Chapter 111. Vessel

"You're already back? How long has it even been since you left?"

The Blood Sect member asked in surprise as So-hwa entered. The book she had been reading before leaving the secret vault was now gone—perhaps he had put it away, leaving her seat completely empty.

So-hwa's gaze, fixed on the empty desk, shifted to the Blood Sect member.

"I told you to leave it. I was going to come back to it."

The Blood Sect member frowned deeply.

"How shameless. You glare at the one who even organized it so it would be easier for you to read."

"Organized?"

He must have been a man with a foul temper by nature, as he emitted killing intent whenever he had the chance. His qi and blood were damaged, so it seemed difficult for him to exert proper strength, but the habit appeared ingrained. A habit of immediately cutting off a person's breath when irritated.

He pointed to the table beside him.

Dozens of books were stacked there.

"To understand the Blood Jade, you must understand the history of the Blood Sect. It's said that the one who created the Blood Jade came up with the idea of alchemy while organizing the sect's history."

"I don't need to know the history. I'll read it later if I have time after making the Blood Jade. Give me the medical texts first."

The Blood Sect member let out a small laugh.

"All the texts written in the Central Plains language are documents related to the Blood Jade."

"......"

“You commanded me to translate only the records necessary for making the Blood Jade. There are still unfinished secret texts being sorted. If you include all of those, the total should reach hundreds of volumes. If you're going to read all of them anyway, wouldn't it be better to read them in the same order as the one who created the Blood Jade?"

So-hwa swallowed a sigh.

He said there were hundreds of records.

The rumor that the Blood Demon had lived eternally might actually be true.

The history of the Blood Sect was by no means shorter than that of the Tang Clan.

Taking it as a gamble, So-hwa sat down and opened a book.

As she read the first record, she realized the Blood Sect member had not lied.

He really had brought them in historical order.

The first page was a mess.

It was a record that seemed to have been written in prehistoric times, with no structure, just a stream of consciousness scribbled down.

The Blood Demon appeared to view blood as the core of the human body.

Unlike the orthodox sects' secret manuals, which explained origins through unseen forces—harmony of yin and yang, the balance of heaven, earth, and humanity, and the compatibility of the Five Elements—the opening here was entirely different.

The Blood Demon believed blood was the source of life, continuing through time, merging with new blood to either evolve or degenerate—the very essence of humanity.

So-hwa gave a dry chuckle.

'He doesn't know the first thing about medicine.'

The Blood Demon had scrawled his thoughts down as though writing a diary.

But she could understand what he was trying to say.

Time connected by blood.

He must have meant that the blood of ancestors continued through their descendants.

Seen that way, it wasn't entirely wrong.

It was common for beautiful children to be born from beautiful parents, and for sturdy martial artists to be born from a strong father and mother.

It couldn't be said to always hold true, but it was common for children to inherit the abilities of their father and mother.

So-hwa narrowed her eyes as she opened the next book.

There were ten red dots, as if blood had been used to mark them. The dots were large, like official seals.

Below the dots, the Blood Demon had written names. They were unfamiliar names, making it difficult to know what they referred to. It was only after turning the page that So-hwa understood.

On a vast map, ten drops of blood were marked, with names written beneath each one.

A map of the Outer Regions, not of the Central Plains.

The characters beneath the blood drops were the names of bloodlines from the Outer Regions.

The Blood Demon had detailed the characteristics of these bloodlines: robust physiques, blue eyes, eyesight akin to clairvoyance, and so on.

He tested their limits, scored them with proper marks, and assessed the excellence of each bloodline.

'He's insane...'

So-hwa furrowed her brow in disgust.

Thankfully, the records were sparsely written, so she read through them quickly.

So-hwa rapidly skimmed through several volumes.

Then, at some point, the handwriting in the records changed. It seemed the Blood Demon had passed the task of recording to someone else.

Unlike before, thorough and detailed experiments followed.

While the early experiments were already repulsive, the crude records made it hard for So-hwa to grasp the full reality. But now, the descriptions were detailed enough to cause nausea.

After arbitrarily evaluating the excellence of the bloodlines, the Blood Demon selected the superior ones and ranked them again.

He continually tried to divide the hierarchy of blood and searched for a way to absorb that power. And finally, he completed a dark art that allowed him to absorb the strength he desired.

It wasn't a method that could be used on all bloodlines. It involved draining the internal energy accumulated in the body. The Blood Demon could only fully take the power of martial artists.

Even so, he did not abandon the bloodlines from which he could not steal power.

Since he couldn't absorb energy from those who weren't martial artists, he sought to possess them instead.

Like breeding animals, he arranged marriages among various bloodlines of the Outer Regions. All to obtain a strange body that matched his desires.

The children born of such unions, he called "vessels."

And when he found a "vessel" he liked, he would take them and give them half of his own blood to create a new "vessel."

When she was young, So-hwa had heard terrifying rumors—how the Blood Sect took corpses to create jiangshi, or experimented on children to make monsters.

And here, those very things were recorded—truly dreadful acts no human should ever commit.

Later, obsessed with exceptional "vessels," he even taught them martial arts. To extract the internal energy accumulated in a perfect body.

“Calm, aren’t you?”

At the Blood Sect member's voice, So-hwa lifted her head.

“Most people would be shocked, but your reaction is rather dull. Not even a flicker in your expression.”

He muttered in disappointment, as if he had been closely watching So-hwa's face the whole time.

So-hwa ignored his words and continued reading the records.

She read of how the Blood Demon continuously conquered different bloodlines, experimented on them, took them for himself, or discarded them.

"Cold-hearted. Truly cold-hearted."

