A rank four grand formation had the might to threaten corporeal soul realm cultivators.
Even though Tianlong's "Sacrificial Slaughter refinement formation" was just a mere replica of the original, it still contained the power to annihilate everyone below the Yin Yang Cleansing cleansing stage!
The moment he employed the grand formation, a blood light filled the cave and the demonic Qi of the place churned.
Poof!
The body of one of the 108 demonic beasts trembled. A blood-light covered it and soon its body exploded into a pool of blood.
It happened so suddenly, that Tianlong whose consciousness was inside of it, only felt a sharp stinging pain.
The pool of blood contained his spiritual sense, the melted sea of consciousness, the blood, and the flesh of the demonic beast. It turned into a small spherical ball and entered his eyebrows.
The body of Tianlong trembled, but he didn't resist it. As the pool of blood assimilated in his body, he could feel his spirit sense increasing by five per cent.
However, this increase came with a heavy price. The part of his soul consciousness that was inside the beast, was permanently lost.
With his increased spiritual sense, he relentlessly tried to fuse his will with the lotus. Although he was being rejected every time, he continued to attack again and again.
As more and more beasts perished, his eyebrows which were of a darker shade, started to turn white.
The damage to his soul was eating away his longevity. Their death and his burning soul, filled him with an aura of death.
The weakened soul will drastically decrease his defence against spiritual attacks, while the difficulty to reach the corporeal soul realm and learning any soul techniques would greatly increase.
His face was pale as a paper and blood came out of all seven orifices of his head. Even though he was just a youth of sixteen years, he seemed to have aged by a decade.
With the sacrifice of 108 late rank one demons, the strength of his spiritual sense increased by 540 per cent of his original. His formless sea of consciousness turned into a bloody colour and the faint howls of demonic beasts could be heard from within. Their voices filled with resentment and hatred.
His spirit sense charged through the 66 roots and tried to wrest control of the lotus. The death aura present in his body reduced the repulsive will from the vine to a bare minimum.
Although the repulsion decreased to a bare minimum, it was still present, albeit in a different form. Feelings like being burned alive, drowning, electrocution and constriction ran throughout his body.
"Still not enough!" Gritting his teeth, he took out his Thunder spirit blade and without hesitating, stabbed his thigh.
Zzz!
A low rumbling sound filled his body. As the lightning coursed through his veins, he immediately sent it towards the vine to suppress it further.
"Using the soul as the sacrifice, lightning as suppressant and spirit sense as the guide, the seven elements shall be refined."
The more the lightning ravaged his body, the more his bloodline started to churn and seethe.
It was as if a shackle was being broken.
True dragons were overbearing by nature.
As the sovereign of myriad beasts, even the heavens couldn't cause them to bow down their head.
However, Tianlong's nature wasn't overbearing.
Calm, cautious and carefree. That was his nature.
Even when he killed people, he would think tens of times before coming to a decision.
This was completely opposite to the nature of dragons, and due to this, he wasn't able to draw out his complete strength …until now.
The burning soul, bloody spirit and the unyielding will to never give up resonated with the three drops of sacred blood in his body. They released a piercing halo which caused the thunder spirit blade to tremble in fear!
Tianlong wasn't aware of any of this.
His will was currently engaged in an intense battle with the lotus.
Yet as time passed by, he felt a sudden connection with the lightning in his veins.
As the feeling grew stronger and stronger, he suddenly felt an intense desire to scream.
Soon his instincts took control of his body. It caused him to raise his head towards the heavens and let out a scream.
Roar!
What came out wasn't a scream, it was a roar!
The roar of a dragon!
The true dragon race was the sovereign of myriad beasts. Each of their roars could make the souls of demons tremble in fear and submit to them. However, the purpose of this roar wasn't to suppress others. No, it was a roar of awakening!
…
Inside his room, Qin Houzi was immersed in cultivation. A white female body was sitting on top of him in the lotus position as he moved.
Her eyes were listless and there was no change in her expression even when she was being violated.
Even if she was aware, she couldn't change anything.
