"You should have felt it as well when we were outside: all the strange occurrences were because of the automatic movements of the formation. Although there were all sorts of strange things ever since we entered, nothing was alive, and there’s nothing to fear from things without life and will. Stray dogs from outside are probably scarier than these things; the stray dogs might suddenly decide to come and bite you for no reason, but these non-living objects are much more well-behaved and won’t actively seek trouble," Fang Xing explained in detail while looking around, seemingly not in the least concerned.

The golden crow opened his mouth to retort, but he didn’t know where to begin.

At this moment, a thin layer of energy began to move in like a wave from all directions to crash against them. Both Fang Xing and the golden crow were suddenly frightened to realize the usually quiet and peaceful formation of the fox cave had activated. There was a sudden terrifying increase in power as the eight doors began to rotate, and the pa.s.sageway of life started to alternate with the pa.s.sageway of death.

Startled, Fang Xing tried to drag the golden crow along with him to flee. "Let’s go, this place we’re in is about to become the pa.s.sageway of death."

"Don’t run that way!" the golden crow screamed.

"The area behind us is turning into the pa.s.sageway of death. Do you want to be completely suppressed by the power of this formation?" Fang Xing cursed. As he spoke, he dragged the golden crow with him at an incredibly fast speed in order to escape.

The golden crow couldn’t even cry anymore as he yelled out in despair, "But you’re running into the hall…."

Intentionally or otherwise, Fang Xing escaped from the pa.s.sageway of death by directly das.h.i.+ng towards the black grand hall with half-open doors, and he’d dragged the crow behind him without a moment of hesitation.

Moments after entering the hall, an invisible and powerful force fell down, and what seemed to be a chilling and mournful sigh filled their ears.

"As long as my Dao lives on, it is not dead. To not die means to live, and to live means my Dao shall live on forever…."

"Who’s speaking?" Fang Xing’s ears immediately stood up as he looked around the inside of the grand hall. Although he activated the Book of Revelation to its peak, he couldn’t feel any sense of something alive.

Apart from that voice when the pair first entered the hall, no other sounds were heard again. The golden crow crawled up from the ground with tears in his eyes. "You turtle egg b.a.s.t.a.r.d, you do nothing but cause trouble. If your Uncle Gold stays with you, sooner or later I’ll be killed by all the trouble you stir up. I’ve decided; as soon as I get out, I… nn...?" While he was scolding Fang Xing with grief and anger, his eyes suddenly lit up and looked towards the front.

The grand hall was full of crumbling walls, scattered stone pieces, and even cracks through the floor. It was the look of a desolate ruin, but not far in front of them was a large blood-red lotus flower in the middle of a large pond. The pond was filled with high concentrations of the dark red, blood-like liquid, and nearly a hundred of these strange flowers stood over the pond’s surface.

"Blood Lotuses…. Actual Blood Lotuses…." The golden crow’s eyes were so wide it seemed they were about to jump from their sockets. "These are Blood Lotuses that draw upon the blood and Qi of all living beasts!" he yelled out. "It is one of the world’s best cure for wounds, and legends say it has the ability to regrow the bones and flesh of even a dead person. Even someone suffering from a Qi Deviation will be able to come back to their senses…."

Before the crow had finished speaking, Fang Xing had already rushed over. "Check to see if there are any seeds!"

The golden crow immediately understood and quickly ran over. "Yes yes yes, the Blood Lotus itself has no medicinal properties. Only the seeds that form after it withers has any healing properties…. Uncle Fang, Grandpa Fang, I love you so much!"

This guy was also quite a character. The moment he laid eyes on treasure, he threw away any fear of danger and liked Fang Xing even more.

"Stop being so disgusting. Your grandpa has no interest in crows…."

"Sh*t, we of the Golden Crow Clan have plenty of beauties! I have a cousin that’s quite cute, how about I introduce her to you?"

"And she’s also got the same bird-brained look?"

"She’s already completely transformed into her human appearance and is definitely a cutie. Except, she just talks too much—she’s quite a bit of a chatterbox…."

The pair chatted while quickly searching the area around the blood pond, overwhelmed by surprise at what they’d just found. The Blood Lotus growing within this pond was a legendary treasure in the cultivation realm that drew nutrients from the essence of all things in this world to cultivate the essence of life itself. When these flowers containing the essence of life wilted, seeds would grow, and these seeds possessed a magical power that stories said would allow even the dead to regrow flesh and bones.

According to legend, a powerful cultivator in ancient times had once used a Blood Lotus to return the life of their beloved pupil who’d been left with only a soul. Using the lotus roots as the bones, the leaves as the skin, and the seed to stabilize the soul, a new body was created. That body had shown power that rivaled the heavens, and the pupil later became one of the most powerful existences within that generation. The legend itself was a very old one, and no one knew how true it was, but it was a fact that the lotus seed was one of the best cures for any wounds or injuries.

