Chapter 686 - Blood Curse

It didn't take long before the three lay motionless in pools of their own blood. Two were gravely injured, teetering on the brink of death, struggling to breathe.

The third, though his injuries were less severe, had wounds that were beyond saving. He clung desperately to life, his breaths shallow and labored.

"W-Why did you kill me?" the man with the heaviest injuries asked weakly, his voice trembling with confusion as he turned to his companion. Clarity flickered in his eyes for a moment before he slumped lifelessly, drawing his last breath.

The one who had struck him moved his lips as though trying to explain, but no words came. Moments later, he too succumbed to his injuries, falling silent.

As for the final survivor, he lay sprawled on the ground, gasping for breath as blood flowed from his abdomen.

Liu Wuxie quickly stepped forward but didn't dare to get too close. He merely injected a strand of his true essence to delay the final survivor's death.

"What's going on? Why did you turn on each other?" Liu Wuxie asked. He needed answers to find out what had led to this horrific scene.

"Demons...so many demons...they can burrow into your mind and control it..." the man gasped, his voice weakening as he drew his last breath.

When Liu Wuxie stood up, he fell into silence with shock on his face.

"Demons? Ones capable of controlling the mind?" Liu Wuxie had never heard of such creatures before. He wondered if the three had stepped into an illusory array and if what they had seen was all an illusion.

He could only convince himself in this manner as he couldn't figure out what could control the minds of others. Many demon clans could also practice witchcraft to control the bodies of humans, but even they couldn't reach this level.

At most, the demon clans could only manipulate humans to do something they weren't willing to do, but not to the level of infighting. Those with strong willpower could even resist witchcraft.

Liu Wuxie could only give up since he couldn't find clues from the three corpses. He could only carry on his journey forward as his footsteps echoed in the underground world.

If it were someone with a weaker will, they would've wet themselves by the eerie surroundings.

When Liu Wuxie's divine sense twitched, he didn't hesitate to swing the Heretic Blade down at a shadow. He had already attacked when the shadow appeared and quickly stepped forward.

To his surprise, it was an enormous rat, and this was the first time Liu Wuxie had seen such a large rodent. It was sliced apart by the blade aura, and it began to twitch as it soon died.

Since Liu Wuxie couldn't use Ghost Eye, he could only rely on his divine sense to watch the surroundings.

"This place is too abnormal, and everything here seems to have mutated. There seems to be an invisible forcefield affecting everything in the surroundings," Liu Wuxie murmured. It should be a mysterious energy that manipulates the minds, pulling the victims into an illusion and allowing them to perceive a twisted reality.

Whizzing sounds echoed from the tunnel that felt like something was flying toward him, and he didn't hesitate to swing the Heretic Blade down. Sparks flew as two deathguards appeared before him. But due to their impenetrable defenses, they weren't injured at all.

"Thousand-year deathguard!" Liu Wuxie was shocked by the appearance of the two deathguards. He had relied on the Soul Spear to kill a thousand-year deathguard when he was outside, and it wasn't a good situation for him to face two.

He believed the other cultivators must have also encountered similar situations, facing the pursuit of deathguards. He didn't use Soul Spear and relied on Frost Finger to freeze the two deathguards in place instead. They couldn't break free, no matter how they tried to struggle.

Since Liu Wuxie had comprehended the profundity of Yin and Yang, he had a stronger insight on ice-attribute energy. While the Frost Finger wasn't as powerful as the Annihilation Fist, it was above the True Strike. This was the difference between martial techniques and dao techniques.

The two thousand-year deathguards brandished their claws and even had a smile on their lips.

Liu Wuxie's heart trembled. Though the thousand-year deathguards had no flesh on their faces, their jagged teeth formed what appeared to be a smile. It was eerily similar to the robust man's expression before his death, making him suspect these deathguards were also being manipulated.

His suspicion grew stronger, and it didn't simply look like an illusion. Deathguards weren't living creatures, so how could illusions work on them? His divine sense began to pierce into their skulls to inspect their death crystals.

He had never brought out the Heavenly Dao's sacred light since he had entered the Heavenly Nether Battlefield.

"What's that?" Liu Wuxie exclaimed with a hint of shock in his eyes. He noticed a crimson rune in the deathguards' death crystals. This was unlike the deathguard he had encountered previously, as there wasn't any crimson rune in his death crystal.

"Are these crimson runes controlling the deathguards?" Liu Wuxie concluded grimly. If that was the case, there were likely crimson runes in the soul seas of the robust man and the three cultivators. He hadn't noticed it back then, so he hadn't searched their soul seas.

