Chapter 679: The Evil Blood Clotting Claw
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Tan Qiyue looked coldly at Bu Xingyi. “So what if you are a member of the Ming Temple? Seventy years ago, your Ming Temple had a talented elder, who rose to become a Martial Arts Grandmaster. He died at my hands.”
“I have met your Ming Temple temple leader a few times. If he had been able to break through to the third Martial Arts Grandmaster realm, maybe I would be wary of him. But he is still in the second realm; at most, he is just a bit stronger than I am. Even if he was here now, I would still repeat what I have just said.”
Bu Xingyi was shocked by his words. He had not expected that Tan Qiyue would ever have come into contact with the Ming Temple’s Lord temple leader. Suddenly, he remembered something. His eyes wide, he said, “Sect Great Elder Qiao Tiao died seventy years ago. Was his death something to do with you?”
Seventy years ago, the Ming Temple had indeed lost an elder with outstanding talent. His name was Qiao Tiao and he had been the number one elder in the Ming Temple back then, his position only second to that of the Sect Grand Elder. Back then, Bu Xingyi was but an elder of the Ming Temple, having to refer to Qiao Tiao as the eldest sect senior brother. If Qiao Tiao had not died, he most likely would also be a Martial Arts Grandmaster now.
Bu Xingyi was stunned to realize that Sect Great Elder Qiao Tiao had actually died at the hands of the mysterious person now standing before him.
Tan Qiyue lowered his gaze, ignoring Bu Xingyi. Bu Xingyi felt a chill well up inside of him. It had been rumored that a Sect Grand Elder was also present when Qiao Tiao had died. However, the other elder had not managed to save Qiao Tiao, instead returning injured.
Nangong Mingzhu and Chu Yuan looked at Tan Qiyue in surprise. This old man was a rare second realm Martial Arts Grandmaster. Even they would find it very difficult to go up against him.
In reality, the combat power of ancient martial art practitioners was not necessarily lower than that of immortal cultivators. In many cases, the combat power of ancient martial art practitioners was even stronger. However, the way of an ancient martial art practitioner was much harder than the way of immortal cultivators. If an immortal cultivator practiced diligently, possessed average talent and had some luck, the chance of them breaking through to the Primordial Soul Realm was around 10 percent.
In other words, out of ten immortal cultivators with average talent and some luck, there would be one that could break through to the Primordial Soul Realm.
As for ancient martial art practitioners, among a hundred Martial Arts Grandmasters, it would most likely be very hard for even one to step onto the Way of Immortals.
The path that ancient martial art practitioners needed to take was far more difficult than the way of immortal cultivators. If they wanted to pursue the Way of Heaven, they would face far more trials and tribulations than ordinary immortal cultivators would.
Suddenly, the Tower Spirit’s voice sounded from the void. “The second stage of the hidden task will soon begin. You human warriors should prepare yourselves.”
After but a moment, seven beams of light suddenly descended from the sky, enveloping all seven of them. The next moment, the space shifted. Mo Wen discovered that he had appeared in a valley. The valley was very strange. The surroundings were not connected to any other environment. It was like a floating island in the middle of empty space.
In this valley, there were ten rather frightening auras. Each aura seemed to belong to a prehistoric beast, their Devil Qi filling the air.
There were ten huge monstrous beasts surrounding Mo Wen. The aura of each of them was not lower than that of the pinnacle of the seventh rank. In addition, they were all not average pinnacle of seventh rank monstrous beasts. Instead, they were monstrous beasts with rare talents: each of them was a mutant with Inherent Skills.
Such talented monstrous beasts were called Lord monstrous beasts.
Ordinary pinnacle of seventh rank monstrous beasts were not qualified to be called Lord monstrous beasts. That title would only be given to talented pinnacle of seventh rank monstrous beasts were Lord monstrous beasts such as the ones now surrounding Mo Wen. One such Lord monstrous beast could compare with three average pinnacle of seventh rank monstrous beasts.
A message appeared in Mo Wen’s mind. Within the allocated time, they needed to kill the ten Lord monstrous beasts to complete the task. All seven of them had to kill ten Lord monstrous beasts in the allotted time. If one of them failed the do so, they would all fail the entire mission. The time limit was set at fifteen minutes. That was all the time they had to kill all of the monstrous beasts.
Mo Wen raised his eyebrows. With his current ability, killing ten Lord monstrous beasts was not difficult. However, he was aware of their strength. Earlier on, in the ruined city, he had been forced to fight for his life and had been seriously injured. He had only managed to kill two Lord monstrous beasts.
Of course, now it was a different story. Mo Wen’s current cultivation was ten times more powerful than it had been. He was not worried that he would fail to complete the task. Instead, he was concerned about Bu Xingyi. With Bu Xingyi’s ability, and without a profound level weapon on him to protect himself, he would very likely be unable to kill the ten Lord monstrous beasts. It would be an incredible feat if he could survive the encirclement of the ten Lord monstrous beasts, let alone kill the creatures.
The Lord monstrous beasts surrounding Mo Wen did not give him a chance to get used to his surroundings. They attacked as soon as he appeared.
A huge shadow from above covered him like a shroud. A devilish wind swept towards him. Mo Wen could not even tell what sort of monstrous beast it was, but he did not need to know.
The Cries of Hades Bell instantly appeared in his hand, emitting a faint purple glow.
Ding! As the bell combined with Mo Wen’s soul attack, the ten Lord monstrous beasts all began to tremble simultaneously. Their attacks came to an abrupt halt.
The next moment, a crimson light appeared on Mo Wen’s arm. The Blood Clotting Claw fused together with his palm, becoming a beast claw.
The first monstrous beast that pounced towards Mo Wen only saw a flash of crimson light. A terrifying slash mark appeared on the monstrous beast’s abdomen. Its huge figure was almost cleaved in two.
