The land had been dyed red from blood, and even the grass had turned red from absorbing what had soaked into the land. Laying atop these red grass were roots of poor white. Actually, roots was the wrong word since it was human bones.
It should have been a horrifying scene that could only be realized in a painting or a psychotic fantasy, but it was very real. The wars that had erupted on the Heaven Continent were far more terrible than mortals imagined.
"How dreary," A woman sighed as she observed the bloody battlefield. Her blue dress stood in stark contrast against the crimson land, but the most eye-catching feature she had was the iris growing out of her right eye socket. She was Hu Landie, a participant of the Three Heavens Connecting Meetings and possessor of the Spring Autumn Butterfly.
She raised her hand and gently caressed the petals of the iris growing out of her left eye. After absorbing the essence of the Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus, the lily in her eye had an ethereal, almost soul-like quality to it. The advantages weren't just a more beautiful appearance, but the quality of her true qi also improved.
Thanks to the Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus, although Hu Landie wasn't a soul cultivator, her soul wasn't any weaker than the average soul cultivator. Those effects were only slight benefits in comparison to the immortal qi produced. The immortal qi was diluted, but it allowed Hu Landie to nurture her Spring Autumn Butterfly to its chrysalis stage in the Nascent Soul Realm.
Her greatest advantage in this life and the past was the Spring Autumn Butterfly. In the past, Hu Landie was only an ordinary disciple of the Silk Chrysalis Sect who happened to survive her Immortal Ascension Heavenly Tribulation by sheer determination and luck. That all changed when she discovered the Spring Autumn Butterfly and the method to nurture it.
She succeeded, but she also exposed herself at the same time, resulting in a hoard of immortals chasing after her. They chased her from the Earth Continent all the way to the Heaven Continent, and the one who pushed her to the brink of death was the Buzhou Immortal Sect, forcing her to activate the still immature Spring Autumn Butterfly.
Still, she never expected that the Buzhou Immortal Sect could almost prevent her time travel. It was only by luck that she succeeded. As a result, Hu Landie was even warier of the Buzhou Immortal Sect. Their strength definitely wasn't what was shown on the surface. The title of the number one sect in the Huang Realm was not wrong, but it did not convey the Buzhou Immortal Sect's true power.
Hu Landie waved her sleeve and from her sleeves came out numerous larvae. They were two different types, one that was thin like a worm while the other type was chubbier like a grub. The worm-like one was a Bloodfest Locust larva, and the grub-like one was a Whitebone Beetle larva.
At a noticeable rate, the bones and crimson color disappeared from the land. Simultaneously, the bodies of the larvae began to increase at a visible rate until they were two meters long for the Bloodfest Locust larvae and five meters for the Whitebone Beetle larvae.
Satisfied, Hu Landie collected her tamed insects in an artifact, a unique immortal grotto that one could carry and hold living beings within. It was one of the treasures that she had obtained from one of the many inheritance sites from her memories.
'It's strange. I don't recall the wars happening this early in my previous life.' Hu Landie thought, her face expressionless despite her troubled thoughts. 'It was one of the reasons why I decided to hide in the Heaven Continent after learning being exposed. Even now, I wonder how the Anti-Earth Alliance could afford to deploy crucial combatants to chase me. Did my actions really cause such a large butterfly effect?'
'For now, I should continue to keep a low profile and amass my strength. Although Bloodfest Locust and Whitebone Beetles are considered devilish tamed beasts, I do not care for the matters between the orthodox and unorthodox forces. This war is good for me. Before it completely erupts, I have to gain as many benefits as possible. What is most important is to attain divinity! Everything is false except for strength.' With a gaze as firm as steel, Hu Landie continued on her way.
"Retreat!" Fu Xiuyi spat those words through gritted teeth. His eyes were full of reluctance as he watched the crumbling situation on the battlefield. His army had reached the point of retaining only forty percent of its force.
Aside from Peng Yun, none of the other external grandmasters were willing to fight. Had it not been for his decisive actions of executing a grandmaster who wanted to flee, he was afraid that all of them would have already fled.
