Martial Peak

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

From the opposite direction Myriad Beast Mountain’s group was invading, the other force from Demon Blood Temple was carefully walking through a thick jungle, the middle-aged man covered in a blood-red aura in the lead was extremely alert. Although this man was constantly examining his surroundings with his Divine Sense and had yet to discover any kind of anomaly here, he could still feel a vague sense of unease in his heart, as if there was great danger all around him.

This place should be regarded as the right flank of Dragon Cave Mountain, and was not too far from its centre; after all, Dragon Cave Mountain itself wasn’t very big to begin with.

Suddenly, a few screams came from far away as the characteristic rumblings and violent energy fluctuations of battle appeared.

The expressions of the Demon Blood Temple disciples behind this middle-aged man all changed when this occurred and one of the First-Order Origin Realm cultivators said with a somber face, “Senior Brother Wu, those sounds came from Myriad Beast Mountain’s side, it seems something has happened to them. We should not take this small hilltop for granted.”

“En, although there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong here, everyone should remain vigilant. Don’t fall into the enemy’s traps or Spirit Arrays,” Wu Xun turned back and said lightly.

“Yes.”

“Huh, what’s this?” Suddenly, one of the Saint King disciples behind Wu Xun seemed to discover something strange and asked aloud. However, before Wu Xun and the other Origin Realm masters were able to investigate, a panic-stricken scream rang out before coming to an abrupt halt, after which the fresh smell of blood filled the air.

*Kacha…*

A gruesome crunching sound echoed, and as Wu Xun looked back, he saw that, where once one of his disciples stood, there was now a strange blood-red plant at least ten metres in height. At this moment, the plant had actually wrapped itself around a corpse and was squirming violently, as if it was a mouth tasting delicious food.

The crunching sound was clearly coming from this plant.

What was even more terrifying though was that as the corpse of this Demon Blood Temple disciple was being chewed up, it was also shrivelling at a rate visible to the naked eye, as if the very essence of its physique was being drained, transforming it into a dry husk moments later.

After this strange plant absorbed the corpse’s blood and vital essence, it turned an even darker shade of red, like a giant sword giving off a blood-red aura, causing everyone who saw it to shudder.

*Xiu…*

This seemingly hard blade suddenly danced like a long whip, shooting out tens of metres towards another Demon Blood Temple disciple who was standing dumbfounded.

This disciple’s reaction was not slow, and he hurriedly summoned a golden shield-type artifact to defend himself in a panic. Although this artifact was not high grade, it was still a decent defensive artifact.

With this shield protecting his front, the Demon Blood Temple disciple could not help breathing a sigh of relief, but just as he was about to retreat, his eyes caught sight of an incredible scene.

*Kacha…*

The tough shield was unable to withstand a single blow from this strange plant and was sheared directly in half. The strange plant’s momentum was not even slightly diminished as it continued forward and quickly pierced this cultivator’s lower abdomen before wrapping around him and dragging him back.

“You dare!?” Wu Xun roared angrily. How could he simply stand by and watch as his Sect’s disciple was brutally murdered? His failure to respond in time just now was simply because this scene had been so unusual; he had never met such a strange and cruel plant.

As he shouted, Wu Xun’s right hand flicked, sending out a sword-wave-like attack that cut towards the retreating blood red plant.

The blade struck its mark and caused a series of sparks to fly along with a grinding sound of metal to ring out; however, besides causing the long blade of grass to tremble slightly and slow down a bit, it had not actually been cut apart.

[How could it be so hard!] Wu Xun sucked in a sharp breath. Although he had not put much strength into his attack just now, it was still a blow delivered by a Second-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivator, yet it had failed to cut down a mere plant.

A sharp light flashed across Wu Xun’s eyes as he again flicked his wrist and sent out a jet-black thread from his fingertip. This black thread revealed a very strange aura and had a strong black Qi pulsing from it.

Demon Blood Thread Secret Technique!

Rather than the Secret Technique Yang Kai was cultivating, this was the real Demon Blood Thread Secret Technique. Almost every high-ranking member of Demon Blood Temple was proficient in this flexible and mysterious method that was even capable of cutting apart Shi.

The black thread flashed forward and the long blade of grass that was dragging the helpless Demon Blood Temple disciple was swiftly cut apart. With a crisp sound, the strange blade of grass was cut into two sections, the base rapidly retreating back towards its roots while the section which was wrapping the Demon Blood Temple disciple fell to the ground.

What made everyone’s skin crawl though was that the section of this strange plant that had been cut off continued to wriggle on the ground, as if it had a life of its own.

The Demon Blood Temple disciple that had been caught by this strange plant was still unable to escape misfortune. Even though Wu Xun attacked swiftly to rescue this disciple, by the time the strange plant was severed in two, this unfortunately disciple had been completely drained of all his blood.