After searching for a short while, Fang Xing found a dry seed head between a gap in the lotus leaves. In a moment of joy, he quickly grabbed it in his hands and discovered that within the head were seven seeds. He was ecstatic at such a find, and the golden crow also let out a cry before rus.h.i.+ng over to try to take it for himself, but Fang Xing immediately stepped the crow beneath his foot and looked towards the bottom of the pond with creased brows.

Despite being beneath Fang Xing’s heel, the golden crow wasn’t angry and instead drooled with desire. "Let me see, let me see..." he called out, but Fang Xing didn’t pay him any attention and instead fixed his stunned gaze on the bottom of the pond.

When Fang Xing had grabbed the lotus seed head, he’d been able to somewhat make out the silhouette of a human figure at the bottom of this blood pond. Although the pond was filled with thick blood-colored water, it became possible to see through it to the bottom, and Fang Xing noticed a very small child within.

As Fang Xing focused his gaze on the child, the Blood Lotus moved itself to the side to no longer obstruct his view, and a sense of bitterness filled his heart when he saw the child in full. The child was around two or three years of age, and its eyes were tightly closed as though sleeping. The tiny body was as white as a china vase and filled with a s.h.i.+ning purity that not even the pond full of b.l.o.o.d.y water could pollute.

At the same time, it was also a little terrifying. It seemed as though the pond of b.l.o.o.d.y water had formed from her body, as though all of these lotuses had sprouted and grown by relying on her blood essence.

"Such a small child was used by someone as fodder…. What sort of b.a.s.t.a.r.d does such a thing?" It was rare for Fang Xing to feel compa.s.sion, but even he felt as though his hands were burning with the seed head in his palms.

The child’s expression was blank and without any change, yet there seemed to be the hint of a plea coming from her. It wasn’t caused by a spell or illusion, but contacted Fang Xing directly. It constantly tugged at his emotions and pulled at his heartstrings, begging him to return the seed head and not take it away….

Fang Xing had a rather solemn appearance while under the influence of the mysterious power, as though he’d already been moved. "Aii…" he suddenly sighed after a long while. "You poor little one, I will return a seed to you!" As he spoke, he took a seed from the seed head and—with a flick of his fingers—sent it directly into the child’s slightly-opened mouth. With that, he was freed from the guilt he’d been experiencing, and he stowed the remaining seeds away for himself.

Bizarrely, once Fang Xing had put the seeds away, the b.l.o.o.d.y water once again became dense and it became impossible to see the silhouette at the bottom. The girl’s body, however, began to gradually grow, and she was soon the size of a girl in her mid teens. Slender and elegant, her facial features were like those of a fairy— although her brows were slightly creased—and a sense of vitality began to rise within her.

"What are you doing! Every single one of those seeds is worth a fortune; why did you throw it back!" Even after being held beneath Fang Xing’s foot, the golden crow began to frantically scream after seeing what he’d done.

Fang Xing let go of the crow and showed him the lotus head. "There were seven seeds, so how could we split it? I’m a man of my word, so how could I take advantage over you? See, it’s much easier to split now that there’s only six left, right?" He then picked out three seeds and pa.s.sed them on to the crow.

A little surprised at first, the golden crow quickly began to form tears in his eyes. "What a good brother you are…" he sobbed.

Fang Xing waved his hand. "It’s not a big deal!"

The golden crow continued to sob, "But why didn’t you just give me the extra one?"

Fang Xing grew angry at that. "You trying to take advantage over me? Do you want me to stomp you to death?"

The golden crow was taken aback by this. He hurriedly accepted these three seeds before slyly putting them away.

Fang Xing swept his gaze around, and his eyes suddenly glinted towards one direction before he began to rush over. "Look, there’s still some good stuff over there…."

At the end of the central hall was a dull gold-colored throne. Although there were many cracks all over its surface, the sense of prestige it gave off was still unfathomable—enough for people to be afraid to look at it directly. However, something like that only applied to people who could be awed; someone like Fang Xing just rolled his eyes and glanced at something on top of it.

There was apparently a fox mask sitting upright and still on top of the throne. Fang Xing immediately activated the Book of Revelation towards the mask, but he was left stunned some time later.

Nothing!

This mask was a.s.suredly not anything ordinary, but he was still unable to tell what it was despite using the Book of Revelation….

Appraising an item wasn’t the same as appraising the cultivation levels of a person. Whereas appraising a person required the use of Qi, items typically only needed a single glance. Like this, Fang Xing was unable to extract any more information about this mask even after looking at it for a while—something that had never happened before.

‘Oh well, who cares? Let’s just take it first!’ Fang Xing soon came back to his senses and decided to take it anyway, regardless of what it was.

After Fang Xing had determined his course of action and began to rush forward, an old voice suddenly rose up. "Who art thou!" it demanded, startling both Fang Xing and the golden crow not far behind.