“What was that!?” Face filled with surprise, Li Fan subconsciously looked down at the ground under his feet and unleashed his psychic awareness to examine what was under there.

However, it only reached a position about thirty meters below the surface before it was obstructed by a layer of blood and couldn’t go any further.

After hearing the strange sound, the others also unleashed their psychic awareness to scan the surroundings and ran into the same obstruction as Li Fan had.

None of them were able to detect what was under the ground.

“You’re wasting your energy,” Feng Luo said. “That layer of blood was established by our sectmaster. Considering your cultivation bases, none of you will be able to penetrate it with your psychic power.”

BAM!

At that moment, another strange sound rang out from under the ground.

Feng Luo and Yu Tong’s expressions looked increasingly intense, as if they knew something wasn’t right.

“What’s going on? One heartbeat echoing out every once in awhile is quite normal, but never have I experienced two heartbeats taking place so closely together.” Feng Luo rubbed his chin as he looked blankly at the ground under his feet. He seemed to have forgotten the situation that they were facing and muttered to himself, “Something’s wrong. It’s been so many years and it has never behaved this way.

“Other than the occasional heartbeat, it hasn’t showed any sign of life in so many years.

“Even the sect elders declared that it was a lost cause and abandoned it.”

Yu Tong pondered for a moment and said, “Uncle Feng, could it be that the upheaval in the Realm of Flame Heaven caused changes to it?”

Nie Tian suddenly jumped in and said, “Someone once told me that the appearance of the Heaven Gate would give rise to many changes in the heaven and earth.”

“Senior Wu Ji said that?” Feng Luo asked.

Nie Tian knew he had better not tell others about Hua Mu, so he said, “Yeah.”

“Is it really caused by the drastic changes in the heaven and earth?” Feng Luo’s mind drifted away for a moment before he suddenly turned to Yu Tong and said, “Do you have your master’s Blood Spirit Pearl with you?”

“Yes, I do,” Yu Tong answered. “My master feared that my cultivation base wasn’t competitive enough for the Heaven Gate trial, and thus bestowed the Blood Spirit Pearl upon me.”

“Your master has been guarding that thing the entire time,” said Feng Luo. “Back when it was created, your master was one of the major spell-casters and the Blood Spirit Pearl played an important role. With the pearl you can summon it from underground.”

After pondering the matter for a long time, Feng Luo took a deep breath and continued, “Little Tong, cast the spell. I want to see it.”

“Ahhh?!” Yu Tong was taken aback. “Are you sure? I think it’s better if we leave it be. If we actually awakened it, I’m afraid...”

“Don’t worry.” Feng Luo said. “We should be able to control it with the Blood Spirit Pearl. It’s almost a fact that our sect has been invaded by outsiders. Perhaps, while we are talking, more outsiders are swarming into our sect. In such a special moment, even if it were awakened, it won’t make the situation worse.

“As a matter of fact, if you could control it with the Blood Spirit Pearl, we might be able to use it to turn the situation around!” Feng Luo’s eyes glittered with bright light.

Shock could be seen on Hong Can’s face as he said, “Feng Luo, are you talking about that thing your sect acquired from another realm via our sect?”

Feng Luo nodded and said, “Yeah, exactly.”

Hong Can continued, “Didn’t your sect say that it was a terrible purchase and since that thing had run out of life force, it would never awaken again?”

“That’s true,” Feng Luo replied.

“So what’s the matter now?” Hong Can asked. “Did that thing make those sounds just now?”

“Actually, I don’t know what’s going on," Feng Luo said with an embarrassed look on his face.

Intrigued, Nie Tian turned to Li Fan and asked, “What are they talking about?”

Li Fan shook his head as he also had no idea of what they were talking about.

At that moment, An Shiyi, who was standing beside Nie Tian, turned her head and said, “Aside from the numerous forbidden spells that the Blood sect disciples practice, they have another special technique, which is that they can create Blood Demons with different vessels. The vessel can be a human body or a body of other race. As long as the creature hasn’t lost all its life force, they can use their secret magics to refine it and turn it into a Blood Demon that only answers their commands.

“I’m guessing there’s a Blood Demon hidden underground.

“It’s just that it seems that this Blood Demon isn’t fully refined and awakened. Otherwise, people from the Blood sect would have used it to fight the invading outsiders already.

“That’s probably the case.” Li Fan agreed.

With an approving expression in his eyes, he looked at An Shiyi and said, “If you ever decide to leave the Spiritual Treasure sect, you’re welcome to join the Cloudsoaring sect. Our sect isn’t that complicated. If you come to our sect, I promise that you won’t need to worry about others undermining you or forcing you to do anything.”

