He turned, walking up the winding stone stairs. The cold air of the warehouse felt like the last embrace of death, but Zhi Xuan perceived it as a refreshing challenge. As soon as he reached the dark streets of the East Lower District, he shot towards the Dragon Ridge mountain path.

  Zhi Xuan felt the twilight creeping in, his hair fluttering behind him. He was like a devil speeding across the earth, carrying both burden and danger side-by-side.

  ‘If I shed blood, the devil seed will continue to gnaw at me,’ Zhi Xuan muttered within his sea of consciousness. Although his exterior was cold, his heart still felt human fear. ‘But I need it, I need the spiritual stones and other items that are being wagered. I will not be able to step onto a higher path without them.’

  ‘One path, one sacrifice.’ Ruo Xianxue’s voice whistled like a sword scraping stone. ‘If you are afraid, then why did you take the step?’

  Zhi Xuan ignored Ruo Xianxue’s sneer. Fear was natural for living beings, but what separated a cultivator from a mortal was the ability to act despite the fear.

  ‘Be quiet, red stone,’ Zhi Xuan said with a rough snort. ‘You are just a stone with red rune engravings, you don't even have eyes.’

  ‘Just a stone with red rune engravings?’ Ruo Xianxue’s roar flooded Zhi Xuan's Sea of Consciousness, her voice filled with an anger far more real than the threat of death in the warehouse earlier. ‘I am the Ancient Devil Monument, Monkey! I have witnessed the rise and fall of ages. I hold the destiny of a Sacred Devil, and you call me 'just a stone with red rune engravings'? I will make sure you die in horror in that arena just to see your new spiritual blood crawl at my feet!’

  Zhi Xuan merely smiled coldly—a smile hidden deep behind his flat jade face. He knew he had won the verbal confrontation. The Sacred Devil was easily provoked when her pride was attacked, and that was a useful tool to divert the focus from his own human fear.

  "Only a tombstone overreacts, Red Stone," Zhi Xuan replied, without slowing his speed. "Don't take it too seriously, you are already old."

  He sped up, utilizing every bit of spiritual essence around him; he did not want to waste a single second. His low-level spiritual cave was an adequate refuge, and he had to reach the formation door quickly.

  Zhi Xuan arrived at his damp spiritual cave; the reddish twilight aura had completely vanished, replaced by dense darkness. He immediately activated the Essence filtering formation, locking himself from the outside world, isolating all Divine Senses that might be lurking.

  He wasted no time. His first step was not meditation, but destroying the traces. Zhi Xuan took out the Blood Wind Vortex scroll he had just obtained from Chu Feng.

  Zhi Xuan flicked his finger, and a tongue of cold and pure Azure Holy Flame, dark purple in color, lashed at the animal skin scroll.

  WHIP!

  The scroll immediately emitted thick black smoke, smelling of hatred and burnt metal. The spiritual trace of the previous owner—the residue of despair and defeat—leapt out of the scroll in the form of a screaming ghostly shadow.

  The shadow tried to shoot into Zhi Xuan's Sea of Consciousness, looking for a weakness to disrupt his consciousness. However, the Azure Holy Flame, which was a pure soul fire, reacted aggressively. The purple flame coiled around the shadow, burning it to meaningless spiritual dust.

  ‘A clever move, Monkey,’ Ruo Xianxue echoed, her tone now containing reluctant appreciation. ‘If you had absorbed that residue, you would have carried his hatred and fear into your spiritual blood. A clean purification.’

  Zhi Xuan ignored her, allowing the scroll to burn completely to ash. He had copied the entire diagram and essence pathways of the Blood Wind Vortex technique into the permanent memory of his Sea of Consciousness. Without the residue disturbance, he could now practice the technique with purity.

  He sat cross-legged in the middle of the damp spiritual cave, waving his hand and placing the heavenly cauldrons to rotate around him. Zhi Xuan looked down for a moment at the heavenly moth beneath his robe.

  "Xiao Die, I will begin." Zhi Xuan smiled faintly, touching and gently stroking the moth's head.

  Xiao Die, hidden in the folds of his robe, emitted a soft yet cautious rainbow hum. It understood the gravity of the situation. Tonight was forging, not just training.