He soon made a replica of the crimson rune before bringing out the Heavenly Dao's sacred light to shine on the two deathguards. The two deathguards writhed in anguish as they gradually vanished into ashes.

Once he had defeated the deathguards, his divine sense entered his soul sea to restore the crimson rune he had imprinted earlier. The moment it appeared, the Heavenly Dao Book began to tremble violently.

The crimson rune had etched itself onto the Heavenly Dao Book, looking ominous, like a scar. The Heavenly Dao Book could record the laws of heaven and earth, documenting every sequence it encountered.

The crimson rune began to evolve as the Heavenly Dao Book began to analyze it. It didn't take long before the complete Blood Curse appeared before him, simultaneously making him nervous and relieved.

He was nervous, as the Blood Curse was ominous, and even he had no solution to it. However, he felt relief because he had finally identified the source of the anomaly. He only had to find a way to dispel the curse to free himself from its shadows.

But now lay a problem—he doesn't have a solution for the Blood Curse. This was the first time he had encountered something the Heavenly Dao Book couldn't resolve.

"It must be due to my low cultivation. I have collected too few sequences to analyze the Blood Curse's flaw," Liu Wuxie concluded. In simpler terms, the Heavenly Dao Book was like a dictionary, and he couldn't find an answer since the Blood Curse wasn't recorded.

Even during Liu Wuxie's time as an Immortal Emperor, he had never encountered the Blood Curse. He had no clues aside from its name. When his divine sense exited the soul sea, he stared at the Blood Curse before him with locked brows. He muttered, "Blood Curse is an ancient curse spanning a hundred lifetimes. It can trap its victims through a hundred reincarnations before the curse is lifted..."

However, this was only the tip of the iceberg for the Blood Curse. The Blood Curse before him didn't seem like a curse targeted at something, but it seemed intended to awaken something. Perhaps something terrifying lay dormant, waiting to be resurrected through the Blood Curse.

Liu Wuxie generated a flurry of hypotheses in the blink of an eye, but he couldn't pinpoint the truth.

"Since it's meant to awaken something, an altar must be around. If I can find the altar, I can unravel all the mysteries. As for the coffins, they are likely being used as blood offerings." The puzzle began to fall into place after Liu Wuxie's analysis.

He speculated that destroying the altar might be the key to escaping. However, the thought of using so many living beings as blood offerings was horrifying. After a rough calculation, he estimated that there were tens of thousands of coffins in the underground world.

Those people were alive when they were placed in the coffins, sealed with the Blood Curse. It was no wonder why they appeared as though they were alive as they hadn't died.

Their bodies were sealed, and their souls seas undamaged; the Blood Curse merely controlled them.

When the robust man pried open the coffin, he came in contact with the Blood Curse in the coffin. His mind was then manipulated by the Blood Curse, using his blood to trigger the sacrifice in the coffins.

Even if the robust man hadn't meddled, there were likely similar coffins elsewhere in the underground world. Many coffins had been broken open when the ground collapsed, and the Blood Curse had already been activated. The robust man was just unfortunate to be caught in it.

Liu Wuxie’s goal had become clear now, and his next mission was to find and destroy the altar. He knew the task was beyond his strength alone; he would need allies. Whoever had set up the Blood Curse was no ordinary figure. There was a high chance the mastermind was an existence that surpassed the True Profound Realm.

Liu Wuxie quickened his pace and ventured deeper into the underground world before the situation escalated further. As he advanced, he encountered more deathguards, whose sole purpose was to stop humans from proceeding.

After traversing several kilometers, Liu Wuxie encountered an underground palace and met other humans. They remained oblivious to the lurking dangers and were searching for treasures instead.

The palace was painted in stark black and white, looking sinister. Who the hell would paint the entire palace in the two colors? It felt like everyone had entered hell, and this was the passage to hell.

A daring thought began to take root in Liu Wuxie's mind. It felt as though they weren't walking outside but entering an entirely new world, one they had never encountered before.

Not many knew about the Blood Curse, not to mention knowing how to engrave one.

He swept his gaze around, and the palace was simple, without any rooms. By scanning around, he could see everything in the surroundings.

"Young Master Yu, we found nothing even after searching for hours," a familiar voice entered Liu Wuxie's ears.

Many cultivators have converged here from alternate tunnels, with more than three hundred people gathered in the area. Among them, Liu Wuxie spotted Ji Qiu and Tang Hong.

Liu Wuxie vanished and appeared behind the couple, gently patting Ji Qiu on the shoulder and scaring him.

"Brother Liu, what are you doing here?" Ji Qiu rejoiced at the sight of Liu Wuxie. They had run into various dangers along the way and nearly died there.