With these words, Li Fan intentionally shot a glance at Qiu Heng, who just arrived.

Finally catching up to the crowd, Qiu Heng didn’t hear their conversation about the Blood Demon, but he heard Li Fan’s last sentence.

He, who was already in a bad mood, let out a snort but didn’t say a word.

He was smart enough to realize that due to his previous statements and behavior, almost everyone currently had a rather low opinion of him.

He knew that if he dared to confront Li Fan at this moment, the chances were that he would become a target of public criticism again.

Therefore, he chose to bear Li Fan’s insinuation.

“Many thanks!” An Shiyi bowed gracefully towards Li Fan and said sincerely, “Sure, if the day ever comes when I run into walls everywhere in the Spiritual Treasure sect and I have to leave, I’ll consider joining the Cloudsoaring sect.”

“You should know that betraying your sect is a serious crime!” Qiu Heng said coldly.

“I’ll have my master ask for senior Fang Hui’s approval first.” Nie Tian interrupted and said. “I trust that he’ll give face to my master.”

Upon hearing these words, Qiu Heng’s face turned even grimmer.

It was known to all that Wu Ji and Fang Hui were sworn friends, and Fang Hui’s status in the Spiritual Treasure sect was even higher than the sectmaster’s.

If Wu Ji personally asked for her, Fang Hui would definitely grant him the favor, which would make the process of An Shiyi joining the Cloudsoaring sect well-reasoned and smooth.

“Okay. Let me try.” Yu Tong’s voice echoed out.

At that moment, persuaded by Feng Luo, Yu Tong seemed a bit nervous as she took out the Blood Spirit Pearl from her bracelet of holding.

As soon as she held out the Blood Spirit Pearl, the entire valley was illuminated by the bright blood-colored light, as if someone had painted the valley with blood.

Numerous blood shadows could be seen within the Blood Spirit Pearl. They constantly shifted their position as if they were starting some kind of mechanism.

Yu Tong sat down on the ground and cupped the Blood Spirit Pearl with two hands as she used her psychic awareness to communicate with it.

After some time, numerous blood-colored threads suddenly shot out of the pearl before soon penetrating into the ground.

In the next moment, loud, scary rumbling sounds echoed out in the originally silent valley, and the dried-up stone ponds started to rapidly shift to the side, clearing out the center of the valley.

CRACKLE!

One after another, numerous gigantic stones seemed to be manipulated by a certain unknown power and rose up from under the ground, soon leaving a deep hole that was almost a hundred meters wide.

As soon as the stones rose up, an intense, bloody aura filled the air.

Upon catching a whiff of the aura, Feng Luo and Yu Tong both had intoxicated expressions on their faces, as if they could draw power from it.

On the other hand, everyone who wasn’t from the Blood sect frowned and seemed disgusted upon smelling the bloody aura.

Only Nie Tian seemed to not be bothered by the pungent smell.

Perhaps it was because he had absorbed Yu Tong’s blood strings and merged them with his own blood during their fight in the Green Illusion dimension.

Hong Can from the Hell sect stepped closer to the huge hole and, at first glance of what was under there, he exclaimed, “It’s indeed that thing!"

The others also moved closer to the edge of the huge hole and looked down into it with curious expressions on their faces.

In the middle of the huge hole lay a skeleton that was more than thirty meters long.

There wasn’t a single piece of skin or flesh to be seen on the pale-gray bones. However, a dense network of fine blood vessels could be seen on each and every bone, within which blood seemed to be flowing slowly.

A giant, grayish-brown heart was still beating inside of the ribcage.

The previous strange sounds must have come from this heart.

Aside from the fact that it was exceptionally large, the structure of the skeleton was almost the same as a human’s. However, several sharp bones seemed to have grown out of its back and pierced into the bottom of the deep hole.

“A Bone Giant!!” Shi Hang’s expression flickered as he hastily asked, “What level was it at before your sect got it?”

“The eighth level,” Feng Luo replied.

Shi Hang from the Mystic Mist sect was flabbergasted. “Dear lord! How did you have the audacity to turn it into a Blood Demon?”

The strength of an eighth bloodline level Bone Giant was equal to that of a Soul realm human Qi warrior. However, the strongest Qi warriors in the entire Realm of Flame Heaven were only in the Profound realm.

If the Blood sect managed to turn it into a Blood Demon, but lost control of it, the Bone Blood Demon it became would very likely destroy the entire Realm of Flame Heaven!