  Zhi Xuan sighed, then closed his eyes. He ignored the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron slowly rotating around him, calming his newborn spiritual blood so it would not surge. In his Sea of Consciousness, he summoned the Blood Wind Vortex diagram.

  The technique required the manifestation of Spiritual Blood Essence into quickly spinning sword blades, forming a vortex that served as both shield and attack. The key was speed, control, and the viscosity of the Spiritual Blood.

  Zhi Xuan channeled his black jade essence, which now spun faster within the Heavenly Samsara Wheel thanks to his new spiritual blood. He allowed his essence to flow into his blood vessels, reaching every capillary.

  The complex Blood Wind Vortex diagram unfolded before him. He began by visualizing the energy pathways, how his black jade essence would interact with his newly born Spiritual Blood to manifest the spinning sword blades.

  "Blood Devil Sword." Zhi Xuan opened his palms, five blood devil swords stuck out like extremely sharp threads. Then with his other hand, he conjured five more blood devil swords.

  "I can only control these ten blood swords," Zhi Xuan muttered. "If I reach a realm breakthrough, I can surely summon more."

  Zhi Xuan sighed, his focus returning to the diagram. The Blood Wind Vortex required more than ten blades. A perfect circular formation typically involved thirty-six sword blades, which exceeded his current direct manifestation capability. He could not create thirty-six sword blades.

  WHIZZ!

  Around both his palms, a layer of dark red mist began to form. The mist was not merely spiritual Essence; it was the pure essence of his spiritual blood manifested.

  Zhi Xuan forced a rotation onto the mist. In his Sea of Consciousness, he visualized invisible blades, formed by the density and speed of the spiritual blood.

  "Blood Wind Vortex!" Zhi Xuan threw the ten blood devil swords, hovering above his sea of consciousness. The ten swords immediately split and doubled their number to twenty-seven swords.

  "Sword Formation!"

  Zhi Xuan formed a formation mudra with his hands, the hovering swords trembled and immediately shot out irregularly, creating a chaotic and not fully controllable circle of swords.

  SHIIING!

  One of the blood swords cracked and exploded into a blood mist, followed by the second and third swords up to the seventeenth sword. Zhi Xuan coughed and vomited blood. The sword circle collapsed and made him open his eyes, spitting blood onto the cave floor.

  "Damn it," Zhi Xuan roared, gasping roughly and wiping the blood from the corner of his lips. Cold sweat streamed down his forehead and his hands trembled slightly. "Creating a sword formation is so difficult."

  His newly born spiritual blood surged violently, feeling like oil thrown onto a fire. He had forced his Spiritual Blood Essence too quickly to form a vortex and control the sword blades manifested from dense energy.

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  ‘Foolishness. Wasteful foolishness, Monkey,’ Ruo Xianxue scoffed, her voice filled with disappointment. ‘You are trying to force your Blood Transformation realm to do what only Organ Transformation or even Consciousness Transformation can do! Your limit is only ten swords! Focus on what you have.’

  Zhi Xuan ignored the Sacred Devil, but he acknowledged the truth in the sneer. Trying to control twenty-seven swords was a naive target. He had copied the diagram, but had not yet filtered it through his own understanding.

  He took a deep breath, allowing the Heavenly Samsara Wheel to cleanse his spiritual blood from the contamination of failure. He erased all traces of failure, letting his mind empty, and recalled the Blood Wind Vortex diagram.

  Zhi Xuan shifted his focus to the core of the technique: The Blood Wind Vortex was not just about the number of blades, but about the density and rotation of unification. He had to use the superior quality of his spiritual blood, not the still limited quantity of his essence.

  He closed his eyes again, recalling the twenty-seven swords he visualized. This time, he did not try to split them. Instead, he compacted the energy around his ten original Blood Devil Swords.

  Instead of dividing his Essence into weak blades, he focused the density of his black jade essence into his spiritual blood. The cold and pure black jade essence served as a stabilizer and forger.

  WHIRL!

  Zhi Xuan channeled his spiritual blood essence again. The dark red mist reformed around his palms, but this time, it was much denser, almost looking like pulsing liquid jelly.

