Chapter 1190: Undying True Blood

“Interesting.”

Looking at the Blue Demon kneeling in front of him, Ye Qing could feel a wave of submission and recognition from it.

Blue Demon was strong. Ridiculously strong. Offensively, it could improve one’s cultivation level. The dragons and serpents attached to the suit of armor also possessed the offensive power of a regular Trueman or Grandmaster. As if that wasn’t enough, it gave its wearer the ability to unleash the Blue Demon Eight Ultimates, the ultimate art that Zhao Changming was ultimately not able to execute to the last before he killed him.

Defensively, Blue Demon was tough enough to ignore all attacks below the level of a Half-Sage. It could also change forms to improve the wearer’s evasion and even take the form of a transport for convenience purposes as well.

In summary, Blue Demon was an all-rounder Strange Artifact boasting all sorts of functionalities. It was definitely a one-of-a-kind Strange Artifact.

The truth was, if he hadn’t grasped the Earthly Sovereign True Body, if his “Records of Laojun Studying The Dao On A Bull” wasn’t at the initiate level, and if his mastery of the martial way and astral qi hadn’t climbed to greater heights thanks to his studies, he could not have breached its defenses.

And even then, the real reason he was able to dispel Blue Demon like nothing was because he had secretly used the Earthly Sovereign Bell. It was thanks to the Strange Artifact that he was able to suppress Blue Demon in an instant, punch a hole in its defenses, and use that opening to kill Zhao Changming.

Frankly, the only reason Zhao Changming lost was because he had chosen the wrong opponent. If the man had gone up against anyone else, even a Half-Sage, Zhao Changming would’ve destroyed them with Blue Demon’s power.

It wasn’t that Zhao Changming and Blue Demon were too weak. He was simply too strong.

Anyway, did he want a powerful Strange Artifact like Blue Demon?

The answer was yes, duh!

He was going to convince Blue Demon into becoming his after killing Zhao Changming, but the Strange Artifact surprised him by submitting his resume before he even said anything.

This pragmatism… It's basically the Strange Artifact version of Yi Pin!

If Zhao Changming was still alive, I wonder if he would die from sheer anger?

“May I ask why you wish to join me?” Ye Qing asked while looking at the kneeling Blue Demon.

Blue Demon was sapient, so he was curious why it had submitted without even bothering to put up a token resistance.

“Strong…” A weak, somewhat unripe voice entered Ye Qing’s headspace.

“Because I’m strong, is it?” Ye Qing smiled. Blue Demon’s sapience and consciousness were so weak that it rivaled that of a newborn. It was simply acting on instinct.

“Strong… can make me strong too…” Blue Demon’s voice entered Ye Qing’s headspace once more.

“So, the reason you want to join me is because I can make you strong?” Ye Qing asked.

“Strong… grow strong…” Blue Demon’s voice came stutteringly.

“The desire to grow stronger, huh?” Ye Qing smiled. Blue Demon’s original artifact spirit should have been gone a long time ago, so this was a newborn artifact spirit, one whose form had not been fully fixed yet.

For whatever reason, this newborn artifact spirit had a fixation with growing stronger.

In any case, the newborn artifact spirit had probably sensed the Earthly Sovereign Bell, the Profound Yellow Mother Qi, and other things that could make it stronger. That was why it had submitted to him without hesitation.

“Very well then. Let us become strong together!” Ye Qing placed his hand on Blue Demon’s head.

Artifact spirit was clearly a newborn and nowhere as strong as a fully-formed artifact spirit, yes, but this was precisely why Ye Qing wanted it.

A newborn artifact spirit possessed a greater well of potential than a fully-formed one. In the future, it might regain its former power as an Ancient-class Strange Artifact or even climb to greater heights.

That was why he did not hesitate to accept its surrender.

The massive dragon and serpent on Blue Demon’s skull opened their scarlet eyes. Then, they bared their fangs and bit Ye Qing’s wrist.

Crack!

The dragon and the serpent’s teeth snapped instantly. On the other hand, Ye Qing’s wrist was perfectly fine.