The Blood Sect member shook his head as he watched So-hwa remain focused.

Some time later, a faint line appeared between her brows as she read the experiments.

It was because the text mentioned Extreme Yin Body and Extreme Yang Body, bodies capable of manipulating the extremes of yin or yang energy, which the Blood Demon had long coveted.

It was a record about the Five Palaces of the Outer Regions.

So-hwa's hand, flipping through the pages, began to slow.

The Blood Demon had eliminated the Five Palaces Lords, then kidnapped their direct descendants. It was recorded that he cherished these direct descendants, ensuring they wouldn't die.

But not all direct descendants were cherished.

Only those who were exceptional received the Blood Demon's protection. The others were treated just as cruelly as the rest of the Outer Regions' bloodlines.

Similarly, not all martial arts from the Five Palaces of the Outer Regions appealed to the Blood Demon.

What he wanted were the Extreme Yin Body and Extreme Yang Body.

In the end, he kept only the direct descendants of the North Sea Ice Palace and the Great Desert Solar Palace in the sect.

Due to the war with the Demonic Sect, their power had weakened, and they could not retrieve all the "vessels."

The Blood Demon prioritized the bloodlines he considered most excellent. Among the Five Palaces of the Outer Regions, only the North Sea Ice Palace and the Great Desert Solar Palace held such bloodlines.

To enhance the bodies of their descendants, he bred them with superior vessels he had raised.

However, after discovering that the thicker the direct bloodline, the more fully the extremes of yin and yang could be controlled, the Blood Demon stopped mixing their blood with others.

So-hwa put the book down and lifted her head.

Across from her, the Blood Sect member was silently translating a text.

"I have something to ask."

He replied without looking her way.

"Ask."

"Three years ago, when you came to Emei Mountain."

Thud.

He set down his brush and gave her a cold look. But Tang So-hwa continued speaking without concern.

"The ones you tried to kill back then seemed to be using ice arts."

She held up the secret text she had been reading.

"Are the ones from the North Sea Ice Palace  mentioned here?"

“Does it matter?”

"I read the records you gave me. The bloodline of the North Sea Ice Palace  was deemed excellent by the Blood Demon, yet you tried to kill them, didn't you?"

So-hwa asked with narrowed eyes.

"Isn't that defiance against the Blood Demon?"

The Blood Sect member replied calmly, as if it were nothing.

"Unbelievers can be killed."

"Unbelievers?"

"No matter how excellent a vessel may be, if they're unbelievers, they can be punished by believers."

He hesitated briefly, then added.

"Except for sorcerers."

"Why not the sorcerers?"

"Many of them haven't learned martial arts, so they're easy to kill, but... they're useful. That's why."

"I understand not killing them because they're useful, but it's strange that many can't learn martial arts. The Blood Demon sought robust bodies. Wouldn't someone who can't master martial arts be a useless vessel to him?"

The man gave a faint laugh.

"When the Blood Demon said they could be killed, he didn't really mean to kill them."

"What do you mean, not really?"

"If they were vessels acknowledged by him, he believed no believer would be able to kill them."

As if frustrated, the Blood Sect member let out a sigh.

"If someone is killed by a sect member, then they're just worthless scrap, not an excellent vessel. Besides, there is no sect in existence that spares unbelievers. The Blood Demon took them in because he deemed them necessary—if they weren't, then there's no reason they'd have been kept alive."

"And if they all end up dead? Wouldn't that make all the Blood Demon's effort to preserve that bloodline meaningless?"

So-hwa frowned, feeling the contradiction.

The Blood Sect member scoffed and looked at So-hwa as if bewildered.

"So did those people die by our hands back then?"

"......"

"If you knew how many believers died trying to capture them, you'd understand the Blood Demon's will."

"How many?"

The Blood Sect member gave a bitter smile and looked around the office.

"This hall used to be called the Intelligence Hall. There were hundreds of sect members working inside it. The incident three years ago was a disgrace to the hall, so they mobilized everyone in here to resolve it quickly."

He fell silent, then answered after a long pause.

"But after that event, I'm the only sect member from this hall still alive."

His red eyes glinted black.

He gave off killing intent, barely suppressing his rage.

Lowering his gaze, he continued speaking.

"Those at Emei Mountain were only a portion of the rebelling unbelievers. Most of them fled to the North Sea. The Main Blood Hall Lord captured a few there, but when he went to the Central Plains on the Blood Demon's orders, the unbelievers used that opening to rescue their comrades and vanish. It's been three years, and not a single one has been found."

The man added with a casual tone.

"Those people weren't particularly valued even among the unbelievers. They were just average, the kind that would be pulled into Profound Emptiness Pavilion."

"......"

"Who knows what kind of lucky chance allowed them to grow so strong? If one of them had acted as wisely as the Main Blood Hall Lord, the Blood Demon would've acknowledged them and let them form a combat unit. But they made a foolish choice."

He sighed.

"I don't know what trick they used to remove the Blood Demon's blood, but because of that, the Blood Demon faced difficulty."

Mid-sentence, he suddenly shook his head.

"No, it's not the Blood Demon who faced trouble—it's them. In the end, the North Sea Ice Palace's legacy, which had fortunately continued, will now be completely severed.”

So-hwa lowered her gaze and thought.

‘Has the Alliance Leader ever met someone from the North Sea Ice Palace ?’

She tried to return to reading the book, but the words no longer entered her mind.

Feeling fatigued, So-hwa left the secret vault.

She had intended to take a short rest and return, but stepping outside only made her feel more drained.

Standing at the door, the gatekeeper spoke in a calm voice.

"The Blood Demon is calling for you."

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