“Have you already come back? How long has it even been since you left.”When Sohwa entered, the Blood Cult man asked in surprise. The book she had been reading before leaving the Bigo had already been cleared away by him; there was nothing at her place.Sohwa, looking at the empty desk, let her gaze slide to the Blood Cult man.“I said I’d come back to read it again. I told you to leave it.”The Blood Cult man screwed up his face.“Have you no shame. You look at the one who arranged things for your convenience with eyes like that.”“Arranged?”The man must originally have had a rotten temper; whenever he found a gap, he let killing intent leak. His qi-blood was damaged, so it seemed hard for him to exert real strength, but it looked like an old habit—when angered, he went straight to cutting off his opponent’s breath.He pointed to the side table.Dozens of books were piled there.“To understand the Blood Jade, you must understand the Blood Cult’s history. It’s said the one who made the Blood Jade thought of alchemy while organizing the Blood Cult’s history.”“There’s no need to know history. Give me the medical texts; if I have time after I make the Blood Jade, I’ll read them.”At that, the Blood Cult man gave a short laugh.“Everything written in the Central Plains tongue is a document related to the Blood Jade.”“……”“We were ordered to translate only the records needed to make the Blood Jade. There are secret texts still being organized as well. If you add all of those, it will be in the hundreds of volumes. If you’re going to read it all anyway, wouldn’t it be better to read in the same order as the one who made the Blood Jade?”Sohwa swallowed a sigh.He said the records numbered in the hundreds.It seemed the rumor that the Blood Demon had bought longevity was true.The Blood Cult’s history was by no means shorter than the Tang Clan’s.Taking it as a gamble, Sohwa sat and opened a book.As she read the first record, Sohwa realized the Blood Cult man had not lied.That he had brought the histories of the Blood Cult in order.The first chapter was an utter mess.As if it had been written in prehistoric times, it had no form; scrawls followed the flow of consciousness.The Blood Demon seemed to regard blood as the core of the human body.Unlike the orthodox sects’ secret texts that began by explaining the origin with the unseen—yin and yang’s harmony, the balance of heaven–earth–man, the mutual generation and overcoming of the five phases—the preface here was different.The Blood Demon held that blood was the source of life, that it continued along the stream of time, and that it was the essence of the human being that evolves or degenerates by merging with new blood.Sohwa let out a hollow laugh.'He has not the least knowledge of medicine.'The Blood Demon had scrawled his thoughts as if keeping a diary.But she understood what he wanted to say.Time carried by blood.It must mean that an ancestor’s blood continues through descendants.If one thought of it that way, it wasn’t entirely wrong.Often a beautiful child was born to a beautiful father and mother; often a sturdy martial man was born to a strong-boned father and mother.One could not assert it was always consistent, but it was common for children to inherit the abilities of father and mother.Opening the next book, Sohwa narrowed her eyes.As if they had been dotted with blood, ten red dots were drawn. They were large, like seal marks.The Blood Demon wrote names under the dots. They were names she had never heard, so it was hard to know what they meant. Only after she opened the next page did she understand.On a vast map, ten blood drops had fallen, and names were written again underneath.It was a map of the Outland, not the Central Plains.The letters under the drops of blood were the names of Outland bloodlines.The Blood Demon detailed the characteristics of the bloodlines—whether strong-boned, whether their irises were blue, whether they had eyesight like clairvoyance.He tested their limits, marked scores with tally marks, and evaluated the excellence of the bloodlines.'He is mad….'Sohwa knit her brows in distaste.Luckily, the writing was sparse, so it read quickly.Sohwa speed-read several volumes in short order.But at some point the handwriting in the records changed. It seemed the Blood Demon had handed the recording over to someone.Unlike before, meticulous and detailed experiments followed.The early experiments themselves had been sufficiently revolting, but they had been sloppily recorded, so Sohwa could not know their reality in detail. Now, however, the contents were recorded in detail to the point of nausea.Having arbitrarily evaluated the excellence of the bloodlines, the Blood Demon seized the outstanding ones within a bloodline and ranked them yet again.He ceaselessly stratified the ranks of blood and sought a way to absorb that power. And at last, he completed a sorcery that absorbed the power he wanted.It was not a method that could be used on every bloodline. That was because it sucked out the inner energy stored in the body. The Blood Demon could only perfectly strip the power of martial men.Even so, he did not abandon the bloodlines from which he could not strip power.Since he could not absorb the power of bloodlines who were not martial men, he sought to own them.Like breeding cattle, he married together various Outland bloodlines—to obtain a bizarre body he desired.He called the children thus obtained “frames.”And when he happened upon a “frame” to his liking, he would take them and bestow half of his own blood, making a new “frame.”As a child, she had heard ghastly tales—that the Blood Cult took corpses and made jiangshi, that they experimented on children and made monsters.Those were truly recorded as things no human should ever do.Later he grew obsessed with excellent “frames” and even taught them martial arts—to plunder the inner energy they accumulated with a perfect body.“You’re placid.”At the Blood Cult man’s voice, Sohwa raised her head.“It’d be something to be surprised at, but your reaction is boring. How is it your expression doesn’t change in the least.”He muttered in disappointment, as if he had been watching her face all along.Sohwa ignored him and read on.She read the history of the Blood Demon continuing to occupy other bloodlines, experimenting, taking or discarding.