What's worse was that over thirty percent of the Fu Dynasty's grandmasters were killed, and another forty percent had been injured to the point that they could no longer engage in battle. Compared to the army, the loss of grandmasters needed hundreds to thousands of years to recuperate.
But the straw that broke the camel's back was Ling Lihua's near death. Had she been any less lucky, she might have been killed or captured alive. At this point, Fu Xiuyi couldn't hide the hatred in his eyes as he gazed at the two female Buzhou Immortal Sect disciples. However, the hatred only appeared in a flash, and it quickly disappeared, unseen by anyone.
The Fu Emperor's heart skipped a beat when he saw Daoyi suddenly turn her gaze toward him as if sensing something. 'Her sensitivity is too much, right?'
To hide his actions, Fu Xiuyi didn't smile and instead sent a message using his spiritual sense. "We are going to retreat. Please prepare yourselves."
When Daoyi nodded and turned away, Fu Xiuyi released a breath he hadn't even realized he had been holding. As soon as he realized this, a dark expression flashed across his face. Still, in the face of the Skybrush Sect's advance, he suppressed his irritation and retreated.
Even as they retreated, the Fu Dynasty army didn't forget to raise their guard and keep up their defenses to prevent themselves from exposing their backs to the Skybrush Sect. Even so, it couldn't completely prevent casualties. The only good thing was that casualties were kept to a minimum.
After a week of retreat, the battlefield changed to Bloodriver Canyon. Bloodriver Canyon was initially a vast and the border of the Fu Dynasty over ten thousand years ago. This changed when the Skybrush Sect's predecessor attacked, and as a result, the land was forever changed.
The Bloodriver Canyon was named so because of the crevice that was created from the splitting land and the river of blood that came from the hundreds of thousands of corpses. The river of blood had long dried, but the crimson trail forever stained the bottom of the gorge.
The two sides stared at one another from both sides of the canyon.
The Skybrush's leaders had raised their wariness since the Fu Dynasty seemed to have completely changed their previous stance on fleeing. Now, it seemed that they wanted to fight to the end. After much discussion, the leaders sent out the demon jiangshi to test the waters. While the Fu Dynasty was retreating, they paid a high price to destroy the second, weaker jiangshi. As a weapon they received from external aid, they wouldn't feel much heartache if it was destroyed.
Upon seeing the incoming demon jiangshi, Fu Xiuyi ordered the army to form the war formations and continue the battle. Although they felt apprehensive, the army still obeyed orders and halted the demon jiangshi's advance.
Without the Skybrush Sect's war formation to aid the demon jiangshi, the Fu Dynasty's four war formations started to suppress the demon jiangshi with the passage of time. Seeing that their weapon was at a disadvantage, the Skybrush sent their grandmaster elders to support it, and the Fu Dynasty returned in kind. They sent most of the external grandmasters except for Peng Yun and some of their stronger members.
Because the Skybrush Sect had more grandmasters, the battle reached a strange equilibrium, with neither side having an advantage. The stalemate lasted for a week until the Skybrush Sect finally sent out half their war formations.
"The Skybrush didn't bring out all their war formations, but that is to be expected," Fu Xiuyi muttered as he lowered his head, casting a shadow over his eyes. His voice became dark and sinister. "But that's enough."
Fu Xiuyi turned towards Ling Lihua. "Activate the Blood Sacrifice Ritual."
"But, Your Majesty, our army is still engaging the Skybrush Sect." Ling Lihua said, her voice full of shock.
"Just follow my orders, woman!" Fu Xiuyi harshly ordered. He didn't feel good sacrificing the foundation of his Fu Dynasty. After this, although he still had the Guard Legion stationed at the capital, he would need at least a thousand years to recuperate the losses from the war. However, it was worse to retreat without making the Skybrush Sect pay the price for their action.
Ling Lihua stayed silent, and only after Fu Xiuyi gave her a commanding look the second time did the Fu empress sigh and nod. Ling Lihua began to go through several hand seals, the number and action long and complicated. After the final hand seal, Bloodriver Canyon began to rumble, causing both sides to pause temporarily.
