Chapter 46: In the Blink of an Eye, Blood Qi Turns to Silken Threads; Dozens Annihilated!

Bang!

Shen Ying had just rushed into the passage in pursuit of Great Benevolent Xu. Moments later, a red silhouette flew out of the passage and crashed heavily onto the ground. Lu Changsheng looked and realized it was Shen Ying, with a bolt lodged in his shoulder.

Dozens of martial artists rushed in from the passage, each leveling a crossbow at Lu Changsheng, Shen Ying, and the frightened physicians and apothecaries nearby. Shen Ying was at the Organ Refinement Stage, but he was seriously injured. Still, even if he weren't, he couldn't possibly withstand a barrage of bolts without armor like Zhao Xing's.

"Master has ordered us to execute every single intruder in the secret chamber!"

It seemed that before escaping, Great Benevolent Xu had commanded his men to wipe out everyone in the chamber. Of course, no mercenary would throw their life away for their employer, but these men were all bound by those poisonous pills, and only Great Benevolent Xu held the power to decide whether they lived or died. They knew the man in black was incredibly strong, and they had no choice but to charge at him.

Swish, swish, swish!

A barrage of crossbow bolts rained toward Lu Changsheng. He rolled across the ground, flipped a stone table, and pulled it in front of him as cover. Shen Ying clutched his wound and retreated into a corner. The physicians and apothecaries who tried to flee were not as fortunate; they were struck down in place. Only a few had managed to get away from the furnace chamber, only to be felled as well.

Lu Changsheng glanced up and counted. There were as many as fifty to sixty martial artists out there. Now trapped behind the stone table, he didn't dare to expose himself. The moment he did, death would follow.

After all, no matter how far a cultivator advanced in the three stages of the Body Tempering Realm, ordinary flesh and blood could never withstand a rain of crossbow bolts. However, he couldn't just hide behind the stone table either.

He cast another glance at the martial artists. They stood on higher ground and were rapidly encircling him from behind. Once he was surrounded, the table would no longer shield him from the bolts. To fight back, he could only push forward with the table as a shield, yet the passage ahead was too narrow to move it through. The only other option was to attack from a distance, but he had neither a bow nor a crossbow at hand, and thus no means to strike back.

"A ranged attack..." Lu Changsheng muttered under his breath.

A faint gleam flickered in his eyes as an idea flashed through his mind. In truth, martial artists were not without means of attacking from afar. At the Body Tempering Realm, whether one strengthened their blood, tempered their bones, or refined their organs, they could all project their blood qi outward.

Indeed, that was one way of attacking from a distance, though it came with heavy drawbacks. Once released, the blood qi would deplete at an alarming rate. Even martial artists who were at the Organ Refinement Stage and possessed tremendous blood qi could burn through it in a single breath. Moreover, their body would be significantly weakened once the blood qi was expelled. Any martial artist who resorted to this move would be lucky to retain a tenth of their original power.

That was why no one ever chose to project their blood qi in combat. The drawbacks far outweighed the benefits, especially in a situation where one was surrounded by fifty to sixty men, all armed with crossbows. Against so many opponents, expelling the blood qi seemed all but meaningless.

In any case, Lu Changsheng took a deep breath and circulated his blood qi.

Voosh!

In that instant, he rose to his feet. A torrent of blood qi burst forth, surging above his head and taking form. The underground hall was soon awash in crimson light, as though blood hung in the air itself. The qi he had just released was of pure yang force, and it burned like a blazing flame. Previously cold and damp, the chamber was now hot enough for the air to shimmer.

"What is he doing?"

Many of those present exchanged bewildered glances, unsure of what they were witnessing. Even Shen Ying's eyes were filled with confusion. Though he was at the Organ Refinement Stage, he could not grasp Lu Changsheng's intention.

Projecting blood qi at a time like this?

It made no sense. Shen Ying shook his head, unable to imagine what purpose it could serve. To him, it was nothing more than a reckless waste of strength.

Regardless, Lu Changsheng showed no signs of hesitation. His blood qi continued to surge outward in a steady torrent. Considering the standards of martial artists at the Organ Refinement Stage, Lu Changsheng's blood qi was rising at an astonishing pace, rapidly surpassing what any cultivator of that level would be capable of.

Twice, thrice, fivefold, eightfold, tenfold... No one could have imagined that Lu Changsheng's blood qi had grown to more than ten times that of an ordinary martial artist!

"How can he possess such immense blood qi?" Shen Ying muttered. He was utterly stunned. He had never seen anyone capable of such a feat.

The martial artists of Xu Manor all felt an unshakable dread creep into their hearts.

"K-Kill him! Kill him now!"

A chorus of shouts echoed through the underground hall as the Xu Manor martial artists raised their crossbows. Dozens of bolts streaked through the air toward Lu Changsheng, yet none found their mark. The power of blood qi lay somewhere between the real and the illusory, untouched by ordinary weapons.

At that moment, Lu Changsheng's focus was absolute. Every drop of strength within his body poured into sustaining the crimson manifestation hovering above him.

Having pushed his blood qi to the utmost limit and undergone Blood Replacement, he could now unleash ten times more blood qi than normal. However, the cost of this move was terrifyingly steep, as he had already depleted most of his blood qi in just a few moments.

"Divide!"

As Lu Changsheng shouted, the mass of blood qi above his head suddenly split apart.

Wumm.

The surging blood qi multiplied tenfold, a hundredfold, a thousandfold, and then ten thousandfold, until the vast mass transformed into countless shimmering silken strands, all in the blink of an eye. The onlookers were utterly stunned.

It was Blood Qi Silk Transformation! This was an Organ Refinement art used to temper the organs, yet Lu Changsheng had taken it a step further by projecting his blood qi outward and weaving it into threads of silk. Since these threads could temper flesh and organs, they naturally carried destructive force. On top of that, Lu Changsheng's control was absolute; each thread moved as though it was an extension of his arms.

"Go!"

A vast cloud of crimson silk spread above him like a storm, its glow giving Lu Changsheng an almost divine aura. In an instant, the threads streaked downward like a rain of arrows, sweeping across the hall toward the Xu Manor martial artists. The storm was so dense that escape was impossible. Lu Changsheng had even incorporated the principles of Deathflash into the threads, driving their speed to the utmost extreme.

Boom!

The blood qi burst forth like a storm, striking every Xu Manor martial artist at once.

Shhhh!

Each silken strand of blood qi pierced through flesh in the blink of an eye. Agonized cries rang through the hall as one martial artist after another collapsed to the ground. Within moments, all of the fifty-odd men had fallen under the crimson storm.

Those who had survived the initial onslaught were left gravely wounded, their bodies riddled with holes. None retained the strength to stand; they could only writhe and groan where they lay. The scene was utterly shocking, plunging the hall into eerie silence.

Even Shen Ying stood frozen, his mouth slightly open, disbelief etched across his face. As a fellow martial artist at the Organ Refinement Stage, he understood better than anyone how terrifying this move of projecting blood qi truly was.

Had it been him, he would have burned through his blood qi in an instant. He wouldn't have had the chance to form the threads, much less unleash an attack capable of killing dozens of opponents in one strike.

The sheer power on display made Shen Ying question whether the man in black before him was truly still in the Body Tempering Realm. In fact, he wasn't even sure an expert at the Divine Strength Realm could have done better than Lu Changsheng in this situation.