The Demon, The Blood Eye

"The effect of this pill..."

As soon as the pill entered his stomach, Du ke's eyes widened.

When the pill entered his stomach, it was like a bomb exploding, directly erupting surging primordial energy.

The primordial energy washed over him inside and out like a tide, constantly flushing through his internal organs, meridians, bones, flesh, skin and every part of his body.

At the same time, billowing white smoke visibly steamed from Old Li's body.

This was clearly because the medicinal effect was too fierce, causing his body to spontaneously radiate excessive amounts of medicinal power outwards.

"Even my Indestructible Body can't withstand this impact of primordial energy. What kind of creature could withstand this?"

Du ke no longer hesitated and quickly shifted his stance to perform the Tiger Leopard Stake.

Even so, his rate of consumption couldn't keep up with the rate at which the pill's effects were stimulating him.

In an instant, cracking sounds came from Old Li's bones and he directly entered the stage of Strengthened Bones and Marrow.

Not only that, but the primordial energy still followed the power flow of the Tiger Leopard Stake, complementing the Tiger Leopard Thunder Sound to temper his bones.

Meanwhile, the primordial energy also began madly flushing through every part of his body.

"The Tiger Leopard Stake can't possibly absorb all this primordial energy fast enough!"

Du ke clicked his tongue, but now was not the time to be distracted. He needed to focus on absorbing as much of this massive amount of primordial energy as possible.

Otherwise it would go to waste.

As Du ke mentally visualized the Demon God Illustrations and performed the Tiger Leopard Stake, an extremely bizarre aura began emanating from his body.

As soon as the aura emerged, Du ke's body instantly devoured all of the primordial energy in his body, and he broke through to the stage of Full Circle Strengthened Bones and Marrow.

But that wasn't enough. Du ke's body instinctively craved more primordial energy to cultivate this aura, so the Bone Pills in his Black Cauldron space all jumped out and he swallowed them.

Under the vast primordial energy, the bizarre aura became increasingly pure and began spreading outwards.

As soon as the aura started spreading outwards, Old Li, who was sharpening his knife in the front hall, stopped his hand.

"What a pure demonic aura!"

Old Li looked towards the storage room in the back and furrowed his brows, "I know this kid cultivates both mortal martial arts and demonic cultivation techniques."

"There's nothing strange about him inheriting beast martial arts from the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. That bastard's legacy has taken root and sprouted, so it doesn't matter if the mountain sect was destroyed."

"But why does the demonic aura from his demonic cultivation resemble those guys so much?"

"Weren't they completely wiped out? Even if remnants of their bloodline are still circulating, there's no way it could flow into our Spirit Cat bloodline! The Spirit Cat's roots are here, there's no way they could have contaminated us, otherwise the Fourth Patriarch would have exploded in anger!"

"Yet this kid's demonic aura definitely leans towards them, how strange and bizarre!"

As Old Li spoke with knitted brows, invisible spiritual ripples also emanated from the room, covering the storage room like a lid to contain the rising demonic aura within.

Just as Old Li was about to resume his work, he suddenly remembered there was another creature in the room.

Gripping the spine of his butcher knife, Old Li squinted at Thirteen.

Under Old Li's stare, Thirteen silently retreated into his doghouse, not forgetting to drag his food bowl in with him.

"Not a bad kid."

Old Li nodded in approval, lifted the hand that had been steadily grinding the knife sharpener, flicked the water off his hand, then snapped his fingers at Thirteen.

"Good kids deserve rewards. Rewards are a must."

Curled up in the doghouse, Thirteen watched wide-eyed as Old Li snapped his fingers at him, but by then it was too late to escape.

In the next moment,

The sound of rushing wind pierced the air as Old Li's finger qi struck Thirteen's forehead.

With a whimper, Thirteen's eyes rolled back as his mind was suddenly filled with phrases and patterns of incantations that he didn't comprehend but strangely grasped the meaning of.

Shortly after, Thirteen's eyes cleared up, a special bewitching look now lurking within them.

"Whine?"

Thirteen looked at Old Li puzzledly. As Old Li scooped water to pour onto the knife sharpener, he said, "That was a divination technique I happened to obtain in the past. Practice it well yourself and then obediently follow your cat!"

"Don't follow my past mistakes. A moment of carelessness caused me to lose my cat and everything else."

"I can only while away my days here in regret, unable to redeem my sins."

Thirteen didn't fully comprehend Old Li's words, but could understand the deep loneliness and self-blame in the old man's tone.

"Whine~~"

Thirteen let out a soft whimper. Old Li shook his head and said no more, resuming his work.

Shing, shing, shing...