“Ruthless. You’re ruthless.”Watching her concentration, the Blood Cult man shook his head.After quite a while, a fine line formed between Sohwa’s brows as she read the experiments.It was because there came an account of the “extreme-yin body” and “extreme-yang body,” bodies that could wield extreme yin or extreme yang, which the Blood Demon had coveted for a long time.It was a record concerning the Outland Five Palaces.As she turned the page, Sohwa’s hand slowed.After eliminating the five palace lords, the Blood Demon kidnapped their direct lines. He wrote that he cherished those direct lines so that they would not die.But he did not cherish all the direct lines.Those who received the Blood Demon’s protection were the exceptional ones; the rest of the direct lines were treated as horrifically as other Outland bloodlines.Likewise, not all martial arts of the Outland Five Palaces suited the Blood Demon’s palate.What the Blood Demon wanted were the extreme-yin body and the extreme-yang body.In the end, he left only the direct lines of the Northern Sea Ice Palace and the Great Desert Sun Palace in the cult.Because with war against the demonic sects, his strength had waned and he could not gather every frame.He prioritized and protected the bloodlines he judged the most excellent; among the Outland Five Palaces, the only bloodlines included therein were the Northern Sea Ice Palace and the Great Desert Sun Palace.To improve the bodies of those descendants, he entwined them with the excellent frames he had raised.But after discovering that, the thicker the direct line’s blood, the more completely they could handle extreme yang and extreme yin, the Blood Demon stopped mixing that blood with other blood.Sohwa put down the book and raised her head.Across at the desk, the Blood Cult man was quietly translating.“I have something I want to ask.”Without even giving her a glance, he replied,“Ask.”“When you came to Mount Emei three years ago.”Tap.Setting down his brush, he shot her a chilly look. But Tang Sohwa, unfazed, continued.“The ones you sought to kill then seemed to be using ice arts.”She lifted the secret text she had been reading.“Are they the bloodline of the Northern Sea ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) Ice Palace that appears here?”“Does that matter?”“Reading the record you gave me, the Northern Sea Ice Palace bloodline is blood the Blood Demon evaluated as excellent, yet you tried to kill them, didn’t you?”With narrowed eyes, Sohwa asked,“Is that not insubordination against the Blood Demon?”The Blood Cult man answered blandly, as if it were nothing.“Unbelievers may be killed.”“Unbelievers?”“No matter how excellent a frame, an unbeliever may be punished by a believer.”He hesitated, then added,“Except for sorcery users.”“Why sorcery users?”“Many of them have not trained martial arts and die easily, and there are many uses for them.”“I understand not killing them because they’re useful, but it’s strange that many haven’t trained martial arts. The Blood Demon coveted sturdy bodies; if they cannot train martial arts, aren’t they useless frames to him?”At that, he gave a small laugh.“When the Blood Demon says they may be killed, he does not truly mean to have them killed.”“What do you mean, not truly?”“He thinks that if it’s a ‘frame’ he has recognized, a believer would not be able to kill it.”With an exasperated air, the Blood Cult man sighed.“If one is someone who would be killed by a cultist, he’s worthless scrap, not an excellent frame. In the first place, there is no cult that spares unbelievers. The Blood Demon deemed them necessary and took them in; if they were not the necessary ones, naturally there’s no reason to let them live.”“And if they all end up dead? Wouldn’t it make all the Blood Demon’s efforts to preserve the blood for nothing?”Thinking it contradictory, Sohwa frowned and asked.The Blood Cult man, perhaps finding it absurd, gave a small laugh and looked at her.“And did those fellows die at our hands then?”“……”“If you knew how many believers died charging to seize them, you would understand the Blood Demon’s intent.”“How many?”With a hollow laugh, the Blood Cult man lifted his gaze.Looking around the office, he spoke bitterly.“This pavilion was called the House of Compilation. The believers working inside alone numbered in the hundreds. Because the incident three years ago was a disgrace of the House of Compilation, to resolve it quickly they drafted every member who was in this pavilion.”He fell silent, and only after a long while did he answer.“But after that affair, the only believer belonging to this pavilion who survived was me.”His red pupils shone black.Letting killing intent leak, he barely suppressed his rage.Lowering his gaze, he went on.“Those unbelievers who rebelled—the ones at Mount Emei were only a portion. Most fled to the Northern Sea. The Lord of the Red Blood Hall did catch a few in the Northern Sea, but while, by the Blood Demon’s order, he went to the Central Plains, the unbelievers rescued my comrades and vanished. Three years have passed, but we have yet to find even one.”In the same bland tone, he added,“Among the unbelievers, they were not ones who were so highly regarded. They were middling sorts, the sort that would be drafted to the Moohyeon Hall.”“……”“I don’t know what stroke of fortune allowed them to grow so greatly, but if that fellow had acted as shrewdly as the Lord of the Red Blood Hall, he could have been recognized by the Blood Demon and formed a combat unit. But he made a foolish choice.”He let out a sigh.“I don’t know what trick they used to remove the Blood Demon’s blood, but because of that, the Blood Demon was put in a bind.”He suddenly shook his head.“No. It wasn’t the Blood Demon who was put in a bind; it was they. In the end, the tenuously continued line of the Northern Sea Ice Palace was entirely cut off.”She lowered her gaze and thought.'Has the Alliance Leader ever met the bloodline of the Northern Sea Ice Palace?'She tried to read the secret text again, but her eyes would not take it in.Feeling fatigue, Sohwa left the Bigo.She meant to rest a little and return, but upon exiting the Bigo she had to feel a greater weariness.The Honin standing before the door spoke in a calm voice.“The Blood Demon summons you.”

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