“What the hell was that?” Wu Xun turned slightly pale as he stared towards the strange plant, a clear look of fear appearing on his face. A single plant had managed to do this, but if there were ten or them, or a hundred…

Wu Xun didn’t dare think about it any further, for if that was the case, everyone here would definitely fall today. Where had Dragon Cave Mountain found this monstrosity? Moreover, weren’t they worried they would bring about their own destruction by planting it here?

Just as he was frowning deeply and his expression was filling with bitterness, another First-Order Origin Returning Realm nearby suddenly shuddered, “Senior Brother Wu… Isn’t this bad?”

“What do you mean?”

“That damn thing has been constantly smacking the ground as if… as if…”

“As if what?” Wu Xun asked but suddenly seemed to think of a possibility which caused him to pale greatly.

The moment after Wu Xun realized this possibility, the ground all around his ground began to tremble and crack. Soon, one after another, more strange plants began bursting up from below, like mushrooms sprouting after a spring rain.

These strange plants all had different heights, some of them an imposing five to ten metres tall while others barely reached half a metre in height, as if they were newly sprouted; however, all of them were deep red in colour, as if they had been soaked in fresh blood.

The most terrifying thing was that after these plants sprouted, they began probing around, as if they were predators drawn here by the scent of their prey.

Wu Xun’s forehead began dripping with cold sweat.

In fact, all the Demon Blood Temple disciples were currently standing perfectly still, not daring to move.

Just now, all of them had witnessed the terrifying power of this strange plant. Their two fellow disciples had not even had a chance to fight back before dying on the spot. Now, many of these strange plants had emerged from the ground and surrounded their group so how could they act rashly? Wouldn’t that be akin to seeking death?

However, them not moving did not mean these strange plants would not. After these strange blade-like plants swung back and forth for a moment, all of them suddenly pierced forward like arrows towards the Demon Blood Temple disciples.

“Dodge! Quickly!” Wu Xun shouted as he pushed his Saint Qi violently. Using his Demon Blood Thread again, he began cutting through the blood red blades of grass approaching him before his figure flickered and disappeared as he took evasive action.

But not everyone had Wu Xun’s strength. The Saint King Realm cultivators were the first to fall, with six of them dying instantly during the first wave of attacks, cut into pieces of bloodied meat by these strange plants. The broken remains of these six splashed out across the ground, but a moment later their flesh and blood was absorbed by these plants. After absorbing fresh blood, these strange plants seemed to become even more violent and began swinging around wildly, turning the surrounding several-hundred-metre region into a bloody killing field filled with terrified screams, each one representing another dead cultivator.

Wu Xun was both startled and furious, but at the same time he was helpless. Although he was not afraid of these strange plants, wanting to rescue all the others from Demon Blood Temple with his strength was nothing but a fantasy.

Above Dragon Cave Mountain, Yang Kai and Yang Yan stood quietly, overlooking the whole situation.

The reason why these two could stand here undetected by anyone was thanks to a cloak artifact Yang Yan had refined. This artifact had an incredibly powerful concealment ability. Of course, this artifact could not hide them from the senses of a Third-Order Origin Returning Realm master, but the closest master of that level was more than fifty kilometres away so it was impossible for them to be exposed from across such a distance.

“Did the Blood Sword Grass already grow to such a scale?” Yang Kai was greatly surprised. The strange blood-red plant Demon Blood Temple had encountered was clearly the Blood Sword Grass he had brought back from the Flowing Flame Sand Field.

At that time, Yang Kai had only brought a single seed with him. After planting it, he had given it a drop of Golden Blood, but Yang Kai has not paid any attention to it since then. Now, the Blood Sword Grass had given him a pleasant surprise.

“This thing has astonishing growth potential. With enough blood, it can grow indefinitely. It once caused a lot of trouble on Shadowed Star,” Yang Yan explained lightly, but in her beautiful eyes, a trace of suspicion flashed, “However, it shouldn’t have grown this fast. We haven’t given it much blood in recent years… strange.”

Yang Kai wrinkled his nose as he secretly speculated that this was related to the drop of Golden Blood he had fed it, but he didn’t bother explaining this and instead asked curiously, “But I only brought back one Blood Sword Grass seed, how come there are so many of them now?”

“This thing’s vitality is tenacious. As long as there is a mother plant, it can produce an endless stream of offshoots.”

“So that’s how it is!” Yang Kai nodded lightly before glancing over towards Myriad Beast Mountain’s group that was fighting with the Fire Spirit Beast horde and grinning, “We should make our move, it’s time to cut off the enemy’s retreat and annihilate them.”