The melodious sound of the knife sharpener echoed, but didn't travel beyond the three foot boundary around Old Li, only swirling around his ears.

...

Inside the storage room, Du ke was still performing the Tiger Leopard Stake, but now had swirling traces of red at the corners of his eyes. The red flush was embedded into his fur while the demonic aura emanating from him became increasingly pure.

Oblivious to his own transformations, Du ke remained immersed deep within his soul, staring at the silhouette being sketched out.

Suddenly, an indescribable dragging sensation welled up, and Du ke watched helplessly as the vaguely defined silhouette that had just begun taking shape drifted farther away from him.

Then Du ke's body shuddered as he opened his eyes wide, looking around in confusion.

"What just happened?"

Habitually shaking out his fur coat, Du ke swiftly exited the storage room.

Stepping into the courtyard, Du ke realized the sky was already pitch black, scattered with twinkling stars that winked brightly.

The full moon also hung high overhead.

"It's this late already..."

Glancing at the full moon allowed Du ke to estimate what time it was, realizing he had been cultivating from afternoon all the way until midnight.

"How strange this time!"

Du ke shook his head and reflexively leapt towards the roof.

But as soon as he exerted force, the green bricks under his feet instantly crumbled to powder and he shot high into the air, much higher than the roof.

"My power now..."

As his body descended, Du ke lunged forward and landed directly on the tiled roof.

Sensing the boundless vigorous energy and power suffusing his body, Du ke couldn't help gasping.

"Full Circle Strengthened Bones and Marrow, just one step away from giving rise to inner strength and reaching the Innate Realm!"

Even in his astonishment, Du ke murmured to himself, "Just one pill allowed my cultivation to progress so quickly. If I had eaten them all..."

Speaking to himself, the cat immersed his mind into his Black Cauldron space, but at just one look his eyes widened in shock because the nine pills he had refined were all gone.

"Damn it... Where are my pills!!"

A wretched shriek pierced the night sky, also rousing several households to turn on their lights and startling some children into crying.

...

In one household, lamplight shone through the window curtain, illuminating the ground outside for several inches.

Inside, soft voices could be heard soothing a child.

"There there, don't cry!"

"Good baby, don't cry, baby be good!"

Huniu had just gotten her husband to light the oil lamp and was cradling their swaddled infant, gently comforting him.

Under Huniu's soft coaxing, the baby soon stopped crying, though tear tracks still marked his cheeks as he fell back asleep.

Seeing that her child had gone back to sleep, Huniu also breathed a sigh of relief.

Bare-chested with just a pair of shorts on, Xiangzi went over to check on his wife and son. Seeing that his son was asleep, he cautiously said, "Asleep?"

"Asleep," Huniu replied.

Huniu put the child in the cradle handcrafted by the child's maternal grandfather. As she gently rocked the wooden bed, she could not help but complain: "Who was it just now, yelling so loudly all of a sudden, not only waking up the child but also scaring him to tears!"

"Tomorrow I will go find out who it was from that ill-mannered family."

Xiangzi squatted in front of his child's cradle, stretching out his rough fingers, wanting to touch his son's tender cheeks, but his fingers were slapped away by his wife.

"Your hands are so coarse, what if you scratch the child?"

Huniu said unhappily. Xiangzi did not respond, only scratching his head with a silly grin.

As a new father, although he would come home from work every day exhausted with sore muscles all over, the sight of his son in the cradle somehow gave him a burst of energy.

For the sake of his wife and child, no matter how hard or tired, he did not fear!

Strength, if gone, could grow back.

But his wife and child must be well taken care of, they were his treasures for life.

"Alright, no more looking, there's still work tomorrow, and keeping the oil lamp lit wastes money too."

Huniu shot a glare at the foolishly grinning Xiangzi. He quickly nodded obediently and tiptoed to the oil lamp, blowing it out with a puff. The room was shrouded in darkness again.

Amidst the rustling sounds in the dark, the woman's coy voices and the man's silly laughter could be heard.

Soon, everything became quiet, with only the sound of steady breathing left.

But at this moment, a pair of blood-red eyes on the ceiling beam suddenly opened, gazing down below.

The eyes wandered in the dark, eventually settling on the infant in the crib.

The blood-red eyes stared fixedly at the baby, while swiftly approaching closer and closer, until they could get no nearer, before disappearing without a trace.

The instant the blood eyes vanished, the baby in the cradle disappeared without a sign as well.

The night remained tranquil as before, but beneath the tranquil night, unease and horror were quietly brewing.

The moonlight shone like water, illuminating the earth, yet it could not dispel the vast long night, nor protect the peace of the human world.

It could only watch on indifferently, like a bystander.