He wrung his wet clothes dry and spread them on a relatively dry stone platform to one side.
Jiang Xun was left with only a thin pair of boxers, his bare feet stepping on the cold, rough rocky ground.
A chill climbed up from the soles of his feet, but he couldn't be bothered by it.
This was the lair of a Void Penetration Realm Great Yao Beast.
If it were outside, it would be enough to make those so-called top-tier Sects fight tooth and nail for it.
But now, all Jiang Xun saw were remains that had been chewed up and spat out by time.
The treasures and Spiritual Materials that were scattered all over the ground in the game were now covered in a thick layer of dust.
They had lost their luster.
Most spiritual items had long since lost their Spiritual Qi over the long years, turning into dust that crumbled at a touch, merging with the rocks.
It was like a sigh left behind after some great life had fallen silent.
Relying on his memory, he felt his way to an inconspicuous stone wall.
He pressed his palm against it; it felt slightly cool, with faint remnants of spiritual power patterns.
He tried to inject a trace of Spiritual Qi according to a specific path.
"Kacha..."
A faint, muffled sound, like the turning of a rusty gear.
The stone door slid inward, opening a crack just wide enough for one person to pass through, as dust rustled down
.
Inside was a small meditation room.
Dust had accumulated to an unknown depth; stepping in, it could reach his ankles.
In the center was a damaged prayer mat, and beside it lay a tilted, decaying wooden shelf.
Jiang Xun held his breath and fumbled through the dust.
Soon, he found a hard, cold, strip-shaped object.
Pulling it out, it was a Jade Slip with a dull color and some damage on the edges.
Blowing away the surface dust, several ancient seal characters appeared on the Jade Slip, crimson as blood and exuding an evil aura:
Sin Sea Manifesting Demon Art
Jiang Xun's heart skipped a beat.
Wasn't this the innate talent practiced by the Blood Prison Nether Spider?
This technique was said to be able to absorb the world's Evil Qi, blood energy, and resentment to condense a "Blood Sea" within the body.
As long as the Blood Sea remained, the Physical Body would not die; ordinary injuries would heal in an instant, and Breakthroughs in cultivation would almost ignore any Bottleneck. It was extremely overbearing.
It was a top-tier Demonic Path Cultivation Technique.
Cultivating this technique was almost equivalent to stepping onto an unobstructed shortcut to the heavens.
His breathing quickened slightly, but his gaze fell upon a line of smaller annotations below the Jade Slip.
"However, Evil Qi invades the Soul, and blood energy erodes the heart. The deeper the cultivation, the more intense the demonic thoughts, until eventually, intelligence is clouded, and one falls into becoming a Blood Demon that only knows slaughter and devouring."
The meaning was simple: the stronger you became, the easier it was to turn into a lunatic.
Both the Opportunity and the risk were terrifyingly naked.
Jiang Xun pondered for a moment before still separating a wisp of Spiritual Sense and cautiously probing into the Jade Slip.
He didn't intend to Cultivate it immediately, but he at least wanted to see the specific contents first.
You can't just have the pot served in front of you and not even take a look, right?
The moment his Spiritual Sense entered, the scene before him changed abruptly!
An endless, dark Void Realm.
A sticky and slippery sensation came from beneath his feet; looking down, it was actually a bottomless, churning Blood Sea!
A strong stench of blood and a fierce, malevolent intent that made his Soul tremble rushed toward him!
At the same time, countless distorted and hideous blood-colored characters emerged in the Void Realm.
As if they were alive, they discovered the intrusion of Jiang Xun's Spiritual Sense and, like hungry ghosts smelling blood, lunged and bored into him frantically!
Jiang Xun was shocked and immediately wanted to cut off the connection and withdraw his Spiritual Sense, only to find that his consciousness was stuck to the Blood Sea, unable to move!
He could only watch helplessly as those blood-colored characters poured in like a flood, battering his consciousness!