Mo Wen noticed that the Blood-Clotting Claw flashed with crimson light as it slashed the Lord monstrous beast. Streaks of strange crimson light covered its wounds. Mo Wen also discovered that a strange power was channeled from the beast’s wound to the Blood-Clotting Claw, the power then flowing into his body.
He felt his own Inner Qi and mental strength recover by quite a bit. Also, his mental state was exceptionally excited. His eyes flashed with crimson light. A rich killing intent welled up inside of him. He suddenly had the murderous desire to immediately kill all ten monstrous beasts.
Once the thought appeared, Mo Wen was shocked. Golden light flashed in his eyes, suppressing the murderous intent.
“Such an evil profound level weapon.” Mo Wen felt shocked as he looked at the Blood-Clotting Claw on his hand. It was absolutely not a magical treasure of the right path. Most likely even on the heretic path, it was probably an item of tainted origins.
The first time he had unleashed an attack with the Blood-Clotting Claw on a living creature, it had actually consumed the life force of the targeted creature and converted it into its own energy. It could even transfer some of it into his body, replenishing his expended power and mental strength.
But a large amount of life force was absorbed by the Blood-Clotting Claw itself. It was a peculiar profound level weapon that could constantly consume life force and then evolve on its own.
“The person who manufactured the Blood-Clotting Claw was most likely not an ordinary person.”
Mo Wen knew that, in order for a profound level weapon to have such an effect, the materials used to manufacture the profound level weapon would certainly be very high grade. The higher the grade of the materials, the greater the growth potential for the magical treasure. For a profound level weapon like this that could directly absorb the life force of others and use it as nourishment to develop itself, the materials used to manufacture it would certainly be very rare.
The Blood Clotting Claw’s attack power was astonishing. The Lord monstrous beast was critically injured by the claw, nearly being directly cleaved in two. Large amounts of fresh blood splattered down.
Strangely, on the wound of the monstrous beast, a mass of crimson flames was burning. The mass of crimson flames constantly burned the flesh of the monstrous beasts. Then, an astonishing scene occurred. The huge figure of the monstrous beast seemed to have been sucked dry, gradually shriveling up bit by bit.
The monstrous beast roared loudly in utmost fear. It rolled about on the ground as it attempted to extinguish the mass of crimson flames. But no matter how it tried, it could not put the fire out. Once its demonic power encountered the crimson flame, it was instantly burnt and became fuel for the crimson flame.
Mo Wen was shocked. The Blood Clotting Claw was too evil. He felt a chill down his spine.
Roar! Roar!
The other Lord monstrous beasts gradually recovered from the attack of the Cries of Hades Bell. With angry roars, they once again dashed forward.
Mo Wen’s figure twisted. Windswept up and the next moment, he had disappeared from his original spot, appearing in front of the injured monstrous beast. Right now, this monstrous beast had lost its combat ability and kept rolling on the ground.
Mo Wen once again struck outwards. Ten streaks of crimson light claw marks shot out. All of them collided with the body of the monstrous beast.
Immediately, ten more claw wounds appeared on the monstrous beast’s body. The wounds could not be healed. Once again, crimson flames burnt the surrounding flesh. However, the crimson flames on these wounds were not as intense. It was hard to tell if this was because the wounds had not been directly caused by the claw. After a while, they were put out by the Lord monstrous beast’s demonic power.
Only on the shocking wound on its abdomen were the burning crimson flames unable to be extinguished by the Lord monstrous beast, no matter how hard it tried.
Using the nimbleness of the Glory of Wind, Mo Wen kept evading the attacks from the other nine monstrous beasts. He did not attack nor did he defend. He simply dodged them all.
But his eyes were always fixed on the injured Lord monstrous beast. As time passed, the figure of the Lord monstrous beast became more and more shriveled. Its huge figure had been the size of a small mountain but had already shrunk by two-thirds.
Finally, the beast died, becoming a dried up corpse. The crimson flames extinguished themselves. The beast’s body was perfectly preserved, not damaged at the slightest. The crimson flames of the Blood-Clotting Claw seemed to only consume life force and could not consume other things.
Mo Wen could sense a change in the Blood-Clotting Claw. When the crimson flames on the Lord monstrous beast extinguished, a crimson light flashed on the Blood-Clotting Claw. Its aura seemed to be a little bit more powerful. Although it was very, very small, it was indeed an increase.
Mo Wen took a deep breath. He was already aware that the Blood-Clotting Claw was most likely an incredible heretic weapon.
This sort of heretic weapon should not be a mere profound level weapon. Maybe it had been dormant and had not absorbed life force for too long, causing the Blood-Clotting Claw to weaken over time.
Under normal circumstances, the Blood-Clotting Claw evolving into a spiritual treasure was most likely not a problem. He did not believe that the Blood-Clotting Claw’s owner back then did not have the ability to evolve it into a spiritual treasure. Recalling the soul power of the shriveled corpse, Mo Wen felt that there was more to the Blood-Clotting Claw than met the eye.
The other Lord monstrous beasts were no match for Mo Wen. With the Blood-Clotting Claw and the Cries of Hades Bell, he had killed them all in less than seven minutes.
In the valley, ten dried up corpses were laid out. Without exception, all of them were shriveled up.
A crimson light flashed in Mo Wen’s eyes. It remained there for a long time before gradually receding. Every time he killed a monstrous beast, he accumulated more killing intent inside his body. Although the Blood-Clotting Claw was powerful, if someone without a strong enough will were to use it, they would easily succumb to its strength and go mad.
Fortunately, Mo Wen’s soul power was powerful enough and his will was extraordinary. He could firmly suppress the killing intent that the Blood-Clotting Claw transferred to him.