  He slowly manifested the ten Blood Devil Swords. The swords, fortified by his newborn spiritual blood, radiated a deeper and clearer blood-red color, as if they were made of sharp crystal.

  "I will try something unorthodox," Zhi Xuan growled. He would try a crazy gamble regarding this technique.

  Zhi Xuan threw the ten swords above his sea of consciousness; he did not split them again to merge them with twenty-seven swords. Instead, he created a grand circular formation surrounded by pseudo sword blades and the original blood sword blades.

  The red formation circle spun at a wild speed. Zhi Xuan gritted his teeth; he looked up and stared at the sword formation circle. His hands formed a mudra that resonated with the Law of Four Seasons, the law of summer.

  "The Law of Summer, purifies all artifacts, becoming the first flame in heaven and earth."

  His Heavenly Samsara Wheel rotated with a light movement. The heat generated by the Law of Summer heated the Spiritual Blood within the sword blades, compacting and purifying them to the extreme limit.

  Each blade, which was previously just a faint manifestation, now radiated a searing aura, as if they were made of newly forged, glowing steel. This power was the result of a perfect foundation—pure spiritual blood interacting with the Law of Summer from the Heavenly Samsara Wheel, producing an effect that exceeded the capability of the ordinary Blood Transformation realm.

  WHIRLLLLL!

  The sword circle now spun at a more controlled speed, but with a much deadlier power. The sword blades were no longer chaotic; they moved in perfect synchronization, each drawing black jade Essence from Zhi Xuan and fusing it with the manifested Spiritual Blood.

  The vortex now consisted not only of the ten visible swords, but also countless layers of pseudo-blades formed by air pressure and the spinning Spiritual Blood.

  "Keep pushing, Monkey!" Ruo Xianxue roared, her voice now filled with genuine excitement. "This is true mastery! Your spiritual blood, your Seasonal Law—you found a way to integrate them!"

  Zhi Xuan ignored the Ancient Devil Monument. His entire Sea of Consciousness was focused on the vortex before him. He felt every turn of the blade, every air pressure generated. This was the true Blood Wind Vortex technique—not just a collection of spinning swords, but a living, deadly storm.

  He channeled more of his essence, allowing the energy to flow into his spiritual blood. The ten sword blades within the vortex radiated a pulsing red light, as if they were a heart beating with a desire to destroy. Then, with a silent scream audible only in his Sea of Consciousness, Zhi Xuan changed the direction of the vortex's rotation.

  CRAAACK!

  The air in the spiritual cave trembled. The vortex reversed direction, and the spinning sword blades emitted a rumbling sound resembling thunder. This was the most dangerous transition—changing the direction of momentum without losing control would destroy the formation.

  Zhi Xuan let out a low growl, forcing full control over the insane momentum of the vortex. The Law of Summer he injected into his Spiritual Blood was the stabilizer he needed. The vortex shook violently for a moment, the red sword blades almost exploding, but then, with an extreme pull of black jade essence, the vortex stabilized in the opposite direction of rotation.

  WHIRRRLLL!

  The sound of the vortex now became a shriek, like the wailing of hundreds of trapped souls. This was the Reversed Blood Wind Vortex, a modification that allowed for unexpected attacks and rapid withdrawal.

  "Now, sword unification!"

  Zhi Xuan raised both his hands above his head, making the final mudra of the technique, a mudra that demanded absolute spiritual concentration. His black jade essence, his spiritual blood, and the Blood Wind Vortex all reached the point of culmination.

  The ten visible red sword blades within the vortex began to vibrate intensely, then, instead of spinning, they began to pull towards each other. The countless pseudo-blades in the outer layer were immediately absorbed into the ten main blades, compacting them to the extreme limit.

  Five of the ten main blades immediately crashed into one another, not breaking, but fusing into five new blades that were much thicker, denser, and radiated a red light that was almost black—the color of Zhi Xuan's Pure Spiritual Blood.

  The unification process was brutal, requiring a large sacrifice of Essence. But the result was phenomenal; at the end of the short but tense process, Zhi Xuan coughed up blood due to the blood pressure he felt, his blood felt boiling from sustaining the Law of Summer in his sea of consciousness for too long.