[Ding! Special Legacy information stream detected... Parsing...]
[Skill 'Sin Sea Manifesting Demon Art' recorded.]
[Warning: This skill is of excessively high grade (Red). The prerequisites are harsh, and the cultivation risk is extremely high. Please learn with caution.]
The System's notification sounded in his chaotic consciousness, like a bucket of ice water being poured over him.
With the System's forced intervention, the flood of blood-colored characters that had been frantically pouring in came to a sudden halt and gradually calmed down.
The phantom of the Blood Sea and the darkness quickly receded.
In the remaining scene, the phantom of an old man with a withered face but deep eyes, wearing a black robe, slowly emerged.
He stroked his long beard and looked at Jiang Xun calmly.
"Latecomer..." The old man's voice echoed directly in his consciousness, desolate and weary, "I am known as the Venerable Blood Prison."
Is it the Blood Prison Nether Spider?
"Greetings, Senior." Jiang Xun steadied his mind, not daring to be negligent, and conveyed his respect through his Spiritual Sense.
"May I ask what instructions Senior has?"
Jiang Xun was inwardly vigilant, ready to fight for his life at any moment.
This was an old Devil Head who had cultivated for an unknown number of years; who knew what tricks he had up his sleeve.
"This is but a wisp of a Remnant Soul, surviving by relying on this slip." The Venerable Blood Prison's phantom nodded slightly. "This Sin Sea Manifesting Demon Art was something I obtained through an Opportunity in my early years, though unfortunately, it was an incomplete fragment.
I was conceited all my life; with the body of a Yao Beast, I exhausted my life's blood to complete it, vainly attempting to change my fate against heaven and glimpse the supreme Great Dao..."
His phantom fluctuated slightly, seemingly filled with infinite emotion and sorrow.
"However, the Dao is heartless. The completed technique instead became my shackles.
Evil Qi devoured my heart, and the Blood Sea boiled over. A thousand years of intelligence was finally... completely lost at the moment of success." His tone was flat, but every word was shocking.
"I returned to a state of ignorance, reduced to a wild beast that only knew how to kill and devour by instinct, feared by the world as the 'Blood Prison Nether Spider.' How laughable, how lamentable."
He looked at Jiang Xun: "Since you have obtained this slip, it can be considered fate. The Cultivation Technique is here; you may take it. It can also be considered... a continuation of my lineage and a testament to my path. It is not a dead end."
As his voice fell, the phantom rippled like water and slowly dissipated.
It was as if the endless frustration in his heart had finally been fully vented at this moment.
That final glance seemed to hold both liberation and a sense of unwilling.
Jiang Xun's Spiritual Sense returned to his body. Opening his eyes, his fingers holding the Jade Slip felt slightly cold.
The path of immortal cultivation was truly like treading on thin ice.
One wrong step, and thousands of years of bitter cultivation and tens of thousands of years of planning could all vanish into thin air, or even fall into a state more terrifying than death.
This Demonic Technique was indeed sinister.
Not only did it require a massive amount of Evil Qi and blood energy to support cultivation, but its own erosion of the mind was fatal.
It was like being given a hundred million, but suddenly becoming a vegetable. All the money you got would be used to pay for medical bills.
"No wonder he turned into a Blood Prison Nether Spider..." Jiang Xun whispered to himself.
The world is unpredictable; a Cultivator who sought transcendence ended up becoming a ferocious beast feared by all.
He carefully put away the Jade Slip but did not intend to Cultivate it immediately. A red warning was no joke.
He continued to explore.
He opened several more hidden secret rooms or storage points.
The harvest was plentiful, but it also made one sigh.
He found many Magical Artifacts.
A dim bronze bracelet, a rusty long spear, a large cleaver with a notched blade, a longsword with a crack in the blade, and a strangely shaped black umbrella with metal ribs and a canopy of unknown material.
Most of them had weak spiritual light and were severely damaged, but the Materials were extraordinary.