“Whine…”

Blue Demon’s consciousness made an aggrieved noise.

“Oh! Sorry, sorry. I forgot.”

Ye Qing chuckled. Blue Demon needed to consume a wisp of his vigor to mark him as its master, but he had forgotten that his body was beyond Blue Demon’s ability to bite through.

So, Ye Qing withdrew his Profound Yellow Mother Qi and cut open his wrist. Then, he said, “Do it.”

The dragon and the serpent immediately clung to his wound and began sucking greedily. It wasn’t until a dozen or so breaths later before the creatures reluctantly let go and pulled away.

After consuming Ye Qing’s refined blood, several dark yellow lines appeared on the dragon and the serpent’s body. It made the Blue Demon look even more mysterious and noble than it already was.

At the same time, a small connection had appeared between Ye Qing and Blue Demon. He could now sense its intentions clearly. In the future, he only needed to feed it his refined blood to improve their bond and increase Blue Demon’s sapience.

“What is this?”

While Ye Qing was understanding Blue Demon’s functionalities and effects through its artifact spirit, a beam of bloody light suddenly flew out of the Strange Artifact and entered his body.

Because the bloody beam was so fast, and most of Ye Qing’s focus was on Blue Demon right now, he did not react until it was too late. Moreover, the bloody beam did not trigger the Profound Yellow Mother Qi’s defenses, so it was able to enter his body without any problems whatsoever.

As soon as the bloody beam entered his body, it suddenly took Zhao Changming’s form and laughed like a madman. “Hahahahahahaha!”

Before Zhao Changming was done laughing, he was immediately ground into nothing by Ye Qing’s vigor and other energies.

However, the bloody light quickly reappeared as if it wasn’t affected in the slightest.

Ye Qing channeled his energies and blasted the bloody light to bits again only for it to reappear almost as quickly. This would continue another couple dozen times before Ye Qing finally stopped with a deep frown.

The bloody light was extremely tenacious. Although it wasn’t impossible to destroy completely, it wasn’t something he could do within a short time.

“The Undying True Blood?!” Ye Qing said coldly while narrowing his eyes.

“Hahaha… that’s right! It’s the Undying True Blood!”

The bloody light took Zhao Changming’s form once more and laughed. “So you can stop wasting your energy!”

“Do you really think you can turn the tables with just a wisp of Undying True Blood?” Ye Qing scoffed.

The Undying True Blood was born when a body-tempering warrior had honed their body to its absolute limit. At that level, the warrior’s flesh and blood would undergo a qualitative change, and they became capable of regenerating their entire body from a single drop of blood or a single bit of flesh. Undying and immortal, this power was called the Undying True Blood. Concept wise, it was the same as the Undying True Mind of those who specifically honed their mind.

Hence the saying, “So long as the True Blood remains unspoiled, death and mortality cannot touch me.”

The bloody light was none other than the Undying True Blood, so Ye Qing could not eliminate it no matter what he tried.

But of course, the so-called Undying True Blood or Undying True Mind was really just tougher flesh, blood, and mind. It wasn’t actually undying and immortal; unspoilable and eternal. Given enough time and power, it could be ground into nothing and destroyed just like everything else. Otherwise, the Sages and Gods-on-Earth who had created their Undying True Blood would be immortal and eternal already.

On a related note, only Sages and Gods-on-Earth possessed the power to create an Undying True Blood or an Undying True Mind. As Zhao Changming was only a Great Grandmaster, this meant that his Undying True Blood wasn’t a product of his own effort, but the result of some sort of opportunity. Moreover, A Sage or a God-on-Earth could convert all of their flesh and blood into Undying True Blood, but Zhao Changming only managed to create a single wisp of Undying True Blood. Its potency was far, far weaker than the true Undying True Blood as well.

Therefore, Ye Qing was confident that he only needed ten days at the shortest, or a little over a month at the longest to wipe out this Undying True Blood completely.

If Zhao Changming was plotting to come back to life and turn the tables against him using this wisp of Undying True Blood, then all he could say was that it was a total pipedream.