  "Not enough!" Zhi Xuan roared lowly, a circle appeared with a bright golden color, manifested in the shape of a disc. From the center of the disc emerged a large, blood-red sword that slowly came out of the disc; the blood storm surged drastically.

  ZRINGG!

  The sword, much larger and thicker than the previous blades, radiated an aura of dense spiritual blood pressure—a single blade, the result of the condensation of the entire formation. This was no longer a vortex technique, but a sword blade unification, an offensive manifestation that surpassed the original technique.

  BOOM!

  In his Sea of Consciousness, the Sacred Devil no longer roared; she was silent, shocked and mesmerized. In the spiritual cave, the Essence pressure released by the blood devil sword was so great that the surrounding rocks began to crack and tremble. Xiao Die, hidden in his robe, emitted an extremely distressed hum.

  Zhi Xuan felt his muscles screaming and his Spiritual Blood on the verge of collapse. This single manifestation required a concentration and density of essence that surpassed Blood Transformation, but his Superior spiritual blood held it up, acting as an unexpected support.

  He held it for five full breaths, allowing it to radiate an aura of death and dominance. Then, with a long, painful sigh, Zhi Xuan cut off his essence channel.

  WHUSH! BOOM! CRASH!

  The blood devil sword now shot forward uncontrollably, penetrating a large rock inside the cave, even piercing the cave wall that was layered with spiritual essence, creating a huge hole, and the sword exploded in the air outside the cave.

  Zhi Xuan staggered and fell backward. He immediately sat cross-legged, his eyes wide, his breath hitched. Blood streamed from his nose and ears, a clear sign that he had forced his Sea of Consciousness and Spiritual Blood to the extreme limit.

  His body felt like a cloth that had just been squeezed by a giant's hand, and his Spiritual Blood surged within his veins, seeking balance after being forced to an unnatural density. The entire process, from purifying the scroll to manifesting the Single Blade, only took about six hours.

  Outside, the cultivators who were neighbors of Zhi Xuan's spiritual cave flocked with flying swords beneath their feet, their auras filled with astonishment and shock when they saw the large hole in Zhi Xuan's cave.

  They hovered in the air, spiritual swords spinning beneath their feet, their eyes filled with surprise and a little fear fixed on the large hole newly created in the wall of Zhi Xuan's cave.

  "What essence was that?" whispered a female cultivator in the Organ Transformation realm, her face pale. "The density of that spiritual blood... it's almost like the Organ Transformation realm!"

  "No, that's spiritual blood! But it's too pure and too dense!" another cultivator interjected, staring at the black hole that still emitted remnants of thick spiritual blood essence. "This person must be crazy and wants to commit suicide."

  One man in a silver-robed outfit shot down from his flying sword, approaching the door of Zhi Xuan's spiritual cave which was blocked by the formation.

  He spread his consciousness, waving his hand and carving a spiritual formation rune that blocked the way, finding a man in a red silk black robe with black hair, blood running from his nose and ears.

  "Hey you!" The silver-robed man shouted a little loudly. "The path of heaven is so wide, why do you want to commit suicide?"

  Zhi Xuan, although his Sea of Consciousness was still throbbing with pain, managed to force his spiritual blood to spin back into the Heavenly Samsara Wheel. He channeled his essence, which now acted as a cold balm, soothing his tense meridians.

  He ignored the pain and the drying blood on his face. He had achieved his goal: brutal mastery of the borrowed technique, purifying it, and even modifying it with the Law of Summer and forcing his spiritual blood to produce a Single Blood Blade that far surpassed his realm limits.

  He opened his eyes slowly. His sharp gaze fell on the silver-robed man who was now shouting behind the formation.

  "Hey you! The cave door is a formation, why do you want to commit suicide?"

  Zhi Xuan snorted softly—not out of weakness, but out of the amusement he felt towards the cultivator. How could they think he was committing suicide? This was the mastery of his borrowed technique, not self-murder, even though he almost died.

  "Be silent," Zhi Xuan retorted, his voice hoarse and low, but filled with an inevitable cold authority. He did not even move from his cross-legged position on the damp cave ground and returned the heavenly cauldron into the beads in his hair.

  Zhi Xuan waved his hand and flicked the thread-thin Blood Devil Sword, carving the formation rune to open the barrier and see the curious faces that looked strange to him.