Lower Grade technique, and a careless Early-Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator could easily fall to this attack.

A Qi Cultivation Stage cultivator using a secret technique to slay a Foundation Establishment cultivator, even at the cost of their life, is impressive enough.

From the start of his cultivation journey until now, Zhouyang had known and heard that unless one possessed treasures bestowed by high-tier cultivators, or the enemy was already severely injured with plummeting cultivation.

Otherwise, for a Qi Cultivation Stage cultivator to slay a Foundation Establishment cultivator, or for a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator to slay a Purple Mansion Stage cultivator, it would be absolutely impossible, not even for those legendary cultivators with a spirit body.

As a Ninth-Layer Qi Cultivation Cultivator, Zhouyang was very clear about the vast difference between the Qi Cultivation Stage and the Foundation Establishment Stage.

In the simplest terms of magical power, even without considering the difference in the quality of magical power, merely in terms of quantity, even a newly Foundation Established First-Layer Foundation Establishment cultivator’s magical power was at least five times that of a Ninth-Layer Qi Cultivation cultivator’s!

With such a huge disparity, what could a Qi Cultivation Stage cultivator use to kill across stages?

"No wonder the higher-ups in the cultivation realm want to block information about demonic cultivators. If those loose cultivators and especially sand bandits found out that demonic secret techniques could allow them to kill enemies across stages, it would be strange if they didn’t pursue these techniques!"

"Once they’ve cultivated demonic cultivation techniques and secret techniques, how could they not want to refine demonic spiritual artifacts and elixirs?"

"But are demonic spiritual artifacts and elixirs so easy to refine? It often requires sacrificing tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of mortals’ blood in artifact refining and alchemy, frequently needing the essence blood and divine soul of cultivators for alchemy. If such demonic cultivators became more prevalent in the cultivation realm, what kind of situation would the current cultivation realm be in?"

Zhouyang realized the crucial point and couldn’t help but feel a chill down his spine, almost wanting to destroy the jade scroll in his hand, making this harmful thing disappear from the world entirely.

However, in the end, he refrained.

The reason he refrained was simple, just like when he previously set up traps to ambush others, the means didn’t matter whether sinister or righteous, as long as they didn’t violate the bottom line of his heart’s persistence, they could be used.

He only used the three secret techniques recorded in the jade scroll and did not cultivate demonic techniques, so he didn’t have to worry about being influenced and harming others.

After all, the spirit pills for restoring essence blood and primordial qi were not exclusive to demonic cultivators. Among the elixirs refined by cultivators, there were also some specifically used to restore essence blood and primordial qi.

Of course, Zhouyang had to admit, he was tempted by the effects of the "Blood Escape Technique."

This secret technique, although having significant aftereffects, had undeniably excellent effects. Once he established his foundation and learned this secret technique, he could roam the vast world.

In the next half month or so, Zhouyang quietly stayed in the basement reading books. He carried a lot of Grain Avoidance Pills on him, so he wasn’t afraid of starving, even if he stayed for half a year.

More than half a month later, Zhouyang estimated that those sand bandits should have ceased their activities, so he quietly sneaked out to the surface to investigate the situation.

Of course, for safety reasons, this time he still used the "Water Escape Technique" spirit talisman to travel via water routes.

The Baisha River runs from south to north through the entire Baisha River Oasis. As long as the sand bandits haven’t left the oasis, Zhouyang could follow the river and eventually discover their movements.

However, by the time he followed the river to the northernmost edge of the oasis at Golden Water Lake, he didn’t encounter any trace of sand bandits or even cultivators along the way, which finally convinced him that those sand bandits had indeed left.

The departure of the sand bandits was undoubtedly good news. After confirming the truth of this matter, Zhouyang immediately headed towards Golden Dawn Mountain.

Before fleeing the marketplace, he had discussed with his foster mother Zhou Xuan Yu and others that if they were lucky enough to escape safely and confirmed that the sand bandits had left the oasis, they could return to Golden Dawn Mountain to reunite.

At that time, everyone was mostly certain of one thing: since the sand bandits waited for the Chen Family Ancestor to leave the oasis before daring to attack, they certainly wouldn’t dare to permanently occupy the spirit vein there.

Therefore, once it was confirmed that the sand bandits left the oasis, Golden Dawn Mountain, which was their primary target, would ironically become the most suitable place for a reunion.

However, when he rushed all the way to the outside of Golden Dawn Mountain, what he saw made his expression drastically change.

The once hundreds of meters high, spiritually rich Golden Dawn Mountain had now become a lifeless land with no spiritual energy at all.

Not only had the spirit vein on the mountain completely dissipated, but the entire mountain peak had also collapsed, reducing its height by several dozen meters. The buildings, flowers, and trees originally on the mountain were nowhere to be seen, only scorched remnants from a massive fire remained.

"This is madness, sheer madness!"

Zhouyang’s face was ashen as he looked at this scene, utterly infuriated by the state of Golden Dawn Mountain.

The importance of a spirit vein to a cultivator is beyond dispute; generally speaking, even in sect wars, cultivators don’t destroy each other’s spirit veins, at most they occupy them.

After all, possessing more spirit veins allows one’s side to sustain more cultivators, and no sect or clan dislikes having more spirit veins.

In the past, even sand bandits, after conquering small oases, wouldn’t destroy the spirit veins there.

Because the sand bandits understood that without spirit veins to support other cultivators, they would have no one to rob, and leaving the spirit veins intact would attract other cultivators to rob.

But now, those sand bandits who invaded Baisha River Oasis had broken this taboo!

Zhouyang could already imagine what expression the Chen Family Ancestor would have upon returning to see Golden Dawn Mountain turned into a scorched land by earth fire!

The significance of Golden Dawn Mountain to the Chen Family needs no further explanation. The largest income for the Chen Family came from the marketplace here at Golden Dawn Mountain. This marketplace had absorbed too much of the Chen Family’s efforts, with several generations over hundreds of years building its prosperity and reputation into what is now known as "Jinsha Marketplace."

Now, all of it is gone!

"The skies of Baisha River Oasis are about to change!"

Zhouyang looked up at the azure sky, seemingly already foreseeing a storm brewing.

With Golden Dawn Mountain burned to the ground, the storage bags they buried there were certainly unrecoverable, which made him feel a painful loss.

It must be known that those storage bags contained spiritual resources worth thousands of spirit stones.

Though he felt the agonizing loss, the past was unchangeable, and he could only keep this grudge in his heart, hoping for a chance to seek retribution from those sand bandits in the future.

In the next several days, Zhouyang wandered around the vicinity of Golden Dawn Mountain, hoping to find the Zhou Clan members who came to reunite.

In fact, not only was he wandering nearby searching for family, but other family survivors who also broke out from the marketplace had, by unspoken consensus, considered Golden Dawn Mountain a post-war meeting point and likewise wandered around searching for their clan members.

After meeting and exchanging information on the sand bandits with some people, he found that many others, like himself, seemed to have sensed something from the series of strange behaviors of the sand bandits, with everyone being somewhat reticent and reluctant to discuss related topics.

Through searching for four or five days, Zhouyang successively found three Zhou Clan members: Zhou Yuanchun, Zhou Yuanzhen, and Zhou Xiong.

In conversations with the three, he learned that after everyone fled separately that day, these three, due to their lower cultivation levels, were not specifically targeted by the sand bandits. After escaping Golden Dawn Mountain, they, like him, found a remote mountainous area to hide and only recently dared to come out.

However, besides these three, his most worrisome foster mother Zhou Xuan Yu had no news at all, not even from her husband Wu Tao, who was completely out of contact.