"Hah, you thick-brush bastards will definitely get it now!" One of the commanders of the war formations loudly shouted, obvious glee in his voice. For the past week, he had been under immense pressure battling the invulnerable jiangshi.
"Speak, what are you asshole planning?" One of the leaders of the Skybrush Sect war formations demanded.
"Heh, do you think I'll tell you?" In fact, the commander of the Fu Dynasty's war formation didn't know the exact details either, just that it would deal a fatal blow to the Skybrush Sect.
Soon, a blood-red glow erupted from the Bloodriver Canyon and shot into the sky. The red beam could be seen for hundreds of thousands of kilometers. Inside the blood-red light, a disruptive wave caused all the war formations to collapse. Even the demon jiangshi paused as the connection between it and the controller became muddied.
"What the hell is happening?!" A panicked voice gushed out of a Skybrush Sect's nascent soul grandmaster. He was looking at horror in at his hand as he felt his blood boil under his skin.
"Speak, what heinous technique is this?" He glared at the Fu Dynasty's grandmasters but was surprised to see the same look of horror on their faces. Their condition was a bit worse as their skin had already started to peel off, and their sclera became red from the ruptured blood vessels.
"Your Majesty, are you sacrificing us!?" One grandmaster asked as he roared in the direction where Fu Xiuyi was. Blood had started to leak out from his eyes, making him appear to be crying tears of blood.
It wasn't just that one. Soon every cultivator within the Blood Sacrifice Ritual was leaking blood from every orifice. The weaker ones, such as the foundation establishment disciples or body transformation acolyte, had it worse. Their skin had already all disappeared, and with the flesh underneath exposed, one couldn't even tell if they were leaking blood from their orifice or the flesh.
In less than ten minutes, not one of the cultivators trapped with the Blood Sacrifice Ritual had any skin left. The only exception was the demon jiangshi that lay dormant as if the formation had no effect on it. It wasn't that there wasn't anyone attempting to save them, but without fail, everyone who tried was sucked into the Blood Sacrifice Ritual.
The Skybrush Sect wanted to attack the remaining Fu Dynasty army, but they discovered that Fu Xiuyi and the others had already started retreating. After being stuck in a dilemma, the Skybrush Sect stayed to save their comrades.
As time passed, the Skybrush Sect could only stop with a helpless expression on each of the member's faces. There was simply nothing they could do. Even if their remaining war formations attacked it, they couldn't save the people inside.
Inside the Blood Sacrifice Ritual, hair-raising screams could be heard. Red mist was materializing from the cultivator's body, but this red mist was actually evaporated blood. The pain of having your blood boiled and escaping out of your skinless flesh could not be described in words.
While the blood mist began to conglomerate from the density, a new stream of blood appeared at the bottom of the canyon. Bloodriver Canyon finally had another river of blood.
There was one being, or rather, one thing that wasn't tortured by the Blood Sacrifice Ritual, the demon jiangshi. Although there was seemingly no reaction, the blood mist was being continuously being absorbed into the jiangshi's decayed flesh, and a red light soon appeared on it.
Unaware of this, Fu Xiuyi and his army arrived at the capital. After ordering everyone to return to their homes and raising the city defense formation, he quickly entered a hidden room in the palace.
The room was dim and dark, but a faint light shone from the formation engraved onto the floor. Inside the formation were around sixty orbs the color of blood and the size of a thumbnail.
The Blood Sacrifice Ritual wasn't just an offensive formation used to trap and kill enemies, but it had the added effect of refining blood and flesh into a unique material known as Blood Essence Orbs that could be refined into pills to boost martial cultivation.
It was one of the reasons that the Fu Dynasty became so much more powerful ten thousand years ago. However, Fu Xiuyi had a frown as he looked at the number of Blood Essence Orbs in the center of the formation. "Strange, why is there so little. I remember the records saying that there should be hundreds. Compared to yesteryear, the strength of the enemy is equal and perhaps greater, so why is there only twelve. Could they have broken the Blood Sacrifice Ritual?"