Most importantly, he found an ancient-looking, dark silver ring without a trace of rust.
It was a storage ring.
A storage Magic Treasure one level higher than a Storage Pouch.
Probing with his Spiritual Sense, the internal space was about a hundred square meters in size.
Jiang Xun put everything he had scavenged into it all at once.
Unfortunately, even more Spiritual Plants and Medicinal Pills had completely decayed over time, turning to dust at a touch.
It seemed that most of the items here were not collected by the Blood Prison Nether Spider but were the belongings of Cultivators it had defeated or killed.
To a Yao Beast, many Cultivation Technique Jade Slips and Magical Artifacts were simply useless, so it had discarded them here at will.
Finally, he came to a small pool beside the meditation room.
The pool water was murky, but in the center grew a lotus flower.
It wasn't the white spiritual lotus from his memory of the game, but a blood-Red Lotus with eerie petals, as if condensed from fresh blood.
It stood quietly in the water, emitting a sinister yet pure vitality.
"Mutated?" Jiang Xun frowned.
He remembered that in the game, the lotus in this pool was still white.
Had it evolved over a thousand years?
Regardless, he would take it first.
He used Spiritual Qi to carefully move the Red Lotus, along with a clump of silt at its roots, into his storage ring.
While picking the lotus, he noticed a faint dark-red glow at the bottom of the pool.
Reaching out to feel for it, he fished out an egg-sized crystal that was warm to the touch and seemed to have blood-colored liquid flowing inside.
He found blood nether essence.
A top-tier material used by demonic Cultivators in the game to purify their own blood energy, remove Impurities, and assist in cultivating certain Blood Path Demonic Techniques.
But the purity of the one in his hand far exceeded general records.
Perhaps it was due to a thousand years of nourishment by that mutated Red Lotus, or perhaps it was caused by the soaking of the Blood Prison Nether Spider's residual aura.
Good stuff.
Jiang Xun put it into his storage ring.
After checking several secret rooms in succession, there were no longer any valuable items.
He decided to rest for the night in this relatively dry and safe meditation room and return tomorrow morning.
He lit a small campfire to dispel the cold and dampness.
His clothes were also hung to dry on the side.
Leaning against the stone wall, he watched the dancing flames, digesting the day's gains.
With these treasures, it was enough for him to develop for a while.
Although the Sin Sea Manifesting Demon Art was not suitable for cultivation now, some of the other Cultivation Techniques he had found could also be practiced.
Mental fatigue soon washed over him, and he fell into a deep sleep.
The next day, he felt his physical strength and spiritual power had fully recovered.
He packed his dried clothes and all other items into his storage ring.
This trip's harvest far exceeded his expectations; although most things couldn't be used for the time being or he didn't dare to use them, his trump cards and future possibilities had become much more substantial.
He followed the way he came, dived into the pool, passed through the underwater passage, and swam upward.
"Splash—!"
Breaking through the water's surface, fresh air rushed into his lungs, and the morning light was a bit dazzling.
He wiped the water from his face and was about to swim to the shore.
"Ah!!!"
A short, sharp cry of a young girl, filled with shock and anger, suddenly exploded ahead and to his side!
Jiang Xun instinctively turned to look.
In the shallow water area of the shore not far away, water splashed as a familiar figure hurriedly pulled clothes over her body.
Water droplets slid down her smooth neck and shoulders and her soaked, thin undergarments that clung to her body, as the dawn outlined the breathtaking curves of the girl.
She quickly lowered her body into the lake, leaving only her small head exposed.
That small face, which always carried pride or coldness, was now flushed bright red. Her almond eyes were wide open, glaring at him intensely, filled with disbelief and shame.
It was Sang Linger.
She... was bathing?
Jiang Xun's mind went blank for a moment, and then his heart skipped a beat as a single thought flashed through his mind.
It couldn't... be such a coincidence, right?