That Is the Taste of Power

Wang Ping’s expression was rather grim.

The cultivation technique he had practiced all his life was not some earth-shattering offensive art, but a life-preserving method called “From the Heart.”

In everything he did, he sought stability.

If he did not have a ninety-eight percent chance of success, trying it would be no different from courting death.

“Fellow Daoist… Senior…”

Wang Ping swallowed hard. “This place is far too sinister. We… we should still retreat, shouldn’t we?”

What good was an opportunity if you did not have the life to claim it?

Wang Ping loved wealth, but he loved his life even more.

He did not want to wade into these troubled waters.

“Retreat?”

Su Ji chuckled, his tone carrying a hint of amusement. “Do you think that after they’ve overturned the table, they’ll still leave the door open for you to walk out?”

“This…”

Wang Ping froze, then gritted his teeth. “Even if the other side has laid down restrictions, I have a ‘Minor Teleportation Talisman.’ It’s precious, but saving our lives is more important! Senior, if you’re willing, we could squeeze in together…”

As he spoke, he reluctantly pulled an old talisman glowing with a faint yellow light from his robes.

He poured his spiritual power into it.

The talisman ignited on its own.

However…

The expected spatial fluctuation did not appear.

The talisman burned to ashes, yet the surrounding space remained dead and still, without the slightest ripple.

Wang Ping went rigid.

Unwilling to believe it, he took out another “Divine Movement Talisman,” stuck it to his leg, turned around, and sprinted toward the direction they had come from.

“Bang!”

He had run less than thirty feet when—

A visible ripple spread through the air.

Wang Ping seemed to have slammed into an invisible wall of bronze. His entire body was violently thrown back, and he landed heavily on the ground.

“It’s completely… completely sealed?”

Wang Ping stared blankly at the empty space before him as the light in his eyes slowly faded.

The space had been locked down.

That meant the person who had set up this formation had employed methods beyond their wildest imagination.

This was a plan to shut the door and beat the dogs inside!

“It’s over…”

Wang Ping collapsed onto the ground, his face ashen. He muttered to himself, “I knew it… I knew I shouldn’t have been greedy for that little bit of profit… Look what happened. We’re all going to die here…”

…

At the deepest point of the Star-Sea Wonder.

The surface of the sea was no longer a deep blue. Instead, it had taken on a nauseating blackish-red hue, like long-congealed blood.

A gigantic altar, a hundred yards wide, hovered silently above the ink-dark sea.

The altar was constructed entirely from enormous black bones of some unknown creature. The bones were thick and grotesque. Though they had been dead for countless years, they still radiated a terrifying, baleful aura.

Dense, dark-red patterns flowed across the surface of the altar.

Those patterns were not still. They breathed and writhed like living creatures, greedily devouring every trace of vitality that drew near.

Blood qi soared around the altar.

This was true blood qi.

It was so dense that it had condensed into a tangible red mist, dyeing dozens of miles in every direction into a scene straight from hell.

The corpses of countless cultivators had been casually piled into grooves along the edge of the altar.

Some had been decapitated, while others had withered to skin and bone. It was obvious that the entirety of their vital essence had been drained.

Their blood was forcibly extracted by the formation, converging into streams of scarlet that flowed along the dark-red patterns and continuously surged toward the center of the altar.

The intense stench of blood even overwhelmed the salty reek of seawater, making anyone who smelled it want to vomit.

“Not enough… still not enough…”

At the center of the altar, Ning Shuangyue sat cross-legged.

Her blue sword robes were spotless. Her hair was swept into a high bun, revealing a stretch of snow-white, graceful neck.

From behind, she looked like a celestial maiden descended from the heavens.

But from the front, one could see that her exquisite face now wore an almost feverish expression of intoxication.

As the vast blood qi poured into her, the aura of the Mahayana stage around her gradually became more ethereal and indistinct…

The sensation of her bottleneck loosening made every pore on her body tremble and rejoice.

That was the taste of power.

The intoxicating pleasure of rising above all living beings.

Immortality…

Even if this cruel method could only allow her to become a false immortal for a few dozen days at most before she fell back to the Mahayana stage again…

That would still be enough.

Enough for her to kill the True Immortal who came to investigate at the very first opportunity…

By then, she could seize the nest and turn illusion into reality.

Suddenly—

She seemed to sense something and abruptly opened her eyes.

Two beams of tangible, icy light shot from them toward the outer perimeter.

“Hm?”

Ning Shuangyue frowned slightly and made a quick calculation with her slender fingers against her knee.

“The blood slave’s aura… has vanished?”

The so-called blood slaves were merely cultivators she had lured into helping her with promises of profit.

But they themselves were also part of the sacrifice.

It was not as though they could escape calamity simply by helping her slaughter other cultivators.

That was why she had secretly placed tracking marks on each of them.

Those people had been sent to clean up the lower-level cultivators. It should have been as easy as reaching into a bag.

How could they have died so quickly?

“An unexpected variable?”

Ning Shuangyue murmured to herself, her fingertips lightly tapping against her knee with a crisp, knocking sound.

“It doesn’t matter.”

She slowly rose to her feet and swept out her wide sleeve.

The thick blood qi surrounding her was instantly drawn into her body, and her complexion became even rosier and more alluring.

“No matter who it is, once they enter this Star-Sea Wonder…”

“They’ve stepped into my trap.”

In the face of absolute power, all so-called variables and schemes were nothing but jokes.

She had prepared for this day for far too long.

She had also paid far too much.

She had not hesitated to make a deal with that person, wagering everything she possessed.

This was a gamble.

If she won, she would step onto the path to immortality.

If she lost…

No. She would not lose.

No one could stand in her way.

Whoever did would die.

“Speed up the harvest.”

“There’s no need to proceed in batches anymore.”

“Force out every one of those rats still hiding.”

She raised her head and gazed at the brilliant starry sky overhead, a trace of madness flashing through her eyes.

“Before nightfall, I want to see the altar… filled!”

“I will use the blood of ten thousand cultivators to pave my road to immortality!”

…

At the boundary between the outer and middle regions.

“Achoo!”

Su Ji suddenly sneezed. He rubbed his nose and grumbled with some displeasure, “Who’s talking about me? They definitely don’t have good intentions.”

Behind him, Wang Ping stared ahead with an expression of utter constipation, his eyes practically bulging from their sockets.

The sea, which had been calm moments ago, was now churning with an eerie red glow.

That glow was not the light of sunset. It carried a bloodcurdling stench.

Layer after layer of visible red barriers rose from all directions like a gigantic inverted dome, then slowly contracted.

Wherever they passed, the seawater boiled and the starlight was extinguished.

It was like a massive millstone, mercilessly driving every cultivator still lingering in the outer region toward the central area.

“Senior…”

Wang Ping’s voice trembled, his teeth chattering. “The Azure Sea Sect has gone insane! They’re trying to refine every living thing within the Star-Sea Wonder!”

Su Ji stopped and studied the approaching red light with interest.

He could sense a nauseating evil aura within the formation. It was composed of the wails and resentments of countless tormented souls.

But at the same time…

It also contained an immense amount of energy—so vast that it was staggering.

“Is this the so-called ‘great opportunity’ that has appeared this time?”

Su Ji smacked his lips, his tone giving no clue whether he was being sarcastic or genuinely impressed. “That’s quite unusual.”

“Senior! How can you still be in the mood to joke around at a time like this?”