Suddenly the body of Qin Houzi trembled as he felt goosebumps.
An unknown sensation crept into his heart and he suddenly had the urge to kneel.
"Pu…"
Biting his tongue, he spat a mouthful of blood which drove this suppressive feeling off his heart.
Just as he was about to get up, he felt something was amiss. Suddenly, he heard a thunderous roar in his head.
Before he could make any sense of it, he suddenly felt his blood flow going out of control.
With a horrified gaze, he saw his golden fur turning from golden to silver.
"What's happening? Who's doing this?"
He frantically tried to stop this process but to no avail. His cultivation continued to fall from silver to iron after which the metallic lustre was completely gone.
"This… this kind of suppression is only possible by someone with incredibly high body refining realm! That senior… that senior must be at least in the Soul convergence realm!"
As this thought arose in his heart, his breathing started to get heavy.
He no longer tried to resist the will and finally submitted.
Meanwhile, the girls who were emotionless till now suddenly trembled. Looking at Qin Houzi, a flash of hatred passed through their eyes but it soon vanished.
As for Qin Houzi who was trembling in fear, he didn't notice this at all.
…
"So you mean to say that Zhan Damian is currently in one of the caves?"
A man looked at Hei Diao respectfully and nodded.
He replied, "Elder Hei when we were taking a cultivator to one of the spirit ponds, we saw that a room was preoccupied despite having no record. When we checked, we saw that elder Zhan's token had been used."
"Audacious!" Hei Diao's face became grave. "First he fights with someone and now he secretly uses a room for himself without paying– " Before he could finish his words, a tremor ran through him.
Not only him, but the other demons in the vicinity also felt the change.
However, due to their lower cultivation base, they weren't able to feel the change that Qin Houzi did. After the initial shock, their mind stabilized.
"Is the boss cultivating some technique? …or perhaps reached a new cultivation level?" One of them asked excitedly.
To them, only Qin Houzi was powerful enough to create such a disturbance in the demonic Qi.
Hei Diao shared the same thoughts. Although he wanted to verify, he knew that disturbing his friend at this critical juncture was a bad idea.
Without letting anything show on his face, he coldly snorted.
"Hmph! Is that something you are qualified to ask? Just lead me to where Zhan Damian is. Today I'll show him the consequences of breaking rules."
The messenger lowered his head and inwardly grumbled.
"This way sir."
…
In one of the largest inns of the stargazing valley, one of the rooms on the second floor was occupied by a lone female cultivator.
Even though no one had seen her face, none of them doubted that she was a peerless beauty. Although many people had intentions towards her, she was actually quite powerful which kept other people at bay.
Currently, her room was filled with the smell of herbs. Sitting beside her workbench, she was silently observing a cauldron. There was a purple liquid in it which was boiling over the light blue flame.
Suddenly she felt a tremor run through her body which broke her concentration.
"Brother Tianlong!" She exclaimed.
"Eh, why did I suddenly think of him?" she felt confused at her reaction.
But now that she remembered him, she lost all interest in alchemy. Sighing, she stopped the refinement process.
"Idiot! Stupid!... You said that you were going to take me with you after a month, but not only did you forget your promise, you didn't even come to visit me once!
"Ok, maybe you didn't get the chance to come out, but you could have at least contacted me… Argh! I'm so angry!"
She started to take out her frustration in the pillow.
"Moreover this Shi Fang is constantly disturbing me whenever I'm going out for anything! Can't he understand that I'm not at all interested in him?"
After grumbling for about five minutes, she calmed down.
Alchemy and cultivation, that was all she was doing since he left.
She wanted a break. Walking out of her room, she marvelled at the sky.
The night sky was exceptionally clear today.
All the major constellations were clearly visible, their glittering presence making the whole valley mystical.
She looked at the stars, looked at the people, looked at the endless stretch of forests. Despite being surrounded by them, she felt lonely.
A westerly wind blew across the valley, making her long voluminous hair dance along with it.
She liked the wind, it reminded her of him.
"The wind sure is restless today…
There was a sweet smile on her face.